Variety (Mar 1941)

STAGE Publlahed. Weekly at 1B4 Weat: 4Sth. Street,'New r<irIc, 'N. T., by Variety. Inc. Annual •ubBcrlptton, 110. . Single coplea 25 cent*. Botered as Secopd-claoa matter December 22, 1906,; at tbe. Poet Office.at New Tork, .N Y., under the act of March l. '18I>. . COPYiSIGHT/iMl, M yARIETI, UJC- ALI. RIQHTS RBSERVliD. . VOL. 141 NO. 13 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1941 PRICE 25 CENTS URGE NOT SO GRAND fl es • 9 London, March 4. Over a dozen actors and musicians have been brought into the offices of . this British , Broadcasting Corp. and delivered a warning to withdraw from an organization known as "The jPeople's Convention." Latter has claimed to bie a labor movement but is disowned by the trade unions and Is denounced by the . Government as Communistic and inorale-attacking. Those called in' were informed tiiat the BBC would hot give fur- ^er work to entertainers associating jlhemselve? with this movement. . . BBC some time ago stated, ofli- Clally that it would, no longer em- ploy the services of Sir Hugh Jtob- ftton, iSqbtsman orchestra leader who remains an avowed pacifist. BENNY'S JELL-0 FINALE; HAS 3 NEW BIDS Ail-Twin« Band Worcester, March 4. A twin band is the latest brain- child <Jf Jack McAusland, part- owner of the Tommy Tucker band which appeared h^re last week. McAusland is prganizing a new orchestra to be composed of seven sets of twins. A pair of twin girls will dp the vocalizing. Report circulating in the trade that Jack Benny has set $25,000 a pro- itraih as his price for next season was denied Monday (3) by his agent, the A. & Lyona office. Benny and Jell-0 <General Foods) will call it quits with the , June 1 broadcast, after an association ol seven years, arid there have already been a yn- Slft , approaches by other accounts, , ut , without either side going into •ny detailed discussions. Among those yepprted as Intierested are Lever (Continued on page 24) TOM HK'S BIOGRAPHY DEPENDS ON UNCLE SAM Detroit, March 4. Biography of Tom Mix will be completed shortly If the Army .^pesh't split up his two biographers, Rpbert C. Byers and Daniel Z. Pyne; . The pair, with the work near done, were, volunteers from the same De- trpit board and are keeping their fingers crossed that they aren't sent (Continued on page 27) These Changing Times I)i?troit, March 4; . Feeling, that prohibition gave the old organization a perpetual black- eye. the Michigan Anti-Saloon .league now proposes changing its name to The Good Government League. Henry Armstrong Spars With Redman-Rnsseff s Orch as Its Leader Tinkers to Evers to Chance com- bination has nothing on the Snook Russell crew. An organized olitflt, it was recently placed under the, baton of Don . Redman, who was without a band. Now Russell and his new leader Redman are both under the leadership Pf ex-fighter Henry Arm- strong. Hpwever, the arxangement is temporary. Russell, Redman, Arm strong and Co,. are at the Royal theatre, Baltimore, where they opened for six days Saturday Date is a test in line with'the idea of determining whether it's feasible to build a lasting band around Arm- strong, or whether to put him in front of ah organized group and book him for a swing around the circuit as a novelty. Russell's crew, or Red- man's as it is now known, is com- posed of 15 men and a girl. : AJ[. Dancery Clicks in the Bronx; Bars Jitterbugs and Kids Under 28 •City Owned and Cheap* Is Ideal —r Edward Johnson and Gaetano Merola Give Views to 'Variety' on Fu- ture of Opera in U. S. Ai—: Metropolitan Stjars Also Outline Theories MUST BE IN ENGLISH A once-familiar landmark of Amer- ican towns and cities was! the so- called opera house in which opera was seldom or never presented. To- day it is being seriously suggested in musical, educational and cultural circles that every self-respecting American city should have, a , mu- nicipally-owned, subsidy-encouraged, tax-free opera house and should really present opera for the masses. .It would make every local mayor an impresario in spirit if not in fact. This is not a new concet)! but an old drearh. What brings it to the fore now are changed conditions in the world and in. America. Both, the desirability, and the new practicabil- ity, of .city-owned opera are stressed in comment recently made to Variety by Waiter Damrosch, Ed- ward .Johnson, Giovanni Martinelli, Lauritz Melchior, Gaetano Merola, Grace Moore, Ezio Pinza, Lily Pons, Elisabeth Rethberg, Friedrich Schorr, Gladys Swarthout, Lawrence Tib- bett. Their remarks, which are prob- ably typical of sentiment, were taken (Continued on page 56) ASCAP-Trained Animals Minneapolis, March 4. AnimaVact in Shriners' circus here was on spot when it learned , Auditoriurh, ^housing the show, hasn't renewed ASCAP license. Animals had., been trained to perform tp ASCAP tunes and distraught trainer, at eleventh hour, had to rehearse them to BMI music. They're still off on their tricks. Freelance Fix Stars/If * 4 Wks. Idle, Can Draw $18ReliefCliecksinLA. Hollywood^ March 4. Up rolls a limousine, driven by a liveried chauffeur, and out steps a handsome film actor. He is not stop- ping in front of the Biltmore. or the Ambassador. He is pausing at the office of the State Division of Unem- ployment to collect his weekly. Job- less relief check of $18. .. The actor, often bearing a name worth four figures on the marquee, is a freelance, between pictures, and is gleaning the IS bucks if he has been at liberty for four weeks. If (Continued on page 62) Night Ratings Down, Daytime Up Dramatic Programs Hold .Up Best of All in Unfeven Popularities Chart: /GOING BACK to GERMANY' That Cramps Slgrtd ScbiiUz's Style ■ And Lecture Market Chicago, March 4. Sigrid Schultz, Tribune's Berlin correspondent, is in town and being submitted for personal appearances by the WGN Talent Division. Has been set for one date ■ far. the Chicago Council of Foreign Rela- tions. . However, WGN i's expenencmg some difficulty in siDptting Miss Schultz for addresses due primarily to the fact that everyone knows that she is scheduled to return to Ger- many shortly and for •• that reason canftot possibly say anything that might- offend the powersrthat-be in I Germany, Co-opcrativiEf" Analysis of Broad-' casting report for the. period, ending Feb. 25, which was released Moh-, day (3), shows a downward slant in. night-time listening but. a sharp pickup in daytime . dialing. About the only class of air entertainment that appeared to have held up nicely ■were dramatic shows. Reaction to variety shows were spotty, there •were more .'downs' among straight popular musical programs than.'ups,' while quiz ;startzas continued to slide oft-in overwhelming numbers.. ■ ■ , Of the evening groups the hour shows proved strongest. Of the lyne programs in; this classification the ratings of seven went up and two down. The evening half-hours rated 43 down, 20 up and five even; The hight-time. quarter-hour group (Continued on page 61) CANTOR, MARTHA RAYE SET FOR U FILNUSICAL Eddie Cantor and Miartha Raye will topline 'Hold On to Your Hats.' which Jules Levey will produce for Univerisal release. It's the title of the recent Al Jolson-Georgie Hale revue on Broadway. When Jolspn bowed out of it. Cantor was men- tioned to .a.'Jsume the stage role. Miss Raye was featured in it with Jolson. Be.sidcs Cantor and Miss Raye, Le-. vey is reported dickering for a name comedy, •team as a supplementary feature. Abbott and Costello are mentioned. ! Dancehalls In the midwest which have been grabbing fancy coin by catering e)cclusively to the tastes of the a.k. trade for a bit of a dreamy terp and a quiet chat now have their first .counterpart in New Yprk.' New- est addition to the town's, night (not too late) life is the Get-Acquainted- and-Dance Friendship. Club in The Bronx. Hoofeiy hajs two cairdinal rules: 1. No one under 28 admitted. 2. No jitterbugging. Spot was opened a few weeks ago by Lester Lock wood, former New England theatre operator, and has already caught on heftily with those who like it sweet and simple. Open- ing night, which Lockwood took the precaution to fortify with plenty of paper, found, much to his sur- (Continiied on page 12) MRSiM'SNEW MAG ADVICE COLUMN 'filcanor Roosevelt will turn Dor- othy Dix for the Ladies Home Jour- nal. The First Lady has been' set by the mag to do a monthly letter- answering stint. She'll give advica on practically 'all questions, from heart-throbs to financial. problems. Only queries that Won't be answered are thpse pertaining to her personal (Continued on page-'62) ESSO'S $200,000 AD TIEUP WITH 'FATHER* THE FASTER ROAD Minneapolis, March 4. A 'fevv years ago a. featured film performer and last - season in . .a Broadway, musical .show, Stepiri Fetchit, Negro comedian, is' headlin- ing a small-time vaudeville show in a nabe. independent 20c film house here, the Princess, this week. Exploitation tieupi, believed to bo the biggest of its Jtihd in show, busi-' ncss history, has been set by Oscar Serlin, producer of 'Life With Father,' and Standard Oil of New. Jersey, Deal involves newspaper, radio and direct-mail advertising and will cost about $200,000, all to be paid by the oil firm. It also calls, for Howard Lindsay and Dorothy Stickney and rhembers of the orig- inal company of the comedy at th? Empire; N.y., -to - appear in a spe- cially-written sketch Monday (10) (Continued on page 25) The Greatest Name in Show Business .1>KKSKM',S. The Finest Comedian In AmeHca WITH • .; • . the Most Beamitul Girls in the Worid Ejrl Carroll Vanmei, itirrlng Berl Wheeler, with Hsnit L.dd-Chlciro n|)w, pitrolt ne«l.