Variety (Jul 1941)

STAGE ^lETY Publlib«a Wsvklr at 1S4 West 46tb Street, New Torlf, N. T., bT Varl«ty, Inc. Annual lubscrlptlon, flO. Single copies 2t cents. Bqtered u Sccond-claas matter December it, 1906, at the Poet OSlce at Kew York, N. T., under the act of March I, 1879. COmiCHT, 1941, BX VABIETX, INC. AIX BICH!I9 BESEBTED VOL. 143 NO. 4 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 1941 PRICE 25 CENTS PM.N.Y.S 5c (No Ads) Daily, Losing lOOO a Week After Year s Operation Br HERB GOLDEN PM Is cuixenUy losing $22,000 a week, publisher Ralph Ingersoll dis- closed in a 'now-it-can-be-told' in- terview looking back over the first year's operation of the New York daily. Despite the seemingly heavy losses, Ingersoll appears tremendous- ly optimistic about the future, feel- ing that Germany's attack on Russia may prove the. turn of events to hypo PM out of the carmine. ' 'Our straiglit-down-thc-line pro- Administration editorial policy has alienated many potential friends,' he explained. "Our' .Interventionist stand has hurt us with many readers on the left who would ordinarily be •with us because of our pro-labor policy. And the pro-labor policy has hurt us with many otherp who favored .^nterveiktloii: - Mottf of the laborltes are anti-intervention and most of the interventionists are anti- labor. . 'With the turn of the war in £urope now, however, the labor people and the interventionists are at last getting on the same side of the fence. That should help us.' PM's present weekly deficit is a drop from a peak of $42,000, revealed (Continued ^n page 55) Vaiideyille Rumiiiig Order For Acts On Morning Radio Show Lever Bros, will experiment with an. old-fashioned routined vaude- ville show in the Saturday morning (11:30-12), spot that it is taking over on the NBC-Red July 12, but using a latter-day m.c, Jim Ameche. A singer, Dick Todd, and an or- chestra, D'Artega, will be perma- nent. Guest acts will be run off without any interspersed musical in- terludes. . ."The;' program will plug Rinso and Spry. Same, account will replace "Big Town' (CBS) July 9 with 'Grand Central Station.' which has for the past year been plugging Rinso on the NBC-Blue. WhUe 'GCS' is on its pinchhitting assignment until Oct. 1, a radio version of 'Bringing Up Father" set through Henry Sou- valne wiU hold forth in the blue niche, Tuesday, 9-9:30 p.m. All these programs'Will be handled by RuthraufI & Ryan. Duchin Over Blah-Blah; Band's Rio 'Goodwilling' tRio de Janeiro, July 1. One of the real clicks of the win- ter season here is' Eddy Duchin's band which opened at the Copaca- bana. He's the major attraction along with the Merrill Abbott Dancers (8 girls) and Steve Evans, ventriloquist. There's more hemispheric soli- darity packed in a Duchin dance set than in a mess of international red tape and blah-blah. B way Legit Beefs OnDistractionsBy H'wood Pic Stars GULF RENEWS SCREEN GUILD FOR 4TH YEAR Hollywood, July 1. Screen Guild Theatre has been re- newed for th« fourth season by Gulf Oil, returning to the air Sept. 28. Oiler pays $10,000 weekly to Mo- tion Picture Relief Fund for the erection of a home for aged and indigent film workers. AH guest performances are gratis. Recent influx of Hollywood visi- tors to Broadway has revived a long-standing legit - actor squawk. Always prone tcijlnd alibis for the failure of come'dy lines to get the expected laughs, the stage players claim that the presence of film names at Broadway shows makes the celeb- conscious New York audiences ig- nore the performance to concen- trate on gandering the HoUywood- ians. The presence of notables in other walks of life also creates the same reaction. According to the legiters, that is particularly true at comedies, al- though it occurs to some extent even at straight dramas. There have been numerous cases cited by stage play- ers, when the picture personalities have virtually booted laugh shows out of the theatre—always uninten- tionally, of course. In fact, it's pointed out, the Hollywood visitors regret their effect on audiences just as much as the legit casts do, for (Continued on page 55) Cuba Mourns Tourist Loss, Result of U. S. Takeover of Vessels Havana, July 1. Commissioning last month by the U. S. Government of the Oriente, America, Manhattan and other ves- sels for naval service has clouded Cuba's tourist traffic considerably. It means the New York trade, big- gest of the Havana tourisqi, will be cut practically 100%. Last year ., 125,000 tourists spent better than $14,000,000, while for the first five months of 1941, before the edict became effective, 85,000 tourists liquidated $7,000,000. RADIO GREDIKD FOR m\ BOOM Opera Did 2,000 Perform- ances in United States During 1940-41 for Esti- mated $5,000,000 — Ed- ward Johnson, Managing Director of Met,'Gives Broadcasting Full Credit for Met's Very Existence SCHANG'S EXAMPLES Radio broadcasting is credited as the influence which, directly and in- directly, is responsible for the con- cert business certainly, and opera probably, having had in 1940-41 its greatest single season boxoffice suc- cess in all history. Edward Johnson, managing director of the Metropoli- tan Opera, goes as far as saying that the v6ry existence of the Met today is due to the active support of the broadcasters. ' Close to $35,000,000 was paid by the American public in 500-odd cities and towns during the season just ended to hear several thousand con- certs by singers, instrumentalists and symphony orchestras. This is clear- ly an all-time high. Less clear as a record but very bullish is the esti- mated $5,000,000 gross for some 2,000 operatic performances in 100 cities. Fred Schang of Columbia Concerts declares that the boxoifice value of (Continued on page 47) N.Y. Film Critics Kidding About an Award to 'Kane' Just to Rib W.R. Hearst A kidding-on-the-square rib of W. R. Hearst is implied in a possi ble New York Film Critics Circle trend to vote 'Citizen Kane' the best 1941. picture next December. Hearst objected to 'Kane's' alleged similarity to his own life. It was a Hearst film reviewer who flung much-resented charges of log- rolling within the Circle after last year's decision. Circle members stated that after the Hearst reviewer tried and failed to put over his own choice he accused other critics of 'politics.' MAX GORDON PLANS LONDON BOMBING PLAY Max Gordon is planning a Broad- way .production with music for the fall. Leslie Storme is the author. It win be directed by Oscar Ham- merstein, 2d. Story takes place in a London theatre shelter during a bombing. Now It $ Ironing Boards fw Family Laundry to Bolster the Ailing B O. 165 Years Later England Endorses the Spirit of '76 iiOndori, July 1. Exactly 165 years after. Sritain had sought to repr^ess the American fight for independence, Qdeon film theatre chain in Englanjl'.plan^'to pay 'tribute to . America 6n Inde- pendence Day, July 4. . The entire chain throughout the country is putting on a musical and screen presentation of 'America,' the U. S. version of the British national anthem, 'God Save the King.' Iln-Americanism' Probe Includes Pix Studios Also Hollywood,. July 1. Investigation by the Government into un-Americanism ■ in picture studios is said to have disclosed around 200... persons with Com- munistic, Nazi or Fascist sympathies. Specific cases w,ill be cited to studio heads for fast weeding out to head off drastic steps by Federal agen- cies which would bring unwanted publicity to the industry. - Government report focuses spot- light on number of writers, with many of foreign extraction believed -acting, as agents for .Axis partners. Some under suspicion are. said to have gone about the business of championing the causes of .the Com- mies and Nazis with such subtletly as to have operated unnoticed. Spanish Film Man Held Mexico City, July 1, The dragnet of G-Men In Tampico for supposed totalitarian and Falang- ist snoopers and underhand agents has brought in Enrique Vigil, a (Continued on page 47) Geddes-Designed Train For Ringling to Run On Both Rsdls and Highways Chicago, July 1. Norman Bel Geddes has been re- tained by the Ringling circus to de- sign a new streamlined train for the show. Bel Geddes plans construction of a double-wheeled train, one set of wheels on pneumatic tires, the other a set of standard railroad wheels. In this way the show can use either the nation's auto roads or travel the regular rails. It would eliminate the extra trucking from railroad yard to the circus lot. , Detroit, July 1. 'Rinso for the B.O.,' or 'Chang* Your Xux' might well be the them* of the. East Town theatre. It used to be a show business axiom 'not to send out your laundry until after the first show,' but it's OK with this neighborhood cinema if you bring your laundry—anytime. It's a bpxoftice hypo. Backed by 20 ironing boards, Joe La Rose, manager of the East Town the- atre, now is making reservations for lobby time. Started as'a gag several years ago, the trick of having house- wives use the air-conditioned lobby of his theatre as an escape from sweltering homes to do their iron- ing, now has turned into a nice thing.- Devised originally as a stunt to catch a newspaper picture during a hot spell, the device caught on •yrith unexpected results. At the present time lobby is up to the limit on the ironing boards with . the neighbor- hood housewives putting In their reservations. The most of the steady. Ironing customers' seem io be harassed mothers who bring their offspring over and turn them loose in the pic- ture section while they, remain out in the cooled- lobby with their Iron- ing, It's a nice place, too, to ex- change gossip. While a few go in and catch the picture after complet- ing their work, about 75% don't even bother to catch the show. Which counts up to better than $5 a day just for use of the lobby, without counting the' overage picked up through the numerous offspring. Puppets As Eloquent Propaganda Means Urged in Ui. Defense St. Louis, July 1. Utilization of Punch and Judy per- formers for entertainment and prop- aganda purpose of the national de- tense plans was suggested here last week by Gilbert Lawrence of New York during the annual convention of the Puppeteers of America. 'The Army and Navy always need re- laxation and outlets for creative ex- pressions," Lawrence said, 'and pup- pets are the answer. But even mora important why not take a cue from (Continued on page 18) PAR, SEZNICK WOULD FILM LIFE OF GEHRIG Several studios are showing inter- est in a screen blog of Lou Gehrig. Richards Vidmer, N. Y. Herald Trib- une sports columnist, has authoriza- tion to do the official blog, but hasn't started it yet. Paramount and David O. Selznick are both interested.