Variety (Apr 1943)

30 PIGTUBE8 Wednesday, April 28. 1913 Liter a t i Mitv U. a Uay •! Infany M.MHlay. May 10, has been set as l!w ii-d-letier day by the Council of B..nk!' in Wartime to observe the mill anniversary Of the Nazis' at- toiiiin 10 destroy democratic culture ii, (ievinany. On May 10. 1933. bon- ill the Third Reich were fed tin- works of such anti-Nazis as T:-.)mys Mann. Dr. Albert Einstein. a!i«>nK many others. I'l«n» now lined up call lor cerc- n-...iiios at the New York Public Libi arv. where the flag will be low- CII.\TTEB The Bennett Cerfs to Hollywood Beach. Fla., for a quickie Easter va- cation. Lawson-s book, while the Hearst I two years by NEA, was a pan. The News also started a series on the raid by eyewitnesses, syndicate vill ser\lce it to news- papers and Metro paid $100,000 for the Aim rights. MacKlnlay Cantor, novelist, shov- ing off lor London as special corre- spondent for Satvvepost. George DcZayas stationed per- manently in Hollywood as writer and photographer for ColKen. Joan Bennett's book on wartime glamour, 'How to Be Attractive,' Is beine publLxhed by Albert Knopf. Joseph P. Kennedy's daughter. TbU Tear's lleadllncrs M itices have gone out to news- papiii'.'i. new.s bureaus, picture syn- dicates and newsrcels inviting rec- ommendations loi- headliners* awards ^„ , , „^.....,v». „ ^ . . ... for the year's 'bo.-^ts' in each field. |^,herlne. M. quitting the Washing- civd to half mast for a brief period, presentations will be made at the Times-Star for a Red Cross Job Mavor LaOuardlBi Admiral Horry ,„nual Headliners' Frolic of the ^^^^^ Africa Yai-nell, U.S.N, retired and a mim p,-es.< Club of Atlantic City, set for bei- of authors banned in the Third tiiis yoar for the week-end of Reich are scheduled to speak. Low- June 5-6. o; ing the flag will probably be diip- Award commitice, to select the liiated by libraries all over the | winner.<, will meet in New York on Frolic proRrani. in Atlantic country. Radio programs are also lined \ip Wac will re-broadcast poem by the late Stephen Vincent Benet. They Burned the Books,' on May 8. at 7 p.m. E.W.T.. with Paul Muni tenta- tively slated to read it. Raymond Cram Swing will do one ot his few • reocat broadcasts, when he makes the .-ame talk he made last year Elmer Davis will nfenlion it in his | pvess Club. woeklv broadcast on May 7,. and Bennett Cert will mark the dale on li:> WQXR 'Books Are Bullets' pro. (Siiim with interviews with SInclau- Lew'ji and E\'e Curie, both of whom had their book.<: burned by the Nazis. Bookstores all over the country aro oUo being asked to commemo rate the date, with special shelves displaying the banned books, special posters and streamers in their win dow.s making note of the date. Book- ot-the-Month Club .syndicate column 'Reading and Writing.' and cartoon 'panel. 'Ex Libris.' going to some 2.000 papers in all, will also carry mention of the date, a» well as the canned radio .script sent out by the BOMC to 600 radio Stations. May 22. City, will be somewhat curtailed thi.s year because of the w-ar, but annual award dinner will be held as u^ual. preceded by the customary aft- ernoon party for vLsiting newsmen. Hackney's, on the Boardwalk, will be the scene of the dinner. All arrangements under the direc- tion ot Mai Dodson, prez ot the Jack Lali On the Mend Joe Alien has transtcrrcd to Appleton-Ccntury editorial dept.. and F. Sherman Baker is now sales pro- motion niaiinKcr. Fawcctt has named Gene Forn- .shcll promotion director ot the or- Kanization. He is a former editorial associate ot Fawcett Publications. Frank L. Taylor, focmerly Seattle Star, appointed publisher of Mil- waukee Sentinel (Hearst), succeed- ing Henry H. Fris. who has been seriously ill tor several months. VincenI, Flaherty, sports columnist of WashiiiKton Times-Herald, and Evie Roberts. New Deal glamour girl ond wife of Chip Roberts, in- dustrialist, are collaborating on a .rack Lait. editor of the N. Y. Daily book about Washington. Mirror, has been laid up over two Elmer Davis' 'Giant Killer,' iVrst wcek.s as a result of a fractured rib. published by John Day in 1926, is InjjLiry was sustained in a tall at being reissued o.s the next selection home. He's now virtually mended of the Readers' Club. New edition and figures to be back at his desk carries an Introduction by Sinclair this week. Lewis and loreward by the OWI His son, George Lait, is reported | chief. Donald O'Connor, 17. whom Universal U grooming as *a positive star' —ho gets stellar billing In tho tortheomlng ICr. Big.' after his click in 'When Johnny Comoi Marching Home' and 'It Comes Up Love'—is one of those born-in-the-trunk kids.' A member of the old-time vaudeville O'Con- nor Family (i), a 'Variety' New Act review ot the turn, caught at the RXO Jefferson, N. Y„ Nov. 31, 1929, says in part: Mora and Pop, in the act with their two gifted boys. Lads alone can carry act, since they do most of the work as it Is. One, doing .comedy, ought to be heard from before long. Besides being a natural comedian, knowing most all the tricks, he's one of the cleverest Juvo hoofers seen about in some time. Has a way of put- ting himself across and selling material that's more than reassuring, lead's brother runs him fast race for dancing honors, both being agile steppers with plenty of speed and original. stuff. From indications. . lads are acrobats ot sorts, father, whose chtef work is a few smoothly executed bits in this line, being .'an acrobat himself rather than sinser or dancer. Mother, who plays the piano three-quarters of the running limp, steps before curtain in 'one' to top some of her boys' singles wiih a clog which Is announced as sanie she did In Atlanta once, winiiiii« a prize. Room for improvement in O'Connor Family offering, which, when done,, would streiiKthen it sufflclently for good spots in houses ot tliii class, or better. Clinr. Samuel Goldwyn's riirrent picture. The North Ster,' is being produced, tor some reason or other, under the banner of Crescent Productions. Inc., company formed last January with Marvin A. Ezzell, manager ot the Goldwyn studio, and A. R. Evens listed among thq director*. Legal docu- ments show that Goldwyn loaned Crescent $31S,000 for the production of The North Star,' with a proviso calling for a total loan amounting to $000,000. drawing 5%%' annually. Rest of the production costs, not to exceed $1,129,000. is being floated through banks. Crescent Productions, barn Jan. 18 in Sacramento, lists 500 preferred shares, par $100. and 500 common at the same value. WInchell's brusheroo te Walker Broadwayltes were searching for the angle last week behind the four GoUimns given to Danton Walker, N. Y. News columnist, by Time mag. which is notorious tor skimping on space. Luce journal found newsworthy the tact that Broadway columnists V. ere no longer concentrating on boudoir trivia, but were now doing their peeping through keyholes in Washington. London and Chungking. Tc which Walter Winchell. in a bruihofl crack Sunday (251, re- marked: Time says since the war started Broadway columnists have devoted more space to world affairs. Time apparently means Broadway colyuin Imitators—because this col- \iim widened its horizon long before tl-.c war—as Time pointed out in its pifce about us 'five years ago.' Wir.ohell's 'imitatnv' squawk was an echo of a reivark by Time Itself thai Walker cribs from other publi cations, not the leost ot which is •Variety.' but not credited by Walker in hi.s weekly rewriting. His usual alibi is that he didn't see it in 'Va rieiy." but got It source. Time states that Walker considers his ;;reatest triumphs are his col iimn's predictions, but fails to men- tion that he rates as an equal tri- umph his ability to rhumtw, ot which he makes quite a fetish. Of nix 'predictions' listed by Time, one has come to pass and five have since been proved untrue. One Is a crack that Wilikie will succeed Hays as film 'czar.' en route from North Africa, where he had been covering the British 8th Army's pursuit ot Rommel, to | London to report the coming inva- sion ot Europe, it and when, tor In- ternational News Service. Another I son of Lalt's, Jack. Jr.. is currently east doing special scripts tor thel film unit ot the Army headquartered [ in Astoria, L. I. Cincy fenqulrer's Shakenp Several staff chanses on The En' qui<°er, Cincinnati's only morning and Sunday paper, were announced April 18 by William F. Wiley, pub- lisher, a week after John W. LaRue resigned as managing editor. Everett M. Boyd moved up from telegraph editor to m.e. Lee Evans heads the sheet's N. Y. bureau and is succeeded as city editor by Ken- neth Doris, former assistant city editor and with the paper 26 years. OUie M. James, editorial writer, ad- vanced to assistant managing editor. Donald C. Heck, a 23-year steffer, became night city editor. The late J. C. 'Jap' Muma was predecessor to Evans in the N. Y. spot. Steinbeck's War Ceveiage John Steinbeck is set to go abroad as a war correspondent. If he hasn't dpne so already. Novelist-playwright will work tor the N. Y. Herold Tribune Syndicate doing a daily story. Actually, he will not serve as a war correspond- from" another I leaving the fighting coverage to irom .anoiner i already at it. Wants to do per- sonalized stories ot the boys behind the lines 6nd at the base headquar- ters, and hence his desire to cross on a big transport, if possible. Steinbeck remarried recently. In New Orleans. Bride stays home, of course. , Isak Dinesen's 'Winter Talcs"and David. Pilgrim's 'Combined Opera- tions' cho.sen as June selections of Book-of-the-Month Club. It's Miss Dinesen's third book club selection ('Seven Gothic Tales.' 'Out of Africa'). Maurice Dekobra's 'La Madone a Hollywood.' sequel to his 'Madonna of the Sleeping Cars.' is a film capital novel, breezily contlnuLig the adventures of Lady Diana Wynham. Didier publishes in N. Y.. 330 pages In French ($1.50) Kelly Poore. Washington Post copy girl, becomes the new radio editor and assistant dramatic critic of the paper. She will write under the pen name of Marjorie Kelly. Takes the place of Ernest Schier, recently called to the U. S. Army. Two more magazines have been denied mailing privileges by Post master-General Frank C. Walker on grounds of obscenity. They are Best Love Magazine, bi-monthly, pub' lishcd ill Chicago by the Western Fiction Publishing .Co., Inc., and Dan Turner's Hollywood Detective, also published In Chi by the Trojan Pub' llshlng Co. Lee SImonson. whose autobiogra- phical 'Part ot a Lifetime,' will be published this tall by DuelL Sloan St Pearce, will have an exhibit of drawings ot his stage designs at William and Mary College. Williams burg, Vir.. beginning April 25. These drawings, eight ot them In full color, will be included in the book which is scheduled for publication In Sep- tember, Robert Nathan's ballad. 'Dunkirk, has been set to music by Walter Damrosch and, with Dr. Damrosch conducting, will be broadcast as feature ot an all-English program played by the NBC Symphony over the Blue Network May 2. Dr. Frank Black, the .regular conductor ot the Symphony, will be at the piano; Thomas Thomas the baritone soloist; Films Wsnf n. Aileb Smith H. Allen Smith, author ot *Low Man on a Totem Pole, and 'Life in a Putty Knife Factory, went to the Coast primarily to do_ articles on Roy Ko;,'ei-s tor Lite and' James Cagney for Snievepost. but mean^me Sam Goldwyn and Buddy DeSylva (Para- imniiit production head), both are dickering to keep him anchored at tlieif respective studios Plenty of ShaBfrl-L* Clean scoop ot the Tokyo raid that Random House, King Features and Metro thought they had acquired by purchasing Capt. Ted Lawson's b'ory, '30 Seconds Over Tokyo' some inoiiihs aco. has proved anything but that. Other eyewitness stories on the teat have-begun to appear .on all- •irlcs. NEA, the Scripps-Howard feature service. Monday iZUi carried a story by CapU Harold F. Watson, who also partook In the raid. International f'ews Service the same day began a serial. 'Shangri-La Diary,' by Kich- ard Ti'cgaskis (author ot 'Guadal- canal Diary'; on the flight, Tregas- kis accompanied the task force, ot which the aircraft carrier Hornet Jesscl's Eacere George Jessel Is preparing a sec- ond book to follow publication ot his 'So Help Me,' which is due to hit |and there will be a male chorus of 12. the stalls May A. New one, which he facetiously terms a 'posthumous book,' will be labeled 'Hollywood History.' Cestly Mistake Because the author's name was misspelled on the cover, the flrst tew thousand copies ot Larry Lesueur's book on Russia, '12 Months That Changed .the World,' have had to be recalled by the publisher, Alfred Knopf. The name was spelled LeSueur, one of several ways It Is frequently misspelled. The bi»ok, which deal's with Lesueur's experiences as CBS corre- spondent in Moscow during and af- ter the Nazi siege ot the city, is due tor publication early this summer. LITEBATI OBITS Herace Oreen, 72. of the ^itorial staff of The American Weekly and a former member ot the Paris staff ot the N. Y. World, died April 20 In N. Y, Charles B. Bacon, 82. for 40 years New Jersey legislative correspondent for the Philadelphia Record and publicity agent tor the N. J. State Republican Committee, died April 19 In Burlington. N. J. E. P. Oltannell, 48, author of 'Green Margins' and 'The Great Big Doorstep,' died April IB In New Or leans. Mrs. Lacy Jeanne Price, 92. edf- tor of the East Los Angeles Gazette, April 20 In Los Angeles. Philip Cewen, 89, one of the foun ders ot The American Hebrew and Latins Dne far U.S. Tonr Following up the current visit to '^rJ^X^^Kf!i^J\Jrnll^^^i\^''' 2^ years its managing editor, prominent Argentine journalists, tne jj-j ^.„. m v a..<.ii on National Press Club ani Coordinator Rochclle. N. Y.. April 20, of Inter-American Affairs have in- Beuben Oranewshy, 72. Yiddish vited newsmen from Chile. Para- I ^'^'ter ot books on Palestine, humor guay and Cuba to tour the country as guests. " ' They are expected to reach Miami thl^ week to bcitin the trip to Ameri- con citle; and war plAni.-i. ous works, biographies and contrlbu tor to Jewish publications, died °in New Vurk April 22. .' George Bialsdell, 73, pioneer trade paper editor and Ulb reviewer, died Old Busch Gardens in Pa.sadena is'still being used as background tor motion pictures, although the mansion and several acres of the estate have been sold for taxes. Once owned by the St. Louis beer fantlly, the palace and ita surrounding growth has been utilized ever since Holly- wood's early days tor pictures demanding swank scenery. The old house and part of the 10 acres have gone under the auctioneer's hammer, but the tropical gardens remain. Working there at present is a Warners company. Aiming outdoor scenes tor 'Saratoga Trunk.' Wartime star shortage is partially solved by a pooling arrangement be- tween David O. Selznick and RKO to share the services ot four players. It carried on by other companies, the thesp-sharing idea may revolulioni/e current intcr-studio relations. Contractees. Involved In the talent swap are Kim Hunter and Gordon Oliver, signed by Selznick, and Robert An- derson and Gregory Peck, pacted by RKO. Charles W. Koerner, RKO vice proxy, explained that the agreement had been made In a spirit ot cooperation to overcome the current wartime lack ot promising talent. Droning ot warplanes overhead is causing serious delays on the back lota of Metro. 20lh-Fox and the San Fernando studios, Warners. Republic and Universal. Surrounded by airplane plants, the studios are continually over-passed by bombers and fighters on routine and test flighta which rattle down sound tracks and cause a lot of retakes in open-air shooting. Paramount and RKO. situated in Hollywood, are less affected than the outlying lots, but are still suffering from aerial Interruptions. Mike Todd thinks that J. C. Stein. Music Corp. ot America prez. who bought his "Star and Garter' tor $179,000, will mora likely make it a United Artists package, rather than via RKO, where Stein usually oper- ates on unit production deals. Todd gets 30% ot the profits, on top ot the 17SG, ot which 5% goes to Gypsy Rose Lee, who will star in the Aim version, as on the stage. She gets $90,000 ot the 179G tor her services. Producers Releasing Corp. is cashing in on the execution of American war birds in Japan by the revival of 'Prisoner of Japan,' released last July. Arthur Greenbtatt, chief ot distribution, has ordered all branch managers to start a campaign for new Itookings. This is the second time PRC has taken advantage of front-page evento. First was the rcN-lval ot 'A Yank In Libya,' when the war grew hot In North Africa. Although Metro is screening 'DuBarry Was a Lady' in the company ex- changes May 3-4-e. a block has not been made to include It and 'Bataan.' another fllm that was to |}e tradeshown early in Blay but isn't ready yet. Meantime 'DuBarry' Is no't being added to tho present (third) group of Ave pictures which Metro Is selling though that may be done later. In any event it becomes available for summer dating. Old Mr. Jiggs. orang-utan thesp in dozens ot Jimgle films, has retired to a life ot idleness in the Kansas City Zoo, leaving Cheta, chimp of the Tarzan' series, as the outstanding simian star of Hollywood* Mr. Jigg.s, now 20 years old, has developed a grouchy temperament which might cause trouble on a studio set. Cheta is only six, with a long career ahead. Prop snow cau.sed an epidemic of snow blindness on set ot The Road to God's Country' at Republic, where players and technicians are wearing dark glasses, the result of eye strain. Fake snow, made ot gypsum crys- tals, gives off a terrific glare under sun or artificial light. Nate Blumberg. Universal proxy, who is himself an addict for western films, states that he's lived to se« the day when westerns made good on Broadway, at $4.40, as leglters. To him 'Oklahoma' and even the plot ot 'Something for the Boys' are both in the rodeo idiom, Jimmy Walker laffs off those recurrent rumors about returning to the picture business as a goodwill ambas.sador, or a D. C. coordinator, etc.. by stating that he's heard them before, but whenever it's time for the dotted Una nothing happens. Reganilcss of the fact that technical details on Louis Mayer's new contract with Metro as yat have not been worked out, there's no question that the exec wUl continue at MGM. Ha has so expressed himself. April 20 in Hollywood following a heart attack. * WlUlaai A. CenBtryaun, SO, for- mer city editor of tha New Haven Register and at ona time editor-in- chief ot the defunct Hartford Post, died April 24 in 'Hartford, Conn. Leals D. Olbba, 73, former corre- spondimt tor the Boston Transcript and the Springfield Republican, died in Newton. Mass., April 23. Pedro (Pete) Ltaaaaa, sketch art- ist and cartoonist formerly with the .N. Y. World-Telegram, and hi.s wife.' were killed ^arl>- this monlli in a Chicago motor cair accident. He sketehed .the caricature of Jimmy Durante, used by tha comedian as a trade mark, which appears weekly in the legit section Of 'Variety.' PhUlp BelUy, 79. retired founder and editor of tha Free Press, Oak- Und, Calif, political sheet, died there April 23. Frank H. Ladenderf, 82. pioneer American cartoonist, died April ii In Syracuse, N. Y. Oeorge A. Sheard, 70. editor of \.'" Fcnnvllle Herald, Mich., died .-^P'''- a in Holland, Mich.