Variety (May 1943)

52 UB6ITIMATB WcdaoJay, Way 5, 1943 Inside Stuff-Leg't Allci T3 iiiio-i'.iah: sl.i fl. ;ir li 2:i.(IO0'inili-> r.( I.mvcI iIt •r.^ii 3T sLilos. Elhi'l B:ii-r.M>.ii.f ri ii.i'cil Ui Biii;>.:'\v;.>' ^Iiii ('iiv ii'',iM >;ti ttilli F.in^vii Williaiiix" 'Tl'v C ii ii U (iip.-iv' w ilii whii'li .-he n i:iit-il)li' Cioih:i 11 Iv. . mmn.ii.> T!ii> lime Mi.~s B:ii'i'yni •rc i> |)l:i>ji\i; :il S2 20 ti>;i Mi-< B::! lyniiiiv ^l:ll't^:< imi nn hrr li>iii' :i yi-iii' n:: > l:isl .);iiiiiai'y. Tl.c liiiii; t»)ii!- Ir:.~i"ri <liir;T >';l Mi.-.- B-irrynriro'.-i i-rl«;r. a.- lln- W.-K-i .m-:> 'Ii!- n.i-lic.--" i;.>r. r>i;' I'l.il ol Ih,- othv-r v.-U'raii |H'i"liii:i'>-!'.«. Tucrc l::i\v bci'ii .-I'Vi-ii iliaji-.o-: ii: llii- fast .-iiice llic show in-.'^i!:a'lv dt-luilod ii Ui40- ill llic Nai:.!!:!!!. N. Y.. Ihoyw niatlo liltl? iliHi.Mvin-i' the pri'.<iMil One piTlornia'iru. wh'i-ii i-- h '.iii pi ;-i-iilprl attain hy (lonnaii Shumliii. thi- limo at Ih^- Mar:iii Berk. Still .shaViMi; artiiiK Ivmoi.- uilli Mi-s Barryiniii.- i-^ Itichaiil Wai inK. in the orii-.inal pas t ho nv >t.ort. that of M.iruuii K»;m-. I!ic yonnv.. illiivralc \t'clsh miner. IViry Wilson ha? ivDlated Thchna S.-hnfi- in unp .dT the key pari.-- un-i her pei furniai-.i-c !.- alway." credih'i'. U-ini; p:i|lr.ceil ntwr that of Mis- Schi'.ei"".-. Mi.-s Barrvmtiri n-ikiv-i-a aut-.-t ai>p('a.".ni-o Saturday iii-^hl iHi nn 'ne- port to the N'ali.ii:.' vii CBS. She'll nive a report on Anifrica al war. a-i seen via Iwo sims-h?- of road Inuring. An'.:-r!f:> al v..n'. ns .-eo:) via l«'i s.'a.ior.s of road lolirir.u. Wiien appiiKM-he.l a'.mui a radio ap;)e;irancc. Hie acli.--. .-ipeviiled .•ihe preferred \o a,>!<iMi on ■Hopnrl." as it's one of her ravo; i;e prour.nn.-. College Slww DON RbSITA CumhridKe. Mass.. April 28. Ili;v-ii I l)i:iii..ii.< ('till iilnl lln-|i*'iffi« l.iji-i ■••ii.ltli III.-, ul il..iiiit Hi lliioi* ailN liy l-'i>.l-i .• ii 1:1111,1 I.Mli:i |li:fiii»'.ll**'l liy II. O'l' fii .'11.ii .l:ilili-- 4«l.i!i.ilii: ill|i*il*il ■•>' I'll':."" il! -. .\lil,>' Sli.ir. ■"-in. 1:1 i- l..>l. .\ .'I ' I I I-. I- Ili.ii-: ■'. |i-. \iiiii .... Vi-|.ll-« I'll.'- M:intil I . .. Si" ilMl .\l:ii.i <■.. 'rii-l I M I Mill .»|. \ l-*li .1 Sl.it I . . S Mil Shlll«|i*l. T ;"-! S I \l<ill r Simi-I I'*||>I .\.iiil.-i S 1.1 I I'.ii .\l .11 ill .. T.v i Wi-. • II I ■ |..it-:. . l'\.li;: i:iir..iil Kilitf. II-....I f. I'.d.il.l i.l-J.-. .\l i-lt-.. dl III l"l.. 1 1 -I li.iir fi-i.| IVII.i. k I.-.I " l":ili: .M.I '.-I. \\ l.:^iiriii .M.-i. I.v W.'Kiliil S,. Ii'.i .\li>ii!ii.l I .r.nn Kfiiiii I.' Ill W.Miil*- , i;.i.iiK.. t'liiy .' i.M.iii \\s..ij.>- S>*il;r .\l:i,v'ii;i!.il I*.|iii:l l'..i.u;iv 4 1'Miili nri.niiiii i:|i.ii:i Kii.i.. riii.-iii.i \l 1% -Wi'inK-il i;..iii' \.-'--. riiI-* I..-..II .•n i>i I'.iMw.-n Theatre pariie- sold af .1 discount prior to premiere have ru.'il 'To- morrow the World" .-everal thoii.-.nnd dollai>. Capacity nishlly is S2.2ri0 and the parties' rale w.-is Sl.().)0. An the druma has lieeii sellini; on an average of fuur niuhis weekly, the nrus» of avoiiiid Slli.HOU shuiild have been over SU'iinn. a- of last wek;k. ■Toinoviow' is :i ore-.-eiier reqiiirinc but (our stacehaeds. .<ii ihe house Allures ill lurii ex.-v!leiil proHls. while the show looks like u cleaiiu:> (or its 27 backers. Advance sale i-^ ixiildiiiK and there is a:i aver:ii.e u( 100 mall oi'iie;'s received daily. At its present pnee drtinia may reeovei' its production c-nsi in si.>( or .sex-en weeks. Profits have l)eeii ij.iod from the start. includinK ou!-of-towii. with .some '^2.300' the Itr.-I semesier. S3.S00 the sccoi'.d week. eic. 'Cry Havoc." U:inv. 11 as,'Proof Thro the Nstthl' on Broadway, whei'e it lasted briclly. clos<<d on the road in Boston SaUirday (l>. still in (he reo. All-femmc war drama was over-louted on Ihe Coast, where it oricinall.x was presented, and when it was produced al (he Morusco, N. Y.. around the Yuletide, Albn R. Kenward. the author, clashed with Lec ?hiil>ert over the title chaiiKe. . He also declined to rewrite lli« play, which was the manager's idea. Because o( the short eneasement the rights reverted to Kenward. who refused to do business with Shiibcrt when it was decided to lour "Havoc' That broueht John \yi!c'!>er;i in on the show, which went to the road under his direction, iatu-r being reported to have (routed (or Shubert. Drama drew moderate Kros-e.- and probably turned an opcralins profit, but the product ion nut was not recaptured. Idea of (ryinK il a«ain on Broadway was scrapped, AKred Lunt and Lynn Foiitannc are due In London this summer, plan- ning to appear there in 'There Shall Be No Night." Report that they also fiKured on showint; in 'The Gu^rdi-man" over there appear.-: to be in- correct. 'NiKht' was a sensational succe.ss on Broadway lAlvini and on the road, bciii;^ taken ofT adcr the war situation snarled the play's theme, which set in Finland. If It pla.vs in London the pla.v^s locale will be changed to N->rv\ay. Lunts closed la.-l week at the Martin Beck. N. Y.. in -The Pirate.' Finale was to have been Saturday but there were no perlormaiices a(ter Tuesday, Miss Fonlanne l>eiii!( ill. De.-piie the (ragrance of his lan- KiKKje :iiul l!:;> elusive beauty of his siyli'. FciU-rieo C'.:irria Lorea. mar- lyiod Spani-'h pluywrinhl. fails ul- UM-ly to :i)isik (o the American lem- peramen:. His 'Oona Rosila' (sub- tilled 'The LimKUaKO of the Flow- er.-:" 1. ("iviii i\i American premeirc bv Iho depleted forces of the Har- vard Dramatic Club and the Rad- clilTe Idler, makes no headway with the audience so far as narrative in- terest is concerned, while the char- acters mii;ht well be those in a Filz- I'atrick IraveloK. It is wholly de- tached from any pi-osoecl whatever of commercial possibility. Notwilhstandinj! its merits artis- tically. 'Dona Rosila" is pallid drama. The central situation develops around the frustrated roinanvc, o( a hiKh-born Spanish girl who.se' be- trothed Kocs to America. Although he maintains a passionate corre- spondence with ner for years, he at len.'jlh marries another; The play deals wholly with Dona Rosila's re- action to events she makes no effort to control and ends as she accepts the biltcr. inevitable fate o( spin- slerhood. 0( secondary narrative there is none. The Harvard-Radcliffe groups un- der Phvllis Siohl's briKhl direction took ad'vantafio o( what possibilities the fr.Til .script provdcd. but it was an uphill strugijle. the dramatic ve- hicle creaking painfully all the way. Elie. Another ehan-te of tiile was made late last week fur John Golden'.; latest production, with the result lhat the Sunday *2) drama sections of the K. Y. Times ar.-l Herald Tribune had difTercnt names of the farce, which opens tonijjht I'li at the Loitgacre. Play was shown in Washington as 'The Home Frmi:.' ihc new title being Three's a Family.' Decisiot\ t.) renan<e Ihe play was made Friday <3U> and it wa.-. possible to catch the Trih's amusement section, which goes to press on that day. Times show s*.<cti'in. h.nvevor. rolls on Thursday.s. so in thai paper the play was i-.illed 'Tlie Hi'lie Front." Corporal Mich:.»-I O'Shea. of the glider infantry, now in a Norlli Caro- lina training cain-i. has alloced that a legit actor known as Eddie O'Shca has adopted the trmil monicker of Michael. Ho has asked Hugh Rennie to lake up ihi- ii-iilcr with Eiiuily. but il appears to be more a Screen Actors Guild iiem. Soldier O'Shea. who ni-iires he has grounds for a suit, was once in the press office of Ihe lale Sam H. Harris and it's indicated that E(|uily isn't conc.'rned. Acin:- O'Sliva is in the film 'L.fdy of Buiie.s(|ue' «U'. Howard Biirnes. who covers the new plays and picliires for Ihe N. Y. '•erald Tribune, was oif duly live days last week. He was honeymooninit. itist Tuesday i2ji he married Katherine VilicenI, Trib's fashion editor, n ho has been nrsi-niuliling wiih him for .vears. and they look Ihe balance -■r the v.-eek off. 0;is L. Guernsey. Jr.. youngster who has been handlin,'! the drama news roluijiii since Joe Pihodna went into the Army, handled the play and picture assignments in Barnes" absence.' It is the third marriage for the criiic. Willie Schneider, whose Icijs were cru.shed in an elevator accident at the Skirvin holel. ICansa* City, in January of last year, is now a whesl- chair case ai his Ikimc in Tacmna. after a Ions period of ho.spitali/.ation. He vias ma;;::';e;- ol a roa.' con'pahy of "Lifj* With Father" wlwi the acci- dent occurred. No dale has lu-i-n .scl for a damage suit and no offer of a .<ettlemehl made. Unders'.o.id the numagement of the hylcl changed. Schneider has paid hospital and me.tical fees of more than $S.OUO to dale. The pri/.e-wiiinii!K The Patriots" and "The Skin of Our Teeth' have both Jumped in bi7. since ihe publicity attendant to the awards given them, respectively, by the New York Drama Critics Circle and the Pulitzer Commitlee. 'Patriots' hjd been averaging about $12,000 wcekl.v. profitable, until the announrement by the Circle, and the past week has seen the JcfTcrsonian biography juinpink over $16,000. "Skin' has been doing well right along with its name ca.-ii headed by Frcdric March, Florence Eld- rid.ge .'u.d Tallulah BanUheari. Arlene Francis, appearing in The Doughgirls,' Lyceum. N. Y., has been resting in a hospital iliruugh the'day and goes there to sleep afier evening performance,-). In addition to the play. Miss Francis is on a radio pro- gram and averaged four lieneflt appearances weekl.v until becoming aware «he was approaching CKhausiion. Her physician thereupon advL-cd the hospital routine. The Ziegfcld Club held its annual benefit alfair. this time a dinner dance al the Park Lare lm:ol. N'. Y.. Saturday il>. Event was s.ild out In ad- vance, which made ihe girls realize they had arranged for too small a spot. They had iieci i<.!,-l that because of war fund drives attendance would probably t»t utio'cr il-.a:- of other seasons, OKey Performers 5 Continued from pas* ^aaa the leplacemenl was Dickie Tyler, who has been on the stage. before, being in a road company o( 'Life With Father." (he most sucQCssful of all child-adult comedies (now in the fourth year at the Empire. N.Y.). Young Homeier"s mot'ter, incident- ally, is reported wllliholding most notices of 'Tomorrow,' especially those in which critics went to town in praising the lad. Mrs. Homeier, ac- cording to the report, doesn't Intend to be annoyed by a swell-headed boy. The adolescents and younger play- ers in 'Kiss and Tell' (Biltmore) are also vital to the (arce. That partic- ularly applies to Tommy,Lewis. 12. who has been playing several years. Whereas Skippy is the youngest vil- lain ever known to ll,e stage. Tom- my ".< p.Trt was written to make him the most precocious. 'Janic' (Play- hou.s>.-i the first of the season's kid-adult play-s. that comedy bring ing forth Clare Foley, who plays a comic little pesl. she being the first to get a nod from the reviewers. Kids al.so count in 'Harriet' (Mil leri. while 'Stars on Ice" (Center) has Twinkie Watts, youngest fea' lured skater on ihe stage. Not all the contrastingiy-cast shows have clicked (his season, an instance be ing 'This Rock,' with flock of kids who got in the audience's hair. Nitery Angels S Conllniird froHi page 1 s with Ihe same amount of coin also put into the venture by Milton fierle and ■ Alfred Bluomingdale. Latter, who also owns a piece o( the Shu- berts' 'Ziegfeld Follies.' starring Berle, and also angeled the George Jessel show, 'Show Time," which winds up this Saturday (8) Jn Bos- ton, will supen-isc the Kollmar pro- diiction. Kollmar has a piece of 'By Jupiter.' Meanwhile. 'Early to 6ed' Is being tttit through the cleaner, the liliretlo switchin'g from a Mar- linique Island bordello to a road- house. Fats' Waller did the score for the show. t'onneaut Lake Park, one of the few summer resorts in western Pennsylvania, will open fur the sea- son May L C»BU*u«d from page U them the Pearl Harbor and York- town photograph! the Japs had given them. The explanation the censors gave when they confiscated the pic- ture.t, he asserted, was tlttt the news had not yet been released and might aid the enemy. ■Japt Knew Befare V. .8.* Alcott. agreeing with Wills about the Pearl Harbor and-Yorktown In- cidents, added that the Tokyo raid details offered another instance of the government withholding news from the American people much too long. He gave details aupi oVliAg his belief that the Japanese knew aU m0.1t immediately the location of .the Chinese air fields at which the Doo- litlle flyers landed. He declared the news of the execution of the cap- tured American bomber crews was deliberately 'used as a needling proc- ess" to .sell war bonds and added that, the government is 'trepting the American people with too much of a kid glove altitude.' Chaplin, while admitting that .•some .ne,w.'t must be .'withheld for security reasons, a.sserted that such an attilude is frequently carried much too far. He told of having been In eastern India when the Duolittie flyers arrived there en route back to the U. S. According to Chaplin, some of tlie flyers talked freely about the raid and of Iheir escape through China, Becau.-ie of the intensive Japa- nese espionage system in eastern India, the entire story must have gotten to Tokyo almost Immediately, but correspondents there were for- bidden from reporting It for 11 monthd aderward. he said. Chaplin then described the double and some- times triple censorship setups in regions where there are several dl(- ferent United Nations army C9m- niands operating. He suggested some kind of joint censorship pro- cedure among the Allied nations to unify and simplify censor^iip policy and expedite news. Lt, Col, KIrby conceded lhat pos- sibly the Tokyo raid details were withheld too long, but argued that there might have been factors in- volved that were not known at the lime, or even yet. Agreeing that the American people can take bati news, he declared that the in- evitable futu're announcement of. large easuallles Is a serious prob- lem, but that 'if the people can't take it we can't ,win the war, for this is a people's war and ours is a people's army.' Without going Into specific details, he urged that news m\u>l often l>e withheld because of military security. Lt. Com. Reichner supported that - assertion, but ex- plained that he couldn't define 'se- curity,' as such decisions are made by his superiors. •Paaslng the Buck' Saerchinger criticized the Army. Navy. OITice of War Information and the Bureau of Censorship gen- erally, claiming 'there seems lo t>e a tendency to pass the bu^k' and that they are of little u.sr io him in getting information or the ex- planation of itews. He has come to depend on the BrilLsh Informa- tion Service in New York for most of his news, he said. He was .<iup- ported in that statement by other broadcasters present. He.slcp told of the mechanics of the Bureau of Censorship and ex- plained that in withholding or re- lea.-ing news it has to abide by the judgment of the Army and Navy and. of course, the President. Later: in answer to a question from the floor, he Identified Admiral King, General Marshall and Pres- ident Roosevelt as the three people actually responsible for decisions on censorship. Although he told of several iso- lated cases of newspapers and broadcasters violating their vol- untary censorship code, he asserted that the total number of such in- fractions has been negligible. Of 7.000 network news .broadcasts heard during 1942. only slightly over 2% contained violations, and most of thase were unintentional slips re- ferring to weather conditions and the like, he said. Of the 2.000 net- work broadcasU heard during the fiist quarter of 1843, only IT con- tained Infractions, he added. And of local and regional program.i, there were about the same 2% of viola- tions. He declared he Is opposed to enforced censorship, as that would only tend to make It a game for the broadcasters and new,:!- papers against tlia Army and Navy, and would Increase the number of violations. Summing up the case for the Government's censor.!>hip rccoru, Heslep and Kirby admitted there had probably -been errors of judge- ment made, but argued that tl e decision of risking nalional se- curity by releasing information u a terrible respoasibility- and thai in case of question it is better to err on the side of caution. Wills stated at that poini (hat nothing said by the Government .spokesmen had completely satLsfied him on. the subject. He still fear(jd. hv- said, how far censorship niav go, of Whether it may not. be ulii- mntcJy extended lo cover no| onlv the national security but al.so the Government iLseK and its office- holders. Alcott endorsed that slalo- ment. Whereupon Heslep remarked that nothing in the censorship regu- lations or the law makes any re- striction on 's|>eeulatioii, opiniiin or criticism,' I Linsuals' Meeting I^^S Continued from pace M time job. This, he termed, a nega- tive approach to the problem of foreign -language broudcas:-- New Supervisory Plan Out of the meeting came the adop- tion of a new plan for effecting tighter supervision over the lingiials. With the Oniee of Censorship an.i the OWX approving, the foreign lan- guage br6adca.«ters will have re- gional supervisors invested wil'i • authority to enforce the f.l.b.'s own code of wartime practices. The^a district supervisors will be part ot the Foreign Language Radio War- time Control. It a supervisor llnd.i that he can't correct a local abuse of the code, he will report to the Wash- ington offlce of thecoi'nmittec. whicii, in turn, will try to dissuade the mis- creant broadcaster from his present course. If this fails, the mailer will be turned over lo Price's otlice, which has the power lo remove the station's foreign language srhedules from the air. Arthur 3imoii. WPEN. Philadel- phia, remains as chairman of Ira supervising, or control commiilee, and he was authorized by the lin- gunls, which has its own association, of which Simon is also president, to fill whatever posts are necessary and ot his own choasing for the duration and six months after the war. The lingual broadcasters wim serve on the control setup, it waa explained, will carry semi-offlcnl authority from the Office of Censor- ship. The session of the -same broad- casters at the 1842 NAB convention was highlighted by the tevelation o! a Brooklyn foreign language broad- caster that he had caught an Italian record jockey dedicating music num- bers to the crew ot ships thai were about to sail out of New York har- bor. The disclosure set off a flood of other 'confessions' which, in sum-, mary. attested to the faci that the control maintained b.v foreign la'i- gua?e stations over the mike output of their lingual announcers w.ns negligible. Cnrrent London Shows London. May 4. 'Abraham Lincoln,' Playhouse. 'Arsenic and Old Lace,' Straii'l. 'Best Bib * Tucker,' Pull.idiii«<. 'Brighton Beek.* Garrick. XIandIa,' St. Marlii<'.<i. •Danclhi Tears,* Adelphl. 'Flare Path,' Apollo. 'Full Swiflg.' Palace. 'Heartbreak House,' Cambridge. 'It's Foolbh Bat Fun,' Coli.seuii:. 'Jnnlor Miss.' Saville. 'La-OI-Da,* Victoria Palace. 'Let's Fa«e It,' Hippodrome. 'LIUIe Bit at Fluff.' Ambassadi>r. 'Live far Love,' Phoenix.- 'Man Who Came U Dinner,' Savoy. 'Men In Shadow,^ Vaudeville. 'Merry Widow.' Majesty's. 'Menlta In Ihe Cenntry,' St. James. 'Present Laughter,' Haymarkel. 'Qalet Week-End,' Wyndhum's. 'Rebecca,' Seals. 'ShowbMt,' Stoll. 'Sleeplhf Oal,' Piccadilly. 'Step Oat With Phyllis.' Whitehall. 'Strike a New Nete.' Wales. 'They Came to a City.' Globe. This Happy Breed.' Haymarki-t. 'Vagaband King.' Winter Garden. 'Watch an the Rhine.' Alduyci:. 'What Every Woman Knnws.' Lyric