Variety (March 1944)

2 MISCELLANY yARlETT Wednesday, March 1, 194,1, "Variety" Income Tax Service Wayne Pierson Again At 'Variety's' Home Office- Some Tips to ProfessionaU .,-B*ree .iiicome lax seryiGe for meifi-t bris ot the amusemont profession js anain bomi; ofTered by "Variety" at its oflK-e 111 New York, 154 West 46lh Street. Deputy Collector H "Wayno Pierson', from the ofl'ice of Collecibr James W. i-oimwii, :iid District, Now York, is on duty r .cli dny from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., to acA iso ^ taxpayers !ajici; to. assist .■therav in tti;6 preparation',Of tlicir!. retilrns.' ., :,. This piiblicatiohjsi'in r^ceiBiJ.pf', number o) mquuies from members 'hj,.o^1,cj- and two t.ibtcrs. Individual SELWYN LEAVES BULK OF ESTATE TO FAMILY Hollywood,, Feb. 29. Filed for profjate in court here, the will 4^: Edgar' :SelW3fni%^^ ilire producer who died Feb. 13. 'leaves, fhe bulk ofr; his' estate, to; his of the theatrical business who are on tour and who, in some ca.ses, aie vnablo to oblahi tax advice from a local souice For the benefit of those 'Unable to get dire'ct: a.ssist<nn,ce, . Depaly, pierson has .oiitlined .^^^numr- ber of neccs.saiy steps in the prcpa- lation of a iclurn They follow: Form 1040 will be used by most members of the amusement profes- sion as they will have deductable items that can only be taken olT when this form is used. Short foim 1040A will be used for those l eceiv - ing $3,000 or less and only whelTTtniy- ha''e no business or professional cxr penses. The fir.st .step in preparing a re- turn IS to assemble the following forms. A copy of your 1942 tax blank or the Form' 1125, mailed to you from the Collector's office where you' fited 'last i'i^.:, ,ThiS; form has listed the. amount of tax you owed lor 1942 and the amount you hayc already paid in installments. V.ou probably paid the first two Install^ ments, or half of the tax^dvie. Place this figure in line 21b, page 4. If, in your travels, the collector's notice has not caught up with you, the bequests in the esiaic, va-.ued in ex- cess ot $10,000, were made to Sel- wyn's niece; Mrs, DonaldvKlopper of New York Cityi who receives his boolis, irianuscripts' a'iid stagp,. screen, and: radio rights to all plays, and .stories: hi.s nephew, William, Selwyn, and Martha Merrill., both of Beverly Hills, who were given $5,000 each; and his step.son, Ru.s.-,eU Selwyn, now in the air foice, who was left $10,000. Rest of'Selwyn's prpperty, includ- ini; ca.gh. .stocks and' copyriehts, will 89th WEEK KEN MURRAY S "BLACKOUTS OF 1944" EI Capitan Theatre, Hellywood, Cat. AT.K'i: r.vvi: ami riiiL irAitins ".\le ami .Mice .lin't lauRhoil so loud in jcais, li K>eat, Kenneth." PHIL. be divided' equally between his brother. Arch Selwyn of Beverly Hills, and his two sLsters, Mrs. Anna Isaacs of Los Angeles and Mrs. Samuel Goldsmith of New Yoik City; Husband of: the. latter was named executor of the estatCi , Hal Wallis Huddles With Siiumlin dri Pic ,;, Har,B. ■'Wallis, while ,,in' Ne^ huddle4' :\vitii lierman Shumlih oh the iatfer's Second WB directbrial job, "Berlin Hotel 1944,'' the Vicki same'miorm^tionmay'brtakeVfroml f""^-^.'-J^^w w "'"^ your copy gf the 1942 return. ' ^.imarr and Paul Henricd. Waine.-s Next, as.semble all form W2 given yOu by your, employers. These The Berle-ing Point =By MILTOX BEBLE SSS fornis indicate the gross amount of salary paid you for a particular en- gagement. Immediately, below • this figure you will tind the sum with- held to cover Victory and Withhold^ ing Tax. In cases where you re- ceived .salary and did not receive a form or a written record from the employer you will be compelled to rely on your own records. > Wfhen. you have computed the total amount of ifioney withheld for, Victory and • Withholding Tax place : this sum in line 21a, page 4. If you filed a declaration return last September, and paid an install- ment in September or: December, in- sert this amount m line 21c, page 4. You will then have the complete total of your credits and these smounts will be subtracted from the (Continued on page 55) marr and .Paul' Henricd; Warners swapped , two John Garfield pix for the Lamarr loanout. Wallis also did a little powwowing in connection with "God Is My Co- Pilot" during his eastern stay of one week. He returned to Burbank Over the weekend. Shumlin can't do his WB chore until he gets a new liiUian Hellman play on the boards. ■ .Here ,we go, again! Orson Berle has returned to thevproducing rank.s. Trying to think of a good name for the company. They want 'to be called The Mecurochrome Players^^ because their salaries have been cut so often. From the way they com- plain at rehearsals. I think I'm go- ing to call them'"The Gripe Thea- U-e." 'Of :COurse,: I'm. crazy about the theatre: but there's , a special ,reason why I'nt'Producing: shows. I can't stand eating^' by myself, in Sardi's. JlfU brotliei' (the one icho stai/s up nif/lits tri/iuo to lunte dirtt/ ii/ncs for MiArz]3 ■ TioaXs) has resolved to bet only on horses that run at., Hialeah. I: always knew he had- a one-track mind. Has anyone ever - called Madison Square Garden, the New York Soefc Exchange? A Tree, Grows in Brooklyn seems to, be a rather Poplar, book. Pcrhnp.s there u,-il( be a vorld police force when this war is over. But where will we get the cops, from, if Ireland stays neutral;- ■,,:■ I SCULLY'S SCRAPBOOK I ♦♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦»♦♦♦♦ By Frank Scully ♦♦HK-f4»>^+>+^ Hollywood, Feb 26 ■ Ono or the invisible overheads eoilnected ,with cohdUctihg even ji eo'lii'iim as factlcss as this is, checking a fact*. Some, copyreader 3,000 milq.s awa^ says, "Is this light?'' Once the machinery of doubt sets in the iesi hysteria. ^ Your "Variety" Mugg Emeritus, for instance, was stretched on his bort on a rainy Sunday altornoon, listening to tlie ''Hall of Fame" wiuic worst storm in 1,3 years was boating hell out of the city of fallen in.,„t and all California, The phone rang. Maybe you're a man of iron who can lot phones lini.' Maybe you're the soit who can shout, "Answer it, Alice!" «iiid ko on lis' tening. ', Maybe your A'nce, i.s the, sort who .siiouts, back, "All' right,/hirt- nu-n that radio down so I can set the message. It's a wire from New York They want a fact cnccked." , "Who?" " Variety'" Well, here's where loyalty divides and begins to pull you apart. You're listening to the paper's ladio program and the paper wants a lact'checked. But the data is down in the office, You have had an otTice only a week and it's alieady balling up the chaos that pa.sses for order at home. You try thice guys by phone in the hope of avoiding a copyright in- fringement suit with the vario\is owners of ''Rain." You even try some of the boys working for "Time" who may have some of it on their hands on a. rainy Sunday afternoon. Their phones are out of order. So you wrap yourself \ip in what rubber a war has left us, slip some pon- toons under the old Pontiac and start down hill, with the old brakes sing- ing, "Coming in on a wing and a prayer." Being an old Hudson River day liner .sort of gob, vou ronr the pier that n.pH in Hp Hnii y ^ y p pj 3„j Navy Releases Shaw Artie Shaw has been released from the Navy, according to word re-, ceived from the musician by his mother in ,N.'Y. ■ Shaw has been in a Naval hospital ■in San Francisco since. his return from the South Pacific. Whitley on the first try. You dig the fact out of the office file and try to phone the telegraph office. Out ot order. By now the rain has changed to snow and you have no skis. Chains. How about chains? They used to come in handy duvmg in the snow. But you find you're even a fugitive from a chain gang. And vice versa. They've gone into the scrap metal drive. So you walk to the telegraph office, only to learn that the nearest one belonged to Postal and in the merger "has been closed. For good. The next one is open, but not on Sunday. It seems all the mes.senger boys aic out looking at "The Human Comedy" to spot how one bikes from $18 50 to $5,000 a week, every week. Tlie main office: is open, having been geared for floods^ and blizi-ards, but to get there requires a C card and most of the gas stations are out of gas and closed anyway. So you drop in a bit-and-beat-it for a jolt of ]a\a and try phoning again. Tins one works and, relieved at last of the "fact" you've been carrying around like a carload of contraband, you race home, leaping with delight, only to learn that by now you've missed the antrim antics of W. Winchell and F. Allen Play Before Pic Hollywood, Feb. 29. Katti Fnngs. is dramatizing her novel, "God's Fpont Porch;" for the Theatre Guild, at the request of Lawrence Langer. : Possibility looms that play will hit Broadway before picture version is released. WincheU's W'rone People tell you what Winchell said, .but it's not the same as getting it by way ot the high C's. It seems he thinks it's a little lidiculoiis for citizens of Southern Cal to be worked up over a gal's civic lights being violated by a couple of aliens whpn no voice was raised at the time Oakies were barred from entci ing California a few years ago, and even those who got in were given the bum's rush.', , It's true bis Hearst papers favored making poverty a deportable crime, but if he had read Scully in the "Epic New?," and the "United Progiessne News," he would have read moral indignation inuch higher than any reached in the Chaplin case, but he would observe, moreover, that the mayor, chief of police, D. A., and others responsible for such politics, have long since been ridden out, of town On a ballot. And,, besides, two wrongs' don't make a reich. Butbefore you can tell WincheU how wrong he is in even such a simple ' fact, a wire comes asking, "Gross or net?," and by the time you've straight- ened that little kink out and wired it to New York, it seems Washington has told all publishers to pull in their belts a few more notches and the essential "fact" lands in the overset and doesn't make the paper this week.. Which, in "Vaiiety," means never. I Edison, Eit-NJ.Gov., Son Of Inventor, a Songwriter Newark, Feb. 29. Charles Edison, former Secretary of Navy, who recently ended throe, turbulent years as New Jersey's gov- ernor, is a pro tunesmith, apd has just turned out another live number. It's "Wlcky 'Wacky Woo," published by Braun Music Publishing Co. Edi- son's responsible- for : words: and music. Another Edison tune, "Don't A.sk : Nothin' of Me," is also, marketed by Braun. Although both numbers carry his byline, the ex-gov kept lips buttoned concerning tunesmith ac- —tivitiesr—He's—the- son—of—the—late electrical wiz, Thomas Ai Edisoni Broadway Runaround By Radie Harris Ilka and 'Archie' on Wax Ed Gardner, "Archie" of "Duffy's Tavern," is waxing a record album for Decca of his radio routines. Hil- . de^rde .has already immortalized Gatdner's "Leave Us Face It" into a big seller. Ilka Cha.se also has a new Victor nlbum due soon ^of Dorothy Parker monolofis. The diskors have taken to waxing big names during the Petrillo stymie In-lieu of, bands. Fredric March is annther set for a Decca disk album. Kaye Back to Goldwyn Danny Kaye reports back to Sam Goldwvn today a) for » second pic^ ; turc.' La.st N. Y. appearances before, leaving for Coast were a guestshot with Leo Durocher at a Brooklyn Red Cross show Monday (28), dou- bling into a Newspaper Guild shin- dig same night. Star is slated for a dramatization ct "Up in Arras" on Lux lEadio The- atre over CBS March 27, asking a $5,000 fee. Richard Kollmar's "Dream With Music" has come true now that Zorina has consented to be his dancing star and her mister. George Balanchine, IS directing the ballets.. .for the modern terpsichorc, he's reaching for another star, Gene Kelly.. .before Bill Gargan quietly shoved oft for a USO overseas tour, ;he okayed a contract with "Doc" Bender to return to Broadway under his aegis...with Leonora Corbett accompanying her spouse, John S. Royal, to the Coast, Stella Adler steps into Claiborne Foster's pej-iod drama, "Pretty Little Parlor".. F. Hugh Herbert stopped off in Cleveland for an approving nod at the thud road company of "Kiss and Tell," and, is now in town waiting for George Abbott to eye his new comedy, iuist Completed... add arrivals: Edmund Gwenn at the Plaza... Francis Lederer at Delmonico..,Dean Murphy at the Astor...W. Ray Johnston at the Gotham.. .Richard Whorf and Guy Kibbee at the War- wick., '■, • ' '•'■,,'; ,',:■::,■,■■•' TheIma_Schneejiul_of_!!Chicken_E.v,ery_Snnday" an* hack toJ'Dear-Bella,!^ her part now beini; padded by Arthur Kober .. .before rehearsals start some six weeks hence. Miss Schnee. may make a flying visit-to the Coast to test for her original role,of Bess ; Wattly; in the screen version of "Corn Is Green" (WB). . > Vernon Duke oil to Washington to receive his commis- sion, It. senior erade, V. S. N... .and then to Palm Beach to start rehearsals of his Coast Guard revue, "Tars and Spars,'' written in collaboration i^ith Howard Oletz. . .Roy Ilar^raves Will direct and-Gob Victor Mature Will be'the: liunk-of' man.,';':' : Donald Opdcn Steiunrt's rifio plaj/, ''Emilt/ 'Brn(/!/,'' n /nr cry from, his Atsual comedy vein, is. another "Decision" from the distaff point of :• view. . . . Jack Kapp is preparing a riew series of Decca Albums-^a ' caimlcade of "Cherished Moments in the American Theatre " with the original stars, from Viola Allen to Katharine Cornell; re-enacting their original scenes..:.Ward Morehouse, who conceived this nostalgic idea, will select':an<l':edit the .iriatefial, invite the guest stars and personaUy supervise each recording... .Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine heading back to tiieir BevhiUs home just as Moss Hart vacates it for East Sith street and Bucks County...: Constance Moore; called back from her Gotham gad-abouting for re takes on"Show Business'' (RKO), confides that Gilbert Miller wants her for a play next season.. .Sgt. Ben Wa.sher, who met the King and Queen of England, received another "royal" welcome from the Sardi .set on his first night back from London.. .while Trumbull Barton, gust back from Italy with the Volunteer American Field Ambulance Service, held court at "21"...Irving Berlin having the red velvet carpet spread everywhere... when the young actress who does an impersonation of Katharine Hepburn in "Follow the Girls" took ill at rehearsal the other night, Emll Fried lander remembered that Bianca and Jimmy Stroock have a 17-ycar-old who IS always entertaining the family friends with her uncanny mimicking of Miss H-^r-r". i .soooo, when the show has its initial tryout in New Haven tomorrow (2), Geraldinc Stroock will be paid for her parlor histrionics, and Friedlander wants lO'/o tor his good memory! Damp California Weather like this can split your personality so completely as to make any fact; hazy. When was it "Singing in the Rain" seemed to produce lots more gaiety than illiteracy does today, though the iroyalties worked out about the same? And that reminds you that if the California sun doesn't come out soon you're goitig to ask the Chamber of Commerce to change the name of your Bedside Manor on Whitley Heights to "Mount Sinus." Which might go, because California is beginning to laugh at its own climatic claims, and one guy has even been able to inject humor into radio commercials. His name is Muntz, of the Book of the Muntzes. and if you hear any radio cracks about an Automotive Mad Man who says, "I want to give cars away, but Mrs. Muntz won't let me. She's crazy!", you'll know it's strictly a local gag that has got out of bounds. But if you hear Stu Wilson plugging a Barbara Ann "Variety" Bread, you'll see what comes fi'om Durante's screaming, "Everybody wants to get into the act!" Even bread, it seems, has got into ours. Coast Cliche The current cliche of guys around Hollywood, guys who haven't read : a thing in years and get everything through their ears, is, "Don't be piilUp* woids in niy mout." '■', . ' ' ■ But She Was Cute There was that cute little NBC cluck who was told to take the Amos and Andy scripts to the "bin" and thought the bin meant the wastebasket. Whereupon she threw them all out and Amos and Andy had only .one script between them. Everybody else, including the sponsor, had to take it through the ears. When she learned, to her horror, what she had done she quit radio for Lockheed, and it some guy finds his P-38 cartridges packed in 'Amos and Andy scripts, it will only prove to him what Mr. Willkie has been saying all along, that it's a small world. Ethel Makes It Ethel Barrymore came in with "The Corn Is Green" to Pasadena, but without scenery or costumes. She played it in street clothes, and mink. Pat O'Brien and Football 'The Iron Majoi" came into Hollywood as a football picture months after football was in mothballs and, even so, held over two weeks. P. O'Brien, an old pal, plays it as if he was still playing at Marquette and ■< had nothing on his mind but football, which, as far as is known, he hasn't. Once your V.M.E. was asked to speak at a Notre Dame rally, which Pat was m-c'ing, and said, "Every man has two colleges, his own and Notre Dame." "I wish I had said that," saifl Pat. We replied, 1'You wiU, Pat, you will." But he didn't in "The Iron Major," and couldn't have very well, con- sidering that Frank Cavanaugh had worked at half a dozen colleges and seemed to have gone everywhere except tO Notre Dame. The picture has precious little humor iind.no irony. ' , ■ ' „, :, So iiony loses .mother skirmi.sh. But don't bank on its losing the war. For irony, too, is a fact and is here to stay.