Variety (March 1944)

Wccliiesday, March 29, 1944 Inside Stuff-Legit Expected to relieve Broadway musical ihow booking congestion li the foimer Jolson theatre, renamed the Century, Situated Jn the off Broadway location of Seventh avenue near 69th street, housg r«v«rts to legit with "Follow The Girls" on April 8, For years the house was used for foreign- language pix and became a virtual shambles, but Ig being reconditioned by the Shuberts. Century tneatre originally was on Central Park West where spectacles were staged, Including "The- Miracle." It I3 now the site of an apartment house carrying the Same name. , The Jolson was the first legiter (excepting tnose at Columbus Circle) removed from the theatre zone, being completed-in J921, when it opened uith Al Jolson in "Bombo." At that time it was beheved that Broadway legn would gradually move -northward to Central Park and while there were several houses built around 53rd street, the trend suddenly stopped and 52nd street has since been the deadline. Another major house the Ziegfeld, at 54th street, was part of an upper-Sixth avenue development and flourished while Flo Ziegfeld was active. It has been used for films tut will be another legiter separated from the theatre district when it I everts to .^how.s next season. It was recently purchased by Billy Rose, and Ben Marden, When the Shuberts went into receivership they let go of the Jolson, alo;'.g with other theatre properties. Several months ago they again ac- quiicd the property. There have been no stage shows at Columbus Circle for many seasons. ■; Tie. Charles Gayhor. who ■ is credited' with two nuir.bcrs in the London -reyue,!''S>^'^el,er .Siid L^^ Gin^old, isyLt. Charles Ga>nor-, young Ameiican songwriter and libretli.st, who is .somewhere in England with the Signal Corp.s. Gaynor wrote two original revues for the -Piltshucgh Plaj houic xn. past-seasons and later-did-the-music-foi-'-'Finger- In the Pie,"-tor which John Monks, Jr, and Fred Finklehofle turned out the book Eddie Dowling owned the musical and planned to produce it four years ago. but dropped the show for unknown reasons. . During a leccnt leave in London, Gaynoi met Mi.ss Gingold and showed her some of his ftuff.; She picked "Cinderella" i'ir.d -.Mabel." both of which were in- • trbduc^ 'iri /Plfiyhduse, prqdu^^^^^ / iiir/'Pit'tsbUrg^ ■•an(i' irhme0ia{ely-- in^^^^ serted thenV in the London hit. LEGITIMATE 45 D. C. Irony It was expected that ads would call attention to the fact that' theatre tickets bought now for performances after April 1 would: call for a 10% admisisions tax, whereas after the current dead- line week the levy will be 20%. Managers, when asked why they didn't publicize this, said they . had been,told by'.soineonein the ■ Treasury Department that It "wouldn't be patriotic." .: iThat dictum s^jjjed ironip_ tOii. persons aware that Congress re- fused to leaven-the-doubled-ad- missions tax. . Agnes DeMille appeared before Equity's, council last week and a.sked whether, it would be alriglit to film her ballet in "Oklahoma" (St. James) for free, since the picture would not be used commercially. Council said no exception could be made to the rule and, therefore, the dancers would have to be paid one week's salary. The request was regarded as strange considering that the show is a cleanup-on Broadway and in Chicago' for the Theatre Guild. It was announced that the Guild will organize a ballet company next season and it was 1 indicated that the film would be used for instructional -purposes. Idea is .to. present an evening s .show consisting .of four so- called "ballet plays," an old idea used for Interval diversion between acts of plays Guild offers $500 for the best ballet play written around an '.Airiericafl-subject;v\^V'.iv-.-' ' The Theatre Guild's three-ply jackpot, "Oklahoma," "Othello" and, lat- terly, "Jacobowiiky and,the Colonel,'' is i-egarded by showmen as more than offsetting the Guild's previously lean years. "Jake," as the "Colonel . play fis ;affectiDnalely called within show biz, is now a hot property for HoUywood bids. i l itis also a great deal for Jack Skirball, theatre owner and indie film pro- :ducer, who ;gets 25% of the net profits without a dime investment. His original advance.s to Clifford Odets (whose adaptation of the Franz Werfel play failed to jell), plus other coets. were remitted on top of the 25% slice when Lawrence Langner, for the Guild, took over, the play. Thus were Sam Behrman and .Elia Kazan brought into the legit production, Skirball i.s.billed with the Guild as co.:presenter, . . Lester Meyer; who operates the Empirei N. Y., which houses the smash ::laugh show,"Life With Father," will produce on his own next season.; He now has a financial interest in three attractions, "Arsenic and Old Lace," Hudson; ■'Tom6rrowt the World/' Barrymorc, and "Mrs. January and Mr. 3t," which opens at the Belasc6 Friday (31) Understood he invested more coin in the latter play than in any of the others, Meyer 'is co-producer of "World" with Theron Bamberger, but because he was not so identified when the drama opened, his name .doesn't.-eppear in the billing in N.. Y; However^ the Meyer name appears in-.the road- show.; billing.'. ■ A new series of teaser ads for "Life With Father," Empire, have been started in the dallies by OsCar Serlin, appearing once weekly on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning. Times is excluded because it will not accept more than 28 lines from legit shows, the "Father" insertions being 60 hnes, one column. Present series features professions and trades—"Has yoiu-. doctor seen it?"~and so forth. Sketches are by Helen Hokinson of the New Yorker. : Campaign will cover 21 weeks. Previous series of a, similar nature was sketched by other New Yorker artists, those having been assigned being Will Cotton, Abe Birnbaum, R. Taylor, Whitney Darrow; Jr,, and William Auerbach-Levy. .;,.■.■.,;,;.:■..■. Harry Squires Resigns Morris Agcy. to Form Own Concert Bureau Harry Squires has resigned from .the William Morris agency, eflective June 1. He intends opening an agency to handle concert artists, a field he has been working in at Morris for some time. Squires for- merly was a band booker. Squires' resignation is said to have been filed in objection to the agency's -acqiusition of. James A. .pavidson, ■ who joined -the agency Fis _^yeek,. .T'his-.is:;denied,; to Davidson's jeinihj Morris ind.cates an expansion of the concert depart- »ient. He-manages,Lily Pons, Lauritz Melchior, Jose Iturbi, Rise Stevens, Jeannette MacDonald, and others. Operetta on Grieg*s Life Due in June on Coast , Los Angeles, March 28. Song of Norway," operetta, is scheduled to open here June 12. fli°^^ Homer Curran, with the nhal book by Milton Lazarus, is »2i I'^e °f Edvard Grieg and will feature all of the composer's ^'"Phasizing the "Concerto" and "Peer Gynt" suites. MPTA Drew Blank With Grace Moore Concert Springfield, Mass,, March 28. Local music impresario, Edward H. Marsh, was busy this Week deny- ing allegations by officers of the Massachusetts Parent Teacher Asso- ciation that only he and Grace. Moore, and not their child welfare program, benefited from the concert: at wRich he presented Miss Moore In the mufilcipal auditorium March 3. Receipts fell $187.50 short of ex-; penses, although $3,200 was collected .. Mif'ager' Bale of .tickets,, w.hiehfilled, less than half the 3,218 seats of the liou.<;o is blamed for the failure of the.:concert.-'.Marsh says he did not. profit from the venture. L. A. Operetta Season Set for May 8 Start - ; ■ " . Los Angeles, March 28. ^ •. Civic Light Opera ■ Co, picked Jerome Kern's "Sally" as the last, of ; its four operettas to be staged this ye'ar at ,the Philharmonic Audi- torium. . \. 'I' ■' This year's program con.sists of "Show Boat," starting May 8; "The New Moon," May 22; "The Song of Norway," June 12, and' "Saliy," July 3. See Hits Okay Despife 20^ Tax ; Ticket.s liotually purchased after .Friday (.31) . .must;, be accompanied by the new. federal 20% admissions tax. Manageis have not considered any plan, to ; absorb ■■ the^ increased levy because:;it. is . only a .guess -wJi ether—the- in.ereased—impost- -will affect attendance, Certainly the hits will not be dented since many tick- etvS .sold for future performances cany the pre.seni 10% tax. But at least.one road' show will, absorbithe. tax artd it is possible that at least a percentage of Broadway attrac-; tions will ultimately follow suit. Most standouts have .«old many tickets in advance for performances- through April, May and June, with several virtually sold out beyond that.'.month:. .All .tickets' In' the racks ^caUihg idti the 10% ;levy,:-which 'will', be sold from Saturday (1); on, ■■will!' be rubber-stamped and the double tax collected In some instances tickets, printed in advance with the present tax included do not extend beyond May 6 and all tickets or- dered for, subsequent dates will carry the 207o levy. Strange prices are starting to ap- pear in theatre ads, especially for incoming shows opening after this week. "The Searching Wind," com- ing to the Fulton, will have a $3 50; top, which ordinarily would be $3.85 at the boxoffice; New price, how-- ever,: will be .$4.20. while the open- ing-night top will be $5 40 Balcony prices,, on other evenings will be $3.60, $3 and ,$2 40. Similarly straight shows now at $3.30 top will be $3.60, the $4.40 musicals going to $4.80, while those at $5.50 will be $6. A difTerent set of prices •will, apply in the agencies, of course. First attraction known to have ar- ranged to absorb the admissions tax in total is "Porgy and Bess," now at the City Center, N. Y, It leaves after another week, the Erlanger, Phila- delphia, being the first stand there- after. Scale at that house will be $3 top even, which up .to now has meant $2.75vnew tax rai.sing the rate another 25c. In Philly the Govern- ment's share on f'Porgy" tickets wiU be 50c each (or $1 the pair).: There is a state admi.ssions -tax; however, amounting to 9c for tickets at the same price, so that the actual net to the show and house will be $2.41 per ticket. Mgrs., Equity Take Drastic Steps Vs. Ticket Brokers in Overdiargiog Bel Geddes Inherits $35,000 From Wife Norman Bel Geddes, the scenic de-^ sigtierr-is-^ole-faeneficiaTy of t he "bs-' tate of his wife, professionally known as Frances Waite, according to the New York State Transler Tax De- partment. He receives $35;054. ■ Mrs. Be! Geddes was the daiighter of Morrison R. Waite of Cincinnati, general solicitor of the Baltimore &. Ohio Railroad, and great grand- daughter of formei fcliief Justice Morrison R. Waite of the U. S. Su- preme Court. She de.signed many costumes for the Geddes theatrical enterprises. She died Jan. 17, 1943. A public notice appeared last week in N Y. dailies, in which it was .set forth that the firm of Norhiah Bel Geddes & Co,,; engaged' in general business and designing, was dis- selved-as of-March-15. Partners who withdrew and who will form their own firm: Roger .Rowland, Peter Schladerraundt and Katherine B. Gray. Geddes will continue at his present Rockefeller Plaza address. 10 Houses Set For Summer Circuit Leventhal-Brandt interests are set- ting up its summer- legit; circuit, wherein current ; and ' previous Broadway legits will be routed at $1 top. Circuit will tee oft the latter part Of next month with 10 houses ' as starter, several additional houses to ■be,added in May. List includes Flat- bush, Brooklyn; Brighton Beach, Brooklyn; Windsor, Bronx; Audu^ bon, N. Y.; another uptown N. Y. nahe house to be set later, plus houses in Philadelphia, Boston and Atlantic City. Circuit will set up shows for 20 weeks minimum by playing repeat dates in all houses. Attractions with sufficient b.o. stamina will be road- shown for runs in key cities after completing tours on the pop-priced circuit. Jules Leventhal, general manager of the , L-B combine, is currently represented on Broadway by "Two Mrs. Carrolls" and "Ramshackle -Inn." 4- By JACK PULASKI Following suspension of four New York ticket agency licenses last week, the managers-actors (Equity I-' controlled ticket code enforcement board got in further socks against brokers when on Friday (24) drastic punishmentr was ordered. The~alle"ga^^ tion was not for gypping but the charging of 75c premium for balcony locations, a code infraction though not illegal otherwise. Attraction involved ' was "Okla- homa" (St. James), tickets for which are invaiiably sought by every visitor to the metropolis at any price.' Nearly all accredited agencies adhere ' strictly, to the law ..and c6de. . Slhcfe the federal admissions law requiies that all tickets be stamped with the price paid, a simple checking pf ticket stubs revealed the supposed ovei charge. A number of. tickets stamped by Mackey's agency setting forth .thfe^ additional 25c collected resulted iii': Louis Schoeneeit,. who operate'? the^- agency, being asked to explam^ ^ Code's rule sets the premium for balcony tickets at 50c. The enforce-- ment board ruled that the agencyi -shall not be allotted any tickets for' the week starting April 17.' ' The.' broker was also fined $250. Mackey's is one of the biggest dis-' tiibutors of tickets on Broadway. It' IS located on a popular theatre street - (44th) not-far from the St James Revealed that the code action will mean a loss to the agency of around *J,000. not considering the pay of the'- staff and disappointment to 'the'- agency's patrons. Mackey's has never been involved in gypping charges. :, Code's limit on premiums has not changed since start of the code, but ticket prices have gone up at the' boxoffices. It's argued that the 50c fee for balcony tickets is illogical' when applied to hits. An instance is " the scale for "Winged Victory" (44th'' Street), which charges $5.S0 in the mezzanine on Saturday night. Same' price applies downstairs, where the* code fixes the premium at 75c Schoeneeit said the "Oklahoma"' tickets had been wrongly stamped: unintentionally. Admissions tax reg- ulations call for some 15 different rubber stamp.?. Argue Right of Cohan Aide to Keep Scripts The, question of whether or not Herman Ackman js entitled to re- ;tain originat:. 'man uscrigts of the latei George: M. 'Cohan, or .whether they rightfully belong to his estate, was argued last week before- Surrogate' James A. Foley. Ackman, who -.va.s a.«.soc:ated with Cohan ,for .years, was either a ."high; class adviser or a typi-st," according to Judge Foley's summation of the d^ergent views presented by the at- torneys. The estate contends that he was; merely a typist, called in by Cohan, who never had.a per.sonal secretary, when, :he .had' a ma.hiisoript;, to ,b,e type3:;-firorn ■•-his, ha'ndw'ritteii ,,nrt^ Ackman's contcniion is that he was little short of. a ;conaborator and that Coh?n ..gave ■ himi .'the manuscripts, together with Other mementoes, in ^partial payment for his services. SET 5 ST, L. REVIVALS -:,;'v .St. Louis, .March 28., Five of the .12 shows to be pre- sented during the 26th season of the Municipal Theatre A.«n., spon.sor of al fresco entertainment in the forest Park theatre, have been ^elected. Teeoff skedded for June 1. All are revivals. They are "'Vaga- bond King,"' "Music in the Air," "Maytime," 'Hit the. Deck" and "Eileen," Turtle' for Servicemen; 'Prod. Salaries Waived "The Voice of the Turtle," three- person comedy smash at the Moro.sco, N. Y., will suspend its run -June; 24; but .during the fbllpwing week-gratis performances will be played for men in ; the armed forces. Alfred de Liagre, Jr., "Turtle" producer, has made arrangements to distribute tickets for the added week through the Red, Cross. .. ' , ; Margaret; SuUavan,;.i:ilio(f'Nugent; pnd .Audrey: Chris'tie,; who comprise.' the'.east,;;'have; waived salaries for; tho.se performances, same going for ;;Jphii.'-vaji'.-^ i)i:uteft'E ■ royalties ; -as author While the hou.se will be rent free, de Liagre will defray the wages of stagehands, us'hers and other-^einployees; ■;;.';:'■;.;.!:; ''v^v-: , .ff-^.'' "Turtle" is to re.sume Aug. 28. Lew Cantor Eyes Musical Version of 'Beaucaire' Lew Cantor, who has been itlac-: tive for seyetal seasons, is .mullihgya return ,tp,;;-iegit' ;ijroiiJuciihg' via- ,a":mur sical version of ''Monsieur Beaucire." Prociucer ; is. .;reppried angling for Warner ;Baxter,-film-, star, for' title; role. ;.'-.'; >:"■.'.■''•'-■''::.':•■ J:''•-'.'v..' : "Beaucaire" had previously served as ;eg!t vehicle for Walter Hampden. It has also been done in opera but never as a straight musical. Dunning Delayed in S. A. Making arrangements for music to be used in his "King.Coffee" mu- ;Sical, which Gcor.t;e Abbott is to.pro:-i du.ce' on Broadway next ■ season, ■:;has: .<ie]a:ySd play Wright ;,Phil ;]3,uhrting ■ in-;, Rio do ,janeirb., ■;' l■''r■i'i':::'■}'■^ .;: .'punriing has .been expected back in the States before. thi.s. 'He's been in Brazil for atmosphere for his show, which has a Brazilian back- ground, ■ ' ."" MIAMI BEACH Vim SEASON OF OPEREHAS Using as it's model the Forest Park Open Air Theatre in St. Louis, the ' city fathers of Miami Beach are planning to convert the band shell area of Flamingo Park into a mu- nicipally-sponsored open-air theatre to be known as "The Miami Beach Theatre Under the Moon." Project will be underwritten by Miami Beach lesidents who are being a.sked by the city council to - contribute .■trSS.OOO for the purpose of forming a non-profit corporation to operate the venture. Plans are for theatre to be oper- ated eight weeks next sea.son (win- ter) with a series of operettas. Originator of the Miami Beach municipal theatre plan was Lau- rence Schwab, who will act as it.* producing director, in which capacity he is also jjonileeted with the St. Louis setup. 'G'wich Village Follies' Slated By Morris Green Morris Green, more or le-is inac- tive ijj legit producing since dissolu- tion of partnership with A. L. Jones, now deceased, expects to resume ac- tivities as producer of a new edition of "Greenwich Village Follies," skedded for summer riin in New York after out of town break-in. / John Murray Anderson^ wiio dc- vi.sed .and staged prigiiial and: subse- quent editions, will again stage. Suit Vs. 'Teeth* Suit for $3,375 damages for alleged breach of contract was disclosed in N. Y, supreme court Monday (27) against Michael Myerberg, Lee Shu- bert among others a.ssociatcd in pro-.. duction of "Skin of Our Teeth," when. Alexander Ince, ex-assLstant',. manager of the show, sought to ex- amine Myerberg. The motion also asked for the production of all books and records for examination before i trial.