Variety (Jan 1945)

SCREEN RADIO MUSIC STAGE VOL. 157 No. 4 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1945 180 Pages FILMS' $480,000,000 A YEAR Dean of N. Y. Drama Crix Gives Some Pointers on This Deaning Business By BURNS MANTLE ^ So. "Variety," this Is your 39th jeiiim eisarv, Li it? Well, It's only my ™4th—in New York. But, for the ck ot a better one we can use that s an excuse for celebrating together, it you are agreeable. I remember. I remember, the town where I was born, but I have soma little difficulty recalling, in any- thing like satisfactory detail, the year I came to New York, and what happened. As to what came of that adventure I stand here as a sort of end result. I was a young man of modest, even uncertain, ambitions. I am what is called a Drama Critic and Emeritus of the N. Y. Daily News. Being a Dean, ll appears, develops I, from a (Inn determination to'live, l grossed with a certain craftiness in j holding onto a job. If you live long » enough, and continue in the same oc- ( cupation. in time you become a Dean. Not because of any peculiar or studiedly developed gifts, nor yet ^because of an acquired knowledge of ixceptional character and quality, ut just because you happen to be e oldest and longest-employed of our conferees. I have from time to time doubted my right to this honor of Deanshlp. It seems to me there are older job- bers in the local theatre's vine- who were active when I came ew York in 1911. Kelcey Allen, ne. Kelcey was even then mak- himself famous as a raconteur, R*pC£iasc<i. a - fr.r- >fee »1 ■ ;True, Kelcey was confining hLs la- f bors to the weekly press—the N. Y. Clipper, I believe, at the time. It was not until later that he took on (Continued on page 134) N. Y. License Commish Launches 1-Man War On B'way Tix Agcies. By JACK PULASKI Aocording to a statajnent Issued to • press last week, New York's li- cense commissioner, Paul Moss, ap- pears primed to start a one-man war with Broadway. He announced that no tickets for hit shows are io be sold by ticket agencies and claims to havrthe authority to enforce an [^unprecedented system of selling nwokets only to customers directly jP« the boxofflce or by mail order. Managers and brokers were flab- bergasted when the news spread, oral saying that it looked as pugh Moss Is ambitious to become ' »tor of show business. Com- loner has been checking up on eged overcharging for the past •ear or two and some specs caught "T»plng were punished. Moss probably doesn't know what as shllled himself into, for op- I to him will be not only the Waes but the managers and ac- fa (Equity) as well. Showmen f.^ant the widest distribution of tlck- k*t* and have conceded the value of (Continued on page 160) Philco Would Tele ' FDR's Fourth Inaug Philadelphia. Strong possibility exists of Phllco's Philadelphia television outlet nab- bing the inauguration of President Roosevelt in Washington Jan. 27 for its video audience, Would mark the first inauguration on television. Philco currently Is experimenting with several relays between Wash- ington and Philadelphia to bring out the clearest transmission possible with equipment on hand. NBC's video outlet in N. Y. may also take the program on relay from Philadelphia, but this too is In the embryo stage. GE. Schenectady, also a possible link. Legit Production Costs Upped 30% Cost of financing shows has jumped 30 r r in past two years, judged by sums put into partner- ships for new shows this season. Whereas two years ago a drama took an average $25,000 to produce, including out-of-town tryout, aver- age investment today Is $35,000, or increase ot $10,000. Jump Is ex- plained mainly by increased ooit. of vas. etc.—but also by increase in pay for actors, stagehands, company managers and press agents. Monie; invested in some one- and two-setters this season have been: "Dark Hammock." $30,000; "Hasty Heart," $30,000: "Hand In Glove." $35,000; "Many Happy Returns," $35,000: "Star in the Window," $40,- 000; "Hope For the Best," $40,000; "Trio," $45,000. "Glove's" $35,000 is. oonsidered especially high for show- opening on Broadway cold, without out-of-town tryout. Ten years ago a producer putting on a play with out-of-town run con- sidered $20,000 ample. One was done for $15,000. Shows that opened cold in New York were done for $10,000. "Wind and the Rain" opened cold on Broadway for less than $6,000. This wasn't enough, producers going into hock with Joe Leblang to keep it go- ing, but they got it by curtain-time with the $6,000. 'Voice* Also Factor In Producing Factor Show, Frank Sinatra deal with Max Factor (show returns (3) to old Wed. night spot on CBS under the cosmetic banner) provides for a three-year deal, with straight 52- week option and privilege to take off 13 weeks for vacation. Price for show, on graduated scale covering three-year period, is $14,000, $15,000 and $16,500. Rick Vollaerts. who has left J. Walter Thompson, will oversee the writing job. with Sinatra himself as factotum on the production end. DOMESTIC GROSS IT |UVUI By MORI KRUSHEN Worldwide film rentals for 1944 for American motion picture companies are near the $480,000,000 mark- approximately $310,000,000 domestic and from $160,000,000 to $170,000,000 from foreign distribution. That's something of a record. It more than fulfills the optimistic predictions for 1944 voiced by film industry leaders a year ago. And. according to film toppers today, the outlook for pic- ture business for at least the first six months of 1945 is almost as favor- 'able as it was for 1944. Not all U. S. film oompanies, de- spite the unprecedented boom, have shown Improved revenues. With two or three companies, rentals have de- clined—a sharp warning that organi- zational weaknesses must sooner than later outweigh even the natural advantages of a wartime market. On the domestic front the 1944 rentaLs for the leading major com- panies (in terms of grosses) shape up something like this: ... (Approximate Annual Rate) 1. Metro $62,000,000 2. 20th-Fox 52,000,000 3. Paramount 45,000,000 4. Warners 38.000,000 5. Universal 34,000,000 6. RKO Radio .... 30,000.000 Columbia, United Artists, Republic and other distributors account for from $45,000,000 to $90,000,000. Universal's $650,000 average week- ly billing represents a jump of ( Cont inued on page 158) Returning GIs Find Air Plugs Tough to Take After Non-Comm'l Fare By LT. STUART KEATE. Chicago. Seems inevitable that commercial radio faces a major postwar head- ache in weaning G.I.'S back to the idea of spot announcements and plugs on every subject from corn cures to the care and maintenance of the truss. More than 4,000,000 Americans overseas have discovered, over the past three years, the joys of unin- terrupted, plugless music and com- ment. While this is particularly true of the United Kingdom, same goes for the Armed Forces' discs re- leased in the South Pacific and other theatres. Top entertainment has been made even more enjoyable by the excising of obnoxious com- mercials, and the boys are beginning (Continued on page 49) 186 Columns Omitted This Anniversary Number went to press earlier than usual because of the New Year's holi- day and time necessary for the binding of special green cover. Over 186 columns of advertis- ing were omitted, in order to conform to paper conservation and provide proper space for editorial features, ' 123 Films Will Gross $245,000,000; - 54 Hittmg Above $2,000,000 Mark Paillette Goddard Sets Up Scholarship Fund Paulette Goddard plans to finance, with a sizable fund, several scholar- ships in a number of oonegea and universities throughout the country, for students specializing In scientific and medical researoh. Philanthropic move on part of Paramount star came to light in N.Y. Ia9t week when the Secretary of State in Albany revealed that incorporation papers had been filed for the Paulette Goddard Assistanoe Fund, Inc. Organization has been chartered as a non-profit member- ship corporation, with ljtw firm of Wei9man & Grant, N.Y.fc., acting on behalf of the actress, Race Ban Gives Ha. the Jitters Miami Beach. Ediot oloslng raoetraoks through- out the country today (8) is giving nitery ops a severe oase of shivers, This is espeolally true of the Flor- ida area, where heavy spenders con- gregate during the season to watch the bangtaHs at the Xialeah and Tropioal ovals. Whether they, will still go there without the attraction ..e* *ha . havb umers and ,gr*-;- v ounds is still problematical. ""' Most nitery ops are optlmlstlo, de- claring that the big money boys will stop oreatlng endowments fox book- makers' and will pay a little more attention .to nftelife, but at the mo- ment, few will bet on it. However, they persist that the ollmate is the main attraction and bangtails are secondary. The oloslng of the horse- and dog tracks has already had an effect on at least one major nitery. The recently opened Colonial Inn. Hallendale, Fla., operated by Lo"u Walters who runs the Latin Quarter, N, Y, in partnership with E. M. Loew, New England theatre owner, closed Dec. 26 and will move to Miarrij Beach (Continued on page 188) 'Remember When' They Just Plugged the Song? Mickey Addy, contact man with Campbell-Porgie publishing house, has written a tune in collaboration with lyricist Buck Ram,- that C-P will make its next No. 1 plug tune. It's titled "Remember When. It Isn't often a songplugger pulls a man-bites-dog routine and writes a song. Joan's New WB Deal Hollywood. Joan Grawford and Warners have agreed on a revision of her con- tract. Ticket no longer is • long-term exclusive, but calls for on* picture yearly with the right to make out- side deals, : By ARTHUR UNGAR Hollywood.. Sounds like a Treasury report for the banking biz of the nation, but It's a fact that 123 films, released be- tween December, 1943, and the be- ginlng of December, 1844, will gross rentals exceeding $245,000,000 domes- tically before the films come out of distribution. The sum is $35,000,000 more than was estimated for a like period from December, 1942, to end of 1943, when the picture biz oper- ators figured they had hit the highest jackpot. With the amount of top calibre pictures proposed and promised for the 1940 period it is likely that this super-boxofflce era can keep up and rentals can even exceed the 1944 take. Although not the basic reason, one of the conditions' most helpful 'toward this big run of revenue for the .distribution and. production organizations are the extended trey city runs that films have had tiut- • ing the past , year, as well as the rentals the selling organizations got from exhibitors. The exhibs are no longer frglhtened when they ask 50% terms and more. They do not give them the old sell-it-to-my-opposltion" conversations, but play the pix to th*. point that maximum time' is given. , them in the initial showings before the films get to the subsequent and minor runs. Of course, an element Is the fact that advanced admissions have been obtained for the top pre- releases, as well as th" fact that ad- mission prices in general have been tilted upwards. The 123 films cited here all will gross In excess of $1,000,000, with 84 • of them headed for a take of 82,000,. D00 and more. There are 19 which (Continued on page 184) Huge Savings, Other ElementsShouldUp B.0. Postwar, SezD.C.CIiief .Washington, Foldup of European phase of the war will not hurt tt. 8/ film box- office, according to a survey released . yesterday (1) by the Department of Commerce. Survey shows a backlog of savings by the public to spend on recreation; a $75,-1 iOf},5OP,0OO buJld- . ing program for new theatres and • 120,-130,000,000 expansion program. fo'r Hollywood. "Theatre attendance," says the re- port by Nathan D. Golden, chief of the Commerce Dept. motion picture unit, "might well increase with mora leisure- time •available to many people who, during the full-speed war production days! could not And time to attend the movies. ' "Then, too, the high quality of. films, produced during the past few years will also help to maintain the currently high level of film attend- ance of 100,000,000 admissions' weekly. Finally,. past experience In- dicates that plx .are one of the last things people give .up. Moreover, th* accumulated savings now In the (Continued on page 4fJ|Ji>