Variety (Feb 1945)

MISCELLANY Wednesday, February 7, 1915 Pic Biz Outgallops All Other Amus. In Jobs, Earnings Since the War Washington, Feb. 6. ♦ Number ol persons employed in the motion picture biz and their total earnings have climbed steadily during the war years, according to a survey just completed by the De- partment of Commerce. Survey shows that pic biz; including the ex- hibition end, has outdistanced nil other recreations and amusements combined in recent years; One prediction in the report is that the combined employees in rec- reation and amusement will prob- ably jump by 20.000 by the year 1948. Figures show that in 1929, 141,000 persons were employed in all branches of pictures, including the- atres. This dipped to a low. of 118,- 000 in 1933, but. has been climbing steadily since. In 1940, it reached 172.000; in 1941 it mounted to 183,000. It jumped to 193,000 in 1942 and hit the all-time peak of 206,000 in 1943. Figures for 1944 are not yet avail- able. Total employed in all other amusement and recreation services ■tood at 238.000 full-time people in 1929. It bumped the bottom in 1933 with 127.000. By 1943, it had come back only to 197,000, or 9,000 less than pictures. This is significant be- cause other amusement and recrea- tion services employed almost 100,000 more than pictures in 1929. Picture employment is now well ahead. of 1929 while other recreations and amusements have fewer workers than at that lime. |3»4,W0,m In IS In 1929, pictures paid out $304,- 000,000 in wages and salaries. The low was $222,000,000 in 1933. In 1942 the figure mounted to $408,000,- 000 and in 1943 it broke all records with $455,000,000. s Other amusements and recreations paid out $300,000,000 to full-time em- ployees in 1929 and only $277,000,000 in 1943. The overall average earnings for all branches of pictures was.$2,180 in 1929. It climbed only slightly to $2,210 in 1943. Other amusements had average earnings of $1,259 in 1929 and reached a peak of $1,404 in 1943. The Commerce Department makes a detailed breakdown for 1942. It ■hows that the' 193,000 full-time people in the industry that year were divided as follows: 142,000 in theatres, 45,000 in production and distribution; and 6,000 in motion pic ture service industries. The average earnings in prpduc- tion and distribution were $4,393 in 1942, so high that these 45,000 per- sons earned $197,000,000 of the indus try's total payroll of $408,000,000. In -other words, the studios and ex changes pay out. close to 50% of all ' the salaries and wages, although they number less than 25% of all the employees in the industry. Bog art Defends Political | Views in Satevepost '. Actor Humphrey 4Bogart defends : his political activities during the last Presidential campaign In a piece titled "I Stuck My Neck Out" in the Feb. 10 issue of the Satevepost. „ Bogart says he doesn't understand . why he should be either praised or condemned fo. behaving like the average voter and opposes the theory that mixing in politics would hurt his pictures at the b.o. 2,000 for Foxhole Circuit This Year, Phillips Tells USO . Chicago, Feb. 6. Increased demands for entertain- ment by our armed forces overseas will find around 2,000 performers hitting the "Foxhole circuits" this year against 1,990 entertainers tak- ing part in 1944, Lawrence Phillips, exec v.p. of USO Camp Shows/told those attending the fourth anniver- sary of the United Service Organiza- tions at the Hotel Sherman yester- day <5). Phillips said that units of the camp shows organization ■ have played to more than 104,000,000 American servicemen both here and abroad since its inception. He de- scribed USO Camp Shows as "the largest amusement.business that the living stage has ever known," Around 177,500 performances have been given overseas, he stated, and more than 100,000 men stationed in this area have had volunteer enter- tainment brought to them in hos- pitals and camps by the Chicago committee. USO'* N. Y. Luncheon Continuance of USO for at least two years after the war was sug- gested by USO head Chester I. Barnard at anniversary luncheon in New York, Monday 1 (5).. Tribute was made to USO-Camp Shows, USO's theatrical branch, as a GI morale builder, with Abe Lastfogel. Camp Shows head, given chief credit for job Camp Shows has done. Lastfogel, who also heads the Wil- liam Morris Agency, - has devoted practically all his time to the USO gutfit since its inception. 148th WEEK ! KEN MURRAY'S "BLACKOUTS OF 1944" El Capitan Theatre, Hollywood, Cat. "U'h teri-HIc! It's colossal! It's gi- gantic! Hoy, what a show!" * JIMMY "8chnonle" DURANTE. USO LEGIT DEPT. PLANS FOUR SHOWS A MONTH Legit department of USO-Camp Shows is now pointing its production schedule towards four ' shows a month, two musicals and two dramas, execs feeling they can thus conform to Army demand for shows while not overtaxing reduced legit staff. Starting now are second companies of three shows, "Girl Crazy," "Night of January 16" arid "Ten Little In- dians," while Coast office is readying production of 'Flying High." BED CROSS MEETINGS N. Peter Rathvon, national chair- man' of the fllmindustry's Red Cross War Fund Week for .1945, last- week set a series of industry meetings in key cities of nine exchange areas to be held later this month. Opening meeting in New York is scheduled Feb. 19. GENIUS WITH A SLAPSTICK By FRANK S. NUGENT - Gigli Cleared . Rome, Feb. •. Beniamino Gigli,- the operatic tenor, was cleared of collaboration with Nazis and Fascists • by newly appointed Council of Musicians over the weekend. Former New York Metropolitan Opera star had been accused several times of sing- ing at receptions and parties for Axis officials, and finally asked ex- amination of his- case by Council, staling his "enemies were maneuver- ing to blackmail me." Council cleared Gigli co"mplet el y- Pic to Recruit GI Nurses Hollywood, Feb, 6.: Campaign to recruit Army nurses will be emphasized in "Flight Nurse," added by John Considine to bis In- dependent production program to follow "Seven Letters to Boys Grlpsholm." , r. I .on a atory by nisi Bob Con* Town", and Win/will The reigning talent of Hollywood today is Preston Sturges, creator of hilariously off-center stories, who has given the screen its healthiest shaking up since the. talkies. Gifted with a sense of fantasy that Has been compared favorably to Disney's, the only time Sturges comes anywhere near the beaten track is when he jumps, across it. There's probably a close connection between this and his income, $250,000 a year. Sturges is the man who found Hollywood's .old slapstick gathering dust in the closet, polished it up, added some wild refinements all his own and in five, years has whacked out a series of eight zany comedies from "The Great McGinly" through "The Lady Eve" and "Miracle of Morgan's Creek" down to his most recent outburst—"Hail the Conquer- ing Hero." " ■ The one-man assembly unit who wrote, directed and (in all but name) produced' these . assaults upon national sanity . is «a solidly- built six-footer who rides around in an Austin somewhat shorter than his three-year-old son's express wagon. When he wants to call his secretary, he disregards the interoffice com- munication gadget and punches the rubber bulb, of an ancient automo- bile horn. His golden Academy- award Oscar stands on a table be- hind him, while the place of honor on his desk is held by a foot-high statuette of a horse's hindquarters. Sturges has probably caused the Hays office more gray hairs than any other man in Hollywood, but has won battle after' battle by the device of obeying the letter while violating the spirit of almost every tenet in the code. Sin must not be made attractive, says' the Hays of- fice; evil-doers must be punished and the good must triumph. In "The Great McGinty," Sturges' prinicipal character began a politi- cal career by managing to vote 37 times in one. election.' Ultimately he became .governor of the state and, tinder the influence of love and high office, attempted to put through the first honest deal of his life. For this he was pilloried, discredited, broken. The moral, or immoral, of this fable was all too clear, but when the Hays lad» protested, Sturges cited the-eode, remind!** jhtnvttyat evil-doers- must - be punished,! A crook like McGinty couldn't remain in office, could he? A Blonde His Trudy Kockenlocker of Mor gan's Creek was a soldier-struck blonde who went to a canteen dance, hit her head on the chandelier while jitterbugging and awoke next morn ing with a fuzz.y recollection of hav ing married a Private Ratzky-some thing the night before. As Ratzky something had been shipped out meanwhile, Trudy was left not only in the lurch but in—as it gradually developed—a most embarrassing condition for a girl without a ring, a license or even the correct spell- ing of her husband's name. The typically Sturges solution was to have Trudy produce .sextuplets, a maternal gesture so magnificent that no one would dream of asking its heroine whether she- was prop- erly licensed. The Hays office was suspicious but stymied. After all, Trudy was mar- ried. And—Sturges asked—wasn' this essentially a sermon . against hasty, ill-advised wartime romances? "But the happy ending!" protested the censors. "Happy?" chided Sturges. "Can you believe the aver- age American girl wants to have sextuplets?" The censors shuddered and let the picture pass. Sturges is probably the only man in Hollywood who was raised to be a genius. His mother, was Mary Desti, close friend and biographer of Isadora Duncan, the dancer whose barefoot performances and barefaced flouting of conventions—including the matrimonial—had made her the sensation of two continents. Taken abroad before he was old enough to toddle, young Preston (born Edmund. Preston Biden) was exposed, to culture almost to the point of indecency. At five he was studying- piano and violin, painting and sculpture. During -the opera season he was put to bed in the after- noon so that he would be wide- awake for the evening performances. He was made to wear a short Grecian tunic with red velvet knee breeches, a round skull cap and pumps. It was in this outfit that he rode a bicycle through Chicago's streets for «' memorable first' day at Dr, Conifer's' school"*^ 'HhVmother's ^v^Coo^nuediOTitm*^) * ♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ . ♦♦*♦♦♦»♦♦♦♦♦ ♦♦ t ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ i»♦ Mum »< ! SCULLY'S SCRAPBOOK " * hmm By Frank Scully » ♦ ♦♦♦♦ Boot Camp, Cal., Feb. 2. Jack Pulaski, c/o "Variety," New York City. Jacques, mon frere: Having punched my nose through a paper bag, only to have-Annie Laurie's, little boy Joe step on it, I'm not making a move in the .future without first asking my way around. What I want to know is, do you know this guy Ibee? I mean do you know him well enough to pull his long ears and call him by his first name? He's been writing reviews in the paper for so long a legend is jjoing the fermented rounds that "Variety" got him on a trade-in from the Kcjlh-Ibce circuit when the pure feud law was shelved. ■ I just heard a layoff, who hadn't worked since "Variety" said "Green Pastures" would flop, sounding off about: this guy Ibee. He yanked out a review of "On the Town" (hidden on. Page 162 of the Anniversary Number) and was peddling it for two passes to Breakfast at Breneman's. "Look at this," he said, reading from the review, "this one should get over but the impression is that 'On the Town' does not qualify for Broad- way." Why, the guy writes riddles while hinting that Metro and RKO, in backing two Yale boys on this show, were not quite bright. The paper once had a cold-pah guy named Joe (Whadyerknow?) Bigelow who hosed 'Green Pastures" and himself into eminence and made a bum out of me. But this guy Ibee is crazy if he thinks his bloomer will do as much for him. 'Variety' keeps a boxscore of critics. Writers of 'No Opinion' reviews are not shot but hung in the public square. Well, The Great . Ibee kicked this one, so if he chalks up a 'Wrong' he should be sentenced to catch westerns till vaudeville comes back. If this review aint a blank what is it?" Well, Jack, this groaner went on and on. He pulled out a clipping of a full-page ad of the show with its first week's £ross, pinned Ibee's notice to the ad, wrote "Nuts—Gen. McAuliffe" across the review, added a clip from the Jan. 24 issue, which admitted "the hew, musical la doing cleanup biz, with takings close to $36,500 again last week," and said he was going to palpi the whole business .in ibee's hat. And then he threw a curve that broke every, window in the men's room. "You want to know some Inside Stuff Legit that Drew Pearson don't even know?" "Doesn't," I said. "What?" he said. "Doesn't," I said, "not don't. Even Pearson's'verbs have.to agree with his 'person and number'." "Well, do you want to know somethig or don't you?" "Sure," I said. "Well, that Ibee is supposed to be the Burns Mantle of 46th street. The Great Pulaski. Sees all; Knows all. But after this review he's a Merkle." But don't worry/ Jack. As with the producer of "Llghtnin'," "The First Year," "Three Wise Fools," and you and me, silence Is Golden. Your devoted public, ' Fra?ik Scully. (The Left Wing Coolidge.) Poets Corner, Cal., Feb. 2. California, finally has a talent problem that's a pip. The state legis- lature can't find a poet laureate to succeed the late John Steven McGroarly. McGroarty was. a poet who ran a Mission Play into 3,000 performances. Every legislator has a favorite poet, but no poet has a full paid-up lob- byist and you can't get anywhere these days without a press agent for your cause and a "suppress" agent for your lobbyist. The state is lousy with poets. Some of them, like Robinson Jeffers and Hildegarde Flanner, work at practically nothing else. Others like Mike Shore write singing commercials. ' Some like Curjey Fletcher, author of "Strawberry Roan," sell horse feathers at rodeos on the side. But the smartest of them are around the studios and come out every Thursday for their checks. ( The late Don Marquis when asked what he was doing at a studio said, "Writing poetry for $1,000 a week." Since then the pay has move than doubled for sonneteers who can break it up into dialog. Morrie Ryskind wrote a slender volume of verse titled "Unaccustomed As I Am" and remains unaccustomed 16 a sale, but he's a $2,500-a-week man around the;studios. Gene Fowler, whose Rabelaisian rondelays must be printed on asbestos,, and at his own expense, Is also rated a $2,500-a-week man around the studios. Ogden. Nash, whose verse shows a pash for Ogden Nash, is also, way up there with the four little so-and-so's he wrote about who became bankers. Dorothy Parker has a $2,500 studio rating too, and actually has made a lot of dough out of her verses. It seems that among* these and the hundreds of poets who are worth from $150 to $1,500 a week on the hoof, that someone could be dispatched to Sacramento to get one of them named poet laureate. What seems, to hold the poets back Is not so much that the job does not pay but that it does not even guarantee publication. One guy buttonholed Actor-Assem- blyman Albert Dekker with a proposition. "I can get a WPB release on paper," the poet told Dekker, "if you can get my poems through the slate printing office." Dekker threw me out. Besides, he already had a'candi- date named Albert Dekker. 30 Seconds Over Tracy - In Garbo's absence it seems Spencer Tracy has taken over the Brooding Alone concession at Metro. An old Broadway Pal buttonholed Spence. "Just wanted to say hello," said the O.B.P. "Sorry," said Spence, "I was thinking." The O.B.P. released his grip. "In that case," he said, "go right ahead." Dialer Radio Writer: Ever Consider writing for radioT Playwright: Ever consider not writing fyr It? ..Sign Here ■ There seems to be a lot of swooning around Columbus Circle over-the singing of Maureen Cannon in "Central Park." Three years ago I saw her as an unquestioned hit in "Best Foot Forward."' One year later I saw her as an unquestioned flop, the ingenue nobody knew, sipping • soda on Hollywood blvd. And in the hope of cheering her up I sent one of my kids over to ask If she'd like to have my autograph: She said she'd prefer Mike Todd's. She got what she wanted. Awards Scrapbook of the Month awards: To the Los Angeles jurist who ruled that a burley beaut who still had shoes on was not, within the meaning of the. law, nude. . To Eugenia Baird for the courage to bill herself In a local department store as "the singing star on the Bing Crosby show." COBTEZ MAT DO PLAT Hollywood, Feb. 6. Ricardo Coriez heads east next month to discuss role in Broadway play offered actor by Oscar Serlin. Play is Theodore Reeves' "Out of Time.** SerUnwjl*. produce as. solo effort, fer:.-I^:.4aHc schedule,. w.ith,<re- hearaab stt,((»-ffA*WMt.-. tt «■ «i 4 -,v Kathryn Grayson Hurt By Hit-Run Driver Hollywood, Feb. 6. Actress Kathryn Grayson was In- jured and hospitalized following col- lision with hit-run driver.. Actress was not .seriously hurt, however} .and .-la expected tfack at work late in. week, • ■ ' j'\