Variety (May 1946)

SCREEN RADIO MUSIC ST. A U E V 'ARIETY Sublished WeeUly B t 164 West Mth Straat, New York 1*. N. I., by Varlatr, In a. Annual aubanrlptlon. fit Simla conlaa, tl cenla. otered aa aacand-elaaa matter Decamber 22, l»06. at tna Post ORlca at New York, N. Y., under Ida ict it March t, 117*. COrYRIGHT, 1S4S, BY VAHIETY. INC. AIX BIGHTS RKSKRTKD VOL. 162 No. 8 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, J946 PRICE 25 CENTS TOP TELE TIME LURES TOP COIN Decca Reaching for 10,000,000 Disks Monthly; Albums Taking Major Slice By ABEL GREEN Jack Kapp confidently expects Dccca Records to press -10,000.000 /disks a month by the fall. And that's. news not only in the disk business .but for all show business as it proves there is no ceiling to record sales. " An element which has stepped up the disk merchandizing business and raised the ceilings.on all phonograph record manufacturers has been the ■ mass- production of albums. The idea • of waxing the original Broadway casts of hit musicals started with rkapp. The Decca proxy has made a bet with Richard Rodgers and Os- car Hammerstein 2d that not 'only .will their "Oklahoma!" album hit -> 1.000,000' in sale':, but he also has pegged the summer of 1948 as the ' time when that • mark wili be achieved, as the musical snowballs in continuing popularity. On Feb. 8, last. Kapp gave Rodgers & Hammer- stein a party to commemorate the .50Q,000 sales mark of Decca's "Okla" (Continued on page 70) F Wanger Flirts Noel Hollywood, April 30. . Negotiations are on between Wal- ler Wanger and Noel Coward for latter to sign a director-writer deal. Wanger understood angling for Coward .to direct and write the screenplay of Rosalind Lehman's "The Ballad and the Source." Blind Leader of WMC's Hillbilly Troupe Quits To Devote Life to Sightless . Memphis, AoriI 30. Bob McKnight, leader the past . eight years of the Ranch Boys, hill- billy troupe on WMC here, quit this week to become an industrial place- ment officer with the West Tcnncs; sep office of Vocational Rehabilita- tion Services for the Blind. McKnight, himself blind since an accident 16 years ago, said he wants to devote his life to helping others who cannot see to find a place for themselves in the world of business. He has been working with the . government-financed organization on a part-time basis since September. In six months, he has obtained jobs for 25 blind persons, helped arrange treatment for others who have re- gained or are regaining their sight.' .. «"d has obtained training scholar- ships for others. The Ranch Boys will conlinuc un- der direction of Freddie Boy Burns, •who has been McKnight's secretary and partner these eight years. Twu other blind musicians, Jim in i c Smilli and Roy Martin, are rcmain- , In!! with the outfiit. Cantors 20G Deal In Switch to Pabst Negotiations have been wrapped up, inaiking the exiling of Eddie Cantor from Bristol-Myers sponsor- ship to lake over the Friday night CBS Pabst slot as successor to Danny Kayc. Warwick & Legler. agency on the Pabst account, and others involved are keeping it un- der wraps, but deal for Cantor to lake over under the beer auspices was sewed up over the weekend. Cantor starts for his new sponsor in September, 1947, with present ticket for Bristol-Myers running out 39 weeks from next October. Deal is one of most attractive in radio lo dale, calling for $20,000 per show. Despite big coin, move comes as iSontinucd on page 64) Despite the fact that many in- industry observers believe that television won't get rolling, as one ot the major facets of 6how business, until possibly five years hence, sponsors are already realiz- ing the necessity of grabbing up "cream time" segments. They've learned their lesson from radio and the current SRO conditions that prevail and want to get in while the getting is good, even though video is slill in the short.pants ex- perimental stage. First major radio bahkroller' to wrap up an hour weekly program- ming on television is Standard Brands. Beginning May 9, the out- fit, one of Ihe top spenders in radio, takes over Thursday nights 8 to 9 o'clock via WNBT (NBC. N. Y.) with a variely show representing a (Continued on page 63) 'Dear Ruth' USOers Hopped by Air-Fright Tokyo, April 30. Aii-fright, not stagcfrighl, stopped the show from going on. The in- Ceiuie of Ihe USO group playing Dear Ruth" refused to get into a Pane flying the company to Korea )iM -before take-off time. With no suitable replacement available. Cora am tl,, wh 0 p ] ays Ruthi a , sd re r use(1 The company is now wailitiu here wt shipment to the U. S. W0R MEASURING FOR LONG PANTS Although its silver jubilee won't occur unlil next-.year. WOR. N. Y., is already planning its celebration. Willi its 25th anni due Feb. 22. 1947. station has set .up a silver jubilee planning committee", consisting of Dick Pack, publicity, chairman: Gene Thomas, sales; Nat Abramson. programming: Jack Poppcle. engi- neering; and Lenore Hershey, pro- motion. Ambitious plans are being lined up lor a week of hoopla, will-, listener and advertiser ticups; civic, stale Slid federal groups brought in; and every promotion medium used. Grand ballroom ot Waldorf-Astoria has already been reserved for the Fc'i. 22 dale. Station started in a corner ot the rug and phonograph dept. of Bam- berger's dept. slorc. Newark, as a promotion venture to plug sale of radios, rather than as a commercial 'iroadcaslci'. Illness of Eve Sully Disbands Block & Sully Act, Former Going Solo Jesse Block, and Eve Sully will end lhe.ir career as a team tonight (Wednesday) a I conclusion of their date at Loew's State, N. Y. After 20 years as a duo. Block starts as a single at the Killy Davis Airliner, Miami. May 1 26. Miss Sully (Mrs. Block) will retire because of poor health. She was hospitalized for a while during their recent 11-months slay overseas for USO-Camp Shows. During current stand at the State. Block is doing a partial break-in as a solo turn. He's doing the first six minutes of their act alone. $12,000,000 Deal Envisions Purchase Of N. Y. Mirror in Battle of the Tabs Nobels Nix Film Biog Hollywood, April 30. Nobel family in -Paris turned down a six-figure offer from a Hollywood sludio for rights to produce the life story of Alfred Nobel, Swedish in- ventor of explosives and inter- national philanthropist. Previous offers were also rejected. GIs' Film Habits Paying Off Big Minneapolis. April 30. One of the main reasons for the continuation of the exceptionally big business at theatres here and throughout the territory is the fact that returning GIs apparently be- came greater film fans than ever while in the armed services and are now a big boxofficc asset, according to the trade here. Still flush with funds, these former servicemen in many instances take in all the new pictures nearly every week, attending theatres from two or three to as many as seven times a .week, it's shown by surveys taken at two loop first-run houses. The boys are passing up the night clubs and theatre cafes for the film (Continued on page 68) ♦ An unusual newspaper deal, aimed at providing extremely heavy competition to the New York Daily News via the Daily Mirror, is tha subject of a lot . of secret huddling going on in New York and Washing- ton currently. Behind the deal are several bank- ers and bigtime industrialists, with a ' total of $12,000,000 pledged, and the possibility that the ante may go up to $20,000,000 if that much is needed. The central idea is. to buy the Mirror from the William Randolph Hearst organization, keep most ot the Mirror's present features, but al- ter its editorial slant to the liberal side. Following such alteration, the new owners will take all steps in a promotion campaign to attempt taking tabloid leadership out of the hands of the Daily News. Hearst has not yet been approach- ed with a formal offer for the Mir- ror, but the backers of the idea be- lieve Ihcy could buy the Mirror, and (Sontinucd on page 64) i Queensberry's Lectures j The Marquess of Queciisberr: . ; grandson ot founder of muoc:ii sports code, will arrive in the U. .S. I from England. May 0. for a lecture ■ Lour of two -months under manage- ■ mcnl ol National Concert & Artists Corp. ; Marquess' lectures will be biiilt j around theme ot applying the rules I uf sport to world affairs. DINAH SHORE TO PLAY PAR, N.Y., AT 10G PER Dinah Shore will play her first New York vaiule date in five years at ihe Paramount theatre. N. Y.. starting around July I. at salary re- ported to be $10,000 weekly. Gil Lamb will he on the same bill, but band hasn't vet been set; Probabil- ity is the Par will try to book a name leader lo handle a Local 802 orch. Whether Miss Shore will play other vaudcis hasn't yet been de- termined. Whiz (With Sound) Washington. April 30. The agency boys arc thinking fa -l thi'M- ilays. On Ihe heels of that jet-pro- pelled 29-mimilc N. Y. to Wash- . i";Uon plane quickie l;;. t week b.'tween the fade-in and fade-out oi NHC's "The National Hour," trie boys would now like lo see hnw much distance a plane C3ii tt iap up during a spot announce- ment. PASCAL CENSURED FOR 'CAESAR' COST London. April 30. General Council ot Assn. ot Cine- Technicians at its April session (28) severely censured Gabriel Pascal's exorbitant expenditure and time in making "Caesar and Cleopatra" and also voted that Americans be kept rrom using British studios for mak- ing pictures.- It further requested that the government limit the num- ber of film importations. Council also Voted against allow- ing Pascal to make films here, un- less specially controlled. This led to Ihe report that Pascal will not pro- i ducc "Saint Joan." but Bernard; Shaw has emphatically denied this. I also revealing that the cost of "Cae- sar' 1 - was closer to $3,200,000 than $5,000,000. Latter figure has been generally assumed lo be correct cost for this big film spectacle. From the Volga to Texas,' New Locale for Russian Film Remake by Columbia Hollywood, April 30. In a unique deal with the Soviet film trust, Columbia has bought, the world rights to the Russian musical film, "They Met in Moscow," for Rita Hayworth's next picture, after the currently shooting "Down to Earth." Don Hartman will produce and Orson Welles will direct in ful- fillment of commitment Columbia has with Welles. ' Despite' their es- trangement, Miss Hayworth okayed choice of Welles as director but the professional partnership is not linked with any plans for personal recon- ciliation. Columbia version of the Russian film will transfer the locale from the Russian steppes lo the Texas plains. Story, according to the V.muktk film review of the Russian film in June, 1944, concerns a love affair between a swine herdress and a shepherd who met briefly at a fair and then carried on their romance long distance across the vast Russian spaces. The review slated: "It is one of the better efforts from Russe studios, with musical score and bat- lading standout. - ' i MacDonald-Eddy Again ; Hollywood; April 30. r .leannetle MacDonald ,and Nelson i Eddy, operatic film duo not seen j logcther since before the War, are I now reading scripts owned by sev- i era I indies in a move to return to- j gcther lo pictures.' Plans arc to choose a script with an August shooting dale to permit winter concert tours by the pair. Molly Picon's Santa Glaus Tour for European DPs Molly Picon and her husband. ! Jacob Kalich, leave for Europe on j the S. S. Santa Paula May 4 to entev- j lain at Displaced'Persons camps in j Europe. They plan tours through i France, Belgium. Switzerland and I Poland on an itinerary arranged for Ihem by the Hebrew Actors Union \ and the Jewish Labor Committee. In ! Addition to entertaining, pair will pass out gift packages to include cosmetics for femmes. and story books and pencils for children.