Variety (May 1946)

22 PICTURES Wednesday, May 22, 1946 M Award Dinner Goses Variety Club Meet; O'Donnell Others Reelected Variety Clubs; lOlh annual con- vention wound up in top form Sat- urday (18) night with the Humani- tarian Awards Dinner at the Hotel Aslor, N. Y. More than 1,200 Variety members and their guests were on hand at the strictly stag function (save for the dais) to see Chief Barker Robert J. O'Donnell pres- ent Gen. Evangeline Corry Booth, retired international commander of the Salvation Army, with the award as the person, who has "contributed most to the cause of humanity." Selected as the 1946 recipient of the award by a committee of 50 newSpapcr editors and radio com-, mentators. non-members of Variety, Gen. Booth was given a scroll, a plaque and a $1,000 honorarium which she said she would turn over to her favorite charities. As an add- ed surprise, O'Donnell announced that the various tents had decided to send architects and a construc- ts crew from' Si Fabian's theatres to Gen. Booth's' home in Hartsdale, N. Y., to "put it. in shape," perhaps to serve • as a shrine some day to the general and her noted father, w" o founded the. Salvation Army. . Banquet ceremonies got under way as Fabian, chairman of the banquet committee, introduced O'Donnell, toastmaster for the eve- ning. Rosey Rowswell, member; of Pittsburgh Tent No. 1 and noted baseball announcer on KDKA. (NBC, Pittsburgh.), read the citation to Gen. Booth as chairman of the Hu- manitarian Awards committee. In accepting the award, JSe.1. Booth told of her long years of aiding the poor and unfortunate and praised the charitable work- of 'She Variety Clubs. O'Donnell announced, that the Tulsa tent had been named the chap- ter that did the most in charity work during the preceding ': :ar. Prizewinning tent was selected by a committee of trade paper editors, including Jack Alicoate, Abel Green and Martin Quigley who based their selection oh reports tur-?d in by individual tents. Officers Reelected Convention, which got under way Wednesday (IS)), was attended by more than 320 Variety Club mem- bers from all over the country. In tl. three days of general business sessions, O'Donnell was reelected national chief barker, with Carter Barron renamed his first assistant C. J. Latta was elected second as- sir'.ant chief barker, su—eeding Earle Sweigert. Other officers in- cluded 'William Jenkins, property master; Marc Wolf, treasurer, ana Jo' i J. Maloney; chairman of the "Hearts Committee." Chick Lewis was' reappointed publicity director. O'Donnell announced Friday that the various tents had pledged $1,- 351,300 for charity work for the coming year, an increase over last year's $1,250,000. Wolf announced in his treasurer's report Thursday that Variety was in a "healthy financial condition." Cash balance- in the trer.riry on May 15 was $7,833, Delegates on Thursday confirmed the appointment of William C. Mc- Craw, former attorney-general of Texas and one-time law partner of U. S. Attorney general Tom C Clark, as executive director. For carrying out all administrative ^ works pf the clubs and integrating ill the various tents, McCraw will re ■r ceive a salary of $12,000 yearly, plus $8,000 traveling. expenses. Sal ary and expenses will be taken from advertising revenue in the annual convention journal. Delegates selected Los Angeles as their first choice for the 1947 con vention site, dependent on the avail- ability of hotel accommodations. If it's found impossible to meet in L. A., the convention will be held In Miami, under the sponsorship of Atlanta Tent No. 21, since Miami has no Variety tent. Delegates also voted to force all tents who had organized women's auxiliaries as "barkerettes" to cease and desist, O'Donnell pointed out that the Variety constitution called for the organization to be strictly stag and the formation of auxiliar- ies, therefore, was a violation of •the constitution. Curtiz Megs Unsuspected' Hollywood, May 21. Michael Curtiz draws the director chore , on "The Unsuspected" as his third chore at Warners. To date Curtiz is wrapped up with "Life With Father" and "Winter Kill;" Ranald MacDougall is slated as producer of "The Unsuspected." Bergen, Boys With Disney Hollywood, May 21. Walt Disney inked Edgar Bergen and his two boy friends, Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd, for live-action sequences in "Mickey and the Beanstalk," Technicolor inker. Bergen, McCarthy and Snerd will co-star with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy. Jack Benny Would Like To Present Crosby-Hope In 'Road to Grossinger Y Jack - Benny's humorous address at the Variety Clubs' Humanitarian Awards dinner Saturday (18) night at the Hotel Astor, N. Y., high- lighted the evening's activities. Fol- lowing on the heels of George Jes- sel. who had drawn plenty of laughter, Benny proved anew that he'j.one of the'nation's top come- dians as he ad libbed his humorous asides. Preceding his gags with a little kidding on the square, Benny reit- erated that he. hoped soon to be- come an indie producer. Work in radio and with other producers, however, has left him no time so far to realize his ambitions. Comedian announced that he probably wouldn't be able to do so this year either, since he's planning another trip, either to Europe or the Far East, to entertain American troops; But,, as Benny put it: I can't wait to see on a marquee: Jack Benny presents Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in 'The Road to Grossinger's."" Comedian drew his top salvos of laughs with his - references to Jack Warner. "I resent" anyone, even Bob Hope; being called 'America's No. 1 comedian,'" he said. "It's unfair to Jack Warner. Warner's my boss and a great guy and it's a pleasure to be suspended by him." Benny added that he had yet to be invited to Warner's home for dinner when the WB exec didn't try to tell a gag about "two. Jews got on a streetcar." "If all of Warner's jokes were laid end to end," he added, "they would lay end to end." Tw» Eugene Howards Sans Willie Benny's opening sally also drew heavy laughs, as he declared he'd just come from watching Mi Hon Berle perform at the Carnival Club, which he termed the "garment worker's El Morocco." He observed that when Fred Allen once did a guest shot on Bert Lahr's radio pro- gram, the show sounded like "two Eugene Howards without Willie." He complained that everytime he's guested on Allen's show, he always got the straight lines. Once, when he did .finally get a gag line, he was so surprised he read it as a question. Reminiscing on show biz, follow- ing Bob O'Donnell's recollection of the time when O'Donnell. had op era ted the old Harlem Opera House, N. Y, Benny said that Sablosky k McGurk in those days were "even bigger than Eisenhower and Mac- Arthur." Jessel- drew his heaviest laughter with his recollection that he'd grown up in show biz with Walter Winchell and Eddie Cantor. "I won der whatever became of those two," he cracked. "Oh well," he sighed, "I guess they just didn't have the stuff." MJ>. ASSOCIATES PREFER NOT JOINING VARIETY Inner councils of the Motion Pic- ture .Associates, fraternal organiza- tion bl. distribution and exhibition people in New York, look unfavor- ably upon an affiliation with the Variety Clubs of America on the ground that the aims of the two or- ganizations are different. A spokes- man points out that MPA, much older than the Variety Clubs, is strictly fraternal whereas the latter is also social. Question of hooking up with the Variety Clubs will be taken up the MPA board of directors. and for final decision probably placed to a vote by the membership. . At a meeting of the MPA held last .week four names were placed in nomination for the annual beacon award for meritorious arid, patriotic achievement in the picture industry: Spyros Skouras, president of 20th- Fox; Si Fabian, eastern circuit own- er; Arthur l; Mayer, operator of the Rialto. N. Y„ and James Stewart, film star. While last-mentioned was nominated and balloting took place, an official of MPA stated that Stew- art, who shies away from awards, may ask to be eliminated. It. was agreed by executives of the MPA that no announcement of the balloting, done secretly, would come 'until the ""night of this year's annual. dinner-dance, to be held' at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel,, N. Y., June 4. At - last week's meeting Fred Schwartz, v.p. and general manager of the Century, circuit, who's this year's president of MPA, outlined plans in connection with raising $102,000 in.funds in the film indus- try. Already several commitments have been made but announcement of amounts and donors is being with- held. For the June 4 dinner-dance Bob Weitman, managng drector of the Paramount theatre, N. Y., has been appointed chairman of the entertain- ment committee. A Thumbnose Sketch-Smith & Dale : »M«By Joe Laurie, Jr.♦♦♦♦♦« 17-Week 20th-Fox Sales Push for 4 Div. Mgrs. A 17-week sales drive by 20th- Fox, carrying through to Aug. 24; will carry with it the equivalent of three weeks' pay and a percentage of overage above quotas for em- ployees of exchanges reaching their stipulated quotas. The push is known as the sales managers' drive, being dedicated to the four divisional distribution heads: A. W. Smith, Jr.. east; W. C. Gehring, central divisional man- ager; Herman Wobbcr, west, and Harry Balance, south. Each divi- sion has its own drive captain. Joe Srnith and Charlie Dale were born in.New York's Salami Center Joe in 1884 and Charlie In 1882. (That is the only difference that has ever arose between them!) They both learned how to walk backing away from an agent. While backing away they met each other in 1889, that's how. the expression "aces back to back" started. They learned how to buck- dance practicing on cellar doors and relatives and in a few months were playing a high-class beer hall circuit starting, from the Chatham Club in Chinatown, then to Nigger Mike's, Callahan's, The White Elephant, Mc- Gurk's (known as Suicide Hall), The Brighton and finishing at Tom Shar- key's on 14th street. They did a" five-minute routine of "Refined Buck- Dancing" dressed in sweaters, torn pants and caps, which was also their street clothes. They carried a shill who would throw a coin while the boys danced (it was a counterfeit coin as they didn't'trust even the shill j. The customers seeing the coin thrown at the boys were supposed to follow suit. One night a sober sailor who was also a critic threw a brass cuspidor at the boys instead of a coin, which finished the act and almost finished Joe and Charlie. Tony Pastor and. Mike Bernard They then decided to do a Rathskeller act with Mike Bernard, the great honkytbnk pianist. Tony Pastor saw the act and recognized the genius and talent of Mika and gave him the job as orchestra at Pastor's. When the talent was taken, out of their act by Pastor, Joe and Charlie took a job as waiters in a Childs restaurant in. the Wall, street district and did their act at night at the Palace Garden on 13th street and 3d avenue, with a nifty routine of broken down Hebe and Dutch gags, dancing and what they called singing. They brazened it out with the audience until the winter of 1901 when they formed a barnstorming troupe consisting of Jack Coleman, Will Lester, a piano-player, and an electrician (I guess the latter was. carried for current expenses.) They made Roundout,. N. Y. (in the Cats- kill's, where the borscht, at that time, was just trickling) and played all one-night stands within a radius of 15 miles, making the jumps in a bor- rowed sleigh. Before the winter was half over, Coleman and' Lester got homesick for Chinatown and homccooking, the piano player got frozen hands, while the electrician crossed his wires with the daughter of a pro- prietor of a country store, who had a hot stove. Joe and Charlie were left holding the bag (which in later years they made into a grouch bag to hold their dough). They became singing waiters and. bartenders, and by putting on an entertainment and dance at the Kingston Opera House, managed to get back to New, York. For a while it was a case of up Smith and down Dale with the. boys. They were fond of high living, so slept most of the time on roofs.. They finally looked up Coleman and Lester and formed the Avon Comedy Four. Their first appearance was at the Atlantic Garden on the Bowery in 1902, in a school act, which proved an* immediate hit, and they became more successful than a papcrhanger with three ladders. Headlined In London They-have had distinction of topping the first ail-American bill at the Finsbury Park Empire. London, in 1914. And in 1915 they conceived, wrote, produced and acted in that vaudeville classic, "A Hungarian Rhap- sody," which made them very famous besides some money. It was in this act that that cameo of comedy, "Doctor Kronkheit," was first done by Joe and Charlie:' They have appeared in such shows like "Why Worry?", "Passing Show, of 1919," "Whirl of N. Y.," "Midnight Rounders," "Carroll's Vanities," "Sidewalks of N. Y.," "Mendel, Inc.," "The Sky Is the Limit'— and also in the flopperoo, "Summer Wives." They have starred in Warner Bros.' pictures, "Manhattan Parade" and "Hearts of N. Y.," also made twp- reelers for Paramount and Columbia, and were guest stars on the radio programs of Vallee, Jolson, Bernie and Kate Smith. So you see folks these boys made it the hard way, they were never bruised with silk. They jumped from herring to lobster in one generation. They have been together over 40 years, Broadway and Bleeker street have been together over 75 years and there is no excitement about it. The . boys are inseparable and are closer socially and professionally than 9 and 10. If you stick a pin in Joe, Charlie will holler (especially in the. Lambs card room). Charlie is an indoor vagrant, likes to play cards'and talk golf, while Joe is a great outdoor man, having been chosen Mr. Lake Hopatcong of 1925. He also paints semi-good oil paintings when cornered. Joe and Charlie are the oldest two-man act in point.'of continuous play- ing in America today, besides being (in the humble opinion of this biog- rapher) the greatest two-man comedy act in show business. They are not only loyal to each other, but to their friends and'their profession. May' they keep going as long as the public will laugh at 'em—which means FOREVER! Lloyd to Pilot 'Memphis' Hollywood, May 21. RKO assigned Frank Lloyd as di- rector on "That Girl From Mem- phis," slated for a June start. Picture will be John Houseman's first chore at RKO under his pro- ducer contract HEROIC KAS. DOOR GIRL SAVES THEATRE PANIC Kansas City, May 21. Panic at the Baron, Pratt, Kas„ was avoided during a fire last Tues- day (14) by the presence of. mind of Norma Treckle, door girl. She calmly walked on stage amid burn- ing curtains and drapes: and quietly asked audience of 200 to leave. All left without injury^ Stage equipment, including the screen and heavy plush drapes, through which the girl walked, were a total loss. The building belongs to Charles Barron, Hollywood, Cal;, and is leased to Commonwealth Theatre Co., Kansas City; which operates as a picture house. 'Okay for Sound' Book To Coincide With Anni "Okay for Sound," a book cover- ing history of development of sound pictures, will be' published late in July or early August by Duel], Sloan 4t Pearce, Inc., leading publishing house. Volume, which is being edited by Prof. Frederic M. Thrasher of New York University, is being brought out coincident with celebration of 20lh anniversary of sound by War- ner Bros, in cooperation with West- ern Electric, Bell Laboratories and others, who-figured in pioneering the new invention. U Hits Production Peak Hollywood, May 21. Universal production is hitting-a high peak with five films in work, four slated to start before the end of May and nine in the process of editing.. In work are. "Bella Donna," "The Michigan Kid," "The Killers," "Pi- rates of Monterey" ' and a musical short. Ready to start are "Wild Beauty," "The Mysterious Mr. M," "Smash-Up" and "The Magnificent Doll." In the cutting rooms are "The Ghost Steps Out," "Oh,. Say Can You Sing," "Cuban Pete," "Her Ad- venturous Night," "The Runaround," "Lover ' Come Back," "Sharazade," "Claude s. Wife" and "Canyon Pas- sage." 3 UA PIX WILL KEEP FULTON, PITT., OPEN - Pittsburgh. May 21. Jamup of product by WB-Loew pool, which has Perm and Stanley for original playdates downtown and Warner and Ritz for first-run move- overs, has forced UA to .sell away three releases, and all of them have been picked up by Fulton, local Shea house. Pix are "Diary of a Chamber- maid;'* reissue of "Rebecca". and "Young Widow." Pix are expected to keep Fulton open longer than usual this season. House usually folds for the summer around middle of June but should be able to keep going now until end . of July 1 at least, Chl'k Setup Chicago, May 21. With four pix from Metro's Block 18—"Postman Always Rings Twice," "Hoodlum Saint," "Bad Bascomb" and "Last Chance"—set to bow in Chicago at Essaness' Oriental, United Artists is figured to suffer a stiff set- back as far as those long-run book- ings they've been enjoying at that house are concerned. About a year ago, following a tiff with Balaban & Katz over the short runs its product was getting, UA signed with the Oriental, then un- der Iroquois Building management, for exclusive Loop first-runs. How- ever, Essaness,: the new management, has made an about-face, taking over some Warner Bros, first-runs, as well as the Metro pix, with demands on them for heavy Loop play-time from other distribs lessening. UA's chances for the same. Disturbing shortage of suitable 'Here Is Germany,' Army Pic, Being Shown Germans Washington, May 21. AMG is now exhibiting the Army orientation film "Here Is Germany* in civilian theatres in the U. S. Zone of occupation in Germany, latest military government report dis- closes. Purpose of the screenings, it was explained, was "to give Ger- man audiences an American view of German character regarding its. history for aggressive wars." U. S. zone now has 482 picture theatres in operation plus 228 thea- tres and music halls for live talent. AMG also revealed that it had fired several Drahtfunk employees in Berlin because of. Nazi back- grounds and that Radio Frankfurt had been monitoring the Voice of America direct news broadcasts of the UN Security Council Sessions and immediately translating them into spot news stories. Cashier Foils Stickup Omaha, May 21. Quick thinking of cashier at Tri- states' Paramount saved the house from a robbery Monday (20). Stall- ing the gunman while she stepped on alarm buzzer, she brought cap- ture of the hood. This was second attempt foiled within a short time by TrisUiUs cashiers. Loop houses at the present is a fac- tor, too, and, as a result, UA is set to romance B&K again. Latter cir- cuit, however, already loaded down to the extent that it let the Metro quartet slip by isn't interested very much at present