Variety (May 1946)

Wetlncwlay, May 22, 1946 IJTEH ATI 61 Literati Strike Hits Philly .: "Sweet -Cheat" A strike ^J" l l 'Mek drivers over the by McC'niiU-y. 'question, of being paid for a half- hour lunch period has caltscd one of the itiosl serious tioups in Philadcl- PX House Organ .... . . , New Army .trade, sheet for phia newspaper history. Strike ■start-' change service personnel ' made ed Thursday night 116J on Record [ de.Uul last week:-...Called PX .„„- and Inquirer, and spread the next j mphihly. slick-paper, mag was issued • Si) 'Oklahoma!'Sets Same Old SRO Story in L A. Los Angeles, May 21! Largest ticket seller and,-grosser, were all published ■ '" ]" sl01 \v °f the Billmore. •;'<)kl»- - ' | homa.'" is sold out tor (he entire- - ! 12-week run. with the exception or a lew gallery and box seals. Rccord- ■■ m . \ making musical could'run 26 weeks :" j.-S,KO..- management estimates'. Ad- ,. „ j vanee of $225,000 plus' subsequent will have. the house Jtiilihg around $37,000. per wreck --from here <lay,lo Bulletin, with only papers j primarily as. a morale-builder. | en-. getting 16 thepublic being sold, over ; luring mertliaiidising lips, fenime '''''J' 1 : the. counter. .'. Only the Daily .News, | seclion. and short items from PXs -f J< ,"' ^fP^e »©... boxofficemen evening tab. was delivered or-sold oh'., throughout the world, lis edited by ! s m? , Uc - k . el ' buyers "are. employ- ■ newsstands. News signed willi truck- George Haines aiid Robert H. Ric |,. ; |!\*!-. InsU ' a <! laluiig. two to Vom- ers last month. . ; elson. and released in ' Army ex'- '-< l » w » 1 - < - purchasers • ar£. buy.inje. Uny. Hundreds 6r thousands >T dollars -ch:u,^s; wo.ld-wide. ^ . ; ' . . C f, '"» e.Rhl to 100 seats at a in advertising revenue was lost by the three strike-boiind dailies. The first (lay's ad billings .were cancelled entirely.''' and advertisers were of- lercd the. right to cancel contracts for the duration'of the walkout. All those' who cJto.se to remain in the paper were granted .half rale. With.all three papers owning ra- Keyerlebrr Uppcd by CPA Karl .Keyerleber has been tipped 'from deputy director to director of • information for the Civilian Produc- tion Administration.; He was lor-. '. merly wilh ihe Cleveland Plain i Dealer. " • ■ .■ ;"■'- : ; Keyerleber succeeds Maxcy; Mor- Filipino Banditry . Continued from paee 1 .teflon advertising agency in Phila- delphia. dlo stations (although the Record> i acquisition -of WC'AU is still await- [ jug FCC okay i. they bought heavily j on their own outlets and other sta- tions, bringing the strike message lo.J the public as well as news -periods.; ' •• Every station increased its number of news shots. K YW; and, WCAU add- : ; ed lite; reading oC'.lhe cOniics lo liieir i features. The Record, .bought time on WCAU.'.for the reading of special- . ■ ■ tv shop ads by Jane RcacK retime '.< 0 'M'cHael J'odd, Phyllis Boitnme due'-for 'visit from j anywhere. As Leon Applestdne. Me- . ti o's lliin rep. In the islands reported „, ... , - -to the h.o:: 'J™" 'T : ' v , Ph,)adc ; | P Wl ' , M r S - Thc screening got under wav Vi.b man. who quit to join the Al Paul CIIATTKR icpoits on .health Bad .Tolly. i New juvc hook ' House.; N. ;Y..C: .'- "'' 1 ; Michael O'Hara new of Jim- firm. spieler: WFIL added a unique feature—an informative service, to answer ques- tions of all' Sorts : from listeners from news events' lo show schedules at the neighborhood theatres. WIP.seiil its mobile unit to crowd- ed sect ions -of the city lo broadcast hews Hashes . via' a . p.a. 'system mounled alop the unil. Warner . Brothers and indie film :houscs bought time 1(i advertise cur- rent offerings after most of the fllm- eis cancelled ads-in the dailies. All I slalioiis offered time lo the publish- ers and Ihe. union to tell their side of the dispute. ■ Villi thi' only sale ol papers over the counter, a surprising inimber of papers-were peddled over the week- j eiid. Tlie Record estimaled about i 150.000 Sunday papers .-old despite a | drenching, downpour. The inquirer claimed 250.1MH). The. Daily News, which ordinarily ., claims 150.001) daily, sold appioxi- malely :(50.(KK) copies each day since the strike began. Only shortage of. paper stock kepi circulation ' .front.f inouufing lo an, even liigher ttxure. ' New York papers were bought up as quickly as they appeared 1 on news- stands. A "black markel'* sprang iip. with kids peddling daily papers Tol- as high as 15 vents, and Sunday edi- tions brought up lo 50c. Omnibonk's Omnlworld ■Extended tour of Etiropeaii coun- ti'ics .by Robert K. Straus, veepee of Oninibook. Inc.. will cue up foreign . lanuuage . editions of thai moitlhly- I in the near future. Siraus planed to' -London Friday ' 117 » lo arrange for. 'may's distribution in F.ngllmd. He will then travel to Stockholm. Sweden, where the publishers have issued a cuMliiienlal edition in English. In France. Italy, and Spain. Straus '"will arrange with domestic publish- ers Ihere Tor distribution of Omni-- b<idk in the native languages. He | will also (-(infer with Army authori- • tics in Cerniany on possibility of ' Cfeiinan edition* Id conrorm with the Trading With the Enemy Act. Oinnibook has been .printed in a Spanish edition in Buenos Aires for EngUuid. No. lectures. H. Bedford Jones at Palm Springs. . nival to. Max Brand on overall : Mordage output. ■ . ■ " . Konslaiiliii Simohov. Rd'ssia'n .play- '.' wrighi and novelist, gaudcriiig. Illm ■ production in |lollyw(i(id;'. . Macfadden has new mag on lire. Spflrl. - to be edited by Eriiesl V. llehii. (iiit of ai iny as lieui.-C(il. New inau. Bom.' Mystery, to use digest* of Craig Rice no\ ; eis:.;iulHor is Mrs. Georgiana Craig IJolon. Gladwin Hill, former wur coire- spoiideni:: relurned to HollywuVid .to cover the town for the New Yeik Times. j Majgarel O'Brien's biography. ■The'Ha.pp:csl Days, or My..Lire." was , sold to the Woman's Home ■ Com?' . panion. '• I ■ Trojan pulp chain has .three liew: 1 lilies. Amour. . Golden . Love. Wi-.>|- etn Love, and new love >'d. Madge Biiidantin. 1 Steve. Fisher is publishing his script oil —Lady in Ihc Lake" in book loriii while tlie picture is spool- ing at Metro. Joseph A'an-Collom; Belgian inag- axihe editor, and llakan l.indsli-om. Suedi.^h publisher, inspecting Holly- wood studios. William Dorsey Blake, fni ii-.i rly head of Universal's .-tory and talent dept.. joining Lev Gleason publica- tions as:aii editor. ■ I on is Brown, former editor The Amerii-an Cio|f(rr mag. doing a vol- ume called "Golfy Facts and Figures" for 1SH7 summer publication by Rinehart. James Slewarl' by lined a piece in Parade mag. urging more dramutic training in high schools ;ind eolletjes. even for students who have no stage or screen ambitions. Publisliers of. Oinnibook bringing out a second bnok-magaxihe in June called Book-reader. New mag will digest three best-sellers a -month Mi- slead of four and will , sell at 25c instead of Omnibook s 35c. Random Hoiise. ' expaiiding . its publication, of V\ hodunil.-'.. appointed Anthony Boulhei-. .mystery editor of Ihe San. Francisco Chronicle..- to. serve as treclance consultaui and scout for .murder-story...latent. Paul Gallieo took the season's big a hail of bullets. ■ A group (if.armed bandits' held a shoo)ing fray in front of (lie theatre, on opening night, tak-. ing oyer the house and allowing all (he people to enter free: F.xliib re- fusijd It) .run the. picture unless they i paid but he was forced at the pom! Merry-nay'j.of a giiin to either run the show or i turn the pi in I over to the bandits, play editor j .Mayor., of .-the (own; appealed to. the- people to pay admission but they were evidciuly afraid of lite bandits. Show went on consequently.'., wilh the only lake being the few dollars .rung up al Oie boxorncc before the shooting started.. Incident probably resulted, frpin the fact that the Filipinos were en-, tirely 'una.ccuslomed to paying for their screen fare. Japs had always Jet the people in for free to sec lliclr propaganda pix- and. after the. lib--, eralion. it was easy enough 'for the natives to . sneak over to Ihe side- lines to watclr the- American .'films, being shown for (its;' In addition, according to' Applesl'one/ the eniire country was in a turmoil al the time because of the forlhcoiru'iig. elec- tions. Even -Manila is unsafe at night. at Applestone -'reported.' Willi tlie num her of bandit? roaming the country- side it's dangerous to travel ai : night, making it especially lough for the mobile 16m lilm units. Despite these ' setbacks, however, films are doing terrific business in tlie. islands. Sev- ei-al of Metro's nar'row.-gauge prints have grdssed as much, in American dollar terms in. Ihe back countries, as many small-town American ex- hibs gross. And this despite the fact that the pictures played in competi- tion, with the Holy Week Passion Play, at which Hie church oirered . both nee admission and food. Shooting, incident, according to Metro.h.o. Mini execs, is illustrative , of-but one nf the many setbacks thai any of .the-majors planning foreign. Ifim distribution will have to over- come. . Plays Out of Town Canliiiiird fruin imjct 6U disli-jbulioii lliriniuhout Latin Anier- 1 gesl drum off Oregon. Inlet on the ica for over, a year.- Norllv Carolina Coast, last week. ——. .when he landed a 54 pouiidcr. the UuokiiiK Backward - seventh <if eight he took diirltig the ; A book wrapped around Ihe'liar- course ol the day in collaboration' ding, days and purported to be a Willi SamuerXirallon. 'syndicate .col- polcntial bombshell pit'the. political; umnisl of the New ' York ' Kvi-niiig .stenc i s being authored here by'.E;' Post. Wont Reily. lillcd' -Tlie.. Years of j Rineharl to publish .lames J. Rnri- .-Confii>inn." A- C. Chapman to pub- liter's book i.n the linding and ie- lish. in Jitlv. . ' ; liiniiiig or art ohjcels stolen by the Ihe' author became governor of' Gei-niiins.. 'Horiiiier is .curator- of Piierld Rico alter being a pre-con- • vent ion Harding maiv. and elaiinS his ch'ier.'was the must' licd-aboul of prcsidoiils. ' . Herb C'rouker's Uhodiinil Latest : novel by Herb Crookct'. Medieviil Ail cif lli< : Museum and dr tin- | Montimeiits. Fine Art< ; 'Officer, he ..-eivi-d in I Paris, and v\ ■ 1 11 • the 7 Germany. Beit. Ames Williams. J"c.trc> publicity .. director, has jii. l i "Leave 1 lei •cecti published' in a 25c )>ocke(- . sized edition by Wiegers as oneOf Jts Ypg| Mystery series.; Tilled "Man About ' . Broadway.'' story brings.in litany of the scencs familiar to Maiii Stem habiluees. , . , C-roiiker's previous three novels. JHollywodd Murder Mystery:" given Crime In Washington Mews" and , >toiy. I'yrnno «l4» ll«*r^«'rM«« the role fiiim a wide variety or moods thai range front romantic dtsscrla- lion to the trtigcdy or his death. A lively fencing scene early in Hie pliiy is eiilhusiaslieally received: his com- edy inicrpolalions draw 'appreciative response, aiid the iulilily or hiv love for Roxamie meets with ready audj- eiici-'synipalhy. Minor derects in his pc.iformance. Such as a desire for pace al limes lushing lines iltat should lie allowed to impress slowiy. plus iinerniirfeiil V€ii(-e resonani e which -mad" deeiph- ■p'ring of various, phrases dill'.iclKl he- 'yond. the first rows, can readily be overcome wilh pjaying. Support is .-ol generally high i-.'ili- hi(v Ruth; Koi-d's Roxann- Ciiilei. tcndeiness in. roiiianlic ep'sodr'S bul .-iilfers a leldnwn iir a badly staged liallle scene in act fou.r. l.:-if Erik-' miii .'makes a good Christian, and 'Ralph Cla'ulon scores, as the pompous dc Guiche. Hiram Sherman register.- well in Ihe comedy Held as Rague- 'iieau. and Paula'Laurence uiipiesses favorably as Roxanne's due-iua. .Mi- noi: pai-ls i:('t uood handling by Fru'n- cis Cotnploii. Rohiusoii Stone. Dean CVlrulo. Leopold Badia.. SI'.n;ing is ,'il.linu-s iiiiagiilali' e. at limes cuinlicrsninc. foriiier having the upper haiid liy a good iiio;,Mirr. Sets -are ;illi;i( ; live aiid Hie u-e of inidslay!'. sleps 1 l.irougl\puls live aels l< ild> novellv lo the manit.M-.of tilay- ing. as 'opposed In standard sett ii:gs. ('.osiiimV's and sets add striking color but jire.ein piiinled up fact :'ial'light- ing ,..c Civil War bill •'Mg'; v.-iis' ; sii!|'.'\cry much in the ex- r CtundCK chosen for I ^^.^ milk( , ;! f() , tll(ir for Its backers' lint, il should lie .VIV-I ropoMi an C'loi.-U i s. A.-' a|'d Arrlu\(.-.-. n .\i>i :'ii:i'|il.v. 7th A >/."'\ In' : W l,o to 'llea\('ii-.' W.l'.ltl* •■The Strange Woman" and r 'Amnti-iirs .of War." is;in Caindeu. S. C. gathering material for another not el: He siiid il would deal with Virginia lih- in the period (lui-ing_ ihc thai a site iicai; ati> iiiiaginary mansion. would be considerable space m the gi^x( cohlribulimi to lite ihealre. 1 ','• -..Boil*. ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦ ♦♦♦ » ♦♦> ♦« . ♦ M ♦ M « ♦ ♦ ♦ * M M M I M M M ♦ | SCULLY'S SCRAPBOOK j t-» M «t MMMM -«-» By Frank Scully ♦•♦^♦♦■t4^-f+*-ft**> Wet Wash., May 19. Okay, so P. for Pathetic. .G. for Garbled. W. ror Wodehouse didn't broad- cast from Berlin in a way Iltat "pleased the Naxis and d : spleascd all the rest of us. Let's take, his tvord lo V»i:.u>i-v and his forthcoming-.book '. as prmit that/the rest Of us had got il all wrong. I'm one who believes in letting -bygones be bygones, but' Wodehouse' has slill to explain away those pieces he sold to the Post which backed up'the radio suspicion that life in a Nazi PW cunip.. for the Wodehouse at least, was really a life or Riley, I'm n;o| going lo take the trouble to look tip his articles, nor am I going ; .'to ask Tex ■ McCrMry to. let me Jtjive tranis'criptioits. of what I said over Tex's 'radio program in -New : York after reading them. But the general summary' was thai .Wodehouse was a daitgerous stooge and at best a dope,, shilling fpr^lhc hiwest'cause which: has been released on Die world. . The fact that sbipc'literary cosinopolilics have been known to end. up : as Lord Ha.w.rHaws; and Ezra Pounds, b'ecause they are politically;tolerant. ot cvery.lhhig, even of evil, is one of the things we tyill have to correct in . Ihe fuln're.. In Shakespeare's tiiite clowns had only . one fUnction-Mo ctuerlain. But iii a modern.world the almost general practice is to'.make' a man ait authority on world affairs because he.liappciis to have ..attained'" some sort of notoriety iii another field.' Had Wodehouse been ati unknown British tripper when caught behind the .Ge'rnian lines, he would have been allowed lo rot in a, couccntraiion cainp for his lack of-alerlncss. But he .happened Tp be a recognized huntor- isi and the Nazis realized thai it llicy buttered liiin up-and gave him- the . "ricedom" of the air he niight.. do more to disunite the Allies than a thousand saboteurs. So Ihcy gave him the air, and: he is still trying 16 explain. More, , he js now trying lo make, il 'appear that he purposely grounded, some passes in the end zone. • No. the 'thltig lo do with such, people, all ■ over the world, is Id make llieni slick to their lasts like other shoemakers and order litem lo lay oft political economy until they have studied il. worked' a pre'eiitet, rung a^ diiorbell for democracy., or. held some humble office. Muu;ham Misses the Bus .1 recall the British Ministry of [nfoi-malion's assigning Somerset ; Maugham lo survey and'report oli French morale in 11)40. "I.have known France-'all. my life." he wrote aimosl on the eye of Iltat country's col-, lapse. have never ..known- them more cajin. more resolute, more single: minded. They: have a. sufficient conridence in their leaders and a whole- hearted trust iii the generals who. command their great armies. -. .What ignorance of the French 'temper' it showed .when the-Germans thought that in France they were fighting a house divided against itself.'.' . Oh. brother! I assure you a hundred hacks • were writing better ap- praisals of the impending French fold, many of them 3,000 to .6,000 miles away from the scene of Miuigham's •'fir,st-hiind - ' observations. ■ Maugham in presenting the manuscript of "Of. Human Bondage" to the C()iigi-essional Library, showed in .the speech h^ made that he had- re- covered much Of his Chckoviatrdetachment-about the-various subdivisions ■of the sorcalled h\imaii race. Having been rousted plenty in the six years, he how believes the world is : returning lo its previous status quo where art for. art's "sake, flourished, and novelists, did not concern themselves with political economy because politicians seemed to have a Working agreement whereby they bothered everybody except novelists. .Bul when all novelists, even such widely divergent writers as Somerset. Maugham and Thomas Mann, had lo scram for their lives, and writers like Wodehouse-aiid :Pound .were impounded, that shook up even the . isolationists among them a bit. That Maugham feels safe to return to his ivory lower, is proof, that the rest of us are expected to be the hewers of his wood and the drawers of his water from now on. Writing- On A Shuttlecock In his speech, however, he weiil front right to left and back again to Ihe sun field. iRigltli "For my part I think it is an abuse to use the novel as a pulpit or a platform." iLefti "We. novelists.are natural propagandists. We caii'1 help it. however hard we try. We load ihc dice".. ...iRighti '-I'sug- gest that it is enough for a-novelist to. be a: good novelist. Fiction is ah art and the purpose of ail is not to instruct but to .please"... ..'Left) "All pleasure is good."... .• Righti "H. G. Wells once gave me an. edition of his ■ complete works and said. 'You know, they're dead. They dealt with mat- ters of topical interest and now. ot course they are 'unreadable.' '*. What well Written drivel. A Jew years ago Wells gave us a propaganda picture of Ihe "Shape of Things to Come" and it could be reissued now : because the atomic bomb has made that 'shape'' something to remember him by. Even Shaw who poured out propaganda instead of entertainment for 50. years now rinds his propaganda is entertainment. Maugham writes a clean, simple prose, but . the grandmother of our little lleas from heaven wrote from Norway after her country's liberation: "The Nazis have stripped'us of everything. "Bul Hiatus nothing. We have our liberty, and that's everything." Site was 77 and a painter who had'" lived through the Nazis tortures. She wasn't able, like Maugham, to escape to a safer place. But in those few sentences she out wrote him. Two wars have shocked lite gizzards out .iif Maugham, but the boy who lined the title of "Of Huiv.an Bondage" out of Spinoza is still in the bondage of believing his detachable kingdom is. not of this world itor any oilH-r.. For my part, he folded years ago when he crated his ; taleiits and unloaded them on lite Cosmopolitan. "All pleasure is good" he says, an immoral. Nietzschean crack if I ever read one. He doesn't believe his stories, or anybody's for that mailer, should be used lo help us over the atomic hump. He Was a great guy. He's been dead 20 years. Skouras and Pictures Now to > quiet guy who is not dead and whose philosophy is older than Spinoza's or Maugham ; s. His name is Spyros Jikouras which .sounds as old as Aristotle. At a dinner recapping a successful Red Cross drive he said that ihe picture industry had grown from a private entertainment .■enterprise lo a worldwide persuasive force fiir good. Vakik-i-v, among others, got a pjaque for its aid in the cause. I prefer Skouras" view of where /•nlcrtaiiimeni stands today lo Maiighain's vievv of making art at best'- inereiy an associate.''.member of the human race. No. Willie, you liyi* in a free .'political society and it is as good qr as . bad as you make it. Millions Have died lo. give you four of these freedoms, 'freedom; iif expression among them. Bul they didn't die thai you might remain . ! etached from the general struggle because your function, as you .-aw it. was to enlerlain hoi lo help. . Il .ought to' strike your sense ol irony. Willie, lh.it the script you gave ■ io the Congressional'.Library., hi gratitude for granting you and your family refuge in America while-voting Americans invaded the south of France aiid restored your,villa to you. was a book loaded with propaganda: You arc not delached from the. emofio/i of gratitude. Your thanks to America proves that... But. please remember when, consorting wilh .those who thought nothing or paying S100.000 to buy a.small' political office that ypu also cofrsorli-d with me, and I am now running for flic lowest office in. the land, and low ; enough, at this: writing, to make il.'I do it so iha't .tliqseJtiilliOiis .vho thought rrccdoni.was worth i ; \cn (lying for shall not have died in vain.- I (In il because anolhcr guy who could write beautiful simple pro:-e pleaded with lis to do so. He died' himself "so tiial government by the people, lor the people and of the. people jjiall not perish, from this earth/' i At the present time Ihere are 200^0110.000 in Europe and 300.000.000 in Cliiiia who are perishing from hunger. Only a Pharisee -would say, "Thiit'.s not a worry. My job is- to write, Other people's' troubles, except as copy, do not interest me." ■. ;,'■ i Phoney on that sort ot art! ' '•