Variety (Jan 1947)

yetln«wlay, January 1, LITERATI 45 Literati Authors l,e»gu« Reparts Out ^ A severe jolt to the chaoees of the American Authors Authority plaii hcin'g adopted as the organizational «,liceman for ' protectinig writer's irtnyrights was delivered last week in the interim report of the Authors League of America's committee set i,D to investigate the control of licensing and secondary rights. Committee's report, although commending James M. Cain for reviving in,ere<t in improving the economic status of authors, attacked his AAA Hian for its compulsory membership features ssignment of '•"nvriwht merly "Biff" Beifel'a "1523" nitery, less than two years ago. When the club marked its 50th anniversary in December, 1942, congratulatory mes^ sages were received from all parts of the world; including telegrams, from Franklin D. Roosevelt and Gen, MacArthur, ;' Pitt Ad Rates Vpped Pittsburgh newspaper advertising rates for pix, legit, niteries and musical events will be up between 5% and 15% with start of new year. Two evening sheets, the Press and Sun-Telegraph, raised theirs a month galityl •Advocating that of the minimum basic aaroe , tion for films and another that lumps ^ent of the Dramati..ts Oui'^^ the ! ^og-'h" ^^c "p^^e'sT rate fofftlm" s I only bv finding a solution of the li censing and subsidiary rights prob in recent months, i< significant In the fact that this'. may be the itart on the part of indie ops to braneh out into the publishing field, where there isn't the danger of being continuously subject to government control as in the case of their radio stations. Magazine was bought by Cooke and Thomson from U, S. Liberty. Cooke will b^ prexy and publiishier and Thomsfyi board chairman. Announcement said that, starting with Jan. 4 iiisue, mag will be entirely Canadian-owned and operated by arrangement with Liberty U.S.A. Canadian version will have access to any or all material in the erstwhile parent mag. , It was stated that articles by "leading Canadian men of letters will be I supplemented by the best American j material. This union will make Libjerty of Canada a truly Canadian [magazine with an international outlook." ■ ■ . ' ; ' ^ copyright o^ll 'other pl-OviiSionS of doubtful le i ago but morning Post-Gazette's in .'m,, , : I crease goes mto effect Jan. 1. system similar : to I ,:_^fial :da^^^ Cooke heads station CREY in To ronto and was also some time ago connected With CJA13 in Montreal. «^ I, ..... , . . . _ . , Thomson operates stations in Xim solution of the ll ! f?'' l"^"" ' mins, Kirkland Lake, Peterborough, ^*5"r^r,*''°.'^^ $6.70^^nd LNorth Bay and Kingston, and dail; $7 to .$7.70. PostrGazette is getting ' ^ ■ * from $7 to ,$7.70 for filmers and $8 to $8,40 on other classifications. Sunday raites ' on Press and Sun Tele (Post-Gazette only publishes six I ~, t, = days) went up, too— $7 to $7.70 and. 1 , N. y. H-i . ups rnce ' Under, pressure of ballonmg news I SCULLY'S SCRAPBOOK By Frank Scully ***** .]em within the League itself. • . Report stated that "the charter: of the League permits the establishitient within its own structure of a licensing system which among other virtues would preclude the po.-isibility of any editorial control of writer.';' work., or dictator.ship by in''ilividuals, confining: itself exchisi\-ely to dearly specified busii'ie.ss limitations." Propo-scd .system, now in only rough '.4etch form, "would state specifically the terms, and conditions under which rights are acqiiircable. time limitations under | which rights revert to authors, etc., ^ and be utterly free of susceptibility ; to political and eco -omic pres,<!ures " newspapers in Gait. Kirkland, Sarnia, Wellaiid, Timmins and Woodstock, Ont. $7.70 and $8 to $9.10 in Press. ^ .print, and labor cost-s, the N. Y. Herald Tribune upped'its price for the daily edition to 5c, and for the 1 Sunday edition to 15c, effective Monj day (SO"): Other N. Y. morning newspapers are planning to main 'Scabs' Issue Raised in Fhilly Charges and denials that "scabs" were being used in the news room 01 the Philadelphia Record highlighted last week's, development , in i ^^j^ the status qtio, : with .the Times the American Newspaper Guild ; remaining at 3c and the tabloids strike against the Record and Cam j.jjj,j^j^g 2c den: COurier.Post newspaper^. ,: I " Herald Trib's move in the morning Guild officials charged Record paper field was preceded b.v a gcn '' Remember, Me.. Dec. 30. II there's one thing on which we are all agreed it's that 1947 promises to be better than 1946, since it couldn't possibly be worse. To my public, scattered an over the world, and thus likely to confound A-bombers, I feel quite sure that our best wishes for a happy New Year will not go haywire. , ■■ . ■ , . . • ■> The only one not likely to be taken in by this display of conviviality is Lynne Wiley of Sioux City. ■ . , .:. "As a present for 1947," she writes, "can you do something about my copy of Variety?. It invariably arrives with the right hand corner ot Page 1 torn off and, by an odd coincidence, the left hand corner of Page 2 is torn off too. Each week I look forward to being let in on a stickful of inside stuff that has worked out to Page. 1, only to have the darn thing torn out as too much flor my excited ey&s. Can you give me the inside of why I'm kept on the outside?" ■ Inside of 'Inside Stuff' This is done on purpose. There's a blue-gag, grerfilin oh the paper and . we cah't ftnd out who he is. In fact, like the underground rhovement in Europe, the. paper suispects the gagster changes from week to,: week. Abel changes the oopy readers, but it does no good, because even editors; have ■ to ^o out to a nitery to get a cup of eawfee and when Varietys come back, sure enough the blue gag is there :down in tlie left hand corner of Page 2. ■ Not in the 'right hand corner; of Page l. straiigely, but the lejt hand cOrnei:. ■ i of Page 2. So all of us loyal hti.uggs proceed to teaf, off. the lower left;iian(J. . • corner of Page 2. and being bunglers by nature we louse up the right I hand corner of Page. 1 too. • ■ . . Per.sonaMy. I don't think the gags are very blue, but 'Variety is not a ^ I family paper and so ha.s practically monastic standards of wliat constitutes I clean comedy. Rabelais would never approve of us. Why.; we coulon't I even get into the Hecate County Country cluh set. We rnay be vulgar but ' never dirty. We only wish we could catch that staff saboteur ; and tell him so, .Per-. / haps the way to do this would be to print this on Page 2. Ever Try It on a Yacht? Running into much larger numbers are tho.se vvhb claim that ohpe they v open their copy of Variety they are lost pnen and women. In fact there's an old story relating to the recently departed Bill Fields which .cavers i. this point nicely. , /' ^ ■ .v! ' , ^ ■.' ^-a'V 'J-^ ' i.' Some producers were asking each other whether Bill could play Hamlets management bad imported out-of j pra] increase of all afternoon papers i "Yes," said one, "if you let him .juggle a copy of Variety.' town newspaperworkers to help get Simultaneously with relca.sc of the the paper. The; Record management vigorously denied this charge. committee's interim report, the Au thors League announced the rcsigna | tioh of Elmer Rice as proxy because ; of ooor health. In his farewell ; statement. Rice attacked the growth | of factionalism within the Lea.tjuc j claiming ' that only the executives who are not members of the Guild to 5e during the war years. have been getting out the paper j R^jnyo'i's Pipces since the strike began November 7. Tending to sub.stantiale the man CHATTER King Featiues .syndicating Damon visitors to the newsroom to tlie ef feet tliat only executives and management officials were observed at work in the n . ws room. Guildsmen maintained that the names of the i out-of-town "scabs" were known to , the Guild. Meanwhile, negotiations \ between Guild and management re mained at a standstill. which, he said, weakened the or ^ j,ge,i,e,ii denial were comments by ganistation in it-s objective to ipaprove the condition of, writers. Meanwhile, a meeting of the presidents of the Screen Wiitcr.s, Radio Writers, Dramatists and Authors Guilds, four constituent bodies of the Authors League, was scheduled to take place within a tew weeks for further study of the plan propo.sed by the Authors League committee. The American Writers Assn.. which was formed as a temporary body to fight the alleged totalitarian features of the AAA plan, is now in process of organizing into a permanent setup. According " to ■ Edna Lonigan, new exec secretary for the AWA, replacing Suzanne LaFollette, the threat represented to the freedom of authors by the ideas and forces behind the AAA propo.snl must be combated on a permanent ■ basi.c. Meanwhile, the Committee for Action, rank and file group within the Authors Guild pressing for adoption of, the plan, has scheduled a meeting for early January to discuss further steps in their campaign. Major immediate objective of the Committee for ActioHi according to its spokesmen, is to promote a wide, democratic di.scussion in the various guilds on the AAA proposal. Uegiin, Wood Combine Ted Deglin, press rep for the Madison Square Garden before entering the service, together with Henry F. Vi(ood, former exec editor for Fox Feature Syndicate, have formed . an advertising and publicity agency to be known as DcglinWood, Inc. Deglin while in the Army attained the rank of colonel, while Wood served as a major. Pliilly's Pen & Pencil Burns The historic Pen and Pencil Club. , oldest newspapermen's organization in the nation and during its 54-yearold history the scene of vi.'iits by the great of the world of the theatre snd art, was wrecked ■ Chri.stmas morning in a spectacular two-alarm blaze. ■ Flames which roared through the former mansion at 1523 Locust st.. i in the heart of the downtown the | atrical district, de.stroyed irreplace1 able paintings and autographed po Boston P4>sl'K Price Hike Boston Post, the recalcitrant Hub daily that has refused for years to go along with other Hub sheets and lift price to three cents, succumbis as. of Jan. 1 and hikes it. In a special fi'ont-page editorial, the paper said that it was".proud to .earn the honorable distinction of being the la.st (to raise its price to 3c).'' According to the Post, it is — until Jan. 1 — the only big daily 1375.000 circ.) now selling for two cents. Evidently explaining its lack of war news coverage (it had no war correspondents and always put war news in.s-ide if there was a local fire or murder), the editorial said "Although cold logic of seif-intercst, and insatiable public demand for dependable war news, might have argued otherwise, tlie Post once more cho.se to serve through to the end of the war before readjusting to business as usual." . Since the death of publisher Richard Grozier some inoriths ago, paper has been masterminded by an attor March issue of This Month to carry article on Variety by Jules Archer. . Irving Davis (N. Y.V ad agency i.ssuing calendar for the year 2003-— which will be same as 1947'.s. Everybody's Digest launching a new series of articles under heading of "The Happiest Man I Know." Bob Ca.sey, vet author and ■war correspondent; married to Hazel MacDonald. on staff of Chi. Times. John Wilslach .sold novelette on wagon show days. "Circus Pirate," to Ziff Davis for Mammoth Adventure. Hazel Flynn, onetime N. Y. Music Hall p. a., now editor and film critic of San Fernando Valley 'Cal.) Times. Edmund Wilson isn't bowing out completely from New Yorker book review!!, splitting them with Hamilton Basso. A. J. Liebling, E. B, White and, others. Tunesmith Kay Swift working on a novel about postwar parapalegics (permanently paralyzed soldiers), in which she's interested her.self at the Birmingham General hospital, Los Angeles. ■ George Sessions 'Perry's piece on "Backstage in (Fred) Allen's Alley" in the Jan. 4 Satevepo.st and Dan Parker's piece on Nick Kenny^ "Corn Doctor" — in the same-dated Collier's are show biz items. Arnold Gingrich writes friends that he has returned to Switzerland after a long tour that took him through the Balkans. , Rumored tliat ■he's writing a book on his impres Indeed, there's a well-founded legend in legit. that Fields moved up from the lower order of vaude to the Ziegfeld Follies simply becau.se he could .show Ziegfeld how to put a Variety back together after once having read the gros.ses of the week. Ziegfeld was so grateful he said. "Mr. Dukenfield, you may call me Zieggy." Bill replied he would gladly do this provided Zieggy dumped that Dukenfield stuff and called him Bill. Thus arose the billing on W. C. Fields and it's a known fact that whenever the pair got into a stage of calling each other names and sending insulting telegrams. Fields would win his point by holding out to Wednesday when the helpless Zieggy would give in and beg Fields to put his cop.v of Variety back together again. ' As it was something all the king's horses couldn't do for Humpt.y Dumpty, you may be sure that Ziegfeld's gratitude held them together till death did them part. Indeed, in Hollywood, Bill Fields held picture producers in his spell by the way he could Take a loused-up oopy of Variety and flip it back into perfect order^ always ' telling them the hand was quicker than the eye. [ He was even known to ad lib ' while reading a copy of Variety. He I would straighten out its English in a way that amazed even those who' had I written it. • I The fact that the.se tricks cost him $200,000 in liquor bills and forced' I him, in his latter years, to consume two quarts of hard stuff a day in order I to keep up his skill is proof of how inr a man will go to hold on to a I talent which is unique. I Paper-Opener Upstairs I With Bill gone, joining in the last year alone such'distinouished comi pany as Jimmy Walker, Damon Runyon. Miles Mander, Mae Busch, Raimu, i Trem Carr, Frank Vincent, Vincent Youmans, Jerome Kern, Channing I Pollock and Laurette Taylor, those left behind will simply have to struggle i as best they can getting their jacks back in their boxes, i After all, we've had the benefit of his genius for many years and there must be many on the stairway to heaven which need it more. I feel quite certain that even Sime will be grateful to have a helping hand. For us, the living, remember this: When you break that band and Variety springs out in all directions, it isn't given to us of the lower order to reassemble what God hath put asunder. Only an angel second class could do that, and Bill Fields, in the field of magic, was strictly first cla.ss. He can hardly lose more than one rating for leaning so heavily on. double Martinis when a.sked to do one of his old tricks. I find too that they have moved over in radio from Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Cisco Kid, Lone Ranger and such standard brands to Henry. Morgan. What this does to the bedtime hour on the we.st Coast is terrible. Morgan is not piped into Los Angeles till 9:30 p.m; on Wednesdays and 9 o'clock is the curfew hour in that town. As the parents seem to enjoy the program as much as the children, it's goingto be pretty difficult to split up this combination. Writers of material for rival programs point out tba* much of what Morgan does is 1830 sions of postwar condition.s in hu | ^^^.^^ .^ j^.g^^^. g^g^^g ^^ j^^^ jj ^^^g maybe that's where rope. Nothing in letters about trip i ^^^^^ ^^^^ a wrong turn, for, obviously, people like" Morgan and as he to this country, and avoidance of I any comment on Esquire. ' Dictionary of U, S. slang by Varikty's C 0 p en.h a g e n mugg, Victor Skaarup, in coHaboratiori with Kris Winther and which has sold in several editions in Denmark and other Norse countries, is the ! subject of a. 'ime mag piece this I i week. A Jap dictionary of U. S. < ^^^^^ors^^oi'^l^'2ol--y V'P Othei H b 31.S0 part of the .same story. made the dub their unofficial head quarters in, Philadelphia. Clubs interior was wrecked, fire loss being estimated at $40,000. From the days of the old Keith:.s papers arc reported burning because the Post wouldn't go to 5c, as they are rumored planning to do in near future: They've burned for years because Post wouldn't go to 3c; But the paper'.s been a strange outfit, re circuit until as recently as la.st -No {y;.i„g a month or so ago to cut vember, when Mae We-st appeared as guest of honor at a parly in tiibute to Federal Judge Harry Knlodner, former reporter on the Philly Record, the club had been visited, by leading men and women in^m'any fields, Among the' auto,< fii'aphed portraits destroyed by the flames were those of Victor Herbert. PrMideni Taft, Will Rogers, Irvin S. vjobb, . George M. Cohan, Heywood R''"un. Ed Wynn. William Jennings Ri'.yan. Thurston the Magician and "f'zpns of other.s. The club was founded in 189S ahd "ifved to its present location, ■for its white paper margins, thus saving thousands of ions Of paper a? well as thousands of dollars yearly. .They ftgured it wouldn't be nice. '■' . Can. Liberty to Radio Ops Official announcement Thursday (26) that Jack K. Cooke, and Roy H.; Thomson, Canadian indie radio toppers,', had formed a partner.ship°"for the purpose of acquiring publica'tions'' ami had bought out the I..ibt-rty Magaznie of Canada for $400,OOO. caiin'tl. n .stir in .Cahadiuri ptib-r li.shiiig circles. , ■ Mpve, rumors of which werg heard "Books Are Sold in Bookstores" observes Bennett Cerf In a hep approisol. of extraneoHS exploitation methods ..*■*.*■ on editorial feature of the forthcoming 41sl Anniversary ISnmber said last week, "Kids got rights just like people," When he asked the kids in Washington if they were lo.st and they answered"No, we came to Washington to get .something done," what's wrong with the cop's reply ; "You're lo.st"? Isn't it possible that back there in 1930 radio took the wrong road and has been lost ever since,: and Morgan is the pied piper leading them back? When as editor recently in one of his programs Morgan planned an attack ; on black markets, but found that put him up against brotherly love and since he loves his brother and his brother made; his money in the black market he found that was out. , ... •■*)!' . Editorial Switch . So he decided to thump for "Down With high prides." But when: he looked at the 40 pages of display advertising he changed the editorial to "Down WithRussia." ■ ■ I don't think there's anything particularly second rate in thiS; any more than I do in . his burlesque of an average daytime serial about an average American burglar and .his fwmily. The burglar: returns home to find his wife exhausted from the Christmas .shoplifting rush. They have two boy.s,'. Jimmy and' Billy, and are giving Jimmy a bilVy, and Billy a jimmy, and' for a bedtime story the burglar tells them about Santa Claus. "the greatest ; housebreaker'in history whO' always beats the rap." Well, Morgan too, : .seems to ' be still beating>„the rap. He says if his mother doesn't like the program he doesn't give her tickets to the broadoa.st. He doesn't give< them to her an.yway, because she lives in Hollywood ■ i and he works out of New: York, but he gives people a lot of fun even if his: .. gags are contrary to the teachings of Weslbrook P.egler, He can certainly: I do nice iiarodies, though in going "from Walter Winchell to .Harry 5fruttian: you can hardly call that a gamut. . As:for the few who belong in the category ol "You cm't. plea.se any ol the people any of the time." there's no hope for them in or out of radio, I 'But for the niiilions to "whoni Crpssley, Hooper and the sponsors ji.sten, • one of Mopgan'.s thoral.s anplie.s; "You can't set top mu(^.^f _a*£0o4it.iyiUfc>" 'Butthefe's.ni3thing:likc,tryinB. .; ■ .■■ ■■ ;,,.