Variety (Feb 1947)

Wednesday, February 5, 1947 Show lisiiess Sharply l«i tit Pan-Americiii Copyright Pact Due To Come Up for Senile Scramble Show biz is divided into hotly +■ epnflicting camps on the_ proposed fan-American copyright agreement which comes up shortly for a Sena- torial going-over in Washington. Split came into the open over the weekend when opposing wings of the amusement industry clashed over probable effects of the treaty dur- ing hearings before the Section of international Law of the American Bar Assn. ■ Entertainment branches that cus- tomarily buy material and music to present in a different medium pre- dicted that the treaty would dump the domestic applecart while groups vepping for composers, authors and publishers were all for it. Agree- ment reaphed during summer ses- sions in Washington of all western hemisphere nations requires two- thirds Senate ratification before adoption. Ranging against the agreement were Fulton Brylawski, of the Mo- tion Picture Assn.; Frank Petty, general counsel for the National Assn. of Broadcasters; Benjamin Stern, of the American Book Pub- lishers Assn.; Edward A. Sargoy, chairman of the Pattern, Trademark ■ and Copyright committee of the ARA, and a' number of "recording companies. Bing's. opposite corner held Herman Finkelsteiri, ■'• attorney for the American Society of Com- posers, Authors and Publishers; John Shulman of the Songwriters Protec- tive Assn., and Sidney - Fleischer, repping, the Authors' League. Inequity Alleged The treaty was scored as granting royalty rights to Latinos on jukebox performances and freeing them from the provision which requires licens- ing of compositions at 2c per-record or copy. Chief point made was that Yank composers would still be bound by these copyright strictures, (Continued on page 18) Kaufman to leg for U-I ; ' Hollywood, Feb. 4. Film directorial bow for George S. Kaufman is'likely to be at Uni- versal-International in "The Sena- tor Was Indiscreet," a political satire. Picture will.be produced by Nun- nally Johnson from a screenplay by Charles Mac Arthur. Big Show Biz AM Aimed A (Brotherhood ; 242N0 WEEK! KEN MURRAY'S "BLACKOUTS OF 1947" El Cepitan Theatre, Hollywood, Cal. "This is it. No more worry about comedy. Murray's here and Holly- JACK OAKIE. wood's got him.' Sit film Biz Talks On Washington, Feb. 4. Officials of the Veterans Admin- istration meet with reps of the film distributors • and Motion Picture Assn. in New York, Feb. 11-12 to work out contracts* for the lease of pix to the veterans hospitals. Ses- sions, are to be held at the Hotel Pennsylvania. Among those to meet with the exchange spokesmen will be: A. S. Mason, assistant director for special services for VA; C. Bream, Jr., act- ing director of recreation; J. C. Cas- sidy, chief of the motion picture di- vision of VA; and David Palfrey- man, of MPA. LOUIS, LEE FOR FWAY IN AMPUTEE PLAY Hollywood, Feb. 4. Joe Louis and Canada Lee are talking about co^producing a play based on an idea by the heavyweight ohamp. Titled "We Won thef eace— What Are You Going to Do About It?" (Louis' own title), the play will concern amputees' plight following the war. Louis and Lee, it's under- stood, will star in the Broadway offering as well as producing. . Lee now is huddling with Abra- ham Polonsky on possibility of writ- ing the play. Plan calls for a mixed east, Louis' idea being that the Army as well as amputation draws no color line. Paul Small to Wed Dore Schary's Sister Paul Small, vaude producer and agent, will marry Mrs. Lillian Schary Waldman, sister of RKO production chief Dore Schary, in Englewood, N. J. next Sunday (9). Mrs. Waldman is a w.k. interior decorator in New York." Wedding will take .place at' the, home of Judge Bert Vorsanger, a friend of both families, and -will be followed by a cocktail reception at the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria. Mrs. Waldman hgs just been discharged from the Medical Center, N. Y., where she underwent an eye opera- tion. Show biz is expected to back the the annual "Brotherhood Week" in an unprecedented manner this year, with all'phases of the entertainment field having already pledged their full support. Week, from Feb. 16-23, is sponsored- by the National Con- ference of Christians and .Jews. Highlighting the drive for better understanding among all races in the U. S. is the new song penned by Irving Berlin especially for the campaign. Titled "Help Me to Help My Neighbor,^' the tune will be played on several top radio shows during the week and recording will be made of it by several top stars. Kenny . Baker has already been pacted to wax the song for Decca and Frank Sinatra will do it for Columbia, All proceeds from sheet and record sales will be given by Berlin to^some as yet undesignated charity. Film industry is slated to back the drive via a special trailer produced by David O. Selznick, which will be spliced onto all five newsreels for playing in every theatre in the coun- try. Gene Kelly, Gregory Peck, Joan Bennett, Dick Powell, June Allyson and Lionel Barrymore appear in the short. In addition, the film industry committee, chairmanned by 20th- Fox prexy Spyros Skouras, has con- tacted all exhibs to take audience pledges for funds during the week, (Continued on page 62) TONY MARTIN WOULD PLAY TIPS' I MUSICAL Hollywood, Feb. 4. . Agent-producer Nat Goldstone is mulling a Broadway musical, "Pepe le Moko," for Tony Martin, now freelancing since leaving Metro. Goldstone, who, • co - produced "Bloomer Girl" with John C. Wilson on Broadway two seasons back, has the stage (also film remake) rights to the story from the original French source. In America Walter Wanger produced it -for pix as "Algiers." Jules Sleia Slated For NX MCA Talks Jules C. Stein is due east in mid- February to join newly elected Music Corp. of America prexy Lew Wasserman on general powwows. Stein, as board chairman, is divest- ing himself of as much overhead as possible and devoting himself only to top-drawer deals. Under the new operations pattern of MCA, the New York office has been decentralized so as to permit concentration of functions under departmental heads. Thus, David (Sonny) Werblin will head up radio, not only in the east but nationally. Larry Barnett heads orchestras and Charles Miller is the general office head so as not to overburden Werb- lin with multiple duties, as formerly, where he concerned himself with the N. Y. office in general, bands, acts, etc., in addition to his talent deals. Incidentally, Stein (from Holly- wood) vehemently denied a pre-, viously published report that Werb- lin and Hal Hackett (in radio on the Coast) were contemplating leaving MCA for other ventures. These ex- ecutives' stakes in the company's profit-sharing plan alone would anchor them for three more years at least. Hire Designer Whose Art Is Tough to Pronounce Hollywood, Feb. 4. • Salvador Dali started something when he introduced Hollywood to Art, with an upper-case "A," Roy Del Ruth goes even more so in his forthcoming production, "Mr. Gid- eon." Hired to design the sets for the picture is Guy'Panthe, New York exponent of Existentalism, which delves more deeply into the which- ness of the what. Evahtion of a Gag The house organ of a glue works prints a bright saying by the six- year-old prodigy of the general manager*. A copywriter for a New York advertising agency reads the gag and tells it as an original at Toots Shor's, An eavesdropping Broadway character gets an earful of it and gives an elaborated Version in Jewish dialect at Lindy's. Milton Berle and Henny Youngman overhear it simultaneously and tell the gag that same night,on their respective shows. (Next day Berle and Youngman accuse each other of stealing from each other!) A press agent does a switch on the gag for Walter Winchell's col- umn, crediting the witticism to one of his celebrity accounts. Nine New York radio comedians pick it up and tell it on their pro- grams within the next three days, A pocket magazine prints it, A Coast columnist does another switch on the gag for his Holly- wood column. Eight west coast radio comics use it within the following week. The Wall Street Journal runs it in its "Pepper and Salt" column. Joe Laurie, Jr., relates it on "Can You Top This?" Another pocket magazine prints it—or it is used a second time by the same mag. The Pathfinder discovers it. Fourteen more house organs carry it. A vaudeville comedian at Loew's State on Broadway does- another switch and restores the gag to its original form. A night club comedian tells it—with bluish overtones. Bennett Cerf gets 57 different clippings of the gag and selects one for his next best-seller. Don Carle Gillette. Concentration Camp DP's Carry on Legit Activity To Keep Their Tale Alive Berlin, Feb, 4. There are two memorials at Bergen-Belsen—a stone slab recall- ing the tragedy of the mass deaths, and a living one, represented by the Kazet Theatre Players whose pro- duction re-enacts the tortures suf- fered by Jews at the hands of the Nazis. Thirty displaced persona consti- tute the Kazet (concentration camp) Theatre at the Bergen-Belsen DP community which is administered by the United Nations Relief and Re- habilitation Administration. Headed by Zami Feder of Zavierce, Poland, the group has produced plays, sketches, dances and song festivals which dramatize the horrors fa- miliar to all 11,000 inhabitants of the UNRRA centre. Feder carries a snapshot of him' self which he had on his person all during the war years. On the re- verse side, he had dotted down the dates he entered concentration camps. There are 12 on the list since May 13, '41. Belsen destruction camp—where his sister died in his arms after liberation—is the 12th. Though there were bans on ar- tistic productions in these camps, the dramatic producer discovered that the terror and exhaustion inspired (Continued on page 18) U. S. Army Spokesman Scores Maas Statement on German Prod Arnstein Wins Suit Los Angeles, Feb. 4. Nicky Arnstein, former husband of Fanny Brice, was granted a judg- ment in Municipal Court for $1,102.50 against Gerrit J. Lloyd, magazine writer. Plaintiff declared h* turned over his life story to Lloyd, who sold it for $2,B0O unc':r the title, "King of the Gamesters." 01 Aide Supports Benton's Rap At U. S. Pix Abroad Washington, Feb. 4. Assistant Secretary of State Wil- liam Benton, who drew firs from the Motion Picture Assn. recently for a speech in Chicago, about the effect of our Alms overseas, got strong sup- port here last week, on his point. Floyd. Brooker, film head for the U.S. Office of Education, who served as film consultant for the U.S. dele gatton at the Paris UNESCO confer- ence last December, said Benton was "only reporting, and reporting ac- curately" when he declared Europe feared the spread of "American cul (Continued on page 31) BERLIN ME TO SET MEW 20TH-FOX MUSICAL When Irving Berlin returns to New York next week from La Quinta, California desert resort where he has been vacationing, he will probably have set another filmusical via 20th-Fox. Berlin has been house-guesting in Beverly Hills with Joe Schenck, 20th-Fox studio exec. Singers in 1-Night (Own) Benefit for Fare Home Chicago, Feb. 4. New development for the 25 Eu- ropean opera stars of the United States Opera Co. who were stranded in Chicago first by lack t>f an angel, and later by decision of American Guild of Musical Artists, finally raises the uncertain curtain on impresario Ottavio Scotto's group —but just for one night. Problem of how to pay for the boat ride home was solved by hav- ing singers perform at $6 top bene- fit, their own, at the Civic Opera House Feb. 5. Visitors have spent the past month cooling their heels and voices in a swanky hotel, with the tab supposedly being picked up by a printing magnate. After re- cent dark days during which time no one knew how the affair would end, ■ latest news seems to have everybody happy. Charges aired, by Irving Maas, veepee and general manager of the Motion Picture Export Assn., which scored the Allies for reviving Ger- man film production at too rapid a pace, were pooh-poohed this week the Major Harry Haller, public re- lations chief, Civil Affairs Division of the U, S. Army. "In the entire American occupied territory not a single script sub- mitted so far by German film pro- ducers has been thought worthy enough for approval," Haller de- clared. "What's more," he added, "the Army's policy towards German pro- duction is not Hollywood's business at all. It's entirely up to General Lucius D. Clay, commander of the area, whose responsibility it is to determine what's to be done in films along with everything else." Currently no pix are being made by native producers in studios lo- cated in the U. S.-occupied sector, Haller disclosed. Originally, the Army planned the authorization of six native-produced features for 1047, and 10 individual Germans were licensed for pic-making, four of these for shorts exclusively. Even this low number came to naught when a-factory containing most of the rawstock available for home pro- duction recently burned down, he said. As to production activities in areas •taken over by the Russians, British and French, no information is read- ily available to U. S. Army officials. Maas had claimed that between na- tive pic-making and that of the oc- cupying powers in Germany, between 50 and 60 films would be turned out in '47. ■ ■ Robert Andrews Barney Balaban Joan Barton Irving Berlin Phyllis Calvert Vera Caspary Burt Champion Dane Clark Wendell Corey Joseph Cotten Homer Curran Ann Daggett Dorothy Dickson William Dieterle J. Cheever Cowdin W. J. Eadie Ed East Frank Farley P" Max Fellerman Dorothy Gish Herb Graffis Abel Green William Lindsay»Gresham J. Carrol Naish N. Y. to L. A. L. A. to N. Y. Douglas A. Henderson Allan Hersholt Russell Holman Donald Hyde Alan Jackson Claude .Tarman, Jr. Joseph McMillan Johnson Jennifer Jones ' • Lem Jones Kay Kyser Mine. Karinska Jules Levey Bea Lillie Diana Lynn Stephen Longstreet Kenneth MacKenna Lou Mandel Robert McKinnon Freddie Meyer Curtis Mitchell Ted Morris Boris Morros Ivor Novello Pat O'Brien Eleanor Powell Charles M. Reagan Donna Reed Hal Roach Ruby Rosenberg Janet Russell Robert SSchless David Siegel Frank Sinatra Spyros Skouras Kent Smith Barbara Stanwyck Irving Starr Robert Taylor John van Druten George Weltner Reginald Whitley Christy Wilbert Jake Wilk L. P. Williams Tommy Wonder - Sid Alexander Hoy O. Disney Oscar A. Doob Charles Einfeld I. Freeman Arthur Michaud Arthur Dent Lew Grade John Grierson Oliver Hardy Kurt Jooss Lucienne Boyer Noel Coward Eve Curie James Grainger Howard Hertz Seaman Jacobs William Levy IJiana Lynn Richard Morgan N. Y. to Europe George Leroy J. W. McAlpine Ivor Novello Dave E. Rose Stan Laurel Europe to N. Y. Glynis Johns Arthur Lesser S. Sanger Joseph Moskowitz Monte Proser William F, Rodgers Sidney Reznick Harold Vermilyea Ralph Wheelwright Barbara Stanwyck E. J. Tate Robert Taylor Charles Tucker Reginald Whitley Dorothy Thompson Jack Warner Theresa Helburn