Variety (May 1947)

84 LITERATI Literati Wednesday, May 28, I947 i MMMMItttttttttttttttfMMtttttttlMMH liHt * SCULLY'S SCRAPBOOK ♦ mmi By Frank Scully t'ttft Grub Gulch, Calif., May 24 (By Carrier Pigeon) Riding RCA country in a sand-blasted covered wagon (station model natch), and flanked by two dripping water bags and 109 degrees of Fahren- heit, we were looking for Pioneer Town when we got lost on a corrugated trail 35 miles northeast of Palm Springs. The only signposts were artillery markers left behind by desert battalions which had rehearsed the North African invasion over these unclaimed sections of the Mojave desert. In 35 miles the only living thing seen was a lone, stray calf. RCA, through this collection of cactus corners, stands for Rodeo Cow- boys of America, a multi-million-dollar phase of showbiz. Nice switch eh? Okay, so a veepee in Radio City won't like it. Let the veepee take it up with Jlortier Pettigrew of Grady, N. M., or Jim Snively of Pawhuska Okla., both veepees of RCA. And if he can't get any satisfaction there/ let him take it up with that juvenile delinquent maverick who gave us the brush 25 miles east'of Old Woman Well and 15 miles west of 29 Palms, when we asked him which way was Pioneer town. This Way Up We started the trek from Palm Springs. People there are feeling the pressures of congestion so much they are working on a cable car into the mountains. This is an escape-mechanism perfected in Switzerland. The Swls,s, spend half their lives building chalets In the mountains and the otherj* half building a funicular railroad up to the inaccessible chalets. Palm; Springs is going thataway now, too. In'Palm Springs we saw.a legal notice to the effect that some guy had applied for a liquor license on Tom Mix street, Pioneer town. A bronc- buster explained the town was being built by and for the manufacture of westerns, and any innovation of civilization less than a hundred years old would promptly be run out of town. That looked as if -we'd have to drop the sstation wagon east of the last hitching post and take horses into town. We passed 1 Ave places on the road which a year ago were simply a col- lection of cacti looking for bottoms to stick. They are now boomtowns and are building adobe haciendas with the frenzy of songpluggers. Where the pavement ended after 50 miles, guess what we ran into? One-sheets of "Boom Town!" No fooling. This was at 29 Palms where Bill Underhill and his wife Prudy run the picture house when not putting The Desert Trail, or the baby, to bed. Empty Benches In the Old Corral Two years ago they showed pictures in Smith's Corral, but now they have a beautiful 300-seater, which gives a better view from the entrance than almost anything you'll see inside. No matter how* bad the pic you wouldn't have the nerve to ask for your money back as you come out, on account of that view of the desert and the mountains. They were giving the Softball circuit the cactus needle the week we were there. It' seems as a desert sport this game has supplanted the shooting of coyotes and jackrabt/its. Eight Softball teams operate out of 29 Palms alone. They play nights under flood arcs. That cuts into the picture biz. In fact, it has cut in so deep that the Underhills threatened to close the picture house and picket the games unless the softballers were limited to the first three days of the week, giving pictures an exclusive on the weekends. Like many other subversive activities it looks as if the Scully flea circus could be held responsible for this softball biz also. We pioneered at 29 Palms when three was a crowd. For recreation we introduced softball, using the bushes for outfielders—Mesquite in right, Sage in center and Greasewood in left. A dog retrieved foul balls. Carl Brisson, the dow- ager's Sinatra, and Dr. Ralph Mellon, of Pittsburgh, were part of our squad. Dr. Mellon was the microbe hunter who introduced the sulpha drugs to America. Years ago he played on the Michigan varsity with George Sisler and was good. But I struck him out on a ball so slow it came in on a burro, U^r^-x .-vv-^J^/o^WHh Capital 'C . In our league, Patsy, third fle]i from heaven of the Scully' circus, was the hardest to pitch to. She was only four years old at the time, and the ground 1 rule was that you had to pitch to her bat, which she held station- ary. If you failed to hit her bat in three pitches you were out, But now the ballplayers fight with the picture house over playing time. The Underhills, I'm glad to report, won their war without any six- shooters being clipped from the westerns and turned on the softballers. In the midst of the battle for playing time Esther Williams showed up at 29 Palms. That's her home town. She poured oil on the blowing sand by visiting the picture house and then going over to the softball field. Ed Gilpin, the plumber, is her uncle. He's the guy who ballooned our soft- ball avocation into a plague to the frenzy of not only the town's only exhibitor but rattlesnakes, sidewinders, tarantulas, scorpions, centipedes and horned toads and stink bugs. Fugitives From Broadway The chamber of commerce, a little guy in a ten-gallon hat named M. G. (Watty) Watkins, introduced Miss Williams to the assemblage. Watty was once the smallest tenor In the Metropolitan Opera Co., if not the one with the sharpest nose. His place is across the road from Barbara Page's Curio Shop. Barbara was a Broadway showgirl till she married the late Brett Page, who was drama editor of King Features. After being introduced by Watty,. Miss Williams autographed a softball. She then threw it to catcher Ballard of the Riverside team, and from there on everybody forgot the feud for playing time and 1 enjoyed the ball game. Her husband, Ben Gage of radio, was with her, but he didn't have any- thing on his mind because 29 Palms is so full of static that every radio program from Hollywood gets lost in the smog around Pomona. Even Henry Morgan comes in very badly. Not from Hollywood but from Denver or Salt Lake or Dallas, but better in any event than from Hollywood 150 miles away. Harry Owens was around hoping he could get in a plug for "Lazy Joe." He gave Lou Jacobs, the butane gasman, a character if ever I saw one, the first copy of the song. They broke out with it on Lou's birthday. Pearl Woody and Lucille Harper sang it, and, as they finished, that area of the desert had a minor earthquake, which Owens and the girls naturally mistook for applause. New Low In Song Plugging? Owens lives in 29 Palms now. When in 1934 he brought his RoyaJ Hawanans to Honolulu he hoisted hula-humming so high that his "Sweet Leilani' subsequently won an Acadamy award. Maybe "Lazy Joe," his first cowboy number, will do *as much for the ranch where Owens, Harold Briggs and Ted Holdermah are turning Lazy Joe Brandt's old hacienda Into a high class subdivision. I tell you, these guys and their bulldozers and realtors in ten-gallon hats are turning the previously wide-open spaces into something only Florida could love. Alex Ince Reviving Stage Mag .. Alexander Ince preparing to again revive Stags magazine, which had'a brief resurrection under his direc- tion a couple of years ago. Now lining up a resident' staff and. con- tribbing editors, he offered the editorship to Wolfe Kaufman, ex- Variety. Kaufman, now publicizing "Brigadoon," declined, preferring press agentry. t Ince will get the new Stage going around September. It'll again be a slick, profusely-Illustrated periodical. Marshall Field's USA ' Marshall Field's projected mag, now in the preparatory stage, won't be exclusively his own. E. DeGolyer, reputedly a wealthy geologist, is underwriting most of the prelimin- ary expenditure on the periodical, and will be a large stockholder when it gets under way. USA has definitely been selected as the name of the mag. A staff of around 15 is at work on the project, supervised by Norman Cousins. He's the editor of the Saturday Review of Literature, in which Field is financially interested. It's likely but not yet certain that Cousins will be editor of USA. In any event, he will retain his Saturday Review duties. Starting date of USA will be either October or November, with publica- tion reportedly monthly. Policy is still a closely-guarded .secret, but content will be about evenly divided between text and pics. Curtis Distribs Camera Rolls To keep its forces intact in the face of falling mag sales, the dis- tributing affiliate of the Curtis Pub- lishing Co. is taking on the distribu- tion of camera roll film. Will han- dle a new brand, Kryptar, product of the Technifinish labs of Roch- ester, N. Y. Curtis believes it can get news- stands to sell the film, since many of them, already handle such non- reading, items as sheet music, smokes and razor blades. American News Co., No. 1 mag distributor, has been handling razor blades along with periodicals for years. Distrib affiliate of Curtis circu- lates a numbe rof mags in addition to the firm's own, which include Satevepost and Holiday. Outsiders include the two David Smart pe- riodicals, Esquire and Coronet, and Sports Afield. Tillinger's Espionage Tome Eugene Tillinger, former Euro- pean correspondent, sails from New York today (Wed.) aboard the America for Paris where he'll do re- search on a projected espionage book he plans to write in the fall. In addition to digging up mate- rial on his novel, Tillinger will also contribute features to the North American Newspaper Alli- ance, Transradio Press and Pageant Mag among' others. Spink on Baseball As its title implies, "Judge Landis and 25 Years of Baseball" (Crowell; $3), is as much an account of the most turbulent qtarter century In the history of the national game as it is of Kenesaw Mountain Landis, s first Commissioner of Baseball, Per- haps even more. For the book's author, J. G. Taylor Spink, is no biographer. But as the publisher of the Sporting News he has quite pos- sibly the biggest fund of baseball lore of anyone, and he can present it zestfully. As a cavalcade of baseball it's worth the attention of everyone with more than just the average in- terest in the sport. Hunt Stromberg reportedly has an option on the pic rights to the book. "The Judge, as Landis was famil- iarly known, was so autocratic and • dictorial a figure that he seems to have repelled even his biographer;. Spink lamely tries to infuse the Judge with a bit of warmth by an occasional reference to his sym- pathy for the underdog when he was on the bench. But Jack Lait, now editor of the N. Y. Mirror, and a young court reporter when Landis held forth in Chicago's federal build- ing, wrote of. the Judge after he died that he was "an irascible, short- tempered, tyrannical despot." It was as such a person, hoWever, that he proved the saviour of organ- ized baseball. Because he was so tough and hard he saved the game from disintegration. No club owner, manager or player was able to gain- say him, and since he had the over- all totesejfcoLtbe sport;a.t'Jieart Vfcat he did ..as for the best—and he got. the best results. Landis was thrust on the baseball stage for the first time when in 1915 the independent Faderal League sued the so-called Organized Base- ball. As the presiding jurist he put off his decision indefinitely, feeling that a ruling either way would .be very destructive. Both sides came to terms, and it was felt that the Judge had saved baseball. Bickering, dissension and insurrec- tion was rife, resulting in frequent demands for a czar to put all these down. Black Sox scandal in 1919 was the clincher, and Landis, who had frequently been mentioned for the post of baseball overlord, finally got the bid. He demanded, and got, autocratic power, and became first Commissioner of Baseball at $50,000 a year. The Judge began setting prece- dents from the start. ' When Babe Ruth got into his thick hair by go- ing on an unauthorized barnstorm- ing tour, he slapped the Babe down fast. Phil Douglas was tossed out of the Giants for another infraction. The boys in baseball came to the realization they had to behave with the Judge in power, and they did. All the baseball immortals—and some of the not-so-immortal, like the unhappy White Sox players who threw the 1919 World's Series—are ip the book. It's good to read about them again, and to linger over their mound achievements. If wot a well- rounded biography of Judge Landis, the book, as the present Commis- sioner of Baseball Albert B. Chand- ler says in his Introduction, is a noteworthy contribution to the his- tory of the game. . Moppet Field Day on Seventeen June issue of Seventeen, out next week (2), will all be done by teen- agers, believed first lame that a na- tional mag has been so written and edited by kids. Filmsters Jane Powell and Elizabeth Taylor wrote interviews on each other. Four kids from N. Y.'s Professional Chil- dren's School did an article on the school, two handling copy, two tak- ing the pix. Coast kid did a feature on Vaughn Monroe. Issue also in- cludes record review by kids from Greenwich (Conn.) High School. Stern To Tell Ail J. David Stern, erstwhile pub- lisher of the Philadelphia Record and Camden Courier-Post, is writing his memoirs, which will tell the story of his 40 years' experience as reporter, editor and publisher of a half-dozen big-city dailies. Stern recently returned from Boca Raton, Fla., where he took the sun cure in preparation for his literary labors. 'Amber' Up for New Hutf Trial Although termed a "soporific rather than an aphrodisiac," and ex- onerated in a ruling by Judge Frank Donahue, "Forever Amber" comes up for another trial follow- ing the Attorney General's appeal to the Mass. Supreme Court this week. Book, meanwhile, has been on sale in Boston with practically no takers, and is now free to go through the U. S. mails. Ray Josephs' Latino Technique Unusual switch in mapping out an assignment was revealed by Ray Josephs, author of "Argentine Diary," in outlining forthcoming seven months Pan-American clipper junket to Latin America before mem- bers of Overseas Press Club at New York's Town Hall last week. Josephs, who will be representing a chain of dailies through the N. Y. Post Syn- dicate and scripting another tome for Random House, took questions asked by audiences in the 225 cities and towns for which he was lec- tured-dated by W. Colston. Leigh, sorted and classified them, and made the posers the basis for the stuff he'll seek south of the border. Top U. S. interest, Josephs found, is in the current messed-up state of U.S.-Latino relations, growing in- fluence of Commies and the Argen- tines, and possibilities of profitable expansion below the border. Gallup Poll angle has also netted him a flock of magazine assignments for pieces from Cuba, Venezuela, Col- umbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Josephs will also do a monthly o.o. of postwar show biz in Latin America for Variety whose Latin correspondent he was for almost five years- while h.q.ed in .Buewos Aires. Will be accompanied by Mrs, Josephs whose first mag piece, "A New American Wants to Speak," is currently featured in the June '47. CHATTER John Rosenfield, drama editor of the Dallas News, looking over film production in Hollywood. William Lindsay Graham in Holly- wood for huddles on the filming of his novel, "Nightmare Alley." Tom Powers' new book, "He Knew Them All," is slated for autumn publication by Bobbs-Merrtll. "Official Baseball Guide and Record book," published by the Sporting News, off the presses.. Charley Foy and John Lee Mahin. are writing "The Life of the Famous Foys" for autumn publication. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen signed to write a book against Communism, as yet untitled, for Bobbs-Merrill. Current Liberty has pieces on John Kieran and' Marion Bell ("Brigadoon"), latter by John Chap- man. Canada will have a new travel- vacation mag, Playtime,,from Mon- treal, to be edited by - William S. Boas. Marian Spitzer, former story edi- tor for Liberty Films, is working on "The Clock Strikes Twelve," a serial for Good Housekeeping mag. Maurice Bessy, Parisian mag pub- lisher, left for home via Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro, after, gan- dering the Hollywood film studios., Emmet John Hughes, now head of Time-Life bureau in Rome, author- ed "Report from Spain" (Holt) from an anti-Franco 1 Catholic viewpoint. Ruth Hunter, original member of "Tcfbacco Road" cast and featured on WOR, has authored "It Fell Upon a Day," published by Scrib- ner's. Budd Schulberg's novel, "The Harder They Fall," bought before publication by. RKO, will be printed in condensed form in Reader's Di- gest for September. Richard Mealand, former Para- mount story editor, has delivered final draft of his novel, "Let Me Do the Talking," to Doubleday, for pub- lication in the fall. Jewish Daily Forward, daily news- paper, celebrated its 50th anni this week. Abraham Cahan, its founder and present editor 4 ;~"was guest of honor at exercises at Madison Square Garden,, N. Y., where speakers in- cluded Mayor William O'Dwyer. Theatre Tele Continued, from page 1 news and sports events to theatre screens seconds after they occur. It "may go a long way towards satis- fying the need for instantaneous presentation without the complica- tions introduced by special theatre television equipment," Livadary pointed out. The report, which is broken down into seven v sections, winds up as fol- lows under "general observations and conclusions": "Theatre tele- vision is a definite possibility. The economic relationship, however, be- Jween expected returns from the utilization of this medium and the necessary investment for its perfec- tion and installation in theatres can- not be very readily determined due to the complexity of some matters that must be considered. Therefore, it could not be said with any de- gree of assurance that theatre tele- vision as it stands at present could pay its way." Object of the report is to "present facts, current opinions and future probabilities pertaining to present technical development and other future utilization of theatre tele- vision." Under "theatre television vs. home television," Livadary stated: "No definite market exists in theatre television as in home tele- vision because such a market must be developed on the strength of the ability of theatre television to pre- sent entertainment in theatres in a profitable manner . . . theatre equip- ment of a commercial quality ade- quate for presentation of events of compelling interest may be available within two or three years for com- mercial exploitation." 'Higher Technique' Report declared that "ultimate technical perfection of theatre equipment to the point of matching motion picture film quality may be considered theoretically feasible on the strength of demonstrations being made today." Livadary forecast "eventual development of entertain- ment centers from which entertain- ment could be simultaneously tele- cast into theatres." He added, how- ever, that "entertainment originat- ing on the legitimate stage or, for that matter, from motion picture nun-will' require a higher technical presentation than experimental equipment demonstrated so far. Therefore, the possible development of entertainment centers may not be anticipated until much later." As for theatre tele's effect on the film industry, the report states that theatre video "cannot be proven 'in' on the strength of quality considera- tions, because initially it will offer entertainment inferior to motion picture films and its technical ob- jectives will be eventually to reach film perfection. The medium of film. could not. easily be displaced as tha medium for distribution of motion picture entertainment by television operating on principles so far demonstrated. , "Eventual commercialization w theatre television would definitely introduce a new outlet for bringing into the theatre entertainment not originating from films normally dii- played in the theatre. Importance ol this outlet to the industry and_poi- sible means of exploiting or con- trolling it are matters that can only be determined by future develop- ments.*?. v ,, •- 1 ' 1