Variety (Jun 1947)

MISCELLANY Wednesday, June 4, 1947 Move for a Better Income Tax Break for People in Show Biz By L. ARNOLD WEISSBERGEH. i A recent story in Variety calls attention to a situation that has long been a matter of concern to the entire entertainment industry —the unfairness of the present in- come tax laws in their impact on people in the entertainment field. There are many individuals in all professions and businesses whose incomes differ from year to year, but there are few businesses where such irregularity is more pro- nounced than in show business. A star in a successful play that runs for a year may earn $50,000, and then not find another play for two or three years. A producer may have a series of flops for four or five years, and then make a quarter of a million dollars on a success in the sixth year. The writer whose play is produced suc- cessfully and sold to the movies, all in one year, may have a huge in- come in that year and compara- tively little for the next few years. The same thing goes down the - line with directors and scene designers and choreographers. It affects the small earners as well as the larger earners, because the person who earns $10,000 in one year and $2,000 the next finds the disparity as great from his point of view as the per- son who earns $50,000 one year and $10,000 the next. During the years of large income, there is a large in- come tax to be paid—so large in the upper brackets that it is dif- ficult for the actor, or writer, or producer to save any money for the lean years that may follow. What is more, he may have ac- cumulated an indebtedness through the preceding lean years In ordex to g be£ , ome . however , repay he must use most of the sur- . g gm wnether pfesN Explosive Gag Bert Savoy and I were playing at the Liberty theatre, on Broadway, with the Ray- mond Hitchcock show and on Christmas Eve, during the show, I noticed there was ' much whispering among the chorus girls. I felt that there was some- thing wrong. So Savoy came into the dressing room and said, 'Have you heard the dirt?' I said, 'No. What is it?' Savoy: 'You know Big Blonde Florence , . . I "said, 'Yes.' Savoy: 'Well, her boy friend got drunk, and went to her apart- ment, turned on all the jets on the gas range, and fell asleep. There was a terrible explosion,' and he was blown half way across 8th avenue. The stage manager sent her home. He didn't tell her what hap- pened' . . . Brennan: 'It'll be a terrible shock, won't it?' Savoy: 'Yeh, but wait!U she gets the gas bill!' — Jay Brennan. 259TH WEEK! KEN MURRAY'S "BLACKOUTS OF 1947" El Capitan Theatre, Hollywood, Cal, "I'll be back again. A great show." MICKEY ROONEY. Truman Approval For New Labor & Tax Bills Held Still Doubtful Washington, June 3. Congress completed action last week on two major pieces of legis- lation which will affect show busi- plus of the fat year. The unfairness is not in the amount of tax on large incomes: every taxpayer has the same tax to pay. The unfairness is that a man who has a total income for a five-year period of $50,000, if he is unfortunate enough to have it all come in one year, pays a much higher rate of tax than a person who has the same income coming in at the rate of $10,000 for each of the five years. It is not that a high tax rate is objectionable, but that the taxable income to which the tax is applied is computed on the t>asis of a period as short as 12 months. This constitutes the un- fairness not only to persons in show business, but to persons in rH dent Truman will approve either of them. ' First was the Hartley-Taft labor bill, of particular interest to Holly- wood; and second, the measure to cut income taxes, effective July 1, which would be a special boon to the bigrearners of show biz. The labor bill, which is figured to have better than a 50-50 chance of becoming law, would outlaw jurisdictional "strikes such as the one which has been plaguing the film studios off and on for the past couple of years. Measure would also ban "feather-bedding," the union requirements that employers carry more employees than needed. Another angle of the bill, of par- House Hears 20% Tax Plea From Legiters Washington, June 3. In a hearing yesterday (Tues.) on the 20% admission tax on legitimate theatres, the House Ways and Means Committee was told by spokesmen for the legits that the luxury levy was a "strangling tax" which would cause continued falling-off of theatre attendance and "certain *death"_ for some legit houses. Witnesses paraded before the Con- gressmen by James F. Reilly, exec director of the National Assn. of Legitimate Theatres and of the League of N. Y. Theatres, included Ilka Chase, for Actors' Equity; Marc Connelly, for the Dramatists' Guild; Thomas Murtha, legislative commit- tee chairman of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Em- | ployees, and Brock Pemberton, president of the League of N. Y. Theatres, in behalf of producers and managers. Miss Chase said the tax on legits (Continued on page 55) businesses and professions whose ticular interest to Hollywood be incomes are regularly subjer t to sharp ups and downs. Income Spreadover Needed What the entertainment industry., as well as the other professions and businesses subject to great fluctu- ations' of annual income, would like is to have Congress enact a law that would average income over a period of five years. Various pro- cedural methods have been sug- gested and there may be procedural difficulties to overcome. But what is important is to have the prin- ciple accepted that income for the prosperous years can be averaged with the income for the poor years, sq as to reduce the tax bracket to that which prevails for the normal average income of the taxpayer over the longer period. Persons with spotty incomes will then, over the years, pay no more total tax on the total income than is paid by persons with ' the same income earned evenly over the - years-,---> The proposed legislation has been cause of recent charges of wide- spread communism there, is the section which declares that employ- ers would not have to deal with a union unless its officers first took an oath they were not members of the Communist party. There is no chance of an override on the tax cut bill, if the President vetoes. It passed the Senate with much less than a two-thirds vote and cannot gain any, if Truman turns thumbs down. Except for the fact that the Senate makes the tax cuts effective July 1, instead of Jan. 1, 1947, it is about the same as the House bill. In the upper brackets up to $80,000 a year, the taxes would be reduced by 20%. From $80,000 to $302,000. the tax rate would be eased by 15%. Billie Holiday Weepily Pleads for Cure When Given Yr. on Drug Rap Billie Holiday, 28-year-old Negro songstress, pleaded guilty to drug addiction Wednesday (28) in Federal court, Philadelphia, and was sen- tenced to a year and a day in the Federal Reformatory for Women at Alderson, W; Va. Miss Holiday was arrested by fed- eral agents and local police two weeks ago following a raid on a south Philadelphia hotel. With tears streaming down her cheeks, Miss Holiday stood before Judge J. Cullcn Ganey and asked for treatment at the reformatory to rid her of the craving for drugs which, she admitted, had made her a major addict. Judge Ganey said the law would help her via cure providing she aided authorities in tracking down sources of supply. the subject of discussion over a number of years. It has been spo- radically brought to the attention of Congress but so far it has never been strongly pressed. »-.< The progressive work of the American Bar Association in the field o£ taxation, makes it a natural for this assignment, if the presen- tation is put upon a broad basis and it is made clear that show biz seeks no special advantage but only a fair law for all taxpayers similarly affected. ABA, for example, is now sponsoring legislation that- would correct the notorious inequity ex- isting in the case of non-community property states, and that would permit husbands and wives in all states to divide their income for tax purposes as they now divide it in community property stales. The cooperation of all groups similarly situated is needed. The various guilds in the entertainment industry representing the artists' Equity, AFRA, AGVA, SAG: the League of New York Theatres rep- resenting the producers the Au- thors' League and Dramatists' Ciuld, representing the writers; Mid all the .-others must coordinate in this effort. WB Story Head Says Writers Soppy, (hie in 500 Originals Worth Using Reisman's Decorations Paris, June 3. Phil Reisman, RKO International veepee over sales, was feted at a diplomatic dinner here last week. Reisman was awarded knighthood in the military order of San Gior- gio. " ■; Plane Crashes Don't Deter Show People From Air Travel The crash of United Air Lines' DC-4 plane at New York's La Guar- dia field last week, whfch took the lives of 42 and injured six others, seemed to have little effect on film and stage personalities, who con- tinued traveling back and forth from the Coast. F. L. D. Strengholt, president and director of a film rental company, arrived via Air France to see about obtaining three American- pictures for showing in Holland. They are "Duel in the Sun," "Best Years*of Our Lives," and "Monsieur Ver- doux." Pianist Jose Ittirbi left for London for a month's concert tour of Eng- land, Holland and France, and on his return in the early part of July he'll visit Mexico. Allan Jones, singer, enroute to Pittsburgh via Capital Air Lines, will appear there in the Civic Light Opera C6*'s production of "The Cat and the Fiddle." Clark Gable arrived in New York for a few days' vacation after attend- ing the Indianapolis auto races. Bill Goodwin, NBC radio-film ite, in from the Coast for a few. days" visit. Actor Robert Cummings and his wife left La Guardia in a twin Beech craft for points unknown, with Cum- mings at the controls. Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt arrived from Milwaukee, where she had de- livered a radio address. Marian Jordan departed via Air France for Paris, enroute to Berlin, where he will take over the man- agement of the Motion Picture Ex- port Assn. activities in Germany. Desi Arnaz and his band returned to La Guardia after giving a Salva- tion Army benefit performance at Constitution Hall, Philadelphia. Also with him was comedienne Vera Vague, who departed with the band- leader for Chattanooga in time for their regular NBC appearance on the Tuesday night (3) Bob Hope show. Seen around the airport was ac- tress Luise Rainer. Child actress Margaret O'Brien landed at the overseas base at La Guardia after vacationing in Ber- muda. ♦ • Hollywood, June 3. Only one out of every 500 original stories submitted by qualified writ- ters to studios is suitable for pur- chase, according to Ellingswood Kay, Warners story department head. This reflects directly upon writers themselves, Kay maintains, and not the studio's reluctance to buy originals, for the market is wide open and' picture companies are more than willing to buy good stories. ■ V; Current situation is brought about by writers' unwillingness to devote proper time and energy upon de- veloping originals, it is indicated by Kay, whose experiences with orig- inals are typical of every other studio story editor. He points out that these same writers would not think of turning out magazine yarns in -the sloppy fashion in which originals are presented to studios; yet they expect story editors to ac- cept them and pay downright fab- ulous prices. The untried writer who is submit- ting his first piece through an agent is not the only offender. Many of the writing toppers—the great ma- jority, in fact—are as guilty of bat- ting out material in only a few pages which, if purchased, would have to be entirely developed. Many of these top name writers attempt to cash in on their reputations in selling poor originals, instead of let- ting hew material speak for itself. Half-Baked Originals Tendency now, Kay says, is for writers either to sit back and let their agents sell them for an as- signment, or to spend too little time turning out for submission to U.S. Glamor Hits Paris By LUCETTE CARON Paris, May 28. Rita Hayworth, Linda Darnell Eleanor Parker, Lily Pons, Vivien Leigh...Parisians are delighted to have them all here this week. Ex- cept for Lily Pons, they did not know any of them. Their pictures are on the front page of all the thin tittle Paris magazines; and big pos- ters of their films—"Gilda," "Anna and the King of Siam." "Waterloo Bridge"—decorate the Champs Ely- sees. Lily Pons was given the Legion of Honor by the President of the French Republic, Vincent Auriol. She looked very girlish in a white hat and veil and white collar; and blushed when she was officially kissed on both cheeks bv the smil- ing President and had to make a speech in French. She sang at the Theatre des Champs Elysees May 30th to SRO. Rita "ayworth is not too popular with t! Paris press. She never ap- pears "me and does not like to talk to uilists. One of them <a woman; joke to her jn Spanish. (Continued on paj;e 55) STEIN WANTS TO HOUSE MCA IN OWN N.Y. BLDG. Jules C. Stein, chairman of the board of Music Corp. of America, is expected in New York withiji a few weeks to complete a deal 'for purchase of' a building at 598 Madi- son avenue. Purchase price of structure, at corner of 57th and Madison avenue, wasn't disclosed. If deal is completed. Stein plans to consolidate MCA with Manage- ment Corp. of America, an MCA subsidiary, and the Leland Haywood offices. Latter two are located away from the MCA offices in the Squibb Wdg. Prewar Stein was dickering for a structure occupied by the Manufac- turers Trust Co., but deal failed to jell because of $750,000 purchase price. Anti-Fascists, Perhaps? Brussels, May 28.. Recent recital of Italian tenor Giacomo Lauri-Volpi at the Brussels Palais des Beaux Arts was poorly at- tended, although critics raved about singer's fine voice. "I am at loss to understand why so many people were not interested,"-wrote one re- viewer. Singer was important mem- ber of N. Y. Metropolitan in early •30's. Lauri-Volpi, who came here from London, said that during the war he had sung in Spain. Portugal and at L;i Seala in Milan. The Germans, lie -siid, had twice invited him- to ap- pear at opera houses, but he had refused. Improved Originals Hollywood, June 3. Marked Improvement and in- crease in original stories is re- ported by most studiG story edi- tors. Feeling generally is that, personnel shakeups durinp the past year, with hordes of writers off payroll as a result of the economy wave, have resulted in the better originals. Of the 463 screenplays cur- rently being prepped, in pro- duction, or awaiting release. 235, or more than 50%, are originals. And screenwriters — notoriously Belligerent about trumpeting, their own originality — would like it to stay that way. Of the remaining 22U properties, 1.87 are adapted from novels, magazine stories or biographies, and 36 are from plays. studios an idea which is only an idea, and not enough for studios to go by. There is also a tendency, more pronounced now than for- merly, for'agents to try to sell half- baked originals; then make a pitch for studios to sign their scribbling clients to come in and spend long periods of time developing them. In other words, situation prevails where the monetary deal and not the quality of the story is the goal. Were writers to get in and really dig, with resultant good material, studios would be ready to pay high prices for them to come along for further development of a yarn which was of sufficient calibre 'for a sale. Due to the fact that studios now are making fewer pictures than formerly, stronger story materia! is essential, and this calls for better originals. Bestseller and play mar- ket is not wide enough for studios to depend entirely upon these for their yearly output—hence, originals must be found which will round out the season's program. Raising of standards in stories is paralleled by the calibre of people in studio story departments. During past two or three years, some of the top publication editors have been brought out from the east to head story departments, where pre- viously it was frequently the prac- tice to install persons of less ability in these positions. Result is, that these personalities are searching for higher-quality original story ma- terinl, and having hard time in fer- reting out yarns which would be basis for top production values. This is main reason why studies have , to comb book and play field so carefully, and take over proper- ties which have been proven through audience reception.