Variety (Nov 1947)

i ' plays Abroad g-g Co9tiiMf'from pa(« St *Cliild?« Way . an excellent foU m's thfe R.A.F hero who wins the ■ other man's wife. Young ^Michael Lewer makes ait' en- eaging youngster 61 the second prob- Jem child, aad Audrey Noble scores as the kindly, faithful maid who re- mains behind tb"''mother, both- the small boys through the twp ctises. Play H:as good pdssibilities. as< a ' 'fihn. As it stands with Vis somewhat novelettish opening, it h^isn'f the merit of the author'sjsrevious Borstal '■'Boy drama. "BAys In Brown:" Ne*- , ertMeifs'haa; generous reception, at ' premiere,ibiid should do well for its ' briel run* ^ ■ Clew. ('ciin T«r ri»int C»b|i»res7')f - Paris, Nov. W'. ' • ■ Tvounfc Ptlntemp'h proiliiotlom «f th^TO-ucl rwiwly by MiTn-pl Achai-a. 'fftai» yiowe LuLtiuey. Directed by l>i«rre Frtsnay, Sat by- Tauubi^gUfjR; bu«ks»mna iniisitc .by Mario, i^imthcmt. At 'Mtchodiei-e theotre. " fijrtvdin' Oaporol .I'lerre Larqucy Na>ai(^e..'..j <.Je&b Bi^ochttrd ■ Fragnol... ,..',........,.■■>■-■ Awke-' Biirvll Sdmond.: .^. < ^:iuudB Nic0t Thn Reiiui.ier...................J«'an Pomt» teoiv, 1'; Pttwul' Tabary Kadume Luiiihul.: , Jane Harkcn M#trat, I Annette rotvre Viol«tt«>.,.............AiKiuk Woritis The Unknown Wulhiin Anne'Valerio ■I - ■ill TSjis is anythmg but a strong play, but it's likely to do fair business for QUne « while with audiences not as sophisticated as the usual Michodiere i^yees. Ifs what!a lot oil people in _'aris are craving for at present—an escapist storj^. - Fact that- Pierre Lacquey, *ie«t known for'his'film work,-is-starring cues the aiidlenc^ that the- main character is the simple garden ;ya> riety Frenchman. jHe carries ."the role exemplarily, being aided by some witty lines'written in the way thAt has made Marcer A|;hard fa- mous. X^aughs come from both the dialog and situations. He is intro- duced'as a whistle, stop'Station mas- ter who b'as m^trried the. wife of one of his colleagues after deserted her and her child, now a 17-year- old',8irl. Anouk Ferjac, a looker, who also has done • contortion work in re- vues, is the young girl; He would like to have a. child but bis marriage has been childless, getting, him plenty of criticism on his manhood from everyone, including his mother-in-law, Jane Marken, who provides nic^ comedy as the bossing Interloper, : • The funny lines .come from con- tinuous discussions as to Itarquey's physicid condition with Andre Bervil, the station hand,, who is iunny.as the typical hick. He al«o taaiK'with his friend, Jean Brochard, who. Is cast as ihe father, of several cldldrfen. There is a little oft-side- corned^ by the reporter, Jean ' Porras, - .really coming to-tcourt Miss Feriac. Also comical is the way Annette Poivre handles her .role of .station clerk. The one set, office tit the station master,- with a revolving staircase leading' to the bedroom above is an excellent one by Touchagues. The last' act is after the Itida- 'have been born and the stationmaster has be- come a famous character '«n account of the quintuplets.' Mean. Ths^m tvmm the Dansbe Vienna, .Nov. 11. Stndt TliAAtre . production of operetta In three 'iicts (12' ticenes), bUHed .on a NGHtroy. voniedy by Kudolf OR&terrcicher and Robert mibett. Miieitt by Hobert Ktolz: set, I>r. Altred -IVd-lter: t-hoceography, EUy Kose; .•custttmcB, Tjtsl Oeaterreleher.. Or.ehe»tra dt- W«led'%sr Stola, • At StaOt'Theatre, Vienna. tAMy. ...i,. ........ .isady Vrban SSWtmt.,. *... ..fc...«..•'*'• * • >'.. Helnx Oonrada 'Knierlein.,: Kl-ich .Doerner MarqulBC...... .nitta Dunah. Nanette,.' , HlUi Beschl Fepi lUbetinun..'.: Befti Uandl 0l a(ivi»utui<±s to prove that only real love can change a iftan. Berti Mandl is good as the kind girl; Ditta Dunah as thft vsimp, and HilU Re^hl as the well-meaning femm?. Quite extraordinary for present conditions are the settings. The bal- let of itbe Stadttheatre . appear in new costumes, and with excellent soloists in Brn.a Gallasch, Michaela Held, Gret« Niscbler and Stephan ehodur. ' '■■ , Moos. TeMM -Continued from page 1.; Robert Stolz, Austria's music .am- bassador, underwent a self-cHosen homoeopathic treatment in America and wrote the music to an old Vienna fairy tale. Stolz put bis heart into this one. Viennese music dominates, mainly in four catchy songs—"Das war in Gumpoldskirchen" <"It Was in Gum- poldskirchen,"); "Mein Herz" ("My Heart"); "Da steht-die Welt nicht lang" ("The World Won't Last Long"), and the final chorus, "Along the Danube.'^ "It Must Be Music" is the outstanding waltz of the show, . a, beautiful melody. .Two modern pieces, > "Adieu Cherie" and "Marry Me," indicate that Stolz has reached the climax of his orchestration rou- tine. The Naples Serenade and other baUlcit rouslc tulfiU l^eir pur- pose. ■ Penury "of librettists is the prob- lem here.' Rudolf Oesterreicher doesn't measure Up. What the good old plot of Nestroy needs is a tran- scription into the modern world of 1947 and not merely a rewrite with mode have been better had Robert Gilbert omitted the fairies. That the music will ap- peal to the American public is' a certainty, but not the plot. Kddy Urban,. Heinz Conrads and Erich Dogrner satisfactorily enact the' trio of males u&°dl$^gQti)j{ a seties die station/ operators, base titeir pessimistic .'predictions on the re- sults of an < audience reseiirch sur- vey conducted recently by a manu- faclurer who produces both radio and tele sets. Survey revealed that the majority of listeners - owning both radio and tele models used the latter almost exclusively when both types' of broadcast were available. Even, more important, however, was tfie,'.fact .th^t there,,,was a marked dropoR ,in radio listening even when,'.n,o, ^ele station was on the ;"air.},'Projecting tliat situatibn into .the future, AM'ers point out, when more homes own tele sets and more video stations are on, the air, what good will radio' be to adver- tisers even if they have enough money to. s{|nji&cl..tnGiliuid between botH media?.' Plenty •! Ad Meiiey That- thert- will be plenty .of ad nioney to - support both tele and radio was sti'essed last week by NBC jpationartele'director Noran E.-Ker- sta.^ - Sj>eaking at a forum meet of the^ Am^i^ican' TeleVisioVi Society,' Ket'sta emj^hasiiied the opbiion prev- alent'among ^BC toppers that telct will ,c;ventually supersede radio in importance. ,' As for available ad-' Vfirtfsing dollars,' he quoted statis- tics «f the 20th Century, Fiiiid to show that national advertising .'ex- penditure during the next'lO y^ars .Would - itpproxiipate ^,SOO,00(f,OQO. Entire radio industry, Kersta pointed .out, has been supported so far by several hundred millions of dollars yearly. (See separate Kersta tele^^. vision story). ' . It indie AM stations are hit as hard by tele- as their managers now think,, it will probably be those which specialize in sports -that wiU go under first. In case of WHN, owned by Loew's, Inc., sports account for 2*% of the station's total programming sched-«> ule during an - avetfage midsummer week and fo^. about - one^ttaird'. of:' WHN's total gro.ss income., Station's sales chief; Bert Lebhar, Jr., hav already gone on record as declaring that WHN will have'to And another specialty once tele gets really roll- ing. Sports have -long been tele's btead and liutter and Lebhar is fidly kwUre that n'odistentir will w^nt just tc| listen to a' sports eve^t -w^heii he can wtitch it, too. ', -" DaytiMe VMe*'s .LimlitatUns As for' those local indies whose programming comprises mostly disk jockey and platter shows, no one is willing to predict the outcome., It's long been pointed out that the-range of daytime video shows ^.will be limited, since housewives won't be able to concentrate their attention on a tele screen and still complete their chores abbut. the- house. Talk is already going around, however^'of styling soap operas for Tailio and tele simultaneously, meaning they would be available on both sight and sound but that a housewife could get the story idea by merely listen- ing to. the show, ' That's one of the ideas being worked over by the radio net no-w considering combining its AM and tele operations into one station. Web believes the station could program such shows during daytime ■ houfs.- Even sports pickups could be aired simultaneously, with one announcer handling both media at .tlfls- .same time. Come the evening hours, how- ever, and the station would concen=. trate on tele to the complete ex- clusion of radio, since the statistics quoted above prove the radio audi- ence Will be severely curtailed when it's possible to watch a video show at the-S'ame time. Idea would en- tail a revolutionary change in net- work structure, of course^ and the solution of that problem looms today as the most sticky fly in the oint- ment. ' Almost certain to outride tele's threat are the foreign-language sta- tions, such as WOV, N. Y. Such sta- tions' listeners, it's believed, would continue to favor foreign-language AM shows ovier English te'le shows merely because of the language fac- tor. Advertisers already bankrolling such operations, coasequently, can be expiect#d io continue.' . 63 tools B.O. Boff Contlnu<;d (rem puge 1 ducer of the offering along with liai- son officer Norman SiegeL Latter is with Paramount's ■ studio publicity staff in Hollywood and is serving, for the second time, as the U. S, co- ordinator. '' Contrary to company expectations^ Bob. Hope is not competing with other perforipers on the bill, pre- ferring not to hog the shf>w. That his comic routines are more or less under wraps is probably due to the. fact the comedian has- been under strict physician's restraint brought about by a severe , cold contracted during two previous Sunday broad- casts. Mean-sVhile^ he's conserving his Strength for his allotted-10 min-r utes..' ■ Hyen though the visiting Ameri- cans Claim ' the present spell of weather is comparable to that of California^; Robert Montgomery is also suffering from a. chill.: - Nevcr- -theless both Hope and Montgomery have been determined to appear. - .Program teed-'off with a screen- ing -of Samuel! Goldwyn's "Bishop's Wife'^- followed by a Royal Wedding film lensed in jTechoicolor. Stage presentation opened with a recitav tion by. Ralph Richardson'followed by Kleron Moere who introduced the,' British contingent in a series' of? blackouts and; excerpts of tbeir .films, , Richardson -returned to introduce Alexis Smith,and Craig Stevens in' a skit," paving 'the way for some reminiscences of Robert Montgom- ery concerning hi.s war experiences. Carole Landis then sings Irving Ber- lin's '"White Christmas." Hope closed, including W.k;' radiq. sijgnature son^;. "Thanks'for the..Memory," using . specially' written iifiterpolated lines.' He' then introduced David Niven. Later, in iSrh, introed 1m- retta 'Young:;' Both stars^-.who appear in "The Bishop's Wife," exchanged' Hollywood experiences, ; the a^tor exiting to leave-Miss Young; to close the show-with an Anglo-Anju^can relationship message pfinned by Rob- ert E. Sher,wood. With the sliow's fift^de, stars and producers were then formally pre- sented to their Majesties and Prin- cess MargAret. Show and trimmings lasted more than three hours,. Disttib renttalsy It was said, will not be far-behind the peftk ye^r of 1946, and in a number of companjes may even be higher. That's where'the economies will eventually show their effect. , Theatre business is exceedingly .vj.-and-down from week-to-week,' majors report, but overall is con- sic'.erably less than 10% off from last year's alltime; top. Bottom was hit during July and August—marking the (irst time since pre-war that the usual summer slun^p wa^ felt— and has risen steadily since. Figures of one of the largest affiliated cirr cuits show, for" instancej that busi- ness was off 9% in July and Au- gust, 5% in.September, 3%. in Octo- ber and 3% so far in November, ■ These 'percentages on grosses, - of course, should not foe. confused with profits,: since costs of operation showed a continuous rise until re- cently. This naturally cut into the net. Concerning the general economic outlook^ one of the financial experts for a major 'disftrib declared: "Our fears of a depression or recession were based on a fall in demand for comm'odities, which would have happened already if it were going to. As a result, the domestic out- look is now excellent. Employment is at an alltime high, salaries are'at top lavd,- profits are . tremendous and there^»: no indication that the V. S. -won't be called u^pn - for heavy exports for years^ho matter how'those-.exports are paid for. As long,, as-, that foreign demand con^ tinues; in -addition to our own pent-: Up-wants,'there's certainly nothing' to fear.- We are going ahead on that basis.-' Jacks aod Jukaa CMrti^ned. inm iMKe 4^ Si- ballads. A' 'slnglSton-^ release, «'ril Dance at Your Wedding," with Clark doing the refrain to Ray Noble's band also offers click, promises. Acnes Maorehead ha^ set down on wax her brilliant interpretation of the neurotic' murder,' v i.c ti m in "Sorry, Wrong Numbeif." The Decca album retains all,the terror and- taut- suspense buildup '«f: thei radio play by .Oiucille Fletcher, now irated as ar classic in its field.: I#s-on exceptional ' piece o£recording, technically and. in the transplanting, of: the scripts ' Alvy West makes his debut- in a Columbia album with eight charm- ing little pieces that the. pure, jazz form addicts should dote on and. the jockeys may find handy when-they want to depart from the commei^cial and wax "academic." yfest, who rides a dreamy alto sax, achieves some decidedly different effects with his chamber jazz patterns where the beat is the main thing and the melr ody wanders , in on occasion. Fithi Profits as CoBtinued from pace 1 ss ent economies, which have definitely brought down production budgets, will only start to be felt in the last half of '48 and won't show full swing results until' the next' year, it was agreed. The iive majors owning theatres will have to draw heavily on the profits of their: circuits during the next 12 months to ke^ up dividend payments, execs said._ They agreed that there is little prospect of any fui-ther appreciable 'decline ir thea- tre receipts. On the distribution side, however, the> actions of - various foreign gov- ernments in restricting American' film remittances are just beginning: to be felt and will reach a peak next year. It is not until the new econo- mies show up in the amortization tables that the foreign drop will be b 'unced off. Statements already issued show profits for the current year consid- erably off, it was stated, but that does not reflect the gi-osses. Net drops are largely a result of the way picture costs have gone up. Freedom Train ; 'Clulitlaued from p»t* -t.im the fsiFreedom Train has brought a storm of protest here, i Furore broke when Mayor Pleas- ants disclosed city's dec^ion that -white and Negro visitors to the train would rliavt^ -to have, separate hours for . visitl&e same. Lociil press qi^ckly checked with the sponsors, the American' Heritage Foundation in -New -York, and -was -told that under such circumstances The Free- dom caravan, could :not come to Memphis. City fathers replied that was:just too bad—so what! - Result w&s' a snowball of indigna- tion from all sidesr both local news-. papers. Hie American Veterans C6m- mitteei-sfeverdl tfiiniSters and scores 'of iitivate <eitizens giving vent to thdr rage-a:t the city's attitude in no uncertain terms. : The^Comm'ercial' Appeal, usually extremely conservative and "south- ern" in racial matters,'declared-edi- torially that "the r^usal of the local authorities Outrages flie sense of fair pl^,, sets-'Memphi»- apart aS' a city -wbiH°« fredQm.'csbnot literally show its head, and wi&holds from its citizens, an, event historical and in- spirational that never will be offered again. It is a grave mistake,. the magnitude of which will become increasingly apparent as • the train rolls on through, the South and the rest of .the nation,Jt Immediately a half-dozen .Missis«^' sippi, Tennessee and Arlcansas cities began clamoring for the'date origi- nally planned- for Memphis, all as<<- serting there would be no segregation, or discrimhiation-\«rithin their limfts. Ministers spoke out in their pulpits against the Crijuip Administration for the first time. Even the Memphis Labor Review, "AFL weekly here, ^hlcb, tor ye&xs has bent the sup- pliant knee to the Crump machine, blared forth with a double-column editorial in boldface type on page one. headed "Shame On You, Mem-- phis!"- The pressure has grown so hot that on Sunday (23) Mayor Pleas- ants took tQ the air over every local radio station with a 10-minute re- corded "defense" of the city's action. Time was ' devoted largely ' to per- sonal castigation of the policy's critics. Beginning at 12:15 noon and continuing at interval's until 4:15' in the afternoon, the mayor's platter was aired over WMC, KWEM, WHBQ, WREC, WMPS, WHHM and WDIA. His honor claimed he wa.'sn't getting a fair ibreak in the press o'n the matter, but said little on the air that hadn't been printed in the_ daily gazettes. Only, two months ago, same city administration's censor, Lloyd T. Binford, again gained national notoriety by banning the Mai-y Mar- tin company of "Annie, Get Your Gun" from the stage at Ellis audi- torium because' of the preseiice of three Negroes in minor roles for one sccntf,■ ■ , Lavery Continued from pige 2 J is relatively unimportant. The screen writer a.ttitude is that the vital part of the entire question is simply the principle of licensing, mstead of sale of written material. Despite the opposition of a minor- ity in SWG, the leaders in the or- gan ijsation; believe - that the AAA idea, particularly the propcsedf as- signment of author copyright to a special agency, is Impractical. They doubt that even, the SWQ. member- ship would approve it, and are cer- tain that the other League affiliates, the .Dramatists Guild, Authors Guild and Radio Writers , Gpild, , would never accept it., ; In any case, thieir attitude- is that the League should endorse the principle of lic«nse of material, and try to work out ^ method «f estab- lishing it through tbe fisting affili- .Lavery's Reverseroo Emmet ..Lavery,. fis three-time president'pf the Screen Writers- Guild, is actively: concerned in the current effort of the author . field to establish the practice of lease rather than outright- sale of literary material. Recently his son. Emmet, Jr., .who hopes to become a film producer, asl^d "his father for the rights on *m» of^his old legit, scripts, a 'Who- dunit titled "The Desperate Lady." •' For the price of $lr/Lavery sold him the script outright, in- cluding- all subsidiary, rights. ate guilds. ll*s pointed put that the Dramatists. .Guild . established the licensing setup iii rthe legit field years ago, and the Radio Writers in- cluded the baisic principle of licensing in their ne-w minimum'basic-contract with the networks.JPhe Authors Guild has also achieved at 'iMst a step in that direction in its new con<* tract with Random Hou^, ,which is likely to be. tbe |>atteni foi* -agree- ments ' with' the ij^iSaiSt publishing houses. Only the Screen 'Writers have been- unable to make ahy.' 'Substantial progress toward.' eistablisHihg the licensing principle in-their contract with the studios,:although.individual scenarists -and authors from other fields have worked out such deals with. the pictiur^ a>m^ies» Accord- : ing to certaln-Ot Its^leaders, the SWG cwould have-mUch better chance of putting over. the licensing idea in . the next contract with, the studios if . thfrlLeagui^ and the affiliate guilds.; woihd adopt it as ao -over-all policy. Such ■ action ' would, the' SWG heads believe, not meitSi^. ^provide moral suppori; for. th* njiKMii.Miters in' theil: n«xt iiegot£riti<>ns%ith the stu- - dioS,.'fout M^oiild clbse-a'prospective source ot outright-sale literary ma- terial for the fdm companies. ' As it happens, the SWG has re- craUy.-been contacted-by-the French scenarists' organization with the 'idea _ of working-6ut an agreement on the', basic principle of'licwdttK-.M ma- terial. The British screen writers have always mal&tafned the principle t>f licensing as- opt^ied- to sMe -of material in their d<»li^ tirlfh Eng- lish studios. ' 3 S Continued -freat, pac«' 2 i as his main reason for refusing to go on with the shgw. He's counter- Iclaiming against Helprin toi $1.3,$05 damages. . ' ' ' • When .Robinson and troupe ar- rived Jan. 14, \9*S, for the one-night stand, the Armoiy Was a 'sellout, both sides concede, Robinson, how- ever, after sizing up the stage, said no dice and ordered Helprin to re- fund: thie tickets. He's claiming^n his answer that the stage was too shaky and small, that there .was no room" for him to '"dance, and that lighting, curtitins, electrical appar- atus, eUi.; were defective- Troupe immedi^teiy returited to Kew York. RobinsoH'-Hcilpeia pjwt' pi'ovided thkt the. tatt», as' doHcert manager and producer, would supply a suit- able stage.' For his promotion, he was' to get 35% of the gross, with Robinson taking the balance. Robinson's cross - action demands $1,335 for transportation expense, of his troupe; $2,170 as his share of the' receipts; and $10,000 for the loss: of reputation 'Which he contends re- sulted from a disappointment of th» customers and a consequent bad word-of-raouth. ' ' , . ; Jonas T. Silverstone is attorney , for Helprin, lyhile Harold M. Gold*- bi^tt'r^ t<ii? Robinson.