Variety (Mar 1948)

48 LKGITIMATK Wedneadajr, Miufdi 3, 1948 Strawhal, (let Eqd; ^ce-Over Principal issue b^ing considered+- by Equity's council is the possible revision o£ tlie new regulations for: stock, especially as applicable to strawhats. Protests were made to the coun- cil last week by a group o£ stock managers, and a session between them and Equity's conunitte<; was held Friday (27), when the straw- hatters voiced their views. Equity's idea is to try the code before nsak- ing changes but the suggestions of the stock people may lead to some modiiioations. Slock bunch complained that il had not been queried for opinions as to the practicabiEty ot, somt changes in the rules, but it's reported that the actors': committee had con- sulted with Milton Stiefel, pvesideirl- of the stock mstnagers association, which meets sporadically. Strawhat- ters contended that all summer stocks should not be subject to all the new rules because of the dif- ferences in capacities, a suggestio:» that was regarded as logical by Equity's committee. The rural managers of smaller stocks stated they will be forced out of business because of' the r ule re- quiring stock casts to be 7S% Eq|uity. They argued that summer stccL' theatres which gross less than $3,000- will be unable to operate. It is pos< sible, therefore, tliat the small out- fits, will • be exempt from the perr centage regulation, as Equity is not inclined to crimj? summer stock ac- tivities except those individuals who liave .Allegedly chissSled by "guai- teeiog" Eqiuity memberships to their drama school grads. OK With Some ' Some strawhatters made no ob? jections, they, specializing on pack- age shows or unit stocks, which vir- tually troupe the "circiat.''. Others stated the regulation of apprentices was desirable. Sliggestions . were made whereby a director shall be required to .go in'advance of partial pacKage shows and provide the local manager with »-pirompt bo<^ which would dimiimte -weelcend aiiguments which' atise when temparamental stars arrive expecting the local sup- porting cast to-have been competent- ly^ rehearsed. Stock men have asked the Dra* matists Guild to reconsider its new rule whereby 5% royalty applies; to all stocks. Guild has been asked to replace that requirement with a gradtiated'percentage scale, also dC' pendent on fhe house capacity. The custom has been for play brokers who contract for stock performances set the amount of royalty, they being familiar with stock operators 'and gross possibilities. Minimum roy- alty, in the smaller :spots would con tinue to be $75 per; week per play If the Gtiild makes -.the concession, but in larger houses " the royalty would be as much as^ $750. That amount of royalty would apply to 1,400-seaters, some strawhats having that capacity.. Actual seating capacity may be fair but '.lt's the. gross that counts. Pointed out that a- 4S0-seater frc' quently got $150 or less,-on we^day Djghts la^t summer - and ' the stode was lucky to gross $1,000 on the week, and tliat in a fairly jilopulous summer ar^a. : St. Louis, March 2. "Sari" and '"Rio^Rita,'' two of tile most popular musicol exti'avagsnsias with the Muncipal Theatre. Assn., sponsor of allresw entertaininent in thfe (jpen-aif Forest park playhouse, ate Bkedded foi- a return engagement during the 1948 season that tees ofl June 3. - Season probably will start with presentation of the world preem bf Hugo Abercfotobie's "A u 1 d' I- a n g Syne," .'-fy Chicago will have replicas of at least two current Broadway hjts in late- spring or early aumro^r, and (4hei^ may' follow suit. Buo to he readied soon are"A Stoeetcar Named Desire," dramatic elide, and "High Button Shoes," one of the season's musical standouts. Both No. 2 troupes are due into rehearsal late this month. There has been talk of putting out another compsaiy of "Mister Hoherts," Broad- Mray5s newest sensational comedy- c^ajnac but the management has not setJdusly considered the idea, al- thdugh It's a possibility foi^next f?iil, .One of the leads for "Shoes" wiH be Eddie Foy, Jr., who was slated for a revival of "SaUy," planned by Hunt fStronrfierg, Jr. Latter placed Foy under contract but failed to contracts have finally been signed j deposit tte salary-guarantee money THE ENGUSfl, ffiDPLS., GOMAMOmYBM Indianapolis, March 2. Sale of English hotel buildinj.:, jii- cUiding the English theatre, to Equitable Life Insurance Co. for. 82,100,000 has been approved in probate court: Plan is to demolish building and put up a J. C. Penney department store on site. B u-t further legal entanglements and building difficulties are expected to; Iteep 68-year-old theatre going at least another" season. . Meanwhile, Murat, old Shubert house owned by the Shrine, is be- ing groomed to take over United Booking office fi-anehise, with pos- sibility that Keith's, now operated as film house by Gamble^Dolle group, entering situation, ?n Plans to move Jean-Paul Sartre's "Tiie Respectful Prostitute" from n downtown little theatre to, Broad- way were .stymied' for a tJine 6ut kkfe Sbiff-4ept Wand fait Me/ At Central City, My Denver^ March 2. Frank St. Leger, Metropolitan Opera Co, executive will again di- rect the Central- City play festival operas at the 70Tyear-old opera house in Central City, 45. miles west of here in the mountains^ Operas this^ year will he Offen- bach's "Tales of Hoffman" and MoMrt's "Cosi Pan Tutte" (They All Do It"). Presented, in alternate performances, the festival will run for .26 performances over three Weeks, starting; July 3. Both operas will be presented in English. Ebsen's Bonfils Comedy Denver, March 2. ,. Bonflls & Somnes (Helen Bonfils •nd her husband, George Somnes), *'wlU produce "Honest John," a „ comedy by Buddy Ebsen, with Ebsen playing the lead, , Somnes goes to California this week to. talk the production over with £b«en. for the switch. The show wiU open uptown at the Cart, March 16, house becoming available through the failure of Ibsen repertory of "Ghosts" and "Hedda' Gablei:" (Eva Le Gallienne)\ New Stages, a group of actors who presented the short drama at lirst, demurred, because stock conditions which apply in the little house ace out on- Broadway so far as the stage unions; are conr cerned. Equity excepted. - Having already made two presen- tations. New Stages is established as stodt by Equity, New :Stages having followed "Lamp at Midnight" with "An Evening of Two Plays," consisting of the Sartre work and Church Street," 'a curtain raiser. In addition to a regular backstage crew, ; regulation house, company maitager and press agent, plus box- office staff, will be installed, but the actors can continue on pay at the stock minimum of $50 weekly.. When the attraction moves to the Cort "The Happy Journey" by Thornton Wilder will replace "Street" . ' Juupeil- 'fal $S,OM'' "Prostitute" Jumped to capacity right after opening, the gross in the 300-seater downtown being around $5,000 weekly: Atthe Cort possible takings will be more than three times that figure, reason why the producing j;roup decided to comply with the unions' requirementSi, There are 100 actors hailing shares in New Stages, plus 15 others, in-: eluding, backstage and front-of-the-; house staff. Even if the Sartre play lives up to its promise, those in- terested will get but moderate profits-. . . Expected thai some of the dialog in "Trostie" wUl be.toned down for Broadwiay. .When the double bill was presented there were .half a- dozen teams of alternates for the leads, especially for the Sartre drama, but that was found to be impractical. New Stages will con- tinue in its downtown berth with revivals and prohaWy some new playt, it being the original idea that all players In the group be given a chance to appear. But there ai-c only seven in the "Prostie" cast. A tour of college auditoriums is being arranged for "Lamp," based oh the life of Galileo. Fresh capital was required to fi- nance the Sartre play's Broadway showing, money coming from the outside, latter to aet 25% of the profits, with 75% going to New Stages. There will be no union concessions for stock performances at the Cen- ter this spring either, nor were there any when a six-week winter season was encouragingly received there recently. for the show with Equity up to the time the show was to have "gone into rehearsal, which made Foy free to accept the, "Shoes" assignment. It's , understood young Stromberg was stymied in raising the backing for "Sally." "Roberts" is feasible for run stands such as Chicago but there's a production problem to be solved be- fore it can be roadshown. It re- quires over two days to set up the ship scene, which is principally used, and when the try out moved from New Haven to Philadelphia- over a weekend the first performance at the latto.' stand could not be played until Tuesday, and- the same applied when "Roberts" went from PhiUy to Baltimore, Its Broadway debut was on a Wednesday- Several Sunday (29) papers went to to.wn for "Mister Roberts" in fol- lowup comments. New TTork reviewers backing up their original rave notices. All the critics were in accord on the comedy-drama. In the Daily News the play with a wartime Naval background was rated as "per- fection" on the stage by John Chapmsin but Bob Sylvester, the drama editor, was in disagreement. In a letter to the drama editor (signed by "R. MacPherson Sylvester") he said that while Thomas Heggen's book ol the same title was the best picture of Navy life in the Pacific yet writ- ten, "Roberts" the- play lost most of the novel's authenticity "f6r the sake of burlesque situations and forced bcllylaughs." Sylvester, who was in the Navy during the war, describes him.self, in the letter to himself, as "a retired, resigned and repudiated chief petty officer, USNR." An indefinite number of theatre parties could have been sold for "Roberts" but»,producer Xleland Hayward shut down on such deals after 21 had been accepted. Parties include matinees arranged for women's dub, the piain gobs' talk being no deterrent. Parties including noatinees have been contracted; too, for "The Hallams" wliich opens at the Booth Thursday (4), package deals extending through April. There are still pro and con opinions over the value of parties among managers. Party agents generally get 5% for handling such deals. ' Principal backer of Sammy LambeVt's musical, "Hold It," is understood to be Anthony B. Farrell, a newcomer to show business financing. He's an Albany manufacturer and. became acquainted with Lambert through mutual friends. Farrell is reported to have put up $189,000 of the required $200,000 for the show, depositing a check for thie amount" to Lambert's account some weeks before the scheduled start of rehearsals. "Hold It" is I^mbert's first try a* a producer. He was previously stage manager for Michael Todd. V It's believed the $189,000 hankroU is one of the largest single units of show backing in years. A siaeable wad at. financing was reported to have been supplied by one person for Henry Adrian's production of "The Girl from Nantucket" several seasons ago, and Mrs. Lorraine Manville Dre.ssel« buys put up a major part of the coin for the $400,000 production of "Rhap- sody" three spsons ago. Feature in the current issue of Fortune mag spotlights the "system" employed for successful angeling by Jack Seidman, partner i» the account- ing firm of. Seidman & Seidman and an active legit backer since the early 1930'S. His formula for"what will sell in the theatre/' the piece states, is to place 100% emphasis upon the script itseU. When assaying a play he doesn't weigh possible advantages to be gained via casting and direction. If these turn out to be okay, so much the better, but he opined "they can never be tempting enough to turn a bad play into a good risk." According to Fortune, Seidman already has chalked up a 100% return on an $80,000 investment in "Bridgadoon." Other .plays in which bis "system", worked out were "Lady in the Dark"," "Three Men on a Horse," "Room Service" et al. Some of the carriage trade at the two opening nights of "Tonight at 8:30," revived at the National, N.Y,, abused the non-smoking rule within the theatre during intermissions; some also used lighters to read the pro- gram. However, the house has a smoking alleyway reached through doors at the back of the house. A numl^r of patrons carelessly stood in the foyer with lighted cigarets inistead of stepping, through- the door- ways, and they disregarded warnings of the u^ers. latter stamped out lighted butts, and there were complaints made to the front of the house. SkakyFmancesCne Frib Reiner {{uittmg Pftt Synqih for Met Pittsburgh, March 2. Shaky financial condition of Pitts- burgh Symphony Orch is believed by insiders to be the chief reason for resignation of-Fritz Reiner after 10 years. Reiner leaves at end of this season, apparently headed for the Metropolitan Opera Co.. although maestro's new managers, S. Hurok and National Concert Artisjts, insist they have made no definite plans, for him so far. ' ■ It's no secret that Pittsburgh Symph has been having, a rocky time of it last couple of years. In order to keep going this year, local Symph has-had to resort to a num- ber of money ^getting angles, includ- ing a Symphony Ball, railing off of an automobile and extra concerts with non-longhair names. In addi- tion to other troubles, attendance has fallen off considerably this year, and recent imposition of a city tax of 10% on tickets, on top of 20% Federid levy, has further curtailed take. . No permanent conductor will be named to succeed Reiner for 1948- 49, and season is to be run off with string of guest directors. That's what Pittsburgh Symph did in 1937- 38, and from group of visiting maestri that year. Reiner was se- lected as reigulaf leader. Walter Hart's Collab Walter Hart, directing Kormit Bloomgarden's production Of Nor-i guest leader during the first four Seiner's Mpls Date - Minneapolis, March 1. With Dimitri Mitropoulos, Min- neapolis Symph conductor, accepting an invitation to serve as New York Philharmonic maestro during the early part .pf next season, the or- chestra here has engaged Fritz Reiner, who recently resigned as Pittsburgh Symph conductor, as Gilbert Gabriel, former N.Y. drama critic, is, retiuning to Broadway show coverage. He's joined Theatre Arts Magazine, which has been com- bined with. The Stage by Alexander Ince, both monthly magazines. Since leaving the newspaper field Gabriel wrote for studios in Hollywood and was in London for the War Information Bureau but. has spent most of his time authoring of books. When reviewing for the N.Y>. Sun he won VMKEiv'a »Miual. critics boxscore twice and copped three times when'he switched to the American (now Journal-American). • Among those who've made their mark, after being in "The Rise of the Goldbergs" at one. time or another during its 16-year radio history, are Philip Loeb, Garson Kanin, George Tobias, Paul Stewart, Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, Allen Joslyn and Rosemary DeCamp. "Goldbergs" is the l>asis for "Me and Molly." Broadway opener last week which Gertrude Berg adapted'trom her original ladio bbatacters. She and Philip Loeb head the legiter^s cast. Ballet Society WiU Admit PuUic 1st Time Ballet Sociiety will offer a week of ballet to non-subscribers for the first time, in performances at City Center, N. Y., week of April 28. Engagement will see the premiere ot a new ballet, "Orpheus," with music by" Igor Stravinsky and choreography by George Balan- chine, under Ballet Society cominis- sion. Stravinsky will conduct all performances of his work. Opening night will be for sub- scribers only, but subsequent per- formances through May 1 will be open to the public. Event is un- usual in that Ballet Society nor- mally gives members about four performances a season. Society wilt also repeat two ballets preemed this year. Balanchlne is artistic director of the troupe, with leading dancers in- cluding Maria Tallchief, Tanaquil LeClerq, Nicholas Magallanes (who danced in the Broadway legiter, "Music in My Heart," early this sea- son), Herbert Blisss, Maria- Jeanne and Frank Moncion. Two-year-old Society is guided by Xjncoln Kir- stein, art patron, who is its secretary and part-angel. man Rosten's "The Golden Door," is also coHabotating with mag writer Nancy Davids on a dramati- zation of a novel of'iindiscIo.sed title. . In addition, Miss Davids work- ing solo on her first play, an or- iginal drama. weeks of next season, starting Oct. 18. Mitropoulos WiU continue as the local organization's general music director and orchestra conductoi'i with Yves Ciiardon' again as asso- ciate baton^er. Wales On Emporia Date Kansas City, March 2. Margaret Tann Williams, Welsh I contralto, made the long jump from , Cardiff, Wales, to - do a one-day con- cert Tuesday (2) for descendants of the original Welsh settlers at Em- poria, Kan.s. The occasion was their 60th annual St. David's Day observ- I ance. St. David's Welsh Chorus, uii- ; der direction of Ann Davies, ac- companied Miss Williams. Concert, was free to the public, Walter Jones, Lebo, Kans., cattle- man of Welsh .ancestry, paying the ■fees fOf Miss WUlieiils. QosnginRed Dublin Gate' Theatre players, ap- pearing at the Mansfield, N. Y., in Irish repertory, wiU close a disap- pointing engagement of tour weeks on Saturday (6). Visitors offered three plays in many weeks, 'final being "Where Stars Walk," which drew a better press than the first duo but it did mild business air though holding over for the current blowoff stanza. DubUo troupe opened with Ber- nard Shaw's "John Bull's Other Island," followed by "The Old Lady Says No," and it was then clear that the attraction was too limited in appeal. Same house has; had four Irish plays in succession, Dubliners having been preceded by "Kath- leen,"'which la.sted less than a week. Aldrich & Myers presented - the Dublin Gators, headed by Michael Mac Liammoir and Hilton Edwards, in association-^ith Brian Doherty, Toronto attorney-playwright. Latter guaranteed the company 12 weeks, eight of which will have been played at the etid of this week.Troupe may lay off, with Boston a possibility, plus Canadian repeat dates. Aldrich & Myers are out on the venture, with Doherty assuming: any addi- tional red. Ibsen repertory starring, Eva Le Gallienne also stops this weekend, presentations of "Ghosts" and "Hedda Gabler" (current) being flops, too. "Inside U.S.A.''—Arthur Schwarts!. "Hold It"—Sammy Lambert, "Msebe^ih" (revival)—TJieatrc, lac, "Temporary Island"—Experimen- tal Theatre.