Variety (Nov 1948)

irednesday, NoveuiiNir 10, 1948 nCTIJRES INDIES ASK SAY IN (TSEAS DEAI^ Danny Kaye... And*Hamlet' There's a lesson to show business and to world relations in such divergent Instances as Danny Kaye's grip on the British public .. . and th« resounding click In America of Sir Laurence olivler's fllmlzatlon (Via the J. Arthur Ranlt Organization) ol "Hamlet." That's the QED on almost anything and everything as regards creating a frontier on art. Show business brooks no drawn lines on talent. It has been so for centuries and whatever the friqtional nuances of hyper-accentuated Nationalistic restrictions, the pub- lic is the final arbiter. - Mr. Truman proved it last week; the American public Is proving it with their acceptance of what is theoretically a "class" picture, in Olivler's "Hamlet" (and that goes; too, for "Red Shoes"), and certainly both the public and' peerage In Britain have manifested It anew in the Instance of Ka-ye. Show business has witnessed all sorts of emotional eruptions, Some spontaneous (like Valentino), some synthetically Induced (viz., Sinatra), and both, incidentally, quite lasting, no matter their origins. But any of these instances is Invariably 100% Yankee Doodle Dandy-inspired and perpetuated. You can't con the British that way, and even until this summer, as reports continued to percolate about what a sensation Kaye was at the Palladium, it was difficult to accept wholly until this writer re- appraised it for himself. It remains a phenomenon of inexplica- ble motivation, excepting that Kaye's click was more humanly touching than merely his prowess as a great single entertainer. In a lesser measure, the same emotions were struck by two other American exports, both legit musicals,"Oklahoma!" first and later "Annie Get Your Gun," wherein Dolores Gray likewise cap- tured the Imagination of the British public. Kaye's career Is capped, of course, by the extraordinary coup- ling of this comical kid from Brooklyn with Winston Churchill as "heroes" of the traditional Guy Fawkes Day, an historical high- light in British annals dating back to 1605 when Fawkes tried to blow up the House of Lords. Incidentally, not the least bf it is Jack Warner's showmanship' in interrupting a shooting schedule—no small item in these con- servation days—to permit Kaye's 12,000-mile flight from Holly- wood to London and back (within a fortnight), just to appear at the annual fete on behalf of the Variety Artists Federation. But discarding th6 b.o. hypo and its accumulative values, Kaye, like Olivier, proves the show '■biz axiom—give 'em quality and they'll buy it no matter where It comes from. Abel. lATSE s Walsh Tlirowing Weight Into Repealing Taft-Hartley Act Richard F. Walsh, IntemationaU Alliance Of Theatrical Stage Em- ployees president, is throwing his JaCK ilOetZ DaCK at KeD weight behmd labor's post-election r drive to repeal the Taft-Hartley law. Declaring that the closed shop in the tlveatrical and film, in- dustries had promoted stability over the past 50 years, the lA chief tagged the T-H law as "an obnox- ious thing that should be stricken from the statutes." Walsh said, however, .that the currjnt labor law has thus far had little impact upon general show biz industrytlabor relations beyond being an ''an annoyance." The full eiteGt of the T-H clause banning the closed shop, if It's still in force, will be felt in August, 1949 when the general basic. agreement cover* ing studio workers expires. The major film 1 a b o r contractSi he pointed out, were written before passage of the T-H law. | Walsh's main gripe, however, ' was. against Governmental inter-1 ference in the operation of the | film industry. "When the farmers 1 or the steel industry run into' trouble they get a subsidy," he | said, "but when the theatrical in- dustry needs help, everybody tries to run It out of business." Refer- I ring to the Government suits against the majors, Wal&li said, (Continued on page 18> Jack Goetz, who. previously op- erated liis own organization, has been named special, consultant on laboratory and studio aclivities for.: Republic, according to an announcement made yesterday (Tues.), by company prez Herbert J. Yates. He'll be active 'in both Republic and its affiliate, Consoli- dated Film- Industries. Long associated with Yales in CFI, Goetz had been plant man- ager of Erbograph, wiiitli the Re- public chief merged with two other laboratories to form CFI. Goetz stepped out on his own in 1930. 'T Indie producers bluntly informed Eric Johnston Ust week they could not guarantee the cooperation he asked with the majors abroad un- less they were consulted before the Motion Picture Assn. of America made Industry-embracing deals with foreign nations. MPAA top- per retorted that since the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers has been without a presi^ dent. or executive secretary sincc^ last January he didn't know to whom to turn to get an official ex- pression of indie opinion. Exchange of views came at a lengthy faeart-to.'heart session be- tween Johnston and indie execs at MPAA headquarters in New.- York last Thursday (4). Repping the producers were Grad Sears^ presi-. dent of United Artists! James A. Mulvey, president of Samuel Gold- wyn- Productions; Dan O'Shea, presi- dent of David O. Selznick's Van- guard 'Films;. Roy Disney* prexy of Walt Pisney Productions; Harry Kosiner, sales chief for Edward Small; and Robert J. Rubin, coun- sel for SIMPP. Meeting was on a completely friendly plane. Johnston called for cooperation specifically in three terrltories-^England, France and iContinued on page 22) Selznick'^ Mb Via UA Would Ease His $25,000 Weddy Overhead ATLANTA BANS 'ROPE'; SHOWN IN SUBURBS Atlanta, Nov. 9. Alfred Hitchcock's "The Rope" was yanked last week when Miss Christine Smith, Atlanta's film cen- sor, banned the Warner Bros, pic CIO H.O. Guilds Reverse Field On Taft-Hartley Law Facing a rout from tlie home- Office labor field, two; GIO white- collarite guilds are reversing their field in moves to file the non-Com- munist affidavits required under the Taft-Hartley law. For the last six months, all major companies, excepting Eagle Lion, have refused to bargain with both the Screen Publicists Guild and Scu'on Office & Professional Employees Guild because of their non-conformance stand. Initial step towards signing was Arnold to File New Suit in SWG Fight ' To Ban 'Blacklist' Hollywood, Nov. 9. Following dismissal of the suit brought against the majors in N.Y. federal court,. Thurman Arnold, at- torney for Screen Writers Guild, has advised the SWG exec board he win file an amended complaint to quash blacklisting of scripters by members of the Association of Motion Picture Producers. Statement: from Arnold in Wash- ington said: "Careers of plaintiffs and testimony before the Thomas committee must be removed from complaint^ but may be introduced at trial. Material, essential to our cause of action, at which the' de- fendant struck, is to be allowed to stand, Most important of all, mo- tion of defendants to strike is otherwise denied. That means their demands to have great sections of complaint stricken,. as set forth in their original motion, are not to be complied with. It was these thrusts at substantive matter which threat- ened the cause of action and these have been turned aside by the court." Judge Says'Be Concise' . i In granting last week the dis- missal motion. New York federal judge Samuel H. Kaufman gave leave to the guild to file an amended complaint. He advised the plaintiffs to omit as evidence the lengthy enumeration of writ- ings and plays, telling them to con-, centrate on a more concise presen-; tation of their e'videnee. Suit was filed by the SWG June 1 under the: Federal anti-trust ilaws. It followed the resolution I adopted in. N. Y. by the Motion I Picture Assn. of America against the hiring of any writers with a known Communist backgrotmd. SWG-AMG AGREE ON PRACTICES CODE Hollywood, Nov. 9. New "code of fair practice" formulated by exec boards of Screen Writers Guild and Artists Managers Guild limits agents to 10% commission. - Also a.ssures for local showing, City Censor I taken over the weekend wlicn the writers proper submissions on their Board voted four to one against parent body, United Office & Pro film, which was slated to play at fessional Workers ot America, 5'ox Theatre, Lucas & Jenkins de- luxe 4,400-seater. Local WB officials made no for- mal protest against banning, but booked "Rope" into Emory thea- u-e, 800-seat suburban Iiouse jocated in silk stocking neighbor- voted to sign up. At a membership meeting Monday (8), SOPF.G also voted to conform. SPG is expected to follow suit after its exec board meeting todaj (Wed.i. The unions switclied in order to' get on the ballot in several collective bargain- hood adjo^-iiTrK- UnivVng elections scheduled for home- campus. . [ (Continued on page Z\) stories, offers protection from agent-producers who might want , to tie up a yarn exclusively and gives assurance that an agency employe mutually agreed upon 1 will handle scripter's property. Code is work of joint committee of two organizations. Most bene- fits accruing to writers are not in- I eluded in present standard con- j tracts. Sears Held East Grad Sears, United Artists prez, who was slated, to leave New York I for the Coast last week, has post- i poned ' his departure until next; week. He has been delayed by con- fabs in the east with David O. Selz- nick, who may have UA do part of his distribution, and with Walter Wanger, whose pix UA may also distribute. Ai'thur Wi Kelly, UA exec v. p., has returned to New York from the Coast. Board meeting may be held later this week or early next week in the event it is necessary for the directors to pass on the deals now pending. See David Loew Joining Sherman s hdie Operations David Loew, who has been part- nered with Charles Einfeld in the Enterprise unit for the past three years, is reported joining forces with Harry Sherman when the Ent organization disbands at the end of this year. Sherman owns the California Studios, which Eiit had leased from him to house its pro- duction activities. New setup, it is understood, will have Loew financing indie pro-; ducers who work on the Sherman lot. Sherman is turning it back , into a rental studio. Several other I rental studios, notably that of the Nasser Bros., have been endeavor- ing to get tenants by holding out the bait of financing. Loew, prior to establishing Ent, had at various times participated in adVairicihg coin to producers. Loew may also produce "Tqn-: nessee^s Partner" on the Sherman lot. The properly belonged to Sherman and was to have been produced by him for Ent. He is understood to have turned it over ' to the unit as part of the settle- ment by which he got the studio back. Sherman will, also return to producing westerns himself. DENEAU VICE KUSELL; KRAMER LESS ACTIVE Selznick Releasing Organization's board of directors, after meeting Monday (8), announced the resig- nation of Milton Kusell, general sales manager, from company. Sid- ney E. Deneau, Kusell's assi.stant, was named by the board to post of general manager of domestic dis- tribution effective yesterday (Tues.). SRO's total sales force in U. S. and Canada will henceforth work under Denea'u, one of the youngest sales managers in the in- dustry. Kusell, in mutual parting of the ways with SRO, will remain with the company for several more weeks. Board of directors also set up a triumvirate to handle top manage- ment of the company's domestic affairs. Trio includes Paul MaCr Namara, vice-prexy over pub-ad- vertising; Leonard Case, treasurer;: and Deneau. Milton Kramer, board' chaii-man I and counsel of SRO, has been i gradually diminishing his' active , participation in the affairs of the company. One of the reasons is his recent election . to the presi- dency of The Cuba Co., which owns . the only railroad and a number of -sugar mill.s in Cuba. Kramer had previously served as its counsel. In the absence of a top foreign exec, Kramer has be^n handling that department of SRO himself for the past year. Recently. Case and Betty Goldsmith, Kramer's aide, at SRO, have been directing foreign activities in the h.o. and; the men in the field have assumed J more autonomy. ♦ Current distribution talks with United Artists by David O, Selz- nick are part of the general re-: trenchment' plans on which tlie' producer embarked about four months ago. Selznick's policy is to sit out the present uncertainties on the domestic boxofflce front- and the difficulties of getting coin out of foreign markets. : Pr'oducer is not only continuing his plan of ducldng any new fea-* ture filming for the time being; but has also shelved'for a couple years his scheme for actively get-; ting into the television field. He had been planning to make shorts/ for video, but has come to the con-i elusion that it would be uneco- nomic until the' revenue potential builds. ' The UA deal is in a rather tentav five state. If it goes through, a skeleton force of Sielznick Releas- ing Organization execs will handle; sales to important circuits and U-A will, peddle the product to the les', ser accounts. UA would also handle physical distribution of SRO prod- uce,: which is now done by a syn- dicate of film delivery agencies. • The tieup with UA would solve/ I one of Selznick's major problems, (Continued on page 20) ^ UD (Par) Counters That SIMPP Toppers Must Appear Personally Detroit, Nov. 9. Attorneys for United Detroit Theatres, Paramount - affiliated chain, and the Society of Indepen- dent Motion Picture Producers again clashed this week on the question of whether top indie pro- ducers must personally come to Dc- troit to be queried on SIMPP's $8;- 750,000 anti-trust action against UDT and Cooperative Theatres of Michigan. New brief was filed by SIMPP lawyers against an application to examine Walt' Disney, David O. / Selznick, Samuel Goldvvyn and others, stating that these filmmak- ers were busy in Hollywood in; daily supervision of production ac- tivities. These producers cannot spare the :■ time to make the trip ; to Detroit, brief argued. Moreover, it is claimed that the producers do not. personally know the facts al* leged in their complaint. Rockwell Gust, attorney for UDT, countered with a news clip : which showed that Selznick is in New York, not the Coast. In a let-- ter to the court, he declared that if Selznick could take time out . to visit Gotham, he could make it his business to be in Detroit; SIMPP action, filed several: months back, charges the two de- fendants with conspiring to keep down film rentals in the Detroit larea. I EINFELD CHECKS IN AT I 20TH AS PUB-AD V.P. I Hollywood, Nov. 9. i Charles Einfeld has cheeked into i 20th-Fox- and reportedly will ink a ! contract: as' firm's '.new ad-pub top- \ per toward the end of this week. I He's currently looking at product 1 with, it's understood, a view fo- rward determining campaigns for 1 various pix. He'll headquarter in New York with frequent trips ; here. Taplinm Joining Up Robert Taplinger is - reported joining 20th-Fox when Charles Einfeld takes over officially as v.p. in charge of advertising and pub- licity Jan. 1. Taplinger was pub- licity chief under Einfeld when the latter headed Warner Bros, pub-ad department and was pub-ad topper of Enterprise, in which Einfeld was partnered with David Loew. It is also understood that Bill Blowitz, Ent publicity head, may accompany Einfeld into the 20th organization. Exactly what posts Taplinger and Blowitz would fill is said not yet to have been def- initely determined.