Variety (Nov 1948)

Wcdneidsy, November 10, 194S UTKRATI 61 Suoyan's Drama Critiques Gilbert W. Gabriel, recently dropped as drama critic for the new Theatre Arts mag, has con- sulted his attorney regarding the status of his contract with Alexan- der Ince* the publisher. - Mean' while, William Saroyan is covering first-nights for the publication on a gratis basis as a friendship gesture to Inice* He'U handle the assign- pient only for tfre forthcoming issue. Stark Young, formerly critic ; for New Republic, has been ap^ proached to take over permanently. Understood Gilbert's contract called for him to get $250 per article through the summer, but tipping to $500 with the start of the fall season on Broadway. Gilbert Is said to have suggested calling off the deal on a couple of occasions, but was persuaded to reconsider^ subsequently being: notified he was through. Charles MacArthur, editor of the mag, reportedly sought tO: iron out the situation between Gabriel and Ince. Screenland, Silver Screen Sold Ownership of Screenland and Silver Screen last week passed from Liberty Magazine, Inc. to J. Fred Henry, head of the Henry Publishing Co. Purchase of the two fan mags: was: revealed by Henry, who> at one, time was a Dell Publishing Co. veepee. Amount involved in the deal was undis- closed. First issues of Screenland and SS under Henry's aegis will be the February, 1949 numbers. Sale of the publications by Liberty re- portedly was due to a desire of the seller to concentrate its attention : exclusively upon Liberty mag itself. NNPA Convention Set For N.Y. ■ National; Newspaper Promotion Assn. will hold its 1949 convention at the Roosevelt Hotel, N.Y.,. April ' 20r22 according to an announce- ment made last week by convention , chairman Irvin S. Taubkin, of the I N.Y. Times. Others on the convention com- mittee arc: George: Allen. N.Y. Herald Tribune;' Lawrence W. Merahn, N. Y. Sun: Sumner Collins, N.Y. Journal-American; Alex Gross, N.Y. Post Home News; Duncan picture will be released. Shane has rejected the original title as am- biguous for pictures and is cur- rently casting around for a new marquee, monicker: Philly's Book & Author Grubfest Philly Inquirer had a varied group of gue.stees at its Book , and Is something they saw last night, hence they'jre led up with it, be it musicals, whodunits or whatnot. Give them: something new and they'll respond. The main thing today is intent and'content. Picr tures must .have: individuality all their own, and they'll buy them all right. And when they do, SCULLY'S SCRAPBOOK ; ♦ ♦♦♦♦♦t»tt»»»»« By Frank Scully Cracked Corn, Mo., Nov. 6. thPvVA voiir hP<:t iH- pvpi-v pii<!- ' ^" psychiatry it has long been known that "the night has a thou- tomer becomes a'waZJ two- t?»ll'«'day but one." It's the "I" in a guy that drives him nut* sheet. You may suck them in with I l^\P«*'^f"y «t "'8^t. ■ phoney merchandising the first I "ct, the letter "I" is so loaded With trouble that even readers day but the public prefers to bfr-' Scully's Psychiatric Word Book of Hollywood cannot be spared th» lieve -their friends, and not the „„i i„c brutal details. After alii "Idea"? comes under this: category and every Author luncheon held yesterday , , Th-»t'<! whv th'pv rpuptit nav-' one knows that there would be no trouble in Hollywood if certain . Warwick Hotel, I .i. Prices 'B' OTodurt ' P^^Ple didn't get ideas. Out of ideas come "think pictures," and out Phila. Folk sinfier Burl Ives P"j^J;°^^7^.^"^y^[!;j^"iJ,'^ ^ The word "Ideal- ' ism" pops up in this section also, aiid stU o^ the drivtag <poWef feehlhd .jpictures iike "Forever Amberger," "The .JEinpierqir:;Bchinllts?^ the'"Sim:'M'';T;; , ; ■ 'ilti^'^wi^- unattainable ideajis; are said to be:.Jiehin^ addiction to niari-i iuana cigarets, blondes, bookies and otftblii^ts of tenipi!r.^^^^ T^ City pte-Labiir Day. 'They wanted] escape^hatches, though it may be argiied; wd in tact is; atgvied by the horiiegoing vacationists to car-, aviatien executives who double in the picture biz; th^t they arei against^ ^ I'y back with them thC' message the practice of smoking, reefers, because! it's a ch^iper way of flying, they saw a 'diiEerent' picture at | But psychiatrists will tell, except for rages; that there are ho cheap the shore. i ways to fly, and rages often knock the old id around so badly a iiypo ''Bamurn was wrOng; they're not 1 of paraldehyde has to be administered by a pretty nui:sc to bring; the . all .suckers. Let's try making „t, patient back to his old calm scenei^rchewing self. !Sb i^ to the public for a change. They'll '"''•ves, and if smoke gets in your rs, rientember that Hollywood Phila. Folk singer Burl Ives warbled his "Blue Tail Fly" among other of his ditties and also dis-- cussed his -latest tome, "The Way- faring Stranger.'' '. Also on hand were . Betty Mc- Donald ("Egg and I," "Plague'and 1'*), Congressman: Sol Bloom who commented on- his "Autobiog- raphy"; , as :- well as authoress Countess, Palffy and Fiske Kim- ball, director of Philly's Museum -of Art. Arranged by the Inquirer's Promotion Dept., - luncheon drew some 400. CHATTER Edwin DueiT writing a book oh "Radio Acting" for Rinehart. . Earl Wilson: lecturing on "What Makes A Columnist Tick" at Rand School, N. Y., tomorrow (Thiirs.). . MrSi Ted "Thackrey, owner and editor of the N.Y. Post, off to Europe Sunday i7): on the Queen Elizabeth. Going Places mag, new amuse- ment guide; due-to. hit the stands in December according to its pub- lisher, Sidney H. Pelter. Doubleday & -Co. compiling a dictionary- of favorite quotations; and seeks contributions both old and :new from any source whatever. Langston Hughes, lyricist and poet, with Arna: Bontemps, edited an anthology on "The Poetry of the Negro" for Doubleday in Jan- uary. Maxson F, Judell, who is syn- dicating his own newspaper col- umn, "The Fun Shop," Is forming a company to handle cartoon strip tcatures. British noveli.st G. B. Stem ("The Matriarch.": etc.) writes friends in Pliiladelphia that she has booked passage to the U. S. Jan. 29—for a lecture toui'. great: or it stinks. "To prove what word-of-mouth means, Ben K.ilmenson and Mort Blumenstock delib»'ately rushed 'Johnny : Belinda' into Atlantic buy. Every time something new ^o full of smog, fog and grog even psychiatrists can't see their patients and different comes along they do "n adjoining couch on a clear day. The letter in today's lessen, That goes for "Lost Weekend,', if by now you've forgotten, is "I." goes •Johnny Belinda,' 'Going My Way' 1 or, even if you give 'em a new! in 'Sitting Pretty/ or as we ■ did in 'Key Lafgo.' 'Latgo' was a floo Broadway play' but' has been siueb a smash that Maxwell Anderson's agent thbiks ive ou^ta- piay hiip something extra. Actually the $25,000 we paid for the rights was a fancy figure considering the play's short life. ■ New Ideas "Talking about new ideas, how- ever, what happens? Look at the same old product announcements. So many are the sarie thing all over again under a new title.' They think they're dealing in insurance but actually most of them turn out tired road companies. "On the other hand, we also undersell ourselves When we have a good one; I've seen sonie Of the $6 legit musicals, and yet tliey squawk at $1.80 for 'Easter P'ar- adc'! It just doesn't make sense. True, maybe we can only give 'em 'flat' actors, but Judy Garland, Crowell Co. publishing Henry Fred A.staire, Irving Berlin, even snker's "I'll Be Right Home, Ma' jf they telephoned their act over. Denker' next Feb. 21. Author is a radio Miller, N.Y. Mirror; George Morris, 1 writer and the tome represents his N.Y. News; ; Hazen Morse. N.Y. first fiction work. 'World-Telegram; John Ottinger, Jr., Bureau of Advertising; i and Ivan Veit, Times. .' Cerf Clicks Again, : Bennett Cerf has whipped up another nifty anthology of anec- dotes, etc., titled "Shake Well Be- fore Using" for Simon St Schuster .-publication ($2.95), as a sequel to ''Try and Stop Me." Like the former best seller, Gerf's collec- tion of impressions and anecdotes —with accent on the humorou.s— Is an orderly, well-arranged work' according to groupings, such as Hollywood, theatre, newspapermen, literati (books, authors, publishers Robert W. Minton moved over from the N.Y. World-Telegram's feature staff to become the daily's new book critic; replacing Harry Hansen; upped to editorship of the World Almanac. The Shadow goes from digest back to regular magazine form,, as a quarterly, and the original au- thor, Walter Gibson, again con- tracted to write the series for Street & Smith. : Steve Slesinger, owner of the .strip: "Red Ryder" newspaper . . „ closed a deal to plug the forth-; movie scripts. Executives have coming picture,"Ride. Ryder.; been known to worry more about Ride," in the "Ryder" comic book j horses, breeding and/or betting, ^ ^„ , with an estimated 7,500,000 reader-: „„^ ^ther side-bar activities, than radio, sports, W:iety and the Fikc! I ship. . I their main racket. Anyway; that's Carl Rose's eartoons again add to I "Joan of Arc" has been published cooling off becau.se there is evi the general favorable impression. I in book form by William Sloane "Shake Well," even more than ($2.95) utilizing the Maxwell An- when "Try And" was fir.st publish- derson-Andrew Solt text and the ed, se^ms well-timed to an escapist I Ingrid Bergman, et al„ stills frpm market, which mean? it's an added plus In its likelihood for mass acceptance. . Abel. Circulation's Music Hypo Novel gimmick that's aiding cir- culation as well as music is a na- tionwide tieup arranged recently by RGA-'Victor and the Hear.st Newspaper Syndicate, for weekly publication of simplified piano ar- rangements of important Victor records. .•■ Starting, last month, Hearst papers from California to N. Y. > (Journal-American included) have been running these simplified piano pieces, scored, by Mark White, radio and legit music . ar- ranger. Arrangements are those of popular recordings in the class- ical and semi-popular division,] chosen by the artists themselves as „ their "tavorite" composition.! Claimed they're boosting circula- the Walter Wanger-Victor Fleming (Sierra Pictures) film production. Frances Parkinson Kcyes not only trailerizes-the famed restau- rant in her new novel, "Dinner at Antoine's" iMcssner; $3) but also dedicates it to Roy Alciatore, heir of ASitoine and Jules Alciatore, head 'of the w.k. New Orleans eatery: In addition; the present owner is utilized as a real-life character in an otherwise fictitious work. 'Back to People' Continued from >paee 2 , ID: The impersonality of the psychic considered apart from its ego. kink or a wrinkle like Zanuck did, The pleasure-principle, so-cal)ed because it lacks all principle; blind in •RiHinir Prpttv" nr as we did desire springing from the unconscious/ The id is'lowest, then comes the ego, and above all the super-ego. IDIOCY: Id carried to the kindergarten of life. (1) People who ■ never rise atiove two years of age. (2) Exhibitors who run three noisy^ low-budget westerns and as a "special added attraction" book Tex Ritter in person. -,. lAMitTOLOGY; Science of remedies. Script surgeons who tell pro- ducers, "Plant a wienie-in the first reel and a chase in the sixth and you can turn this sickle into a quickie." ; , ICONOLATRY: Worship of images. More specilically, the worship ; of pictures. (1) Actors who invite yolii to their palatial Komes jto dinner and then make you sit through a seriei^ b| rainy prikts' (if' silent : pictures featuring their doseups. (2) Producers who keep portraits around of ex-wives whose maiden names they can no longer remember.. .ICTUS: The emphasized note in music; (2) in pathology, a seizure; (3) in pictures, the star system. IDEA: An experience not directly due to sensory stimulation; a psychological process having a symbolic function. It it's a fixed idea and: you can't fasten it on to somebody else you have an unsold originiil. ; ■.: .y/,\-\-;!'::,, ■■■":.^'-»;.V'->;yi.,':''..;': IDEALISM: Views of the world that in .reality are Out of this world. ' Plato, Berkeley, Hegel, Kant and Zanuck'have all defined their ideas' of idealism. In Hollywood, an actor who stares beyond the camera at the far-off hills when a tempting offer which would compromise his ideals proves mighty tempting. If it is refused because it would throw him into another income tax bracket and cost him money, he is called "an actor who would not compromised his ideals." ; IDEE-FORCE: Fouillee's term for an idea j>ossessing dynamic prop- erties. (1) The DeMille idea that a combination of religion and nudity, in a Biblical setting can't miss; (2) Hitchcock's belief that if he walks. through one of his own pictures it's practically the same as the word "sterling" on silverware. IDEOLOGY: Operation Intellectual. An 18th century term of Con- di Uac exhumed by 20th centuryites like llMtartin iSies who thiiDdt ' Ciinr': dilluc was a foreign car with a red body. ' , ':' , IDEOPHRENIA: Insanity with marked perversion of ideas. Direc- tors who think (I) horsewhipping is entertainment; (2) dagger fights under water, ditto; (3) deformity, per se, a vice. : ' IDIOGAMY:. Restriction of male potency to habitation with one woman. ;^'' -''■■'■ '^■''•■■^;^■:^,■ ■:'\ IDIOLIA: Invented language, characteristic of individuals of low mentality. Characters who come out of previews exclaiming, "Ter- rific!" "Nice picture; C.: B.!'V "A money-picture; but positively!" "Tops Garbo at her best." "Socko finish.". "Congrats in spats!" : IDOPATHIC: A disease inherent in the pdtient's constitution. Curious bystanders who have been shot in the back watching gangwars and spend the rest of their lives in bed tuning in on murder mysteries.: IDIOT-SAVANT: Feebleminded persons with special talent in one or more fields, like checker-playing, mathematics, necking, special effects, mood-music or making A-traiter.s for D-pictures. IDOL: A prejudice which hampers the truth. Bacon cites four Idnds of idols, fdola teatri, the worship of biology by biologists and of ham at the honest day's work we're all i by swine, is among them. From idol come idoUitru, the worship of gettingi from grips to stars. j statues, oscars or other inanimate objects by stars and fans, which, of Good Picture Breezes ^ course, is an abbreviation of fanatics. Motion pictures are therefore "And here's one more thing; it's*! the industrialization of idolatry, easy to make a good picture. The! IMAGE-TIED: Imaginal content attached to a recent perception. ' lousy ones are the toughest, if you I Picture-goers who leave a preview of a .Tohn Wayne western and think - have a good script, and it all smells that Cadillac he is driving is a covered wagon. IMAGINARY QUANTITY: An agent's belief in the drawing power of a star in Dreiser's "Sister Carrie" because she once had so much suction in "PoUyanna" that she emptied a glass of root beer with three straws in one breath. A magnitude containing the factor V-1. If it contains another factor it was .supplied by Max. IMBECILE: In psychiatry, a step above an idiot. (2) People who 1 •Flamingo Road' in seVeii" weeks | maintain a mental age between three and seven years through their I for $1 200,000 instead of the sch^-d-' lives; (31 What producers call audiences who don't like the producer's ' uled 10 weeks. This is a Crawford- I more idiotic productions. Greenstreet starrer, and that three j IMPORT: A foreign picture. (2) In psychology, the meaning or im- weeks' saving means $300,000-' plication of a proposition. (3) In Hollywood, a contractual rider^ the: $400,000 differential to the studio. | answer to which should always be "not, without a marriage license. In "Don Juan" the art department | Sacha." divised eight .sets on turntablc.s I ■ INGE.ST BARRIER: Development of hbido away from one's own are better, with or without Tech- nicolor, than some of those tired Broadway shows which get $4,80 and $6; But that comes under the head of sucking in a public on mediocrity with the same facility as .when it's a smash. "Now as for Hollywood, the .source of it all. They say every- body has his own business and the picture business. Trouble is that it's getting to be that the pic- ture business has its own racket and some other businesses as well. Writers.may -be Working on plays, book and pet ideas but not dence galore that it's a case of buckling-down; You'd be surprised right, everybody's hopped up; the star is enthused, right down the line, and it just breezes. Henry Koster did five full numbers in our new Danny Kayc picture in 10 days. Mike Curtiz brought in Bow, the slinky .sophistication of ,.„^„ . Dietrich and Swanson—all tliese \vhich in multiples of four different ' family toward sexy characters of other tribes. (2) Bias that "Moum- . ,..u:^ — , v .._ -I- -iv-.i » '••> ing Becomes • Electra". would play better as "Maureen Becomes Electrocuted." v.cre showmanship on celluloid, angles, gave iss the effect of 32 We have no matinee idols, li<>nce , set^. Otherwise, we couldn't afford ^.o.u.m u.^r IV , no matinee business. Give 'em a ^.he budget. : tion as well" as the sale of those | Garbo and Taylor in 'Camillc' and | "And that brings me to one more disks . you'll see what I mean. ■ thing—costs. The public doesn't i "Now we talk about untapped care if it cost $2 or $2,000,000, so 'Dukes' I'ix-Book Tieup i business. There's really no ccilihg long as it's good. Even with huge I INDETERMINISM: Theory that one can act in relative independ- ence of given stimulii. Belief that people like Charles Cobum. Ethel Barrymore, Orson Welles and Clark Gable don't need scripts, sets or other actors to turn make-believe into a document. INFANTILISM: Persistence of childi.sh habits into adult life. (1) Example of a motion picture I on a good picture. 'Gone With .spectacles, where size and num -1 Stars who blow their tops and walk off sets. (2) Censors who rcfu.se stimulating sales of the no\ el on ' the Wind' proves that. The bers might mean something for I to believe that the poor have double beds for reasons of space or which it is based is seen in the ; bromide of a $10,000,000 gross splash merchandising, the funda-1 economy, and insist on twin beds even in documentaries laid in slums; case of "The Amboy Dukes," which maximum is as wrong as the idea, mental must be that it's a good) (3) executives who draw doodlebugs at conferences. Maxwell Shane just completed not so long ago, that if you 1 show. That's What I mean by in-1 INFLAMMATION: A morbid condition with hyperemia, pain, swell- ■■ • rf... I » . . . .w... . .. .. '. , '—' - ■-- ' 1 they're biting into "The Outlaw," and' Maxwell Shane just completed „<>(; jong ago, that if you 1 show. That's What I mean by in- i INFLAMMATION: A morbid condition with hy producing and directing for Uni-' gf^gjjefl .jx ooO,000 you hit a pret- , tent and content. The show's the | ing and disordered function Producers who fee versal. . ' ty good peak. Today you can't thing and the human chain reac-'costs like "Arch of Triumph," "Forever Amber," Anticipating an up.surge of in-1 mai^e"'em'for a million. ' tion is your best advertisement, terest iii. the novel sparked by the jy^^ ^ j^,^ j "Did you ever hear them talk forthcoming release of the picture, „„ j^^^^. ^, j,,,. boxoffice about how much it costs to produce Avon Pub, CO. has ran off a spe- "aggressiveness, anticipation ' a book? They're all the same $2.75 cial printing of 100.000 coP«es of i*„d audience appeal. By aggres- or $3. That is, they look the same, •^ukcs" in a 25c edition In addi- ^7^„^^f rmean it's a mistake to But the contents send some into Xr^r'&,ti^3eT^h?c"h |r;^e public wh»t it wants. «ie hundred of t^^^^^^^^^ wlU beai- the title under which the What it wants, or thinks it wants,• others you cant give away. 'WiLson" every time they order a hamburger. INSANITY; Mental derrangement; madness. Rarely used now for anybody less crazy than Hitler. Some forms of mental illness and psychoneurosis previously listed as insanity: were: Acquired, Affective, Cyclic, Communicated^ Congenita], Deuteropathic, Doubting, Egress-: ing, Epidemic, Erotic, Gouty, Homocidal, Hypochondriacal, Imitative, Melancholic, Menstrual, Moral, Rheumatic and Senile. Today there are hundreds psychotic forms, dozens peculiar to Hollywood nlotie.