Variety (Dec 1948)

Wednesday, December I, 1948 LEGHniMATE 49 AH nwse Kanins Will Probably Give Ft Knox 24 Hours to Get Out of Town Although they returned yester-'^ flay (Tues.) to their home and threes and-haU-year old son in Hollywood, Michael and Fay Kanin will 'con-- tinu^ their activities on Broadway as well as in iilms. In so doing they'll be associated at least part of the time with the other Kanin fausband-andT-wif e team, Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon.: Fay Kanin, whose "Goodbye, My Fancy" is an SRO smash at the llorosco, N. Y., already has ideas ior other j>laysi but doesn't know which she^Il^ tackle 'first; or when ■he'll feel urged to get started. For the present, the couple's only plan Is to relax after the tension of putting on "Fancy." Except for a. couple of previous authorship ventures, "Fancy" rep^ resented the first actual Broadway production experi^ence - for either of the Kanins. Michael Kanin col- laborated 10 years ago with Harry Ingram on a comedy called "We, the Willoughbys," which was atrawhat-tested at Stockbridge, Mass., and: he and his wife co- authored another play a couple of years ago, but later shelved it. , Despite their inexperience and the doubts of various veteran Broadway managements who turned down.the script, the -Kanins brought "Fancy." into New . York precisely on schedule. and under the $6S,000 budget: Furthermore, In the vital matter of rewriting, Mrs. Kanin turned a script ' that was merely "promising" in its Initial tryout week into a solid bit for Broadway.. -In-■ one rewriting session, she worked from a Tues- day through the following Friday without leaving her Detroit hotel 'loom. Stay In H'wood Tin Sprinc ' The Kanins will probably re- main in Hollywood until next spring, leaving active management of "Fancy" in the hands'of their a s s o c i a t e producers, Richard Aldrich and, Richard Myers. Then they intend returning east for the casting and rehearsals of the ex- pected road company of the show. Toumanova Return Tamara Toumanova, wife of screen-writer Casey Robinson, is due in N. Y. today (Wed.) from the Coast, and plans to fly tonight: to Paris to join the Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo as guest ballerina. Troupe, owned by the Marquis I George de Cuevas, is presently dancing at its headquarters in Monte Carlo. It's booked to tour France, Tunisia and Egypt, and Miss Toumanova will accompany. Miss Toumanova, former Ballet Russe stalwart, will be dancing for the first time in two years, her last appearances being as guest with the Paris Opera Ballet in summer of 1946/Also engaged by the Mar- quis are Leonide M^ssine And Bronislava Nijlnska'; who will stage new ballets for the troupe. Biggest deal brewing for the Marquis* company Is offer made; to J. Alden Talbot, ontime director of Ballet Theatre, to take over management' of the Monte Carlo troupe. Talbot just returned to N. Y. from .Europe; where he dis- cussed the offer with the Marquis, but hasn't made up his mind yet' . John Wilstach givci. tonis lewdewa ea / * Stranded Shows^' on uafiml ftatiirt in apeomlag 43d Aniuversary Number Contempt Rap Perils Seattle Rep As Subscriptions, Gross Dwindle 'Mystery' Backer Won't Be Such a Mystery If Show Winds Up a Hit Something of a my.stery has been created about the identity of John W. Stevens, listed as the sole backer of the $50,000 production of "Oh, Mr. Meadowbrook": (for-: merly titled"Japhet"). It's be- lieved even the name may be a cover-up, as there's no such per- son listed in the New York phone- book and the management is extremely reticent on the subject. According to Benjamin J. Asian, attorney, whose office is listed in the partnership agreement as Stev- Wall S,, - vi ■ , ^, I ens' addre.ss,. the backer is a owever, they must be back on the i broker who has never be Coast late m the sprmg to start f^j.^ invested in show business, 'Kiss Me Kate Costing 180G "Kiss Me, Kate," Cole Porter- Bella Spewack musical, is now re- portedly headed for the Century,] "N. Y., the week of Dec. 26. How-[ ever, that depends on the reaction to the show's tryout, opening to^ I morrow night (Thur.) at the Shu- I bert, Philadelphia, Arnold St. Subber and Lemuel Ayers are co-producing; with John C. Wilson doing the staging; Pro- duction is budgeted at $180,000 and the backers include the following names familiar to, show business: Donald Blackwell, ex,'producer,' $1,800; Saul Subber, ticket broker and father of Arnold St. Subber, $1,800; produce»director Wilson, $3,600; film theatre owners Arthur Rapf and Micliael Ruden, $9,000; Joseph E. Cullman, 3d, legit iU'^ vestor, $1,800; Howard S. Cullmatti theatre investor and owner, $14,- 400; Raoul >H. Fleischmann, pub- lisher of The New Yorker mag, $1,800; RoUo Peters, architect and ex-actot, $1,800- Lenore Tobin, theatre party promoter, $1,800; Ai Greenstone, souvenir program pub- lisher, $3,600; Peggy Wood (Wal- ling), actress, $3,600; Whitney Bourne (Choatel. ex-actresSj $1,800, and Ellen Tuck (Mrs. John Jacob) Astor, $900. Barter's 'Hamlet' ,At)ingdon, Va,, Nov. 30. : Drama critics and editors of the New York dailies have been in- vited by Robert Porterfield, man- aging director of the Barter Thea- tre, to attend a performance: of his production of "Hamlet," either this Friday night (3) in Richmond: or Dec. 15 in Roanoke. Show, is cur- rently on tour, having opened last summer at Barter's home - base here,, Robert Breen, playing the title part, will leave the production after the Roanoke appearance , to resume his duties as executive- secretary of the American Na- tional^Theatre'&'iAcadeniy, in New York. His replacement for the bal- ance of the tour isn't set. However, Jacqueline Logan will continue as the Queen, Fred Warriner as the King, James Andrews as I^aertes, Leo Chalzel as Polonius, Ray Boyle as Horatio and Gerry Jedd ;as Ophelia. work on the next Kanin Produc- tions picture for Universal. Mi- chael Kanin will produce this, with Garson Kanin directing from a script he and Miss Gordon: have in mind. Fay Kanin'may act in it, as she did in their previous one, "The Double Life." She intends continuing as an actress occasion- ally, but only in films., in addition to the forthcoming Carson Kanin-Ruth Gordon script, Kanin Productions has three film story properties' on the future slate. One is Qarson Kanin's "Miss Nobody," which they originally planned to do last year but were stalled by casting difficulties and : the fact that the yarn would re- quire ' a major production cost. Another is "A Man's Worth Some- thing," from an original by Fay Kanin and screenplay by her hus- band. The third is a magazine short story, called "Beauty and the Beast," about a gii'l who ih'- herits a professional wrestler; It's by Mrs. Kanin and Aleck Moll : Alhough they are■a film production, there's no mediate prospect of the two Kanin teams extending their partnership to legit. They figure it s better to continue on an independent basis : for the present, merely assisting each other with advice, etc. Mean- while, Garson Kanin - began Mon- day (29) to direct rehearsals of his new play, "The Smile of the World," co-starring Miss Gordon and Otto Kruger, as a Playwrights' Co. production. Stevens, said to be a longtime friend of producer John Yorke, some time ago reportedly, offered to supply the financing in case the latter ever found a promising script. Yorke has told associates that Stevens is currently In Eng- land, but Asian says he's in New York, although he declines to re- veal where his client . may be reached. : "Meadowbrook" is laying off this week : for third-act revisions and possibly some recasting. It re opens Monday night (6) at Walnut, Philadelphia, for two weeks and is due the week of Dec. 27 in New York, at a theatre to be announced. The authors are Ron- ald Telfer-and Pauline Jamerson. WING IN BIG .RALLY FOR 150G HOSP FUND American Theatre Wing drive, to raise- $150,000 to carry on its, -work in hospitals will get away^ with a bang next Tuesday (7) with a monster rally at the Hudson, N: Y,, attended by show bi^ tpp names: Unveiling of a bronze, plaque (donated by the N.; Y,: Times) at the spot where the Stage Door Canteen stood on W. 44th the I st;,: will precede the:rally at 2 p;m; A parade will follow, at 2:30, led by show biz,:: figures . and Wlrig. workers.-to the Hudson. Hudson rally will be co-chair'!; manned by John Golden and Jahies E. Sauter, Golden being active chairman of the Wing drive in the absence of Brock Pemberton, who's in London. An abbreviated hOSpi*- tal show will be staged at the rally; with Hiram Sherman as enicfee, cast including Mary McCarty, John SHOW PEOPLE PUT UP 75G FOR 'LIGHT W Production of Moss Hart's tc^rV^H i„ I "Light Up the Sky," at the Royale, Kieran, Ronnie Cunningham and ssociaiea m y unusual among current Sara Sandrof, as well as 16 w.k. ■es no in>-' shows in that the financing is en-I cartoonists, among them Rube tirely from theatrical sources. In-1 Goldberg, Bill Mauldin,. Milton creasing tendency nowadays is to Caniff, Al Capp and Otto Soglpw. go outside show business for in- i—,:., . .: :■':. ■'].[ ' ,i vestors of legit presentations. ; g^^.^ j^^j^^ yj^.^ : CaeSar::, : Sartre Court Victory , In Paris Won't Retard N. Y. Preem of 'Gloves' Although Jean-Paul Sartre was upheld last week by the Paris court in his suit to have: his American representative replaced, the pro- duction of ' the French -aulbor^s "Red GloyesV at the Mansfield, N. Y., on- Saturday night (4) is slated to go on as scheduled: Jean Dalrymple is presenting the play, which stars Charles Boyer, "by arrangement with Gabriel Pascal.'- It's pointed out that Miss Dal- rymple's contract for the "Red Gloves"' rights was : made . with Louis Nagel when he was Sartre's authorized agent and, therefore, deal is presumably binding despite the French court's subsequent ap- proval of Nagel's dismissal. Miss Dalrymple and Jed Harris, who staged "Gloves," .dispute Sartre's reported charges that "Gloves" is a "vulgar, common mel- odrama with an anti^Communiiit bias," add assert that it is a faith- ful adaptation of his original Paris hit, "Les Mains Sales." They claim he is parroting the denunciation of the play that has appeared in L'Humanite, Parisian Communist daily. Miss Dalrymple •. t o 1 d Variety last week that the only real change in the U. S. version of the play was:that it had been con- siderably shortened. It has been: generally agreed that the original script was much too long for Broadway presentation. Seattle, Nov. 30. With its two managing directors, Burton W. and Florence B. James, awaiting trial on charges of con- tempt of the State Legislature, the Seattle Repertory Playhouse is con- tinuing operations. However, tho accusation by the state Un-Ameri- can Activities Committee, a road company version of the similarly- named Congressional committee, has seriously cut attendance at th« theatre and there's a question how long the outfit can keep going. Now in its 21st year, the Reper- tory depends chiefly on subscrip- tions, most of which are sold months in advance. Since the con- tempt case became a news sensa- tion in this area, however, sub- scriptions have? dropped sharply and the theatre's normal weekly grosse: of $650 to $1,000 have fall- en to less than $500. Although the company has been, chopped from 18 to only £igbt, the under* taking may have to fold. Besides nightly shows Thorsdays-through- Saturdays.'the Repertory does chil- dren's plays at weekend matinees. Mr. and Mrs. James are among six free under'$5,000 bond apiece on the contempt . charges.: The- others include Albert M. Otten- heimer, who has since left the Rep- ertory staff for a job in an at- torney's office; two meiabers of the Univ. of Washington faculty and a minor Seattle official. All are charged with refusing to an- swer the legislative committee's questions. Thr Americfin Civil Lib- erties Union, the Conunittee on Acadetnici Freedom and one or two: other national civil rights groups are participating in their defense. A possibly significant develop- ment in the case was the defeat in the recent election of three of the top members- of. iche legislative committee,. including: its chairman. However, the fact that the: case has reached the stage where the de- fendants have been indicted, finger- printed and arraigned apparently means that it will have to go to trial, . although no date has been set. Chief witnesses for the legisla- tive committee were J. B. Mathews, one-time investigator for the Dies (more recently Thomas) commit- tee of Congress; Howard Rush- more, Hearst newspaper writer on Communist subjects, and Georg* Hewitt, self-styled ex-Communist, whom local authorities are attempt- ing to extradite to face perjury charges. , :■.■:;■:::■ With the exception of the Seat- tle Times, local Hearst sheet, local dailies have been critical of; tho committee's tactics. ' : Sartre's Squawk Paris, Nov. 30. Jean-Paul Sartre alleges that he was not kept posted by Louis Nagel as to his dealings with Jean Dal- rymple and Gabriel Pascal for play production . in E n g Ian d and America; also, that the American adaptation was not shown him.' Todd's Play for Frau Mike Todd, whose "As the Girls Go" legit musical is a smash at the Winter Garden, N. Y.* is on the Jrowl for a vehicle for his wife, oan Blondell. He wants to do it next. Miss Blondell, who appeared on the New York stage before go- ing into films in 1929, wants to stay in the east rather than re- turning to pix, since her family and home are located in New York. 8 for Baylor V. Waco. ,Nov. 30, Five productions, including '-Of Thee 1 Sing," "Treasure Island" and "Peer Gynt," will be pre- sented by the Baylor U. Theatre during the 1948-49 season, Most of the $75,000 coin for "Sky" was supplied by Hart and the co-producers, Joseph M. Hy- man and the author's brother. Ber- nard Hart. Trio put up $19,500 apiece. Max Gordon and George S. Kaufman Inve-sted $3,750 each. Other backers include Bill DoU, pressagent, $750; Clinton Wilder, a stage manager, $7.50; Irving P. Lazar, agent, $1,500; Kiviette, the costume designer, $750; Don Iler- shey, stage manager of the show, $1,,500; Arthur M. Rapf and Mi- chael Ruden, film theatre owners, $3,500, and Frederic Fox, scene de- signer, $750. Negro Actors Benefit Negro Actors Guild will hold their 11th annual benefit at the Imperial theatre, N. Y., Sunday evening (5). Proceeds will go to organization's benevolent fund. Bill Robinson, pre/, of NAG, is chairman of arrangements. Ed Sul- livan, N.Y. Daily News columnist. In 'Manhattan' for Road Bert Lahr is being sought to star in "Make Mine Manhattan'' on :t!ie I road, succeeding Sid Caesar. Mat- ; ter will probably be decided one way or the other within a day or ( .<io; The :idea would be to keep the i revue at the Broadhur.st, N: Y., i'Until rafter, the ehristmas holidays, . then tour it, Joseph M. Hyinan, co- ' producer, .said ye.sierday (Tues.). i Caesar, who has top featured bill- I ing in the show, prefers not to go , on the road, in addition to v.'hich ' it's figured that Lahr's name would ' be an essential draw for out-of- ,to\\n audiences. Lahr recently com- plclcd a long tour in the revival I of "Burlesque." I Options Davis-Liss Tuner I Aline Hudsowhas optioned a new i Eddie Davi.<i-Howard Liss musical, ' "And So To Wed," slated to go ' into rehearsal Feb. 1, ' Miss Hud.son is dickering with Mitzi Green for the femme lead. EUOn TO TOUR U.S. CO. IN SO. AMERICA James S. Elliott, Broadway ac- tor-producer, has gotten Equity ap- proval for a legit company to tour South America with a repertory of English-language plays. He got;* to the Coast during the holidays to dicker with stars. Outfit will be called Pan-Amer- ican: Players and will operate on « non-profit basis. Troupe of 20 ac- tors will travel' by plane. No date is set for the start Named Detroit Ass't Mgr. Detroit, Nov. 30. William Cornell has been ap-: .pointed assistant manager at the I Shubert-Lafayette theatre. N. Y. Group's "Hamlet' Bill Butler, actor-director re- cently in charge of regional theatre for ANTA, will play the title part in the New York Repertory Group production of "Hamlet," opening night (Thurs) at the tomorrow „ has lined up the talent and will ! Cherry Lane theatre, Greenwich emcee the show. i Village, N. Y. Christmas Gift Order Form Please Send VARIETY for One Year To -(Pl&Hse.Pri.rit N«in«) : Street Gity • ' Zone Slate , A tord vti'iffc youf nom» wllf octompony »fi« ffr«l copy of VARICtY REGULAR SUtSCRIPTION RATES FOR ONE YEAR VARIETY $10.00 VARIETY and DAILY VARIETY $22.00 U^niEff Inc. 154 W«$f 4Mli Street New Y«rk If. H. ,Y.