Variety (Jan 1949)

Forty-third t^tiS^0^ Annhieraary Vedmaiciay, January 5, 194.9 SEASON'S GREETINGS FROM Jerry MURAD'S FEELINS* Currently: CLUB VENETIAN. ^PES MOINES Week January 20 — Rivtrsidt Thtatcr, Milwaukee UNIVERSAL RECORDS: MTEST RELEASE — "DIANE" U-134 "DANCE OF THE COMEDIANS" MUTUAL ENTERTAINMENT AGENCY 203 NORTH WABASH AVE., CHICAGO Grins, Greasepaint & Grapefmit, formula of the Cireus SM By LES KRAMER Some luncheon clubs honor a celeb by pouring so much goo into him that he forfeits his lunch, while Others go to the opposite extreme by peddling verbal brutal- ity as humor. The Circus Saints & Sinners Club of N.Y. City tries to strike a fair balance, dealing out a couple of hours of sharp sa^ tire and giving the victim 10 min* utes for comeback. With this for- mat, a group of 17 guys around a table at Sardi's has become a herd of 1,200 bjursting the seams of the Waldorf. Competing locally with the Ban- shees and the Friars, and nation- ally with Washington's Gridiron Club, the Circus Saints & Sin- ners has deflated one celeb per month, 10 per annum, since 1929. The secret of its growth is not alone in Big Names—the others have them, too—but in using pro- fessional talent to wither the wax- works. The performing cast of Circus Saints & Sinners is 100% profes- sionali and, except for occasional; outside acts, 100% /from The Lambs. President and M.C. is for- mer Gov. Harold G. Hoffman of New Jersey, no stranger to audi- ences. Tex O'Rourke usually de* livers 18 to 25 minutes of ''louse" I biography. Production mgr.,. .co- 1 M.C; director and writer is the i guy who's writing this. ! Augmenting the professional cast aie the supers, or "zombies," who are Willing if not able. They're nuts about "acting on the stage," and we trust them with everything but lines and business. The Lamp^ shade Lancers help to dress the sketches, and that's all, brother. We learned! Preparations start about two weeks before showdate. Lots of terrific ideas come in, on the order! of:"'Have. this guy seated at a desk with lots of bottles on it, because I hear he drinks now and then." Another show-stopper is; " . . . and when he went downstairs and opened his locker, the bottle of ~ rye was gone!" Some helpful chaps confuse' satire with character as- sassination and want us to drama- tize an unpleasant incident in our Fall Guy's background. If he had been caught-on a morals charge (gos.sip), or had been condemned as unpatriotic (untrue); or his father had been shot in a bawdy house (true!), he'd get a great kick l out of having us give it publicity. 1 Yes. indeed! The job of the Pro- duction iTiRr. is to sort out these offerings, beat his brains into a pulp, assemble a cast and deliver 90 minutes-'of blackouts^ 'crossovers- audience-participation, planned becking and musical numbers.. In With a Buck ft Vling Season's Greetings Mike Fritzel Joe Jacobson Chez Paree Fritzel's Theater Restairant The cast gets the script 10 days in advance, , it says here. In real life, they may have three to eight days in which to learn lyrics and sketches.. Rehearsals? Two read- throughs, one walk-through. Every show is an Opening Night-^no try- outs and no repeats. As with para- chute jumping, you've gotta do it right the first time. Sure we lafn flu0s, miseues, blowups, but our audience enjoys a professional's mistake where they'd be intolerant of an amateur's. While our specialty is satire, and sometimes we can get pretty broad with it, we aren't out to hurt my^ body. Occasionally a Fall Guy will peeve, but this is rare. I recall Mike Todd, who fumed because his guests didn't get front row. seats (Variety reported the incident), and Frank Sinatra resented a slur on F.D.R. that was slipped in by a politieaUy-minded songplugger. . The audjence is about 80% busi- ness execs, the rest from Wall St; to Left Field. They love to get conned. Once we'made 1,200 of 'em stand up and raise the right hand, and solemnly swore them in as Governors of Georgia. Another time Tex O'Rourke gimmicked a Bingo game, grand prize a '49 Kai- set or Frazer car, so that every- body got the winning square at the sime time. Our roster of Guests of Honor, or "Fall Guys," reads like the in- dex of Variety's Anniversary Num- ber—Bergen, Durante, Chevalier, Berlin, Berle, Waring, Jessel. Ol- sen & Johnson^ Joe Cook; Joe £. Brown, Gene Buck, Senator Ford, Ilershfield, Laurie, Lahr, Lou Lehr, Lee Shubert, Lindsay & CroUse, Bert Lytell, Ed Wynn, TomiJiy Dorsey, Hersholt,, Cohan, Arthur Godfrey, and more. Here's the formula: Write 90 minutes of crisp, topical humor. Assemble actors who perform like Barrymore, sing like Danny Kaye and change faster than Owen Mc- Givney. Rehearse for three hours maximum. Throw 'em at a hard- boiled audience that has paid six bucks for a ticket. Then sit back and wait for victory—-or vegeta- bles. You, too, can do it! All you need is the boys with the budget. COMEDY MATERIAL for AH Branchtt af ThMlricab FUN-MASTER "Thi ORieiNAl SkeW'Bii Gog fib" Nei. I lo 22 @ $1.00 rach {Order la Seqaeace Onlyl SPECIAL: Tin Firif 13 Filtt for $1.00 ! !! 3 DIFFERENT BOOKS OF PARODIES (IS In Euh BMk) %l» rtt BMk Send lOo for llitt •( atlur cnmcdj ■nnfcrlwl,. .Mnc«, > panidlci, mlDiitnl patter; blaclb'nata; .etc. KO O.OJ>,'8 PAUIA SMITH CM W. Mh, Btnaf, Nan Tark » In the Heart of Times Square MOIL CLARME 44th St. and B'way, New York ".Af '.Alwoyf". Catarinf to the Prefanlea Reem with. Both, Shewar. .""and-'Kodio . -:'' - 21 DOUBLE JACK PARKER "THE JACK OF CLUBS" Appaared on NBC'S NEW YEAR'S EVE VIDEO SHOW WNBT ManagaManl; TOM FITZPATRICK CLINTON HOTEL ;T« „c.. too OUTSIDI KOOMS ham •2 0Altv| sricMi wifKi* (jiris NovHKimNa M«tiri<* ■w4ij(iN* xirANcf or All rHrAFHll ~ VALDO and PRINCESS PAT MENTALISTS FOR OPEN CLUB DATES PHONE: TR. 7-2299 <0aakla« tlufough A.e.T.A. flran«bl(e4 •canf* aalr) THE BEST ~ IN '49 Dorothy Dorben "LINES OF DISTItJaiON"