Variety (Jan 1949)

^ttiaieaiBJ, Jannary 26, 1949 PICTIJRRS IS Idde Sbiff-Picbires The Irving Cumittingses. ST- Jr., who produced and directed "It's Only Monej?* as an Indie package for RKO release, brought the Frank Sinatra-Groucho Marx-Jane Bussell comedy in for $900,000 and in 23 days, an against $1,000,000 and a 26-day schedule. Hel Shavelson screenplayed and Sammy Cahn<Jule Styne did the songs, fhia makes two Mar» pix in the can, the other being "Love Happy" (Lester Cowan- UA), which is more a Chico and Harpo Marx picture; Groucho onljn did the commentary. This one is by Ben Hecht, and is- not auto- biographical as has been publicized. The Marxeii are saving their biopic for later, and it may stem from "The Mother of the Two-a-Day," which Kyle Crichton is currently writing for Collier's, with an eye to book publication after serialization in the weekly. This is the story of Minnie Palmer, mother of Grpucho, Chico;' Harpo, Zeppo and Gummo Marx. Zeppo and Gummo, 'since selling out their agency business to MCA, are in businesses such as manufacturing engines for motorcycles, building, etc. Irving Berlin's Paramount deal for "White Christmas" (reuniting Bing Crosby-Fred Astaire, as in "Holiday Inn," from which the'hit song originated) is stymied by a detail on a $600,000 guarantee to the 'sohgsmith. It's on a double sliding percentage basis. Meantime, he's due on the Coast to finalize a Metro filmusical for Ginger RogersrFred AstairiB, their second since reuniting. Joshua Logan's delay with chores on "Tales of the South Pacific" with Rodgers & Hammerstein prompted calling in Moss Hart to put oii the Berlin^Hobert E. Sherwood, legit musical, "Miss Liberty," as Berlin is anxious to get it mounted .this spring and not wait until' togan becomes available in the fall. • United-'A a tremendous amount of space and publicity in the New York Journal-American during the past few weeks for "My Dear Secretary," which it is currently releasing, via an ''Office'Orchids" contest. , It made a tieup with the Hearst daily by which elevator starters in various big buildings throughout the city were invited to nominate the pretU^st secretary in their, buiWing. Rudy Vallee, who is in the film and is currently at the Latin Quarter, N. Y., has been handing out orchids to the' gals, and the prettiest ones will be* picked by Vallee, Laraine Day, who co-stars, and,model agency chiefs Harry Conover and John Robert Power*. Winner gets a week's all-expense trip to Hollywood via TWA. London film critics, regarded in trade circles as the world's toughest, were given a surprise spanking in a Daily Express editorial. Presum- ably including its own critic, the Express said they "are altogether too severe in their comments on the new films. Both British and Hollywood presentations are attacked—in fact, the only films which regularly find favor are those in foreign languages." The daily suggests that critics develop a better balance and "a sunnier frame of mind." Worried about the effect on. the domestic film industry, the paper advises critics to adopt ,a more "tolerant attitude" instead of spreading gloom among the'producerjS.. Theatre Partners 0 Sm Continued Irom pacre S ous terms is now likely. It will probably take the form of a re- quest for an interp;retation by the U. S. statutory court, whiqh has the Government antirtrust action in its jurisdiction. Additionally, actions to compel exhibs to make a choice, are being freely men- tioned, to these theatre operators in an effort to convince them that balking on negotiations won't mean more gravy at the payoff. Major company theatre toppers indicajte that exhib pards are gen- erally showing little desire to come to terms. Entii-e timetable for cutting away the joint properties is already being slowed to the point where the companies will be unable to meet the judicial dead- lines on the operation. Paramount Into Fourth Week Of Mpeuvers for Trust Settlement Giainnini Coutinuitd from paee 3 Inauguration Contmuetf nom page Z i Greatest pprsotwl tribute wos poid , the two . days.' Lena Some^ as- to' Ja«e J'*i'omon, whose entrance to - siKned. to a box .by the comniitiee, the omoTW vms greeted by spon- ' — " '- - * -i-fi--.--. tanemis burst of applamev Widely quoted gug came from Joan Dams, vilut said:- "I feci as -STnoU as the hyphen between Tajt and Hartley." Show biz reps arrived at the in- auguration early and took their places in the distinguished visitors' section. Only one to create a real flurry in the tense, expectant crowd, was Tallulah Bankhead, oc- cupying a front row seat. Few seats away from La Bankhead sat was 'placed. In a cabinet, officer's box by- mislake. Latter srraciously took the next best sans. fuss. Eric ■ Jofmsfon flew in from [ Miami just in time to .vqwire Mrs. I J. to the Ball. Industry execs in town were Charles and Spyros "Skoiiras, in a ringside box at the ball with their fraus and the Tony Mutos. The 20tlr toppers took in a number of the fancy Demmy parties given all over town. James PetrillOi who was respon^ both majors and indies—is highly gratifying> banker asserted. He said he had seen very good results in indie films made at $500,000 and thought that was a "good bet" for budgeting, although ceilings would, of course, vai'.v accordmg to what went into, any particular picture. The $1,500,000 and $2,000,000 budgets are things ofi the past for indie films so far as he is con- cerned, Gianniiii stated, althqugh- he thought majors would have to go into some pix at these figures to round out their programs; As a result of .his survey in the east, financier said Bank of Ameri- ca film loans' during 1949 would equal those .- of - 1948 in dollar volume. The number. of individual pix financed will be* greater^ he added, since budgets will be smaller. Bank of America will continued to ask 100% guarantees from in- die producers to insure the re- sponsibility of the borrowing cor-- porations. Giannini said^ .This is in line, he explained, with contin- uation of the policy of making loans to producers turning out pix regularly, rather than one-shotters. In regard to United Artists, Giannini said he would make loans to. any responsible producer, no i matter- through what company he i distributed. He won't, however, enter into any intra-company man-* agerial affairs of UA, he asserted. Tele-Radio Hookttp i For NCCJ Awarding Full-hour teleyI$ion arid i-adio! hookup o'ver tbe NBC network will fanfare awards to show biz per-1 sonalities by the National Con- { ference of Christians and . Jews, { entertainment wing, Feb, 4 at the i Hotel Waldorf-Astoria, N. Y. With the affair synchronized to publicly , National Brotherhood Week, actress Irene Dunne; Ned E. Depinet,' prez of RKO; and Richard Rodgers , and Oscar Hammerstein, II, song- writing team, ■will be handed the*; laurels.. i Award to Miss Dunne will be , made by Bernard Baruch. Mayor I William O'Dwyer will handle the \ presentation to Depinet, while Nel- i son Rockefeller dittoes for Rodg- ' ers and Hammerstein, i Film attorney Louis Nizer will ■ act as toastmaster:: Chairman of the entertainment branch Is J. Robert Rubin, general counsel, for Metro. ■■■ George Jessel. Almost unnoticed i sible for the impre.ssive" succession were Lena Home, sitting with the j of name bands, was on hand fo ap- Gene Kellys, Margaret O'Brien, j piaiid the music. Others spotted in hand in hand)with her mother and i the ball crowds, which resembled a Loew rep, looking for her seat; j Macy's basement in white tie, were Jinx Falkenburg, the Will Rogers.! lATSE counsel Matthew Levy and the Charles Skqurases, and James, frau, MPAA's Eddie Cheyfitz, Bart- Roosevelt, who slid into a seat, ley Crum, and ex-film child star next to brothel: Franklin, Jr., with cora Sue Collins. Meyer Davis, hardly a nod of recognition from j who was snubbed for the first time onlookers. I since the Harding Inaugural Ball, Mystery man of the day proved was p.a.ing at a VFW dance on to be singer Phil Reean, whose | the other side of town. Benny presence on the Presidential plat-1 Goodman's collap.se due to illness form gave rise to much specula-1 during _ the ball was handled tion, until he cave out with, the I smoothly by the able pinch-hitting national anthem. ReXan, Incident-' of Lionel Hampton, an ex-Gpod- "lly, a Brooklyn Demmy, hob-i manite. One Big Union ; Continued from page 2 ; nobbed ivith the nation's rreat throUgrhout the two-day shindiir. Wear tragedy was averted when iOth'h Tony Mtito stepped aside frovi the newsteel stands- a split secottd before a huge 'newsreet Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake on hand to plus their tune, "Just Wild About Harry"—-as tHougb it needed pliigcing! Newsreels.rushed to Blatr House Friday night for a looksee by the Trumans and their sound camera crashed to the | quests. Last-minnte washout of ground. Casualty of the parade was I Melvyn Douelas, who headed Sibifl Boioan; in town for o ijautl<» I Hollywood committee for the Gala stiut, 10)1,0 fell from a ladder while [ and was slated to do some emcee^ watching the marching, and had to , h\g was the subject of much be given first aid. \ speculation. The Oklahoma float featured a giant statue of favorite son Will Rogers—Kudos for the colorful floats, highlight of the parade, go to RkO's Hardie Meakin,: who chairmanned this divi-sion, Lum 'n' Abner, who got only two tickets for ered the game tluough its W6XIS themselves and fraus for the bath-' outlet; TV Pix Mart continued from page 1 taking ceremony, split them by naving Chet Lauck (Lum) and Mrs. Gbff (Mrs. Abner) go. Bissest attention-gfetters at the nail, besides the Trumans, of course, were the John Agarg (Shir- ley Temple), In for the March of Though somewhat dubious at the start as to the effectiveness of the setup, Peterson said he soon found that in many ways he could see more details of the play and still be in constant contact witli the floor. During time-outs, the play- I^imes and for all the inauguration I ers huddled around the phone to events. Miss Temple, sparkling I hear tifeir coach's instructions and and. eye-fillinir in a ringside box, criticisms of I he individual play was in constant demand by lensers, autograph-hunters and such celebs' as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Fred Vinson. Margaret Vf,"l". was busy signing on the (Joan Blondell) were alco in for ers, AH substitutions were ordered by him.. Willr television cameras mounted high above live floor. >detaiJs could be picked up tliat would,be nor- mally missed from the players' bench. volved. little chance is seen for any: real performer regulation ol ( the video medium.. Tire TV com- i panics would almost certainly re- 1 fuse to sign a contract' with any ! union in the Held as long as ther6 were any jurisdictional question involved. lAnd it any single union or group of unions tried to asr sume jurisdiction a legal tangle would probably ensue. The video^ companies would obviously try' to keep out of the middle of that. AGVA has hit back at the 4A's tele committee by, charging that the video setup with seeking , to destroy the proposed one^'card sys- tem for performers in all fields. It is charged that the setup was a means of perpetuating current di- vision in all fields at the expense of the variety performer^ I Dewey Barto. AGVA's national j administrative secretary, in lash- j ing back at charges by the 4A's I that AGVA was instrumental in I breaking up the merger, declared i that the 4A's has allotted power to an "unholy trinity" which will I be in a position to control video I and consequently all of showbusi- ness at the. expense of sister I .unions; " '. I Barto has-proposed that the 4A's I retain the television j urisdiction , and that individual : 4A .affiliate I unions police shows in which their ' actors are employed. Thus . a ■ variety show would come under i AGVA jurisdiction, dramatic pro- grams by Fiquily, and operatic pro- I grams by the Arherican Guild of ' Musical Artists. Any show using a combination of all three would be directly under the 4A's. All I bargaining rights would be. vested in the 4A's which would become the centralized authority. Barto said that the authority plan would defeat the one-card union. Under the AGVA proposal, the 4A's would be revitall'/.cd with all brandies represented, and would resume the function for which it was chartered by the American I Federation of Labor. P. R. Program a Contlniiecf from page 4 would be to induce major com-1 panics to make and distribute the I briefies on. scripts supplied ^ by the theatre group. | Push Shorts of MPAA At the same time, TOA-ers will be asked to push the playing of recently-made shorts of the Motion Picture Assn. of America. Five of j these one-reelers are to be screened : for the 50 " or so directors, and ^ regional veepees attending' the D.C. meet. ' Breakdown of extraordinary p.r. expenses of TOA last year includes $20i000 laid out for production of a tworreeler by RKO^Eatbe, made, in conjunction with TOA's big drive on Youth Month. Coin spent covered only actual expenditures of RKO-Pathe. Entire Youth Month campaign cost the org $43,000. • Otlier subjects on the agenda include television, 16m films, dis- trib-exhib .relations, film transpor- tation, restrictive legislation (cen- sorship and-taxes)v Army and Navy r film bookings, budget and finance. I Youth Month for 1949, place and I time of this year's convention, box- ; office conditions and disputes with j National Screen Service. ! Survey Large-Screen Tele ! The likelihood is, it is under- stood, that a complete technical survey . of the large-screen tele- vision field will: emerge from the. meetings.. At any rate, director.s ! will be aslied to authorize the ! survey which would be conducted 1 by technicians rather than a thrown-together exhib committee., 1 While in Washington, efl'orts will I be made to have Wayne Coy, chair- I man of the Federal Communica- {tions Commission, and a number ■ of FCC technicians outline the ; state: of television, i Number of tangible plans cover- ing entry into tele will come up I for' discussion. One of these plans : definitely slated for the agenda is ' the proposal of Si Fabian, circuit operator, for the formation of a company of exhib promoters to ' ] book exoUisive tele events for thea- I tres. Mitchell Wolfson, Miami theatreman who heads the tele committee, will also make rccom- i mendations tor adoption of a policy ; towards .distribs selling feature ' films to television stations. Paramount's maneuvers for a settlement of the Government anti- trust case went into a foiirth week Monday (24) with Par's emissaries still beating a path to the Dept. of Justice headquarters in Washing- ton. Reports to the contrary not- withstanding, the company, while close to a peace pact^: has not reached agreement, and the sign- ing of a decree is not an inevit.ible development; One feature of a proposed settlement has been agreed upon, it is understood, that Par will open all closed territories by the sale: of at least one theatre in each of those territories. Trio that huddled with Special Assistant Attorney' General Robert ■■■■ L. 'Wright and otliers'in D.C. Mon- day were drawn from Par's regular batting order of peacemakers. It consisted of Leonard Goldenson, ■ theatre chief; Walter Gross. Gold- enson's legal aide, and Robert O'Brien, company secretai-y. Two others who have appeared in the • lineup from time to time, Edwin L. WeisI, member of the board; and Louis Phillips, Paramount attor- ney, did not make the Monday trek. Playing up the fact that Par is still not certain of a settlement, although one in concededly close, is the activity in the company's bullpen. Despite the continued stream of nesotiations, com- pany's legal staff is still work- ing on the preparation of Par's brief and findings of fact which will be submitted to the N.Y. Fed- eral court next Monday (31) to play it safe. Toppers w,int to 1 avoid findingithemselves in default: I if the settlement should fall, through. , While Par presses for a deal, no ! move has been reported recently i by- either 20th-Fox or Warner Bros. ' As for the former, active several . j months ago in peace feelers, it is . I now said that its strategy is to i play a wait-and-see game until re- I suits of Par's maneuvers become I clear.' Twentieth's biggies feel that i any deal won by Par can be dupll- . cated by it. If Par fails, then tb^re ' will be little chance of the others getting together with the Govern- I ment. ■' i Par's toppers remain mum on j netrotiations but there is. evidence I that some attempt is being made I to single out specifically those the- i atres which should be exempt from liquidation and those that must be • axed: Reportedly, the D. of J.: [has been in dispute with Para- i mounters on a number of the. houses which the former claims are I located in closed situations. 1 Negotiations are now, completely I predicated on a split of Paramount l into two Companies along the lines- , of the RKO consent decree. Ap- I parently, the alternative: plan for i partial divorcement with a conr i tinued one-company setup has been dropped.. Ad Agencies Continued from page 13 Uncle Don Continued from pace t : sophistication of tots under 10, \ Carney was caught in a WOR- Mutual squeeze. The net wanted additional early evening time some years bacit and he was forced to •give up his () p.m. across-the-board spot. Later he was moved up from 15 to 4:30 p.m., which proved a poor time for the minors, and he had to give up his strip. Disappearance of Uncle Don from New York airwaves marks the end of an era,: during which his format of singing, story telling , and club announcements was wide- ■ ly copied. Carney is now in Florida, doing his program on a I local station. He has been sending IWOR his show on platters. rsngljind and also did radio work in Canada. J. Walter Thompson Co., Wliich has radio executives in Johannes- . burg; Durban and Cape Town, is now consolidating its radio depai-t- ment In th« latter place under Kenneth. Taylor, who has been transferred from the Durban office. Taylor is well-known from his S.A.B.G. broadcasts on racing and other sports commentaries and is i also a producer and actor. The newly-formed Grant Adver- tising Co. uses an independent out- . side production-unit.-They handle ■ Coca-Cola and recently took over the radio portion of the Colgate-, Palmolive-Peet account from Cen- tral Advertising. Chief claim to fame at the present time is the production of the biggest locally produced show to date. This is a half'-hou* program called "Any- thing Goes" which is staged everj' Sunday evening in the 20th Cen- tury theatre. Johannesburg, and recordmgs of the show are broad- cast several days later from Lourenco Marques. Sponsor of the program, which: draws an audience , - of 2,000 people or more every Sunday, is Colgate-Palmolive-Peet for Colgate Dental Cream. Irving Rill, an American, is the managing director of Grant Advertising and plays a prominent- p&tt. on "the I radio side.