Variety (July 1949)

July l^Mi9 LITERATI 5S CampaM in the Black The Compass, New York momInf tab which Ted O. Thackrey launched May 16, is said to have been in the black since the day it first appeared. Circulation, at 10c a copy, is claimed to be averaging about 80,000 copies daily, giving the sheet a small profit. Breakeven point is 65.000 copies. Adver: tisers are being guaranteed a re i bate if circulation drops below 60.000. Thackrey. former editor and publisher of the N. V. Post, is holding costs down to a minimum. The entire editorial operation is accomplished by a staff of 2.5. with 28 men in the composing room and four advertising solicitors. Coin for starting the paper, which is being published in the old PM iStar) plant, was put up by Mrs. Anita McCormick Blaine, of the Chicago farm machinei*y family. • Dally operating cost is said to be around $5,000. with income now averaging better than $6,000. Paper is not getting much advertising and that at a very low rate, which makes the 10c price the key to the profitable operation which PM and its successor. The Star, were never able to achieve. May, “Modem Bride’s” first issue was six months in the making. Staff is headed by Marjorie Binford Woods, editor-in-chief. Other editorial personnel includes Diane Rutherford, fashion and merchandising editor; Justine Feel^, managing editor; Margaret Mary Goughian, editorial assistant; Klizabeth Hillyer, Home Furnishings Editor, and Harriet Roseman Beckman, art editor. • xoiiiiiiv-iit tiiuuMiy, IS urinis pui^ lished today tWed.) by Wallace A. Ross for Celebrity Service. The 106-page book lists producers, ftacks, ad agencies, press contacts, hotels, nightclubs and agents of all txjpe.s in New York. Hollywood and Chicago. New issue features a television section and a Windy City supplement. Frozen Currency M I'oniiniifd from paVe S as U. S. Comics Win Danes B.T., oldest Danish tabloid, published by the Berlingske newspaper concern, has risen in a few years from 20,000 to over 70.000 in daily circulation. B.T. is now the fourth biggest newspaper in Denmark — and tltat is partly because of the paper's policy of offering one and a half pages daiL of well known American comic strips. The “Blondie” series was used for years, but when former football star and wellknown sports scribe, Harry Bendixen, was appointed editor-in-chief, a lot of other popular U. S. strips were added. Most popular are “Blondie” and "The Phantom.” but “King of the Royal Mounted” and “Dick Tracy” also have a big following in Denmark. B.T. has just bought the rights for "Popeye the Sailor,” which hitherto appeared in Social-Demokraten. There is also a very popular Danish strip, “Carlt,” by Philip.sen, which has a cycle-messenger boy as a comic hero. Circulation of B.T. is expected to reach the 100.000 mark within the next two years. There are three comic weeklies published in Denmark now. Skipper Skraek, which got its name from the strip, “Kong Kylje,” • Soglow’s Little King series), and “Seriabladet, which specializes in action and horror strips. There is also a Walt Disney-magazine. Anders And. which is the Danish name for Donald Duck. Howarth Can. Press Award Dorothy Howart of Toronto has won the 1949 memorial award of the Canadian Women's Prc.ss Club for a series of articles on Newfoundland. published on the entry into confederation of the new province. Miss Howarth was announced the winner at a convention of the Canadian Women’s Press Club in Vancouver. .She is a general reporter on the staff of the Toronto Telegram. The award is ba.sed on "the best handling of a news event or public issue of significance” and is open to all women writers in Canada. Other awards were made to Con.stance Swartz, Salmon Arm, B.C.: Pat Wallace, Vancouver; Margaret Aitken. Toronto; Harriet Pardons. Toronto; Mrs. C. A. McGregor. Saskatoon; Kathleen Kritzvviser, Regina. H. Allen Smith's Chores H. Allen Smith sojourning on the Coast for a month getting background for a new novel. He will also 0.0. Reno, Car.son City and Elko as part of the research. Smith is doing some Hollywood pieces for Satevepost while out there. His next book. “We Went Thataway,” dealing with the menace of cowboy culture on the Wild West, is due via Doubleday in October. Move in the Religioso Cycle Doubleday is bearing down on the "peace of mind” cycle, which seems to be a bestseller vogue in books ever since Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman’s "Peace of Mind” and Msgr. Fulton J. Sheehan’s “Peace of Soul” clicked. Leonard M. Leonard, editor of the Journal of Living, has compiled and edited “Help and Comfort from the Bible.” including inspirational texts as selected by 1.50 clergymen. Father James Keller has authored “Three Minutes a Day”; Rev. Ol.son J. Smith’s “Faith to Live By” has an introduction by Ralph W. Sockman, and Fulton OuYsler’s “The Greatest Story Ever Told” is among the best sellers from the same firm. On the lighter side. Doubleday is bringing out actor-author Alexander Kirkland’s "Rector’s Naughty Nineties Cookbook, ” in which he was assisted by Muriel Shaffer, who got the rights to all the famed restaurateur’s recipes after George Rector .died, Lawton Mackall’s second edition of "Knife and Fork in New York” (first published by McBride in ’48) is also in tlie gastronomic vein. San Francisco Chronicle columni.st Herb Caen's ’Baghdad on the Bay, ’’ dealing with his hometown, is another fall publication via Doubleday. Modern Bride, New Quarterly Reportedly 2.0()0.t)0() American pis annually don wedding gowns. In a bid for this lucrative market. ^ifl-Davis P'riday (I) brought out Mmlern Bride, a .50c quarterly printed on slick stock Format of the initialer is best dcscTibed by the publication’s subtitle, "A Complete Guide for the Bride-to-Be ” Editorial content ranges from "Sex I reparation in Marriage.” based upon an interview with Dr Alfred S' .*5**tse.y. to the responsibilities oi the bridegroom. ^.^'onceived by Ziff-Davis’ mercnandising coun.selor Waller N. •J I I t • } I 0 . I CHATTER Denis McEvoy back to Tokyo to wind up his Time assignment, i Hannibal Cobb in Hollywood to wTite a series of yams for Look ; mag. i Eleanor Tatum, who does Press ; for Time, making her first Paris i junket in October. I Bill Ornstein’s “The Black PoI tato” will appear in The American Courier for August. ! Bantam Books releasing Sinj clair Lewis’ "King.?blood Royal” in J the 25c edition this month, j Bill Kane handling about town I column, “Kandy Kanes,” for Los Angeles Independent Review. I Pete Martin is doing a Satevepost yarn about Gary Cooper, with Gene* Lester shooting tintypes. I Norman Mailer, author of "The i Naked and the Dead.” rounding up material for a new book in Hollywood. Ritz Bros, writing a series of I columns, which are being offered for syndication by the Scott Mere1 dith agency in New York, j James Mason and his wife. I Pamela Kellino, contracted to do ; a book for A. A. Wyn. Inc,, tentatively titled "The Child in Our Lives.” “Deep in My Heart,” Elliott Arnold’s story based on the life of Sigmund Romberg, being published by Duell, Sloan & Pearce in late ! Augu.st. I Ilka Chase working on a novel. “New York, 22” deferring to postal zone), w'hich she hopes to have ready for publication by Chri.stmas. ! Elmer Rice’s novel. "The Show Mu.st Go On.” due in October, via Viking; as title indicates, it's a backstage story. Same pub al.so bringing out “A Harvest of World Folk Tales,” edited by Milton Rugoff. former Knopf editor, now ed of the Chanticleer i*ress. and formerly with the Magazine ’47-'48. Russel Crouse, Oscar Hammerstein. 2d, Robert E. Sherwood. Clifton Fadiman. John Hersey. Laura Z. Hobson and Rex Stout are among the 17 writers who announced the formation of the Writers’ Board for World Government Sunday (3). Aim is to work for American support in transforming the United Nations into a limited world government. Street & Smiths Living for Young Homemakers will be published monthly starting with the February. ‘50. issue. .Started two years ago as a quarterly titled Mademoiselles Living, the mag was advanced to a bi-monthly basis earl\ this year. Publication was suspended for the summer and will re.sume with the .September number. Edith Brazwell Evans is editor. A new enlarged edition of “Contact Book,” directory lor ihe en * ) '1 t 1 ( , « .*. y 1 1 » >1 If be accused of dictating picture formats. Following up on the Life mag session, Zanuck admitted the boxoffice value of the star system. But. he said, "while stars can be an as.set to a good picture, they cannot make a bad picture good.” In addition, he pointed out. any actor rating star billing must have reached the top because he had the nece.s.sary talent. Twentieth, he said, is continuing to incubate fresh talent via its stock school and fully-staffed talent departments. He noted a trend building for more emphasis on acting ability rather than appearance in the search for new talent. Zanuck on Indies Recent success of some indie producers, such as Stanley Kramer (who did “Champion” and "Home of the Brave”) might have dire results for other aspiring indies, according to Zanuck. Once one or two good indies appear on the .scene, others start trying to match them by making pix too expensive, when they lack the necessary studio facilities and often the knowhow. As a result, he sees little likelihood of the indies taking the play away from the big studios. With the exception of one film each from Nat Holt and Edw'ard L. Alperson this year, 20th will relea.se only studio product henceI forth, he said. I Noted as producer of such offthe-beaten-track pix as “Snake Pit,” "Gentleman’s Agreement” , and the upcoming “Pinky,” Zanuck said he is not looking for other tolerance themes, since “we must wait for them to come along.” He is confident that if such films are good, they’ll do good business, de; daring the grosses racked up by “Agreement” and “Pit” prove they’re "no more hazardous than musicals.” He showed little conI cern over the possibility of other pix with anti-Negro discrimination ' themes hurting the b.o. chances of 1 the yet-unreleased “Pinky,” pointing out that RKO’s “Cro.ssfire” ' came out ahead of “Agreement” but did not hurt its grosses. 154 Pix Continued from page I Fox and Warners will fall into that category remains to be seen. Metro Upping j Metro is the only member of the Big 5 definitely planning to up its release ro.ster. Company, during the period from July 1, 1948, to June 30, 1949, will have made I available 29 features plus three reissues. For the comparable 194950 season, sales veepee William F, Rodgers plans to up the total to between 36 and 40 films, including I reissues. j With probably the smalle.st backlog among the majors, the boost is being made possible by a stepped-up studio production schedule revealed last week by production veepee Dore Schary. Twentieth sales veepee Andy W Smith. Jr., di.sclosed at a Canadian sales meet in Toronto last Thursday '23) his plans to release 30 top films during the 1949-50 season. This compares to 41 released during the same period last year. The 1948-49 schedule, however, included 13 B films, while the upcoming season will have only two Bs. one from Nat Holt and one from Edward .Mperson. Number of A leleases. consequently, will about j equal that of last year. Other major companies plan to turn out about the same number of films during the 1949-.50 season as they relea.sed during the season just ending. Thus. RKO will have 37 features plus six Tim Holt westerns; Warners will distribute about 24 and I’aramoiint expects to release 22 or 23 ot its top product. Other <(nnpanies, including Universal. Republic. Columbia. Uniti'd Artists and the various independents anticipate releasing almut the same number as last year, fir another 2.50 cfimbined. This would raise the grand total to about 400 for the year. 1 J ( • r * 1 ( III* I I r I I SCULLY’S SCRAPBOOK I *^ »♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦»♦♦♦♦♦ Frank Scully • •♦♦♦♦ .Murray Hill, Calif., July 2. While reading a rare edition of C. E. Brochgrevink’s “First On the .AntaiTtic Continent,” a little job in research which antedated the frozen footnotes of Amundsen, Scott and Byrd by a flock of years, the idea occurred to me that I, too, might make a contribution to charting the unknown. Why not be the first man to explore Marie Wilson’s mind. The eighth anniversary of Ken Murray’s “Blackouts” was coming up and Marie Wilson was the last survivor of the original company which had parlayed D.ive Siegel’s $12,000 into $6,533,100 In seven years. But backstage anniversaries are sort of hysterical and It’s hard to study a girl’s mind wMth champagne popping all over the place. So I settled for tlie amen corner of the Hollywood Brown Derby and a light snack before the show. c. n • Malheureucment, that same day I had a big luncheon party at Scully * Bedside Manor for Michael I’owcll, who had hopped from London to Hollywood to set “The F'lusive Pimpernel’’ for distribution in this beknigbted land. The Powell party consisted exclusively of those who had worked with him on the Riviera 20 years ago, most of them under my iron hand. One of those sentimental journeys which produce disillusionment as often as not, it wasn’t possible in Powell’s ca.se because back In the 1920’.s he was a baldheaded teenager who looked 40 if he looked a day. Today he looks exactly as he did then. 40 if a day. So when you tell him he hasn’t changed a bit. he knows you’re not kidding. I asked the assembled senlimentali.sts to drink to the success of my next great venture. While Micky Powell would be flying off to London, a four-motored flutter of 6.000 lousy miles, 1 explained, I Wi'as going to make a trek into the unknown — and after dark. 1 was going down the hill to Hollywood and Vine and explore Marie Wilson’s mind, something which had baffled scientists for 15 years. "Who’s Marie Wilson?" Powell wanted to know. He a.sked with the .«ame soft, tru.sting blue eyes that 1 have never seen anywhere else in .show business except on Marie Wilson. Anything To Lois H’ilson? * "Who’s Marie WiLson?” I echoed. "Didn’t London ever see ‘Boy Meets Girl’? Didn’t you ever hear of ‘My Friend Irma,’ the most delightful dumb cluck in all recorded time?” Pow'ell kept looking at me with his .stari’y blue eyes and shaking his head slowly from side to side. It was hard to believe that this innocent abroad had had his hand in the writing, directing and producing of "The Invaders,” "One of Our Aircraft Is Missing,” “Stairway to Heaven” and, topping them a’l, "The Red Shoes.” But 1 know only loo well that he’s a very learned gazelle. Only a few minutes earlier at the luncheon he had taken occasion to inform, me that Howard Hill would not be the first to shoot big game with bow and arrow in Africa. "Stewart Edward White did it,’’ he said. "He wrote about it in 'Smabledibble In Dankest Africa’.” He al.so had corrected me in another small literary matter. I had been saying that our Munching in Nostalgia reminded me of Conrad In Quest of His Youlh.” and before 1 could explain exactly how it had done so. the maker of fine British pictures for the American market since 1940 said, "Thomas Meighan made it into a picture, you know.” “Meighan made 'Conrad In Quest of His Youth’? ” I asked. "Are you sure?” He was sure. "You’re not thinking of Joseph Conrad's ‘Youth’ are you?” No. he was quite sure it was Ix'onard Merrick’s "Conrad,” and when Mickey Powell is sure, even the British Museum has nothing more to say. But he didn’t know who Marie Wil.son was, though the next time he makes a flying trip to Hollywood after he has seen Hal Wallis’s version of "My Friend Irma.” he probably will tell me that he knew Ihe girl as Katherine Elizabeth While and once tested her in Anaheim for “Miss Grapefruit," but hadn’t known she had changed her name since to Marie WiLson. In order to fore.stall the subsequent u.se of that escape-clau.se I d€*cided to ask Marie Wil.son right off the bat if she had ever heard of Micky Powell. But as 1 entered the Brown Derby my cooling system was set on fire by a gorgeous .symphony in red, white and blue. It was Marie Wilson. She had been to the hairdresser’s and didn’t want the world to see her new coiff ure until 9 p.m. when it would be unveiled for the paying customers of "Blackouts.” A Chinese-red turban was hiding every blonde curl. But her big blue eyes and her beautiful complexion made blonde hair, hidden or on the loose, of no great importance. With Marie Down the Colorado She wore a simple little white dress of crash linen, which would have been just the thing to keep a guy’s mind on her mind if her couturiere hadn’t decided to plunge her neckline down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Cleavage ha.s long been obvious in Marie’s gowns as a.ssembled for her numbers in “Blackouts.'’ but this was a street dress, as the phrase goes, and its neckline had no pre.sent, past or future. It was if anything a remake of ‘'The Great Divide” and if there were -any other garment under that dre.ss it must have been made of something finer than gossamer. A man of macaroni constitution but of iron will, I steeled myself to talk to Marie as if she were Kip Fadiman. I looked straight ahead and asked her if she knew Micky Powell. Her large baby blue eyes looktitl wonderingly at me, much as if I had asked if she knew Mickey Finn after giving her one. "He directed ‘The Red Shoes’.” I explained. “Oh," she said, "You mean Michael Powell?” "Exactly.” I .said, "what did 1 .say? ” "V'ou said Micky Powell," she said, leaning forward in such a way to leave no doubt there was nothing between us except that crash linen dress. iiu.shand Al Nixon joined us. Me was dres.sed warm enough to fiv to Little America. But he lacked a tie. Bo Mattre Chelios wrapped one around his neck. That’s protocol at the Brown Derby, Girls can come in like little necks on the half-shell, but men have to wear ties even over turtleneck sweaters. Her strength must lie in her easy-going disposition, especially in a town where everybody is trying .so hard. She plays dumb blonde roles but she is really a smart cookie. .She doesn't drink, nor smoke and her greatest beauty secret is voap and water. .Marie’s Five-Year Flan She has played in 16 movies in her time, and in the last year has .staired in radio and pictuies as well as doing her habitual io shows a week in Murray’s "Blackouts." She played 2,332 consecutive performances in "Blackouts" before .she took even a day off. This roughly works out at nearly five years of a seven-day week. .An easy, straightforwaid honest little number, she nevertheless baffles moie eompliiu'ited people. She was being feted around the city liall ot Los .Angeles one day and happened to remark on the insecurity suffered by. most people in her profession and how something ought to be done about it. To the stuffed shirt at her side this seemed about as subversive a remark as bad been heai’d west of the Kremlin. So that s .Marie Wilson, the girl san.s malice in wonderland. In a town where boredom rides behind every Cadillac she smile.s behind antique crates. .All during the war she owned a second-hand car till it collapsed one day in front of the El Capitan theatre. She has bought .mother one. This one looks like a 1947 Ford. She has bought two small houses with the money .she has made. The one with two bedrooms she gave to her parents. The one with uric bedroom she gave to herself. Dumb blonde, my (.‘iilloused elbow!