Variety (July 1949)

WednMcUj, July 20, 1949 IJTBRATI S3 Bantam’s Bestseller Hypo The 25c book field is getting a strong hypo from Bantam Books tomorrow tThurs.>, when the pocket-sized reprint house starts announcing and promoting its monthly bestseller list. The new move, first time any 25c book house has released a current best- seller list, is culmination of a drastic policy change in the news- stand field. It now puts major emphasis on the books which sell rapidly, on theory that newsstands are geared to rapid turnover, and titles which sell slowly back up on the stands and occupy space that could be filled with faster selling titles. Part of Bantam’s program, begun in January, has been to tell dealers which books aren’t selling and to call them back from the news- stands quickly to make room for more profitable books. Bantam’s new setup, it’s be- lieved, will result in pressure on its two major competitors tPocket & New American Library) to fol- low suit. Despite booming sales of 25c reprints <66,000,000 in 1945; 135.000,000 in 1948>, compe- tition is getting more intense and smaller publishers are putting out more titles. Result is that dealers are starting to weed out the flops and to look to publishers to do same. The new move marks first time Bantam has publicly capitalized on the advantages of its ownership: Curtis Publishing Co. and Grosset & Dunlap (in turn owned by Book- of-the-Month Club, Harpers, Scrib- ners, Little Brown. Random House). Curtis ownership and dis- tribution gives Bantam advantage of the largest magazine field force in the business <300 men). Big field force is used to get accurate sales information on Bantams as soon as they are released. Result is that Bantam has taken back less than 1% of books nominees, for his efforts toward a better agriculture through the field of journalism. The 1948 award went to G. Emerson Markham, WKY, Oklahoma City. . Collins has been w'ith The Star for 32 years, previously being city editor of the Topeka Daily Capital. He was a.ssociate editor of the Weekly for a number of years, be- fore becoming editor March 1, 1946. The Star has a circulation of 435,000 which covers Missouri, Kansas and parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Press. Covering the years 1891-94, the 1,010-page book contains 400 photographs. The author, now 83, is trying to bring the series up to 1900, thus covering a 200-year period in New York theatrical his- tory. The new' volume is dedicated to Thornton Wilder, "with the hope that it may add to his firm belief in the continuity, from age to age, of the drama’s aims and traditions.” i; SCULLY’S SCRAPBOOK By Frank Scully Hanimerstein’s ‘Lyrics* "Lyrics,” by Oscar Hammer- stein, 2d, a collection of all the author’s song lyrics that he feels are "worth printing,” will be pub-* lished in October by Random House. Volume will have a fore- word by c o m p o se r Richard Rodgers, Hammerstein’s collabora- tor and co-producer. Hammerstein is also preparing a treatise on lyric writing, to go in the back of the book. At the moment, the lyricist is editing the book and lyrics of the musical, "South Pacific.” which Random House has scheduled for publication Sept. 19. Gardner’s Understudies Hy Gardner’s by-line piece for the Sunday (24) edition of I’arade, syndicated mag insert in 32 new.s- papers, gives lowdown on under- studies to the stars in Broadway’s current list of hit plays. 'Fit led "Waiting lor the Break,” Gardner offers, in addition to the text on the stand-ins for Ralph Bellamy, Ezio Pinza, Mary Marlin. Lee J. Cobb, Henry Fonda Lisa Kirk. ,\t- fred Drake and Patricia Morrison, a group photo of the name players along with tlieir substitute pinch- hitters. The group shot of the competitive casts was as tough Gardner to as.semhle "as to into ‘South Pacific’,’’ he says. for get 10 % or total Held sales printed, compared with more for the competition. Pocket, with the large.st sales in the 25c field, has a force of 100 men and uses a measurement system something like Bantam’s, only less intensive. Pocket has to rely more on serv- ices of independent wholesalers to supply information and is handi- capped in this regard because it’s not backed by a big magazine franchise like Curtis’ Saturday Evening Post—Ladies Home Jour- nal—Holiday parlay. Special Displays Starting this week, about one- third of Bantam’s dealers will be carrying special "Bantam Best- seller” racks and displays. Pro- gram will be backed by#nrge drug chains throughout the country in regular monthly newspaper ads featuring Bantam Bestsellers. These chains include Whelan, Sun, Owl. , Cunningham. Crown and similar regional nets. Number one be.stseller on Ban- tam’s list is a historical novel. "The Stranger,” by Lillian Bos Ross. Close behind "The Stranger” is Worth Tuttle Hedden’s "The Other Room.” story of a Southern white girl who loses her race prejudices through teaching in a Negro col- lege in New Orleans. The full bestseller month is: 1. “The 2. “The Other Room’’; ter. My Bride," by Mcrriam Modell <a psychological novel about fri- gidity in marriage); 4. "My Flag Is i^pwn,” by James Mare.sca (the <hary of a New York cabbiei; 5. "Stranger in Paris,” hy W. Somer- set Maugham; 6. "The (’hinese Room,” by Vivian Connell; 7. Nevada,” by Z a n e Grey; 8. T.,ady Godiva and Ma.ster Tom,” by Raoul Faure. Runyon’s ’First and Last’ Damon Runyon, who a few months before he died, said he was after the record for the most books composed of one writer’s news- paper output, will posthumously achieve his goal July 27 when J. B. Lippincott publishes "Runyon First and Last.” Tome, edited by King Features’ Clark Kinnaird, is the seventh volume compiled from the late columnist’s newspaper yarns and includes fiction previously un- collected between covers, mostly yarns written for the Hearst Sun- day papers in the 1920’s, Kinnaird says enough material value for another is now at work on yon reader. Scully’s Pitch Pays Off George Glass, partnered with Stanley Kramer, responded to a recent article by Frank Scully re- garding the plight of two children of Afro-Cuban descent. The piece, discu.ssing how the kids couldn't get anybody to sponsor them dur- ing the war, resulted in Glass .send- ing two silver mugs to the youths. Scully and his wife, Alice, had stood for one of the kids, but felt they had never quite fulfilled their obligation to the other one. that there is of permanent two books and an eighth Run- SRL’s 25th Anni Issue Saturday Review of Literature will publish its 25th Anniversary Issue Aug. 6, when mag will also up its news.stand price to 20c. Anni issue will run 188 pages, largest in its history, and will carry a special rotogravure picture section edited by Roger Butterfield. John Mason Brown will edit an arts and enter- tainment section, with contribs in- cluding Robert E, Sherwood. Max- well Anderson, Iris Barry, Howard Han.son, James Thrall Soby, Brooks Atkinson and Irving Kolodin. Print order will run to 150,000 copies (as against 50,000 for the 20th anni issue), and mag will carry 80 pages of ads. Schwarz’s Hegira Leo Schwarz, having turned in to Rinehart corrected galleys of his "The Root and the Bough,” has left for Europe, where he will retrace his itinerary as a GI with Patton’s 3rd Army. The new tome to be published this fall, is a col- lection of 33 stories by survivors of the German Occupation in^ Eu- rope. Schwarz gathered the tales on the scene during the war and later as DP director of the American Joint Distribtuion Committee in ’46 and ’47. He will go on to Israel, for his fourth vi.sit there since ’34, to col- lect material for another volume in the anthology series Rinehart started in ’35. li.st for this Stranger"; 3. “My Sis- Doubleday Tribute Doubleday is distributing 5.000 copies of a 32-page bound book as a memorial tribute to Ncl.son Doubleday, late head of the pub- lishing hou.se who died last Janu- ary. Volume includes salutes to the publisher from W. Somerset Maugham, Christopher .Morley, Ilka Cha.se. Noel Coward. Edna Fei ber. Daphne du Maurier, Kath- leen Norris. Burton Rascoe. Ken- neth Roberts, Frank Swinnerton and other literati, as well as an article by Russell Doubleday from "Famous Leaders of Industry.” Copies of the tome went to book- sellers. writers. publish«*rs, review- ers and others in the field. Mort Weisinger’s Coast Chores Mort Wei.singer, story editor for National Comics, leaves for Holly- wood Friday <22) for a month of collaboration with Columbia Pic- tures on forthcoming second Superman .serial. Wei.singer will work with Col’s writers and pro- ducer Sam Katzman exercising his company’s power of final approval of script. While on coast Weisinger expects to do some articles for the slicks to Which he’s a regular contributor. Mlchener’s Parific Reprise Janies Michener has signed to <Jo a series of articles for Holiday mag on the islands and peoples of the South Pacific. He’ll retrace the , ^gathering material seen if prizewinner "Tales of ^e South Pacific,” which served ^ basis f^ the current Broadway musical, "South Pacific.” publication in Holiday, the form Publihsed in book form by Random House. De Voto on Bok Decision Judge Curtis Bok’s decision in the police censorship raids on Philly bookstores last year was signalled out for tribute by Ber- nard De Voto in July Harper’s. IDe Voto calls Judge^Bok’s decision "a landmark certain to be perma- nent not only in the defense of free expression but in the history of American cutlure as well.” Calling the juri.st’s thinking "clear and brilliant” and his writ- ing "distinguished ” De Voto stated the Bok opinion “is one of those documents which are eventually to have suddenly crystallized the thinking of an age. It is a great document in democracy and a great document in human free- dom.” Collins’ Farm Ed Honor Agricultural Its week pinned farm'nln^ award as outstanding Citv sfir Kan.sas bv the symbolized Plaaue Memorial ronv^nUoS the Cornell Ti” association r5nV ^^haca, N. Y. Collins was selected, from Mencken Better H. L. Mencken, who has been un- able to read or write, is taking special new treatments at Johns Hopkins and hopes the medicos will be able to get his sight back to normal by the end of the year. He leaves Baltimore Friday <22) to spend a few weeks in the countr)’ with his sister. at 22 Volume LI of Odell’s ’Stage’ Volume 15 in George C. D. OdeU’.s "Annals of the New York Stage” .series w’as published Mon- day (18) by the Columbia Univ. p CHATTER J. G. Bachman and Shirley Striker have oj)encd a new literary agency on the Sunset Strip in Hol- lywood, Mike Kaplan, Coast Variety mugg, in New York lining up assignments prior to a trip to Israel next month. I George Fuerman, Time and Va- riety stringer in Houston, and also literary editor of the Houston f’ost. in town on contacts with the book publishers. . First motion picture production job for Frank Taylor, former Ran- i dom House editor, will he "Wed- nesday at Miflnight,” crime detec- tion yarn, at Metro. Pete Martin polishing a piece on Ken Muiray for the Satevepost to coincide with the ‘‘Blackbirds” preem at the Ziegfeld. N. Y.. Sept. 6. following which the SEP staffer off’s - to - Virginia Beach for two weeks. ! Joseph A. Brandt, president of Henry Holt & Co., is in Los An- geles working on plans for launch- ing the new journalism depart- ment at the Univ. of California at Los Angeles. Brandt will head the department, which opens either this fall or next spring. Katharine Mary Flannigan, 62- year-old Canadian woman upon j whose life "Mrs. Mike” was ba.sed, t is in Hollywood visiting the Regal Films set where the picture is be- ing made from the book with Dick Powell and Evelyn Keyes. Miss Keyes plays Mrs. Flannigan. New character in Milt CanifT’s "Steve Canyon” comic strip, known as Mr. Brandywine, is patterned after Charles Laughton. ,\i1ist told I Laughton .some months ago in New I York that he’d like to use him as ! model for a character. Laughton thought he was kidding, hut he wasn’t. j Rhinehart’s fourth Mary Roberts , Rinehart Mystery Novel Prize Junior. Miss., July 17. Strange as it .seems, behind many Hollywood success stories lie calm, happv, normal family lives. You rarely hear of these, and as long a.s the Sabbath is going to be befouled by an endless retailing of divorces, scandals, suicides and adulteries, you rarely will hear about them. But Hollywood parents who have raised children and have succeeded in getting them through high school can talk for hours about the prob- lems of their teen-agers. Practically all parents agree that if the pearls of wisdom which they have placed at the feet of their children were ever collected in one place, the family fortune would be greater than Solomon’s mines, and his wisdom a.s well. Just when these parents have about come to the di.scouraging con- elu.^ion that their advice would ha\e been better received if thrown in the sea, along comes some friend to tell them their boy is the be>.l- mannered, most intelligent and most mature eliiUl ever spawned. I was discussing this problem with Roy Rowland, the MGM director. He has worked at everything in a Hollywood studio, except acting, though why he stopped there is hard to understand because lie is lar better looking even today than half the company’s lead.s. .\ calm man, he nevertheless has ulcers, which he claims is an occu- pational di.sease of Hollywood that falls on the just and unjust alike, lie is a Horatio ,\lgor sort of hero. He came up from office hoy to cutter, to assistant director, to director. And he married the boss’s niece. For years he directed MGM’s short subjects, the famous "How To” films starring the late Bob Bench ley being the best remembered. Then he directed animals and children. The Animal Kingdom He loves animals but he doesn’t like directing them any longer, be- cause it is hard to make them do what you want. The days run up the overhead—a thing which animals, trained or untrained, fail to under- stand. But the untrained animals are even tougher on one’s patience. They j are supposed to act natural in unnatural surroundings and they don't take to the conflict very easily. Wild animals, like fawns, for instance, can curl up and die if handled too much. A fawn will by nature go and hide in the shade. j That’s why a picture like “Sequoia” may take two years to make. Before starting, when the script was ready, Rowland and the produc- tion manager were told to break dowq the cost. They were told to figure on a 36-day schedule. 1 But after 36 days of shooting they weren’t anywhere with "Sequoia.” The animals didn’t under^*and English. It took two years for Rowland to learn their language instead. But it was an inexpensive picture even so, costing about $375,000. j Though fond of children, next to wild animals he dislikes directing children most. In "Our Grapes Have Tender Vines,” the script called for a scene of Butch Jenkins mounting a trained circus pony. 'Fhe pony would sit down and make anybody mounting him slide off. Two months before shooting began, Rowland made arrangements with a donkey trainer and was told the trick was a ei..eh, not to worry at all. So the whole troupe left Hollywood for .\inarillo, 'Fexas. Border Incident To get on location they had to cross a dry river. There was quick- sand in the river, so if it rained the troupe had to take a roundabout I way that took hours. It doesn’t rain much in Amarillo, Rowland was I assured, but the Texans had neglected to tell that if it rained in New Mexico they couldn’t use the short route across the river. And it rained in New Mexico every day. I Between laws permitting the working of children only a few hours a day, and under no conditions later than 5 o’clock, and the long treks ' to get on location, the tender grtipes became parboiled gripes. The donkey, too, it seems, had switched trainers. The new one didn’t know anything about the trick the donkey was supposed to do. So day after day Butch Jenkins’ prattfall was a Mop. That’s what produced his ulcers, Rowland grimly admitted, not the personal problems of parenthood. You’d think after years of Butch Jenkin.s and Margaret O’Brien, not to .stress everything from black panthers to fawns which he directed in "Se({Uoia,’’ and Mickey Rooney in "Killer McCoy," Rowland’s own .son would be as ea.sy to rai.se as your liat. But such wa.sn’t the case exactly. He was happily married, and he and his wife, the former Ruth Cum- mings, naturally wanted theii first born to grow up unspoiled, happy with his surroundings and skilled in getting ahead in life on his own. How To Lose Friends They sent the boy to a itublic Itigh school for a while, hut it seems tliat he made the mistake there of applying himself to his lessons. In that set, this was infra dig. It got him on more unwanted lists than if he had been a spy in the hire of a foreign power. He soon cured that. He Just quit studying and became the life of the party. His father reitioved him from lit,at party-line and put tlie boy in a private prep scltool. This dicin’t help too much at first, and the reason soon reared its ugly headlight. The boy felt eonipletely like a flat liie in this set because he didn’t have a o.ir. 'Fhis ear-shortage is a good de.'il more serious in Hollywood than it would be in .New York. In Hollywood everybody seems to live miles fioni everybody else. In Roy Howland’s ease he told his son that if his grades improved and lie learned not only -to pick his eloth<‘s off the floor but to leave his room a.s he would like it to look if bis headmaster dropped in. he might look forward to a car of his own. But a car of his own, he was warned, was ju.st a beginning of a lot of problems which came under tJie general head of "maintenance.” 1 Tlic kid buckled down so fast that the headmaster called home to find out what the trouble was. How to Buy Your Own Gas When Peter Rowland explained that it was just one more giveaway program and that Pop was the sponsor, the headmaster laughed and said that the incentive-motive seemed to be doing the trick. When the kid got his car, however, his father asked him how he was going to keep It in operation? The kid had no job. jobs, in fact, were hard to get. So his father gave him one. That was to get up at 7 every morning, put his own room in order, dust down his father’s car, police the grounds and have everything in readiness for Pop’s takeoff by 8 a.m. "I told him I wasn’t going to bo able to leave him much money be- cause I had come into the picture business when the tax .structure left very little to leave, even for those who were paid very well. But these thitigs which I had tried to teach him and which all serious parents try to teach their children were things money couldn’t buy.” I think it is going to work out, and I’d certainly like to he around to .see how this sort of child-training matches the paternalism of the super- state. It convinces me you can rai.se good children anywhere. Even in Sodom and Gomorrah I’ll bet there were some good ones. Conte.st beginning Aug. 1 and end- ing Jan. L5 offers a total prize of $2,000, of which half is an outright (ash prize and the balance an ad- vance against royalty earnings. Conte.st is open to anyone who has never before published a mystery novel, Clarence J. Brow n, Jr., son of the Ohio Congressman, has taken over as editor of the Blanchester tO.) Star-Republican, the weekly pur- chased by his father in 1920. Dale Fore.st, editor for the past two years, moves to managing editor- ship of the Glasgow <Ky.) Journal, new daily and Sunday paper sched- uled to begin publication Aug. 1.