Variety (January 1950)

W^n«a(ilay, JaiiM«»y Ilf 1950 UIVlItATI 61 organization’s council, in asking approyal of tlie contributions plan^ indicates that the minimum budget, as operating at present, is $34,000, but that to fuiiction effectively the Guild would need $58,000- $63,000, V Under the contributions plan, retpiests for donations in addition to dues “will be made periodically and systematically; the »requests will imply nb obligation and ho pressure; For members’; infbrma- tiph, a scale of suggested contri- butions (in prpportipn, to income): will be iurhished, but the amount of each inember’s contributiori, and whether he hiakes it or not, will, be left' entirely to him. His deci- sion will have ho bearing on his Status as a member in good stand- ing,’- V.'--.' The contributions plan, is to take the place of the assessment plahi which has: produced less; than 15% of the expected $40,000 revenue arid aroused criticism and, reseht- rtient among the.membership. MachiUlan’s Shoiv Biz Tomes Included- in Macmillan’s list of books for release early this year are a number of entries With show days last week, the W-t: iis^ the ! links, ^ylvia Dee’s “Dear N; Y. Times plant to run off 175,- ] Kenneth 000 extra copies. The’ W-X added the Sun to its masthead arid took- over several top columnists froih the defunct 117-year old daily. The j-A also inked many Sun feature writers and ih sevefal editions last week displayed the Sun’s hame at the head of the paper in larger type than used for its own masthead. Both papers also splashed full- page spreads in the mdrning dailies to publicize the features taken over • from the Sun. The ;\V-T enlarged its staff N. Circulation War? An old-fashioned newspaper civ- eulatlon w^r Is. looimng in^ tlrt - wake -tht New. ^rk Sun’s iemise last Thursdw. (STIdlTowinl nuichasi ot Its name and gopdwill Sv tirt Worid.'relpgram, While all die other N. Y- dailies expressed regret over* the Sun’s death, the World-Telly and the Journal- American started their major struggle for dbmiiiance in the atternoon field. These two papers, together with the N. Y. Post, which has a different editorial putlopk und readership composition, now comprise the three p.m. dailies still surviving in Hew York. Both the World-Telly and the Journal-AmefiCan are; currently vying for the 260,0Q0 readers who were let loose by; the SUh’s fold^; ihg. GirGUlatioh mspectors of both dailies were ordered to hit the routes to assiire favorable display j and positions on the newsstands. Extra bundles Of one paper were distributed to the stands ih order •fo piit the other paper into the shade. The : Wbrld-Telly, mean- time, expanded its Own plant facilities to handle ah ahticipated circulation hike. For a cOuple of MacGowan’s “Early Man in the New World” are two novels.schedv. uled for April publication. The former author is a member of the American Society of Composers^ Authors and Publishers, while the latter is a drama critic, theatre arts. prof and film and legit pro- ducer.. Also slated for the stands that month is “Ballet Annual 1950,” edited by A. L. Haskell, British dance critic. Moses Smith’s ‘‘Selective Record, Guide” is. set fOr ,March release, Shiith was formerly music critic the ' addition from the Sim of the Bo?ton_Transcnpt and later Grantland Rice, Ward Morehouse, Eileen Creelman, Carlton Shively, J.. B. Wallach, Roger Whitman, Dave Boone Says, ehaiies Goren, Garrett Winter, the Sun’s comics arid several other .weekly, features. Morehouse will; only. . do his i director of Golumbik MasterWorks. “Fritz Kreisler,’’ a biography Of the title character: by Louis P. Lochner, will go into the book stalls in May. Lochner, a radio commentator, Pulitzer Prize win- ner for foreign correspondence, “Broadvvay. After- Dark”' column with William Hawkins remaining as the Telegram’s dramii critic. Eileen Creelman similarly will do. film news with Alton Cook also eontimiing as. film critic. The Jeurrial - Ahierican took over George E. Sokolsky, Rube Gold- berg and John McClain. Most of the Sun’s 1.200 em- ployees rwere laid off, with’ many receiving severance pay under their union contracts, Editbriai employees Of: the Sun, the on.l,v N. Y. paper not having a contract with the American New'spaper Guild, were organized into an in- dependent union. The Guild; while expressing sympathy with j the unemployed Sun staffers, w' a r n e d the W-T management against displacing Guild members With Sun employees: The W-T has, a Iready employed several Sun re-" write nieh and is continuing to interview others. i In explaining the reason for the Sun’s sale, publisher 'riiomaa D; Dewart said that rising , costs had made profitable pperaiions vir- tually impossible. He put the heaviest blame on various unions which, 1 he alleged, forced wages “beyond reason.” vyas a former reporter for Musical America. Macmillan’s new Catalog also in- cludes two; high priced works; Eric Partridge’s ‘‘A Dictionary of the Underworld” and “A Dic- tionary Of Slang and Unconven- tional English.” The former book will sell for about $9,; while the latter will probably retail at $10;50. ‘Dream MerchanisV Cliib Buy “The Dream MerchiEints,” novel on the film industry'authored by Harold Robbins, stati.stician at Uhiversal Pictures; has been sold to the Fiction Book Club for dis- tribution in the spring. Deal guar- antees another 250,000 copies in circulation. Robbins is currently working qn his third novel, ten- tatively labelled ‘‘Moving' Day,” which has no showbiz angle. Like the first two, book will be pub- lished by Alfred Knopf & CO. Bobbs-Merrili to do a now novel. L Gary Conper^^profil ed in cu r- rent Satevepost, *'Holl 3 rwood’s, Not So Silent KhighV by Pete Mairtin. i Donald Hamilton’s new book^ j “Murder ^ Twice Told,” is now in I the hands of hisi publishers, Bine- hart & QO. Quentin Reynolds describes New Yoik's Algonquin.,Hbtel,. with its show biz-literati ties, as “The Hotel ! That Refused tO Die,” in February .Esquire, '.i Jimiiiy Savage, Chi Tribune go$- i , sip columnist, heads for the New j f York and Washihgton arenas. With; ' a five-weqk tour oh carte blanche ; ^assignment. Russell Rhodes, its former pic | critic,; appointed night ciub; and j general ehtertainnient editor of' The Journal of Commerce and will j conduct a regular column, I Nathan. Goldstein, formerly clrr j culatibn manager of; t^^^ Y. Times; upped to the, post of cir;* . cuiatioh director. Paiil J. Rowan itibves into Goldstein’s bid spiot;. Don Freeman, artirt and author I of “Come One, Come All,” which j ' Rihehart published in November, j has just cbmpleted a children's | j book, with his dwri illustrations. ' i Ned Calmer, CBS newscaster, ; ■ has authored a novel With a locale- j of Frarice during the Ubefatlon, f “The Strange Land,” due / for publication Feb. 6 by Scribner’s. I Peter Tleggie, Whbsb resignatiori j as. executive secretary of the Au- ; thbrs Cuild becomes effective jan; - 31, will take a three-week yacatibn I on Cape Cod before starting a new ! assignment..; * Actress Ruth Ohatterton has Avritteh a n o y e 1, “Homeward Borne,” about a! refugee boy in : America, which she submitted ? anonymousiy to SimOn & Schuster 1 and which that firm will publish ■ in May..' Theodore Pratt, author of “The j Flame Tree,” launched an extehr j sive lecture toiur through Florida r on behalf of his book. NoVel, which | has a Miami settings is getting haavy promotional support fl’orn i Florida hotels. - Emhiet N. O’Brieh, of Gannett Newspapers, has been elected the' 50th president of the Legislative ■ Correspondehts Assh. in Albany. He succeeds Robert G. Spiyack, of New York PbsVHome News, j O’Brieh. is from Rbehester. Talks by Arthur Schwartz on | television. Rex: Stout on whodunits,! Malcolm Cowley On criticism and Paul Gailico, Merle Miller, Matk. Van Doren, Elizabeth Janeway. William Sloan;^* Aghes .Rogers and Frederick Lewis Allen, and Henry ' F. Pringle oh other aspects of. writing and editing will comprise a series of 10 lectures to be offered : by Coiambia Univ.,"* by arrange-! mentwith the Authors Guild; from : Feb. 7 through May 2. i By Frank ScuUy In 19'47 SO many reports and rumors about flying saucers were flying afouiTd That the high command ordered the-^ir-Epree to take over Qperatiph Saucer, The thing remained top secret for ; inbre than a year. ' Xast summer bne of biir Variety muggs ran into some jpersonal angles on the pTojabt; revealing that fliere was some conflict between sciehtists called in and the Air Force brass. Scully ran some of this ih "bis “SerapbOok.”^ His revela- ; tiqhs; if taken rtraight, would have staggered the Uhiver$e. They appeared in the PcL 12 and Noy. 23/issues of Variety.; : ^ ; Then on Dec. 25 Walter Wihchell announced, oyer ABC that True Magazm^^ was coming Out ih a few days with a long, and . documented feature entitled “Flying Saucers Are Rear,’! by Lieiiti Donald E. Kehpe. Within 24 hbih'S Pf the appearanee of Kehpe’s story an Air Force spokesmaii blew the whole thing down, and said they were clortng Pperatioh :Saucer. Two days later Dlfeily . Variety, ran an inside story from a; press agent claimihg it ;w.fts . all a publicity plant for“.The Flyirig Saucer,’’ released by Film Classics; On his Sunday night broadcast Of . Jan^ I^ Fid-- dler repeated this without credit. , • Since then, however^ Ken Purdy, publisher of True Magazine, iahd tire editors of Life and Time'are stopping at nothihg to make the, story stick. In short, Operation Saucer has not been closed down; bhly dummied up. Now go on with, tlib Scully story, r—Editbr... • . Trade Press Course Course designed mainly for the N. Y: trade press will be inaugu- rated Feb, 9 by the City CpHege School of Business’ Evening and Extension Division. Labeled Work- shop in Advanced Techniques of Trade .Iburnalism, course will be _ eonducted by Jack A. Ghene; mah- The Hilton Buildup aging editor of House Furnishing Fred Joyce, Conrad Hiltoii\s per- Review and Linens & Domestics, spnal rep, heads for the Goast to f Course will run 15 week.s. with tie up film package deal foiv ;‘The . the. cla.ss meeting Thursday nights Man Whb Bought the Waidorf” by ; at the 46th St. Center. Thomas E. Dabney on the Duell, SJoan & Pearce January list. Jazz History Gab Series While Lester Cowan is iriterestecl,; a 15-vve.ek course on the histbi'y, Joyce would like Metro to do a ' of iazzwill get underway Feb. 6 at followup tp“Week: End at the; N.Y U. Labeled Perspectives in Waldorf” released several years jazz, the sessions wilj be conducted *ge ;: , ; . , ^ pyMarshaU W. Picture would be* culmination of niond and George Avakian; Stearns: giant buildup the hotelman has foriherly with Variety, Down Beat been getting vvith.his acquisition oi' and Aletronoine, is currently on ContihUed frocn page 1 Records, \vhile Avakian is editor of Police Gazette Expands , Hot Jazz Clas.sics. j National Police Gazette is add-^ Guest ^cturers w'ill also be tisc^ Price is also, being upped lo 20c; , Goiidon. New features added will be radio i ’ •; and television coverage, as well as I CH.4TTE11 - morn film and theatre news. ;Lebriai’d Slater is IheVnew llol- A iV - ' lywood representative :fQr , News- Authors Guild Incoiiie Hike week. Proposed .contributions plan to A biography pf Fritz Kreisjer, be voted on Jan. 28 by the Authors by Loiiis Lpchnei/, may. be publi.sli- t»Uild, is expected to bi’ing in ed by Macmillan in May. • ; .about $10;006 a year for the or-' Marshall W. . Stearns,- former ganizatiom With the anticiiiated, V^ariety mugg. wriljng book on increase, of '1,200 new members in ■ Afro-American folk music.. , ;; the next two yearsy paying‘$34,000 : Fred Sammls in Hollywood to annual dues, Arid the receipt pf -make: arrangements for tire annual *n estimated $4,000 other revenue, i Photoplay Gold Medal awai'ds. theGuiid’s income i.S figured^ likely • Oriana iMrs. Brooks)^ Alkjn.son. to be about $48,000 a year. Tfie has just signed a contract with there would still be sizable routes.; Many cafes might not have clbsed if agencies had come up with new ; modes of presentation and differ- ent types of performers. The same, they feel, is true in films; Even the tremendous possibilities' of- fered by a mass medium such as video aren’t being fully exploited ; by the agencies. Sdme percenters think that pres- eht-day liigli operation costs are partially to blame for this state of affair.s. Because of the necessity of mainlainihg present revenues, agents are devoting most of their. selling; to already est^^blisbcd stars- s i n e e com mi ss ions are hi gh er a n cl they. are' easier to - peddle; Thus the n'ewcomei's in, the busines.s haven't been getting the proper .'■atten-tiph;-^ ■ ■ A.side from video, 'the only new developmenl in getting greater agency iTvenue in. the past few years has; been testimonial sales. : Se vei*a 1 la lent Offices are how real - izihg. sizabie Suras in commission.s arid extra dividends in the way ;()f ;publ icily pitc'hes via .sales of com- mercial (eslimohials. by some of the. top names,'' , '. The major : agencies. Sometiihe agb rCali/ed that something bad. to be done in the way of creating hew v salesmen.. The Morris office, for; 'exa m pic, starts promising young-. sters as .secretaries to agents,, and vvhen sufficient knowledge of the ; field; i.s gained, they are evontualJy given ppportunity to see what they can dp as peddlers.: Some Of .the top men at the Morris office start- ed off in this manner/ ; Music COrp. of America several yeans ago started the policy of hiring young college gwids at sal-; aries of around $56-$66 weekly and teaching them the, business. The turnover with, this policy at. MC’A; ha.s been fairly large so far and iesults haven’t justified the / V Magnetic Springs, 0 ., Janir: 7 . : Before being heaved to another planet because Of L’Affaire Saueiere,^^^: f would like to .light a lighter under the brass Of the - Air Fpree and ask the desk generals 20 questions. Of course I could ask many moire v than 20 questions, but others, notably the rtaff of . True; Magazine, might like to get ih a fow queries Oh their own. My suspicion is that the Air Force top command decided to hide behind a “spokesman” and close the subject of flying, saucers becausei they didn’t want to be asked any mpre questions to which they per- sonally or professionally didn’t have the answers. If I’m wrong maybe they’ll answer these: ; 1 .—'Do; you. think it such a good: idea to close • off Operation.. Saucer at/this time when the records show that more saucers fly the skies be^ tweeii Dec: 2i and Feb. 15 than at any other time? 2:_Why is it that pilots whb have been trained to identify every make, inodel arid nktionaiity; of airplanes all describe these space ships they have seen as“saucer-shaped?” ■ 3. ^Did the Air Force wrecking crews break up one of these ships ihslead of letting it in the hands of magnetic engineers until they could study'in detail hbW such a ship, if not put together oh this earth, could have transferred from the magnetic lines of force from another planet? In other words, how could they leave oh their beam and land on ours? 4. —Did the Air Force ever make pubUc what ihe“eXplpsives” look- ing like a dismantled flying saucer were, which they transported in ariiiy trucks from a Nvestern research base to Dayton, Ohio?' 5. —-Weren’t all the saucers found on the we.stern .hemisphere mag- netic raDier than jet jobs? : —Nn Tipping 6. —Wasn’t the small one, which was 36 feet in diameter, equipped with landing gear Which had steel-looking spheres instead of wheels ; arid vyhich when moving could not be tipped over by 10 m®h hut when not moving could be tilted by one nian?‘ . 7. —Considering, how many of our pjanes have spiashups on landing, wouldn’t it have been worthwhile to have studied j:he secret behind these magnetized; ball-shaped lariding-geai^ before releasing parts to ; brassbound. souvenir-hunters? 8. —Why don’t you' release the tape-recordings of Comments and questions asked at the.public viewing of one of the men picked up dead froin a flying saucer, put in, a pre.servati ye sol utibn, and placed be- iwecrt human spbeimens from prenatciil to grown man in ari exhibit at the RosenwaJd Institute, Chicago? 9. —What has happened to the remains of the 16 men found dead in brie.pf .the large saucers and the t\yb in a smaller flying disk; 10 —rDld you ever find the secret of how these flying saucers .wei e hei'metically sealed so .as to show no outside crack when the door Avas ’closed?; ' '• / 11. -—If you suspect the flying saucers were, manufactured and relea|^ed by a foreign power, don’t you know that as late as 1930 the foremast of such nations was happy Ip get: rehabilitated Liberty miotors from uk (Worth $100) at $3,000 apiece and hasn’t shown any particular genius since in priginating devices designed to conquer the air? 12. —Have you looked thoroughly into vyhat oiir owii air plants might he manufacturing with or without your kribwiedge or consent? 13. —Did you ever see a radio like the one which was on the flying saucer that landed on a ranch nefir Aztec, N. M.? 14. —Wasn’t that the saucer that vyai di.smantled by Air Force souve- nIr hunters, kg., and shipped overland to Wright Field, Ohio? 1.5;—V\;hat happened tp the body of the man 31,2 feet tall, taken dead; from a saucer which had landed in New Mexico and exhibited in Roisen- wald Institute? j6.-r-What do you know about magnetic fault zones In certain area.s on this earth and notably in Oregon'■ 17.—Do you know hoAV inagneti.c wave.s emanate from the sun, re- volve around the earth, continue on to the earth’s moon, cbm e back to on tearing open everything that might have helped the magnetic seien- tisls into determihing if a; saucer magnetically controlled could hop from one magnetic; zone to anothoi? 18. —Si rice the / scientists who research ed these sa Ucers have ri e ver been, able tp find . any evidence of two bf the .saucer’s metals on: this ' eai'th. how much nearer to the splutiOn has Air Force Iritelligehce come sjrice taking over the project ahd now presumably shelving it? 19. —Don’t you think it was sonniething les.s, than cricket to eneburage Donald E. Kehoe, a former nayy-ti airied; balloon pilot as well a.s a rnailrie corp.s airplane pilot, into /writing that. ffying saucers, are real; (inly ; for you to deny the whole thing, after magazine story. : bi’okfe? :20 .-^An d finally, dp you bel ieve We w<?a 1]. ch u m ped by Film ClaSs-^ ic.s and their recehtiy released program picture called “The Flying lucer expenditures. However, this policy wil) be cpntiilhed for some time. At MCA; the situation is slightly different than with iripst agencies beoause with their large talent list, a. talent buyer can nearly alWay.s find .something, and it takes rib genius merely to fill An order. In the recent absorption of the; Berg-Allenberg Agency by the MoimTs office; one of .the byprbd,- ucts Ava.s the acqui.siUon of soriie top film salesnieh, who*, in con- jilhction/with the top performihg; names acquired in the deal, are iri a po.sitiori to, strengtheh the ' Mor- ris office’s status in the pic ih- ' dustry. .. ;...• . . Because of the extremeiy slbw ' proces.s of training new. salesmen; the major offices are nearly ai- ways throwing but offers to estab- ii.shed agents. Inter-agency move- ment hasn’t been especially heavy since present emplpyers will hear- iy always meet superior offe.^.