Variety (February 1950)

LBG1T1]»IATE Wednesday, Febrnary 22^ I 95 O Hollywood, Feb, 21, 4 Definite move to find a new set of Equity rules to govern profes- sional and little theatre operatidns In this area is now underway, with Christopher iQ’Brieh here froin New York as assistant executive secretary for the west coast. Elec- tion of a five-mail advisory board to wbrh with O’toen and Equity Council in the east is now beihg, .cohductedi';-'-:'/:. O’Brien, in the three \veeks he has beea here ^ haS surveyed the local scene and has already cracked down On the producers of ‘‘The Xadies Misbehave,^' Vat , the ■ Las Palmas, forcing actbrs’. salaries in that bedrooni farce to be upped from $25-$40 weekly to a minimum of $75 weekly. Sweeping reforms In the matter of salaries and work- : ing conditions in so-calledi little theatres are in the offing. Meanwhile, local producers in •Ome of the smaller houses here may form an; association -for . col- lective bargaining purposes. Equity toppers and, members of the union are also expected to move for strict adherence to payment of 5% foes . to agents. Agents, in some in- Btances, have been , taking as high as\20 and 25% and tieing per- formers to long-terin contracts; Nominees for the five-man ad- . visory committee include Vivian Baber, Whit BisSell, David C. Clarke, Howard Silva, Morgan Farley, Howard Frv'mman, Ned Glass, Victor Killian, Fred Irying Lewis', Donald Randolph, Art Smith, George L. Spaulding, EVan Thomas, Frederic Tozere, Frances E. Williams and Williams. This Committee will not have local autonomy, but will supple- ment the services of the executive , staff now headed by O’Brien. Aim advising on the local situation here will be resident members of the Council including Frank Fay, Erin O’Brieii Moore, William Taliman and Richard Whorf. Voting for the committee closes Feb. 19r: with re- turns to be announced Feb. 22 or *3.. Niew! In-Law Trouble Another chapter in the saga of “South Pacific!' tickets; 'the real estate editor of a New York daily approached the drama editor last week With the pleai, “Can you get me -seats for my parents, who. are coming to visit me the latter part of March?’* “Ill* get you house seats,’* ; the d.e, canie back, “if you’ll' find an apartment for my ^ mbther-in-laW.” Scene designer Jo Mlelzlner amd general manager Harry Fleisch- man have formed a producing part- nefship to present next season a musical version of Q’Nelirs “De- sire Under the Elms,’^ with Mor- on Gould composing the: score and prohably Edward Eager as lyricist . ; . Producer Joseph M, Hymaii has three more weeks of Grand Jury duty ... George Bass- ipan will do the. orchestrations of the Frank Loesser music for “Guys, and' Dolls” ... Gertriidc Lawrence due back today (Wed.) or tornor-; row (Thufs.) from Florida yaca- ion . ^ i James F; Reilly, of the League of N, Y. Theatres,-and Louis M.: Simon, Alfred Harding, Marjorie Gateson, representing; Equity, are in Washington this week to attend committee hearings ivaf for Si. too 'St. Louis, Feb. 2i. A “Rodgers and . Hainmerstein Festival” will be featured during the last three weeks of the 1950 Municipal Theatre Assn, season that starts next June 8 in the al fresco .theatre Ip Forest Park. Only the works! of Oscar Hammerstein li and Richard Rodgers will be - heard. A special two and one-half hour stage production featuring hiusic from “Oklahoma,” “Carou- sel,” “Allegro,” “State Fair” (20th- FoX pic) and “South Pacific” will be presented. Details are being Worked out in New York by John Kennedy, pro- duction manager, and Edwin Mac- Arthur, musical director, along With the composer and author. The season tees off with an 11- night run of “Brigadbon.” Ezra Stone will probably direct the operetta based on a number of Puccini compositions which Milton Shubert is readying for production this spring Or early next fall. Terms of the deal are verbally set, but a contract has not been sighed. Deems Taylor Is arranging the Puccini music, with Kay Swift sup- plying thn lyrics and Louis , Ver- neuil writing the bobk. Jeanette MacDonald and Dorothy Kirsten were mentipned as possibilities for the femme lead but they have nixed' it. Production will probably budgeted at about $2Q0,000, be Pitt’s „ Pittsburgh, Feb. 21. Speculation ovbr future of legiti mate theatre in Pittsburgh came to an end over the weekend With announcement that 1,750-seat Seri- ator, which Harris Amus. Co. Va cates in , another 10 days, will succeed the Nixon as local home of touring shows. The 47-year-old Nixon comes down after May 1 to make rooih for skyscraper to house Aluminum Co. of America offices. Local syndicate, Astor Theatre Corp., has taken oyer Senator and begins operatihg It in another fort- night.? Gabe Rubin, who owns Aft Clriema, downtown foreign film spot, heads . the Astor group as general manager, with a brother Harry Rubin, a local attorney, as secretary-treasurer. They plan to run house with pictures and oc casional stageshows until this sum- mer when Senator will be shut down for a couple of months to make the necessary renovations for legit attractions. Senator has a stage 80 feet wide , Backers of the $40^000 revival of “Devil^s J^isciple,” which Aldrich it Myers presented last night (Tues.) at the Royale, N. Y„ include RebeccA BroWnstein, Actors Equity attorney; former strawhat manager Francis Curtis, representiiig a syndicate; Meyer Davis, represeiiting a syndi- cate; Sergei Denham, Ballet Russe director, and his son-in-law and daughter, Robert and Irina Pabst; theatre program promoter Al Green- stohe; attbrney Michael Halpefin; Ruth Richmond, executive-secretarv bf Chorus Equity; agent Leah Salisbury; Elizabeth W. Smith, a Ballet Russe director; Roger Straus, of Farrar & Straus puhlishing; Jan« (Mrs. Lawrence) Tibbett; attorney arid fornief tennis star Watson Wasli- burri, arid author-publisher Stanley Young, each $800; Also stage manager John Effratt; $1,600, and Julius Fleischmann, who is. associ- ated with Aldrich & Myers in the presentation of “Caesar arid Cleo- patra,” $2,400. Anbther investor, F. Crocker Whitman, whb has a $1,600 sharpie Is the only original backer, of “The Innocents’' when Aldrich Be Myers gave It a; strawhat tryout last summer, who striirig along when the show was recently produced at. the Playhouse, N. Y:, by-Teter Cbbksbri^-■ ■ V..;•"* Unusual number of show business nairies are among the backers of ! the Chandler Cowles-Efrem Zimbalist, Jf.,. prbductioriL of Giah-CarJo arid"^ulifr"?epeaL*^ ad-1 Menotti’s “The Consul.” They includp novelist Grace Zaririg Stoiie missions tax; Shlfley Booth and Sidney Black- • . . « * ’•. » . ■ 1 .fit Booth, N. Y. . . Thornton Wilder sailed: yesterday (Tues;) on the Veendam for two or three months in Europe V •. . Vvbnne Adair, in the cast of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” at the Ziegfeld, N. Y., announced her engagement yester- day to Harold Patterson (“the or- chid king”), of Bergenfield, N. J. . . . Producer Richard Myers sails tomorrow on the America for . a two-mbnth Vacation in France. Rex Harrlsori, already. being paged by Rodgers & Hainmerstein for their projected musical edition of “Anna and the King of Siam” next season, probably won’t do the comedy which Terence Ratti- gan has just" written for him. How- ever, he hasn't yet decided about appearing in “Accolade,” authored for him by Emlyn Williams. Ac- tor's scheduled sailirig for England tomorrow has been postponed be- cause ' of the illness of his wife, Lilli Palmer. She is due back in her co-starring part in “Caesar and Cleopatra” tomorrow night. Charles Haltoii, male lead in “The Enchanted,” is in St. Glare's hospital, N: Y.. with a knee ail- ment. Meanwhile, he's on , full salary from the show. Roland Wood is subbing for him with William Markham taking Over the latter's part . . . producer Herbert J. Freezer due back in N. Y. the end of the week from Washington and South Carolina . . . Felix Brentano will direct the musical theatre-in-the-round to be pre- sented for 12 \veeks starting June $250; photographer Dorothy Wheelock, $250; photographer Richard AVedon, $250; Paul Jaretzki, of the N, Y. City Center production staff $1,000; danCer-choreographer John Butler, $250; Mrs, Mary Curtis Bok Zimbalist, stepmother pf co-producer Zimbalist, $25,500; her husband and the latter’s father, $2,000; sketch writer M^ix Wilk, $250; Sarah Rubenstein, Alleri Porter and lone Ulrich Sutton, of the Museum of Modei^n Art, N. Y,, $250 each; radio producer Robert Heller, $500; Muiv garet K. Goldsmith, of Life mag, $500; Iva S.; V. Patcevifeh, of Cbnde Nast puhllshing, $2,000; .HPward S. Cullmari, $2,000; Mrs. Bert Sheve- loVe, wife of the legit director, $250; photographer John Swope, hu.s- band of actress Dorothy McGuire, $1^000; Moss Hart, $2,000, and singer Patrice Munseh $2,000. Show is capitalized at $100,OQO. Decision to bring “Metropole” to Broadway last Deceriiber, instead of closing it during the out-of-towh tryaut, was at;i:he insistence of stager George $. Kaufman. Arguing that because the author, William Wald eh, had never had a play on Broadway he was entitled to at least a hearing, and that even a failure would help him get a production for any future scripts he may write, Kaufman guaranteed to make good any losses involved in hringing the show to New York. As producerj Max Gordon had decided that he was :uiider pbligatiph to save as miich as possible of the backers’ money by avoiding the expense of a hopeless Broadway presentation. Kaufman’s action is understood to have cost him almost $5,000. Sit- uation has been a closelyrheld secret. Not even Walden was Informed. In George Bernard Shaw’s book, “Three Plays for Puritans,” he lists “The Deyil’s Disciple,” “Caesar and Cleppatra” and “Captain Brass-- bound’s Conversion.” First two have already been produced on Broad- way this season and are.hits. Pittsburgh ^Playhouse opened “Captain Brassbourid’s Conversion’* for a four-week nin on Saturday (18) to complete the cycle. “Brassbound” got a lot of extra-curricular column and feature space in Pitt newspapers when, prpdded by Playhouse p.a., they were remirided that, it was in. Pittsburgh, on March 22, 1907, while the Shaw play was at Nixon theatre, that Ellen Terry, the leading lady for whom GBS wrote it, and James Carew, an actor from Goshen, Ind., were married. At the time Miss Terry was 59, the groom 31. -Saw* legitimate sHows—dn the groiui Sbmers N ®Y* Standing to play in a former burley spot. barlr 8p into Washington only « It, Instead of “] Actress Adrienne Allen hack from visit to Jamaica, B.W.l. . . , Attorney Arnold Weissberger plan- ed Saturday (18) with his mother for his annual sliow-catching trip Ham Butler is production assistant to Gian-Carlo Menotti; not only for and 31 feet deep, and was origin-! the forthcoming presentation of ally -built as the Victoria, when i “The Consul,” but on a permanent Stars of two road companies reportedly turned down bookings at the Gayety theatre, Washingtdn—the burlesque house readying to re- groiuid that it would hurt their Another show was willing Barretts of Wimpolc Street.” were given the honor of preeming the Gayety and bringing legit back to Washington after a 17-morith ahserice. National was closed there in the \v#e of the segregation: furore. The 44-year-old house iaunches its test run as a legiter .March 6. to Loridon and Paris. He’s due ; It’s getting a refurbishing. Policy will be non-segregation, back in about two weeks . . . Wil-| . . ■ ■ . ■ Waurta Pauh co-producer *with A* T. Smith of the London hit, Larger Than Life,” is a former New York legit-radio actress. She it housed burlesque and then bigtiriie S h u b e r t vaude. basis Patrice Muiisel will star went to England about a year ago with the intention of presenting another play. When the option on that expired, she made a dear w ith Lnter - in Edwin Lester's revival' of “Rose ! on the present production, also arranging for her friend. Jessie iHinp I Marie” for the Los Angeles and Royce Landis, to make her British st^e, debut as its star. Latter has inoA 'rTn_ S03SO11.. this sliiTirnGr* LcSwCr jihs fll“* • . J-iixG W3S d flop on Sfo&dWf presentation policy in 1924 ris circuit reehristsned frtrnr if nvtr in 10^7^ ! SO Commissioned Henry Myers and original title, “Theatre.” it is expeCte^d to pay i Edward Eliscu to write ah operetta less than a month, and appears set for a long id it the Senator. 1 book for her, with Erich Wolfgang ■ “ Komgold adapting the Offenbach score i. i William Bemey and How- ard Richardson, co-authors of : this season’s “Design For a Stained 646 in Pils^lnage To; ‘Texas’ on Show Train New Hav^ri, Feb. 21/ New Haven, Railroad ran its most successful “Broadway Show Train” to date last week (16) when It, teamed with; Anthoriy Brady FarreU for a fan pilgrimage to ^Tejwsi m DarlinV' Originating here, with a special .leg coming in from Hartford, a total of 548 passengers made the trip, which wasi punctitated by car- to-car eritertainriient furnished by Kenny Delmar, Danny Scholl, Kate Murtah* Betty Lou Keim arid the Texas Rhythm Boys, all cast mem- bers. Also included was a fashion fhoW featuring a dozen girls from tliemuslcal. Farrell went whole hog on a Bublic relations gesture when he . blew two carloads of the press to a pre-performance dinner at the Hotel V Astor Columbia Room! .Junket was guided on the tratis- portatioh end by Samuel Boyar and Leslie Tyler* of the New Haven Road public relations de- ^ partmefit; fur the “Texas'* division, Nat Dorfmau headed press con- tacts. Next on the list is Know My Xovd/' skedded for March 22* *Okla*!' Moderate 3QG In 3 Sonthwest Stands 21 flop on Broadway about 10 years ago under its off its production co.st in nin; Entire $100,000 financing for “The Wisteria Trees,” Joshua Logan* Leland Hayward production currently trying out in Boston, has born supplied by only four people. " Besides Logan and Hayward, they are El Paso Feb 21 [ Glass Window,” are currently in 1 Howard Cullman. Miss Hayes reportedly Ihvesled “Oklahoma'” nulled a modprafp I Haytona Beach, Fla., where they’re ' in addition to her 15% of the gross and 25% of the net, as Star. $30 000. last week for eight per- ! collaborating on a new work; “So- i Her share of the profits will apply to revenue from any. source, Incliid- forihances in three engagemehts Tennessee,” to be produced i mg possible road companies, film sales, foreign and stock rights, etc. ending , Saturday (18). Musical i scheduled | It s expected, the show will cost about $85,000 to open in New played, the .Orpheum, Phoenix, . put into rehearsal in August j York, including bonds, giving it a cash reserve of $15,000 to start. Monday and TuCsdz^^ ■ (12-14)f' v .^egro Art Theat^^^^^^^^^ Paramount, Tucson, Wednesday .Ahgeles group com- 1 and Thursday (15-16), and finist.^d off Friday and Saturday (17-18) at the Plaza here. Show is doing a trio of stands again this. week. Playwright Thorriton Wilder sailed for Europe yesterday (Tues.) on the Veendam to arran ge for a hext-sCasori Paris production of his “Skin of OUr Teeth;’’" He plans td return to New York around May 1, ■ On the leisurely trip to Rotter- dam, where Wilder will disembark, he hopes to complete a hew work which as yet is Uhtltled. The drani- atlst declihed to say what the un- finished piece is about. ; ^ ACTOR British iegit-film actor Raymond Lovell is due Sunday (26) from London to play a leading part in posed of both Negro arid white ! backers of “I Know My Love;’’ memberis, will begin operating this have an option on the screen rights to the play, according month with a production of “Gold- J? the Theatre Guild and,Johp c, Wilson, co-presenters of the profliic* en Boy.” . ^ .Leonard Plato, for-' tion at the Shubert, N.Y. Through his friendship with Marcel A chard, irierly general manager of The ! author of the original “Apres de Ma Blonde,” the film producer is hg- Troupers and; c o - p r o d u c e r of i Ufed to have an inside track on the rights. However, S. N. Bchrinan, “Trouble In July,” is forming a 1 who adapted the .LUnt-Foiitarine starrer. and the 'Theatre Gufidv have new bff-Broadway group, the Foot-, the deciding say on a possible film sale light.Players.LLJ Zu^edr pr^tlm^^^an^^Frand^^^ curjent.shpw on Broadway 1$ m Opera, sail tomorrow, (Thur;) on . of next Sunday s (26) N. Y. News. Cover of. the 32-page 11 rtf.^'4Vk ‘A.1J SGCviO.li .‘SllOWSi A■ ■ R/T4t'A -IVY ital years provincial _ ... Anne Jeffreys, star of the touring i devoted to legit, edition of “Kiss : Mcv Kate,” will take the assignment in the Broad- way company June 1, when Patricia Morisoh’s contract is up- arid she leaves the cast. A Leonora Corbett. It will bri his IL S* debut. T ^opth, whose, perforrriance as feirime lead of “Come Back, ■ * XT — prolonged plaudits of first-nighters last Wedricsday leaves the cast. A successor fdr, re^ui^ri^f^ovation when the road trourie hasn’t been alter the show. Virtually everyonOwin the establislvnipni lected . . . Boris Karloff has signed gUclL oc^^ According to Vincerit Sardi, Jr , it was.’the M to play! the dual part of George i ^ •ntered after the preriiicre of Barlingand Capt,Hooi k: Petit! Lac^r Lawrence's revival of “Peter Pari/'i « , —V "The Ck of the Peacock " Don Arthur , will have' .“*F®rs ot,the_WlUlam R. KatzeU.Ray Golden musical, “Alive pa Mklfort^James^olliean oroS It**® Mono®’ ^kter Garden, N. Y., kclude attorney Samuel BeoKer, S Which ^uoesMnte^ r^^^ composed a musical background $3,W0; music critic John Hammond, $3,000; company managei-pi css- ^ J ^ J® . for the Barrie fantasy, John Bur- agent Alexander H, Cohen. $3 000- liehtine techninian Eddie Kook, shortly under the direction head'oftBriheateteaf do tS'costumes.^ I D^SmS: 'TUam.xMvl Hints . btic acstVCA B . MUPiKicaa a uiamond, $25,500. Show was capitalized at $150,000*