Variety (May 1950)

UnSCBIJLANY Wediiesdaf* May IQ, 1950 Washington, May 9. “Freedom Pair,” Washington’s proposed intei*national exposition with an entertaininent niidway, is threatening to do a complete “Humpty-Dumpty” off its wall. Stumbling hlock is a ruling by the Uv S. Attorney General. that no private, noh-profit corporation may be created to handle “Freedom Paii%” 6ne result of this is that the ^air mahagemeht must now discard the Government-owned lo- cation. it had selected and must tiy to find sOihething. else. And if it cannot find Something quick- ly, then the Fair may be scrapped. “Freedom Fair” (aiong the linesj of the New York World’s Fair) was Cohceiveci to feature the ses-1 quicentennial anniversary of the i nation’s capital. The committee asked $3,000,000 of Congress as a Working fund. This was blpcked several, times in the. House, but the money was finally voted by Congress last fall.. Since 1950 iS Washingtoh’s ISQth anniversary, it was then too late to get a Fair ready anJ buildings lip in tinie. So it was decided that the Fair should run in 1951 and 1952. After sev^al false starts, Paul Massmah, of Chicago, was hired as general manager to get things rolling. But because of technicalities in con- nection with financing the struc- tures to be leased to exhibitors, it was decided to form a non-profit Corporation. What the Attorney General has ruled is that since the sesqui com- niission is an official Government agency, it would require ah Act of congress to turn' its powers oyer to a private corporation. It is generally agreed that it is too late for Congress to act this year. Hence, the only alternative left appears to be to move the Fair from Government ground to anew private site, where private exhib- itors would have authority to erect their own exhibition ' buildings, This would take most of the bur- den and expense off the shoul- ders of the sesqui' commission. However, no site has been located yet Hollywood, May 9. The Masquers are rounding up a name show to celebrate their 25th anniversary May 25. Alan Mowbray is handling the program under supervision bf Ralph Murphy, Current presidents Past presiderits, in addition to Mow- bray, are Mitchell Lewis, Antonio Moreno, Pat O’Brien, Robert Arm- strong, Edward Arnold and Charles Kemper* • on JUW ff Washington, May 9. Supreme Court did not act yes- terday (8) on second petition of John Hpward Lawson and Dalton Trumbo that it review their con- viction for contempt of congress in the “Unfriendly 10” case. But in another case, court hinted that it probably has not changed its mind •Ince the first petition. High court nixed the Lawson-Trumbo appeal several weeks ago, and they are now urging it to reconsider. The_ other case decided yeaterr day involves the conviction of Helen R. Rfyant and Mrs. Ernes- tina. Q. Fleischman, of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee. They were convicted following their refusal to supply organization records to the House un-American Activities Committee. The women argued that there was no commit- tee quorum present, biit the high court" nevertheless upheld their convictiom Queen Mary carried a full show biz contingent on its departure from New York yesterday (Tuesr day) for Europe. Among those on board was; Ellis G, ^rhall, prez of the Sbeiety of Independent Motion Picture Producers, and his - wife. Former Georgia governor wiU be away' about three weeks, heading first for London negotiations on the Anglo-U.S. film agreement, then to France and Germany. George S. Kaufinan And his wife, legit actress LeUeen McGrath, headed for a European vacation and gander at shows abroad. Brit- ish comic Tommy Trlnder left U.S. after a run at the Latin Quarter, N.; Y." Richard F, Walsh, president of the International Alliance Of The- atrical Stage Employes, is going to a UNESCO conference in Florence, Italy, as U. S, rep. He returns June 20. Vera-Ellen is London- bound to appear in a new film, “Happy Go Lovely,” at the Asso- ciated British studios for producer Marcel Heilman. • On loan from Metro, she’ll he awajr about four months. William S. Roach, film attorney, is heading for Paris for UNESCO in ah effort, expected to take two years or more, to draw up a new international copyright convention. Others aboard are Kay Harrison, head of British Technicolor;. Lester Markel, Sqnday editor of the New York Tihies; Sigl Weissenberg, young piano virtuoso, and Mrs. Gil- bert Miller, wife of the legit pro- ducer. , Jr., Loses Fight To Crack Dad’s Will Hollywood, May 9. William S. Hart, Jr., lost his long drawn-out fight to break the will of his film-cowpoke father, which left most of $1,170^287 estate in NewHall to Los Angeles county for memorial parks and a museum. Son gets only $100,000 trust fund set up for him. jurors decided by 10-2 that the will wasn’t made as part of an insane delusion. Several hours earlier, by a, similar vote, the jury decided Hart wasn’t unduly influenced to disinherit his son. Case went to jury last Wednes- :day (3) after mbnthj of argument and testimony. At one point, vote was 3-4 for Hart- Jr. WILE MAHONEY j!m just in aiid out of jthe Wal- dorf-Astoria;..New York, las it Vwas the Editors and Publishers alnd now (May 12) It’s ‘The Mayors of the World” as the guest of hie Honor Mayor O*Dwyer of New York. Repretented; by ASSbOlAtEO BbOKING CORP. ‘ 4 4 » ♦ ♦♦ »>4 »♦ »» » ♦ »♦ » » »» ♦ ♦ ♦ » > » ♦■» M i ♦ l H » 0 » , By Frank Scully T?he Strip, May 6. U. mour IN FAUADIUN BOW Lbndom May 9. S. film actress Dorothy La- drew raves ftoih the Pal- ladium audience at her opening Monday (8), At the cbnclusion Of a AO^miniite stint with a stfortg selectioii of sentimental tunes and a topper with a sarong nuiilber in a south-sea setting. Miss Lamour dre w three Curtain * calls and wa% obviously Very moved by the re- ceptipn* Leo De Lyon, holding over from the previous - bill, and Buster Shaver and Olive and George also did extremely well bn this pro- gram which looks like-a cinch to stay three weeks at this house. At the conclusion of her Pal- ladium stint, Miss Lamour is slated to do concerts in France and Italy, An audience with the Popte is also on Miss Lamour’s agenda. -to- 5/10 To Street Order tPorm Enclosed firid check for $ Please send: VA^IETl? for ^ \ .0 • 0 '• • • • • • 'w • • • • • 0 ' (Pleaso Print NaiUe) Zone. ,. . State. . ♦ • • • \ Regular Subicnpf 1011 Rfifts ^ Otto Ytar^$10*00 Two Yoqrs—-$18.00 Coiiodo ond ForoiOit-^$t Additronol por Year Ini. 154 Wolf 46tk Stroot Now York T?. N. Y. Herman J; Mankiewlbz was our host, but I noticed before you could say Jacfcie^Hobin'son that Mank had put Mercedes McCambridge right next to hii&elf at the speakers’ table and ihiarded^ her right flank not by me but some Maturean.character who turned but to be hf^bz^d. Next to this synthetic Swiss guard, Who^shair be otherwise nameless, Manic planked me. Then he waved my little Alice bff ,to ;Somefhencbbp in the corner next to his Sarah, Or “Poor Sarin, ; as nb® h^s b^en known for 25 years by eyersdiody, Manlr^eluded. . • At his own left, if anybody can be said to^have^^ left in jHbUywood arty longer, Mank parked a guy named* Tom McCarth to change his name before the banquet took place but held o^^^ that the senator from Wisconsin would change his. This Toni MbCkrthy, it turned out, was president of the Ivy League of Los Angeles as well as prez of the Columbia alumni of the Mickey Cb^n Cbbcpur^e,; Ayhich IncludedvCirb’s, where the banquet was beihgvhel^ ^ i v ^ i * Next to McCarthy, Mank had placed Morrie Byskind, -:They were splitting the m,c.ing.; ■ Beyptid Rysklhd was Charles Cbbuyn. who years ago seemingly had taught Ryskind that a guy with a monocle .and a bacjklog oY Shakes- pearean bne^night stands, including ihe>Morningslde H^^ boUer roptn and the Barnard lawni could play poker^especlidly, if fte .came, from Savanttah inst^d of Uondoh in the. first place, .. ' ; Next to Coburn Was Vanessa Brown, who not only had gonejp UCLA and had often posed in a bathing; suit topped by a ihortar [board but actually had passed enough , courses;..at the Westwood . college, to gii ad-: uate and so become a prisoner of 20th-Fox. At her left was somebody named Frank Manklewicz, who it turned out had once been editor of the Daily Bruin at UCLA when Miss Brown was a reporter on the paper (easily identified because she wore bathing suits and mortar boards when being photographed intervlewii^ professors on their re- actions to loyalty oaths.) , j , V i- i V This particular Mankiewicz, it developed later, was a nephew of Joe Mankiewicz. joe was pencilled irt for the dinner, ..too, pht didn t .xvin,., place or show. So was Rosalind Russell, who it seems went to Barnard College, where in consequence, they haye iioW. Upjped the adirtissioh charges to $800 per innUm. j v ^ ;u All these names were thrown at me by Mank some:days\before the banquet so that I Would defy doctor’s'orders and desert a warm bed at Bedside Manor to eat a dinner at Cito’si It was expljam®d dinner itself by Prez McCarthy that Heirniart ^Hover, ,v^o nitery. Was a Columbia man, too, and was expected later.j . • ,. ^ “Probably eating at Romahpff’s,’’ said Mank. [ ; .Sans Hover Charge' . -I-;. .^' Hover’s class was ’18, Golumbia. Mank, Morrie, and t were ’17—generally admitted to be the most notUidous class ever to split a billihg with. Nicholas Miraculous Butler. We weren’t eating at Giro’s exactly but in a room upstaifs atfd:Iu the back called the Giroette, on account Hover thought it Wasj ^or intime. Well, it was intime all right. Abput 140 people were'erd^ed into a room that 40 would crowd, and Martin,and Lewis were playing to capacity downstairs and pushing their overflow upstairs^whild the Ivy League’s Columbia chaptet was pushing its overflow down into the main dining room. Naturally we were winning because we had the laws of gravity as well as Mank, Morrie, Mercedes McCambridge; Vanessa Brown, Charles'Coburn and Hon. Frank Mankiewicz on our side.; ■■ /' ' vcf ■>;.• It turned out that Vohessa Brown’s former editor was iioV bniy Joe Mankiewicz’s nephew but Mank’s and Poor Sarah’s son. Not only that, but. he was a candidate for the GalifOrnia Assembly, described, as my contribution to honesty in politics, as “the lowest office in the lowest legislature in the land.” Then Mank threw me to the Lions, which is what Columbians think they are ever since they beat Stanford 7 t 0 in a Rose Bowl game in 1934. I had hardly run through my introductory routine, remarking that Mank didn’t know it but that I was the prez and only member of a league for a 10% sales tax oh all speeches over 10 minutes and that the first plank of the platform contained a clause that all speeches had to contain the words, “And in conclusion,” when Mank popped up. grabbed the mike and said. I was writing a. book on flying saucers and he was sure the Columbia alumhi would rather hear about that moi e than anything else. : ^ So l had to violate iriy oath of office and talk for 15 minutes, striving desperately not to tell these diners anything of the sort. Surely Mank must haVe known that the first rule of a hep literati is, “Don’t tell it, sell it!” In the second place, why should I go to jail for Telling All before I get the book out? And in the third place, I’ve noticed only too often that people who get it through their ears never bother to get ; it through their eyes. Besides,. if Henry Holt & Go. knew I was going around talking about this book .instead of writing it; they’d slug jne with a flying saucer, magnetically directed to hit me right where it would hurt most; which at this moment, , due to millions of units of penicillin injections that read like a Truman budget, Would be right where I’d like it least. So these are some of the reasons I dummied up and wouldn’t talk about “Behind the Flying Saucers” (July, 1950, $2.75 all bookstores'. The final reason Was that 1 was pouting about the seating arrange- ments. Why couldn’t I fiave sat next to Mercedes McCambridge? Why did I have to talk across that tall, dark and handsome character who sat between us? I’d; been dying to know for months if she had been named MeCcedes - because she Was borii in one of those German Daimlers or because her ‘mother admired one, and I hated to ask her in the 'presence of wha(. i6 me, at least/was a perfect stranger. The Spanish Side of McCambridge Well, I did anyway, and[ she told meit was because her grand- mother was Spanish and Mercedes means “GhDd of God,” and I guess that will put all srtiart alecsv me ihcluded, where they belong, which is in an overcrowded Giro’s Oh a grind policy, plcldhg tip nothing but .the .Hover;, charges,.■ When she made her own Uttle speech she told how h®f father had. always wanted to send her tO Columbia but she had never got theic, and it was a ephsp^tiOn to hihi and to her at this late date that >slit had succeeded even'so. Not a soul ' thpught she meant she had suc- ceeded in spite of Harry Cohn, which shows how cultural a Hollywood evening can beconie when peOple .niention .“Columbia” and don’t think of. either Harry Gohn or Bin Paley. When the cultural evening came to an end there Was a dptenn i ned effort among the downstairs bunch to hold that Lion. Nobody xxould let us Out, lest we disturb the clowning of Martin and Lewis ahd the clatter of dishes below. ^ But an old hand at both getting in and out of places Where, protocol is seeking to louse up camaraderie, I cut thrpuigh the kitchen and. worked ardund .to the entrance for. my bullet-proof h,i t and overcoat, the proper dress for May along the Mickey Cohen Con- course.- Mank came scooting through the .opening I had made as I sent the Saucers flying into the. green vegetable bins, ahd soon a pleasant, time was being had by allr Everybody made it successfully including Mei- cedes McCambridge, Vanessa Brown and Charles Coburn’s monocle, doubt if ever before two Academy ^ Award Winners* not to strcf^s , • j fhlitzer prize winhers, authors of best-sellers and assemblymen-clcci. andra Palare^^u^o. The Fm have had. to resort to backstairs diplomacy to get out of Giro’s. Put Ropm IS Hiledgarde s N. Y* stamp* then, as I say, there’s always a first for everything. California is still * mg grounds. i land Of pioneers, 4 . » , Rome/ May 2. Continental hoteliers and liitery operators are worrying already whether the Holy Year was over- sold to the degree it’s Chasing nloneyed New World tourists to South America, and elsewhere. The fear is of not being able to get into deluxe hotels and being ■‘pushed around.” Fact is that the pilgrimages so far have been on short budgets, with pension-type accommodation.s in the main for the tourists. The luxury hostels are by no means overburdehed. Reports coming back here are that the luxury liners scared off bookings by Americans., There were reports also that certain Paris and Rome hotels “were all booked up to the end of the year,“ etc. A quick campaign to unsell this em- barrasSment-of-tourist-riches is be* ing discussed now by Swiss, French, Italian and LOwlands hoteliers. 67,799f Jobs in 1949 Ppr N.Y, Amus. Inidustry Amusement and recreation in- dustry in New York state employed 67,799 people in 1949, of whom the greatest number, or 21,692 wOfked in the state’s 1,282 film theatres. Figures, revealed this Week in a survey of the industry’s wages and hours conducted by the state’s de- ■paftment of labor, showed the median gross hourly earnings for the amusement [ industry were $1.09-^half the workers earned less and * half earned more. Lowest eamers were employed in filmeries, where some, such as ushers* cashiers, etc*, got less than 50c an hOiir. Highest hourly earn- ings, with a median of $3*33, were ^‘epOrted for legit. London, May 9, HildegardA Is being given a 30- minute solo spot on British TV on the BBC May 23..: ; . Producer Henry Caldwell is planning to duplicate the N. Y. Plaza’s Persian Room in the Alex-