Variety (June 1950)

MISCELLANY SKIP TOBX Coney Isle, Gotham’s Spa, Ushei ?3 *amn, Wum-.ia) [■RIETY t Wednesday, June 14, 1950 By JO HANSON Coney Island, peninsula of kafche knishes, knublewurst, corn of hot and pop variety, cotton candy and Coney Island chicken, is looking forward to a better than average summer provided it doesn’t rain and the, polio scare of last year fails-'to return. ‘Bernadette’ Tops In Postwar Germany Washington, June 13. ‘•Song of Bernadette” (20th) lias been by all odds;the most popular ^nd most successful film shown in postwar Germany, according to the City health department’s okay i Information Bulletin issued by the Ar'. of major portion of island’s batli ing waters for generally safe and “inviting” bathing should also prove a hypo to both outdoor and indoor biz at the onetime jitney spa. Only portion of Brooklyn beaclj not given green light was western tip including former swelegant but now down-at-heel Sea Gate., On the comestible, game, ride and freakery front there is little, new this season. Pastrami and pizza bonifaces insist the strand is j still the cheapest and best antidote to summer boredom for the pa- triots.'. • ... •• Not since the turbulent days of the World’s Fair has the island launched such a slam-bang promo- tion campaign. Coney’s Chamber of Commerce, headed by new prexy Stanley J. •Beiben,* hired Lester L. Wolff Associates to pfe? sent series Of free attractions, four j days a week throughout season, cost for this coming to about $10,- 000, Wolff has promised island flock of airplane races, roller skat- ing events, sundry amateur, dance and beauty contests as, well as the selection of “queen of the cover < Continued on page 17) Office of U. S. High Commissioner for Germany, The authoritative monthly Bulletin rates Walt Dis- ney’s “SnoW White” as the second biggest smash and claims U. S. horse operas are doing very well among the small fry, especially in the. sticks. The information Bulletin is pub- lished in Frankfurt, Germany, in the U. S. Zone. *4 8 OF ’UNFRIENDLY 10’ IN LAST-DITCH FIGHT Washington, June 13. With John Howard Lawson and Dalton Trumbo already behind bars serving sentence for contempt of Congress. Speculation here is along two liges: Will the/Teadoff pair of the “Un- friendly 10” get their one-year sen- tences reduced? Will the other eight be able to sidestep the $1,000 fines and year in jail sentences meted out to Law- son and Trumbo? ___ Regarding the second point, they admit in the prosecution staff that even if Albert Maltz, Alvah Bessie, Samuel Ornitz, Herbert J. Biberman, Edward Dmytryk, Ad- rian Scott, Ring Lardner, Jr., and Lester Cole fail to beat the rap, -they—can^ certainly ..stalLlt. for. months. The eight have signed Tel Aviv, June 13. j stipulations binding themselves to Eddie Cantor was greeted on his stand or fall on the fate of Lawson WILL MAHONEY THE INIMITABLE ■Variety, June 7, said Palace, New York ‘‘A bonailUe headliner in Will Ma- honey. Mahoney’s prattfalls, genial line of humor, tapping and terping continues as sheer enjoyment, lie’s one of the solidest hit's theatre has had since reviving stageshows. lie’s on for more than the usual length but. not a moment Is wasted as far as the audience' is concerned.”—Jose Represented by ASSOCIATED BOOKING CORP. arrival in Tel Aviv by a welcoming committee which included U. S. Ambassador James G. McDonald, government officials and represen- tatives of United Jewish Appeal. Captor, who has been instrumental in raising large sums for Israel, headed a party which incliided^his wife, Ida; Mac Kriendler, co- owner of Club 21, N. Y.; and Mr. and Mrs. Voiand Markson, who, like Cantor, have been instrumen- and Trumbo. However, it is pointed ou that these stipulations cover only the trial Court. They do not deprive the eight of the right of appeals to the circuit court and then to the Supreme Court. The Holly wooders, in three days of hearings Commencing June 20, ex- pect to fight to the last ditch. Lawson and Trumbo were com- mitted Friday (9) following brief hearings at which they were given tal in raising funds for this , .to understand that they were . not country.'' j foreclosed from seeking curtail 1- Comedian, who plans to stay nient of their sentences aftdr 60 about three, weeks, has raised ap- proximately $10,000,000 during UJA. drives for Israel. It’s his first trip to this country. days. There is considerable belief that they will get some of their time whittled off. Justice Edward Curran, who committed Lawson, said he would not rule immediately,, pointing out that he was allowed 60 days to de- cide just how much of the full pun- ishment to mete out Justice David A. Pine, who had Trumbo before him, sentenced the screen wri ter immediately after re- jecling a plea for suspension of York. | sentence. However, the judge said Here now are Hildegarde, Anna j that after 60 days he was willing to Yanks Crowd Paris Paris, June 1.3, The way show biz personalities are crowding Champs Elysees these days, Paris looks like a cross-sec- lion between Hollywood and New Houston, June"I3< Television cameras recorded their first suicide here Sunday night (11), when a Houston resi- dent shot himself in v KLEE-TV’s announcer’s booth during a pickup of the Houston-Dallas baseball gamei Because the suicid e was in full view of the cameras, coroner Tom Mays, who . was watching the ball game pn his home receiver, was able to turn in his verdict without going to the hospital or the police.station. Man was identified as Sanford B. Twerite. He made his way into the booth while announcer Dick Gott- lieb was calling the play-by-play. Fans watching the game on their sets heard him say, “I’ve got some- thing to tell you,” with\Gottlieb rejoining, “Not now—this mike is . (Continued on page 73) 60 UN. DATES IN WINTER Serge Koussevitzky is slated to arrive in N. Y. by plane from Europe this morning (Wed,), to hold a press conference this after- noon, when he will discuss the U. S. tour of the Israel Philhar- monic Orchestra next winter: The former Boston Symphony Orches- tra maestro has been in Israel, where he guest-conducted the Israeli symph group, ' and con- ducted in London; Paris and Home. Sosenko. Elizabeth Taylor and her; hear further appeal by Trumbo for : Koussevitzky and Leonard Bern- a reduction of sentence. husband Conrad (Nick) Hilton, Jr., Orson Welles, Elsa Maxwell, Do- lores Grey and her mother, Irving, ~ ~ . Berlin, Borrah Mirievitch, Bob ' v r,s P Condition Good Tausig, Irving Tishman, Bennyj Ann Arbor, Mich., June 13. Goodman, Lily Pons and Andre j Film actor Donald Crisp was re- Kostelanetz, Mac Kriendler, Edgar ! ported in “very good condition” in Bergen, Chester Conn, Edgar ; U._ of Michigan hospital. His pliy- Kpbak, Eddie Cantor,. William S. j sician. Dr. Marvin Pollard, said Roach and Spyros Skouras. Abel \ Crisp was admitted for a complete Green editor of Variety, and his checkup “with no specific symp- wife. planed back to the U. . S.. toms.” Monday (12) after a two-week Eu- ; Crisp is expected to be released ropean visit; in a few days. Subscription OrderWorm Enclosed find check for $ One Year Two Years 0 14 Please send VARIETYsri'or T* '■ I O • t • • «'*T I » • I • • I | I f , < t , # , « • '* • • • I • # ^ | # # (please Print Name) 6 • • ♦ •.. . •*.... Zone . State ; . Regular Subscription Ratos On# Year—$10.00 two Years—$18.00 Canada and Foreign—$1 Additional per Year 154 Wasf 44th Street Inc. New York 19, N. Y. stein will be gyest conductors for Israeli symph’s U. S. tour, doing the major part of the batoning, with a few other maestris slated to conduct in their locales. Visit will be the first for the Israeli group; which was organized about 13 years ago by the late Bronislaw Huberman, and con- ducted in its first season by Arturo Toscanini. The orch, of almost 100 men, will tour the U. S. from Jan. 7 to March 20, with tour Cities and dates to be announced today. The Sol Hurok office is setting up the tour, with the American Fund for Israel Institutions acting as spon- sor. About 60 concerts have been booked. Local managers or civic groups will handle details of the ; concerts, with Hurok getting a flat • fee in each city for the booking. Only for Americans Paris, June 13. Kay Thompson opened auspici- ously at Les Ambassadeurs here Monday (12 ) to an audience which comprised many of the U. S. colony arid tourists. It was conceded, how- ever, that the aot would be a risky proposition for strictly French spots where her patter would not be understood. Feeling is that the turn is “Too American—even for Parisians.” •The Bernard Bros., on the same bill, who haye . been working on the Continent for some tijne, wound up with a terrific reception. I SCULLY’S ♦ »»»»♦♦ By Frltnk Scully Cripple Creek, June 10. It' looked for a while as if the a moralists, who argue that motion nictures mav be your best entertainment, blit, have no effect otherwise; for gobd or evil, 1had a dreadful point in their favor in “The Men.” A picture that might well melt incumbent officeholders into human be- ings, especially in .an election, year, >Y s as:having less effect than .rain oh a cold, dead moon. ■■■•' ^ Timed j list right to produce a great kindness, it looked up to last week as if it woqld do no,thing of the sort. Not even the. President of the United States was moved by it to let the majority of its cast alone. Paraplegics, they asked to be allowed to continue living at Birmingham hospital, where the documentary action of "The Men” Was .photo- graphed. But some contractors’ errand boy among the Pentagonians, possibly pressured by a persistent 5%-er, decided it would rbC' good for the/building biz to heave them out of the Sen Fernando Valley. Sweeping aside their protests, the military decreed to shod jhe para-' plegics off to Long iBeach, teat dmyn the present Birmingham struc- tures and build a $15,000,000 facility for another type of patient Why? The temopary "unsafe” buildings which Were sheltering them, were bungalows, no worse than most Of us live in. The cottages, had an added advantage for the paraplegics in that it was easy,for them to roll 1 up and down the ramps and around the gardens. Many of) them had reached the outpatient stage and had built homes for themselves around the hospital. These were constructed for men who can’t walk but can do many things for themselves around a house which has been made to cater to their limitations. Some of the cottages were for TB’s. These, too, were going to be heaved-to Long Beach-r-a community rich in smog, fog and industrial gasses—Which is about as stupid a therapy as has been tried as a sub- stitution siiice fresh air and rest were prescribed as the best \yay to effect a pulmonary cure. At first it was planned to. close Birmingham for good, but later it was decided to scrape the barrel aiid throw $15,000,000 into new build- ings there and Use them for psychiatric cases. The idea Of a straight line being the shortest distance between two points, meaning that the mental case could be moved direct to Long Beach while the paraplegics: • and TB’s stayed at Birmingham where they wanted to stay, never oc^ ] curred to the boys in the Veterans Administration, who apparently think of invalids in .terms of troop movements. • Frances Langford’s Brushoff Most readers are familiar with Frances Langford’s pilgrimage; from Hollywood to the northwest to make a personal pitch to President Truman to countermand the marching orders and how she got such a fast brushoff she thought she had been sides wiped by a flying saucer. It was a pressure deal.^he Prez said; and he wouldn’t.have any pari of it. At what point in his amazing career he decided that a plea was pressure, or If it Were pressure, what of it, I leave to the historians to discover. • •.—. ' ^—_i__ ..—... ;• - That he could stay in a deep freeze and refuse to meet a committee of three paraplegics who journeyed all the way from the Sail Fernando Valley to Washington, D C,, remains as an added headshaker. His heart bleeds ,pxetty easily for motheaten monarchists in the Balkans, but j paralyzed GI’s from California couldn't move him by so much as a ; millimeter. As Democratic county committee man from Hollywood I know some- thing about pressure, too. I also know something of hospitals, haying survived the therapy of more than 30 of them in Europe and America. To a small degree I have suffered in the way the bunch at Birmingham have suffered. But even if 1 hadn't, I doubt if I would call a plea of a sick man tb be let alone, “pressure.’’ Why, If it weren’t for the kind- ness a paraplegic showed the White House incumbent he wouldn’t be there today. T dropped in several . times to see the “The Men” in the making. At | least 45 paraplegics were wheeling around as extras, bit players, and as technical advisers to Stanley Kramer, Fred Zinneman, Carl Foreman and George Glass of the picture’s production staff, and Marlon Brando and Teresa Wright, Everett Sloane, Jack Webb and Richard Erdman; the players. Except for the fact that they are dead from the hips down you wouldn’t know there was anything the matter with the men in wheel-? chairs. There wasn’t either. Resent Pushing Around They like what they always liked and they never liked people who pushed other people around. Fighting that sort of roust on the inter- national level was what reduced them to where they were by 1950. Because he figured they might like a. good action picture, even if they could never leap with delight again in this world, Stanley Kramer showed them “The Champion.” If they could have so much as lifted a foot; it could have been said that they got a great kick out of it. Sub- limation is what the psychoanalysts call this. Passing through the paraplegic section of the hospital, Kramer and Foreman saw a sign. It read: “Please God, give us the strength to do the impossible, but give us the courage to recognize what is really impossible. And, above all, give us the wisdom to distinguish between them.” They thought it contained a basic thought for a powerful story, “inspiring and broad in scope,” to quote George Glass, “and entirely new in character.” . I confess I don’t know wiiat the slogan which inspired them means. I remember Napoleon when once told that something was impossible, he replied, “Impossible? Ce mot h’est pas francais!” Impossible? That word isn’t French! But it is. And it’s English, too. But these n»en seemingly understood it, went to work on it and built a great picture around it. They weren’t the first to touch the subject, however. Metro made a^gseat short around paraplegics about a year ago. But Kramer and Foreman were the first -to believe that you could get a f ull-length motion picture out of men who could-not run for cover or shoot their way out of a chase. Their director proved in “The Search’^ that he couldn’t conceal bis compassion for the less fortunate of the human race if lie tried. To those in Hollywood who think compassion is not for men but for monks, I have nothing but compassion. Maybe they never heard “whatever you do to the least of these, my brethren, you do to me.” If so let them cater exclusively to contractors and die with them. Since I began these animadversions, the teletypes have announced that the pressure-proof Prez, thinking better of his faux pas, has ap- pointed a tliree-man committee to investigate the whole Birmingham roust. Mgype “The Men” moved liim after all. His reversal, unfor-.. tunately, comes after the patients had been moved to Ldng Beach. By now they’re even dismantling the switchboard at Birmingham. By the time the committee reports that it would have been better to have left the patients where they were reasonably contented, another election will have come and this one will have gone. To those who think that the milk of human kindness is not very jgood therapy either, I refer them to what Joe Cook .(now dreadfully ill and | in need of some loving kindness himself) said about seating cornflakes ; without milk, “It’s no gfid that way.” To them; and all the ambulant Pentagonians, still able to parade around in theft* salad dressing and hand-tailored uniforms. I*m givipg ** friendly tip. Lay off thosfe for whom parades are over. Don’t roust them around. It’s ;iio good that way.