Variety (February 1951)

Wednesday, February 7,- 1951 Uasoety SIR CHARLES B. COCHRAN Sir Charles Blake Cochran, 78, veteran British -producer, died j,u\. 31 in a London hospital of hums receivei. while taking a bath in his home there a week previ- ously. Lady Cochran, the former Evelvn Alice Dade, survives. Details in the Legitimate sec- tion. from the Walter B. Cooke Funeral Home at 117 W. 72 St., N, Y. John H. Nickel, Jr., a brother, George J. Nickel and a daughter survive. ALFRED A. COHN 'Alfred A. Cohn, 71, who Wrote “The Jazz Singer” for Warner Bros., the first full length talk- ing motion picture, died in Los Angeles, Feb. 3. Starring Al Jok* son, in 1927, the film, won the first Motion Picture Academy Award. In his varied career, Cohn was at various times a newspaper re- porter, newspaper editor, maga- zine editor, publicity man, screen writer, customs collector and Los Angeles Police Commissioner. Born in Freeport, 111., Cohn at- tended local schools, and at 15 went to work for a Chicago news- paper. He began to write for the screen in 1918, and eventually wrote or helped write more than 100 scripts, including the “Cohens and Kellys” scries, “The Cat and the Canary,” “Jail Break” and “Carnation Kid.” He was the author of the scena- rios “The Holy Terror,” “The Cisco Kid” and “Mystery Ranch,” and collaborated on the screenplay of “Harold Teen.” For time he con- ducted a column in The San Fran- cisco Examiner. He wrote several books, including “Gun Notches,” and was co-author, with Joe Chis- holm, of “Take the Witness,” the biog of Earl Rogers, Coast criminal lawyer. • . •' In 1935 Cohn was appointed Col- lector of Customs in Los Angeles, a post he held for four years. Later he served as president of the Los Angeles Police Commis- sion. and initiated several reforms in police procedure’ DOROTHY SPEARE Dorothy Speare, novelist and magazine writer and onetime singer, died in Boston, Feb. 3. Miss Speare, who began her career singing opera blit had to retire from this field because of an illness, attracted attention with her novel, “Dancers in the Dark,” in 1922. Another of her works; “Prima Donna,” an operetta published in 1934, was used as the basis for the film, “One Night of Love,” which starred the late Grace Moore. Her most recent novel was “Spring on Fifty-second Street,” published in 1947. She was graduated frbm Smith College in 1919. and did graduate work at Radcliffe College from 1919 to 1921. She sang in opera in Italy and France in 1926 and 1927 and made her.American de- but in “Mignon” in Washington in 1927. She continued to sing in concerts and opera until illness, forced her retirement in 1930. Her other books included “The Gay Year,” 1923; “The Girl Who Cast Out Feafc” 1925; “A Virgin of Yesterday,” 19£5; “The Road to Needles,” 1937. She contributed numerous articles and stories to popular magazines. Surviving are her father, a brother, and a sister. COUNTESS M. M. MERCATI Countess Marie Manice Mercati, 82, a profnihent art patron, died in her apartment in the St. Regis Hotel, Feb. 4. . She. was one of the originators of the Lewisohn Stadium concerts and was activi on committees that sponsored art exhibitions for the relief of war-torn countries follow- ing both world wars; Among organizations which she supported were tlie Philharmonic- Symphony Society, the Lafayette Memorial at Chavaniac, France; the League of Composers; the Metropolitan Opera and the Ballet Associates of America. Surviving are two nephews. JACK OSTFELD Jack Ostfeld, 49, former music publisher and contact employee, died in New York Feb. 2, His career, stretching over pe- riod of 34: years, was spent in music biz and, included associations with Irving Berlin; Shapiro-Bernstein and Buddy Morris. In 1947 he ; opened . his own firm, Stevens Music, whose biggest hit was “There Must Be a Way.” At time of his death he was in charge of i professional activity in the Red Foley Firm, Old Hickory Music. He is survived by a son, Ray- mond, on the contact staff of Mellin Music. DR. THEOPHIL WENDT Dr. Theophil Wendt, 76, sym- phony conductor, died in Johan- nesburg Feb. 5. He was credited With forming South Africa’s first symphony orchestra in 1904. Dr. Wendt traveled extensively and .in 1931 acted as professor of music at Long Island University in Brooklyn, N ; Y. At various times he also was associated with the National Broadcasting Co. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. ' SIG MEALY , • Si g Mealy (Sigri ed BCrgdol) age 69, died at Saranac Lake, N. Y., after a long illness. He had been a vaude performer for over 50 years, during which' he appeared in W. S. Cleveland's Minstrels and other productions. Later he had toured vaude as a member of comedy knockabout act of Welch, Mealy & Montrose. ... Sumved by - brother and a sister. ' / MARGUERITE FARRELL Marguerite Farrell Wheeler, 62, retired actress, died of a heart ailment in (Buffalo, N, Y., Jan. 26. Known professionally as Mar; guerite Farrell, she appeared in vaude partnered with Clara Inge in a comedy singing act and later a single. She retired after her marriage. Following the death of her husband four years ago, she had been employed by the Erie County Social Welfare bureau. in Buffalo, : • Prior to vaude engagements, Miss Farrell had appeared in Shakespearian repertory and in several musicals on Broadway, in- cluding the late Lew Fields’ pro- duction of “Step This Way.” Her last appearance was in the 1920s ln the musical, “Up She Goes.” Survived by daughter and a ■sister, Mrs. Marie Farrell Schmidt. DAVID KAUFMAN David Kaufman, 51, a film sales- man with Warners Cleveland of- fice, was killed last Tuesday . (30) in an auto crash at Columbiana, O. He had been with the com- pany for seven years at its Cleve- land branch and prior to going there had worked in the WB New York exchange for three years. A resident of Cleveland, Kauf- man leaves his wife and three chil- dren. A sister also survives. She is the wife of Arthur Sackson, for- mer Warner assistant general sales manager who is now an indie producers’ representative. BLANCHE NOYES Mrs. Blanche Noyes Pennoyer, 87, former legit actress known pro- fessionally as Blanche Noyes, died in New York, Jan. 29. She had retired from the stage 30 years ago after her marriage. During her early career she ap- peared with Neil Burgess in “The County Fair,” Robert B. Mantel! in several of the latter’s productions, with Maude Adams in “Quality Street,” and E. H. Sothern in “If I Were King.” In the latter part of her career she appeared With various stock companies. BELA J. ZSIGA Bela J. Zsiga, 60, musician and for many years cymbalon player at Zimmerman’s Hungaria, N. Y„ died following a heart attack-after completing his performance there, Jan. 30. • " He had previously played the Hungarian instrument with Paul; Whiteman’s orchestra and at the Radio City Music Hall, N. Y. He had recently rejected a contract with the London Symphony orches- tra because of ill health. Survived by wife, daughter, son and four brothers. OLIVER MORTON Oliver Morton, 62, Chicago NBC national spot radio sales manager, died Feb. 2 in Chicago after a heart attack. . j Except for a two-year period when he was the Chicago rep for the Westinghouse stations, he had been with NBC since 1933. Prior to that he had been a member of the KDKA, Pittsburgh Sales staff and in 1932 he became its station manager. ■ Surviving are wife and son. percival dean Perclval Dean, 73, adtor, whb had appeared in George Keppie's in stock companies in Cleveland, Rochester *.nd Detroit,; under the, name of .. Walter PercivaK died Feb. 2 in Toronto. When GeoVge Keppie established stock in Toron- to at the Empire, Dean reverted to his own name. . Survived by a brother. ALFRED SMART Alfred Smart, 56, died in Chica- go, Feb. 4. He was president of the Publishers Enterprises, consisting of Coronet and Esquire magazines and also Coronet arid Ideal Films. He is survived by brother David, chairman of the board, as well as another brother, John, a vice- president of PE. Also Surviving - are a daughter, parents and two sisters. ALLEN LEE Allen Lee, 76, vet character fu tor on stage and screen, died nv New York Feb. 5. He retired tight years ago when illness ham- P( red his activities. Among his last logit appearances was in a Production of “Abraham Lincoln” ft the Cort theatre, N, Y. in 1935. Lee made his debut with Kate iLixton in “TheXwo Orphans” and I.?/. 1 ' had roles in David Belasco's (,) rl of the Go\den West” as well ’•• ;l rator:a t ” “White Slave” and l cviToll's “Sketch Book.” 1 >' ( raj -.service^ are to be held iwnomhv- 4 tTinn-schiy) at 9 'a:hi. OTTO W. REINERT Otto W. Reinert, 55, violinist, died of heart ailment in St. Louis Jan. 31. , . Reinert was assistant, conductor under the late Gene Rodemich at the old Grand Central theatre and had his own orch at the Ambassa- , dor and Missouri theatres. He Served as musical director, for radio stations KWK and WIL and later played Ayith the St. Louis sympb orch and Municipal theatre orch. JOHN H. NICKEL John H. (Hon) Nickel, .73, owner of the Gayety, Baltimore burlesque landmark, and. longtime figure in burlesque since the days of the wheel circuits, died at his home in that city, Jan. 31. ■ , - Nickel .operated hotels and the old Monumental and Folly Thea JACK WAVERLY Jack Waverly, 54, songwriter arid one-time music publisher, died at his home in Bellmore, L. I., Jan. 30. Among his more successful songs were “Beneath a Starry Heaven,” “Hillbilly Looking for a Hill” and ’‘Nobody Wants to Do .the Dishes.” Survived by wife, a brother and sister. SHIAVAX C. CAMBATA Shiavax C. Cambata, 67, Indian exhibitor; died in Bombay Feb. 4. He owned the Eros, a firstrun Bombay house, and also operated a. chain Of film theatres in the provinces. . . SAMMY WESTON Sammy Weston, 62, stage and screen actor, died Feb. T in Holly- wood., Mrs. Pearl. Field Conard, 67, daughter of the late A1 G. Field, minstrel man, died Feb, 3 in Co- lumbus, O. Mrs. Conard, with her late husband, William E. Conard, took over Field’s minstrel show and operated it until 1929. Sur- vived by two sons, Field Conard, treasurer of Hartman theatre, Co- lumbus, and Jack. Griff Jay, 70, screen cartoonist, died Feb. 2 in Los Angeles. Former cartoonist on the Kansas City Post, Jay had been associated with animated films for 26 years. Beba Ezzeldrine, 40, owner of two Cairo riiteries, died in an auto- mobile accident Feb. 5. She was famed among Allied troops during the war for her dancing abilities. actors who have long been stal- warts in the industry. Major studios’ adamant position forbidding appearance of their con- tract players on television has proved a windfall for the freelance thesp. In recent months, vidpix have -been - lensed with casts which boast such familiar names as Ruth Hussey, Billie Burke, Guy Madi- son, Richard Greene, Chick Chand- ler, Wanda Hendrix, Spring Bying- ton, Bonita Granville, Jeff Donnell, Stu Erwin and Lois Collier. Familiar Names Best known, of course, are the series of vidfilms with such picture names as Gene Autry, the Lone Ranger and Cisco Kid. These not only bring to television some fa- miliar feature film names, but pro- vide a steady diet of employment for the pther Craftsmen who are needed whenever a camera turns. Guiding the talent on television are more than 201 of the 700 active members of the Screen Directors Guild., Roughly. 2t3% of that num- beif are in the live television field. Remaindeiv according to a survey made several months ago, are working eitheir full or part-time on films for television. A newer sur- vey, Currently underway, is expect- ed to show an upsurge of at least 5% on the old figures. Work for cameramen in the field has more than doubled in the last year. Some, of course, \are em- ployed -for the filmed version of certain, top shows. Production of actual feature films for television, however, occupies, the attention of some 3% of the working camera- men in Hollywood. Seemingly small percentage is important, since the list of the film camera- men: has never swelled appreciably, and even in the worst periods of Hollywood slumps the Tensers have had comparatively little unemploy- ment;- Greatest percentage jump is in the ranks of film editors, where the number of unemployed has been slashed by more than 20%. Telefilm activity now occupies the full-time efforts of almost 25% of the membership. * Writers, of course, are getting into the act in increasing numbers. Most recent check showjpd a total of 35 writers actively engaged in full-time video work, with about 65 others contributing on a steady though part-time basis. Mounting employment graph is matched by the optimism of per- j sonnel engaged in video on the I Coast. Feeling is best summed up 1 by Jerry Fairbanks, longtime com- . mercial and video film producer, j who flatly predicts Hollywood will | be the world’s television centre by j 1952. Other producers aren’t quite willing to go that far, but they do | believe the Coast is and will con- I tinue to be the logical centre for vidpix activity. | Local talent and technicians aren’t too concerned by the dis- tinction. The only thing that in- terests the local employables is that it looks like a job boom is in the making—and thp days of the tightened belt and long lines in j front of the unemployment com- pensation offices seem to be just about over. Theatre Tele Continued from page 1 i ‘ School-By-Video Continued from page 1 j sion teachers from other schools on later programs.” Morris Green, projectionist,' died Feb. 3 in Chicago; Survived by Wife* two daughters and son. . Morris “Cap” Posner, 62, bank; ing guard at Fox-West Coast for 25 years, died Jan. 28 in Holly- wood. Continued front page 1 tivities of less than a dozen top pro- duction firms, There are approxi- mately a score of other “fringe op- erations,” but for the most part these fade, out lor lack of capital, sometimes without even turning a camera. Video film impact on the talent and technical guilds and craft Unions is best noted with the Screen Actors Guild. Incomplete , records indicate some 7,500 jobs i filled during 1950 by SAG mem- bers. The figure is a jump, of just about 100% over the number of tres ^d'w^tive^ it, promoting UelevJ 'on jobs in 194!) farther, boxing prior to Wol'YcT War I. Son, ■ fhe.<Se jobs have beM bailed tty Louisville’s WHAS-TV Bid Louisville, Feb; 6. Last week’s heavy snowfall ^nd sub-zero temperatures, the worJt in over 25 years, gave WHAS-TV an opportunity to try out educa- tional TV for the mariy school chil- dren sno wed-in at home. City and county schools were closed most of the week, so Victor Sholis, WHAS director, secured some educational films from the local Encyclopedia Britannica rep, Who offered them to the station for educational show- ing. Films' were shown Saturday (3) from 10:30 to 11 a. m., and then following the “Big Town” tele- cast, from 12 noon until 1:15 p. m., a WHAS-TV “Reel School” was shown for the shut-in students. It’s too early to evaluate results of the educational showings, but station hopes to get a line on how the films were received. Stunt was purely an emergency measure to reach the home-bound youngsters, Who Were a ready-made audience for the series of short subjects. Local press carried stories that schools would resume classes as of Monday (5) unless another heavy .sndw'fMl'-. changed J the •'order! $15,000 from the former price of $25,500. Other manufacturers who reportedly have benefited from the mass of orders include Paramount, which produces an intermediate film system utilizing 35m equip- ment, and General Precision Labo- ratories, which is making a similar unit but one which employs 16m film equipment. At present, there are 16 theatre TV installations in operation, sev- eral of these haying been used by some of the nation’s circuits for experimental tests in their key city houses. With the success of tests conducted so far, many of the new orders have come from these same circuits. Among' the theatre chains planning new instal- lations are Fabian, RKO, United Paramount, ; Century, American Theatres, Commonwealth (of Kan- sas City), Walter Reade, Comer- ford and interstate. Theatres opr erated by these circuits are spread throughout the country but most of the big-screen installations will be located along the coaxial cable, signifying the possibility of linking a number of them into a network that could utilize the same program simultaneously. Twentieth-Fox’s National Thea- tres, which has long been toying with the idea of its own theatre T^ circuit on the Coast, is not list- ed among the new buyers of equip- ment. While 20th has contributed considerable effort and money in helping RCA develop its system, the company has recently shown in- terest in a new-type unit developed by the Univ. of Zurich in Switzer- land. Charles and Spyros Skouras are in Switzerland this week eyeing that system and it's believed 20th will hold off on Its plans until the company toppers decide which sys- tem to buy. In pitching theatre TV to its members, the three leading indus- try organizations have stressed the “chieken-and-the-egg” problem— that it’s impossible to get good big- screen programs until sufficient theatres are equipped to bid for them and that most exhibs would not buy the units until they could be guaranteed good programs. New orders, as a. result, indicate the in- i’ dustry chiefs have won their point that exhibs must gamble by in- stalling the units first. It’s pointed out, incidentally, that this display of faith in theatre TV by many of the nation’s leading exhibs will serve as a good arguing point for the industry When it sits down at hearings with the Federal Commu- nications Commission to press for exclusive networking channels. MARRIAGE Marjorie Steams to Richard O. Walker, Jr., Columbus, Feb. 3. Bride’s former press relations staf- fer at WQXR. Dorothea Backenstoe to Charles Kenworthey, Galveston, Tex., Feb. 3, He's a member of the WOAI. San Antonio news staff. Norma Kaiser to Fred Bryan, Fort Lee, N. J., Feb. 4. Bride is featured dancer in “Call Me Madam” (Imperial, N. Y.); he’s Singer in “Bless You AH” (Mark Hellinger, N. Y.). Dorinda Begley to James Twit- tick, Bellmore, L. I., Feb. 4. Bride is daughter of Martin Bcglev, TV casting director at NBC, N. Y. . Nedra Clark to Albert (Cubby) Broccoli, Las Vegas, Feb. 3. She’s Buddy Clark’s widow; he’s a Hollywood agent. Kitty Green to Jack Fina, Holly- wood, Jan. 30. He’s a bandleader; bride’s sister of Bill Green, Pitt nitery owner. Athanasia George Skouras to Martin Sweeny, Jr., Feb. 3 in Rye, N. Y. Bride is daughter Of George P. Skouras, prexy Of United Art- ists Theatre Circuit, Inc.; he’s in realty business. births Mr. and Mrs. Harold Lierley, son,. Hollywood, Jan. 30. Father is a makeup man at Paramount. Mr. and Mrs. Harry Munson, daughter, Pittsburgh. Feb. 1. Father’s a director at WDTV, Pi it. . Mr. and Mrs: Arnold Bercovieli, son, Regina, Sask., Jan. 10. Father s mahager of the Broadway theatre there. Mr. and Mrs, Frank Braclit, son, Hollywood, Feb* 1, Father is a film editor at Paramount. Mr. and Mrs. Rummy Bishop, daughter, Pittsburgh, Jan. 29. Father’s a nitery comic; mother is former Betty Schmidt, dancer. Mr. and Mrs. Sol Yaged, daugh- ter, New Yo/k, Jan,. ?7.. Fajtb^ js a jazz clarinetist.