Variety (February 1951)

FILMS Published Weekly at 184 West 46th Street, New York 10, N. Y.. by Variety, Inc* Annual subscription. $10. Single copies. 25 cents. Entered as second class matter December 22. 1908, at the Post Office at New York. N. Y.. under the act of March 3 . 1879 . 1 COPYRIGHT, 19S1, BY VARIETY, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED VOL. 181 No. 11 4 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1951 PRICE 25 CENTS MIAMI HOTELS’ BIG-COIN NITE LIFE Although attendance at sym-<> phony orchestra concerts around the country is off only about 5%, symph execs are deeply worried about their future. The personal income tax situation* is affecting their chief source of financial aid —the big gifts from rich donors— while the amusement tax setup is hobbling them otherwise. “Sym- phony orchestras are going to have to go out of business if they don't get tax relief soon," says Arthur Judson. The vet manager of the N. Y. Philharmonic-Symphony, and head of the judson, O’Neill & Judd di- vision of Columbia Artists Mgt., has just returned to N. Y. from a survey of the field. He visited orchs in L. A;, Frisco, Denver, Ok- lahoma City, Dallas. Houston and San Antonio, and talked with man- agers in between, checking on con- cert trends and conditions on a four-week swing. Local symph managers, he says, are worried about upped wages, ad rates and rentals; doubled cost of touring; static size of their halls, and the fact that price of tickets can’t be raised safely above present tops. Income of orchs can’t keep up with present costs, and relief from the 20% -amusement tax is the only answer to the question of (Continued on page 18) * Tele Vs. Table D’Hote; It’s Now Blamed for Hub Restaurant Fall-Off Boston, Feb. 20.' That restaurateurs are feeling the pinch of TV, with a severe drop in patronage blamed on stay-at- home families, was revealed here last week at a .week-long conclave of Massachusetts Restaurant Own- ers. Meeting brought out the fact that many families are now grab- bing a quick meal at home and then adjourning to the living room for an evening of TV, an untenable condition, as far as food purveyors are concerned. Week-long conference failed to turn up any valid strategy, the most sensible suggestion, that the Blue Plate special be reduced from $1.25 to 65c., being greeted with derision. Philadelphia, Feb, 20. TV took, the rap for the decline of drinking in bars in Philadelphia, according to a Chamber of Com- merce survey which showed the groggeries had suffered a 6% de- cline in consumption since 1949. The taprooms fell off despite an 8% increase in all retail business here. The slump in bar trade marked the second straight year it had fallen off. The 1949 figure was 4% below that of 1948. Albert M. Greenfield, president of the Chamber, stated "It would appear that television in the home is proving more attractive than television in thc.barroom.” -. * :: Rush Tune to Cash In i Qn NT. Basketball Fix The basketball fix scandal, which has spread to three more New York college teams, is having some sidelight impact on a new. tune, “The Basketball Song," which, is being rushed to cash in on the publicity. Tune's publisher, Ames Music, was, however, forced to switch its original plans of putting a photo of the City College team on the sheet music cover. After three of the team's members were picked up by the police for allegedly dumping some games, publisher decided to put a picture Of the CCNY cheering squad on the cover. Giveaway programs are finding it difficult to get prizes of refrige- rators, electric ranges and other hard goods lines as a result of the present shifts toward more mili- tary production. Trend, however, hasn’t hit soft goods merchandise, such as luggage, clothing, etc. Some manufacturers are afraid of impending shortages, according to.Len Firestone of Schepp-Reiner, outfit which supplies several shows, stations and networks with prizes. Manufacturers with which S-R has been dealing are continuing to sup- ply the loot, but the company finds some reluctance when approaching new prospects. Firestone feels their. hesitance doesn’t reflect ac- tual shortages, but a scare. In other cases, even where there have been cutbacks in production of the civil- ian items, some manufacturers feel the promotional Value of the plugs on radio and TV quiz stanzas out- weighs the fear of not having enough stock to supply all cus- tomers. DIANA BARRYMORE SET FOR PALACE, NFTERIES Another Barrymore will play the Palace theatre, N. Y., then go into night clubs.. Diana Barrymore, daughter of the late John Barry- more and: writer Michael Strange, is slated to play that house either March 15 or April 12. : She's also due for her first cafe date at the Somerset hotel, Boston, March 23. Ethel Barrymore, her aunt, played the Palace in a sketch, Sir James M. -Barrie’s “The Twelve Pound Miss Barrymore will do an act comprising songs, comedy and im- pressions. Date was set by... Jerry Rosen, who’s booking her for Alan Corelli..-.. >. •* » »'■> ■» •*., + CAFE By ABEL GREEN i Miami Beach, Feb. 20. Miami Beach is undergoing an historic stage of overdevelopment at the hands of hoteliers to the degree that, besides the normal innkeepers’ services, they are now very much in the nitepr business.. As a result, it is kayoing most of the nite life not directly in the beach-front hostels. The in-town cafes are hardest hit. Technically, the Hotels are held to a 1 p.m. stop-music basis but the Casablanca and Saxony get in two shows nightly. The effect is that it not only holds ..the class clientele from the deluxe beach- front hostels, but attracts otherfc. It’s a shill for this or that hotel, since obviously no guest can see the show at his or her hotel every night, but it does give the guest a priority, on reservations, when entertaining, without going up against the glad-handout in the other niteries. The effect is much the saipe as if the Waldorf’s Wedgwood Room or Jhe Plaza’s Persian Room, the Pierre’s Cotillion Room and the St. Regis’ Maisonette in New York; the Ambassador’s Pump Room and the Palmer House’s Empire Room in Chicago, etc., were, to gang up and discourage going out to the Latin Quarter, Copacabana, Leon & Eddie’s, the Stork, Chez Paree, etc. ‘ It’s not so deliberately primed but the effect is the same. It’s a great convenience for the class hotel occupants, taxiing only a few blocks up or down the beach front, but somehow not traveling into the 22d-23d Street row of niteries, or those over on Dade Blvd., or into Miami, over the Venetian Causeway. The danger—if hazard it is—is that the Swank hotels, like the nit- eries, also inky price themselves out of the market and into a new kind of * headache—a headache that’s peculiar unto nitery ops. For example, Benny Fields followed Georgie Price and Noonan & Marshall into the swank San Souci’s Blue Sails Room. Grade Barrie followed Eddie Fisher into the ultra Saxony hotel's Shell-I- Mar Room, with Teddy (Continued on page 63) Car-Sick Sugar Ray Robinson's pink- . colored Cadillac practically stole the show (outside the In- ternational theatre, N. Y.), when the new middleweight champ guested last Sunday (18) on Ed Sullivan’s “Toast of the Town” TV show. As result, Robinson gave - the sponsor quite a few uncomfortable mo- ments, with execs of the Ken- yon & Eckhardt agency, which handles the account, scurrying about trying to persuade the champ to move the car to a side'street. Show is sponsored by Lin- , jcpinrMctpucy. -. , ...... on Miss McCann Hates Men Who Make Pewter Plates San Francisco, Feb. 20. A table-banging rendition of the song, “I Hate Men," during a mati- nee performance of “Kiss Me, Kate,” at the Curran theatre, opened an inch-long gash above the left eye of Frances McCann last Wednesday (14). While singing the song, Miss Mc- Cann whacked lustily at a table with a pewter mug, bouncing some plates. One of the pewter plates hit her on the forehead. Bleeding, Miss McCann ad libbed, “The man who made these plates must have hated women," and completed the number. Following a patching job, she finished the performance. N.Y.-UL Co-ax .Hollywood, Feb. 20. Ad agencies are given positive assurances that the N.Y.-L.A. co- axial cable would be operating by September. American Telephone & Telegraph Co. reports that orders for facilities are now being taken. It's - understood that Government pressure to speed.completion has resulted in stepped-up activity, with-opening now timed to coin- cide with the fall .season. Link between Omaha-Denver is now nearing completion and other lines, to the west need only a few technical adjustments to meet tele- vision demands.. Live teevee from here for the east won’t affect local reception, because -of the time dif- ferential. Present‘plan is to kine shows for Coast re-Aiying because Of the early hour of cabling pro- grams east. 4 Because of the heat generated by the Senate Crime Investigating Committee, headed by Sen. Estes Kefauver, -operators of the now defunct gaming casinos may shift Inactivities to cafes that can be turned into profitable operations sans backroom revenue. Evidence of this switch is seen by the pitch of a syndicate for the Diamond Horseshoe, N. Y., re- cently vacated by Billy Rose. Group reportedly has topped the former bid of Harry Steinpian, operator of the Latin Casino 1 , Philadelphia, who also is. interested in ’'acquiring the spot. The Paramount hotel, in which the Horseshoe is located, is asking $75,000. yearly rental plus percentage of gross. Rose paid around $55,000 rental at time of withdrawal. <■ Operators of, former casinos seem conyinced that the gaming rooms are out for the next few years at least. Spots in Covington, Ky., Miami Beach and adjacent Broward county, New Orleans, and towns in the midwest, have been forced to shutter. The only state where gambling is wide open is Nevada, where it’s legalized. The anti-gambling crusade has stymied ^employment of name tal- ent considerably. The Kentucky (Continued on page; 22) College Gyms Seen Turned Into Tele Studios, Should Basketball Shun Garden Threat of bigtime college basket- ball being moved from Madison Square Garden, N. Y., back to the school gymnasiums, caused by the gambling probe which erupted in New York over the weekend, may turn most of these gyms into tele? vision studios. If basketball leaves the Garden, it’s pointed out, the colleges may turn for most of their revenue to the sale of video rights. If that happens, the games in effect will be played .primarily for the bene- fit of the TV cameras. Move out of the Garden would be In line, with the current nationwide push for deflation and de-emphagis of college athletics.. TV industry execs, however, are concerned that the furore created ! over the fixing of games may cause PTA HEAD BLASTS BEER ADS ON TELE Atlantic City, Feb. 20. Charles Kresge, principal of schools in suburban Northfleld and chairman of visual education for the N.ew Jersey Congress of j the colleges to stage their ‘basket- •Parents and Teachers,, condemned j ball schedules, in the total obscurity the excessive beer advertising on | 0 f their gyms, banning video en,- sports .television, programs here Thursday (15). “It is extremely Unfortunate that programs which appeal to youth, such as. sports events, are for the most part sponsored by liquor in- terests" he told members of the’At- lantic county Parent and Teachers Council. He pointed out that some Parent- Teachers organizations are now circulating petitions which urge television stations to fihdmore suit- tirely. ' One of the contributing causes to the demoralization of the ballplayers has already been ascribed to the national publicity arising from mass video coverage, Temper of college execs, if not cooled off by next season, cues the eclipse of basketball on TV. Many of the colleges, however, will be forced to seek outside rev- enue sources to support their athletic programs, if the‘lucrative Garden rentals are abandoned. In able sponsors for programs which i such a case, video could prove ■ to I a UJL^ OpVIIQViO X%JA UppeaLto young people.. •9 » & „ „ (Continued, on page. }5>«» **