Variety (October 03, 1951)

V«rf Mi M. f- If VMtMf, «M SIS MMM W l UM Nil OHr* «S Yafi. IL V. w4m Um #(U « MSI. IT VAiflTY INC All lAMtl UmV|» mm i im VOL 184 No. 4 NEW YORK. WEDNESDAY. OCTOBER & 1951 — PRICE 25 CENTS r0*vtnc*4 that theatre television f*nno4 exist on • ports alone m* oral' big sewt i Video exhibitors are clamoring that tt a tin* to try their mugs on an entertainment program designed exclusively for their new medium Sven though they d undoubtedly take a financial shellacking on suck a deal, since any straight entertainment show would have to be costly to compete with free home TV. they think It would be worth the loss now to gain the necessary experience and Petrifls BnUuk Os TV Dominance San Francisco. Oct 2 | Following confabs with Local 4? Moll> wood * execs, proxy J ames C. Petri llo predicted that Hollywood , would wind up the country's top vulco tinues, As , I To date, though, no ore has come op with a solution to the thorny onion p ro bl e m None of the talent or craft anion* hag any kind of scale established for theatre TV. Vnion execs are wary ef rushing into suck a program through fear ef setting a precedent. Bxhlba. too. fear they might everpay the unions during those pioneering days, something which would undoubted ly react against them In the fu ture. As a result. It’s expected that the situation will he irooed out only oo the basts of long and In solved huddles. It's the onion problem which has also precluded attempts of big screen exhibs la some cities with only one or two video stations to feed regularly scheduled commer dal TV shows Into their theatres In such cities, the • stations have their pick of programs originating on all four video networks, and some shows are necessarily unable to gel air time. Bxhlba think they could negotiate deals with the net works and sponsors to bring the non viewable programs Into their theatres, but hero again no one can figure out the union scale for such a prooodure It’s thought, in fact, that the unions might demand (Continued on page 74i Non-Biased Hotel List For Nefro Perfomers To Be Issaed ky Egaty Ust of §4§ non-discriminatory hotels. YWCA's, colleges, rooming houses and - other . places w here **tro players may live while on tuur. will be Issued shortly by Ac- tors Equity. The spots are located in cities and towns in all parts of the country regularly puying legit •hqws. It’s figured that with ex* Pccted additions, a revised list will probably be Issued every season The list, compiled by the Joint F-quity- League of N. Y. Theatres Committee on Hotel Accommoda- tions. will be distributed to pro- origination point. HHRI report! from John te Groan, pic; Phil Fischer, vp. and Maury Paul, recording-sec of Local 47. pointed to 42 pacts inked nationally on TV. including 21 in LA plus four nets, with more te follow TV s recap- ture of employment ef musicians, due te radio downbeat, was Petrillo cited the Hollywood hypo Indicated by Colgate's "Coin* ed> Hour. ’ which will beam M ef its forthcoming 44 shows from thej Aim town Local 47 execs estimate that 70% of TV shows will origi- nal# from there within the next two or three years. 1st Negro union deputies of touring _ It was made up on the basis of f*Pii*s from queries sent to 2.000 £<*«ls and lodging houses, plus first-hand reports of deputies ahd of shows that havs played * - ■■■ ■ ■ up to cnlfeMt *'* °« the situation and IContinued m page 75 ) Continuing its streamlining of last year, which was Rudolf Bing's Arst season as its general manager the Metropolitan Opera Assn, has come up with a few surprises for this new season. Announcing its roster yesterday (Tues ) for the ’SI ’S! season—its «7th—the Met showed the addition of If new singers <one of the biggest of new crops ever *, and the dropping of If from last season's rolls > If the new season’s setup isn’t as radical as last year’s ^ when (Continued on page ll> Dept Stores Um p Mere Skew Biz Nines In Stepphf Up Bally New York department stores are stepping up their exploitation ac ' tivines by increasingly using show bu names Last week Abraham A .Straus of Brooklyn, and GimbeJ’a. Manhattan, went In for big promo- tions with entertainment Agures. AAS produced two big shows daily during the week, with Tex and Jinx McCrary appearing every day. "In addition. 40 other names participated in the ’’Music. TV and Book Week” fete, including Robert Merrill. Rise Stevens. Mimi Benarll. Faye Bmerson. Robert Alda. Jan Feerce. Henry Morgan. iA and Pegeen Huger a Id Morey FOR NEW THEM Television program execs, wor- ried about the lack of viewes-ee- eitement which greeted the start of the new season are digging deep into the talent barrel again in a quest for new names and new* faces What particularly worries the net work program chiefs is the fad that already, in what’s only the second big season for TV. there's a M here-we-go-sgatn’‘ overtone to their big shows, with set owners ap- parently already Using of seeing tha same In neats and lame faces week after week. Underscoring that feeling both CBS-TV program veepee Hubbeil Robinson Jr. and NBC TV veepee Fred Wile have started to beat the bushes for new names and new feces But. according to trade ob- servers. what they've come up with so far Is only more of the same- talent which la already so well- known In Alma and or radio that it can’t make much of a lasting im- pression on video viewem Networks vl'l miss the boat completely, they claim, unless they concentrate Immediately on groom- ing new talent to replace the faces who have over-extended their stays in too many of the nation's living room* And just as impor- tant. these observers point out. is the development of pew program formats. There must be something the program men can come up with, other than the steady diet of comedy, variety, quixxes. whodun- its. etc, on which setowners are already becoming satiated Illustrative of the type of talent the webs are putting under ton- i Continued on page 46) Majors Report 15% Rentals Rise Preliminary accounting hy ma- jor companies for the month jf PM Baker (I Accsrhss) Set for Gak Ckcnit Bow *r upswing Film rentals on the aver- age appear to be up about 15 '# Phil Baker has been signed for over la*l Septrmbrr a series of concert dates by the J Company to company differential Columbia Lecture Bureau. Arst varies considerately with product, time the comic haa hit the gab cir- H> po it said to result from a combo cult He was parted by Kastman of better product and generally bet- Boomer. t'LBTs veepee in charge of ter bo conditions special attractions, who’ll manage * >ne highly encouraging factor the tour Baker will work In be- was that bit didn't arem to he hang- tween his radio program <”$64 Ques- mg so much on tup grosses being turn'*), starting out the latter pari garnered by a few* pis It appeared of October for a three month tour He'll go out again In March Baker will talk on comedy and comedians he’s known, with anec dotes and llluatr stive material He ll lake hit accordion along as E ared e. In <h*i other pr oduct was doing well. A prime example ** this la seen st 2(hh Koa. where Aye Alms last week each went ov«r the $100 000 mark in Aim rentals They were I People Will Talk” ‘Meet Me j After the Show ' Mr Belvedere i Kings (he Bell ” Frog Men’* and 'Tike Care of Mv ^rrtrtr-Girl ” Fact that return of the big tele «h»w* to the air during September failed to make an appreciable dent * In theatre b<* also is cause for »ome tentative touring of raps in the air by the Industry Impact of the t name TV shows is being watched "} carefully, but the feeling now is that U they haven’t hit the bo in their early weeks hark on the air. It's unlikely tfiey 'll hurt much later. Henry R Luce's bullish attitude There appears also tu be more and toward television is currently cue- more adverse criticism on quality mg considerable speculation as to «f new tele shows, which Alrnites the Time-Life-Fortune publisher’s likewise And encouraging future stake in TV Those close to J Ihrring September 11*0 trusses him say that Luce still envision* a (Continued on page 7>i video empire of hit own. con Molls Expansion vineed that as a medium for pub Ywywn Rurnc si tt/R Ight* nment, it is destined HI For ‘Streetcar’ Cots (Continued an paga 75) Ups N.Y. Cafe Biz Disappointment that New York •iMmjnqn generally register at if subway Series has disappeared this season This week's playoff he tween the N Y Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers it helping to All both hotels and cafes ahead of the start of the World Series stated for tomorrow rThurs ». Hotels al- ready are pressed for space and niteries are getting a terriAc amount of out of town trade. , Cafe owners a* well as innkeei*! ers are assured af a bigger out m town play when only one of the participant* is a New York team A visiting ball club always brings in it* own group of rooters for a bigger ko Um year, according to nttery ope. It won't matter much There's plenty of ‘natural” bus! ness around in addition to those who came in to see some of the playoff games for the National League pennant Business the early part of the nook also held up nicely with the (Continued on page 14) Without His StT-S* Klia Kau* who directed "Street- car Named Desire is burning at Warner Bros because of cuts mads m "Streetcar" by the studio with- * ut consulting him Sri .curing was live a, ine in order to avoid getting a '“'“"Mined * rating from the lurch a Legion of Oe i lie enlight for a role as top dog in the sphere of communications (Some time ago Luce'* name was linked with possible take over of a major TV oatlot». ; Fart that Lure, via his Time mag subsidiary TV operation, laid it on the line to the tune of $ 200,000 'including promotion-ex ploiut ion cost*) for his recent one shot video show. "Stake in the ,. _ , Pacilc." testiAcs to the publisher s * . J '»nd£Minrd • rating from 'i»e (Continued on page 62 (cholic Chu renry Karan who returned to New llwtai CJLr’a Rwllwf Cal Ywrk lrwTO lbe wV «* r lh * n€W jaaiCf 1 Ddllcl JCI weekend refused to ommcnl on r i Iia a • (V the MB hassle He said however. har Sock U.S.-Canada Toor **% * considerm« the po***- m . A h »l“y of a public statement on Wdk 1} Tak# Wn lhr «A»ue. • nun 14 Acceding to Canal report*. Um • Quebec. Oet 2 • direct or—whose previous Aim The Sadler's Wells Theatre Bal - 1 work had been m ridrd to 2 oth» let. making Rs U S.-Canadian how Fox told friends he d never again with an appwaranre here Friday work at MB lie denied the re» • 5(. seems likely to stir up as much mark in New Yoik this week ex-;,' fua* and exettemrot M North plaining he migM consider return- Amenca as did Its sister troupe mg to ttie lot if the proper script like Sadler s Wells Ballet, last year came up and two seasons ago New lo this It’s under stood that Kassn v beef hemisphere, with fresh fares and a is against both the cut^ themselves new. unique repertoire, the troupe and the (wanner in which they already haa . set some unuaual , wete made Me* said to feel the marks raaorlng. while minor, "eliminated Ten months before Its arrival, several highlights of the picture” the oulAt had been solidly booked and also hindered the Agw of the for a six month. 6 S-c»t> tour by yarn - ^ „ impresario Bol Hurok Withj Reportedly he heard of (Continued on page 22i (Continued on page t: