Variety (February 1952)

« uu u %fct% Publidied Weekly ;*t 154 West 4Sth Street. New York 19, N. V.. fry Variety* Inc. Annual inibscription. fio. Single copies, 15 cents. Entered aa second clasp matter December 22, 1905. at the Post Offtceat New York. *1. Y.. under the act of iSattsh 8, *1879! copyright, i*m; by variity inc. All rights risirvid VOL. 185 No. 9 new York, Wednesday, February 6,1952 price 25 Cents 4 a ♦ T Palace Theatre, N. Y., is embarks Ing on “Operation Retreat.” Idea is to cool .oft the house with two top vaude shows before pitching names, ’ Meanwhile, Judy Garland will stay ah additional Week. Instead pf leaving Feb. 17 as originally an- nounced, she’ll exit Feb. 24, which glyes the house a little more time to look for a headliner. Palace booker Danny Friendly this week made a bid for Marlene Dietrich, but as with the others, it’s no dice. Lauritz Melchior is being eyed, Feeling with RKO circuit execs is that Miss Garland has made the house so hot that few headliners are. willing to venture a stand there directly following her. .As a result, the. Palace will book two two-week shows with acts that could be toplined in most situations. Al- ready s.ef are Les Compagnons de fa Chanson and Jean Carroll. Con- certed efforts will still be made to get a moneymaker in the top slot, but should these efforts fail, they’ll at least have a layout with what they hope will be superior, playing values. RKO is attempting to get Danny Kaye or Martin &. Lewis for a March slot. RKO Theatres Prexy Sol A. Schwartz is currently on the Coast scouting names in that area. After her Palace run Miss Gar- land is slated.'for ‘two-a-day on the Coast at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Negotiations have al- ready been started to re-import Max Bygraves, the British comic' who opened at the Palace with Miss Garland, to work the Coast date with her. Bygraves .returned to Fngland some weeks ago to fill commitments there. House grossed $36,700 in eight shows for week ended Sunday (3). This figure represents near-capac- ity. Chaplin Bows as Disker, 2 Pic Tunes for Col Hollywood, Feb. 5. Charles Chaplin debuts as a disk artist on Columbia Records with two excerpts from his. forthcoming film, “Limelight.” Chaplin plays a fading music hail star, and the two songs are self- composed, as is the entire musical score by Chaplin,, who. invariably writes and directs besides produc- ing and self-starring in his pix. The songs, per se, are: more in the music hall genre, as oddities, than as pop contenders. The Weavers Touch Off Cleve. Pressure Tactics To Get ’Em Off Benefit Cleveland, Feb. 5. Despite pressure tactics by two Organizations which opposed a charitable appearance of the Weavers, the Press Club, WEWS arid the Cleveland Area Heart Fund chalked up a successful $10,- 000 four-hour television drive Sat- urday night (2) to open the annual campaign for the fund. The opening night’s pledges were the largest in the fund’s four- year history, against reported at- tempts to jam telephone lines leading to volunteer-manned booths at both the Press Club and WEWS. The program included appear- ances by top entertainers, and fig- ures in this area. But it also Wit- nessed last-minute withdrawals by j P°ihicians and. show-bizzers. Withdrawals in virtually every instance followed strong protests made by the Knights of Columbus (Continued on page 63) Amall Reply To High Govt. Post Ellis G. Amall up until late yesterday (Tues.) was still unde- cided on giving President Truman an answer as to whether he’d accept a high post in the Ad- ministration. If the former Georgia governor does accept the Presi- dent’s job proffer, it is understood he will ask for a leave of absence as prexy of the Society of Inde- pendent Motion Picture Producers. Arnall reportedly was offered the post of head of the Office of Price Stabilization, succeeding Michael Di Salle, who has resigned. However, it has been /learned that Arnall was also offered the oppor- tunity of accepting several other Federal jobs, and he is now con- sidering them. SIMPP prexy has not broached to the members the possibility of his taking a leave of absence, since his plans regarding^a Washington spot are obviously still vaguer If >he decides to move, however, it is Understood likely he’ll go to* the Coast for personal confabs with leading producers the Society on his plans. Otherwise, he will next be in (Continued on page 55) St. LoUis, Feb. 5. Although he yielded his shield as a detective-sergeant in the St. Louis Police Department on Dec. 4, 1945, after 14 years of service, Harry Fender, former Broadway star and currently a disk jock at station KXOK, is still a member of the department, according to a de- cision handed down last week by Circuit Judge Eugene J. Sartori- ous. Fender, quit the department to rCenter the entertainment field, (Continued on page 63) By ABEL GREEN . Hollywood, Feb, 5. The current Hollywood question, in pix and television circles alike,, is when . will ‘'the monster” take over? The “monster,” of course, is TV. ' •• While ■Hollywood still fancies itself in the role of Jack, the Giant Killer, there is strong feeling that both Jack and the Giant may have to join forces if each is to sur- vive. While the premise of if-you- can’t-fight-’em-join-’em is an old script by now, the passing of time has created a nervousness that borders on defeatism in one quar- ter, and bravado in another. On the one hand, Charles P. Skouras, prez of National Theatres, told, the Theatr.e Owners of America board conclave last week that some 230 Fox-West Coast theatres in the metropolitan Los Angeles area grossed a* total of $38,000 on a re- cent Monday—blaming TV, of course. On the other hand, all see ah even greater film prosperity because of TV. Say the film-makers: “If they’re staying home to see those film stinkers, imagine how much more valuable will be our. good product, if, as and when we give it to them.” Subscription televi- sion, or “tollvision,” is cited as the panacea in this connection. None the less, the aura pervad- ing the film studios is as nothing ever before observed. “Every major has^a TV deal in his back pack pocket, excepting Metro,” says one executive, as he. points to virtually every film company either leasing studio space for TV pro-' duction or having more direct, video tieups; such as Paramount with DuMont, Par’s TV sta- (Continued on page 18) Chicago, Feb. 5. Kiddie television performers have supplied the National Labor Relations Board field staffers with a new headache. In what’s reported to be the first, time such a situation has arisen in the history of the NLRB, the agency has challenged union ballots on the grounds that the voters were too young to un- derstand about trade unions. I. M. Lieberman, NLRB exam- iner conducting the Television Au- thority certification balloting here last Week, challenged the votes of four moppets aged five to Dine. Several other slightly ojlder kiddies were allowed to vote unchallenged after Lieberman questioned them on the significance of unionism. Results of the TV A balloting Will be announced later this week in New York. I New 100G ‘Dolls’ Melon; Total Now Is $588,191 Dividend of $100,000 was paid iRSt Week on “Guys, and Dolls,” bringing the total profit distribu-. tioni thus far to $558,191 on the $250,000 investment (including $50,000 unused pyercall). The lat- est melon represented the operat- ing net through Jan. 5. Operating profits, on the Broad- Way production for the five Weeks ending Jan. 5 totalled $43,642 after deducting $1,605 for. New York State unincorporated busi- ness tax. The total net ’return on the touring company for the same period was $67,226, for a combined total of $109,868. Exit in Chesterfield Chesterfield is planning a major reshuffling of its multi-million dollar radio billings With likeli- hood that Bob Hope and Bing Crosby may not be renewed for the 1952-53 season. It’s understood that the parting will be by mutual agreement inasmuch as Crosby plans to go to work for himself with a Minute Maid Orange Juice show. Crosby is an important stockholder in that firm and has been taping a Show for them It’s also reported that Hope would like to concentrate to a greater degree on video, feeling that he has at last found the right format. There have been reports in the trade that Chesterfield would like to entice an entirely new set of listeners, feeling that it has ex- tracted the maximum sales from Hope and Crosby audiences.’ The ciggie firm is reported looking 4n the direction of Milton Berle, whom it may buy for both radio and video. Berle is expected to leave Texaco at the end of the cur- (Continued on page 55) Louis Armstrong, who has been set for Honolulu tour from Feb. 26 to March 9, is being set for a two-year global junket by Joe Glaser’s Associated Booking to begin in September. After his Honolulu dates, Armstrong may go to Tokyo for a two-week stand if previous nit.ery and broadcast commitments can be cleared. Glaser’s itinerary for Armstrong calls'for keeping him on the Coast until summer. He’s then due to play his 52d birthday engagement (Continued on page 55) • Television industry execs cur- rently mapping plans for coverage of the upcoming political conven- tions are growing increasingly aware that this will be the tough- est and also the most potentially dangerous, assignment, if not han- dled with the utmost care, that they’ve ever’ had, Their reasoning is based on the fact that, no matter how much care is exercised in keeping the coverage strictly non- prejudiced and impartial, the slightest deviation from this policy, even though it may be inadvertent, can sWay viewers from one candi- date to another. It's already been pointed out re- peatedly that TV, because of Its all-perceptive camera eye, will be one of the most Important factors in this year's Presidential race by showing up the candidates as be- ing either sincere or otherwise/ Bur, over and above this fact, the news and special events chiefs of the various networks are fearftil that such apparently minor factors as the placement of their cameras or the choice of one supporter of a candidate over that, of another as an interview .guest, may be all- important in the long run. Newsmen recall; for example, that during Gen. Douglas Mac- Arthur’s speech to a joint session of Congress following his recall from Japan last year, the cameras were permitted to record the fe- actions of one side of the House chamber more than the other. Even though this was done with no malice aforethought, the fact that viewers saw the grim and gloomy faces of-tlte Democratic Congress- men, rather than the wildly-ap- plauding Republicans, must have influenced them. It was pointed out at the time that such coverage (Continued on page 61) Lutheran Church Okays 750G for Vidpix to Teach St. Louis, Feb. 5. The Board of Directors of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, last week okayed a $750,000 TV project after a. two-day meet here during which the board viewed ex- perimental films produced by Lu- theran Television Productions, an agency set up by the church to produce and distribute programs/ Current plans call for filming of 26 programs of 30-minute length to be released on the tag “This Is the Lite,” and Rev. Herman W> Gockel, religious director of the project, said the programs Will por- tray “typical Christianity of the average American home.” Rev. Gockel also said the pro- grams will deal “not merely With morality and ethics, but with the gospel of personal redemption through Jesus Christ.” Ian 1 M* •Smith, former Ford Motor Co. con-^ sultant, Will produce the films .in-" Hollywood.