Variety (September 1952)

P'H&mrr ' '"VACDtevnLUE 47 Miaini KO’s ‘Lewd, Feoimic’ Shows; N.J. Alky M Shutters Two Cafes Miami, Sept. 9. Miami city commission made official this week an ordinance banning “lewd and lascivious” per- formances and outlawing female impersonators of any kind in night- clubs and bars, except in “the- atrical performances that are not lewd” Miami ‘Beach authorities are currently drafting a similar resolution. First results of the new law saw arrest Friday (5) of Rozina Carolo- nuisto, billed as the “Gorilla Girl” flt the Harem Club, and cancella- tion of the Babe Baker revue at Leon & Eddie’s. "Gorilla Girl” was charged with disorderly conduct “by lewd and lascivious behavior” and released in S500 bond. Arresting officers described her act as “a -series- of 5 ;iiggestive contortions that left little to the imagination.” Her costume is a twist on the boy-girl idea with ‘gorilla replacing male half of outfit. Leon & Eddie’s operator Leon Enken shuttered main room,and femme impersonators until new variety revue can be’ rehearsed for opening by end of week. Mean- time. Miami Beach officials have amended ordinance prepared for ciiv council -passage tomorrow <\Ved.) outlawing “femmic” shows and entertainers wherever liquor is sold. Expected also that there will be a crackdown by State Bev- erage Board on spots serving minors. Most cafe ops try to keep the teenagers out, but are handi- capped when they are shown driv- ers licenses and other identifica- tion, usually borrowed, “proving” the bearer to be over 21. On both sides of Biscayne Bay, some 60 performers will be tossed out of work. Outside of the bigger spots such as Leon Sc Eddie’Sy> Jewel Box and Tony Pastor’s, there are also the “intimeries” that feature gay acts, though not in costume. With current heat on, ops are cancelling out these acts until situation clears. Padlock Paddock, Cliquot Atlantic City, Sept. 9. As a result of disciplinary pro- ceedings brought by the state di- vision of Alcoholic Beverage Con- trol on charges of indecent shows on the premises, the Paddock In- ternational was closed yesterday <Tues.) for a 35-day period and the Cliquot Club for 30 days frohi the same date. A third spot, the Jockey club, faces a hearing before ABC officials on a similar charge after agents made tours of cafes during the season. Operators of the Paddock en- tered a plea of “no defense,” but ABC Commissioner iDominic A. Cavicchia found that because of a number of strip acts by various performers, a severe penalty was warranted. He fixed the suspension at 40 days but cut five days off because of the plea. ^ In the Cliquot case It was found that while six acts were seen, only two were judged indecent. Agents made their visits early in the sea- son, but because of the legal ma- chinery involved the operators of both spots had an opportunity to get through the lush summer months. Tollies’ May Front Frick Minus Frack as Latter Falls in. Coast Tuneup Hollywood, Sept. 9. “Ice Follies” management is mooting tonight (Tues.) to**decide whether comedy skating star Frick vill single as result of accident vhich broke up top-billed team of Flick & Frack. Latter fractured kneecap in a fall during dress re- nearsal and hasn’t appeared at all. Frick has singled on occasion in and may do it for a good part this season since Frack will be out for eight to ten weeks. Show opened last Thursday (4) H) good notices and drew a rousing $‘18,900 for first three days. This H little under last year because f’l slight repealing of 6,000-seat Ian Pacific Auditorium. •^dam A. Adams, theatre oper- is convalescing from.a recent art attack at the Michaels ■‘lospital, Newark.' Sharr Upped at WMA Jules Sharr has been named to succeed Harold Dobrow in the Wil- lian^ Morris Agency theatre and foreign department. Sharr has been assisting Harry Kalcheim of the television sector. Before joining WMA, Sharr was aide to Lou Walters, Latin Quarter, N. Y., bonifaces. Dobrow left the agency last week. Palace 2-a-Day On Way-Big 1’ Palace Theatre will continue with eight acts until a suitable headliner to initiate two-a-day at the Broadway house are available. So far, there are no immediate prospects for .pacting any topper, except that RKO Theatres execs are angling for Danny Kaye. It’s Unlikely that any deal will be made for some time. Search for a suitable star will begin in earnest next week when Sol A. Schwartz, RKO theatres prexy, returns from Europe. Schwartz has been on a combina- tion talent prowl and vacation for' about a month. The Palace has been offered combinations of non-musical talent for dramatic sketches, but it was felt that the names submitted weren’t strong enough to carry a $4.80 biU. There has been some talk that the Palace would go legit if vaude operation as a two-A-day became impractical. A theatre spokesman ."^aid that the house might be leased, but. it would be difficult to stage legit musicals because of insufficient depth of stage. Miami’s Casablanca Sues Martin & Lewis for 8G In Room Rent, L>ts of Etc. Miami Beach, Sept. 9. Casablanca Hotel owners here filed suit last week against Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis in Superior Court at Los Angeles seeking pay- ments bf bills for $8,086.14 alleged- ly run up by the comedy duo in January, 1951, during a three-week stay. Hotel at the time was operated by Maurice Pollack (current owner of Giro’s) and Julius Gaines. Suit charges that the amount sought covers advances and other consid- erations under an agreement whereby Martin Sc Lewis were giv- en penthouse suites (usualy $75 per day) free, in return for one night appearance at the hotel’s Club Morocco, folpwing a three-week engagement at the Chez Paree here. Collection is demanded on such additional items as rooms for Lewis’ father; orch leader Dick Stabile, business manager Ray To- land; beverages and foods, tele- phone bills, and money laid out for purchases in hotel shops. It was pointed out that when new owner took over, these items were listed in hotel’s accounts receiv- able. Understood that action is pend- ing on other performers who played the Club Morocco that year and ran up charges under the same type of arrangement. $500,000 Patio Fixup For Tropicana, Havana Havana, Sept. 2. Tropicana, one of Havana’s Big 3 (Sans Souci, Montmartre), expects to complete its huge open-air patio by the end of this year, according to owner Martin Fox. Actually, the patio is not a new addition but a complete renovation and enlarge- ment of the one the nltery had before. Patio is the latest step In the al- most complete transformation of Tropicana. A few months ago a glass fronted concrete structure resembling a huge bandshell was completed. It opens onto the dance floor, but at the same time Pro- tects customers from either hot or iiitemperate weather viA air-condi- tioning. WAYNE CARROLL Songrs you like to liear! TV RADIO CLUBS THEATRES Direction MORISON Ji NORELL AGENCY 1560 Broadway, New York N. Y. Roxy in Reshuffling; Knorr New Producer; Rauch, Foster Leave ■f Major shaekup in the production department of the Roxy Theatre, N. Y., was made last week, when riovpland cjpot 9 Arthur Knorr, who formerly ue- Rosemary Clooney ' has^ been '.!i://%as”'’nrmed‘"toS inked by Cleveland Food Show to r®? Clooney’s Cleve 8 headline Us two-a-day at civic audi- the production staff. House exec- utive director David T. Katz will Broker Adler s Death Poses New AGVA Qoandary Death of Matthew M. Adler, in- [<,SU^nce broker for the American Guild of Variety Artists, last Wed- nesday (3) in San Francisco leaves a lot of problems up in the air. Adler died on the eve of a hearing by the Y. State Dept, of Insur- ance, slated for Sept. 16, on the question of whether his license to practice in New York should be revoked. The major charge was writing insurance while not a li- censed broker 4n that stater Just what the insurance depart- ment will dp now hasn’t been de- termined. "However, it’s expected that the charges against Adler’s agency will be dropped. A spokes- man declared that the only re- spondent called for the Sept. 16 hearing was Adler, and it’s ques- tionable whether the charge will •’ be processed under these circum-1 stances. | However, the more important; question to be determined is | whether his company’s three-year . deal with AGVA will be in effect j with his death. Last year, the AGVA board cancelled two pre- viously signed deals, one calling for designation of Adler as the broker for 12 years and another for 15 years. A three-year term was substituted by the board. Feeling by AGVA counsel is that the three-year term was awarded the Adler agency because Adler was the broker. With Adler’s death, the status of the agency has changed and therefore the pact would be invalid. This problem would have to be determined by the courts if the Adler agency or Adler’s estate should want a defini- tive ruling on the matter. Currently, the insurance deal that Adler negotiated for AGVA is with the Insurance Company of North America with head offices ! in Philadelphia. This contract' ex- pires Nov. 23. No other policy has yet been substituted. The AGVA accident insurance deal is one of the stormiest in the union’s history. Claims of fraud had been hurled by both operators- and union members. It was-charged that several union officials were profiting on this deal, premiums of which were paid by operators and bookers. It was also charged that under terms of the deal, the union was transferred from a labor or- ganization to a premium collection agency. "■®“-‘”'^i book talentTorThe time bei^g aing“ fappi^Lcef !cc?lTn"d ^ “borTo" yemt' by Joh^n Budniok’s H-piece /rch. , «„bo noutmes^be Hne._^leave at j their own production packaging ! firm. Roxy reshuffling has been in the wind for some time. Several weeks ago. Katz asked the majority of 'staffers t- submit letters of resig- nation so that new owners of the ; house. National Theatres, Inc., The American Guild of Variety takes- over from 20th-Fox Artists’ office staff returned to Sept. 27, could move as it wished work Monday (8) after a walkout j without being encumbered by pre- which lasted a week. "Staff mem- j vious commitments, bers of the Office Workers Inter- • Plans for production change had national Union stqged the exit j been in the works for a while. At when both sides couldn’t agree on, one time, the William Morris of- tlie length of the contract, which fice has been asked to explore the N.Y. Oifice Hands Return to AGVA had expired March 1. Under terms of a new agreement, contract will run for two years and calls for straight increases of 10% for all employees, plus an addi- tional hike if the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals a 2% cost of liv- ing increase at the end of the period ending next April. possibilities of getting Bob Alton from Metro to design the produc- tion there. There was also some talk that Nat Karson, former Radio City Music Hall Rockettes choreog- rapher, would, be called in to head the production. It’s likely that more changes will be made in the house until the Jack Irving AGVA’s national ad-. jjaff is stetted. It's felt that the mmistrator told the office work-;ijo„y can now move in any one of ers ibjt he , several directions just as it did mend this settlement to the board : Cueing the regime of A. J. Balaban. 1 "-bo headed that house for severa on the job. AGVA board meets; Balaban moved from min- i imum spending to tremendous out- I lays for name.s. 1 Rauch and Miss Foster will pack- 1 age and produce shows. It’s ex- ! pected that they’ll make a bid to i design production and lines for I large ice shows, television, legit ‘Substantial Net Profit’ ■ tomorrow (Thurs.) to consider rati fication. * Minn. State Fair Drops Off 72,000 at Gate But Minneapolis, Sept. 9. Replecting the amusement indus- try’s depressed condition here, 828,475 attendance for the 10-day Minnesota State Fair was 72.000 behind last year’s and the smallest since the annual’s resumption after World War II. Also, the season's attendance for the N. Y. Giants’ Minneapolis American Assn, farm baseball club, under 125,000, was the smallest in recent history. However, the 1952 State Fair, one of the country’s largest, still came through with “a very sub- stantial net profit,” directors an- nounced. On the other hand, the ball club dropped a sizable chunk of dough, estimated to run from $100,000 to $150,000. It’s the sec- ond straight year for a hefty deficit. State Fair directors felt that bad weather and a high polio incidence did the most damage to attendance. Last year’s weather was none too good either. Combined attendance of the fair’s two Sundays, with ideal weather, totaled 246,239, con- sidered excellent. I years staged ‘^Skating Vanities” for producer Harold Steinman. Florence Rogge Quitting RC Music Hall, N.Y.; Ballet Head Came With Lease Florence Rogge, Radio City Mu- sic Hall, N. Y., associate producer, and director of the Corps de Ballet there since the Flail’s opening 20 years ago, is resigning as of Sept. 24, at end of her current contract. Margaret Sande, Miss Rogge’s as- sistant, will succeed her as ballet mistress. Mi.ss Rogge, Detroit-born, ran a ballet school in Toronto in conjunc- tion with Leon Leonidoff, the Hall’s artistic producer; was soloist with the original Monte Carlo bal- let, and was soloist and choreog- rapher at the Roxy Theatre, N. Y., for four years, before switching to the Hall in ’32 when it was built. Married to a wealthy N, Y. man- 1 ufacturer, J. J. Dickman, Miss j Rogge is quitting to devote more T.. 4 . ^ 4 . A„a I time to her private life. She has ^ later date, Aug.. produced many of the Hall's stage- 29 to Sept. J, 1.shows, in addition to doing all the ballet productions. She also took the ballet troupe to France in 1937, to enable showing of more mature agricultural and horticultural ex- hibits. Ft. Wayne; Cleve. Pact Cole-Sarah-Stan Unit Fort Wayne, Sept. 9. Allen County War Memorial Col- iseum, soon to have its formal opening, has booked the Nat (King) Cole-Sarah Vaughan-Stan Kenton “Biggest Show of 1952” for Oct. 21, Also inked for the building are in its only visit away from RCMH. Miss Sande, her succe.ssor, start- ed in the theatre’s dance corps about 10 years ago, and became Miss Rogge’s assistant about four years ago. DARVAS (& JULIA) TO READY OWN VAUDSHOW Nicholas Darvas (Sc Julia) is Gale Drops ‘Nowhere^ In 1st Wk. at N.Y. Spot “From Nowhere to Broadway,” revue at Alan Gale’s Celebrity Club, N. Y., was paid off last week and spot will now play two shows nightly with Gale at both displays. Layout produced by Bobby Gordon, who also appeared in the show, worked one week before being let out. ’ The plan to have Gale spotted in the dinner show only reportedly didn’t help the late biz. Boniface’s spokesman declared that many potential customers went over to see Gale work and walked avv'ay wheil they learhed he wouldn’t ap- pear. Freddie Stewart and the HaydOck's* will Continue'with Gale. iimtru lUA uic . priming his own vaudshow for next Olsen & Johnson heading up the, which he plans touring as a unit in the niteries and vaudfilm “Skating Vanities,’ 11 . opening Nov. houses. Continental terper is currently at the Latin Quarter, N.Y., and > after a Coast commitment aims to Cleve’s. ‘Show of Year’ Cleveland, Sept. 9. :®*6gest Show of 52 has been i impresario as well as star as its first jazz concert-show of, season. Arena also booked “Show Of the Year,” featuring A1 Martino, Hen- ry Busse’s orch, Jerry Murad Har- monicats and Red Heads, for two performances Nov. 16. Ella Mae for Sahara, L. V.; Bolter’s 20G Per Frame The Sahara Hotel', Las Vegas, slated to open around Oct, 1, has signed singer Ella Mae Morse for Dec. 23. * Spot’s opening attraction will be [Ray Bolger who’ll be playing his ! first cafe date in. a decade. Bolger Comic goes'Mnto"'the Capitol'is getting $20,000 weekly for this Theatre, Washington, Sept. 25. I stand. B^rnic'* Copn. Repeat A1 Bemie, who closed a run at the’N. Y. CPPacabana last week, is ■set for a return date there ne;xt year,