Variety (October 1952)

micniATE As Hypo to Slow N.Y. Legit Season Two indicated hits and a possible - hit last week, plus' a promising - 1 • • D prospect the week before, have Legit T MRS lit KOClieSter; been a pickup for a lagging Broad- ® __ ¥T n immediate boxoffice Upstate N.Y. House Busy way season. response to last week’s two clicks, “Time of the Cuckoo” and “The Millionairess,” are expected to be a stimulus to the whole local legit Rochester, Oct. 21. The Masonic Auditorium,' local legit stand managed by Will R. scene, with the potential, success corris and his son, Robert, has its of “Bernardine” and the previous most promising show lineup this week’s “In Any Language" as an added boost. “An Evening with Beatrice Lillie” started the proces- sion with a smash opening three weeks ago fall and early winter that it has had in years. House, normally a split-week spot in combination with the Erlanger, Buffalo, is pretty well set into mid-November, With New York hotels jammed and has dates pencilled in through for the annual autumn boom and next January', the public apparently in a theatre- Opening Oct. 5, the first Sunday going mood, there have recently p re em in its history, the house been complaints from the ticket p j a y e d a five-performance en- brokers because of the dearth oi gageraent 0 f “Gentlemen Prefer current shows. Agencies claim that Blondes,” for a $16,700 gross. It in the last couple of weeks they ve had “jyn s t er Roberts” for three been able to sell practically all performances last Tuesday-Wed- shows except the out-and-out flops. nesday (14-15) f or a $5,700 take. One broker ventured the opinion and gets «. Paint your Wagon” for that he might have been able to three performances Friday-Satur- double his sales if there d been day (24-25). PSaSmrr Broker’* Broker Wanted Lou Schonceit, head of the Mackey ticket agency, N. Y., W'ent to considerable effort last week to get tickets down front for a preview of the Katharine Hepburn show', “The Million- airess,” at the Shubert, N. Y. Since he has to wear a hearing aid, he was pleased to get a pair in AA center, the first row. Arriving at the theatre, Schonceit was informed that rows AA and BB had been re- moved only a couple of hours earlier at the insistence of Miss Hepburn, who preferred not to have the audience so near her at the preview or the fol- lowing night's premiere. Con- sequently, Schonceit and his wife, Renee Carroll, and nine other disgruntled patrons were shoehorned into single seats and chairs in the rear and sides of the house. Schonceit. unable to hear from so far aw T ay. left at the intermission,'vowing to go to a broker for his seats next time. Wednesday, October 22, 1952 Inside Stuff-Legit enough shows to supply the ticket demand. Except for the Lillie show, which is playing to sellout houses, no recent entries have gotten a unani- mous favorable critical response However, Katharine Hepburn’s “Millionairess” had a huge advance sale, including Theatre Guild sub- scription and numerous theatre party bookings, and the line at the boxoffice W'indow has been steady even after the decidedly mixed notices. Shirley Booth Raves The split .press for “Cuckoo,” in eluding raves for Shirley Booth as star, have seemingly boosted win- dow trade for the Arthur Laurents play. Both it and the Hepburn star- rer played to standee attendance at all regular performances last week and appear set for bullish trade in the next few weeks. How- ever, “Millionairess” is scheduled for only a 10-week run “Bernardine,” with a six-to-two nod from the first-stringers, has had lively window sale and a bro ker call since the opening, and attendance indicates the Mary Chase comedy has a good chance to make the grade. “Language,” star ring Uta Hagen ^n a frank laugh show, has also done promising bus! ness, despite a.dubious press. Consensus opinion among the brokers is that what the town needs is a big musical smash, which might stimulate the entire Broadway show list. 'However, nothing of the Booked thereafter are the Mia Slavenska-Frederic Franklin Bal- let, Nov. 3; Katharine Cornell in Constant Wife,” Nov. 7-8; Larry Parks and Betty Garrett in onymous Lover,” Nov. 13-15; Me Madam,” full week of Dec. 8, followed by pencilled dates for Bell, Book and Candle,” “I Ain a Camera,” “Tree Grows in Brook- lyn” and “Country Girl.” Way of a Symph Is Hard; New York Philharmonic’s $3,525 Loss Per Concert Adding to beefs against N. Y. boxoffice men is complaint of a critic who went up to Carnegie Hall one night last week. He got into one line behind six people and when he reached the window, asked for tickets left in his name. Boxoffice man brusquely told, him the next window was the one for reservations. Critic who didn’t identify him- self as a newspaperman protested there was no sign over the other window to indicate it was for reservations; that he’d been in line a while; that another line stood before the other window, and since the two windows were adjacent, the treasurer could reach over for the reservation. Boxoffice man angrily refused. Critic had to move over to the other line and wait his turn before getting his tickets. Substitution of Vincent Price for Charles Laughton in some of the “Don Juan in Hell” dates was due to an unavoidable chain of circum- stances, producer Paul Gregory pointed out last week. Laughton was committed to do “Young Bess” at Metro, but the start of the film was repeatedly delayed due to litigation between Howard Hughes and Jean Simmons, star of the film. When that was settled and the film ready to roll, Laughton came down with a virus attack that kept him in bed for a week. He has about two more weeks of work in the film, after which he will rejoin the First Drama Quartet, but the exact date hinges upon the manner in which Metro shoots remaining scenes. Meantime, he’s appearing in the production at the Philharmonic, Los Angeles, as billed. Milton Shubert is sole lessee and manager of the new Shubert (for- merly Gayety) in Washington, and not resident manager, as erratumed. Bernie Ferber is resident manager. Theatre will be a personal opera- tion of Milton Shubert, not of the Messers. Shubert. Legit Bits An-1 New “Call ‘Boat’ Nearly Sinks In Labor Storm Dallas, Oct. 21. The State Fair of Texas’ hour- long musical version of “Show J Boat,” put on by St. John Terrell’s Motor Music Circus, rocked and rolled in a sea of labor dissension last Tuesday (14), and for a while the theatrical bark seemed all but wrecked. First the show's manager, Ter- rell, fired the orchestra. Prospec- tive audiences had stayed away in droves and there were other rea- sons he said, which brought about the decision. After giving the orchestra its notice Monday might he ordered its director, Oscar Kosarin, to double Giving a symphony concert in York is an expensive busi- ness. A first-rate orchestra (like the N. Y. Philharmonic), in the choicest auditorium (Carnegie Hall), ,with every seat sold, runs deeply into the red. The Philhar- monic averages at $3,525 loss on every concert it gives. Situation comes to light with a study of the Philharmonic’s fig- ures. Oldest symph in America (now in its 111th season), perhaps the best knovm (via its national radio hookup), and„ regarded as one of the nation’s Big Three (Bos- ton and Philly symphs being the others), it nevertheless can’t make ends meet. It never has. Even if it sold out every concert (which it doesn’t), there would be a deficit. For the ’46-’47 season, just by way of comparison, average cost of a Philharmonic concert was $7,895. Income per concert was $4,978, leaving a deficit per concert of $2,917. For the ’50-’51 season, average cost per concert had gone up to $8,643. Income per concert was $5,011, leaving a deficit of $3,525. Orch gives about 100 concerts a season, for roughly an average $3^2,000 deficit. This loss is cut down via outside revenues from broadcasts, recordings, endowment funds, etc. Management has found that an audience pays for half the cost of maintaining an orch; the as pianist with Marion Carley at sort is in prospect for the next few the organ. . . ► weeks. Meanwhile, such established musicians union uttered a hits as Miss Lillie, i4 Giivs &nd sour note st this Hnd cnlled & con* Dolls,” “King and I,”’“New Faces,” ference with management and em- other half must be^met by gifts or “Pal Joey” and “Wish You Were Pl°y ee s. That included the pianist special sources of revenue and organist, who were still in con- ference when the next scheduled appearance of the show rolled around at 5 p.m. So, without any accompaniment, the actors sang “Make Believe” and “Old Man River.” It was something Here” went clean last week, while the juggerm ut “South Pacific” was only a trifle off capacity and “Four- poster,” “Male Animal,” “Mrs.- Mc- Thing,” “Point of No Return” and even the longrun “Moon Is Blue” had hefty grosses. Carnegie Hall, which seats 2,760, can’t be enlarged. Ticket prices (now at $4.25 top) can’t be raised to compensate fully for increased costs. If ticket price is pushed too high, the Philharmonic has found, receipts begin to fall off. It could Wolin, Flamm Prep ‘Ring’ of a feat, said the manager, who never increase fees to the termed it embarrassing, but won- derful. n , ft * I At the 7 o’clock show, things be- rroduction tor London i ^ ar i to pick up A ‘ lea ^ the p ian ° v 1 and organ were back again and ^fter the 9 o’clock show Terrell Was ab]Le Jo. announce that “Show Donald Wolin and Donald Flamm, who were partnered last season in the Broadway production! of “The Brass Ring,” hope to -do the show in London this fall-winter; probably in association with a West End management. They’re also considering an initial London pro- duction of a new comedy, “Mother’s Day,” by an undisclosed author. They’ll sail for England around mid-November and, after a visit to Paris, expect to be back in New York about a month later. Wolin left last weekend for visits to Chicago and North Dakota and will return in time to sail for Eng- land with Flamm. tj-.iii ■ ' _• 1. 11.. iuuuh ci year ^ he S10als and in conductors, today it pays $60, quiet waiter. Motor Music Circus finished out its run Sunday (19) with pianist and organist. Since the orchestra had a 16-day contract, an adjust- ment was made with the musicians’ union. Circus moved to Miami, to open a 10-week season in January. 8G needed to cover cost of a concert. A symph orchestra normally can’t make ends meet, anymore than a postoffice or museum. Phil- harmonic has managed to reduce certain costs. Where it used to pay as much as $140,000 a year for 000 . Dinelli Due in Britain For ^Man’ Meller Preem Mel Dinelli, author of,the 1949- 50 Broadway production, “The Man.” is currently in New York en route to London, where the meller will be produced in late November or early December after a provincial tour. Before sailing he expects to start the projected dramatizations of two undisclosed stories, which he will work on dur- ing his stay in England. Seripter arrived from the Coast about a week ago and has been catching up . on the Broadway show s. Conductors anywhere in America no longer get extravagant fees (Leopold Stokowski once got $100,- 000 annually. Today’s exception is Arturo Toscanini who’ll receive $100,000 for 14 performances this year.) Cost of the Philharmonic orch has risen $100,000 since 1943. In ’43-’44, salaries came to $353,000 1 1 n m F° r the 'SO-’Sl season, cost was In 3d Cross-Country Tour ^ 0 «° A- Maria Spanish Ballet has beqn set by impiesano Sol Hurok a week minimum for 28 weeks for its third successive cross-coun- Musicians get an extra $26.45 for \ an ^Sht-week trek broadcast programs that are spon of 54 dates set up from Oct. 10 to sored, and extra pay for recorded Christmas. Average fee is $1,500. sessions. Most play in Lewisohn Ana Maria Spanish Ballet Group with 15 dancers, is one of the few full Spanish troupes to make three successive annual tours. It’s playing mainly one-nighters. six or seven a week. Opening in Montreal, it’s now in the midwest, heading west and south. Stadium an extra six weeks m summer at $125 a'week minimum. But they still average only $5,000 a year before taxes. Equity Show (Oct. 20-A r oi\ 2) “Getting Married”—Lenox Playhouse, N.Y. (22-20* . Hill JUDSON INKS BARB1ER1 Fedora Barbieri, Met Opera mezzo-soprano, has been signed by the Judson, O’Neill & Judd divi- sion of Columbia Artist Mgt. Judson division lias also inked young conductor Thomas Scliip- pers to a management pact. Jaok Schlissel, business manager for producer Kermit Bloomgarden, bedded with a cold . . . Philip Loeb, Paura Pierpont and Roland Wood have joined the cast of the Melvyn Douglas' starrer, “Time Out for Ginger,” for which Danny Brown will be stage manager and Bruce Savan assistant . . . Wilva Davis has gone to London to join her husband, Robert Breen, director and co-producer of “Porgy and Bess” . . . Harriet E. MacGibbon planed to Chicago over the week- end to take over the rble of Julie Harris’ mother in “I Am a Cam- era.” succeding Cherry Hardy . . . Philippa Hastings, stage manager last summer at the Theatre-by-the- Sea, Matunuck, R. I., returned to London last week for the regular legit season, but is due back next spring. Edward Caulfield’s “First Love.” which was tried out last August at the Provincetown Playhouse on Cape Cod, will be produced Oct. 29 through Nov. 5 by the Journey- men at the Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village, N. Y. . . . Robert W. Dowling, chairman of the executive committee of ANTA and head of City Investing, has been elected to the board of the N. Y. City Center ... The Dobbs Ferry (N. Y.) Players, comprising New York legit-TV and radio play- ers, is renovating the Dobbs Ferry Playhouse, with plans to open a stock policy Nov. 19 with “Peg O’ My Heart” . . . Maureen Delany, last here in 1938 with the Abbey Players, has arrived in New York with her husband, Peter O’Neill. . . . Martha Randall, who appeared in the tryout of “Be Your Age” as a member of the resident company last summer at the Lakewood The- atre, Skowhegan,' Me., will make her Broadway bow in the same part . . . While Walter Alford is on the road as advance man for Ballet Theatre, Anne Sloper is associate to pressagent Bill Fields for the Playwrights Co. . . . Geral- dine Page to move uptown to Broadway in “Lily.” Joe Flynn, veteran advance man ahead of the touring “Country Girl,” is causing a minor sensation among acquaintances by sporting an obviously expensive hat. The usually not-so-natty p.a. clears up the mystery, however, by taking off the lid and revealing a fancy label in the lining reading, “Com- pliments of Kickback Printing Co.” Flynn • identifies himself in his correspondence as “pressagent for Joe Flynn.” Bcnay Venuta will costar with Helen Gallagher and Thomas Mitchell in “Hazel Flagg,” musical version of the film, “Nothing Sa- cred” . . . Rodgers,& Hammerstein will break in their new musical, as yet untitled, in Cleveland next April 20, with a Boston tuneup to follow. Idea of the midwest try- out is to stimulate legit interest there . . . Actor-director Paul Crab- tree and industrialist Frank J. Hale will partner in the production of “Lily,” by Vina Delmar . . . James W. Stubbs, Jr., has taken over as stage manager of the Jessica Tan- dy - Hume Cronyn company of “Fourposter ” currently in Chicago. He succeeds Marjorie Winfield, who left to marry mag writer John Philip Calm on the Coast . . , Kathleen Freeman drew the Nancy Walker role in VLook, Ma, I’m Dancin’,” which gets its Coast bow Nov. 26 at the 'Players Ring Thea- tre. Jimmy Thompson has been set f6r the top male role. Rodney Millington, managing di- . rector of Spotlight, casting direc- i lory for the British stage and screen, is due Nov. 11 in New York on the Queen Elizabeth to catch the new season’s Broadway shows and renew contacts With producers, directors and actors, etc., who visit London. He’ll remain in the U. S. about a month. Joe Ayres, secretary to Horace Armistead, Met Opera stage ad- ministrator, appeared last week at One Fifth Ave., N. Y., as a singer for a week, after winning a song contest. William Warfield flying in from London, where he’s lead in “Porgy and Bess,” to keep a long-standing single concert date with th,e Phil- adelphia Orchestra in Worcester tomorrow (Thurs.) night ...Vera Zorina to be Jeanne d’Arc and Raymond Gerome the Frere Dom- inique, for the two speaking roles in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s presentation of Honegger’s choral work, “Jeanne d’Arc Au Boucher,” with chorus and soloists, at Car- negie Hall. N.Y., Nov. 18. John Gutman, Met Opera assist- ant manager, speaking at Queens College today (Wed.) on “Opera in English.” Metop Boffo Year Seen; $1,500,000 Subscription Coin; 1,000 New Names Indications point to a sock year as the Metropolitan Opera preps bow of its 68th season Nov. 10. In face of declining biz elsewhere (in mercantile fields, for instance), the Met’s subscription list (its b.o. backbone) is up over last season, with 1,000 more names added and $100,000 more in revenue. Season lGoks better than last (which was a good one); more people appar- ently .are liking opera, and Met audiences are getting bigger. New regime of Rudolf Bing, now in his third season as general manager, seems to be taking public hold. Subscriptions for the ’52-’53 sea- son (they’re not all in yet) may run to $1,500,000. For 1950-51, Bing’s first year as manager, subscription sales totaled $1,034,785, or just under 709o of capacity. For ’51-’52, they increased to $1,355,210, or over 70%. Current season tabs have already passed the $1,451,800 mark. Where there were 7,311 sub- scribers in ’50-’51, and 7,638 last year, there are already 8,613 this season, or 1,000 increase in a year. Both in number of subscriptions and in coin, according to Francis Robinson, boxoffice and subscrip- tion head, the Met has again broken its own record of last season. As for opening night Nov. 10, at great- ly advanced prices, ticket demand is even greater than last year; en- tire orchestra was subscribed foe by last Saturday (18), and only nine of the 34 boxes (at $450 a box) were left to sell. The Met has upped its regular night top this year from $7.50 to $8. Prices have gone up generally, 10c to 50c, depending on seat loca- tion. YALE DRAMA GETAWAY New Haven, Oct. 21. Yale Drama Dept.’s 1952-53 semester unfolds Its first major production Nov. 5. Titled, “The New World,” play is the work of Arthur Kelley, third-year student in the depart- ment.