Variety (October 1952)

LEGITIMATE Wednesday, October 22, 1952 af JT ■ rT JKA&IETY Equity, Bam Mgrs. Huddling Weekly Though No Official Status Given Weekly meetings are being held by Actors Equity representatives and a group of strawhat managers to discuss conditions and possible changes in the rules covering stock. The union is still not formally recognizing the barn operators’ organization, the Stock Managers Assn., but is including a number of the leading members in the confabs. Over a dozen silo managers at- tended the first session with union officials and members of its stock committee, of which Gerald Savory is chairman. They and the others of the 27 producers have also been asked to the subsequent meetings, at which all points of view will be explored. Meanwhile, the SMA had its first fall membership meeting last night (Tues.) at the Algonquin Hotel, N. Y. Equity officials deny Charges by Herbert L. Kneeter, manager of the Norwich (Conn.) Summer Theatre, that they have asked "hand-picked” or “friendly” pro- ducers to the meetings. They ex- plain that they made a point of not inviting Kneeter, who they say tends to be disruptive at such con- fabs and to take over by monopoliz- ing the floor. They say they also omitted him from the list of those asked to similar meetings last spring, but that he came uninvited and turned the discussion into a wrangle that prevented any general agreement. Managers who attended or sent representatives to the initial meet- ing recently included Manuel Davis (Asbury'Park, N. J.), Gail Hillson (Binghamton, N. Y.), Lee K. Falk (Boston), Lewis Harmon |Clinton, Conn.), Richard Aldrich (Cape Cod), Philip Barry : Jr. (East Hamp- ton, L. I.), Milton Stiefel (Ivory- ton, Conn.), Barton Emmet (Mt. Kisco, N. Y.), Theron Bamberger (Philly and New Hope, Pa.), Ken- neth Banghart (Olney, Md.), Thomas G. Ratcliffe (Sea Cliff, L. I.), Virginia Franke Davis (Skaneateles, N. Y.), Rea John (Continued on page 60) Petrillo Refuses Stay Of Local $02’$ Ruling Vs. Dans’ Legit Interests James C. Petrillo, American Federation of Musicians prez, has twice now turned down request from Meyer Davis for a stay of judgment on a N. Y. Local 802 rul- ing, forbidding musicians from playing in a Broadway show in which another member has an in- vestment. On first refusal last week, band- leader Davis, who is a heavy legit investor, asked for reconsideration, on grounds that an emergency ex- isted. Some legit producers, now financing new shows, couldn’t ac- cept his investment, he said. Petrillo, however, answered the’ second personal appeal yesterday (Mon.) negatively, stating it was a matter for the international execu- tive board to decide. He promised Davis matter would be rushed through, however. Davis now plans filing an appeal within the next two weeks to the international board. M. FERRER PREPS 4-PLAY TOUR SERIES FOR TEXAS Dallas, Oct. 21. Mel Ferrer has worked out plans' here for a four-play subscription series with R. J. O’Donnell, whose Interstate Theatres woiijd play the shows, and Charles It. Meeker, Jr., managing director of State Fair Auditorium, who would co-produce with Ferrer. Ferrer’s theatre-for-Texas plan calls for touring plays that will be produced and opened in Dallas, cither at the Interstate Circuit’s downtown Melba, with 1,800 seats, or in the fairgrounds auditorium, with a 4,283 capacity. Actual dates are still uncertain. Two stagings due are “The Moon Is Blue,” with Diana Lynn, David Niven and Scott Brady, and “Strike A Match,” headed by Eva Gabor and Pat O’Brien. Conferring here last week with Meeker, O’Donnell and N. Y. at- torney Howard Reinheimer, Ferrer announced his Southwestern play tour, which may tour, which may start by Christmas. Show Biz Cavalcade For Musicians Fund 20th Anni Musicians Emergency Fund, headed by Mrs. Lytle Hull as prez and Fritz Kreisler as board chair- man, will hold its 20th anniversary celebration dinner and cavalcade at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, N. Y., Oct. 31. Program will be devoted to scenes from productions created by the Fund in legit, opera and ballet since 1932. Produced and directed by Felix Brentano, writ- ten by Bella Spewack and narrated by Eddie Albert, program will in- clude the City Center Ballet Orchestra, under Leon Barzin; Westminster Choir; Cesare Siepi, Jarmila Novotna, Andre Eglevsky, Melissa Hayden, Brian Sullivan, Wilma Spence, Virginia MacWat- ters, Ernest McChesney and Arn- old Eidus, and William G. McKnight as emcee. Musical high- lights will include scenes from “Rosalinda,” "Merry Widow” and “Lady Macbeth of Mzensk.” 40G Stock Setup For Chi Area Chicago, Oct. 21. The. past several highly success- ful strawhat seasons in this area have led to the formation of a winter stock company. Showcase Theatre, Inc., in suburban Evans- ton. It’ll be Roused in the Stadium Theatre, a 1,200-seat pic house closed since June 30, currently being remodeled. First production is scheduled for Nov. 18. Showcase will be Equity, on the same basis as strawhat—a mini- mum of six Equity resident players under season contract, and not more than 30% non-Equity performers in any one production. Hope Summers, radio, TV and legit actress, is production topper. Carl Stohn is assistant producer. Film actor-director Fay Roope is set as director. Most of the resi- dent company will be draWn from the Chi radio-TV-stock talent pool. Few, if any, names from outside Chicago will be used. Two-day preliminary auditions will begin Oct. 28, when Roope arrives from the Coast. Also, plans call for a small training school in conjunc- tion with the theatre, with a maxi- mum of 12 students. Showcase will run -six nights weekly. Each production will run two weeks, after a two-week re- hearsal. During the summer sea- son, a “film festival” will be held in the theatre. The venture is capitalized at $40,000. Miss Summers holds half of the stock, and the remaining $20,000 is held by 20 persons. 'Guys’ to Quit Chicago After 38:Week Run Chicago, Oct. 21. Having extended its local run a week because of a booking jam, “Guys and Dolls” is now set to leave the Shubert here Nov. 8 to resume its tour. That will give it a 38-week engagement, easily top- ping “Kiss Me, Kat§,” but not near the 67-week mark set by “South Pacific.” After leaving here, “Guys” will play a flock of new stands, includ- ing a few split-weeks, and also making repeat appearances in sev- eral key cities. It plays a one-week engagement in Milwaukee, opening Nov. 10, then goes to Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Toronto (repeat), Cleveland (repeat), Pitts- burgh, Detroit (repeat), Louisville, Nashville-Memphis and St. Louis. That will take it to next March 21. Doom Lima Opera Houie Lima, O., Oct. 21. Faurot Opera House here will be razed in January to make room for a S. S. Kresge store. Opera House, which had operated from 1882 until 1935, was once a top legit-vaude stop in the midwest. Lima Assn, of Commerce is propping an “Open House” fete to .commemorate. the razing. Philly’s Midtown Arena Bow at Academy Foyer Philadelphia, Oct. 21. Arena-style theatricals will make their midtown Philadelphia bow Nov. 19, in the Foyer of the Academy of Music, with Tennessee Williams’ “Summer and Smoke.” Foyer Theatre will be run by Theodore Mann, Jose Tuintero and Emilie Stevens, and will be fash- ioned after their Circle-in-the- Square Theatre, in Greenwich Vil- lage, N. Y. Betty Miller and Mi- chael Sheehan will have the lead roles. Guinness Modern Dress 'Hamlet’ Slated to Preem Canadian Bard Fest Toronto, Oct. 21. With Alec Guinness slated to do “Hamlet” and “Julius Caesar” next summer, plus Tyrone Guthrie of the Old Vic as producer, the start of an annual Shakespearian Festi- val at Stratford, Ontario, seems to be set, this to be financially backed by a group of local businessmen, plus an additional city fathers’ grant. “Hamlet” opener will be done in modern dress, a repeat of the former successful Old Vic pro- duction in London, in which Guin- ness played the title role and Guthrie directed. With British guest-stars supple- menting Canadian casts, plan is to present large-scale outdoor Shakes- pearian productions on format of the Malvern Festival, with these to be staged in the mid-town park of the Avon River gardens at Strat- ford, similar to the setup of the namesake city in England. Plans also call for the immediate construction of an Elizabethan- style theatre, with audience sitting around three sides of the stage in the Shakespearian tradition. Finan- cial syndicate’s venture also in- cludes hotels and motels as an annual American tourist lure, simi- lar to the Malvern event. Guinness and Guthrie, with Tanya Moiselwitsch as ^scenic de- signer, have agreed to come over for the "Hamlet” and "Julius Caesar” productions, according to Tom Pat- terson, chief of the Stratford civic committee, and responsible for the Canadian undertaking. (Guthrie was here in August to study the Brill-Kamsler 1,6^0-seater theatre in-the-round setup of Melody Fair in Dufferin Park, Toronto, and is expected to adapt some of those stage technicalities in connection with the seating arrangement for the installation at Stratford). Guinness, now appearing in Lon- don with Diana Churchill in “Under the Sycamore Tree,” is understood to have turned down a film com- mitment in Britain in order to ap- pear in Canada next summer. AUSSIES BUY ‘MADAM’; EVIE HAYES IN LEAD J. C. Williamson Theatres of Australia, through its N. Y. agent, Dorothy Stewart, has bought Aus- sie rights to “Call Me Madam,” and will produce the Irving Berlin mu- sical there early next year. Evie Hayes, wife of Will Mahoney, will play the Ethel Merman lead role. Miss Stewart will probably do the rest of the casting of principals in N. Y. Sets and costumes will be done in Aussie. Miss Hayes originated the title role in Berlin’s “Annie* Get Your Gun” for Williamson in Australia, in a production that ran over three years. She went back this summer for a four-week revival of‘“^nnie” in Melbourne, and will return for another revival in Sydney end of the year. Then she’ll preem “Ma- dam,” probably in Sydney rather than Melbourne, as Williamson has a longrun hit currently in Mel- bourne in “South Pacific.” Lenore Tobin to Marry Book Publishers* Rep Theatre party agent Lenore Tobin, who also publishes Stubs, a booklet showing the capacity and seating layout of New York thea- tres, will be married Oct. 31 to [ Meyer Schattner, a book publish- ers’ representative. The couple met several years ago when Schattner tried to buy the Stubs. When he was unable to purchase the annual publication, he became its rep and subsequently got it into bookstores in various cities, reportedly quadrupling its sale. He’s now listed as “sole dis- tributor.” Unorthodox Coin Deal on Miller Show As Aid to Lo, the Poor Producer i Touring Martha Wright Getting N.Y. ‘SP’ Bing Although Cloris Leachman is subbing for Martha Wright as femme lead in the Broadway edi- tion of “South Pacific” for the next three weeks while Miss Wright plays the same role in the touring company in her native northwest, the billing in the ads, program and house boards will re- main unchanged. Miss Wright is still listed as costar with George Britton, while Miss Leachman’s presence is indicated only in a slip in the program and by an- nouncement from the stage before the opening curtain. Explanation is that the switch is not actually a cast replacement, but merely a temporary substitu- tion. Since the change is for only three weeks, the management pre- fers not to spend.. the money to have the house boards repainted and picture blowups made. Latter would be required under Actors Equity rules if the move were permanent. Road Tour Mapped For Bennett ‘April’ Constance Bennett who toured in stock and on the strawhat cir- cuit last spring and summer in George Batson’s “I Found April,” will partner with Kenneth Bang- hart in a road presentation of the comedy this winter, with herself in the starring role again. Plan is to open around Jan. 1 and play about six weeks of key city stands, then go to Chicago for a run. On basis of critical and boxoffice reaction in the latter town. Miss Bennett and Banghart will decide whether to bring the play to Broadway. Warren Munsell will be general manager of the production, which is budgeted at $40,000 and will break even at something -under $12,000 weekly gross. An undis- closed name director is being con- sidered to stage the show, and most of the cast used in the silo tour will probably be retained. Banghart and Munsell are still planning a Broadway production of “Cornin’ Through the Rye,” play.-with-music by the late War- ren Munsell, Jr., which was tried out last summer at the Olney (Md.) Summer Theatre, of which TV-radio announcer - commentator Banghart was co-producer with Evelyn Freyman, with young Mun- sell as business manager. Approxi- mately $40,000 of the required $100,000 financing is pledged for the “Rye” production. Bizet Season Seen For ‘Carmen’; Lotsa Versions Opera department of Boosey & Hawkes, music agents and pub- lishers, has'added three works in English of interest to legiters, in the Howard. Dietz-Garson Kanin version of “Fledermaus”; Benja- min Britten’s “Let’s Make An Opera,” seen briefly on Broadway last season, and the Virginia Card- George Houston libretto of Bizet's “Carmen.” Last-named is 'being offered for production in three styles, as a full-length opera, in opera comique or arena style, and streamlined or concert version. Leopold Stokowski used the first full-blown opera to open his Hollywood Bowl season; the arena form had its first produc- tion at Pat Hurley’s St. Petersburg Operetta last April, and the con- cert unit is being readied by Miss Card herself for a tour of U. S. and Canadian concert halls next season. She toured it briefly last season. Sadler** LLS* Return Sadler’s Wells Ballet will return to the U. S. in the fall of 1953 for a coast-to-coast tour booked by Sol Hurok, American manager of the troupe. This will mark third U. S. visit of the company. Tour will be launched in September, '53 at the Met Opera House in New York. Kermit Bloomgarden, on his forthcoming production of the new Arthur Miller play, temporarily titled “Those Familiar Spirits,” will be his own general manager at a salary of $200 a week. That will apply until the show’s produc- tion cost is recouped, after which Bloomgarden will revert to the standard setup of a share of the profits. Another unusual angle on the “Spirits” financial arrangement is that Jed Harris’ slice of the profits as director, believed to be 15%, will be absorbed entirely by Bloom- garden, instead of being borne equally with the backers, as was done in the case of “Death of a Salesman,” on which stager Elia Kazan got 15% of the net in addi- tion to his regular royalty based on the gross. The Miller play is budgeted at $75,000, including bonds, with no provision for overcall. Boris Aronson is set to design the scenery and Mildred Dunnock and Maureen Stapleton are prospects for the cast. Growing Complaint Although the arrangement for Bloomgarden to receive a salary as his own general manager is un- orthodox, it is intended to meet a growing complaint in producer ranks. That is that under present economic conditions in legit, it is becoming more and more difficult to make a living as a producer. With even hit shows taking many months to pay off, the producer frequently has to wait almost in- definitely to share in the proceeds, and in many cases may make noth- ing out of a show that pays sub- (Continued on page 60) Segal & Cowles Audition Puppet Pic at New Haven For $200,000 Angel Coin - New Haven, Oct. 21. Following a plan similar to the one they have utilized in promot- es coin -for stage productions, Ben Segal and Chandler Cowles, in association with Michael Meyer- berg, held an audition here last week for purposes of financing a setup involving a new puppet-type of animated cartoon. Called Aladdin, Inc., setup Is an outcropping ofra new kind of pun- pet which Meyerberg, after i4 years of experimentation and a $500,000 personal investment, is now ready to market. Audition consisted, of demon- stration of puppets, whose features can be altered manually or by electrically-controlled dial system, also a runoff of film showing pup- pets in action. Enterprise is now being sup- ported via manufacture of film commercials, which draw around $5,500 for a nine-minute pic. Plan is to produce a full lenglh feature, “Aladdin,” hence the pitch for the added financing, which is esti- mated around $200,000. Audition elicited considerable in- terest here and brought immedi- ate response from a moderate list of investors. COAST EQUITY SEEKING LIBRARY THEATRE PLAN Hollywood, Oct. 21. Quarterly meeting last week of the local membership of ’ Actors Equity voted to ask the union coun- cil in Ne\v York to okay a project here similar to the Equity Library Theatre. The gathering also suggested the expansion of the Coast ad- visory board from nine to 15 mem- bers. Other moves passed at the session included a request for the council to empower Coast repre- sentative Charles Meredith to in- augurate new little theatre con- tract terms and scales for a three- month period. Members also heard a talk by Ralph Wade, public information rep of the California State Dept, of Employment, who drew criti- cism when he revealed that it was solely his decision that thesps re- hearsing without pay are not en- titled to unemployment compen- sation, explaining that rehearsals constitute merely preparation for work. Equityites branded the ac- tion unfair and asked reconsidera- tion by the state.