Variety (October 1952)

m LITERATI PfittiEfr Wednesday, Octol>cr 29, 1952 Literati . Never a Dull Moment Walter Winchell made news three ways over the weekend as (1) his ABC-(TV and AM) gabcast screening of affidavits alleging President Truman once was a mem- ber of the Ku Klux Klan brought White House denials; (2) his feud with WMCA (N.Y.) gabber Barry Gray nearly erupted into a fistic embroglio; and (3) the N. Y. Post and its editor, James A. Wechsler, formally instituted libel proceed- ings against WW. On his telecast Winchell ex- hibited seven photostatic copies of affidavits charging the President with KKK links. These were categorically denied by a Presi- dential sec etary. The Gray-Winchell near-encoun- ter, which was divergently re- ported by the columnist on his ABC broadcasts and in his N. Y. Daily Mirror piece Monday (27) and by Gray on his WMCA show, involved Jack O’Brian, N. Y. Jour- nal-American (Hearst) AM-TV col- umnist. Winchell said that Gray ran away from an encounter with I O’Brian. Gray’s version is that as ; he was leaving a friend* Peppy Weiner, at 4:15 a.m. Saturday on East 55th St., he heard shouts but didn’t know they were directed at him. The Post-Wechsler suits vs. Winchell also are directed against ABC his Gruen Watch sponsors, Hearst Corp. and King Features, Plaintiffs are repped by former U. S. District Judge Simon H. un- kind. Gache-Morse Adlai Ads N. Y. Times on Friday (24) ran a seven-column ad signed by Mac Gache and Joseph L. Morse, head- ed “Why doesn’t the Times switch its support to Governor Steven- son?” Ad asked the Times edi- tors. “When have you ever before sacrificed principle to political ex- pediency—and in so large a de- gree'?” It also called on Times readers to “besiege our favorite newspaper” with cards, letters and wires urging a reversal of the Times’ support for Gen, Eisenhow- er. On Sunday the paper reported in its news columns > that 2,120 let- ters and wires had been received, 1,978 favoring the ad’s views. Signers of the ad are toppers of the Unicorn Press, although the firm wasn't mentioned. Address given in ad was that of the firm. Ad followed by one day a Times edit on “A Choice Reaffirmed.” Edit chided Gov. Steivenson on not taking a clear position on For- mosa; following day, Times printed a correction, citing a Sept. 8 inter- view in which the Dem candidate had stated his view on Formosa. The ad battle spread yesterday (Tues.) when Gache-Morse ran a half-pager again urging a Times switch. A full page ad reprinting the Times’ edit was signed by Mil- ton Lacks, of the Normandie Hat Shop. Times reported it got 200 protests following Sen. McCarthy’s broadcast Monday night. THE NEW NATION-WIPE/ \BEST SELLER wr ,V\*AV iv. 4 s i * EWSMaa::--" m ■ V Mi urn jfHf| Because in her book “ 4 the only volcano ever dressed by Mainbocher’ pulls up a chair, lets down her hair, and in a frank, biting, hilarious conversational tone lays bare a life lived tO the hilt. THE FUNNIEST, FRANKEST autobiography to appear within this reviewer’s memory.”— Chicago Tribune With 24 pages of photographs At all bookstores * $3.95 HARPER & BROTHERS Harper’s and ‘Tallulah’ Harper & Bros., which caused some raised eyebrows in the pub lishing fraternity over its fancy deal for the rights to the Tallulah Bankhead autobiog, is proving that it didn’t get. on a financial hook. Some other firms felt that Harper’s, by contracting to pay $30,000 (over a five-year span) for “Tallulah,” without getting first serial or film rights, was taking a longshot gamble. However, with sales of the tome passing 70,000 and the book firmly established in the best-seller charts (it’s No. 1 this week', Har- per’s is in the clear. recently for a six-week stay, in which he’s o.o/ing contemporary Japanese writing with possibility of translation and reprint in the U. S. Strauss, who was there in 1945 as chief of the books and maga- zine analysis branch of SCAP’s Civil Information and Education Section, will also gather material for articles for the Atlantic Month- ly and New Yorker. Doubleday Fetes Adams With Walter I. Bradbury, the publisher’s managing editor, on hand, Doubleday tossed a recep- tion (cocktail party) in Min '.e- apolis for Cedric Adams, news- paper columnist and radio per- sonality, on occasion' of publica- tion date of his first book, “Poor Cedric’s Almanac;” Book started out with a 7,500 ad- vance sale in the Twin Cities alone. Int’l Theatre Mags Theatre Arts Books is taking over U. S. distribution of two in ternational mags on the theatre. One is World Theatre; other is Opera, Ballet, Music Hall in the World. Both are published in Paris under aegis of International Theatre Institute, which is part oi the UN Economic Social and Cul- tural Organization. Both are quar- terlies, the former in its second year and the latter just launched, (Incidentally, the journals are not connected with International Thea- tre, a private venture announced for publication in N. Y.) Mags are printed in two lan- guages, English and v French, and edited by the Belgian actor-editor, Rene Hainaux, with aid of an in- ternational committee, with ITI centres now established, in 26 countries forming an advisory board and submitting much of the material. ANTA is the U. S. cen- tre and Rosamond Gilder, consul-^ tant to TAB, is a‘’member of the editorial committee of ITI. Mags are full size, on coated stock and include a large number of photos. Mag Photog Code American Society of Magazine Photographers, an unalTiliated union composed mainly of free- lance photogs (although a few mag staffers are among them),, is. pres- ently engaged in negotiating a code of minimum standards on as- signments with various mags. C 9 de embraces such provisions as mini- mum rates, all expenses paid (for models, processing prints, etc.), re- tention of copyright, credits, ar- bitration, re-use problem, color rates as against black-and-white, etc. One of the basic clauses sought is that a photog on assignment get either $100 a day and expenses, or the page photog rate, whichever is higher. Resale rights is also prominent, with price still left open. Already in effect is an agree- ment on a freelancer’s stock pic- ture file, with minimum pay for print set at $25. Code will have some interesting effects. Mags that now permit other publication to reproduce pix used without fee to the photogs, will have to let the latter do the dickering, presumably for some payment. Long-range effect is seen, too., in that freelancers at present not members of the so- ciety may have to join the union, to avoid non-union hassles. here have not already reported or knowq. Glamorized accounts of wartime defeats are popular. Ex-Col. Masa- nobu Tsuji has written two books in a series about his adventures as chief of staff in Manchuria, Guadalcanal, Burma and Singa- pore. One of these, “Underground Escape,” has been translated into English and published here. Other entries in this field are by former Kamikaze pilots, submarine skip- pers and high naval officers. Iwanami Publishing House lias the largest stable of western writers which it translates and publishes. Its leading notion stars are Pearl Buck, John Dos Passos, William Faulkner and Vicki Baum. In drama, Eugene O’Neill and William Saroyan lead the play- wrights. American non-fiction pace setter is John Hersev’s “Hiro- shima,” closely followed by reports on nuclear progress by David E. Lilienthal. Bestselling European writers are non-fiction outputters like Italy's Ignazfb Silone, England’s econo- mist H. J. Laski and German his- torian Max Weber. Man- most No Like Fanny Brice Blog? Coast reports are that Mrs. Ray Stark (Frances Brice) and Billy Brice, children of the late Fanny Brice, are not too pleased with Norman Katkov’s biography which Alfred Knopf will publish shortly. The first of four parts is cur- rently serializing in Ladies Home Journal, and it’s this kickoff chap- ter which vexed the heirs. It makes out the comedienne as having a wild, unbridled childhood in Brooklyn. . Guardian Switchover Recent decision of the Chester Guardian. Britain’s famous liberal daily, to put news on its front page for the first time in its 130 years’ history, has met with mixed readership reaction. In the north of England, where the Guardian is published, there is an adverse reaction in the proportion of two to one. In London and the south there’s a nine to one vote in avor. Manchester Guardian, with a sale of 130,000 daily, circulates largely in the London region and the changeover was introduced in bid to extend, its readership throughout the country. The Lon- don Times is now the only major British daily without news on its front page. Doubleday’s ‘L. L. Day’ Doubleday is inserting a fort- nightly ad in Saturday Review in the form of a column on the firm’s titles and other informal comment on reading, writing and publishing in general. Author is Pyke John- son, Jr., publicity manager. It’s signed by “L. L. Day,” pun- ning on Doubleday. Crouse Cops Medal Russel Crouse, co-author of “Life With Father” and “Call Me Madam,” along with illustrator Stevan Dohanos, were awarded Oliioana Career Medals for out- standing work in their respective fields Friday (24) in Columbus. Awards, the tops in a list of cita- tions' to •Ohioim i s"iiT ~ther iiteTirry and art fields were given out by the Martha Kinney Cooper Ohio- ana Library Assn. Crouse, a native of Findlay, and Dohanos, who was born in Lorain, were present for the awards ses- sion. ‘GWTVV’ Jap Bestseller “Gone With the Wind,” texts on television, and “now it can be t6ld” accounts of wartime and oc- cupied, Japan head the list of best- sellers in current Japanese pub- lishing concerns. A new edition of the Mhrgaret Mitchell classic has just hit the stands with 15,000 copies. Current release of the Metro film has hypoed sales to .about 2,000,000 copies, making it the all-time No. 1 bestseller here. More Japanese apparently have read the novel in translation than Americans have in the original. About 1,000.000 copies were sold here in 1937-1940. but practically none in 1941-45 when it was suppressed. Television technical ‘ tracts lead in books imported from abroad. Mostly shipped by air, these texts cost three times the normal price Busy Shulman Max Shulman leaves Nov. 12 from Westport, Conn., for Holly- wood on his third 1952 Metro screen-writing assignment, com- pany having exercised an option on his screen treatment of an origi- nal yarn and commissioned him to do the scripting. Shulman, who has been pacted by Doubleday to deliver his fifth novel next year, also co-authored an original story which U-I pur- chased during his last Hollywood visit several months ago. CHATTER Dwight Taylor finished his first novel, “The Pink Cloud.” James Boyle, one-time RKO flack, now doing freelance pub- licity. Pat Flynn Rollings resigned from BHG staff to join Household as decorating editor. Mark Curtis is editing Reno Pace, a new' Nevada monthly which continues the Reno Fundial. “Art News Annual.” distributed for the Art Foundation, Inc., by Simon & Schuster, to be issued Oct. 31. In the shakeup at Good House- keeping, department editors Jules von Sternberg and Helen Sells are leaving. Rosalind Russell, who costars with Paul Douglas and Marie Wil- son in RKO’s “Never Wave at a Wac,” in town to plug the picture. Edw’in Miller, entertainment edi- tor of Seventeen mag. did film re- views for November Theatre Arts, filling in for vacationing Robert Hatch. Pauline Reynard, formerly with Cue, Magazine Digest and Parade, has become associate editor of Brief magazine, Martin Goodman publication. “Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell: Their Correspondence,” edited by Alan Dent, and covering period from 1899 to 1940, to be published by Knopf, Nov. 10. Carl Brisson is working. on his memoirs, to be published in Den- mark by Westermann. He has also made a series of records of old and new numbers for Nordislc Poly- plion. Herman G. Weinberg, currently American correspondent for Ca- hiers du Cinema in Paris, named to similar chores for Rome’s Bi- anco E Nero and Vienna’s Film- kunst. Bob White, formerly L.A. Times Sunday ed, recently appointed ed of Trailer Life. Among new con- tributors to book are Buddy Twiss, Hedda Hopper, and Erie Stanley Gardner., Mort Green, of the' Green-Fos- ter writing team on Tallulah Bank- head’s radio and TV shows, has an article on Miss Bankhead in the up- coming issue of Esquire titled “My Mother Vs. Tallulah.” Max Newton, Variety's Mon- treal nvugg and prez of Montreal Men’s Press Club, flew’ to London Monday (27) for a week, as guest of the London Press Club for lat- ter’s 70th annual dinner. Capt. Kenneth S. Giniger ex- pected to be released from the Army this week and will return to his post as editor in chief of Pren- tice Hall. Howard E. Goodkind, executive editor, had been filling in during Giniger’s service stint. Lee Ettelson, who has been edi- tor of the Seattle Post-Intelligen- Strauss’ Jap O. O, Alfred A. Knopf editor In chief Harold Strauss arnyed. in Tokyo in technological books, which make up 70 °c of the imported vol- umes, are radio, telecommunica- tions and oil. Last year, Japan purchased from overseas nearly $3,000,000 worth of books, a triple increase over the year before. Most successful of the “now it can be told” accounts is transla- tion of Mark Gayn’s “Japan Diary,” published in the U. S. in 1948. A tw'o volume edition, con- taining Gayn’s critical views of the U. S. occupation of Japan, has sold several hundred thousand copies. Other volumes undressing the occupation are “The Constitution Was Made in Two Weeks,” making it clear that the Japanese Consti- tution, now’ under heavy attack, was drafted by General MacArthur and forced on the Japanese; “The Most Secret History of Japan Un- der the Occupation” and “A Secret Inside Story of the Tokyo Trials,” neither of which contains anything which American correspondents and still sell three times as fast as of the Chicago Hcrald-American. He replaces Edw r ard C. Lapping, who resigned to join a manufac- turing and merchandising syndi- cate. Robert M. Jones has been named managing editor of Better Homes & Gardens, Des Moines. He was formerly associate editor in tlie building department of the maga- zine’s staff. He succeeds Hugh Curtis, who became editor recently to replace J. E. Ratner, resigned. Henry Anatole Grunwald, senior editor of Time and son of the late Alfred Grunwald, middle-Euro- pean librettist with who Em- merich Kalman collaborated on “Countess Maritza” and “Savi,^ l^mong other distinguished 9?' ereltas, sparked the worldwide celebration of the Hungarian* American composer’s 70th ann versary-’ Kalman is now resmins in Paris with his wife, Lih. aI son, Charles, latter himself songsmith.