Variety (January 1953)

Wednesday* January 14, 1953 FICTUBES 15 Amusement Stock Quotations ( IV. Y. Stock Exchange) Week Ending Tuesday (13) $40,000-a-year assistant to Eric Johnston when the latter took over the MPAA presidency in 1945, then going still further to become exec- ! utive v.p. of the association. Eisenhower Inaugural 195’2-’53 High Low 8*2 33 32 10"s 8 41 T s 11*2 3-8 21 1 4 26's 23 1 4 3 Vi 3V& 3U 9 3 4 10-8 11*2 11 57 68 12-4 40! 4 39-4 13’ 2 9 '3 48 18 1 i 5"’.y 30" 8 36 -3 29” s 47 8 4U 5 1 * 10 " 8 14-3 21 J 4 14»4 65 IS' 4 88 1 2 ABC CBS, "A" ... CBS, “B” ... Col. Pic. .... Decca Eastman Edk Weekly Vol. in 100s . 69 . 52 . 23 . 53 55 161 Loew's ...... 324 Nat’I Thea .. 319 Paramount... 80 Philco 107 American 19-4 3-4 27-4 3 1 * RCA 496 KKO Piets. .. 259 RKO Theats.. 91 Bepnblic .... 52 Rep., pfd. ... 23 20tta-F3t 143 U. Par. Th... 144 Unlr. Pic. ... 52 Univ„ pfd. .. 190 Warner Bros 82 Zenith 87 Stock Exchange 15 Dn Mont ... 147 2 a i Monogram .. 25 20*8 Technicolor.. 67 2 l i Trans-Lnx ... 9 Weekly High 10*2 39t 2 39*4 12-4 9-h 46!« 12-4 4'*8 2o 36 l a 29 4 -h 3‘s 37« 11*4 14t« 14i s 14-3 61 a 4 133 4 83 1 p»0 / i -4 2*8 Weekly Low 9-s 38 ‘4 38’* 2 121 *> 9 ! 4 4o l 8 12*4 41.8 27-3 34-8 27 1 2 4 334 33 4 11 13*2 1334 14' 8 61 133a 79i 4 16 :i 3 2"a .8 8 Tues. Close -.8 J 4 l.» Net. Change for week 9-a — 3**4 + 38i 2 __ 123; 93 h 45'h 12".s 4-s 2?t2 351 a 27‘a 4 33 4 37* IPs 137 M 137 lS 14*8 — *8 61 — 14 133s- — 1 2 80 a i —li 4 Continued,, from P4?e 1 + ” 1 4 — ‘4 — Si -3 —13 l — -f- 1 S + l* " ,8 Loew’s Salaries Continued from page 5 25 : 2- 17 27 S 25" s 2",8 — U Bid Over-the-Connter Securities Cinecolor ’. «. l x 4 Cinerama 4*2 Chesapeake Industries tPathe) 3 m C. A. Theatres 4 l 2 Walt Disney 6 l 2 (Quotations furnished by Dreyfus & Co.) 4— : Ask 1"’4 5^2 41 -, 514 7*2 + l * + *8 London Cafes Continued from page 1 two seasons, has been inked for a return date. The Bagatelle has set Hermione Gingold as star for this peak season. Miss Gingold played the Bagatelle the latter part of last year. Another major booking at the Cafe cle Paris involves Carl Bris- son. who has been signed for six week*, being set to open the fall season. Brisson appeared at the j cafe last year when he \vas twice [ dience they voiced their displeas held over to play a continuous i ure to him ! were ushered into a cold, damp cell with iron bars, no chairs, tables, hangers, mirrors or heat. “Knowing the infamous history of Dachau and the inhuman atrocities perpetrated there and having close friends whose families were burned alive there—and then being given a cell with iron bars to dress in— this all had a sickening effect on me and on other members of the cast who voiced their loathing and displeasure at the surroundings.” Robbins reports that when other members of the cast noticed the preponderant German civilian au- • 1 But his salary remained at a stable $159,471. \ Rounding out the top-echelon | payroll were William F. Rodgers, I former veepee in charge of sales, j $110,271; veepee-treasurer Charles C. Moskowitz, $156,857; veepee Jo- seph R. Vogel, $156,857; veepee-, secretary-counsel Leopold Fried-' man, $130,714, and director Eugene , W. Leake with $25,600, Latter is ; also chairman of the audit-finance j committee and employees' retire- ment plan committee. Statistics show that all officers and directors as a group received $1,852,607 compared to the pre- vious year's $2,007,369. Coin paid for benefit of each person pursuant to retirement plan was $392,021 as against $393,334. While salaries pf the Loew's, Inc., officer echelon eased off per- ceptibly in the last fiscal year, com- pensation likely will fall even fur- ther in the current ('52-53> year. For sweeping pay cuts among ex- ecutive personnel were instituted by the company last year as part of an economy drive. Cuts apply only to salaries of $1,000 per week or more and van- in Size from 25% to 50*7. More- over, “fixed salary and percentage compensation” for -Scfrenck, Rubin, Mannix and veepee Benjamin Thau, among others, do not exceed $146,799. tl Freed Continued from page 3 ton Cross. Conrad Nagel, Ralph 1 plan to drop by just for a look-see. Bellamy, Tony Martin, Donald ' These include Anne Baxter and the O’Connor, Brian Sullivan, Marge Fred Brissons, latter will take time & Gower Champion; Guy Lombar- out from their New Haven tryout do Orch, New- York City Centre \ just for the sw-earing-in cere- Ballet, 53 “Rangerettes” from Kil- monies and parade. Others, like gore College, Texas. Efforts are be-; Ben Gage and Cyd Charisse. w ill ing made to add a couple of more i accompany their spouses, ulio are top comics such as Jimmy Durante. ‘ on the festival program. *l 9 b Hope and Abbott and Costello. 1 Top‘Network Represeniation Performers will appear twice— with so much at stake in the first at Uline’s Arena and later at proceedings, network representa- Loew s Capitol Theatre. The two. tion at the top level is even more with a total seating capacity of impressive. Company heads’ are about 9,500, are completely sold coming, not only for the show, but out. Ticket price is from $3 to $12 to keep an eye on the entire oper- per seat. - ation. NBC-RCA will have virtually Inaugural Ball: Eight bands are all its bosses on hand—Gen. David slated to play—Meyer Davis, Emil Sarnoff, Frank Folsom, Charles Coleman, ’Wayne King, Nobel Sis- Denny. Sydney Eiges, William sle, Guy Lombardo and two well * Hedges. Frank Jolliffe, as well as known D. C. aggregations, Barnee’s D. C. Y.P.’s Frank Russell and and Sidney’s. Also the U. S. Ma- Carleton Smith will all be here, rine Corps Band, Air Force Or- From the CBS comer will trek chestra. a 150-voice West Point William Paley, Adrian Murphy. Sig Cadet Choir, a 100-voice Negro Mickelson and Wells Church as choir. Lily Pons will sing, and well as D. C. Veep Earl Gammons, other performers will be Gladvs ABC reps will be Prexy Robert Swarthout. Eleanor Steber, Jean- Kininer. Alexander Stronach and ette MacDonald. Lauritz Melchior. Frank Marx. Mutual top brass rep- Eugene Conley and Brian Sullivan, resented by Pres. Thomas O'Neil, Emcees at the ball will be J* Glenn Taylor, Linus Travers, Milton Cross and Walter Pidgeon. ancl Benedict Gimbel. prexy of Other artists to be added. Tickets ;WTP. Philadelphia. Dr. DuM nt for the ball <available only by invi-; on hsnd iof Ms we ^, a \ on ® tation 1 are $24 per couple. Ball will f^ James Caddigan and Chris be in two locations, the D. C. Na-1 Whitting. This, cf course, docs not tional Guard Armory and the | include the long list of top new,- Georgetown L r . gymnasium. Musi- mcn an< ^ technicians from each cal units and entertainers will be shuttled between them. Inaugural Concert: Jeanette Mac- Donald, Yehudi Menuhin, James Melton. National Symph. Walter. Pidgeon will emcee and also deliver the narration for the Aaron Cop- „ land tone poem, “A Lincoln Por- or themselves Premium rates are trait.” Will take place at Consti-. iri:c P cr 510 of net weekly in- tution Hall. Not yet sold out. but , cor ^ e - Mew Insurance Continued from page 2 seven weeks. Other important cabaret dates set by the Cafe de Paris are Zoe Gail, who will be making her first public appearance since an auto accident 18 months ago; James Mc- Call. who recently arrived in Lorn don from America, and Peter Cava- nagrt. uho will follow Naunton Wavne, now current. Aside from Miss Gingold, the only other major booking set at the Bagatelle is Evelyn Knight* who has been engaged for a four- week run immediately after the Coronation period. The Colony and Astor are likely to follow suit and engage a top British name as headliner for the Coronation period. Already booked for these two Berkeley. Square niteries are Tony and Eddie, who \ After the show, Robbins^ re- ceived a visit in his dressing room from the e.-cort officer and the Dachau Executive Officer and was thanked for his part in the show, but again he raised the question of the civilian audience, pointing out that as a member of the Jew- ish faith “just the thought of be- ing in a place like this gives me a sickening feeling all over.” Claiming in his report to the Army that his conduct as an Amer- ican and an artist is beyond re- proach and that he has always con- ducted himself as a good will am- bassador for his country, Robbins pointed out that he had previously entertained troops in Japan, the Philippines, Korea, England, France Germany and the U. S. The company had toured under follow Tessie O’Shea, and Rose I the package title “Just For Kicks. Murphy, who opens in March. Ham- Morris, who operates the Colony and Astor, plans to visit It was booked through the London office of Music Corp. of America on terms in accordance with a con change in the tax laws giving ac- tors a more equitable tax deal . . . present glaring errors in the tax law must be rectified . . . we will fight any discriminatory removal.” Freed said the group seeks to see I what, if any, conclusions can be reached “and just what we may do about them.” Prexv Sol C. Sie- gel of the Screen Producers Guild said SPG plans a meeting to formu- late its policy on the questions, and same was stated by Screen Writers Guild. Among those at the com- mittee’s first meeting were Brewer, Freed, SAG reps, SWG prez Rich- ard Breen and Y. Frank Freeman, Paramount studio chieL Official AFL objections to pro- duction of pix overseas will be pre- sented by LATSE locals to the top labor committee of the A&>n, of Motion Picture Producers oil Thursday (15). Group will seek reassurances that an equitable formula will be worked out. Roy Brewer reiterated the union's stand that it doesn’t object to foreign shooting where the locale is essential to the story but he wants assurances foreign shoot- ing will be limited to “necessity.” probably will be. Tickets range from $4.80 to $12 apiece. Another type of policy covers Derfowners in vaudeville, niteries, television or radio- »no coverage is Inauguration Ceremonies at U.S.; ava ^j ; ,^ e for pictures, but Conti- h M « 4 A V . ■ . . . A, J, - ~ A. A 1 A A r ^ T A . 1 — Capitol: Eugene Conley, of Metro politan Opera, and Dorothy May nor will sing. In addition, the nent-d reportedly plans to work ; out rates*. Ra^es for this policy i involve a detailed computation Heizel or Clark Continued from pace 3 New York next month to line up * tract with the U. S. Armed Forces, hew names for his two spots.’ | On his return to London, Rob- The dual Piccadilly niteries, I bins made representations to MCA, Quaglino's and the Allegro Room, claiming salary for the balance of have completed their bookings three | his uncompleted contract- He said fhonths ahead, but have not yet set : he was urged to avoid litigation, their Coronation attraction. Cur- . rently they are featuring Viera, | who is in for a month’s engage- j ment. Sh .* will be followed by a ; newcomer to cabarets, British; vocalist Patricia Lancaster. Other S 'KuTfSiS't'“■ “ 01 irss","; tur.-ja sas.’s 1 Jsar «w» wsr - fcagements in the last year or so. The Quiet Man* Washington, Jan. 13. With the passing of Joyce t O'Hara, the MPAA has lost its “Quiet Man.” O’Hara was known to D. C. showmen, news corre- spondents and to many in Congress as one who got tilings done with a minimum of excitement. Extreme- ly modest, he avoided the spotlight and sidestepped kudos. Yet, his efforts on behalf of the picture industry extended successfully in many directions. He dealt with sev- eral Federal agencies, most notably the State and Commerce Depart- ments, and with the embassies of various foreign nations. He went abroad to help negotiate the Anglo- Yanks 30% Qnota Archin Robbins 1 } ~ Continue* from page 1 the company’s normal show which given, according to Robbins’ report to Wiesbaden, to an audi- ence which consisted mainly of german civilians. According to the rtist s statement, he quizzed the escort officer on whether civilians ere authorized and voiced his dis- P easure at their presence. The of- jeer reportedly stated he did not ^ he Position. Robbins as- 1e ,. would have accepted the bad he been informed: . - . , ia(;1 mar civilians were permitted. * American film pact of 1951. In hi v statement to Major Gerald | 0‘Hara, who came up from the at Wiesbaden, Robbins j newspaper ranks, climbed the lad- • • ireu that the male members [ dcr from his exec post at the U. S. *■ * ie troupe, 0n arrival at Dachau, * Chamber of Commerce to become Continued from page 5 Eady Plan if it is to be extended. Final decision will be made by the British’ Board of Trade on the basis of recommendations from the trade. The Eady Plan is financed through an increase in British ad- mission prices and has been vari- ously opposed by British exhibs. The Americans during the latter part of last year agreed to waive rights to the conversion of most of their Eady share for one year, with only the producers’ portion still convertible. Execs in N. Y. feel that British authorities will soon attempt a re- definition of what is a British pic- ture. Result of this would be that some American films made in Eng- land, and passed as quota pix, would no longer enjoy Eady con- tributions. There is also some doubt whether the British will re- instate dollar conversion from the Eady Plan at the $nd of the agree- ment year, Oct. 1, 1953. Original 1951 pact had guaranteed Ameri- can distribs convertibility of a min- imum of $4,000,000 and a maximum of $ 6 , 000,000 from Eady funds. There is a direct connection be- tween the Eady Plan and the quota since the original reasoning was that encouragement of British pro- duction through Eady money would permit eventual upward revision of the quota level. Choir of Defiance College, Defiance., on number of performances 0.. will sing before the ceremony, jr. lire d. period of time covered, at General Eisenhower’s specific e tc. request. the third policy approved by James C. Petrillo gave carte state; covering financial inter- blanche for musical groups to en- e5 t i n a production, is available to tertain cuffo. . , authors, directors, producers, back- Another situation was straight- ■ er* or anyone else with a monetary ened out last w'eek by George : stake in a show’ and would be pay- . Murphy, director of entertainment.* able‘in case the production closed acting on a suggestion from Orville i or laid off because of a star’s 111- Crouch, Loew’s rep in town. Rep-1 ness or accidents Such a policy is resentatives of the various film stu-f figured valuable for the trade since dies here and local showmen, who | it covers risk capital against loss had been mostly frozen out of the due to a star’s inability to per- various committee appointments.; form. Rates are calculated on a were named to the entertainment; formula based on number of per- committee. ; forninnces to be covered, number In addition to Crouch, the studio of performances deductible, maxi- reps included are George Dorsey, mum loss limit, period covered, Warners: Robert H. Denton, Para- etc. mount; J. B. Brecheen. RKO; Tony The producer’s indemnity policy, Muto, 20th; and Ray Bell, Colum-; State approval of which is due bia. Also Allan Zee, of Loew’s, and shortly, would reimburse the man- George Crouch and Frank La agement for the operating costs of Falce, of Warner Theatres. a show’ for a period of weeks ide- Local showmen will serve as pending on the individual policy the talent hospitality commttee,: terms* up to 80 r .r. in case a show which will get the ’ entertainers ‘ was forced to close because of a where they have to be at the prop- , star’s illness or accident, er time. \ No medical examination is re- Brass Attendin* | mured for the various policies, but „ , , . fl , : there is a questionnaire covering Interest of the motion picture; .. history of illness.” etc. Conti-, and radio-TV industries m the in-, nental. the largest company han- augural spectacle, and the in- j dijffijr special risk insurance, has coming administration, will be ac-: se t -*sicle a fund of • $2,500,000 for cented by the presence of top brass new’ policies on a test basis, from all the major companies at > hut hopes to expand the type of the three-day celebration. j policies and the amount of cov- Reservations were made months ; orage. ago at leading hotels in names of j Swire, who was an insurance execs with little definite idea of. broker in Philly before becoming just who would show up. Those; an ac tor and subsequently joining who have notified their D. C. reps \ the Eauity staff, thought of tlying that they will be here and want to work out some sort of indemnity in. on all the events include ardent poliev covering actors three years Ike men Jack and Harry Warner ag 0 . ’ At that time, the closing of and their fraus, and Warner VJP. “Diamond Lil,” when Mae West' Harry and Mrs. Kalmine; 20th will • broke her ankle shortly after the have an impressive representation; revival opened to smash notices, in person of the three Skouras 5 a large cast out of work. After brothers and Darryl Zanuck, with; working out the new’ insurance wives, of course. The Barney Bala- {coverage with Levy and Continen- bans and Paul Raibourn are com- tal officials, Swire outlined the ing from Paramount, and Loew's ? project to the Equity council, will be represented by Nicholas \ which approved it last week. Schenck and Joseph Yogel. | - Just who will be here from the ’ , Metro lot is not yet certain, but \ LlCCt KembUSCh with Metroites George Murphy and j Indianapolis. Jan. 13. Orville Crouch in such key spots,; Trueman Rembusch was elected some of the studio brass is expect- \ president of Allied Theatre Own- ed to show. Mrs. Louis Lurie, wifejers of Indiana for* 1953 by board of the San Francisco show biz in- [ of directors in meeting here last vestor, will attend with her son j week. and daughter-in-law. Universal’s; Marc J. Wolf was elected v.p.; Nate Blumberg is also expected.. jTed Mendelssohn, secretary. State In addition to the long line of ’»convention in December had re- show biz personalities due here to J elected Wm* A. Carroll executive entertain for tfie politicos, others I secretary*