Variety (March 1953)

FILM 3*53 * RADIO PRICING OFF MARKET B way Barrage of B.O. Bonanzas Reverses Trend of Past Seasons BERLE, OTHERS T N Gene Kelly ’s Long Green (390G) After 18 Tax-Free Months Abroad By KOBE MORRISON . 4 After a couple of years of me- diocrity and an unusually slow start last fall, Broadway has finally rung the bell with a,volley of hits. The situation is highlighted by the‘successive openings in less than a week’s time of two of the top critical smashes in several sea- sons, “Picnic” and “Wonderful Town.” Both drew raves and are indicated boxoffice powerhouses. The success parade began to take shape in January with the arrival of a string of shows get- ting generally respectful attention from the aisle-sitters and some support at the b.o. They included “Love of Four Colonels” “Cru- cible,” “Fifth Season” and “Mid- Summer.” The pace stepped up in Febru- ary with the opening of “Hazel Flagg,” “John Brown’s Body” and “Misalliance,” preceding the “Pic- nic” and “Wonderful Town” grandslam. Among the promising entries for the balance of the sea- son are “Porgy and Bess,” “My Three Angels,” “Camino Real,”. “Can-Can” and rt Me and Juliet” (Continued on page 56) Only Louisiana’s Best For George Alabama Florida, Out Ahead of ‘Oklahoma’ % New Orleans, March 3< George Alahama Florida, who’s rated something of a character even among advance men, added a’ page to his colorful book here re- cently. The p.a., who sometimes goes completely Dixie by listing his first name as Georgia, is out ahead of “Oklahoma,” but continues to pay deference to his former boss, Blackstone, the magician. Forgetting that during his local stay to ballyhoo the Theatre Guild musical, the Mardi Gras would be on, Florida neglected to make a . hotel reservation and arrived to find the town shoulder-deep with tourists. However, he made out all right, for manager Johnny Roberts set up living quarters for him in a dressing room backstage at the Civic Theatre, with an adjoining room as an office. The p.a. said it was the first time in 55 years of road agenting that he ever slept on the job. The quarters set up by Roberts were in a newly-refurbished dress- ing room, with'mahogany panelled walls, carpeted floor, tiled toilet and shower room with hot and cold - water, gas and electric heat. As a final touch, a framed picture of Blackstone was taken from the the- atre lobby and hupg over Florida's bed. The p.a. has only one complaint. He’s afraid his wife may hear of the ^etup and, when he gets home, disallow his $75 expense item for the week*m the family budget. Chow—and Wow! Most sought-after guy in New York for lunch and din- ner dates (and already booked solid for the next six months): “Red” ; Reynolds, ex-CBS Sales' and now. radio-TV di- rector of Fletcher Richards agency. He was the foreman of the Jelke jury. $16,000,000 in ’52, ASCAP Records Hollywood, March 3. The official* tally of income for the Amefidari Society of Com- posers* ".fyllthdrs & Publishers for 1952. revealed that the Society’s income climbed to the alltime high of over $16,000,000. Expenses for the fiscal year, ending October, 1952, were' $3,100,000 or 20%, which is standard. Figures were disclosed at the semi-annual meeting of ASCAP members on the Coast by controller George'.Hoffman. Prexy Otto A. Harbach, however, had to dampen the writers' expectations for a big- ger melon by pointing out that ASCAP currently also had a peak membership enrollment. Harbach emphasized that under terms of the antitrust consent de- cree, admission to the Society has been a lot easier. As a result, the per-capita disbursements had not increased due to the swelling mem- bership. Since 1949, 700 new writ- ers haVe been admitted to ASCAP, bringing the present total to over 3,000, which is tops in the Society’s history. In that period, also, 200 (Continued on page 57) JAN GARBER’S 37TH ANNI AS BAT0NEER Hollywood, March 3. Jan Garber opens at the Palla- dnum terpery here tonight (Tues.) to start his 37th year as a batoneer —by far a record for a name band. During that period he has etched a total of 2,387 records. Once a fiddler for a Mey6r Davis society combo, Garber formed his own band and debuted at the Wil- lard Hotel, Washington," D. C., on March 3, 1917. Through the years he has been almost exclusively in the ranks of the “sweet” bands, save for a brief period about 11 years ago when his daughter Janice, then his vocalist, talked him into batoning a swing crew. The experiment cost him $50,000 and Garber went back to the sweet rhythms. By GEORGE ROSEN Milton Berle’s “Texaco Star The- atre” is in sponsor trouble for the ’53-’54 season. On the basis of pre-! liminary negotiations, NBC is up- ping the weekly program tab from $59,000 to $90,000. That, coupled with the $60,000 for 60 minutes of network time, brings the weekly nut to $150,000. Rather than go for that kind of money, Texaco h£s indicated that it may sit it out next season and forget all about the Berle show, even in the face of a rejuvenated stanza that’s paying off handsomely in the Nielsen rat- ing sweepstakes. The impasse highlights the un- dercurrent of revolt that’s foment- ing among sponsors and agencies oyer the high cost of television, a revolt which, by season’s end, may well grow into a fullblown crisis in network TV programming. From a host of Madison Ave., N. Y., offices have come cries and protests over the stepped-up coin rap for spon- sorship of network shows, and while commitments for next season aren’t due in most cases until May or June, the lamentations over ex- orbitant costs are causing consider- able apprehension within the trade. One major agency exec last week * (Continued on page 38) J. Ray’s $20,000 In Vegas Bidding Johnnie Ray has been signed for tfie Desert Inn, Las Vegas, for a September or October date at $20,000, highest figure the Weeper ever got for a week’s appearance. His two-week pacting by the Des- ert Inn climaxes a tiff betweeri the Sands Hotel, Las Vegas, which claims that it had a verbal comit- ment to play the singer :; at $8,500 and General Artists Corp., .repre- senting Ray, which stated that there was no such understanding. GAC further claimed that the $8,500 original figure for which Ray was booked at the Sands, to- day was “unrealistic.” It was also claimed by GAC-that if the Sands’ general manager, Jack Entratter; offered a more comparable sum, there was a strong' chance he would have gotten, the act. As it was, according to GAC, Entratter upped his bid to $12,500 and stopped there. By necessity, act then had to go on the market. Desert Inn increased its bid. Rock- well also claims that when En- tratter upped to $15,000, the com- petitive 20G deal had already been signed for the Sands. Originally Ray’s $8,500 deal was ♦for last November. Pact was made around April, 1952, when Ray was (Continued on page 63) Twofers? Christine Jorgensen, ex-GI who recently underwent sur- gery and became a femme, re- portedly aspires to be an ac- tress, so she’s being men- tioned for strawhat appear- ances next summer. One barn- producer says he’d like to book her in “Boy Meets Girl” — playing both parts. Loews Would Sell MGM Record Co, Along With Radio In addition to its desire to un- load its New York radio outlet, WMGM, for $2,000,000 to Bertram Lebhar, Jr., Loew’s, Inc., is also interested in disposing of the MGM Records label which only of late has caught on as click diskery. Both were regarded as valuable coinci- dental exploitation media for Metro pictures. Lebhar’s syndicate plans putting $500,000 on the line, the rest out of profits. Lebhar has long been the operating head of the station, whose antecedents go back to WHN and‘prior thereto to WGBS, when Loew’s and Gimbel Bros, stores had a hookup in.New York. Only recently Metro and Mutual Broad- casting System worked out an op- erating agreement on MGM Radio Attractions getting program outlet over WOR (N. Y.) and the Mutual affiliates. In effect, the Loew move to der centralize . would follow Warner Bros, which, too, in order (1) di- vested itself of Brunswick Records (later merged into Decca Records), (Continued on page 63) WHITE BACK TO B’WAY FOR VERSAILLES SHOW George White will do his first New York show in many years. He’s been signed to stage a package for the Versailles starting some time in April, White, who did a succession of “Scandals” for the legit stage ancf later for vaude, was last in New York as operator of the Gay White Way, a short-lived cafe on the site of the. Latin Quarter. Two nitery revue packages pro- duced by Georgie Hale have had successful runs here. Current oc- cupant, “More About Love,” will wind up March 14, Succeeding show hasn’t been signed as yet. First Hale produced unit was “All About Love.” Hollywood, March 3. First of the Hollywood names deliberately to trek to Europe for an 18-month tax-free stay, Gene Kelly is due home in about 12 weeks, approximately $400,000 richer. Actually, he’s not the first Hollywoodite to qualify, since Sam Spiegel and John Huston passed the 18-month period a'few months ago. They benefited, however, be- cause they were abroad when the tax law of 1951 was passed; Kelly was the first of several film names to embark on a protracted overseas stay to take advantage of the bene- fits of the tax law. Kelly's imminent return has cued a shift in plans for “Brigadoon,” which was to have been the last of the films he made overseas. In- stead, Metro will make the musi- cal on the home lot, and possibly in a 3-D process. Kelly left the U. S. Dec. 30, 1951, to begin his lengthy stay overseas with the filming of “The Devil Makes Three.” His departure came only a few weeks after Congress had passed the now tax law, which provided that any U. S. citizen could claim a 100% exemption on all coin earned outside the count try, provided he remained abroad for 17 out of any 18-month period. Actually, Kellyte 18-month stretch would not be up until June of this year, but he’s, entitled to come in under the wire on a 17-month basis (Continued on page 63) New Haven Wonders If Williams Is for ‘Real’ Or What’s a Plastic Value? » New Haven, March 3. After a premiere weei^ of pre- Broadway tuning up, ' “Camino Real” left town Saturday (28) as one of the most controversial plays to hit this village in many seasons. Reaction to this latest Tennessee Williams opus ranged from out- and-out raves for a dramatic feast, to a situation of longtime -friends not speaking to each other after Ideated discussions of the play’s merits. A small percentage of stub- holders ankled the house in the middle of proceedings, and a live- ly topic of the week was the de- bate on the play’s ultimate Broad- way reception. Critical interpretation of the play’s'complex theme ranged from the facetious “Williams is trying to tell us that, when we die, we become cats, yowling under the balconies of retroactive virgins” (an opinion appreciated only by those who see the play), to agree- ment with Williams’ own premise that it is “an examination of those values which people have to face.” Lack of clarification that punc- tuated the play’s opening night was somewhat modified by end of the run here. This factor, together with revisions outlined for subse- . (Continued on page 56)