Variety (April 1953)

MISCMAAPTV f^SuETT Wednesday, Ap^U 8, 1953 ^ 1* ■- Puffs, Pans and By ARTHUR BRONSON The Metropolitan Opera will close Its 68th season in N. Y. Saturday * (11) in a whir of paradoxes. Box- officewise, biz Ms been good all year, and well ahead of* last sea- son, when the Met had a $8,500,000 b.o. take. On the other, hand, there’s a Met money crisis, which necessitated a public drive for $1,- 500,opo this winter. Only^ about $515,000 of this amount has been raised, and prospects are that the drive won’t reach $750,000* Productionwise; the Met. offered three new presentations during the 22-week season. These were the « highly-touted Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress,” in its American premiere; the Howard Dietz Eng- lish version of “La Boheme,” and •‘La Forza del JDestino.” Yet, de- spite the 24 different operas given for 149 performances this year, the season artistically was mediocre. The ’52-’53 season brought many brickbats and few hosannas. Music- ally and newswise, it wasn’t as powerful a season as Bing’s first two, retrograding as far as its im- pact on the public was concerned. Works chosen for presentation may have been the reason. There .were few distinguished*productions and) performances, and many shoddy ones. After a '51-’52 season, when the Met ran up an alltime deficit high of $475,000,- this season’s losses look to be more moderate. With three new productions this season as against last season’s four (each roughly costing from $00,000 to $75,000 to stage), and no similar outside loss as last season's touring “Fledermaus” nick, the Met’s ’52- *53 deficit isn’t expected to exceed $250,000. There was nothing as unusual this season as last year’s hiring of (Continued on page 15) THE HONG KONG STORY: CUGAT'S 30G, $20 SUITS Hong- Kong, March 31. The five-day stand of the Xavier Cugat troupe wound up last week with a gross of $30,000 for 10 per- formances. Hong Kong talent- starved fans rushed in to fill rather poor seating arrangements to capacity and acclaimed the show best yet seeKhere. . Show included Abbe Lane, The Four Step Bros., Tulara Lee, Los Bartancos, McQuaif Twins, and Chinese comic Jose Wong. Hong Kong pays off to visiting artists not only in the nice takes to be expected but in shopping loot. Right now this is a world paradise for shoppers: men’s worsted suits at $20, watches and cameras at factory prices, a free currency market with no restric- tions, 12-course menus served with individual attention, dance music and cabaret turns at $2, hotel suites with bath at $8 per day and so on right down the line. This is almost taxless existence in a tax-crazy world, with lush Oriental beauties, green moun- tains, blue tropic seas and the Comfortable background of Chinese service. New. Korean Trek. ’ Hollywood, April 7. Nine Hollywood troupers left for Korea- to entertain tJ. S. service- men under auspices of the Holly- wood Coordinating Committee 'ind USO-Camp Shows. It is Johnny Grant’s third tour and Piper Lau- rio’s QPPrtnrf Other memlyrs of the troupe are Freddie Brown, Arthur Brunner, Ernest Brunner, Wanda Curtis, Jane Davis, Jean Fowler and Eliza- beth Talbot-Martin. ’* t o • Esther Williams Can Do No Wrong in Burma; Spot’s Something for the Birds By JULES BUCHER Rangoon, March 31. .Burma is a wonderful place to make films, to exhibit films, and to watch film audiences. There are birds in the screening room. There are frequently birds in the thea- tres, too. Temperatures here stay around 90 day and night, through- out much of-the year. There is no air-conditioning, and the Ceiling fans aren’t much help, so usually a couple of high transoms ^re left open. Hence, birds. No one takes precautions. The local film producers really do very well, considering what they have to work with. Like The rest, of Burma, they haven’t yet re- covered from the war. Not only did most of them suffer bomb and fire damage, but the Japanese liberated lights and cameras, leaving only a few old DeBries (and many hand- cranked ones are still in use); a Wahl single-system and a few Eye- mos® Recently one of. the, majors bought a second-hand Mitchell, arid another bought a standard Bell & Howell. Love TMt Western Burma produces around 40 pic- tures yearly, more than half of these being silent, with subtitles. Burmese films usually fall into one of three story categories: historical or mythological, involving actual or legendary characters from ancient Burmese times, frequently involv- ing ’spirits and demons; romantic modem dramas liberally laced with love songs, and westerns. The last are blood-and-thunder imitations of American westerns, long on vio- lence and gunplay. The Burmese, as a people, like films. Of about 30 theatres in Ran-, goon, half-a-dozen play Indian pic- tures steadily (Rangoon has a big Indian" population, and pictures like “Aan,” “Awara” and “Hanu- man” run for 10 or 12 weeks); abbut the same numbers theatres (Continued on page 1$) Zukor, Crown, Fuller To Get Alger Awards Adolph Zukor, Col. Henry Crown and Walter D. Fuller, board chair- men, respectively, of Paramount Pictures, Waldorf-Astoria Corp, and purtis Publishing Co., will be feted with Horatio Alger awards today (Wed.) at the Rainbow Room lounge, N. Y. Presentation will mark the seventh annual awarding of the Alger bronze plaques to Americans who have come up the ladder a la the Alger legend. Among others slated to receive the award is former President Her- bert C. Hoover. doses Sans Souci, Tropkana Casinos HORACE HEEDT frOR LUCKY STRIKE •Under Personal Management JOHN LEER 111 Fifth Ave., New York Chevalier’s 55 Concerts at 55 Paris, April 7. Maurice Chevalier is back here from his recent successful tour of England for a rest and to make his plans for the next two years. He has signed a, contract with the Theatre Des Champs-Elysees for a series of 55 consecutive concerts which will start in October next year. This will coincide with Chevalier’s 55th year in show biz. Chevalier will prepare 1 a new one'-man show for this next appear- ance here. His songs and patter will trace his show biz life on the Paris and world scenes. Immediate projects are concerts in Berlin, and thqp a return to England for another tour and a film. Pic is a sketch film directed by Anatole De Grunewald, featur- ing Chevalier as a singer. In Sep- tember, he plans either to go to the U.S. on a concert tour or on a tour of South America. After his 55 stint in Paris, he-plans to make a film here based y on his recently published memoirs. Louis Frohlich Passes; Aided ASCAP, Film Biz In Some Big Legal Bouts Louis D. Frohlich, vet film and music industry lawyer who died ’in Lenox Hill Hospital, N. Y., last Tuesday night (31), broke into show business under the tutelage of the late. Nathan Burkan, the copyright attorney who was one of the founders of the. American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers in 1914. Frohlich. along with his future partner, Charles Schwartz, joined Burkan’s firm in 1916 shortly after graduating from Columbia Law School. Under Burkan’s,vying, Frohlich handled numerous litigations which established ASCAP’s power to col- lect performance fees. After Bur- kan’s death in 1936, Frohlich formed his partnership with Schwartz in the firm of Schwartz (Continued on page 15) Jay Chase to Take Over His Late Mother’s Pacts Jay Chase, son of Mary Chase (Mrs. Mary Gruber), who died in Chicago Sunday (5), will take over as personal manager for Josh White and Josephine Premice. Bal- ladeer and songstress were pre- viously jiandled by his mother, whom he assisted. Contracts for the change in rep- resentation are being drawn up. .' Lolly’s 30-Year Stag . Hollywood, April V. . Louella Parsons will be honored at a stag testimonial dinner at the Masquers Club April 23 to cele- brate her 30 years as a Hollywood columnist. 1 On the dais will be George Burns, Eddie Cantor, Edward Man- nix, Joseph M. Schenck, Jimmy McHugh, Cecil B. DeMille, Jack L. Warner and Darryl F. Zanuck. Roz’s Wish Not to Halt ’Town’ SR0 Momentum May Hold Up Her Pic Stint Rosalind Russell, star of the click musical, “Wonderful Town,” may exit the. show temporarily to appear in a film to be produced by her husband, Frederick Brisson. Latter arrived in N. Y. yesterday (Tues.) from the Coast for huddles with Robert Fryer, produce? of the legiter, concerning Miss Russell’s possible bowout date for the pic. Star’s deal provides that she can take time out for one film during the fij^gt year’s run of the new musical. It’s understood that the time for this, as stipulated, must be mutually agreeable to all par- ties. There’s understood to be a strong possibility that Miss Russell may pass up the film stint for. the im- mediate future, preferring not to halt the “Wonderful Town” ruq and thereby perhaps break its mo- mentum.- Show is playing to abso- lute standee-limit attendance at the Winter Garden; N. Y., arid is a prospect for solid capacity trade through this summer, if its run is not ..interrupted. Earlier, the film had not been in immediate prospect, since Bris- son’s company. Independent Art-j ists, had been at work on a property lensed in Spain, and Miss Russell was riot involved. This idea has been suspended, however, and Brisson’s next will be “You Can't Judge a Lady,” with Miss Russell as star. Brisson now has “Never Wave At a Wac” in release through RKO.' Miss Russell has the lead. While in Gotham he’ll also negotiate a distribution deal for the new pic. VOICE TO BEAM TAN’ IN CHINESE, KOREAN 0’SEAS Radio dramatization of Walt Dis- ney’s “Peter Pan” will be beamed to Korea and the Chinese main- land by the Voice of America. In okaying the arrangement with the U. S. State Dept., Disney office provided the sound track from the film and a continuity script. Voice will use the original “Pan” songs and music with dialog dubbed in Chinese and Korean. Maude Adams in Hosp Albany, April 7. Maude Adams, retired stage star, was taken to Greene County Me- morial Hospital in Catskill, N. Y., Saturday- (4) for treatment of bron- chitis and pleurisy. Her physician said Monday (6) that her condition had improved and that, barring complications, Miss Adams would be discharged in a few days. She liyes on a farm at Tanners- . ville. " Havana, April 7. In a crackdown on the fleecing of U.S. tourists at gambling niter- ies, the Cuban f&qvepnment last week attested/and Reported n American gamblers and closed the gaming room at Sans Souci indefi- nitely and that at Tropicana for five days (beginning March 30) The crackdown came following ar- ticles in the* American press (Variety, Satevepost) regarding the unsavory gambling situation here. All of those-arrested (including one woman) were''minor figures. They included shills, steerers and croupiers. Other suspects were quizzed by policy and a number were arrested- but then released Among these was Sidney Jacobs! reportedly chief of the roulette croupiers at Sans Souci. With one exception, all of the arrests were raad$ at* Sans Souci and Tropicana, The exception was a man picked up at the Hotel Varadero-Inter- naclonal's cabaret. The'gamblers were charged with being employed illegally (because they were in Cuba as “tourists”, and. tourists are not allowed to work) and with “exploiting tourists at cabarets and other entertain- ment centres through gambling.” It was the largest number 0! Americans jailed in Cuba in re- cent times. The arrests were made by police and Military Intelligence Service agents whp had been prob- ing the niteries for several days. Deportation, or Else Rather than face official depor- tation proceedings, the 11 gam- blers agreed to leave the country voluntarily. The third of* Havaria’s Big Three niteries, Montmartre, was not af- fected by the Investigation. Man- ager Mario Garcia said, “Our games have always been on the up and up.” (Havana’s fourth ma- jor night, gambling * establishment, (Continued on page 54) SCHNOZ’S GLAM GALS FOR H.Y.C0PA RETURN Patterning his nitery turn after his “All-Star Revue” NBC-TV shots, Jimmy Durante is coming into the Copacabana, N. Y., April 16 sur- rounded by a bevy of. beauts. In addition to the regular Copa line, bill will include Wanda Smith’s Cover Girls. -Latter troupe comprises five femmes, each of which does a specialty. Eddie Jackson, Jack Roth, Jules Buffano & Co., of course, continue. Show Biz Contingent Sailing for England Gracie Fields heads a heavy show biz contingent sailing for Europe today (Wed) on the Queen Eliza- beth. Also sailing are -producer George K. Arthur and writer Sid- ney Carroll, who plan to make a film in England, and John G. Mc- Carthy, U. S, State Dept, pix rep. Other, passengers include Wil- liam Karol, European rep for the Mexican film firm, PelicuLas Mexi- canes; Pamela Mason, wife of actor James Mason, and five “Guys and Dolls” cast members, with Stubby Kaye and Jerry Wayne among them. etching two sides for a new indie tagged Hammerlock Records. Grappler did some singing'in his native Hungary, but is known here only as a muscle.man. Session tonight follows four months* work with vocal coach Dick'Loring. It will be produced by Bud Freeman, Gene dePoris and Mickey Freeman. Szabor will be backed by a seven piece orch, fea- turing harp and organ, under the direction of Dennis Famon. Ouch! Flock of show biz personali- ties turned out last Tuesday *J31) to help Henry Morgan celebrate his 38th biythday on his WMGM (N. Y.) midnight-to- 3 a.m. jabberjockey show from Hutton’s midtown Gotham eat- ery. Numerous “gifts” were be- stowed on Morgan, but the topper Was the presentation from station ‘g.m. Bertram Lebahr, who brought along the station’s FCC license. “With you. on thfe air,” cracked Lebahr, “we don’t need it.” Subscription Or dor Form Enclosed find check for $ Please send VARIETY for y®*, (Please Print Name) Street City, Zone.... State, (tegular Subscription Ratos ^ One Year—$10.00 Two Years—*$T8.00 Canada and Foreign—$1 Additional per Year PfifilETY Inc. 154 West 46th Street New York 36, N, Y.