Variety (April 1953)

vAumemLE South May Be Ready for Mixed Acts in Fire Years, Sez Billy Eckstme Although there’s been a. steady lifting of racial barriers-,4a the south, the people there jare; quite ready to accept mixed con- cert packages, according to Billy Eckstine, who recently completed a six-week swing .through 15 south- ern states. The growing number of all-Negro units which have been hitting the southern trail, adds Eckstine, are spearheading the way to better understanding and it’ll probably be only a matter of four or five years before mixed units will be regular attractions. The situation from the aud view- point indicates a definite minimiza- tion of prejudice. More and more theatres, reports Eckstine, are dropping their color barriers by permitting Negroes to purchase tix at the same boxoffice and eliminat- ing the special sections designated for “Negroes only.” In one theatre which refused to seat Negroes downstairs, Eckstine beat the prejudice rap by placing 500 Negroes on the stage behind him. In other theatres which had special boxoffices for Negroes, the management was forced to lift the barrier when the ticket rush bfe- came too great for specially desig- nated ticket booths. * “Although we meet scattered in- stances of prejudice.” claims Eck- stine,. “each succeeding tour pre- sents less problems and my aim is to make the southern hop an an- nual trek so I can get an on-the- spot view of prejudice’s demise.” That the south is on the right track is indicated by the virtual disap- pearance of ballroom signs reading “Special Reservations For White Spectators.” Majority of the terp spots now permit Negro and white couples on the same dance floor. Eckstine credits the teenagers N { j- ' s v m BILLY GILBERT Currently ESQUIRE-CLUB Day ten, Ohlt — G *— * Opening April 17 FORD'S SUFFER CLUB Kokomo, Indiana Personal Management DAVID L. SHAFIRO AL 4-1077 x For Night Cjubt — Mercury Artists COMEDY MATERIAL For Ail Branches of Theatricals FUN-MASTER THE ORIGINAL SHOW-BIZ GAG FILE ... . <The Service of the STARS) First 13 files $7.00—All 35 Issues $25 Singly: $1,05 Each IN SEQUENCE ONLY Beginning with No. 1—No Skipping! • 3 Bks. PARODIES, per book..$10 a • MINSTREL BUDGET $25® • 4 BLACKOUT BKS., oa. bk...$25 • • BLUE BOOK (Gags for Stags) $50 • HOW TO MASTER THE CEREMONIES $3.00 GIANT CLASSIFIED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GAGS, $300, Worth over a thousand No C.O.D.'s BILLY GLASON 200 W. 54th St., New York 19-Dept. V Circle 7-1130. and the college kids for the south’s ^generation. “They’re forgetting tKe prejudices of their parents,” he adds, “and coming to the dances and concerts with nothing more on their minds than the desire to be entertained.” The growing num- ber of Negro disk jockeys in the south. are also helping ease the racial tension. By steadily mixing in pop disks with rhythm & blues platters, they’re building, a mixed aud and developing better under- standing between the whites and Negroes. * Although the south is still the stronghold of cornball tunes and rhythm & blues songs, Eckstine claims there’s a growing market for pop singers and orchs. The Eckstine package, - which included Ruth Brown and Count Basie’s orch, racked up socko grosses all the way. Eckstine, who just ended a two- week stand at the Bandbox, N.- Y., is prepping for his first European tour which’ll begin in London in July. He returns to the U. S. in mid-September to start another swing. Joe Louis Still a Champ; Draws $23,000 at Apollo To Earn Reprise in May Former heavyweight champ Joe I Louis turned a handsome profit in his full-scale theatrical venture at the Apollo Theatre, N.Y., last week. Fighter turned actor took out $11,500 on a gross of $23,000. Showing was sufficiently impres- sive at that Harlem house to have the theatre rebook him for May 1. Louis was in on a $7,500 guarantee out of which he paid the-show and band. Surrounding talent included Nicholas Bros., Five Keys, Hal Singers orch, Frances Martin, Bar- bara DaCosta, and Leonard Reed. Frank Taylor, of the Lew & Leslie Grade office, is booking him. Louis has. made theatrical ap- pearances previously, but not as head of a unit. - Former pug is also slated for the ) Howard, Washington, June 12, and the Royal, Baltimore, June 18. Deal for the Regal Theatre, Chi- cago, is in the works. He’s signed for the Ed Sullivan 'TV show May 3. Toeholds Rate Fall Over Toes/ Banana’ and Blader ^Omaha, April 21. “Ice Capades,” “Top. Banana,” “Streetcar Named. Desire,” ballet and the rasslers vied for the enter- tainment buck here last week. And it was the rasslers, “TV star” Yukon Eric and Mighty Atlas, who . came out on top. They packed nearly 4,200 into City Auditorium, with turnaways estimated at 2,000. Skaters lured' 4,000, “Banana”, drew 2,200 and the ballet a meagre 300. Dagmar’s B’way Cafe Bow Dagmar will play her first Broad- way cafe date at the Latin Quarter, N. Y., May 5. She’s getting $5,000, out of which she’ll pay a comic who’ll be working with her, Dagmar previously played the Roxy and Paramount theatres on the Stem. SONI CORTI "INTERNATIONAL SINGER" Opening May 4 SHERRY NETHERLAND, N. Y. CARNIVAL ROOM Just Concluded CHALF0NTE -HADD0NHALL Atlantic City At the Piano: JOHN COOKE Direction: JIMMY GRADY. HOWARD LANIN MGT.. Inc. JUdton 6-3045 p'miEf? Godfrey Gets Into Cafe Act Via His TV Support Pittsburgh, AprlL 21. Vogue Terrace is going to have an “Arthur Godfrey” stretch in June. Big theatre restaurant has just booked in Julius LaRosa for two nights, the weekend of 19-20, and will follow him on the 22d with the Chordettes, femme barber shop harmony group that just closed out a long run on the Godfrey TVer. Kitty Kallen, wbo played Vogue Easter Week, has been slotted back for June 15, and she’ll stay right through the week that brings on LaRosa for the final two days. Mpk City Pappies Pull A Sir Waiter Raleigh For Stripper^ Tootsies Minneapolis, April 21. City council sanitation commit- tee members proved gallant and considerate of Alvin.. stripteasers and + other cuties when they voted to install a new nine-inch storm drain outside the stage door of the burlesque theatre so that the gals wouldn’t have to continue to wade through snow and rain accu- mulations ‘during inclement weath- er. The water collects there now after heavy rains... Ted Mann, the theatre’s owner, asking for the. new drain, told the aldermen the present six-inch af- fair can’t do the job.. He also ex- plained that the exit is af 'such a low level—so near the ground— that there has to b.e a dip in the alley. The result, he said, is even deeper puddles, • hampering . the girls’ comings and goings. “If Sir Walter Raleigh' could, stretch out his coat as a mud and water covering for a damsel to walk over, .this is' the least that we can do for beauty in distress,” said Alderman E. T. Buckley. “When’ the stage door was origi- nally built, the theatre didn’t cater to high-steppers.” Mann himself agreed to pay 40% of the cost. He kiddingly suggested that he give aldermen $400 worth, of passes for burlesque shows. “Front-row seats for the next two years!” exclaimed one alderman. Said another, running a hand over the top of his head: “I’ll be about right for the baldheaded row.” A third commented: “Whatever else the girls may find at their door, such as wolves, we’ll make sure it won’t be water.” ‘CAPADES’TO REPRISE ‘SNOW WHITE’ FOR ’54 Omaha, April 21. John H. Harris will bring back “Snow White” as the feature of his 1954 “Ice Capades,” it was dis- closed last week. Ron Fletcher, who will stage the opus, joined show here to begin rehearsals. As - usual, Donna At- wood (Mrs. Harris) and Bobby Specht will get top billing. “Snow White” production was used by “Capades” nine years ago. Fletcher plans to modernize ballet numbers. It was practically old home week for Fletcher, since “Top Banana,” for which he staged dances, was also in town. N. Y. Incorporations Albany, April 21. Steve Hannagan Associates, Inc,, chartered to conduct a general ad- vertising and promotion business in New York. Capital stock is $30,000, $100 par value. Directors are Paut Snell, Joseph Copps and Margaret Ray, N. Y. Shearman, Sterling & Wright, N. Y., were filing attorneys. World Talent Corp. chartered to conduct a theatrical agency in New York. Capital stock is 100 shares, no par value. Chauncey S. Olman, N. Y., is a director and filing attorney. • Video Vittles, Inc., chartered to conduct a restaurant and enter- tainment business in New York, with capital stock of $20,000, $100 par value. Directors are Charles Edward Sigety and-Katharine Snell Sigety, and Alan F. McHenry, N. Y. Patterson, Eagle, Greenough & Ray, N. Y„ were filing attorneys. Ward-VillanI Management Corp. chartered to conduct a theatrical agency in New York. Capital stock is 100 shares, no par value. Direc- tors are Barney Ward and Law-, rence Villani and Mitchel Kassl N. Y. Grossman & Perles, N. Y., Were filing attorneys. Wednesday, April 22, I953 Illinois Solons Hot on Trail of 21 Chi Cafes on Sales Tax Arrears Coast Gardens Relight Los Angeles, April 21. Tommy Dorsey’s Casino Gardens at Ocean Park jyill be reopened next nionth as the Circus Gardens with a “three ring” entertainment policy. Virtually a continuous floor- show operation, interspersed with dance sets, it will supplant the former strictly ballroom policy. Jack Mosser’s “Rhapsody in Rhythm” and the “Ice Classics” blade revue have already been set along with Harry Ranch’s orch. Six other acts .will.be set. Bullfight Union Gives Nod To Ringling Circus in Fall At 65,000-Seat Plaza Mex Mexico City, April 14. The way has been cleared for a reduced version of Ringling Broth- ers and Barnum' & Bailey Circus to play here in the fall, after U. S. dates, in a deal that Felix O. Alar- con, local booker, is engineering. The bullfighters union has okayed use of the 65,000-seat Plaza Mexico for the show, with the sole provi- sion . that circusing won’t conflict with blood-sand dates, such as Sun- days and holidays Union is so powerful that it dic- tates to Plaza Mexico’s manage- ment about operating the big bowl, home grounds of major bullfight- ing ' down here. ' Talk is that the version of the big top would play at prices about the same as those prevailing for bigtime, bullfights,, most of which jam the open arena. Major blood- sand scale is 50c to $5. That scale, it is conceded, would be the only tariff to make the big circus play- ing here worthwhile. N. Y.’s Cafe Society To Reopen Next Week Cafe Society Downtown, N. Y,, is slated to reopen Monday (27). Mike Rainey will front the opera- tion arid negotiations are on for a Harding & Moss unit plus Kirk- wood & Goodman and Monica Boyar. Cafe was closed several months ago because of a license mixup. It had changed ownership several times, but State Liquor Authority had not gone through the formali- ties of okaying the liquor license switches. License situation was straightened out last week and Rainey moved to unshutter. Dayid Brooks Pacted For Caribe Hilton David Brooks, who just.complet- ed a two-week engagement in the West Indies, at the Virgin Island Hotel, St. Thomas, will return to the area April 28, when he opens a two-week stint at the Caribe Hil- Ton,.San Juan. Brooks is in N. Y. today (Wed.), huddling on proposed Margaret Webster Broadway production of the musical, “Cornin' Through the Rye,” for which he’s been, picked as the lead. Sentence Cafe Op Slayer St. Louis, April 21. While the trial of Thomas L. Lawrence, a St. Louisan, charged with fatally shooting John Kelly, owner of the Hi-Ho Club, a nitery near -Madison, 111., was in its sec-. ond day last week, the defendant had a change of heart -and pleaded guilty to a' reduced charge of manslaughter. He drew a one-to-seven-year sentence. * ™ „ * Ch “*go, April 21 Richard L. Cooper, assistant at- torney general in charge of th* Chicago office of the state sales tax division, is trying to find out who owns two bistros and what their assets are. They owe Illinois $219 669 in sales tax from 1941 throuei. 1948, he claims. gl1 Levy was originally paid under protest on ground that tax could not be imposed on entertainment A circuit court ruling upheld this position and the money was re- funded. However, the Illinois Su- preme Court ruled the tax valid and state has been trying to collect since 1949. Judgments have been obtained against the cafes and op- erators, but Cook County police have been unable to serve them on the proper persons. Circuit Court Judge Cornelius Harrington next Monday (27) will hear motions to stay 14 of the judgments. Cooper says that if the ownership and assets of the spots are not determined by then he will seek court orders to disclose these facts. Sheriff’s office could then take possession of the buildings and other assets for unpaid taxes. It’s the claim that only one delin- quent, the Sherman Hotel, has paid the amounts owed. Many of the spots listed have gone out of busi- ness, however, and others have had several changes in management. Borge Low 8G, Cincy Cincinnati, April 21. A sourish $8,000 was pulled by Victor Borge in his one-man com- edy concert last week in 1,300-seat Cox Theatre at $4.31 top. Margaret Sullavan in “Deep Blue Sea” is at Cox this week at same top. (Bobby) ROLLINS Flaying FOOD FAIR Apr. 25 to May 3rd Elizabeth, N. J. Thanks to WILLIAM SHILLING 165 Wait 46th Straat New York City HARBERS 4th Return Engagement C0PACABANA, NEW YORK and DALE THE CHORDS instrumentalists without Instruments Club Dates (Apr. 23-25) Hartford/ Boston and Philadelphia Dir.: GENERAL ARTISTS CORP. Club Date Bookings by HARRY GREBES I NaT DUNN HARRY GREBEN 203 N. Wnbaih Ay*. Chlttie, III. fAT DUNN 1650 B-w*y New Verb New York Journal-American ‘LUCILLE and EDDIE ROBERTS, the Menlalaughists, are wowing them at the Hotel Pierre’s Cotillion Room.” - US* A CHOLLY KNICKERBOCKER. . April 17th, 1953.