Variety (December 1953)

Talent agenclef are reversing the usual procedure* at this time of year. Instead pf looking over the held to add to their lists, the date- diggers are looking over their lists for acts that haven’t contributed {oo much .in the way of commis- iions and will get their release within the next week or so. Process of elimination isn’t usual among agencies. However, since the vaude and nitery departments are dwindling as revenue produc- ers the offices figure that the dis- posal of weak members will strengthen the office’s overall po- sition. The agents figure that it does cost a certain amount of money to maintain an act on its list. The weak members take up a lot of time, isasmuch as they require a lot of selling when there is a chance that they can be placed. It’s fig- ured that unless the act ha’s a fu- ture, the office would be in a stronger position to concentrate oi\ stronger and more salable items. Most of the entertainers to be dropped will be decided upon at MASSEY SET FOR CLUB DATES IN SO. AMERICA Ilona. Massey has been set on a series of dates in. South* America starting in March at the Embassy Club, Buenos Aires. She’ll also play nitery and theatre engage- ments in Brazil and Uruguay be- fore returning to the U.S. She’ll also occasionally double' in radio- TV. Lew & Leslie Grade Agency set the deals. ■ " Week of Dec, 30 PALOMAR THEATRE • >r. . . . ' * Seattle, Washington ‘'Where Show Buslriefs Meets? 20% DISCOUNT TO SHOW FOLKS A MUSICIANS AT THE '“SHOWBUSINISS CORNER” Cabana Club Fadlitiet 24 Hour Caffe# Shop * 1 7th St □■AL'ONRO '•* 1 A : BEACH P l fl DANCE ACT (THE VALENTINO WHIP) and 135 East 33rd St., New York ; PLasa 7-A300 departmental meetings. Virtually every department head will have to approve the handing out of the re- leases. An act that hasn’t done too welL hr cafes, for instance, might have done passably in video or legit, and so the percenters from the other sectors will have to put their imprimateur on the mat- ter.' \ ■ Most of the acts being dropped will most likely be picked up by other agents. Few will desert the business because one of the majors doesn’t find it profitable to handle them. Despite the wholesale releases about to be given out, agencies are still on the prowl for acts. . They’ll still sign other turns that stand a chance of turning in a profit for the agency. Columbus, DCc. 29. A proposed loosening up in liquor regulations tb permit taverns which now stay open until 1 a.m. to close at 2:30 a.m, drew sharp criticism from Gov. Frank J. Lausche last week. . Such taverns now hold D-3 per- mits and the Liquor Control Board is considering allowing permit holders to pay an additional fee, get; a D-3A permit and stay open 90 minutes longer. “Our greatest difficulty in law enforcement,” said the Governor, “comes now from the late-hour op- erations. To allow .more places to remain open until 2:30 a.m. would only aggravate the problem.” Lausche said that, if anything, the closing hour ought to be moved up. There arC now 840 D-3 A li- censes. If the freeze on permits, is lifted, there will he 2,300 more licensees eligible to apply for late hours. Honolulu Turndown Honolulu, Dec. 29, Nightclubs in the staid Waikiki tourist area will still shutter at 1 a.m. on weeknights and 2 a.m. weekends. Liquor Commission re- jected overtures by main tourist spots that they be permitted to stay open until 2 a.m, every night. Nearly all spots that would have benefitted are those that employ musicians. New York Chandra Kaly Dancers pacted for Beachcomber, Miami Beach, Jan. 12. Dick Shawn slated for that spot Feb. 17 dnd Myron Cohen is down for March 5 .... Eartha Kitt to dou- ble at the Mocambo, Hollywood, for two weeks starting Jan. 12. She’s appearing in “New Faces” at the Biltmore, Los Angeles . . . Valerie Noble into the Melba The- atre, Brooklyn . . . Ronald Rogers set by James Grady for the British Colonial Hotel, Nassau, starting Dec. 31 . . . Fisher & Marks joined the W illard Alexander office. Fred Casares Trio, Mexican combo from Monterey, at the West- ern Hills Hotel, Fort Worth, through Jan. 4. They return Jan. 27 to play, through the 1954 South- western Exposition and Fat Stock Show ,. . Jackie Miles opened Sat- urday (26) at the Balinese Room, Galveston. - . . ... _' . Baker Hotel, Dallas, with Dolores Hawkins the current, headliner In its Mural Room, has signed.Vaughn Monroe for the Jan. 4-10 fraine. Joanne Gilbert and Joe Sudy orch open Jan. 15, With PhU all-girt orch due Jan. 29-Feb. 7. i^he Ni Y. Journoi-Amencan: Dec, 19lh "Lucille And EDDIE ROBERTS' sensational ntindreading ac * Pierre ft Cotillion Room is a SHOW-STOPPER." Cent Knight Shortsighted Pittsburgh, Dec. 29. Practical joker Luke Bar- nett went to work here at Variety Club last week on Jackie Bright? president of AGVA, who was working the Carousel nitery at the time. After instigators of the rib figured Bright had had enough* they called a halt and intro- duced Barnett. “You don’t see very well without yburglassesraiTyoil ? fir ~~ Bright then asked Barnett. “No, I don’t," said Barnett. . “Why?” “Because, if you did, you’d have recognized me,” Bright replied. "We. played a club date together here just a few months ago.” Barnett just, grinned sheepishly at having been taken himself for a change. Open Bidding for First Time on Ind. State Fair Reveals Choice Figures Indianapolis, Dec. 29/ Details of bidding for the State Fair amusement contracts were re- vealed here for the first time when an anti-secrecy law passed by the 1952 legislature forced the Fair board to lift the iron curtain on • r • deals made at a meeting recently. Gooding Amusement Co,, Colum- bus, O., took the midway carnival contract away from Getlin & Wil- son, Chicago,, by a 9-7 ballot. Gooding bid 35% of the first $50,- 000 and 40% above that figure. Cetlin & Wilson offered 30% of first $25,000, -then 32.5% of seednd $25,000 and 37% above that. Cetlin & Wilson held the con- tract the last eight years: Carnival grossed $123,014 : at the 1953 fair* and Fair board received $42,640. Barnes, Carruthers Theatrical Enterprises, Chicago, retained the grandstand show contract for the 22nd year when the board* ac- cepted its bid of half the gross after taxes by a margin of one vote. Ernie Young Shows of Chi- cago also bid, asking first $10,000 plus 50% of the take.; Gross has been in the neighborhood of $50,- 000. . Irish Hogan’s Lucky Hell Driv- ers, New York, won the thrill show contract on a flat 50% split. Open meeting was forced when one bidder threatened injunction proceedings if contracts were awarded in secret session. As Sennes’ Moulin Rouge Hollywood, Dec. 29. Renovated at a cost of approxi- mately $140,000, the former Earl Carroll Theatre Restaurant opened Christmas Night. (25) as Frank Sennes’ Moulin Rouge. Spot was Unveiled to the press at a special party Monday night (21). Seating 1,000, room will operate on a $5 per person package deal, including dinner and one cocktail. Donn Arden is producing shows slated to run an hour and 45 min- utes twice nightly, utilizing chorus line of 30 girls and six male dancers. Bob Snyder helms the band. Lori Clarke of Cincinnati is general manager, and Marcel La- maza the maitre. Huge murals of Paris plus Toulouse-Lautrec pos- ters around the bar give illusion of a giant; Parisian sidewalk cafe. Xmas opening fell on 15th an- niversary of the original unveiling as Carroll’s. Kay Ashton-Stevens Not ON Interfiling memorabilia af the time Ashton Stevens Inter- viewed the liar and. even In the heyday of vaadevllle, he details Why George M. Cohan Got Out of Vaudeville * * e a bright byline pleee In the 48th Anniversary Number of Variety OCT NEXT WEEK Tokyp, Dec. 22. Enthused by the smashing suc- cess of Louis Armstrong's current tour of Japan, Joseph C. Glaser, Associated Booking Corp. prexy, hew~t«rTfCTsonaliy^h^dlrhts~ord client, told Variety he will' open a Japan branch of ABC early next year. This will mark the initial entry of U. S. booking agents into the country. Glaser said the country offers a vast and lucrative market for west- ern artists and that he is only sor- ry that he did not initiate his plan three years earlier. He is current- ly negotiating for a Japan tour for Phil Spitalny and the: All-Girl Or- chestra and said he hoped to bring ! either Lionel Hampton, Duke El- lington or Sugar Ray 1 RObinson to the Far East soon. The Pee Wee King show is also being considered as one of the early attractions in the new ABC venture. Armstrong came to Japan on a two-week-with-option deal and was slated to go from here to Hong Kong and Singapore. However, af-■! ter the boff Opening at Tokyo’s j Nichigeki and Ernie Pyle Theatres, managers of U. S. Army and Air Force enlisted men and officers'; clubs began deluging Glaser with ] offers for the Armstrong show which were so lucrative that the rest of the Asian tour was can- celled, and Armstrong has been ■ booked more than solid until his departure Dec. 30 for Honolulu. Die That Crazy Dateline > By the quirk of the International Dateline, Armstrong pulls the unique feat of playing a /Tokyo, date on Dec. 29 and opening in ! Honolulu, 2.700 air miles and 131 - ’ - . . ’ 1 _ ' s PARIS BAL TABARIN IS | BOUGHT BY EX-ACROBAT Paris, Dec. 29. [’ Jean Bauchet, former acrobat, is new owner of the Bal Tabarin, ; here. Bauchet bought the property ! at auction last week for 28,000.000 ' francs (around.$80,000), outbidding ; two others. He had been previously : connected with * the casino at / Marrakech, Morocco. I The Bal Tab, one of the oldest I and better known cafes in Paris, had an upset price of $45,000. Nitery’s downfall started with the i death of former topper Pierre; Sandrini some years ago, Mme. i Sandrini, widow of ’ the for-j : mer director, has been feuding ] with other ow ners, which accel -\ 1 erated the spot’s decline. The Bal ! Tab was famous for its big produc- j tion numbers. Switch to vaude spe- j cialties didn’t help the spot during ! the last days of its career. j High Op Costs Hastened Collada Into Cannery Biz Benito Collada, boniface at El Chico, N. Y., one of the oldest Latin niteries around, is starting to process a line of canned foods. Plant will be located in Tew York near his nitery in Greenwich Vil- lage. Canning operations start Jan. 6. Collada feels that cafe business will not improve until the Gov- ernment repeals the 20% .excise tax on nitery tabs. Cafe employ- ment for musicians, acts and others has been dwindling mainly because of the extra impost, he says. hours away, on the next day. He leaves Tokyo oh the morning of the 30th (Tokyo time) and arrives In Honolulu late on the 30th (Hono- lulu time). — iris _ fl"en(mlr the~Armeci Forces r 7 Which have been responsible for the phenomenal success pf the - Armstrong show—he’s been boff with the Nipponese also. In Osaka, where he played two days, he broke all house records. His Tokyo shows were all SRO and if com- mitments allowed it he could prob- ably work continuously here for another two or three months in Japanese spots alone. In addition to b.o. popularity, Armstrong has been receiving the best of press notices and has been overwhelmingly popular with Japa- nese musicians. In contract to the recent hassle over the 10% pay- ment from Norman Granz’s, "Jazz at the Philharmonic” musicians to the Japanese Federation of Musi- cians,’ Armstrong has hot even been asked for the payment and he has been made a permanent hon- orary member of JFM, with the other members of the troupe taken in on a temporary basis while here. The Hot Jazz Society of Japan has also made him an honorary member and the Spapish Embassy here has entertained him,. AT THE PALACE again LEONARDO opd/ , ANITA The Original 3D Ventriloquists Mgt.; JACK KALCHEIM COMEDY MATERIAL For AH Branekot of Thaofricab FUN-MASTER THi ORIGINAL SNOW-BIZ GAG FILM (Tha Sorvico of «Ko STARS) First 13 SIM IS.**—All 35 Issvas Ml Singly: 11.15 Each IN SEQUENCE ONLY Saginning ,wHh No. 1—No SklHlngl • 3 Ski. PARODIES, oar book SI# • O MINSTREL BUDGET:....... 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