Variety (June 1954)

/ 2 V'.-r *>?}* 'i'M ' v»- Ml^CKIXA^Y ■***+.?'*'T9*_* We^Mdaji Jime % 1054 f» ♦ Actors Get Lesson irt Fine Points of Lew From Julian Vs. ‘Red Channels^ ■ Entertainment circle* In Man- hattan last week were widely dis* cussing the ressons-why for the failure of the. suit of * radio actor* narrator, Joe Julian, fo stand up in court against “Red-Channels." The legalistic fine joints for the dis- missal of the acU&U'W*re lost upon: show folk who have learned that no charge ,can be leveled against any. performer more damaging career-wise than the charge of be- ing, haying been, or tending to be, a follower of Communist Party fronts. By contrast it would hardly ruffle anybody’s feathers to be branded a psycho, homo or wino. yet Justice Irving H. Saypdl in N. y. Supreme. Court saw no proved damage. . ' The surprise anti-climax was the more startling to entertainers be- cause great store had been put in an off total of the Milton Blow ad- vertising agency, Charles Martih, testifying that Julian was one of many barred from acting jobs by reason of the inclusion of his name among 150 in the “Red Channels” catalog. Edward R. Murrow, Rob- ert Saudekj Morton Wishengrad and Charles Collingwood, all re- spectable figures, had also testified for the actor. But the very esteem and confidence they expressed with regard to Julian seems to have un- dercut his charge of having been “damaged.” How could be have such Important admirers and still be a pariah In broadcasting be- cause of his listing? That seemed to be the interpretation. $150,000 Action Julian’s action for $150,000 was against American Business Con- sultants, Inc., publishers of “Coun- ter-Attack,” the newsletter, and its issued-once-only book. His attorney was Arthur Garfield Hays, famed (Continued on page 63) . Films Help Woo Red Youths To Dandridge as ‘I * Hollywood, • Jupe. 1. Ofto Pjfemipger sighed Dorothy Dandridge for the title role in the film “version of Oscar Hammer* stein's- "Carmen Jones,” Previ- ously .signed were Pearl Bailey, Harry Belafonte and Olga James: Picture will be made in Cinema- Scope for 20th-Eox release, start- ing June 30, with Herschel Burke Gilbert as musical director. * TWA Asks $725-$U00 West Berlin Washington, June 1 ..Hollywood films, including one or more in Cinemascope and 3-D will be among attractions offered in West Berlin >his Saturday (5) Sunday and Monday, to show the free world’s advantages to boys from East Germany. Communist East Germany wil be staging a Youth Rally during the three days. Two years ago when the last such rally was. held thousands of the youngsters in vaded West Berlin where they were given plenty of food, gifts entertainment and sports, as a re minder of life outside the Iron Curtain. This time the Communists sire being a lot more careful. They are keeping the rally much smaller and will try to' prevent the boys from crossing into West Berlin. • But the West will seek to get them there with exhibitions and, 'entertainment, including the films, Boy Scout and 4-H exhibits, a con- cert of the Berlin Symphony Orch, etc. U. S. film industry has been asked to cooperate in making the motion pictures available.- HORACE! HEIDT ♦ Currently On Tour Under Personal Management WALTER PLANT Strike Vote June 10 Television Writers of America, still considerably, apart” fh>m the network on the amount ofcpin to be paid for half-hour and "hour tele scripts, is Referring a .strike issue to its general membership onJUqe 10. The group's national execs board is empowered to order the strike if the approximated 400 members vote in favor of one. Concurrent meetings will be held June 10 in New York and Los An- geles for the outfit’s two regional bodies, at which time write-in bal- lots will be counted. Both units will wire results to each other, with the N.Y. returns expected first. TWA indicated that all minor contract issues between its writers and'the networks have been satis- factorily ironed out, the. issue*of money is the only one remaining. At latest report TWA wanted $1,200 and $725 for hour and half- hour scripts respectively. The webs, according to TWA, .want* to pay $600 and $350. Since the hassle began several days ago webs have come up from $425 and $330, and TWA down from $4,800 and $1,000. The strike action would be against NBC, ABC and CBS, and concerns only freelance-tv network scripters. Both the western apd ?eastern re- gions of TWA voted for th^ upcom- ing strike referendum at meetings last week. Western prexy Ben Starr said at the time that negotiations, on for 10 months,* had reached the crucial stage. If twp : thirds of the membership okays the strike, TWA’s exec board can* issue a restraining order re- quiring members to . withhold scripts from the three networks. Starr termed network offers as “ridiculous.” He said that if strike is called he plans to appeal to all show bi 2 crafts to honor TWA picket lines. He will further seek the support of the Screen Writers Guild. . • - the Authors League, of America OLIVIA TO WED SCRIBE NEXT MONTH IN PARIS Paris, June 1. jPierre Galante, feature writer on Paris-Match (the French ver- sidh of Life) and Olivia de Havil- land expect to get married here next month, When she is en route from Madrid to London. By that ttpie the 300 days necessary by French law since her divorce last September from scripter Marcus Goodrich will have elapsed. She is currently in Madrid— locale is there and Seville for “That Lady,” based on a Somerset Maugham story, scripted by Sy Bartlett and v Anthony Veiller, di- rected by Terence Young. Costar is Gilbert Roland. After the Span- ish locales, the picture completes in London. The way haK been cleared Wi* the Autho: to recover Wh*t members call abfllty to act on something ' other than*Television jurisdiction.” for. the past five years the League and most of the member guilds have been hogtied by both jealous strife mid different honest opinion within the family. Now t.ere will be a.vote of Authors League membership, about 8,000 in alL That-will be by June'29 .ballot and wilLconstitution- * ally allow the Screen Writer* Guild to Sever* its "affiliation” and the Radio Writers Guild tp disengage from the League as a mem- tocr'Roild# ■ Since tie idivbrce becomes-"fittri? in 60 days, this means that on Sept. 1 there will be an Author* League of stage, magazine and book writers aria .an American Writers Guild or Assn, com- prising screen, tv grid radio scrivener*. What part of the RWG debt the League must “eat” is still iff negotiation. Also outstand- ing is some $10,000 loaned to the radio bunch by the Dramatists Guild, which has long been tpe best-heeled component unit. An original plan to .use . the designation, Assn, of- Radio, Tele- vision arid Screen Writers (ARTS would be resultant* abbreviation), has been abandoned. Actually, there is another American Writers Assn., although.rather inactive. .This was a group formed some years back by Dorothy Thompson, John Dos. Passos and others. There iS-some talk that the Society of Magazine Writers, purely, a Manhattan group, and possibly the Mystery Writers of America might be more prone to merge into the* Authors League now that the long hassle over tv jurisdiction is out of the way. League,. in regaining its freedom to concentrate on its own problems and let tv worry about tv, is expected* to become more aggressive in ■ many.directions. .. "?} v T ’. ■ " •” *>' >!> - " i! "* *"■’ Amusement Park Pork r ■_ Credited To Carnivals - ; ". Scenes In Many Films Chicago, June 1. Profusion of 'carnival* and high* ride scenes in last year’s pix is credited,- by concessionaires Tor giving amusement parks ! “a mil- lion dollars worth of free promo- tion.” Riverview Park, Chicago’s equivalent of Coney Island, had its heftiest season in" its 50-year his- tory in 1953. Ride operators as well as the candy butchers account for the increase-in traffic by the over ABC in a Facts Forum pro- unintended advertisement in such gram. He-proved articulate, plio- films as ““This Is Cinerama,” ■ - - - By HOBERT J. LANDRY Eugene W. Castle, founder and president of Castle'Films (which he sold to Universal for $3,000,000), made hjs debut, as, a television panelist Sunday (30) at 1 p.m. Dietrich Set for $3,500 1-Nighter in Belgium London, June 1. - Marlene Dietrich, who is skedded to play four weeks at the Cafe de Paris here, beginning June 21, has accepted an offer to do a one-night stand at the Knocke Casino, Bel- gium. It is reported she will re- ceive $3,500 for" this engagement. The one-nighter will take place during Miss JDietrich’s Cafe de Paris stint. She will plane to Bel- gium on a Sunday morning and re- turn to London the following day. On the conclusion of her cafe date here; Miss • Dietrich goes on ad extensive GI tour in Europe. SUES GLENN FORD He’s Refusing to Finish ‘Ameri- cano’ After Brazil Deal Church Gross Quadrupled Minneapolis, June 1. In contrast to*,the experience of hundreds of film - theatres and many other amusements in the ter- ritory, receipts of churches in the Northwest synod of the United Lu- theran Churches in America are on uptrend, it was reported at the synod’s convention here. During the/past decade they’ve, quadrupled arid still are rising. Churches’ 1953 receipts totaled $4,120,651, as compared to only about $1,000,000 in 1943, the Rev. M. R. Moll, * synod statistician, pointed out. V ' ' Story of Three Loves, Fugitive,’ 7 “Lili,” ‘Man On Tight T-nk togenid, unabashed, unapologetic, liittie i nee diing and highly aggressive. Seldom is such a forceful person- rope, and Strangers on a Train. a uty encountered in public .debate. But especially “Cinerama. CBS BANS ‘BANANAS’ DUE TO GIN BREATH Santa Monica, June 1. Glenn Ford’s refusal to com plete “The Americano” resulted in a $1,750,000 breach of contract suit brought by Robert Stillman Pro- ductions in Superior Court. . Complaint states that when pro duction of the picture was delayed in Brazil, Ford was given permis- sion to return to Hollywopd o_p_| ‘condition that he would finish his role whenTree from other commit- ments. - Now,* the plaintiff claims, the Stillman company has a deal with RKO to complete the picture, start- ing June 7, but Ford refuses to work in it. ■ ..Spokesman for Stillman says the actor was paid $62,500 in cash and was to collect $62,500 more, * in addition to 20% of the profits. Subscription Order Worm Enclosed find check for. $ Please send VARIETY for Two^Years 6/2 To (Pleat* Print Natn*> Street City Zone State, Regular Subscription Rotes One Yeaiw$10.00 Two Years—$18.00 Canada and Foreign—$1 Additional per Year 154 West 46th Street UfoaETY Inc. ....I N»vy York, 34. N. Y. Dudley’s Cuban Studio Hollywood, June 1. Carl Dudley Productions is building a new motion picture stu- dio in Cuba to serve as a base of operations for the filming of six features. / Richard Goldstone, executive producer, announced that pictures will be shot in Mexico and South America. Initial film will be “Fan- dango,” starting early next year. and now that they know about him other tv panels probably will use this fighting millionaire with his sharp arid ready tongue and high emotional Voltage. He has- - the . scrappiness of a soccer player,, and is approximately as polite. For the second 1 time in two What gave fhe Castle debut weeks, Columbia Broadcasting Sys- particular bite and pertinence tem has slapped the hand of^ its fj0r- show Biz and wcommunica- off-spring, Columbia Records. Last lions gentry Was the subject week, the''net banned the Colum- of the day: “How Effective 1$ bia platter “Song of the Sewer” American Propaganda . Abroad?” by Art Carney for being beneath -The barometric readings were all the web’s cultural standards. " extremely disturbed since the two Yesterday, CBS put the nix on’ professors on the panel, Charles the Coluiribia p’lattering of “Bunch Hodges of NYU arid John K. Nor- of Bananas,” on which Rosemary -ton of Columbia, were obviously as Clooney 'and Jose Ferrer are irritated by Castle as they wereir- paired. It's a special material bit ritafcle to Castle. He charged them by Ogden Nash and Dick Manning openly with the, crime of being the- about Ernest Hemingway’s jungle oretical and pointed to his own adventure after the plane craSh fact-finding visits to Europe, his ap- whejn he lived on bananas and gin. pearance before Congressional That last naughty word mustn't be 'committees as qualifying his ex- mentloned on-CBS. '■ pertness^ Because of the amount of time and energy consumed in per- sonal asides. and» Hardy Burt’s re- U.S. May Sympathetically peatedly having to bring the show Reexamine Chevalier Visa weigh t Lw°Zch'meat W wa'? , on d the Paris, June 1. bone of contention, but some Understood that people in high points worthy of deeper probing places in^Washington have become were eertdinly laid on the line, interested in Maurice Chevalier’s All foreign governments indulge lack of a U. S-visa, and will look in propaganda said the profs. Fid- into it. Recent stories in Variety dledee, said Castle, the. Russians and the more recent Art Buchwald were too smart to waste much time piece in the N. Y. Herald Tribune or money that way. They under- does and Gdtham editions) have stood, but the Yankees still don’t, attracted attention. that Europeans a vb nauseous from Chevalier has reiterated that he excess of propaganda during the is not interested in politics; that two decades dominated by Musso- his signaturing- of the Stockholm linl and Hitler, peace petition” was unwitting, and The U. S. Information A$hcy is so far as he knew at the time de- a reasonably successful activity, void of any political implications, argued the profs. Not true, shout- He found out otherwise only sub- e d the crusading millionaire, who sequent thereto, says the French quoted Senator McCarrari and Ted s * ar ’ Streibert, head of the USIA itself, to prove otherwise. Prof. Hodges u_li_ tri ed to put iji a good word for * J} an J" e * U#S 5 oew *. , Streibert, former president of a " actr <; ss - fijed W0R, but Castle seorhfuUy charac- a $25,000 suit m New York Su- terlz&d Streibert as the worst of preme Court last week against a n inept series of leaders in this Loew s, Inc. s ■ 'work. In the light of Castle’s ut- Actress charges tha.t her profes- ter frankness, it was perhans just sional name was used in the Metro as we n that nobody dragged in the picture “Dangerous When without her-authorization. Wet” II Europe’s 1st Drive-In At Rome Europe’s first drive-in theatre is due to open this summer on the parkway leading from Rome to the sea, ItaUan Films Export re- ports. - With a capacity for 200 cars, the installation will be located on the raised ground of Exposition City, described as “a favorite after-*- dark cooling-off spdt‘for the city’s residents.” name of Cecil B. DeMille, who is another of his favorite targets as one of those he blames, for squan- dering taxpayers' mone^ on stupid propaganda which, alienates rather than impresses European people. Too Emotional? David Garrity, a N. Y. book pub- lisher, .and also very, photogenic, was on Castle’s side of the argu- ment but his style was' more con- ventional. He; quoted Alfred Kohl- berg, whom he characterize^ as (Continued on page 34)