Variety (November 1954)

PICTURES Wednesday, November 17, 1954 Milwaukee Now Good Show Town Continued from pag* 2 ing his business but performing, a civic duty . A season pass is a mark of social distinction. First. Comes Baseball Baseball gets first' crack at the entertainment coin, and that’s left is earmarked forother. attractions. T.he Braves started selling season tickets a week after the close of the 1954 season: and. expect to have $1,000,000 in pledges before the team enters.spring training, Meanwhile, Milwaukee is getting a chance to view the top show biz attractions. It is a particularly hot one-night town. It has a municipally : \Vrted arena and auditorium, with seating capacities of .11,000 and 5,800, respectively M B6th houses l\ave been kppt especially busy, recently and their future booking sched- ules are crowded- lee and skating shows are arena favorites''and, it’s said, that almost ahy big ice show can get a Milwaukee date: Skating shows such as Harold Steininan’s “Hippodrome of 1955." the Hollywood Ice Revue, the Slripstads &t Johnson show, and the Sonja Henie offering nave played or will play the arena. The arena is also employed by the local, hockey team and for public skat- ing, The Shrine Circus and a num- ber of trade shows are also booked, for, the areha. The aud is a fave spot for one- riighters. The Stan Kenton crew drew 8,500 .recently and Jazz at the Philharmonic also chalked up good returns as did the Fred Waring show and “Biggest-Show of .1955," the. Moe Gale agency pack- age featuring Billy Eckstein and Peggy Lee.: Cafes Do “Nicely Nitery biz is also perking, with the local ops eyeing big names; Jimmy Fazio’s Supper Club, on the outskirts, of town, is the top local bistro. It has been featuring a series of disk names, including, the Grew Cuts, Don. Cornell,, Kitty Kalien, and The Billy Williams Quartet, Frances , Langford, and Rusty Draper. Fazio who m.c.'s his own show, has been telling his clientele that Frank .Sinatra and Tony Martin are possibilities if they can squeeze in dates between picture commitments. He’s had considerable success with teenage matinees on Sundays with a 75c admission.charge and serving cokes: and sandwiches; He sets up a -spe- cial room where the dungaree set can get autographs. The Towrie Room of the Towne Hotel is also on the prowl for names- impressionist Will Jordon, who has built up a following via numerous tv exposures, was a sock draw recently. Christine Jorgen- sen appeared at the Club/26 while the Tic Toe Club, across the street from the Schroeder Hotel, is featuring; semi-names known to mid west, fans. The town is also on a jazz kick, with three bistros on N. 3d Street booking the top jazz names. The White Pub has featured Louis Prim.a, The Four Fresnman, The Gaylords, Louis Jordan, and George Shearing. The Three Dolls has fea- tured Muggsy Spariicr and Jack Teagarden and Phil Napoleon. Schaler’s House of Jazz has booked Herbie Fields and Charlie Ventura. Many of the lesser known pubs are presenting musical combos while 1 about half a dozen others, are fea- turing strippers. The jazz spots are following a no cover, no mini- mum policy,, but . have raised t.ie price of drinks from 35c. to. 60c. Entertainment at these spots- is. an innovation, and dates from the time the Braves came to town. • George Devine’s Million Eioilar Hi Ballroom is booking the top dance hands. Wayhe King, Les Brown, Billy May, Charlie Spivak, Dick Jurgens and Buddy Morrow ate some of the aggregations being of- fered.. Television is also ap important ; entertainment medium in Mil? waiikee with three stations cur-' rerttly Operating and a fourth set to bow shortly. The CBS outlet, WCAN-TV, is a UHF station and serves, perhaps, as the best exam- ple of convertibility to the higher band, claiming that 80% of the city’s set owners have provided for. UHF reception... The newest sta-^ tion, WOKY-TV, will also be on the UHF, band. On VHF are WTNJ- TV, the NBC outlet,.. and WTVW which gets the ABC and DuMont shows. With the end. Of the baseball sea- son, film business .has been pick- ing up and films are holding over for ; two or- more weeks, something new for ,this area. Wisconsin Ave- nue, the city’s main street, appears crowded with first-run deluxe houses, but ail report Satisfactory business.. The riabe houses are also, doing okay. Legit arid Civic Pride Civic pride, Started by baseball, is spreading to the legit field. Un- der the direction of Frederick C. Miller, prexy of the Miller Brew- ing Co., a .$105,000 fund is being solicited to establish a permanent local professional theatre, the City Circle theatre. Group has taken over an old film house, the Oak-; land, and hopes to convert it to an arena-style theatre. Travelling legit showS have been few, but those that come in have drawn good business; Only one legit house remains in town, the Pabst Theatre. The old Davidson is now being torn down. However, two film houses—-the Wisconsin and Pala,ce-T-are used occasionally for' legit shows, particularly for musi- cals: ‘The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" road edition was a sock draw recently and “Seven Year Itch," starring Eddi Bracken, is booked for the Pabst. While baseball has resulted in a general resurgence of entertain- ment here, not every one in town is happy. Some of the smaller restaurants are complaining, point- ing out. that those heading for the night games' don’t have time to stop in for dinner or those who stay home to listen don’t go out for dinner. It’s noted that the rest of the city might as well shut down on the night Of the baseball game. Hotel space is beginning to get scarce. and there’s been talk of new building. A parking lot re- portedly has been taken over for a hotel site and the Schroeder is planning an addition. If more hotel space can be obtained, it’s felt that the city can make a bid for some of the bigger conventions which usually hit Chicago. The Schroeder is the class hotel'and has a plush room in the Empire Room which features the outstanding so- ciety, orehs, such as Benny Strong and Gay Claridge. Twice a year it veers from the band only policy to present Hildegarde, a hometowner, and Carl Brisson. Among Milwaukee’s Ion grange plans is a new Memorial Center, on the iakefront which would have a theatre suitable for legit and con- certs.. The/city is looking forward to the future with optimism, feel- ing that it has only started to grow. Once, tli St. Lawrence : seaway project is Completed, it’s felt Mil- waukee will become ah important port city, a factor that augurs well for all business, including show biz. Buy Lionel Shapiro Novel Off Doubleday Galleys “Of Hope and Glory/’ a three- quarter completed novel by Lionel Shapiro, has been acquired by 20th- Fox from advance galleyproofs. Doubleday is due to publish the. book in the spring. Deal provides for 20th to pay a minimum of $65,000 and. a maxi- mum of $125,000 to Shapiro, de- pending on the success.of the tome. "Of Hope and. Glory" (tentative; title), is a lovfe 1 story laid against a wartime background. :Cont|nued from page 7 Shelton, Times Films sales topper. Pic stands to earn anywhere be- tween $250,000 and $300,000 in rentals. Odd aspect of this year’s" for- eign fiim derby .has been the lack of strong Italian entries. This doesn’t include two recent new- comers, “Aida," which shapes strong in N..Y. , and “Bread, Love and Dreams" for which Italian Tilms Export has great hopes, parr ticularly since it stars the much- publicized Gi Lollobrigida. Intriguing angle about both “Hulot" and “Happiness” * that neither is outstanding on. an ar- tistic level and the critics had no hesitancy Saying so. ’54 Film BrO. Continued from pate 1 MDIO CUT MUSIC IMU_„ Rockefeller Center- Mr Kp s “WHITE CHRISTMAS’ in VlstaVIflon starring BING CROSBY > DANNY KAYE ROSEMARY CLOONEY • VERA ELLEN Color by Technicolor 1 •. A Paramount Pi and tnencvui JIAtt nuniTATIIR IN PERSON ;••• m • • • AND HIS ENTIRE TV CAST *6N SCMHN ClIIMli ■uPf -WARNCTCOLO - •JULMf UBBinlWUM BEAT; PARAMOUNT rw* tAT • 4ur f excluding Federal taxes, fell from $1,499,500,000 in 1946 to $1,007,- 500,000 in 1953, representing a 33% lopdff. COMPO Says a simul- taneous drop of 44% in admissions was accompanied by a 25% in- crease in operating costs, for the- atremen arid an increase of 20V6% in the average admission price. Attendance began to improve early this year, it’s said. For the first quarter, gross . business amounted to $216,100,000, or about $5,500,000 under the same period of 1953. This was an improvement in that the rate of decline had, lessened^ The second quarter of the cur- rent year brought a gross of $270,- 300.000. . compared with $227,700,- 000'for the corresponding 1953 pe : riod, representing a gain of $42,- 600.000, or 18.7%. COMPO attributes the money gain to two sources: 44% from upped attendance and 56% -from that part of reduced admission taxes which were retained by ex- hibitors as part of ticket prices. The Federal admissions tax 'was cut to 10%, from 20%, effective last April 1. The COMPO survey further found that peak attendance is now registered in the third calendar quarter of each year. Prior to 1952 this was. the lowest period. The switch is attributable to the new importance of drive-ins, which now account for nearly liklf of the country’s weekly attendance dur- ing July and August. As of last AUg. 1, states COMPO, there were 18.251 active theatres, comprising 14,310 conventional houses and 4,050 ozoners. Average . admission price in the second, quarter of this year was 47.33c, of which 3.28c was Fed- eral tax and 44.05 was net to the- atres. This total price represents a gain of 4.16c in theatre net over the price of a year earlier. It amounts to 10.4%; If the entire tax cut. savings had been retained by theatres—a portion, was passed on to the public—the increase, in the. exhibitors’ net would have been 12%, COMPO points out/ on Council of Motion Picture Organization reports ‘ theatre admis- sions in a comeback.. The downward trend that began in 1946 and the upturn in the second quarter of the current year“are shown Figures for the third, quarter of 1954 were not fully ready but in July the average weekly attendance was up to 72,500,000 and in August 80,100,000. Council of Motion Picture Organizations this week began dis- tribution of 10,000 copies of a booklet detailing steps to be taken by the industry in combatting state arid local admission taxes. Robert W. Cpyne, COMPO special counsel, said it is going to the Various exhib tax committees in the field, regional press relations committees and all COMPO members. Booklet warns that 44 state legislatures convene this year and ahy one Of these could be a source of more tax trouble. It’s fur- ther .noted, that the American Municipal Assn., with a claimed membership of 12,000 municipalities, reportedly- is taking the position that Congress cut the, Federal adrrfissions level so that local governments might move in for a tax grab. False, says COMPO. The industry organization offers statistics purporting to show how.the percentage of theatre closings is higher in areas which now have local taxation on tickets. Exhibs are urged to. organize committees, iri their respective areas and to seek out anti-tax com- mitments from law-maitirs on all levels. Continued from page 2 least when compared to Mainland operation, opened with Helen For- vAcation centers, and. there’s a dis- tinct lure that keeps hotels • filled Virtually year-round... Travel sources sky Hawaii can set a goal of 300,000 to 500,000 Visi- tors a year in the next decade. Within live years, it can expect a $140,000,000 a year influx of tour- ist dollars. This boom is attribut- ed largely to the advent of low- cost tourist air fares, plus the new- er travel loan gimmick. About 100 overseas flights come into Hono- lulu each week, the majority of them catering to the box-lunch air- coach traffic. in .1940, Waikiki—which is a state of mind as well as a genuine, if small, district of Honolulu—had only 1,400 hotel rooms. By next spring, with the opening of the Waikiki-Biltmore and Princess Kailulani Hotels, there’ll be 3,400 rooms and more in the offing. Hotelroom Dearth Lack of hotel rooms has been a sad bottleneck since World War II and even now hundreds of tourists who arrive by ship in the a m. wait hours before they can get into rooms vacated by guests leaving later that day on the samri ship. Competition is mor% brisk than ever, not only among hotels but in nitery circles. The lavish new Biltmore operation may set the pace, though its show policy is yet to be announced. It’s tough for a nitery to ac- curately slant for tourist dollars, for the vacationists can’t be typed. They jam luxury suites at the Royal Hawaiian and Halequlani, and they crowd low-cost housekeeping apartments. They breakfast at economy drug counters and dine at Don the Beachcomber’s.. They rent chauffeured limousines arid they ride streetcars. They saunter out i white dinner jackets or cot- ton sports shirts. Even Hawaii’s military popula- tion, which contributes lavishly to niteries, defies type-casting. In general, they’re heavy spenders, though GIs stationed here insist on getting What they consider their money’s worth. With Schofield Barracks now .housing the Army’s huge 25th Division, lots more serv- ice cash’ is flowing, though it’s still a heavy Navy town. How do you lure Hawaii’s tour- ist and Gi dollars and also get home towners to spend? If you have a pat formula, a, lot of Hono- lulu clubs and taverns would love to hear, from you. Donn E. R. G. Beach (Don the Beachcomber) merely shifted his surefire Polynesian atmosphere from the- Mainland to the heart of Waikiki and, after some early re- verses caused' by shipping and dock strikes) emerged as a major grosser. Good showmanship, good iood arid, good drinks help. His entertainment is Polynesian, with Alfred Apaka back as head- liner. That’s the only name Beach wants or needs, for the atmosphere invariably overshadows the pro talent. Tourists, who have pre-con- ceiveti ideas about romantic Hawaii, want Island entertain- ment, and that’s what they get at the Royal Hawaiian, Moana, Edge- waiter and Niumalu hotels. .' Nightclubs such South Seas and Lau Yee. Chai go in for name and semirname headliners. Delta Rhythm Boys are back at the for- mer emporium and Arthur Walsh is in the midst of a long run in the latter’s Gung Ho Lourige, The new Clouds, an intimate penthouse rest and now has Rita Ray. It’s a grand showcase for song stylists, incidentally. ‘ ' Western music is featured at several downtown pubs which cater largely to GI trade, Japa- nese entertainment, brought in Isom Tokyo, draws solidly at Club Ginza, the Oasis arid a few sec- ondary locations. The\Brown Derby has the Blinky Allen Quartette, with Linda Hop- kins shoutin’ the blues. (Same spot, which has hosted Louie. Arm- strong, Red Norvo and Gene Krupa in times past, flopped on a short-lived switch to \yestern music.) Ramp Davfs Quintette and Gwen Dunbar, from Los Angeles, hold out at the Trade Winds, downtown spot which advertises “the jiveiest jazz in town.” Several locations, notably res- taurant bars, feature pianists or organists, with Paul Lingle tick- ling the 88’s at Giro’s, Lau Yee Chai caters to local and tourist dancing enthusiasts in its huge main dining room and LeRoy’s h Freddie Norton’s orch. One of the most successful spots is the Niur- malu Hotel’s Canoe Room* which bids for tourists in early evening with a Hawaiian floor show, then draws heavy localite trade and more varied entertainment. Spence Weaver, Hawaii’s top Operator, concentrates live Ha- waiian talerit in tlie op-beacii Queen’s Surf, although Momi Jones is playing piano in his Gour- met. Sky Room and. Fisherman’s Wharf, however, are sans enter- tainment, although Weaver might be smart to restore live talent to the latter room. Weaver's closest competitors, <Tony and Peaches Guerrero, op- erate both of their Tropics with- out entertainment, but Pete Canlis utilizes pianist at. his swauk Broiler. Top Talent Outlet South Seas today is a. top outlet for Mainland name talent. Com- bine brings in a name act and then takes over Civic Auditoriui or McKinley Auditorium for one or two special shows built around the same act. Same unit some- times can get military base book- ings, with headliner doubling at the South Seas. If the drawing power is there, riiucho profit can result, but one or two flops (it has happeaned!) are costly. Spot ? s closest rival, Lau Yee .Chai, op- erates on a smaller nut. Can entertainers make money, i Hawaii?. Maybe.' It depends upon the spot, the promotion, and of course the contract terms—and you’d better read that small; type carefully before ypii sign., . One caution: if you’re in lirie for a Hawaii booking, clean up your routine arid leave, the', risque songs home. Even if some 'nitery op- erators would love to see Haw ii liberalize its divorce laws and start competing with Nevada for the quick! divorce trade, there's a strong, staid missionary influence in the Islands. (That’s one reason why a Bikini bathing suit is as rare on Waikiki beach as a $20 gold coin.) Smut and/or nudity just, don’t get by here. If you accept a Haw ii booking as a happy, sometimes hectic, combination of work and vacation, you’ll like the 'sipcere, warm aloha (welcome) you’ll, experience dur- ing your stay. If you're out to make money and nothing else. Watch out. For even if Honolulu is a socko nitery. lield right now, it still has a maddening, frustrat- ing “Hawaiian style" way of doing business.