Variety (November 1954)

64 VAUDEVILLE PfiRribfir Wednesday, November 17, 1954 By LARRY SOLLOWAY Miami Beach, Nov. 16, Straight night., clubs and the- atre - restaurants in the greater Miami area are in for rough, com- petition this season. , This will come: from the &wank oceanfront hotels who have set or tentatively, booked the better musical units and cafe names, while the club operators are still dickering for the highbracket stars that can provide the bull power they need to bring the patrons out of the. hostels and into their plush confines. With official extension of operat- ing hours, hotel owners have gone all out in lining up those they be- lieve are the type of attractions different from the local night club pattern. Typical is the Saxony, .first tO set a complete lineup. Own- er George Sax and general man- ager George E. Fox are switching from the act policy which obtained. recent years to a predominantly unit idea. Teeing off for the winter will be Perez Prado and his group, plus the Hurtado de Cordoba flamenco dancers, breaking away from the. concert stages to essay their first cafe appearance. Ted Lewis and company follow, with Xaxier Cu- gat-Abbe Lane and their produc- tion set for February. March will the Dorsey Bros, aggregation, plussed by variety acts such as they utilized on their tv show last summer. Bert Novae and his associates are following the same basic policy, (Continued on page 661 ♦ —T-7 —— = * r—-7- Tilly Reed Gees L’Apache Billy Reed’s Little Club, N. Y., will intro a talent policy Monday .f22 > with L’Apache (Andre Tofel) to sing .at the supper shows. . C.han- teur appeEU-ecl briefly last season on WABC-T.V, New York, and. is the discovery of silent filmsler Carmel Myers wife of Paramount pix exec A. W. Schwalbcrg, It’s Tofcl’s cafe bow in N. Y. The British agents are making their annual invasion of tne U.S; The forthcoi mg variety season at the Palladium,.London, starting in March, is causing some, of the tqp percenters to come here in an ef- fort to get talent comitments. Now in the U.S. are Harry Foster, head of the Foster Agency. 'who has a tiei with the William Morris Agency. Bernie. ..Delfbnt, arrived yesterday (Tues.), and Charles Tucker is in the U.S. doing some talent gandering. Also due tne U.S. iff about a week is David Martin, of the Ti- voli Circuit, Australia. Martin was in New York a couple of weeks ago for a briefie and planed off to Lo«- don; herb and belly warner "A REFRESHINGLY DIFFERENT SONG DUO" Currently le ruban bleu NEW YORK Thanks to the Meles and Julius Monk Mgt,: BERNIE ILSON To Produce Tour Units Hollywood, Nov. 16. Jack Entrattcr Enterprises has been organized to produce nitery shows and vidfilms. Entratter, as prexy, will continue to do. shows for the Sands, Las Vegas- but will also put together units for the vaude and nitery circuit. He's now prepping “Sands. Fol- lies” for which he has a 30*week guarantee in South America. Chicago, Nov. 16. Live entertainment. is returning to Windy City theatres, possibly in a double dose this winter. Chicago Theatre reverts back to stageshows on Dec. 17 after nine weeks of “Star Is Born.*’ which has left the city void of a single presentation house for the first time in many years. Now management of the Orien- tal Theatre also indicates it may rejoin the vaude sweepstakes after generally good results with a straight pic policy since early 1952.. Oriental, however, is booked tight with CinemaScopers through Janu- ary of, next year and probably won’t set an in-the-flesh show until after that time; It’s: not certain yet, either, whether the house’s stage policy will be regular or occasional. Excellent results with vaude at the Chicago this past year tips off the thinking that there^s still a good market for live shows in this town. If the Oriental takes to stage- shows again, it’ll be a boon to local booking agents who have sorely missed, presentation houses in re- cent years and ha*Ve had to in- crease their pitch at club dates to compensate. Chicago, per xtsual, will be booked through United Paramount in New York.. Dec. 17 two-framer will headline Don Cornell and feature an ice revue. It’s to be followed on the 31st with Julius La Rosa, Kitty Kallen, Gary Morton and Phil Law- rence.& Mitzi, COPA SET INTO FEB. Jules: Podell’s Copacabana, N.Y.,; has a talent lineup extending into; February. Spot has signed head- liners including Frank Sinatra, Dennis Day, Billy Daniels “'and others. Following the current run of Nat (King! Cole, Copa has Myron Cohen and the Kean Sisters, with The Vagabonds taking over on Dec. 9. Sinatra and the De Marco Sisters move in Dec. 23, with Denpis Daiy following Jan. 13. Billy ] Daniels succeeds him on Feb. 17. Jerry Lester Inked For _ j Theatre Date in Aussie Jerry Lester has been sighed for his , first theatre date in some time. He’s been set for the .Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne; Australia starting Dec. 1, for ai mi imum of seven weeks. Uavid N. Marti , Tivoli circuit producer; is building a show around the comic. By Happy Benway Saranac Lake, N.Y., Nov. 16. New arrivals at the Will Rogers hospital, Edward (IATSE) Jacobi, with ABC’ (in for the usual check- up). Sonya Spieker of vaude and nitery, and Francis J. McDonald of Philly. Henrietta Vieta On visit from Variety Clubs-Will Rogers pa- tients were flooded with letters and cards results of the Sunshine Shower from Don McNeill’s Break- fast Club program over WABC, Write to those who are 111. On Fees as N.Y. •t The new La Martinique, N.Y. 0 & J Up Takes Chicago, Nov. 16, Olsen 9t Johnson’s “Pardon My Antennae” now is selling tix through Dec. 4, after ' threatening to close two weeks ago. Sudden biz sptiit is attributable, to an* upbeat in conventions here and the wear- ing off in time of unanimous pans in the four daily newspapers. Vaude show, .playing legit-style on the Selwyn stage, did healthy biz last week, largely with the help of 4,000 petroleum men holding conclave here. Take Hits 171G f Sydney, Nov. 9. Gross take at 22 Lpiiis Arm- strong jazz concerts at Sydney and Melbourne fight arenas was huge by local standards at $171,000. Two cities contributed $76,500 and $94,-. 500, respectively. Sydney, nut was smaller, although it’s the bigger town. However, Melbourne was in carnival mood for the Satchmo sea- son, with its annual Cup Race meeting attracting the usual influx of visitors. Armstrong boxoffice was even bigger than Johnnie Ray’s, accord- ing to promoters of the stadium shows, Americans Lee Gordon and Berth Reyes. Gordon has left for the States to audition talent. He’s visiting Holly- wood, Las Vegas and New York and is due back in Sydney in around ten days. Next Importation to come under the Gordon management is Billy Daniels, slated to plane in Dec. 3 with Dave Barry and pianist Benny Payne. Daniels will be here' 10 days, and will appear in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane On a tight sked, Gordon outfit charters planes to keep its imported names hop- ping between keys. . [ Nat (King) Cole won’t be here, until January. June Christy’s on I the Cole bill pf fare, Vaude, Cafe Dates New York De Marcos have signed for the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria, Feb.; 3 Jenny Collins is set for the same show . . Kitty Kallen and Julius LaRosa paired for the Chicago The- atre, Chicago, Dee. 31 . . . Lewis & Phillips pacted. for the Vogue Terrace, Pittsburgh, Nov. 29 . . . Jules “Buddy” Raymond, formerly teamed with Charles Gregory ajnd prior to that with the Milt Britton band, is being sought by his family . . , Ruth Price is a; newcomer to the Village Vanguard, N. Y., show, which opened last night (Tues.) . . . Tony . Bennett, current at Sciolla’s, Philadelphia, pacted for two weeks at Copa City, Miami Beach, Dec. 24, Omaha Calypso Eddie troupe (5) opened at Don Hai inond’s Seven Seas Friday (12) . . Dorsey & Fiore, comics, playing 0maha’s newest nitery, Cafe Del Monico. Frank Pane, ex-nitery singer, is the man- ager. operation is being forced to change its formatvfrom a headliner spot: to a. jazz operation, according to spokesmen for : the Cafe. The spot has booked Cab Calloway to open Friday, and will forsake any at- tempts .to get other types of head- liners. One of the operators claimed that the lack of cooperation front talent agencies is .forcing the switch. It’s charged that the cafes have been withholding their top names and what they have been offering are .at inflated prices. They hope that with a jazz policy, they’ll be able to get some name performers in that' field and thus be able to skirt some of the talent agencies that have been denying them their topliners. The talent agencies, on the other hand, have a fairly qnifofm story, stating that there have been wide variations on the prices that the performers are asking and the salaries, being offered by La Mar- tinique. In some instances, it’s de- clared, the acts have taken cuts, but wouldn’t shave their price deep enough to meet La Martinique bids. Agency -men declare, that it’s to their best interests to encourage La Martinique to remain on the N.Y. nitery scene. Currently; New York is a difficult city to spot sev- eral categories of acts and La Martinique offers some relief from that situation. On the other hand, La Marti- nique also claims that the outlying niteries, such as Ben Maksik’s Town & Country, Brooklyn; Boule- vard, Rego Park, L.I., and the Ele- gante, Brooklyn, are getting names that should rightfully go to La Martinique. Larry. Myers, who formerly headed the cocktail department of Mercury Artists Corp., has joined Spotlight Attractions, N. Y. WHEN IN BOSTON It's the HOTEL AVERY The Home of Show Folk Avery A Washington Sts, Whon in Buffalo Stop at tho ROANOKE APARTMENT HOTEL An. Apartment lor the price of • Room Complete Coo King Facilities M. Leiichner, Mgr,, $06 So. Elmwood Av Currently Opening December 30th THUNDERBIRD, Las Vegas (Thanks HAL'BRAUDISI Personal Management FRED K. STEELE, Gen. Motors Bldg., New York