Variety (December 1954)

Wednesday, December 8, 1954 LEGITIMATE 55 Hello, Paree’ Says Goodbye In Hartford Fiasco $40,000 Foldo Hartford, Dec. 7. 4 “Hello, Paree” beat a Hartford retreat that turned into a rout here last week. In the face of lethal re- views and slim and dwindling busi- ness. the William L. Taub revue folded Saturday .night (4) amid a welter of unpaid bills, salary claims and bitter argument. The producer left town with the announcement that he will put the intimate musical back into rehear- sal in a few days in New York and reopen it on Broadway without further tryout. Since the cast, stagehands and others were paid out of union bonds after the show’s fund were exhausted, considerable new financing would presumably be required to revive the ill-starred project. As was reportedly the case with Taub’s last legit venture, the flop “People Like Us,” which also folded during a tryout tour in 1949. the closing here was marked by the producer the target of wholesale claims and charges, with threats of lawsuits and counter- suits. It’s estimated that “Paree” re- presents a loss of about $40,000. The relatively small amount is based on the skimpy physical pro- duction and the castTpayroll. Ac- cording to a member of the show’s staff, it will probably take several weeks to iron out the various di- (Continued on page 58) 8 B’way Folds in 2 Wks. Involve $693,000 Loss; 2 Road Flops Add 90G After having unusually few quick flops for the early part of the sea- son, Broadway has finally run into a rash of folderoos in the last fort- night. Last week, especially, the roof fell in, with additional clos- ings on the road. Tally for the fortnight was eight Broadway shutterings, for cumula- tive loss of approximately $693,000. There were four fadeouts each week, with “By the Beautiful Sea,” “Fragile Fox,” “King of Hearts” and “One Eye Closed” the initial quar- tet. Of those four, “Sea” and “Hearts” were holdovers from last season. Last week’s Broadway flopolas were “Abie’s Irish Rose,” “Hit the Trail,” “Living Room” and “On Your Toes.” The brace of out-of- town folds added around $90,000 to the loss total. These were “Hello Paree,” which cut short a pre- Broadway tuneup at the Parsons Theatre, Hartford, and "School For Brides,” a touring twofer produc- tion. which wound up at the Klein Auditorium, Bridgeport. Approximate losses on individual shows were “Sea,” $175,000; “Fox,” $60,000; “Hearts,” $30,000; “Eye,” $40.000; “Abie’s,” $60,000; “Trail,” $170,000; “Room,” $28,000; “Toes,” $130,000; “Paree,” $50,000 and “Brides,” $40,000. Despite the wholesale casualties, however, business both on Broad- way and the road continues to be above normal for most shows. There is a full quota of sellouts and near-sellouts in New York, in- cluding both current-season entries and holdovers, and gross totals are consistently topping last season. Vmt Publicist Edward L. Bernays harks back to tho days whon ho was On Tour With Caruso an intarasting bylino pioco in tho forthcoming 49th Anniversary Number of UfiRlETY OUT SOON The Ultimate A truism of legit, which the trade never tires of discussing, is how circumstances always seems loaded with trouble for a flop show, while everything invariably falls into place fur a hit. As producer Walter Fried remarked last week. “When we were in Philadelphia for the tryout of Death of a Salesman.’ even the drinking water tasted good.” Mgt., Equity Tiff Over Salaries Due On Folded 'Joan’; Dispute Sick Claim Vallee May Debut In ‘Adele’ Tuner Bob Wells, who authored the book and lyrics for Paul Gregory’s “Three for Tonight” production, arrived east over the weekend to complete his collaboration with composer-producer Albert Selden on the songs for “Amazing Adele,” which Selden and Morton Gottlieb have scheduled for production in February. Anita Loos has adapted the book from a French comedy. Rudy Vallee is a likely male lead in the show. It will be his legit musical debut, although he played several stock engagements last summer in a revival of Jean Kerr’s comedy, “Jenny Kissed Me.” He is currently in Europe, but is due back soon. “Adele” is budgeted at $250,000. Broken English As B’way Career 1 I Foreign - accent coaching is be- 1 coming a career on Broadway. It's a switch from the traditional pear- J shaped-tone tutoring and, thus far, the exclusive domain of a onetime language instructor at Columbia U. and dialog director in Hollywood. Managements of two of this sea- son’s Broadway shows have em- ployed the accent expert, Dr. | Simon Mitchncck, as “speech con- sultant.” They are musical "Fanny,” which has a Marseilles waterfront locale, and the incoming "Anastasia,” in which the princi- . pal characters are Russian emi- °^- Returns from the recent film Louis Lusco who bills him to If aw unfrockad alamaas of Hia “Daffy’s Tavorn” stablo, has wrlMoa a humorous vodka aad not-so-Volga satiro oa Tennessee W illiams } s. Odessa Blurp * * * an amusing bylino pioco in tho forthcoming 49th Anniversary Number of P'fcfUE’TY OVT SOON Liberty’Payoff On Screen Sale “Miss Liberty” has finally paid grees living in Germany. Two sea- sons ago, Mitchneck had a similar stint with “Time of the Cuckoo,” which had a Venetian setting. The instructor has a knowledge of 20 languages, 14 of which he speaks fluently. Slevens Maps Producer Bow With B’way ’Below’ Hollywood, Dec. 7. Film-legit actor Mark Stevens plans to make his Broadway pro- ducer bow next season with a mu- sical, “Look Out Below',” with Lew Upton as librettist, and Sammy Stept composer-lyricist. He in- tends to star in the show. Currently starring in the “Big ” own” vidpix series, Stevens made his legit actor debut two seasons ago as costar with Geraldine Page in “Midsummer.” ‘SAILOR’ IN N. Y. IN JAN., IF THERE’S A THEATRE Hollywood, Dec. 7. “Sailor’s Delight,” which ends a four week tryout Dec. 18 at the Hartford Theatre here, is tenta- tively slated for Broadway in mid- January, subject to the availability of a theatre. Eva Gabor is star- ring in the Peter Blackmore com- edy. The production, locally spon- sored by Huntington Hartford and Richard Skinner, in partnership with Aldrich & Myers, who will make the presentation on Broad- way. will layoff pre-Christmas week, then jump to the Lyceum. Minneapolis, opening Dec. 27. It’s booked the following week at the Hanna, Cleveland, but with Broad- w'ay in the worst theatre shortage in memory, plans after that are un- certain. Shumlin Try at ‘Living’ Takeover Fails When Bel Geddes Bows Out Attempt by Herman Shumlin to take over “The Living Room” and continue its Broadway run failed last week and the Graham Greene drama folded Saturday night (4) at the Henry Miller, N. Y., after 22 performances. Gilbert Miller, who financed the show per- sonally, according to his regular practice, lost an estimated $28,000 on the venture. Shumlin, who admired the play in its original London production and its U. S. edition, had the neces- sary financing for the operation, and had booked the Holiday Thea- tre for it. Deal was apparently set, but a hitch arose over mini- mum salaries for the alien cast members, so the project was dropped. Shumlin had just completed the staging of “Wedding Breakfast,” which preemed Nov. 20, and is due to start shortly with the direction of “Tonight in Samarcand.” He sought to sandwich the “Living Room” takeover between the two assignments. sale have recouped the remaining $55,000 deficit on the $200,000 investment and left a $17,500 profit. The musical was produced on Broadw’ay during the 1949-50 season, and had a 308-performance f-run. Irving Berlin, who wrote the songs for the show and co-produced it with librettist Robert E. Sher- wood and stager Moss Hart, recent- ly acquired full screen rights for $187,000. He split 60% of that with collaborator Sherwood and the $72,500 balance went to the show. The composer-producer report- edly intends to hold the picture rights on the property until some future time. Recent closing of the revival of “Saint Joan” in Chicago has pre- cipitated a dispute between the show’s producers, Robert White- head and Roger L. Stevens, and Actors Equity. Management’s claim that the shuttering of the revival was due to the illness of Jean Arthur, the star, has been turned down by the union. At issue is approximately $1,700, which Equity says is due cast members, with the exception of Miss Arthur, of the Producers The- atre venture. This amount is the difference between contractual and minimum salaries for the actors for the week of cancelled per- formances when the star notified the management that she could not appear. The producers paid the union minimum for the week, but Equity is demanding full salaries. Under Equity rules, perform- ances cancelled because of a star’s illness are subject to only mini- mum salary. Although the man- agement has submitted written statements from Miss Arthur’s physician that she was ill, Equity is insisting on substantiation. Un- less the matter is compromised, it will have to go to arbiiration. According to a union representa- tive, Miss Arthur’s illness was a matter of definition. The Equity council, in considering the case, has taken the attitude that the actress was apparently suffering primarily from pre-opening jitters. Although her fellow-actors among the union leaders express sym- pathy for that predicament, they (Continued on page 58) GOTTLIEB BETTER AFTER HOSP BOUT; SKED BUSY Producer Morton Gottlieb, who has been in Midtown Hospital, N. Y., for the last week w'ith pneu- monia, is due for discharge today, but will probably have to take a couple of weeks more to recuper- ate. He w T as ill for several days at home, but was removed to the hos- pital last Tuesday (30) with a tern- bj-ea^ perature of 104. Gottlieb, in partnership with Albert Selden, produced “His and Hers” last season, and has several shows slated for this season, in- cluding a musical, “Amazing Adele,” with book adapted from the French by Anita Loos, and songs by Selden and Bob Wells, and the John Hess comedy, “Facts of Life.” Mary Porter'* New Post Mrs. Mary Porter, who was man- ager of the Empire Theatre, N.Y., until its demolition two years ago, has been appointed managing director of Theatre-Goers, Inc. Latter is a ticket subscription organization and also operates a central boxoffice for Broadway shows. ► > »«'*)• e t OUT SOON! The 49th Anniversary Number Of Forms closing shortly Usual Advertising rates prevail Special exploitation advantages Copy and space reservations may be sent to any Variety office NEW YORK 36 154 W. 46th St. HOLLYWOOD 28 6311 Yacca St. CHICAGO 11 612 N. Michigan Avo. LONDON. W. C. 2 • St. Martin’s Placo Trafalgar Sqiiara » • ( 1 4 1 New British Producers Seek Pre-B’way Tryouts For London Nabe House London, Dec. 7. Wolf Mankowitz, novelist, play- wright and scripter, is off to the U. S. early in January in search of properties suitable for produc- tion at the Embassy Theatre, Swiss Cottage, which he is leasing in partnership with Oscar Lewen- stein. Pair start operation at this nabe theatre with an importation of “The World of Sholom Alei- chem,” opening Jan. 11 for a scheduled run of three months. As a new London management, Mankowitz & Lewenstein intend to from the traditional Em- bassy policy of frequent program changes and to keep their plays running as long as business justi- fies. The theatre has a capacity of over 600 seats and a potential weekly intake of $4,000-$5.000. Apart from his prowl for plays, Mankowitz is aiming to establish liaison with American manage- ments interested in taking advant- age of the reduced production costs in London and use the Em- bassy for pre-Broadway tryouts. Although future productions at the Embassy are still being nego- tiated, M Sc L have set a deal for the production of “The Money- makers” by Ted Allan at the Arts Theatre Club. The play, dealing with the un-American investiga- tions in Hollywood, will have a tryout at Cambridge, then play the Arts for a month and, if merited, subsequently transfer to the Em? bassy. Bernard Braden is to direct the production. The new Embassy management is operating in association with Marjorie Hawtrey, widow of An- thony Hawtrey, who ran the house until his death a few weeks ago. They’ll continue the theatre club, which permits Sunday night pres- entations. 200G ‘PICNIC’ BONANZA ON $90,000 GRUBSTAKE Total profit on “Picnic” was $205,887, of which $200,000 has been distributed. On the basis of the standard 50-50 split between management and backers, that gives the latter a 111% profit on their $90,000 investment. The Theatre-Guild Joshua Lo- gan production was capitalized at $75,000, plus 20% overcall, and had a production cost of $66,833. The William Inge drama played 485 performances on Broadway and then toured until last Oct., when Ralph Meeker left tho cast 1 be l cpus»e ( of a fi^m cojmnitinept. , ; .