Variety (December 1954)

Published Weekly at 154 West 46th Street. New York 36. N. Y.. by Variety. Inc. Annual fubscriptlon $10. Single copies. 25 cants. . Entered as second class matter December 22. 1903. at the Post Office at New York, N. Y.. under the act of March 3. 1879. COPYRIGHT. 1954, BY VARIETY. INC.. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED VOL 197 No.2 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 15, 1954 PRICE 25 CENTS DANGER-TV COMICS AT WORK $1,300,000 in Berlins ‘Xmas’ Stocking; Plus ‘No Business Like’ $6001 Hollywood. Dec. 14. Irving Berlin, who is responsible for 1954’s biggest musical parlay. “White Christmas,” for Paramount release, and “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” for 20th-Fox release, will benefit most from “Christmas.” Under his deal he collects a 30% interest in the net profits on top of the $300,000 down 1 yment by which Paramount se- cured his services. This picture was brought in for $3,800,000 but its grossing capacity is now esti- mated. worldwide, at $12,000,0000. If that works out, Berlin’s share will amount to $1,000,000, or S1.300.0U0 in all out of the one re- lease. i Berlin did “Holiday Inn” for Paramount in 1942, thmj got 10% of the gross, which meant he took out about $1,000,000 within a year or so on “Inn’s” total take of around $10,000,000.) With respect to “White Christ- mas.” Bing Crosby also shares in profits to the ^tent of 30% while Danny Kaye gets another 10%. Par- amount. the producing organiza- tion. has 30% of the final net profit. ‘ There's No Business Like -Show Business” is 100% owned by 20th- Fox Studio paid Berlin a flat $600,000 for his services and brought the negative home for $4,000,000. Kravetz Suit Discloses Chaplin s 25 % of UA Now Vested in Oona O’Neill Charles Chaplin, now in self- exile in Switzerland, has signed over his 25% ownership in United Artists to his wife, Oona O’Neill. Chaplin reportedly has divested all of his other U. S. properties. Switch on the UA participation C“me to light over the past week in tnal of a N. Y. Supreme Court suit in which Mrs. Max Kravetz is the plaintiff. She, in ettect, is carrying on a case in- stituted by her late husband. Kra- > tZ t! ad complained that the deal o> which the present UA manage- Imk 1 ° p | rators < Arthur B. Krim, nmt? 1 ! S - , Ben -i am in, etc.) took le-eH h V w ated h ‘ S FightS aS a, ‘ f mfr ,r° der of options on the With ° r ' ng stock in agreement i Chaplm and Mary Picktord. Mew*® 1 ' * 1 ” suCceeded the Paul regime in management. f J f l 311 worked out that Miss Pick- n v and Chaplin each retained I* 1 iJj* company and the bal- Partnere 5 °Th We i? t <0 Krim and his o ,J he Kravetz estate aims 0 upset this entire stock setup. VIDEO BREEDING R° a( l Just Like Old Times-Almost; STRANGE SPECIE Compares With Best Postwar Years Nickelodeon as ‘Shrine To Picture Industry’ Philadelphia, Dec. 14. Leaders of the film industry will take part in the dedication of the Nickelodeon in Franklin Institute, 1 Jan. 18. with ceremonies jointly sponsored by Motion Picture As- sociates and the Institute. MPA will also hold its $25-a- plate dinner the same night in the Bellevue-Stratford honoring pio- neers of the industry. Proceeds of ; the dinner will go to MPA’s wel- j fare committee. William Goldman. ! donor of the Nickelodeon, is gen- i eral chairman of the dinner com- mittee. Planned as a “shrine to the in- dustry." the Nickelodeon is a rep- lica of the turn-of-the-century movie houses, forerunners of to-. day’s giant film theatres. Phenix City Asks CBS Apologize For Studio One’ Show Phenix City, Dec. 14. Hugh Bentley, head of the Rus- sell County Betterment Assn, here, thinks the “Studio One” play, I “Short Cut,” which starred Jackie Gleason as a crusading legislator ! Monday (6>, was too close a paral- ( lei to the vice cleanup here and has wired Westinghou.se and CBS asking for a retraction on the air. Bentley termed the original by i Carey Wilbur, originally entitled “Peacock City.” is libelous to Bent- ley and his association.^ ~ — —^ After seeing, the show. Bentley consulted with his attorneys, Lt. Gov. James Allen, padsden, & Roberts Brown, speaker of the Ala- (Continued on page 44) —4— Murrow’s ‘Person* Has A Date YVith Truman Edward R. Murrow and copro- ’ ducer Jesse Zousmer of the CBS- TV “Person to Person” had a date with Harry S. Truman in Philadel- phia on Monday <13). Murrow has long sought to “P to P” the j former President at his Independ- j ence home. HST some time back had agreed to the remote, but was ! looking toward the day when his j Missouri homestead would be re- decorated and include the project- ed Truman Library. The latter 1 got its biggest push in Philly on Monday via a lunchon that launched a fund-raising drive. When Murrow televisits Inde-, pendence, Mr. Truman’s cast will j include wife Bess and daughter : I Margaret. By GEORGE ROSEN These are worrisome days for major agencies and sponsors who have investments of millions of dollars in television comics, par- ticularly those doing live shows. It all stems from the pressures and tensions resulting from the “show biz in a hurry”—a situation that, in the last few months, has brought such personalities as Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason. Bob Hope and Red Buttons, among others, into head- line prominence. Not that they're deliberately act- ing up or making like prima don- nas. But if they require kid-glove treatment and supersensitive han- dling and care, it's because of the toll being exacted by the most demanding of all entertainment media. The recent incidents of Gleason threatening to walk out of rehear- sals turned out to he something of a public relations nightmare. Fact that the comic has been under considerable strain through doub- ling into major guest shot ven- tures (not to mention his two-week stand at the Paramount, W.Y.) hasn’t contributed toward alleviat- ing the situation. Berle had no sooner recovered from the Ruthie Gilbert impasse and his collapse from overwork than a whole new chain reaction set in when his sponsor (Buick> and agency (Kudneri let it be known that they had a Gleason gleam in their eye for next season (see separate story). At the mo- ] ment the Berle hour is one of the (Continued on page 43) Heirs Authorize FDR Film Story Hollywood, Dee. 14. Probability is that a biopic* of the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt will be made some time next year, only 10 years after his death. William Morris office is of- fering rights to the story of FDR’s life to the film companies fol- lowing completion of arrangements this week with Mrs. Eleanor Roose- velt and Robert H. Nolan, who will act as coordinator of the project. Roosevelt family previously felt that the time wasn't right for such a biopic because it would have been too soon after FDR's death. Heirs are now in agreement that the biopic can be made, following talks with Morris’ Abe Lastfogel. Producer Stanley Kramer formerly had an option on the property while at Columbia, but when his deal with the studio went sour, this among other properties was abandoned. It was then that the heirs decided to let the Morris agency handle iL Mont’l Pianist’s 21-Hour Marathon for Comeback Montreal, Dec. 14. Andre M a t h i e u , 25-year-old Montreal pianist, claimed a world pianothon record when he wound up last Wednesday <8> at 10:16 p m. after playing continuously for 21 hours. Mathieu, a former child prodigy who disappeared from public view several years ago as a concert whiz, planned the marathon for straight publicity purposes as part of his*comeback routine. Some 25.000 persons paid 50c each in the Show Mart to hear Mathieu range through 73 of his own com- positions and many other classics as he established this record. In the 21 hours, he drank 20 glasses of orange juice, three bot- tles of vichy water, meat extract equivalent to 12 steaks and vitamin pills. Gandhi Biopic To Be Made With Nehru’s Advice Film on Mahatma Gandhi, which Otto Preminger is prepping, will roll in India at the end of 1955 when weather conditions are the most favorable, the producer dis- closed in N. Y. last week. Preminger, who recently re- turned from India where he dis-' cussed his project with Prime Min- ister Nehru, said his idea had been received with enthusiasm by In- j dian officials and that Nehru had promised to read the script and possibly make suggestions to give it added historic realism) Neither financing nor a release deal have been set by Preminger who goes to the Coast this week He said the film would be made in India, but with London as base of operations. An Indian is ex pected to be cast in the part of (Continued on page 62) WB Spurns Sinatra’s 50% Of Net for ‘Sierra’ Remake Hollywood. Dec. 14. Warner Bros., planning a remake of “High Sierra.” has nixed terms of Frank Sinatra, wanted by the. Burbank studio to play the lead, enacted in original 1941 version by Humphrey Bogart. It’s understood Sinatra asked 50% of net. Consequently War- ners is now seeking Jack Palance on straight salary deal. W R. Burnett, who wrote original story years ago, is penning a new screen- ( play. ♦ By JESSE GROSS The road is making a comeback. After reaching an all-time low last season, touring biz is generally jumping. Odd factor in the upbeat I is the relative dearth of touring editions of last season’s Broadway hits. Since mid-August, receipts have been progressively bettering the ’53-’54 stanza. Gross for the first 27 weeks of the current season, ending Dec. 4. was $1,864,500 ahead of the corresponding period I last year. * Total of $10,108,400 was on a par with the figures for the cor- responding period during the last five years. However, the take was a long way from the $11,674,500 c'-'dlked up for the same span dur- ing the boom 1948-49 season. Only five of last season’s Broad- way shows have gone out so far this semester. Two of those are second companies and the other three are the original productions, in some cases with revised leads. Latter category includes “Wonderful Town.” “Fifth Season” and “Oh Men, Oh Women,” while former i duo comprises “Caine Mutiny Court Martial” and "Tea and Sym- pathy.” Road holdovers from the previ- ous season still running as of Dec. 4 included “King and I,” “Seven Year Itch,” “South Pacific” and “Time Out for Ginger.” Other holdovers were “Picnic” and “Porgy and Bess,” the former a subsequent folderoo and the latter going overseas. Another road closer was the twofer "Twin Beds.” Biggest out-of-town grossers this season have been "King," "Caine Mutiny,” "Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Peter Pan.” Latter had an extended Coast tryout prior to coming to Broadway. Another New York entry which had a lengthy out-of-town tuneup Is “Mrs. Patterson.” A flock of twofers have been in- (Continued on page 62) Communist Influence 100% Eliminated; Coast Can Be Proud—Brewer “The power and influence Com- munism once had in Hollywood has been completely destroyed, but it’s , still necessary to remain on the alert.” That’s the opinion of Roy M. Brewer, former Hollywood rep of the IATSE and one of the in- dustry’s most vigorous opponents of Communism. Now an exec with Allied Artists, Brewer said in New York this week that Hollywood should be proud of the job it’s done in elim- inating the menace. “Few people have been hurt,” he added, “and those who have cleared themselvej are our allies now.”