Variety (February 1955)

Published Weekly at 154 West 48th Street. New York 36. N. Y„ by Variety, Inc. Annual subscription. 810. Single copies. 25 cents. Entered as second-class matter December 22, 1905, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y.. under the act of March 3, 1879. COPYRIGHT. 1955. BY VARIETY. INC.. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ' VOL. 197 No. 9 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1955 PRICE 25 CENTS TWOFERS, FEWFERS AND NOFERS Hoisted by Bootstrap, Puerto Rico Lively All Over, Including Cafes By JOE COHEN San Juan. Feb. 1. Show biz is looking up In Puerto Rico, along with everything else. More cafes, theatres and entertain- ment activity generally are In the cards. There is even a dream of creating a motion picture studio on the island. All the upsurge of amusement activity is with Government en- couragement, part of Puerto Rico’s famous “Operation Bootstrap” to eradicate poverty and create a* healthy, prosperous middle class. While anxious to quicken the tour- ist trade it is significant that gam- bling is not openly encouraged, al- though it is quietly permitted (without publicity locally and with very little in mainland advertising copy). Foreshadowing the probable growth of entertainment in the next couple of years, various New York talent agencies are establish- ing contacts, securing concessions and mending fences. Milton H. Lehr, who is producing at the Escambron Room, will import other shows in the future. The Leon Newman Agency has an ex- clusive at the Escambron, while Music Corp. of America is simi- larly related to the Condado Beach Hotel. Meanwhile, inquiries about talent costs are on the increase. The enlarged showbiz sphere in Puerto Rico would mostly be financed by American coin. There’s been a terrifically greater influx (Continued on page 67) Puerto Rican Enterprise San Juan, Feb. 1. In Puerto Rico it is not easy to secure theatrical costumes in a hurry. This problem vexed producer Milton H. Lehr who needed three sailor uniforms last Saturday <29> for a television show over Station WAPA. Three chorus girls solved the problem. They “met” three sailors at one of the hotels and dated them to see the show. The gobs sat around in their shorts while their uniforms were being'televised. PROTESTANTS SET SERIES A LA SHEEN The Protestants have decided to follow Bishop Fulton J. Sheen into the commercial video field. The Board of National Missions has in- dicated that Presbyterian clergy- man Dr. Louis H. Evans, agency’s “minister-at-large,” is making a 13- "eek half-hour filmed stanza and the sign is out for sponsors. Dr. Evans’ show, to be available by next fall, it is hoped will be “a modern missionary in the home via television.” Telepix, being pro- duced by Pacific Productions, Inc., of Kansas (a group of laymen), will be distributed by George W. Bagnall, director of Pacific. Charles Kalman’s ‘Tenor’ Clicks in W. Germany Charles Kalman, composer-son of the late composer Emmerich Kal- man, has had a click at the Staats in Frankfurt, West Germany, with ms musical comedy, “The Great I enor.” Resultantly there is chat- ter among the European cognoscen- ti that another Strauss pere et fils case has developed. Young Kalman’s score will be published by the house of Felix Bloch Erben. End of Union Strife May Launch Networks As Film Producers A greenlight for networks to en- ter the business of producing their own films may stem from the contract agreements negotiated this week by NBC and ABC and the National Assn, of Broadcast Engineers & Technicians. One of the terms of the new pact calls for NABET to relinquish some juris- diction over tv-film to rival Inter- national Alliance of Theatrical Stagehands & Electricians (IATSE), thus ending a longtime sore spot in network labor relations and enabling the webs to go into film production. What’s been keeping NBC, as well as other networks, from going into film production has been the friction between tiie live camera- men and technicians (NABET and IBEW) and the film craft union, IATSE. Latter has been firmly en- trenched as the filmmaking union, but NABET has claimed jurisdic- tion in some areas and has refused ta handle film made by IATSE on network equipment and with net- work personnel. Compromise (Continued on page 79) The sticks are now’ as choosy as Broadway itself. That is indicated by the recent fade of two-for-one touring legit shows. The air was filled last fall with plans for low-budget revivals of vintage farces and a few con- temporary concoctions, all to be produced as low-budgeters and to tour on a flood of cui-rate ducats. The general idea was to capitalize on sexational title and/or exploi- tation angles. The road public has generally refused to fall for the lurid pub- licity or the cheapie setup of two seats for the price of one. Of the seTen “twofer” ventures, five have disappeared down the drain. The two remaining shows are not only relatively strong on title, and star names, but generally rate as passa- ble entertainment for pop-audi- ence draw’. Increasing resistance to bargain- basement legit is explained in various ways. First, patrons have learned that half-price bargains are apt to rate as dubious enter- tainment. It’s an accumulative thing. As the once-burnt public shies away from twofers, so do lo- cal managers jealous of the repu- tation of their theatres. Also, the downbeat word trav- els fast, so towns that have been stung make it tougher for others. For example, “Getting Gertie’s Garter,” after profitable stands in Boston and Springfield, failed to draw elsewhere in the wake of other shoestring entries. Twofers are not necessarily “ob- jectionable” scripts and generally do not draw censorship action or even threats, although even the in- nocuous ones are touted as sug- gestive or naughty. Typically, the half-price ventures are low-budget revivals of over-age comedies, usually given the broadest kind of performance. Production costs may run from $15,000 to $30,000. and the operat- ing nut, including theatre share, is (Continued on page 79) Coast Counts Its Labels and Says: There Is, Too, a San Francisco Jazz* Miami Grandeur Miami: Feb. 1. Numerous and elegant new hotels at Miami Beach have germinated a line of jokes via turns playing the niteries here. Like this: “The new Fontainebleau has wall-to-wall carpeting.” “What’s uhusual about that?" “On the ceiling!” N.Y. Times Ups Ad Rate; But How About Those Mailbag B.O. Squawks? N. Y. Times has hiked its ad rates for the second time in about six months. New rates went into effect yesterday (Tues.). Raise was attributed to added labor costs and increased operating expenses. Per-line rates for legit and other amusements have gone up 5c for both weekdays and Sundays. Tab is now $1.99 week days and $2.42 Sunday. Off-Broadway advertising, which falls under neighborhood rates, is now $1.05 weekday and $1.61 Sunday. Contracts in exist- ence prior to the notice of the rate changes, w hich was Jan. 27? remain in effect until their expiration. The paper also recently upped its Sun- day newsstand price from 20c to 25c. N. Y. Post and Newark Star Ledger also hiked their ad rates 5c about two months ago. Although Broadway producers, managers and pressagents habitu- ally gripe about amusement • ad rates of all N. Y. dailies, their pet peeve is the Times, chiefly because of its policy of publishing letters- to-the-editor squawks about al- legedly high theatre ticket prices and claims of boxoffice rudeness. “While the Times newsstand rate has risen 150% daily and $00% (Continued on page 79) By RALPH J. GLEASON San Francisco, Feb. 1. “Is there is, or is there ain’t, a West Coast jazz?” That death- less question is currently kicking up a ruckus in the jazz world that looks to last as long as the classic controversy over who wrote Shake- speare. San Francisco and Hollywood musicians, natch, say sure there’s such a style but from the east coast comes vehement denials. Critics like Natjientoff and indi- vidual musicians by the score dis- claim the existence of any geo- graphical classification of the music. Yet it remains a fact that the resurgence in jazz, which has re- sulted in its becoming a potent factor in the packaged record mar- ket, began with Coast musicians and Coast companies and these artists continue to lead the pack. Gerry Mulligan, whose Quartet ! got its start in San Francisco and Hollywood, and Chet Baker, who got his start with Mulligan, have been among the top album sellers in the entire record business in the last year with their LPs on Fantasy (a Frisco indie company), Pacific Jazz (L.A.), Gene Norman Presents (L A.) and Capitol (L.A.). Dave Brubeck, whose quartet is strictly a Frisco product, not only got his start here and has his first dozen or so LPs issued on the local jazz label, Fantasy, but has gone on to be listed by Columbia as (Continued on page 62) War—And Show Biz—Needs Engineers Five speakers representing sci- ; ence, Government and industry gathered Friday -128) at the Co- lumbia Club, N. Y. to drive home to the lay and technical press that Russia will graduate 54.000 engi- neers in 1955. two-and-a-half times as many as the United States. It is dangerous complacency to think America is superior and USSR inferior. Russia is out to equal or excel the States’ tech- nology and to this end grants young engineers high status, finan- cial incentive and military exemp- tion— completely topping capital- ism’s best offers. Reporters promptly asked this question: If America was so hard up for engineers should they be “wasted” designing “new packages and bottles for advertising or color tv so that we can see the color of Bob Hope’s necktie?” Discussion which followed cen- tered on the idea that the tech- nology of a democracy is free, ver- satile and undoctrinaire and that during World W’ar II scientists previously employed in designing sleek' automobiles, Lionel Trains, plastic toys and lady’s perfumes came up with waj^winning scien- tific answers. Said one speaker: “Double the salaries paid begin- ning engineers and the manpower problem will be licked overnight. Too often graduate engineers get less pay than union welders." Meanwhile, the Society of Mo- tion Picture and Television Engi- neers is also concerned over the lack of new engineering talent go- ing into the film field. “The same men who practically started with the business 25 and 30 years ago are still there,” commented Presi- dent John G. Frayne last week. “There’s no influx of new people and little effort is being made to develop a team of second-stringers that will eventually take over. It’s a fact today that the studios lack trained people.” A committee to be formed by SMPTE will take in colleges, film studios, equipment suppliers and possibly also the unions. Its pri- mary effort will be to investigate what can and should be done to develop new film engineering tal- ent. PEPSI COLA HITS THE SPOUT ON BROADWAY Broadway’s newest dazzler, the Pepsi-Cola sign, will rise March 1 as the topper on the Bond clothing establishment. The Douglas Leigh spectacular is a 1,000,000-watter starring two glowing bottles five stories high with a bottle crown 50 feet in diameter. As a basis for comparison, it’s 12 times bigger than Pepsi’s former sign 'on the main stem. Among the extra added attrac- tions will be a broad waterfall run- continued on page 77) Shoplifters’ Trade Tricks Revealed in Store Film Minneapolis, Feb. 1. International Security Corp. here has produced a 30-minute film designed to show store operators how to combat shoplifting. Picture, which will be exhibited in stores throughout the country and which may be made available for theatres, reveals the shoplifting tricks of professional, amateur and juvenile boosters. Minneapolis department store employes play shoplifting roles in th'e film which was made by Film Enterprises, a Twin Cities’ com- pany.