Variety (March 1955)

Wednesday, March 23, 1955 Tories Win Almost Clean Sweep For Conservatives won a virtually • clean sweep in the -election of membership representatives to the nominating committee in the Ac- tors. Equity quarterly membership A meet last week. Of the six reps chosen, five ran on - the “Tory” ticket. That gives the conservatives at least a five-to-four margin on the nine-member committee that will select the official slate for the. an- nual election next June. With union's seven officers and 12 coun- cil members due to be elected, this sticks up as a blow to Equity’s liberal forces, with prospects' of a conservative regular 'ticket an odds-on favorite. Quintet, considered conservative, are Lief Erickson, Peggy Wood, William Tabbert, Alexander Clark and David Orrick. Other member- ship rep, regarded as liberal, is John Kerr. The three council members of the committee previ- ously selected are Lois Wilson, chairman, and John Emery and John -Drew Devereaux, They’re regarded as more or less middle- of-the-roaders. Due to be elected next June are the union's president, four vice- presidents, treasurer and record- ing secretary, and 12 council mem* (Continued on page 58) Love and Peace Prevail Between Mpls.-St. Paul; ’Pajama’ Going to Both Minneapolis, March 22. As result of the theatrical peace that has been brought about be- tween the Twin Cities, “Pajama Game’* will play both Minneapolis and St. Paul. “The Pajama Game’* was originally booked for two weeks here, then cut to 10 days, then further reduced to seven days. Bennie Berger, operator of the local Lyceum, prevailed upon the show to allot two of the finally- decided seven Minneapolis days to St. Paul,, which was extremely eager to have it. Accordingly, show will play St. Paul May 2-3 and here only from May 4-8. Formerly, all efforts were put forth to obtain Broadway legit of- ferings for Minneapolis exclusive- ly, and these were largely success- ful. St. Paul was so resentful over the shows passing up the city that its newspapers refused ads for them and city officials and business leaders protested to influential New York theatrical folk. It was a case of theatrical war between the two towns. Berger took over the Lyceum late last season and decided it would be to the best interests of all concerned for the two cities to cooperate in trying to bring more attractions here. Ed Furni, man- ager of the St. • Paul Auditorium, was more than willing and St. Paul newspaper heads also approved. In addition to “The pajama Game,” Berger also is voluntary giving up part of “The King and T’ and “Kismet” time to St. Paul, although these shows, too, were originally intended for Minneapo- lis exclusively and would be sure sellouts at the Lyceum here for much longer engagements than can be assigned to it. GUTHRIE IN STRATFORD TO START FEST PLANS Stratford, Ont., March 22. Tyrone Guthrie arrived here Saturday (19) to start work On the 1955 Shakespearean Festival, in which he will direct “The Mer- chant of Venice” and a revival of last year’s ‘‘Oedipus Rex.” Al- though rehearsals will not start until May, Guthrie has a drama school set up and V number of speaking engagements to fill. His last production before leav- ing Europe was the new Sean O’Casey play, “The Bishop's Bon- fire,” which surprised everyone by failing to start riots in Dublin. After he gets the Festival rolling here, Guthrie will return to Brit- ain to stage Thornton Wilder's “A Life in the Sun” at the Edinburgh Festival. Michael Lahgham, the English director who will stage “Julius Caesar” here this Summer, is it Toronto, where he is directing for the “Crest” repertory .theatre. Map Roadshow Tour For Corwin Lincoln Debate Chicago, March 22* Paramount Attractions, hooking agency headquartered in Chicago, is planning a national roadshow tour of Norman Corwin’s play, “Tonight! Lincoln vs. Douglas.” An eight-month tour of one and two- night stands is planned for late, September. Paramount is currently negotiating for several top name stars to play the leads and other prominent historical figures.” An itinerary of 235 separate en- gagements has been worked out for the roadshow and a $750,000 gross is hoped for. N. Y. 'Rainmaker New York production of “Rain- maker,” which closed last Feb. 12, made a $73,638 profit, according to a March 1 accounting. On the basis of the Regular 50-50 split between backers and management, this gives the former a 50% profit on their $75,000 investment. Payoff, however,. will be staggered, since the figure- includes $67,500 in' de- ferred income from the sale of the film rights to Hal .Wallis and Joseph Hazen. Coin from.the picture deal is to be paid out at the rate of $22,500 per annum for three successive years beginning next year. Accofd- ing to an earlier accounting, pro- duction had already received $58,500 from the film sale. As of March 1 accounting, backers had been repaid their full contribution. The Ethel Linder Reiner-Hone Abelsdn production dropped $2,- 316 during its last three Aveeks on Broadway, according to the state- ment, with closing expenses "totall- ing another $8,344. Income in- cluded a $360 advance for German language legit rights and a $205 refund of sundry production costs. As of the March 1 report, balance of cash available Was $5,730. Additional income on the N. Richard Nash comedy is expected from other subsidiary rights and royalties from the touring edition of the show, which was to financed as a new venture under the sole 'sponsorship of Miss Reiner. Ger- aldine Page,' who starred in the Broadway production ,is dittoing on the road. Yorke-Savage Ready New Equity Barn in Toronto Toronto, March 22. New summer theatre setup, with partnership of Jack Yorke and Alan Savage, latter trans-Canada radio- television topper on the Cockfield- Brown advertising agency here, tees off. May 16 with first showing in Canada of William Inge’s “Pic- nic.” On government’s new deci- sion to wipe out the 12 V 2 % amuse- ment tax if legit casts are all-Cana- dian—but tax to apply on imported stars from the United, States or Britain—“Picnic” cast has not been selected. But director will be Henry Kaplan, television director for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Tagged the Garden City Centre Theatre, the 423<-seater is. a modern, air-conditioned situation, complete with balcony, and will be run in conjunction with the Garden Cen- to 1 ® H °tel, this having a motel, swimming pool and restaurant-bar. Theatrical venture will be run 100% Equity and scale will be $2.25 top. Radio Serial to Reopen Bronx Yiddish House The Elsmere Theatre, Bronx, N. Y., will resume Yiddish produc- tions next month. House, since early last February, will i-a- open April 8 with Louis Freiman’s dramatization of fils latest Yiddish radio serial, “Eternal Bride.” Rights* to the play were acquired by Israel Rosenberg, Elsmere actor-director. Presentation, with music by Philip Laskefsky, will be given nightly for an indefinite run, with Saturday and Sunday hutineei. * PfistiEfr Tryout to Oblivion Attorney L. Arnold Weiss- berger recently sent an un- . produced legit script, authored by one of liis clients, to play- wright Jean Kerr, with«the sug- gestion that she might be in- terested in adapting it as the book for a musical show. A week or so later he re- ceived if back with a polite but definite note of refusal. “I just don|t like fantasies,” Mrs. Kerr wrote. “I’d be afraid that any fantasy that opehs in Heaven would close in New Haven/* Bendix ta Top New ‘Caine’ Dixie Tour as Paul Douglas’ Sub Following ‘Incident’ Hollywood, March 22. Paul Gregory has formed a new “Caine Mutiny Courtmartial” com- pany to pick up dates previously cancelled when he disbanded a for- mer troupe of which Paul' Doug- las was a member^. Starts a seven- week tour of the South April 11, at Amarillo, Tex. William Bendix is taking over the former Douglas part as Captain Queeg; Robert Lowery as Greenwald, and a new- comer discovered by Gregory named Jim Bumgarner as Lt. Maryk. u Original Southern trek was can- celled following alleged slurs made on the South by Douglas, which stirred up quite a fuss. Doug- las denied making the derogatory remarks. STEVENS’ ANGELING SPREADS DFF-STEM A freruent investor in Broadway shows, producer-realtor Roger L. t>,o»ciis ;nso spreads his backing to ofi-th e-Stem 'productions. His latest contribution is a reported $1,850 investment in Theatre 12, which will operate at the Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village this summer. Group has taken a five-month lease on the theatre be- ginning June 1. Bert Greene is producer of the operation, which is capitalized at $10,000. Opening bill will be “A Month in the Country.” Outfit was active for three weeks last season •at the Cherry Lane Theatre, also in the Village, with a production of Sartre’s, “The Flies.” Proser Files Suit Over New Hope Inn Contract Doyletown, Pa., March 22. Monte Proser, dropped last fall as president and manager of the Playhouse Inn at New Hope, Pa., has filed suit here for $310,650 against the Inn and Ben Snyder, its. treasurer. Proser says he has a contract for $250 a week and 10% of the profit and that Snyder persuaded him to sign a waiver, cancelling the profit-sharing clause, and promised to give him as much stock in the project as was then outstanding. After he signed the waiver, Proser claims, Snyder became “cool and distant” and refused- to issue the promised stock. He vab ued the stock at $250,000. Plain- tiff als.o seeks $50,000 for “wrong- ful termination” of contract and $10,650 he says he laid out in en- dorsing loans at the establishment and buying stocks and bonds. The directors said, When they fired Proser, that he had broken his contract by not spending enough time at the Inn, which was opened adjoining the Bucks Play- house last spring, ABBOTT JEYES BRADY SCRIPT Hollywood, March 22*, Ben Brady’s comedy, “A Cold. Cold Eve',” has been submitted by Music Corp, of America to Broad- way producer George Abbott. Brady is former producer of the Red Buttons tv show. ijf ‘ K>ntp|M JUBILEE YEAR !*■ » im-ms LEGITIMATE 57 500G 'Tea Lawsuit Is Withdrawn Steiger-Crawford Talk ‘Reuben* Musicomedebut Los Angeles, March 22. Rod Steiger and Broadway pro- ducer ‘Cheryl Crawford are talicing a deal for the actor to make his musicomedebut in “R e u b e n, Reuben,” from the Marc Blitzstein book, lyrics and music, which Bob- by Lewis will stage next fall. . Duo also is discussing the pro- duction of two other projects, in- cluding three one-act plays, “The Tenor,” which Steiger adapted from the Franz Wedekind prop- erty, and in which he would star. Second is Leslie Stevens’ “The Award,” to star Eve Marie Saint, who appeared with Steiger in “On the Waterfront.” 166% Gain For 'Camera Backers “I Am a Camera” paid another r24,000 dividend last month/ bring- ing the total profit on the 1951-52 Gertrude Macy-Walter Starke pro- duction to $216,160; On the basis of the Regular 50-50 split between management and backers, that rep- resents a 166% profit for the lat- ter on their $65,000 investment. Distribution was made following an accounting last Feb. 15. Accord- ing to the statement, British royal- ties totalled $7,453, while other royalties came to $1,017. Show’s* share of its $50,000 film sale ac- counted for another $18,000, bring- ing the total income since a prior May.l, '54 accounting to $26,470. Deducted from that sum was 10% of the profits due John van Druten, who adapted the comedy- drama from Christopher Isher- wood’s “Berlin Stories.” He also directed the play, both in the U. S. and Lo'ndon, . After the van Druten lopoff. profit for the May 1, '54-Feb. 15, ”55 period was $23. T 823. A $392 balance from the pre- vious accounting brought the amount of cash available for dis- tribution to $24,215| of which a $24,000 dividend was issued, leav- ing $215 available for future dis- pensation. Broadway production of “Cam- era,”' with Julie Harris starred, opened Nov. 28, 1951, and ran for 261 performances at the extinct Empire prior to. moving to the road in September, ’52. .West End edi- tion, presented by Donald Albery, in association with play’s Broadway producers, preemed March 12, ’54, at the New .Theatre, and wound up last Jan. 8. Celluloid version, with Miss Har- ris repeating her starring assign- - ment, was filmed recently in Eng- land. No Bright Hopes For ‘Misery’ in London Bow London, March 22. Indie film producer Daniel M. Angel entered the legit arena last week when, in partnership with E. P. Clift, he presented “Misery Me!” by Denis Cannan at the Duchess Theatre. * Play, which preemed on Wednes- day (16), was directed by Alastair Sim, and stars “Yvonne Mitchell, George Cole and Clive Mdrton. A comedy about suicides, piece re- ceived lukewarm notices and has only modest hopes of survival. Rev. Hartke Taking Vt. Group to O'SeaS Bases Burlington, Vt., March 22. ’Players Inc., resident repertory company at St. Michael’s Play- house, which is returning here for its fifth season on the St. Michael’s College campus, will begin an eight weeks’ tour of Europe starting April 5. Rev. Gilbert V. Hartke, founder of the Players, will be in charge of the 14 actors and actresses who will visit American Armed Forces installations under auspices of the Dept, of Defense. Company man- ager will be Joan Delehaunty, leading lady last summer. Playwright Robert Anderson, his wife, Phyllis Anderson and Music Corp. of America have been vin- dicated by withdrawal of the $500,- 000 suit filed against them over authorship of Anderson’s “Tea •end Sympathy.” Action, which didn’t charge plagiarism, but clamed breach of agency function and agreement, and appropriation of ideas and material, was dropped in N. Y. Supreme Court last Friday (18) by the plaintiffs, Joseph Hel- ler and Robert S. Mason. There, was no cash settlement. Heller and Mason, radio-tv writ- ers and U. of Penn instructors, had charged that “Tea” was based on a scenario written by them and submitted to Mrs. Anderson, an MCA script agent, who was sup- posed to have arranged for a legit adaptation, which didn’t material- ize. They had alleged she turned the material over to her play- wright-husband, who used it for </ Tea.” Pair withdrew their complaint on the basis of pre-trial testimoriy of Anderson and others and alter reading a prior version of “Tea,” penned by Anderson in 1948, four Shears before they had written their scenario, labelled “The Time for Trial.” Plaintiffs’ attorney stated that after the plaintiffs had read the jpre-trial testimony of Anderson and others and had read a prior version of “Tea And Sympathy” written by Anderson four years before they had written their scenario, the plaintiffs were con- vinced that “Tea And Sympathy” was an original work by Anderson and that for that reason there was no basis for “proceeding with the case. Anderson, through his attor- ney, acknowledged the good faith of the plaintiffs in originally filing the lawsuit arid in dropping it after they had learned of the above facts. Attorney for the plaintiffs was Rudolph Halley, while Edward E, Colton represented the Andersons. Central City Opera Gets Control of Play in I0G Denver Post Contest Denver, March 22. The Denver Post is sponsoring a $19,000 original play contest, with the Central City, Col., Opera House Assn, getting full control of the ’winning property. Both the Post and Opera House will have the right to present play at any time in Central City or Denver without payment of royalties. How- ever, if produced-elsewhere in any medium, royalties set by the Opera House will be charged, with in- come split feqUally between- the playwright, and the Opera House. Plays submitted have to be .based on the discovery of gold in Colo- rado in 1858. Winning entry will be produced at the Central City Festival in 1958, centennial year of the gold discovery and the founding of Denver. Contest is open to amateur and professionals and will run until June 1, 1957. Entries will be judged by New York Daily News drama critic John Chapman, legit producer Cheryl Crawford, legit-film pro- ducer Paul Gregory, radio-tv scrip- tef Ben Draper and Chester M, Alter, U. of Denver’s Chancellor. LUCILLE LORTEL TAKING OVER THEATRE DE LYS N. Y.’s Theatre de Lys, major off-Broadway outlet, will switch ownership next May. Taking over operation of the theatre at that time will be Lucille Lortel, founder-director of the Westport (Conn.) White Barn Theatre, a strawhat venture. Property was given to her last year by her htis- band Louis Schweitzer, who pur- chased the house from Ralph N. Voohris. Miss Lortel’s actual takeover was delayed because of a prior reptal commitment to John Post, who’s been booking shows into the theati'e since 1953. New owner in- tend^ to pattern the operation after the Arts Theatre Club in London. She’ll present her own productions and also lease out the house.