Variety (March 1955)

Wednesday, March SO, 1955 o LITERATI 69 The Minsky Story .Morton Minsky, one of the four freres'whose name was synonymous with a certain brand of burlesque, is working with Rowland Barber on “The Minsky Story.” Bill, Abe, Herbert and Morton Minsky ran the West 42d St. burleycues, Harold Minsky, who operates burlesque in Newark, is a nephew. _ Barber did the Rocky Graziano story,/“Somebody Up There Likes Me (My Life So Far),” and Simon & Schuster, which published-'this book, has first* call oh the Minsky opus. Author Morton Minsky is in the industrial merchandising'busi- ness. Kingsbury Smith Back to Paris Joe Kingsbury Smith, European general manager of International News Service, who accompanied William Hearst Jr. and Frank Conniff to Moscow for interviews with the new Russian leaders, and Who has been traveling with them throughout the U.S. since the re- turns, sails for his post in Paris March. He has been stationed there since 1941. Neil Vanderbilt's New Book Besides his regular newsletter, “Vagabonding With Vanderbilt,” which is published out -of Reno, Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. has been working all winter on his new book, “The Living Past In America.” It will detail some 2,00Q historic and patriotic spots in the U. S. A. and will have some 700 photographs, Nat Cartels, head of Crown, which is publishing, plans it as a $5 book some time in June, Van- derbilt meantime is winding up his 1954-55 lecture season on the Pa- cific Coast and into the northwest. He is forfended from visiting New York state because of his divorcing wife Pat’s attachment on his funds within N. Y. and a war- rant for his arrest if he crosses the state line. Nation's 90th Anni On July 9, The Nation, oldest political weekly, will round out 90 years of uninterrupted publication. The anniversary will be celebrated on June 19 in N. Y. with a dinner forum on “Atoms for Peace.” Co-chairmen are Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Van Wyck Brooks, Grenville Clark, Frank P. Graham, Ernest Gruning. George Ford's Show Biz Book George Ford, who produced the first musical comedy by Rodgers & Hart, and for the past 12 years has managed American ballet , companies, has authored “These Were Actors (The History of the Chapmans and the Drakes).” Ford is a great grandson of Wil- liam Chapman And Samuel Drake. The Chapmans were 100 years ort the stage of London’s Covent Gar- den; the Drakes were a famous theatrical family at Bath and Dev- onshire. The Chapmans ’brought the theatre to America via ^how- boats and the Drakes traveled • across the wilds of the United States in a covered wagon, bring- ing their shows west to San Fran- cisco toi make the Jenny Lind Theatre there one of the art cen- ters of the world. The author’s uncle established the first circuit of theatres in the southeast. It was at the Ford’s Theatre in Washington in which Lincoln was assassinated. Library Publishers 'is bringing it out. Rocky's Socko Biog Metro made “The Blackboard Jungle” and may have touched off a juvenile delinquency (in the classrooms) cycle, but as and when that studio films “Somebody Up There Likes Me (My Life So Far),” It may prove a much more affrma- tive celluloid undertaking. For Rocky Graziano, whom tv audi- ences know as Martha Raye’s affec- tionately goafy “goombah,” was admittedly a young hoodlum of deepest dye in his adolescence on the lower east side of New York. His memoirs, capably coauthored by Rowland Barber, snagged a re- ported $240,000 from Metro. It will make a terrific picture and perhaps point the way more posi- tively for other young punks, for certainly Graziano was a violently bullheaded ruffian of the stuff that .really pointed him for the electric In .the well organized book (Si- mon & Schuster; $3.95) Rocky has pulled no literary punches, least of all on himself, but just as re- vealing are closeups on the jails •and so-called “correction” schools, their corrupted wardens and turn- keys, not to mention the depraved and degenerate prisoners, con- signed to their dubious care. Graziano is in his 30s, so age and time haven't dimmed his memories of., poverty and crime, in contrast to his rehabilitation and his domestic properties of to- day. as a video personality. Whether he 'knows it, or even ‘‘cares to be accused thereof, he is now a model of -another -sort in today’s juvenile delinquency problems. Maybe not one Of all the young punks of this 1955 calendar period will ever attain a middleweight •champion- ship crown as a means to respect- ability, but if ever there was a young thief and a tough gutter fighter and gangster it was Rocky Graziano. His' saga will be- come a goal for all who deplore the hope of salvation for today’s brand Of reefer-happy punks. If Graziano could go legit’ there’s hope for all. Rocky and.his Boswell, Barber, have turned out a socko saga. Abel. More Show Biz Bios Anthony Glyn, grandson of the author of “Three Vfeeks,” etc., has written a biography of “Elinor Glyn,” for Doubleday publication in Juite.. Her novel, “His Hour,” catapulted John Gilbert into star- dom; “Three Weeks” sold over 5,000,000 copies; but most . note- worthy was her story, “It,” which made Clara Bow and the word itself a synonym of . the Jazz Age. The posthumous biography of the first film czar will be brought out in July by Doubleday titled “The Memoirs of Will H. Hays.” The former U.S. Postmaster Gen- eral completed' his autobiog just before his death in 1954. Another show biz biog is the story of Douglas Fairbanks Jr., by British writer Brian Connell. Dou- bleday is making much of Fair- banks’ “women in his life—Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich and Gertrude Lawrence Who are among them—but not so well known are his many services to Ihis Govern- ment” in the cause of Anglo- American unity, ambassador-with- out-portfoliO, and intimate' of Roosevelt, Hopkins and Cordell Hulk Pete Martin has switched away from Simon & Schuster, which published his Bob Hope and Bing Crosby biogs, and Doubleday will publish “Who Could Ask for Any- thing MOre?”, by Ethel Merman^ “as sung to Pete Martin.” Pub- lisher is’ ballyhooing it as a “musi- cal memoir.” Vet war correspondent, Lionel Shapiro, has utilized his real-life background of London in the blitz as the locale of his first novel, “The Sixth of June”, which I)ouble- day is' publishing in July. Another personal newspaperman narrative is Marguerite (N.Y. Her- ald Tribune) Higgins’ “News Is a Singular Thing,” in May. ' James Street Jr. has edited the travel and memoir • writings of his father, which Doubleday will pub- lish in May, under the title of “James Street’s South.” Cecil B. DeMille did the intro- duction to Mary- Pickford’s auto- biog, “Sunshine and Shadow,” which Doubleday is bringing out in May. It was serialized last year in McCalls. Josephy’s Discovery. Alvin M. Josephy, Time ed and former screen writer, is turning historian. April issue of American Heritage carries his “Was Amer- ica. Discovered Before Colum- bus?”, based on his analysis of a recently discovered nautical chart of the Atlantic Ocean made in 1424 by a Venetian cartographer and the summer issue of the Mon- tana Magazine of History, pub- lished in Helena, will include an article on the Nez Perce Indians, which is a chapter from Josephy’s forthcoming history of the tribe. N.Y. Times' S. A. Setup Growing circulation in South America is cueihg a new printing and circulation approach by the NY Times' International Edition to the Latino area. AS of next Tues- day (5), the Times Will fly page mats to Lima, Peru, where the edi- tion will be printed for South America, instead of the present practice of printing S. A. copies^n New York and flying the complete papers down. New South American operation [.will be similar to that employed in Amsterdam for European circula- tion, under which the paper is set and mats taken from the page froms in New York, with the mats then flown daily tq Amsterdam, where stereotypes are made and the papers printed from the stereos. Circulation is handled from Am- sterdam. In'the case of Lima, the newspapers will be printed on the presses of La Prensa, the daily there, and flown by Panagra and Fawcett Airlines to distribution points thruoghout South America. .Aside from .the Times' daily In- ternational Edition, tile newspaper prints a weekly publication based op the Review of the Week, the Sunday Magazine and other fea- tures for Tokyo and Manila.. .. - .t , British' TV Trade Paper Britain now has r its first trade weekly .covering the commercial, tv field exclusively. • Gpmmereial Tel- evision News,, published by Busi- ness Publications, has started off as an eight-pager, but i& expected to expand, as soon as the new net- work gets under way. Initial com- mercial transmitter is expected to start in London in September, with Birmingham and Manchester to follow later in the year, , CHATTER Carlton Brown appointed editor of See magazine by Harry Slater, veep of Pines Publications. .... Woody Wirsig, editor of Woman's Home Companion, and his wife back in N. Y. from the' Coast. ."Frederick C. Dench named gen- eral manager of Evening Citizen, Glasgow; succeeding J. M. Coltart. Edward Hundt, formerly with the N. Y. Time's ad department, joined sales staff of Field & Stream mag. - Sportsmen’s Guide; Inc. char- tered to conduct a printing and publishing business in Flushing, N. Y. Joseph Mason, former editor of Architectural Record, has been ap- pointed building editor of . Family Circle. West Coast'staff of Look mag tossed a farewell party for Jack Sayers, resigning a$ promotion manager. t> - Colin Milne, drama critic of the Glasgow Herald, who has been theatre-going for over 50 years," retiring in April. Cameron Shipp’s article on Judy Garland, titled “The Star Who Thinks Nobody Loves Her,” in the April 2 Satevepost. Alan Riddell, Australian - born drama critic and. feature ' writer, leaving Evening Dispatch, Edin- burgh, to return to Australia. Molly Weir, radio actress, and member of “Life With the Lyons” radio team, penning reminiscences of her early days in Weekly Scots- man, Edinburgh. Mildred and Gordon: Gordon left for Europe where they will drumbeat for their novels “The Talking Bug,” in seven countries during the next three months. Irving S. Manheimer, prez of- Macfadden Publications, sailed Sat- urday (26) on the Mauretania for a two-week Caribbean cruise, ac- companied by his wife and two sons.* Don Cornell, who bowed to British audiences at a Glasgow vauder, penned “Hello, Britain!’’ in New Musical Express, London weekly for light music and dance- band fans. Derek Traversi’s “Shakespeare: The Last Phase,'.* dealing with the Bard's “Pericles,” “Cymbeline,” “Winter’s Tale” and “The Tem- pest,” scheduled for Harcourt, Brace publication April 22. Mary Davis Gillies, home editor of McCall’s, vacationing in Ense- nada, Mexico. * Her husband, Dr. Joseph Johnston, is writing a his- tory of the Christian Science Church. Simon & Schuster may publish. , Sam S. Baker, radio-tv writer as well as v.p. of Kiesewetter, Baker, Hagedorn & Smith ad agency, authored his first mygtery novel which Graphic Publishing Co. is bringing out as a 25c book. Tome’s background is the ad busi- ness. Harvey Pollack, former editor of the Philadelphia edition of Curtis Publications’ defunct TV Program Week, named* general manager for TV Publications, Which publishes tv-listing^ mags for supermarkets, restaurants, gas station chains, etc. in the Philly area. Panel of five judges will select winners Of the annual Edgar Allan Poe awards for. mystery novels published in 1954. They. include Mrs. Dale Carnegie; Francis R. St. John, . chief librarian, Brooklyn Public Library; Bill Leonard, CBS; Carlos Davila, sec.-general of the Pan-American Union, and John Barkham, of Coronet. “Edgars” will be distributed in N. Y, April 21 . SCULLY’S SCRAPBOOK GOLDEN JUBILEE YEAR 1905-1955 T v f » t 4 ^ 4 fM4 4t ft By Frank Scully Palm Springs. As evem Airwick cannot make comparisons fragrant. Variety must come off very badly when people tote up its letters-to-the-editor with, say, the. New York Times. Even fan mags do better in their first issue, Which always struck me as the Miracle of the Mails. Now end then a letter to Variety seems of. sufficient news-interest or a'beef, is registered, with sufficient force to get space, but in the main letters are. answered as letters, • and usually with a Varietous brevity that would confound the inventor of the Morse code. Even this column has followed the practice of answering letters rather thafi publishing them. It leads inevitably to. people believing, we don’t get letters and if we did, wouldn't'* know what to do With them- This is by no means true. We pile them into baskets until it’s time to move, when they get lost. Letter-writing, except in houses like Sears Roebuck, where they are reduced to standard forms, is close to a dead art any.way- I have -old friends who once wrote great letters but now confess they feel- tonguetied in the presence of. secretaries when dealing with any cor- respondence above trade levels. They admit, further, that they have long since forgotten how to type or write a letter in longhand. Once I worked out. an idea for Jimmy Walker under the generic title of “Letters I Forgot To Mail.” But before it could reach the magic of print, he had gone back to the telephone. I gave the title to J. P. McEvoy, who changed it to “Letters I Would Like To Mail” and sold a series to McNaught Syndicate. In his “A Child Of The Century” Ben Hecht describes Mac as “the first literary man I knew who wasn't* a financial idiot.”; This is not of. course the same as saying he Was a financial wizard, but it indicates a trend i that direction. In fact, shortly before Mac parlayed my letters-title into a modest financial return, he had invested his own coin in a show and lost $100,000. Nevertheless,. he carried on with the air of a duPont and in due time had liquidated the debt without recourse, to 77-B, which was .a device used even by financial wizards during, the Great Dip in the '30s. c Menck’s Urbane Brushoff But letters, which kept many famous writers on publisher lists years' after they had written themselves out, are no longer considered as sound commercial' properties. H. L. Mencken began hoarding his diminishing energies years ago' by answering long letters with* a “You may be right.” Obviously no 'publisher could make a fortune out of reprinting replies like that for .300 pages. The most astonishing fam letter I’ve ever got was from the public relation echelon of the Merchants & Manufacturers Assn., That one really rocked me. One of us, I felt, Was slipping, and I refused to look in the mirror for days, arguing at any rate it wasn’t the old Scullywag. But who can be sure these days? •" _ For a while It was considered a loss of face for anyone. who had gained a measure of notoriety to thank a writer who had written well of him. But of late I have found a change for the better. Even Hollywood bigshots will write a warm note of thanks and the fact that we do not publish these billets doux does not mean they are not grand things to get, Herbert Bayard Swope wrote in recently asking us where we got a story involving him, Ralph Pulitzer,. Walter Lippmann and Houdini. Its accuracy drew his amazed admiration. Did we get it from files of the eld World? Actually, the late Joe Rifin was the informer. Sometimes a notable will write ip praise of a piece totally unrelated to him. Grouch did that one time- about a piece needling the .picture biz to show as much courage when rousted a s the press does, and Grouch certainly hasn’t’got time on his hands because, to hear him tell it, he always has some one in his arms. The late Ashton Stevens used to be a complete letter-writer and for years published at least one column a week of the answers. HeywoOd Broun, too, used to paste up columns of letters and, when more industrious, copy them out for publication. He had the rep of knocking out a column in under an hour. That must have been at such times as he pasted letters together. My devoted letter-writing public runs from the heads of literary societies to newsboys. One pitchman writes the longest, letters of all. They are written in excellent English but. are scrawled in pencil on. all sorts of paper, even wrapping paper, In' fact* some come perilously close to .offsets of the holographs of Horace Greeley, who Once threw up his hands and said to his typesetter when asked to clarify a certain passage, “If you can’t make it out, how do you expect me to do it?” My particular Greeley is Memphis Harry Lee Ward, who peddles the diminishing list of rags that pass for newspapers in L.A. He has the comer of Hollywood Blyd. and Las Palmas. He’s a great hand at trying to goad me into fighting for causes. His latest concerned a character called Thunder Parker who landed in psycho for tres- passing on Vampira's routine. I advanced the idea that a sixmonth rest at Camarillo state hospital would be a blessing in disguise. Memph doesn’t like blessings that have to wear masques. He thinks they violate personal liberty. He was a pet of Jean Harlow’s and of late the most beautiful of modern blondes has taken him under her wing. (This is not Marilyn Monroe, who has her moments, though this wasn’t one of them.) Memph's 7,000 Books—Reht Free The interest of Memph and the Beautiful Blonde seems to be chiefly literary. Memph owns a library of 7,000 books. “I got a $20 a month deal on a little hut,” he writes, “and piled in. 3,000 of the books. That left enough room for a cot for myself, which was all I needed. Then I got a garage for $5 and stored the remaining 4,000 books in it.” One day the B.B. took him to luncheon at the Gotham and when they left he found the storage rent secreted in a book he was carrying. He wrote her protesting the ^kindness, but she assured him it was only money and the books, some of them rare items, needed protection. “I’ve lived here and sold papers on Hollywood Blvd. for 30 years in rain and shine,” Memph confessed. “I’ve seen Hollywood glamor and have even shared in some of it. But nobody till now thought of playing Miss Carnegie to a vagabond lover of books.” He keeps track of them, too. He loaned me a book on Jolson once, I passed it on to somebody else. It took six months to get the book back to Memph. He didn’t fine me 2c a day, however. Seems that something about the First Amendment and the privileges of a free press held him back. Caskie Stinnett is another one of my adept attention-callers. He writes a commentary for Holiday and he writes cute letters too. One recently told about how security-conscious the Defense Dept, has become. c An-Army chaplain whose job it is apparently to Christianize the Pentagonians has two filing cabinets. One is marked “Sacred” and the other “Top Sacred.” Then there’s Dan H.' Lawrence, editor of the eminent Shaw Bulletin. “Your recent Satires on film scenarios in Variety have me in stitches,” he writes. “The only trouble is, I’ve sqen too many similar plots pre- sented in dead seriousness on local screens. And I'm wondering when Abel Green is going to modernize your column. This being the age j of Cinemascope, he ought to allow at least one of your columns to take the shape of the ■ new curved screen. Surely the corn did not stop with the flat screen. I recently saw ‘Prince Valiant.’ Mea maxima culpa!”, -Say, how about that? A rtirved column. Which would go over bet- ter—an out-drop or an inshoot? Or one that was 36 at the top, 22 in the middle and 34 over the hips?