Variety (September 1955)

76 I.ITERATI K&zffiT? Mencken'* Indisposition Roseland C. Lohrfinck, secretary to H. L. Mencken, in acknowledg¬ ing the 75th birthday greetings and wii*es, advises that the Balti¬ more literateur “has been uncom¬ fortable because of hay fever’' and that the day after his birthday “he somehow hurt his arm getting out of bed and the shoulder has been painful . . . not at all serious but annoying ..." ‘Esquire' Into Credit Biz Esquire mag is branching out into the lucrative credit field through an affiliate known as Es¬ quire Club. Plan, which will be announced to the publication's readers in its December issue (out Nov. 8), will grant members credit at top establishments such as res¬ taurants, retail stores, florist shops and car rental agencies. It’s sched¬ uled to get underway as of Jan. 1. New setup anticiDates a national membership of 500,000 to use its facilities. While the outfit asserts no comparable credit plan exists, it notes that the nearest competi¬ tor for the club claims 160,000 members. Among such credit or¬ ganizations, incidentally, are the Diner’s Club and Trip Charge. “Quality rather than quantity,” the club maintains, “will govern selection of associate members." For example, its roster of New York restaurants will be limited to 50. Associate members will re¬ ceive the Esquire Club insignia and plaque designating them as exclusive members of the credit group. Associate members will be paid within 48 hours on tabs rung up by user members. Club will de¬ duct a “small percentage” of the cost—exclusive of taxes and tips— for services. Members will be billed monthly for accumulated charges. Fee for charter member¬ ship will be $5 in the first year fol¬ lowed by $6 annually for the fu¬ ture. Mail Order House's Petition Union Library Assn., established in 1884 and one of the oldest mail order book concerns in America, petitioning the N.Y. bankruptcy courts for an “arrangement" whereby it can pay off its $97,903 liabilities 35c on the dollar. As¬ sets are $11,000. Union Library proposes 10% cash on the 97G debts and 5% semi-annual installments. Outfit is at 121 E. 24 St., N.Y. City. Eddie Cantor’s Autobiog Working title on Eddie Cantor’s memoirs is “Take My Life" and alternate is “Who—Me?" The for¬ mer tag reminds of Cantor's first autobiog, in the mid-1920s, in col¬ laboration with the late David Freedman, his longtime gagman, titled “My Life Is In Your Hands." Star has enlisted Jane Ardmore, Coast writer, to do it, since he is otherwise limited because of health and occupational reasons. Simon & Schuster will publish. Mike Stern’s Assignments Loaded with chores from Faw¬ cetts. Look, Esquire-Pageant and others, roaming Roman correspond¬ ent Michael Stern returns to Italy this or next week to do his articles from his base in the Italian capital, which is his home. Meantime his wife, Estelle, is in Las Vegas on a quickie with Zoe Fontana, the Italian couturier, where they will do a super-fashion show at Beldon Katleman’s El Rancho Vegas in November. Marshall Fields’ ‘Bill’ Sell Marshall Field, the Chicago de¬ partment store, is giving the up¬ coming “Buffalo Bill’’ book, by Town & Country editor Henry Sell and Victor Weybright, an unusual showmanship pitch, including jun¬ keting of reviewers, old west his¬ torians, librarians, hunting and fishing writers and the like to Cody, Wjo., where the governor of that state will “purchase" the first copy. On that score, Oxford Press lias a 25,000 advance sale, which is unusually big for a $7.50 book, or for any book. Since Sell and Weybright are both old hands in publishing, they thought they’d play it safe with friends on a “bid" basis. This will also be the technique if any film interest arises, since there seems to be a revitalized “adult western” cycle on radio and tv. There is much original material in their book, although Col. William F. Cody and the “Buffalo Bill” saga otherwise may be considered public domain. More Comedian-Authors Milton Bcrle once cracked, with the rash of the acto^-authors. “It’s getting to be so that I don’t knew whether to rerd a book or write one'” V’hile Unrie ’'H'tie’s med : - tatin.g, Joey Adams has written four of • • in. : \v*"t ‘s “Stririlv for Lair hs” (F ’1; and like his oredeccs' Riches,” “The Curtain Never Falls" and “Joey Adams’ Joke Book,” the accent is on the quip. Sometimes the mots are not so bon, but in the main the end-result is bright and humorous. The comedian-author namedrops all over the terrain—from 7th Ave. tycoons to Hollywood and the George V< Paris* bar. A recent trend in book salesmanship has been for actor-authors to pitch their liternrv wares via mike and image orthicon—you can’t beat that on-camera closeup of a title- nage—but Adams seems to have done his own brand of closed-cir¬ cuit ballvhooing. He’s tacked gags rn everybody from celebrities to drugstore owners, and the result must insure soles, as witness a 35.000 nre-nublicotion Drint order for “Strictly for Laughs.” Adams' farflun" contacts have resulted in bulk odrers of enviable propor¬ tions, f rom an author's viewpoint. Thf* Brooklyn Dodgers bought 1,000 copies for giveaway pur- noses; Leonard Simons (Simons- Michaelson ad agenev, Detroit* bought 5.000: a B^au Brummel tie outfit bought 5 000; Arde Bnlova, 1.000; Harry S'*k (SunRav Drug¬ stores chain*, 5.000: Nate Shanero (Cunningham Drugs*, 2.500 copies, ^tc. Adams, of course, is a pro¬ lific column-contacting and radio- tv-oluggcr for his book, which gives an idea of the promotional imoact. In another idiom, gagman Eddie Davis’ “Open At Your Own Risoue" lv>s been sequeled by “Proceed At Your Own Risoue” (Scylla; $3*. These are glorified Esauire-tvpe gags, with pictures to match. In a glossier idiom is “The New Yorker 1950-1955 Album" (Haroer; $5*, a slick collection of the bests from The New Yorker, totaling some 450 cartoons and 40 of that weekly’s covers in full length. They’re even better in retrospect and in anthology pres¬ entation. A surefire Xmas or other gift item. Abel. Kay Campbell Started Somethin’ A regional controversy has been kicked up by Kay Campbell’s ar¬ ticle, “A Little Land and a Re¬ tirement Career," in the August issue of Journal of Lifetime Living. The rosy picture on a career in flowergrowing, painted by Miss Camobell. has been partly denied by the Encinitas (Gal.) Chamber of Commerce which received more than 200 inquiries as a result of the script. Local realtors, growers* and the.weekly California Farmer have al^o thrown their weight into this tiff. He’s a Card Jerry D. Lewis is quite a card among “Hollywood gagmen and seripters. and as a, charter mem¬ ber of the Wednesday Night Opera Lovers & Poker Club of Beverly Hills and environs, he had pack¬ aged “the world’s greatest poker, stories" under the title of “Deal¬ er’s Choice” (Rarnes; $3.95*. It’s a good anthology about the aces- back-to-back set, and such byliners as the following give it substance, among them Achmed Abdullah. Franklyn P. . Adams,* Robert Bencliley, Hey wood Broun, Leslie Charteris, Russel Crouse, C, S. Forester, Bret Harte, Ernest Hemingjvav. O. Henry, Oswald Jacobv, Allan LeMay, W. Somerset Maugham. John O’Hara, Robert Ruark, Damon Runyon, James Thurber and Mark Twain. It’s a compelling collection of worthwhile reading matter about the second most popular after- darlc activity; good reading at any spot in this deck of poker stories. Abel. Vanderbilt’s Book Pitch Cornelius (Neil) Vanderbilt Jr. has started on a tour of 22 eastern and midwestern cities to plug his tome, “The Living Past of Ameri¬ ca.” Doing two and three shows daily (with films, accompanied by a Vanderbilt in-person narration, on some of the places mentioned in his book*, tour will take from six to eight weeks. Book has sold in excess of 45,- 000 via Crown, his publisher. Beebe’s ‘Comstock Commotion’ Virginia City (Nev.*, rip-roaring town in the Comstock Lode bonan¬ za days, today is a ghost town— but plenty lively. Part of the rea¬ son for no rigor mortis is the Ter¬ ritorial Enterprise, a unique week¬ ly that goes back to 1858. In 1952 the Enterorise was taken over by boulevardicr-epidure-writer Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg, his col¬ laborator on several books. They took the sheet from the museum and put il on the newsstands. Their latest team-up is on “Com¬ stock Commotion” (Stanford U. Press*, which tells the fabulous story of the Fntcrpri.se from the days when a 1 1 it took to move a newspaoer office was a two-wheeled oxcart for iho o'd press, tvne c?°«s. voitoons and office Colt; ' To¬ day much of 1<io nioneer smrjt re¬ mains; the staff often conducts business in the local saloons. Typi¬ cal of the attitude is that instead of the usual cityroom signs urging “Think," the Enterprise cards ad¬ vise the staff to “Smirk," “Sneer" and “Leer." Writing Is somewhat over-sea¬ soned, but it’s an entertaining look at part of Western Americana through the pages of the legendary paper Mark Twain once wrote for. Bril. Chapman’s ‘Theatre ’55’ “Theatre ’55," edited by John Chapman (Random House: $5), is the third annual the N, Y. Daily News drama critic has produced in current series, which selects and digests a “golden dozen" of Broad¬ way's recent offerings. Winners this year are “Witness for the Prosecution," “Bus Stop," “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," “Bad Seed," “Desperate Hours,” “Inherit the Wind," “Saint of Bleecker Street," “Fanny," “Anastasia," “Tender Trap," “Lunatics and Lovers," and “Reclining Figure.” Editor submits an essay on “The Season in Retrospect,” in which he finds the past term “a shade dif¬ ferent . . . the comparatively plot¬ less play of mood and character still held sway, but romance and melodrama, supposedly old-hat, were shouldering their way back.” C. B. Mortlock, Canon of Chiche¬ ster Cathedral, assesses the London theatre scene for Chapman, while George Freedley reports the stage west of Broadway and in Canada, albeit, as usual, somewhat sketchily. Departments are carryovers in the tome’s customary format. Plays, casts, and partial credit lists of pro participants are offered. Stage managers, again, are ignored in Chapman's compilations. Photo¬ graphs illustrate reading versions of the 12 “top" plays. Down. New ‘Intro Bulletin' Latest publication to cover the arts Is Intro Bulletin which editor- publisher Louis Brigante is bring¬ ing out next month. It’s to be issued monthly in tabloid news¬ paper format and will sell for 10c. Initial number, among other things, will carry an interview with N.Y. Times book columnist Harvey Breit, a report on status of the off- Broadway theatre, and a piece on the “cultural significance” of Gotham’s coffee house trend. Shakespearean Novel “The Roaring Boys” by Robert Payne (Doubleday; $3.95) is a com¬ pelling novel about Shakespeare and his troupe of strolling players. Action is set in and around London shortly after the death of the great Elizabeth, and in the early days of the reign of James I. Obviously grounded in theatre as well as the idiom of the period, Payne writes knowingly of the problems besetting Will as an actor-manager, coping with a band of talented tatterdemalions who were not, perhaps, as “dedicated" as their master. Dialog is vibrant, the characters well-drawn. Of all recent fiction about Shakespeare, this deserves most to be dramatized or filmed. * * - Rob. Info For Welles Brog London. Editor Variety: Am endeavouring to write a biography of Orson Welles, though trying to pin him down for any length of time is like trying to catch Moby Dick with a broken harpoon! I wonder if Variety readers would help me with relevant data? Writing the book 3,000 miles from Now York and 6,000 miles from Hollywood makes the tracking down of details relating to his earlier activities somewhat diffi¬ cult. I should therefore welcome any letters, personal reminiscences, anecdotes, cuttings, articles, photo¬ graph grumbles, grouches—any¬ thing relating to him. All documents sent to me here in London will be copied and promptly returned. Acknowledg¬ ment will, of course, be given in the book itself for all help given. Peter Noble. ' (72, Wellington Court, London, N. W. 8) Campus Anthology Nolan Miller and Judson Jerome have edited “New Campus Writing" (Bantam; 50c), containing student contributions from several major colleges and universities. In most cases, entries represent the first published works of the young literati. Verse items from Henri Coulettc, Satoru Sato and Leonard Wolf of the U. of Iowa have special merit. Prose bits arc also mainly topflight. Bios of the authors are appended. Ev dently additional nnl hologics ’ '* appear in 1 his vein if mitial is the success it r - ■■•es to be. Down. \ v Wednesday, September 28, 1955 Maclean Unloads t Maclean-Hunter Ltd., Toronto, has sold two o f its magazines. David B. Cromble, onetime ad man¬ ager of Mayfair, bought that monthly and the twice-yearly Ca¬ nadian Bride for an unannounced price. He takes over Oct. 15 as Crombie Publishing Co. Ltd. He was a reporter on the St. Cath¬ arines, Ont., Standard for some years in the '20s. Mayfair, 27-year-old 35c 'Slick aimed at wealthy homes, hit 20,000 circ. this year under editorship of Eric Hutton, ex-Toronto Star and later an editor of Magazine Digest. Canadian Bride has 10,000 circ. Sale doesn't mean M-H is slipping. Its bi-weekly Maclean’s is well over 500,000—Canada’s top mag circula¬ tion—and is fat with ads. Its week¬ ly Financial Post is the country’s largest financial paper, and it re¬ cently added a 29th trade mag, Office Equipment & Methods. Negro Author-Actor’s Novel “The Band Will Not Play Dixie" by Theodore Browne (Exposition; $3), is a novel about racial tensions by an actor-playwright who is re¬ membered for his performances in “Stevedore" and “Noah" on the West Coast, and for his play, “Natural Man," which was spon¬ sored off-Broadway by- the Ameri¬ can Negro Theatre. Browne’s book concerns an un¬ successful Negro nationalist move¬ ment. His hero is an intrepid newspaperman, and the tale con¬ tains plenty of pace and excite¬ ment. ‘Waterfront’ Between Covers Budd Schulberg has fashioned his novel, “Waterfront" (Random House; $3.95), from his Oscar- winning film script, “On the Water¬ front.” Almost all the characters and situations figuring in the film are to be found in the book. In print, however, the author has been able to explore some of his people more fully; and his general style is crisp and telling, quite in key with the “documentary" problem that is posed. Principal difference between pic and novel seems to be the greater development of- the waterfront priest, Father Barry, prototype of an actual cleric-of-the-docks, Fa¬ ther John M. Corridan (played ex¬ pertly in the film by Karl Malden). Terry Malloy (Brando) still figures as the longshoreman “Hamlet,” but in better perspective, perhaps, than in the picture. Down. George Ford’s Forebears George D. Ford, current man¬ ager of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, has written the story of his theatrical forebears, the Chap¬ mans and the Drakes, two of'the first acting families in America. Ford’s book, entitled “These*Were Actors" will be printed by Library Publishers late in October. In their day, the Chapmans and the Drakes were responsible for the invention of showboating in this country, and contributed to the rise of minstrelsy. Two ladies of the family, Caro¬ line Chapman and Julia Dean, be¬ came favorites of two generations. Another relative of the author's, John T. Ford, founded the theatre chain bearing his name. In his Washington playhouse, Lincoln was assassinated. All of which gives author Ford the distinction of being the one person in Ameri¬ can show biz related to the oldest families of our native stage. Of the 24 short stories chose by anthologist Martha Foley as tl best of the thousands putilishc last year, in “Best American Sho N Stories for 1955" (Houghton Mi flm; $4), it is odd that only a ham ful are adaptable or suitable f< motion pictures or tv. Most a: pearls of creative writing withoi ever having enough string or sul stance to make a necklace. Ye in the half dozen or more th^t mj be woven into one 'fabric or tl other, the manufacturers will i necessity be compelled to add coi siderable body before the sketch* become more comprehensive work of art. Probably the best of the collec¬ tion is Irwin Shaw’s New Yorker yarn, “Tip on A Dead Jockey,” which deals with intrigue centering around two fliers and a secret mis¬ sion proposed by a mysterious agent. Dore Schary has already acquired the story for Metro and it will need quite a bit of writing before it can be produced as a full length feature. *T Got a Friend" °y Mark Van Doren, from the U of K. C. Review, is of the “Topper" calibre and quite compact, but a little embellishment should make an entertaining subject. “Dead Center" by Judith Merrill from Fantasy & Science Fiction is down- to-earth for the tv space-makers. “The Magic Barrel" by Bernard Malamud, from Partisan Review, is of the Sholem Aleichem -.texture ana anotner good possibility. Ma* Hyman's “The Hundreth Centen mal," from The Paris Review haa the possibiiities of another ‘Seven Brides’ if more scope is given the individual members of the farmer’s family Likewise with &il ver „ L * Far Se f s (New Yorker) The Resting Place" and “Portrait of My Son as A Young Man " hU Elizabeth Middleton from the rr of K. C. Review. “The Fisherman from Chihuahua” by Evan s S nell from Paris Review, reminic cent of Hemingway's “The Killers " and John Cheever’s “The Country Husband’ from the New Yorker are expandable subjects for tv writers to tackle for interesting half-hour dramas. Oni. Mike McCrary Reclaimed That’s what his pop, Tex Mr, Crary, says of the 19-year-old Reed College student (Reed is in Port- iand. Ore.), “A Variety review re¬ claimed him for Horace Greeley He na r P h y sicist > a disciple of William L. Laurence of the NY Times—you’d be surprised how many young physicists worship at the shrine of Bill Laurence of the Times—but when a Variety ‘no¬ tice’ of Michael's reportage on his summer’s Far East coverage an. peared he finally swung over to Jinx s and my thinking that Mike should make with the typewriter like his father". * McCrary observes that Reed College m the northwest “has pro- duced more Nobel Prizewinners in physics and chemistry", and that’s a pretty strong argument when a young hopeful like Mike, who graduated Exeter and was accept¬ able to both Yale and Harvard, picked on Reed. The youngster giving his radio and tv observa¬ tions on Tex & Jinx’s radio and tv programs (WRCA and WRCA-TV N.Y.), evidenced an authoritative flair at the mike, and a Variety re¬ viewer so mentioned it. It’s notable also that John Reed, son of the college’s founder, is buried in Moscow’s Red Square, with Lenin and Stalin, as a hero of the Russian revolution. Reed’s widow married William C. Bullitt, the first U. S. Ambassador to So¬ viet Russia. • CHATTER Doubleday & Co. has merged Country Life Press Corp. Martin Abramson has article coming in This Week on Bob Cros¬ by (“Headaches of the Kid Broth¬ er"). N.Y., increased its capital stock from 200 to 1,000 shares, no par value. ham Murphy, who started VIP Service, is in the November issue of Catholic Digest. Dancer Antonio and 31 members of his Spanish Ballet Co. arrived yesterday (Tues.) on the Queen Mary for their U. S. debut Sunday (2) at the Broadway Theatre. Ewing Poteet, New Orleans Item music-drama critic and musician, has been appointed director of se¬ rious music of the New Orleans Recreation Dept.. Mayor deLesseps S. Morrison announced last week. Flock of travel editors flying to Lausanne for the conclave of the American Society of Travel Agents which meets in Switzerland this year. Among ’em are Esquire’s Richard Joseph and French Tourist Bureau’s Norman Reader. Doubleday has just gone back to press with its fourth printing of Herman Wouk’s new novel, “Mar¬ jorie Morningstar.” Since its pub¬ lication Sept. 1, 100,000 additional copies of the book have been printed, for a total of 200,000 copies in print. Arthur Knight, film critic for the Saturday Review of Literature, working on a book, tentatively called “The Liveliest Art," for Mentor Books, the New American Library. Paperback edition is due out early in 1956 and deals with the general development of the art of the film. Magazine writer Norman Lob- senz and his wife, Margery Darrell Lobsenz (book editor for Look Magazine) leave Sept. 30 for a three-week business and pleasure trip to France, Italy, England and Germany. She’ll be researching a book; he will be doing magazine article assignments. Ken Giniger, v.p. and g.m. of Hawthorn Books, the Prentice-Hall subsid, off to the Coast via Canada and back in N.Y. on Oct. 16, via the Texas route, contacting au¬ thors in L.A. and Frisco. Also, co¬ incidentally, doing some radio-tv interview sessions plugging his self-edited anthology, “The Com¬ pact Treasury of Inspiration , which is also coincidentally a Haw¬ thorn publication. Leonard Bernstein will write a vocal score, in medieval religious style, for the forthcoming Broad¬ way leglter, “The Lark."