Variety (March 1956)

-# v TELEVISION DIALS IN MUSIC BIZ Supermarkets Find Variety Units Big Sales Hypo; Circuit Expands It 4-Unt- _____* . It's beginning to appear that the 6 nly way to sell vaudeville profit¬ ably is to give it away. People, hav¬ ing become accustomed to a wealth £f talent dispensed for free on vi- ^eo, may not shell out the coin to see variety shows, but appear more than willing to attend name'Show¬ ings when available at no cost. Super-Market Show of Shows At¬ tractions, which handles sales drives and campaigns for food ptores, reports that 1,400,000 peo¬ ple will have seen their shows in a few weeks of operations. They have concluded a long stay in Mon¬ treal under auspices of a food Chain, in .which cash register re¬ ceipts of a certain value were ex- changable for a ticket of admis¬ sion. They open shortly in Cleve¬ land, thence to Youngstown, Erie and Minneapolis, and then a swing though the south. - They .use name talent. For ex¬ ample, roster of entertainers in Montreal included Dennis Day, JSlaine Malbin, De Marco Sisters, John (Crazy Otto) Maddox, Fran¬ ces Brunn and others. They work in either theatres or arenas, and turnout has been sufficiently profit¬ able so that food chains through¬ out the country are studying the possibility of hypoing sales through the use of live talent. In many cities, food chain com¬ petition is so fierce, that operators have devised various gimmicks to get buyers into the stores. The show idea is expected, to expand. Some food processors aren’t heavy (Continued on page 54) Intimates Say Allen Overtaxed Himself In Working on Autobiog Fred Allen was a victim Of over¬ work impelled by a desire to finish his autobiography, the sequel to his “Treadmill to Oblivion” book. The comedian, 61, collapsed in New . York just before midnight on Sat¬ urday ( 17 ) while out walking on West 57th St., just around the corner from his home. His friends were well aware that Allen was burning the midnight oil on his Autobiog, having managed to come through with 10 chapters. He suc¬ cumbed after a heart attack Helen Strauss, of the William Morris agency, which handles Allen, States that “Much Ado About Me” (a working title with which the comedian wasn’t “very happy”) is virtually completed. It ran over- long, particularly on the vaude as¬ pects because Allen was personally yery partial to that segment of his pioneer' show biz career. Edwin P Connor, an old friend, was act¬ ing as a sort of “personal editor” for Allen, because of their longtime association. There should be no ihisimpression about O’Connor's services which were gratis and strictly advisory because he (O’¬ Connor) was strongest in influ- (Continued on page 49) 7 Features, 7 Cartoons Houston, March 20. Ozoner here let local film , .fans go on weekend bender with a one-admission stay-as- • long-as-you-like deal that fea¬ tured seven full length films and seven cartoons. The film lineup carried everything from .westerns (“Jesse James vs. Daltons”) to sex (“Pickup On South St.”) The King Center Drive-In urged, in its ads, “Come as early as you like. Stay as long as you wish! Have fun!” Just How Big Is That Disk Club Market? Indication of the penetration of the record clubs on the retail disk biz will become available when Co¬ lumbia releases the figures on the first eight months of its club’s op¬ eration. Col, which launched its LP record club last August, .is now taking stock of its club’s activity and plans to issue a statement within the next week. Industryites are anxiously await¬ ing the Col tabulation since it is the largest disk company to take on the disk club angle. Advance re¬ ports show a healthy membership enrollment and that dealers have not Been noticeably affected by the mail order lure. When Col launched its club, dealers around the country raised squawks that it would take their customers away from the stores. Since the club’s kickoff, Col has been ironing out the wrinkles in the program to help the dealer hold on to the cus¬ tomer. A revamped program, which brought the customer into the local shops to join the club, was successfully tested in Cleve¬ land recently and the diskery now (Continued on page 54) J. Stuart Blackton Biog Pending With Petroff Hollywood, March 20. J. Stuart Blackton, one of the true pioneers of motion pictures, will be biofilmed by indie producer Boris Petroff, under a deal near the closing stage With Blackton’s widow, Mrs. W. P. Earle. Blackton, who formed Vitagraph early in the century, is credited with having filmed the first news¬ reel, ’ showing Admiral Dewey’s re¬ turn to N. Y. from Manila, after the Spanish-American War. The move of video producers, packagers and performers into the music publishing field is now gen¬ eral. Latest to open up a music subsid is the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz team via Desilu Music, the same name as their production company. Ann Sothern, star of the “Private Secretary” video series, has also formed her own firm, Bar S Music, as a subsid to her Vincent Productions company. They now join a roster of names with their own publishing com¬ panies that includes Sid Caesar, Perry Como, Eddie Fisher, Jackie Gleason, Mark Stevens, George Gobel, Max Liebman and Louis G. Cowan, producer of “The $64,000 Question.” Incentive to open a music sub¬ sid lies in the growing perform¬ ance coin to be derived from tele¬ vision and the power of the tv plug in creating a pop hit. Just.as the film companies wanted to own the music featured in their films back in the early days of sound pix, so the video producers and stars see permanent economic values in controlling the music showcased on their stanzas, whether as theme music or as pop tunes integrated into the action. In the case of vocalists, such as Perry Como, the power to plug a tune on tv is a direct assist to the publishing operation. Como’s lat- (Continued on page 49) ' H wood the Star In New Pix Cycle Hollywood, March 20. Despite the spotty record of most Hollywood-localed films, five pictures with startown backgrounds are among the 20 show biz features scheduled for production this year in the first revival of the ehter- tainment industry cycle in some years. Three are awaiting release, another is currently shooting. Sev¬ en of the features are biopics. Currently shooting is “Kelly and Me,” Universal's Van Johnson star- rer about a vaudevillian who be¬ comes a film star. Lot also starts two next month, “Star Light, Star Bright,” about young starlets, and “The Great Man,” about a tv-radio (Continued on page 54) Wanted: Track Sponsor Is there a sponsor around with $25,000 who wants to make a dona¬ tion to the U. S. Olympic Fund?- That’s the price being asked by NBC-TV for a two-hour telecast of the Olympic track & field try¬ outs, headk/'J’for a Saturday at 4 p.m. h«fthing June 30. le 25G is exclusive of the time When Yanks Build Up Europe's Stars, Europe Can’t Pay Salaries Anymore Fire, Yes; Pretty, No Lloyd Shearer, Hollywood correspondent for Parade, went to Rome for an inter¬ view with Oscar - nominee Anna Magnani, came back with these quotes from the Italian actress: “Dio Mio, you Americans crazy. Fly six, eight thousand miles. Talk to Magnani. Why? I can no win the (Academy) Award. Is impossible ... I no Hollywood star. Look my fig¬ ure. Look my face. No young. No pretty. Only fire.” Pic Star Pactees At All-Time Low; Only 6 at Metro The film industry is now casting its stars on a freewheeling basis, with less worry about who’ll be available and, for economic rea¬ sons, hardly any effort to keep the stables stacked with names. This is, perhaps, best reflected in the current Metro roster. For years regarded as the studio with the .most personality personnel under contract, M-G now' has only six players of major marquee im¬ portance on board. The six players who rate star billing at M-G, meaning their names usually are listed above the titles of their pictures, are Eliza¬ beth Taylor, Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Debbie Rey¬ nolds and Howard Keel. There are other important names with the studio but they’re on a non-exclu¬ sive or short-term basis, or work infrequently. The new thinking throughout Hollywood centers on the assump- (Continued on page 14) American interest in foreign film-actors, and the signing of a considerable number of them by Hollywood studios, is of debatable value as far as native industries overseas are concerned. Argument generally is that the appearance of a foreign personal¬ ity in an American picture is of double advantage: 1. If the thesp is popular in his own country, the U.S. distrib stands to cash in by having him ot her in a film. 2. The local industry gains since its talent gets a boost in the worldwide mar¬ ket and becomes of marquee value in any subsequent film. Some foreign producers, while not inclined to argue with the fact that appearance in an important American property is a boon to their players, see one or two flies in the ointment. One is Hermann Schwerin, president of Fono Film, Berlin, in the U.S. on his first visit. Schwerin opined last week that, while he could see advantages in the popularization of the German stars abroad, he also knew that the price of the talent subsequently skyrockets to such an extent that the local studios couldn’t afford it. Same point was made recently by a British producer who added, with a touch of bitterness, that anytime the British industry came up with a personality “find,” Hollywood would come along and snatch him away via the lure of heavy coin. There has been of late consider¬ able interest in the new crop of German players, with Universal particularly eager to sign them. Among those pacted by the U lot are O. W. Fischer, Cornell Bor- (Continued on page 16) Stan Kenton to Do Score For Grace Kelly . Ballet London, March 20. Stan Kenton is to write the rrjusic . for, a„ . 20,-minute . ballet,. “Homage To The Princess,” which will be performed for the first time at - the. Grace. Kelly * wedding • at- Monte Carlo next month. Impresario Julian Braunsweg and artistic director Anton Dolin, of London’s Festival Ballet Co., who are presenting the ballet dur¬ ing a week’s run there, contacted Kenton in London on Tuesday (13), and settled the project with him. The music will be played by a 40-piece orchestra, and the ele¬ ment of modern jazz will be strongly featured in the score. Show Biz’First'Looming In Fall With B’way, Brit. Day-Date ‘Mame’ Preem A show biz first may occur this fall when simultaneous premieres on Broadway and in London’s West End are staged by Robert Fryer and Lawrence Carr of their produc¬ tion, “Auntie Mame,” from the Pat¬ rick Dennis (Vanguard) bestseller which Jerome Lawrence and Rob¬ ert E. Lee are dramatizing. Rosa¬ lind Russell will star on Broadway and Beatrice Lillie in the London production. Date aimed for is Aug. 15. Lawrence & Lee, vet radio-tv scripters-who clicked-with “Inherit the Wind,” currently on Broadway (Paul Muni) and in Chicago (Mel- vyn Dougla’s), may also set some kind of a first if Fryer & Carr also come up with a Broadway hit in their “Shangri-La” musical (the late James Hilton collaborated on the libretto from his famed novel and filmization) which has a score by Harry Warren. Lew Ayres has the lead of “Shangri-La,” his legit musical debut. This would give L&L three concurrent plays on Broadway, assuming, of course, (Continued on page 14)