Variety (July 1956)

Published Weekly at 154 West 46th Street, New York 36, N. Y.. by Variety, Inc. Annual subscription, $10. 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. 1956, BY VARIETY. INC., ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Vol. 203 No. 5 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 1956 PRICE 25 CENTS TV’S 73,000,000-H0UR PIC GRIND Find Theatres, Productions Invest Phoney East Berlin Themes With Eclat 4.1BS FEATURES Stars’ Own Tax-Motivated Features Currently Peak Independent’ Trend By ELVIRA T. MARQUIS East Berlin, July 3. Entertainment for entertain¬ ment’s sake is a thing little known in the 64 Communist-controlled theatres in East Germany. “Thea¬ tre” is still considered primarily a propaganda organ;' an aid in in¬ fluencing the thinking of the peo¬ ple, especially youth. Each year the state-owned and supported theatres are given their propaganda theme. “Peace” is the theme for the 1955-56 season. Care¬ fully selected classics and newly written plays, dramatizing the propaganda message, make up the repertoires. Their purpose is to “mobilize the public for the triumphant bat¬ tle against America’s war econ¬ omy. To convince the people of the righteousness of their cause, and to give them confidence ‘ in their strength and ability to de¬ feat the war-profit greedy imperial¬ istic capitalists and win the victory to the everlastiifg glory and power of the Communist fatherland.” It is compulsory for every party member to attend at least 12 plays a year. The ticket price is deduct¬ ed from his pay checks. In cases where the plays do not have direct reference to the United States, program notes explain to the audience the implied message. One of the current popular plays in the Soviet sector of Berlin is set in a New York saloon. Its characters are the worst gangster types, except for the juvenile lead. He is a well-educated, idealistic pacifist. He is not money-mad, but aspires to serve his fellowmen (Continued on page 55) Hasn’t Anyone Grabbed The U.S. Rights to This? It’s a Natural for B’way Vienna, July 3. It was a rousing combination of slapstick f arce ''and hokum pielo- drama 1 recently in the local court¬ house when actress Kaethe Dorsch was fined $20 for having swatted critic Hans Weigel, on the kisser. As the verdict was an¬ nounced, one enthused spectator yelled, “May I pay $10 for another wallop?” The standing-room-only specta¬ tors obviously relished the proceed¬ ings, laughing uproariously at times and applauding the partici¬ pants. At one point, veteran Aus¬ trian actor Raoul Aslan became enraged at the convulsed crowd and shouted, “Shut up.” They practically collapsed with glee at that. During his tirade, Aslan told Judge H. Strobl that the critic, Weigel, should be hanged for re¬ peatedly writing insultingly of the principal Austrian cultural institu¬ tion, the Burgtheatre, where he (Continued on page 53) 4 - CBS’ July 4 Moscow TVer CBS Newsmen will rack up an¬ other “first” in Moscow today (Wed.). Two CBS cameramen, along with correspondent Daniel Schorr, will film the annual July 4 reception at the American Em¬ bassy. Reception is attended by 500 guests, among them the top Russian leaders. Ambassador Charles E. Bohlen is host. Cameramen are Cyril Bliss and John Tiffin. Schorr is CBS’ per¬ manent man in Moscow. ‘Faith’ Songs Vs. Rock ’n’ Rollers Faith and inspirational themes are creeping back into the music business again. The religioso-styled songs hit a high a few years back and are now trying to knock the rock ’n’ roll cycle out of the box. ■ Now, however, the publishers and the diskery men are pushing for a religioso comeback. They’re figuring that the time is ripe for the “message” songs -to take the play away from the hopped-up rock ’n’ roll lyric. Spearheading the swing back to the spiritual kick is Perry Como’s RCA Victor slicing of “Somebody Up There Likes Me.” In a similar groove from the same diskery is Sunny Gale’s “Try A Little Prayer.” Decca is hopping on the bandwagon with Roberta Sher¬ wood’s cutting of “Faith Unlocks The Door” while MGM is pitching with Joni James’ “Give Us This Day” and Danny Knight’s ■ “Beach¬ comber, Beachcomber.” Kapp Rec¬ ords has issued “One God” with its new vocalist, Russ Miller. Other diskeries are also lining up the “message” songs for a big push. | NON-HORIZONTAL RULE FOR MARRIED LOVERS Hollywood, July 3. Arwin Productions, Martin Mel- cher-Doris Day indie, is re-shoot¬ ing a total of 40 posters stills for the outfit’s • initial production, “Julie,” as a result of a nix by the Production Code Administration. Disputed photos show Doris Day and Louis Jourdan in love scenes, lensed in horizontal positions. They portray a married couple in the film, but PCA ruled against the poses taken on a bed. Sketches of proposed gallery art for the Metro release will be submitted to PCA before a new photo session. However, mag photogs who visited the set have lensed pix similar to those which were rejected by PCA. By MURRAY HOROWITZ Nationally, the U. S. is being of¬ fered 4,169 feature films per week on tv, according to a 190-mar¬ ket study conducted by Screen Gems. Study encompasses more than two-thirds of the number of U. S. markets. Translated into hours, and with all markets considered, the na¬ tion’s 36,500,000 tv homes are be¬ ing offered approximately 5,212 hours per week of cinematics. Since the average number of weekly hours available to each of the 36,500,000 homes is 20, and as¬ suming that 10% of these homes watch a feature each week, an as¬ tronomical total o£,73,000,000 home- hours in the U. S. are spent each week in watching features on tv. (Average of 20 weekly hours avail¬ able to each viewer is derived from the fact that the 5,212-hour total represents the aggregate of the hours available in each of 262 tv markets.) Staggering as the 73,000,000 fig¬ ure may seem, it is no less realis¬ tic when compared with the peak (Continued on page 40) Steel Strike As Boxoffice X-Factor The prospect of a long-drawn- out steel strike, with resultant lay¬ offs in other industries, is a bear¬ ish factor for legit, particularly at the start of the summer boxoffice slump. There had already been some trade speculation about how long the general b.o. boom of the I^ast couple of years would con¬ tinue. The 9teel strike, starting this week, has had no Immediate effect on general business conditions, so there is no indication how much it may ultimately be reflected on legit. However, the news that 30,000 railroad workers are to-be laid off this week, as a. result of (Continued on page 59) Gentle(?) Reminder .... Berlin,.. July 3. During the current Berlin 1 Film Festival which ends to¬ day (Tiies.) visitors from America and other democra¬ cies were unpleasantly remind¬ ed of the Nazi days when a crowd of roughs marched in the wee hours past the Kem- pinski Hotel singing the Horst Wessel Song and shouting “Raus mit den Juden” (“Throw out the Jews”). Berlin police quickly dis¬ persed the fun-loving native youth and the local news¬ papers carried not one line. Cantor’s 20 % Tax Pitch Comedian Eddie Cantor is being sought to head a committee of the American Guild of Variety Artists to work for the repeal or the re¬ duction of .the 20% cabaret tax. Cantor had indicated that he would serve on such a committee. Group was formed at the recent AGVA convention in Disneyland, Anaheim, Cal., and would work with other show biz unions and organizations seeking to eliminate the entertainment tax. Hollywood, July 3. , Hollywood’s tax-prodded trend toward being one’s own employer reaches record proportions this week. Fully 50% of the films now shooting are independents, some 15 with that status being current and a like number slated for early production. Noticeably many of the companies are owned by stars. Again the tax motivation, since the corporations themselves pay a les¬ ser tax (52% maximum) and cor¬ poration liquidation income to stars is subject only to the capital gain 26% bite from Uncle Sam in¬ stead of the up to 82-92% payable on star income in the high levels. Pajama’-Yankees’ $2,000,000 Profit Producers Frederick Brisson, Robert E. Griffith and Harold -Prince have pyramided their “Pa¬ jama Game”-“Damn Yankees” par- lay into the $2,000,000 profit class. That’s based on the coin taken in as of a May 26 accounting by the Broadway and touring editions of both musicals, plus the guaranteed film income on the sale of the two properties to Warner Bros. “Pajama” and “Yankees” are the trio’s only two shows to date, the former having bowed on Broadway in May, 1954, and the latter the same month last year. That means that in a little over two years the management and backers have netted $1,000,000 each (including forthcoming picture revenue) on the standard 50-50 split of the combined profit on both shows. Each tuner was financed at $250,000, virtually the same lineup of backers for both shows. “Pa¬ jama” was sold to WB for $750,000, plus 50% of the profits. It’s un¬ derstood the deal 1 on “Yankees" was virtually the . same. That gives each production Majority of the indies are oper¬ ating through distribution deals with United Artists. But this dis- trib is not alone in boasting a line¬ up of big name producer-stars. Most of the major studios have thrown their doors open to such deals. Stars currently appearing before the cameras in indie pix for release through UA include the following: Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra, “The Prjde and the Passion,” Stanley Kramer Productions. Clark Gable and Eleanor Parker, “The King and four Queens,” Ituss-Field Prod. Marlene Dietrich. “The Monte Carlo Story,” “Tltanus Films. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, "Danes With Me Henry,” Bob Goldstein Prod. Betty Hutton and Dana Andrews, “Spring Reunion,” Bryna Prod. Jell 1 Chandler and Joanne Dru, “Drango,” Earlmar Prod. Barbara Stanwyck and Sterling Hay¬ den. “Love Story,” Bob Goldstein Prod. John Payne, “Hidden Fear,” St. Au- brey-Kohn Prod. Henry Fonda, "Twelve Angry Men/* Orion-Nova Productions. Indie pix now before the cam¬ eras for release through the vari¬ ous other distrib outlets include these stars: Alan Ladd, Virginia Mayo and Edmond O’Brien, “Buf- (Continued on page 63) Winchell Reactivates B’way Stars Go. With Eye On ‘Lepke,’ W Biopic (Continued on page 63) FLORIDA, ARKANSAS LURE PICTURE-MAKERS Florida is again putting in a strong bid for feature'film produc¬ tion. The results achieved with ‘End as a Man,” the Sam Spiegel production for Columbia release, may determine the state’s future as a production base, “End as a Man” will be wholly filmed in Florida, with exteriors being shot at St. Petersburg and interiors at the new Shamrock Stu¬ dios at Orlando. Studio, a mod¬ ern, airconditioned plant, has been , employed for telepix production, but this marks its first use as fea- ture film centre. I Production activities were | launched this week. Ben Gazzara, j (Continued on page 53) i Walter Wincaell has reactivated Broadway Stars Inc., a corporation set up by himself and wife June, for purposes such as will eventuate when and if he comes to terms vyith Columbia Pictures prexy Harry Cohn on (1) “The Lepke Story” and (2) The Walter Winchell Story.” Both would be capital gains setups. Abe Lastfogel. head of the William Morris agency, rep¬ resenting the columnist, must work out the details with Col. Win¬ chell would appear in both. In the case of the Lepke Buchalter (and “Gurrah” Shapiro) story (Murder Inc.) Winchell is writing the orig¬ inal, and would also either appear in it and/or do the narration. As regards his NBC-TV vaudeo package which kicks off Friday night, Oct. 12, Winchell states that it’s exactly a year since he ha_ been off tv because of his ABC- TV imbroglio (Sol. A. Rosenblatt (Continued on page 54)