Variety (December 1956)

FILMS RADIO VIDEO STAGE Publi*h«4 Weekly at 154 Wtet 46tb Street* New' York 35,. N. Y.. by Variety* Inc. Annual nibicrlptton, 910, Single\6optes. *5 cents. Entered as secong-class matter December 82. 1905. at the Post Office at New York, N. Y.. under the act of March 5. 1879. COPYRIGHT. 1956.. BY VARIETY, to new jLviRi x *> ua ALL RIGHTS &ESERVED Vol. 205 No. 1 NiJW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1956 RICE 25 CENTS LOST AUDIENCE’: GRASS VS. GLASS Why Exhibs Are Going Mad STICKS Feature Him availabilities on New York ty screens Monday (3) perhaps best Illustrate why theatre exhibs are getting frantic. 111101 A widescreen dialer in New York metropolitan area (assuming HI I he had the patience) could h^ve stayed right through with the fol- 111U lowing potent schedule: 5:30 p.m.—-Metro’s “They Met In Bombay/' starring Clark Gable/ By HY and Rosalind Russell on WCBS-TV’s “Early Show." 7:30 p.m.—“Mr. Blandings Builds His’Dream House,” with Cary Grant, Myma Loy and Melvyn Douglas, on WOR-TV's qu *j ,, “Million £>ollar Movie” showcase. audience bac 10:00 p.m.—“Ox-Bow Incident,” with Henry Fonda, on WATV’s ? rm ,! "All-Star Movie.” ous indi?st?v D 11:15 p.m.—Metro's “Random Harvest.” witji Ronald Colman and th . ip Greer Garsoif, on WCBS-TV’s "Late Show.” S, Legion & DoO’ Pose Code Dilemma; ^ Positive Pic Biz Stand Is Asked Olympics-A Sock Sports Show-Pays Off As Aussie Prestige Presentation By BOB CONS1D1NE h ^ Melbourne, Dec. 4. Hello from Down Under. How’s overything Up Over? When Millie and 1 first heard of 6ur Olympic assignment—she for * HRS and 1 for INS—I hunted up a -George Solitaire of the travel 'dodge and said, “We’ve got to get to Australia in the worst way.” “Really?” he said, surprised. •‘Then you’ll want to take a boat It takes six weeks.” So we compro- .mised on TWA, PAA, and ap air¬ line wh eh the public address an¬ nouncer at the Sydney air pprt .identified as “I.N.I.” Turned out .to he his way of saying, “A.N.A.” —as in Australian National Air* ,ways. The whole thing took less than 40 hours which is remarkable when you realize that movies last that long these days. I can’t describe to you what the Olympics meant to this country. But try to picture an event in the U. S. that would consumer every . page of every newspaper from J ontpage to the goiter cure and uss ads, plus a vast percentage of tne radio and tv time, plus monop¬ olizing small and big talk. These people became Olympic buffs the moment they heard the (Continued on page 86) ‘Cyrano’ Musical For TV & B way Tunesmlth Bernie Wayne has Written a musical adaptation of Rostand’s “Cyrano De Bergerac” •for tv. The musicalization will be packaged and produced by Theatri¬ cal Enterprises Inc., outfit which prepared “The Stingiest Man In Town” for a Christmas spec over NBC-TV. : r Plans arc also in the works to bring the. “Bergerac” musicaliza¬ tion to Broadway as a stage offer¬ ing after its tv display. In addi¬ tion to cleffing, Wayne continues as orch leader cutting for the ABC- Paramount label. His new album is due after the first of the year., ‘Bells’Ads Toll for’58 “BellS\Ar,e Ringing” is topping itself in longrange ads. The musi¬ cal, which placed its first mail or¬ der ad approximately six months before its Broadway opening last Thursday (29 )l is now plugging ,for such orders .^from next April 1 through Jan. 1, 1958. r- “=The Theatre Guild production, starring Judy Holliday, drew five, affirmative reviews and two nega¬ tive from the New York crix, .and has been doing standee-limit busi¬ ness, with a steady line at the b.o. Gunpowder. Bomb Seen Teenagers Own Vendetta Saugus, Mass., Dec. .4. :. A home-made bomb was explod¬ ed. in the Saugus State Theatre, na’be house, in an attempt to kill the manager, it was disclosed here Friday’ (30), as the state fire mar¬ shal’s , office joined Saugus policy artd fire officials in a three-pronged investigation, ./The bomb, which caused damage but no injuries, ex¬ ploded Sunday (25), but news of its nature was withheld by police pending the probe. An anonymous call was made to the . theatre and answered by a cleaning woman on Monday (26), police revealed. Referring to the theatre manager, Harry Golden, a male voice threatened: “We didn’t get Golden- - this time, but we’ll get him yet.”- Golden manages the theatre. for owner Richard Rubin of Newton.. . r The..bomb /was discovered by Robert Hayes,. 16, an usher, who told police he beard a hissing.noise and . traced it to . Golden’s office. The bomb had already exploded, shattering the 1 , office door. It was eight inches long, stuffed with gun¬ powder and wrapped in tinfoil. Police Indicated belief that the (Continued on page 20) By HY HOLLINGER What type, of pictures are re¬ quired to lure the so-called “lost audience” back-to theatres? The answer to this all-important ques¬ tion is, of course, elusive, and vari¬ ous industry pundits, depending on their personal needs, are proposing different product formulas for Hol¬ lywood to follow. What appears to be developing is a serious schism between the smalltown rural com¬ munities and the large key cities. It wasn’t very long ago that in- dustryites, both in exhibition and distribution, insisted that the only pictures that could possibly com¬ pete successfully in an era of tele¬ vision saturation were the big, ex¬ pensive blockbusters and the un¬ usual, off-beat films with adult themes that tv could, not handle.* It was further contended that the so- called family pictures and mass ap¬ peal action films no longer fitted the pattern required by theatres since entries of this sort could be seen in abundance on television. In a comparatively short period, however, there appears to have been a complete reversal of the pendulum in relation to this think¬ ing. The cry, surprisingly enough, is for pictures that appeal to fam¬ ily groups and to teenage audi¬ ences. The new demand was par¬ ticularly evident at last week’s an¬ nual convention in Dallas of Allied States Assn. The convention, which appeared .to be dominated by ex¬ hibitors from smalltowns and rural areas, devoted much attention to pitching a return to the type of 'film-making which only recently was considered boxoffice poison. -. Last week at Dallas’ Allied States convention keynoted Roy L. Kalver, who operates two theatres (Continued ,on page 86) Dorsey Finns On Block For $300,000 With the death last week of bandleader Tommy Dorsey, interest increased in the possible sale of his music .publishing interests. Dorsey owned 100% interest in an ASCAP firm, Dorsey Bros. Music, and a BMI firm, Embassy Music, Both of these were on the market while T.D. was alive and the asking price was around $300,000. The firms now revert to the estate, which can set another price. The Dorsey ASCAP firm has such copyrights as “I Should Care,” “There Are Such Things,” and “Until,” while the BMI catalog in¬ cludes numbers like “This Love of Mine,” “I Dream of You/’ “Violets For Your Furs,” “Opus One” and “Will You Still Be Mine.” Also included in the Dorset music (Continued on page 76) Col’s 3 Golden Pops For the first time in its history, Columbia Records is riding with three concurrent 1,000,000-plus selling singles. The sides which passed into the golden disk circle last week are Doris Day’s “What¬ ever Will Be, Will Be,” Johnnie Ray’s “Just Walkin’ in the Rain,” and Guy Mitchell’s “Singing the Blues.” Although each has passed the 1,000,000 sales mark, the three platters are continuing to set the sales stride for the label’s pop line. The Mitchell side, inciden¬ tally, was cut a la Elvis Presley (an RCA Victor artist) and it marks the first time a carbon has given the original such a close run for the- money. . U. S. in Antitrust Suit Vs. RCA-NBC; Asks Divestiture’ / Washington, Dec. 4. A precedental civil antitrust ac¬ tion was filed today (Tues.) by the Justice Dept, against RCA and its NBC subsidiary in Philadelphia District Court, charging the elec¬ tronics manufacturer and its net¬ work subsidiary with violation of the Sherman Act in its exchange of’ statiohs’' with Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. in Philadelphia and Cleveland. The suit is the first such anti¬ trust action against any network, and follows intensive grand jury investigation of the swap whereby NBC traded its Cleveland radio and tv stations for Westinghouse’s Philadelphia outlets and $3,000,000 in cash in May of 1955. The suit has far-reaching* impli¬ cations. For one thing, the com¬ plaint' asks the court • to order “such divestiture^of NBC’s assets (from RCA) as it may deem nec¬ essary and appropriate.” For an¬ other, it implies that a network’s power to grant or withhold affilia¬ tions may be in violation of the antitrust laws. Complaint alleges that the de¬ fendants ’ “unlawfully' combined and conspired together to obtain VHF ’tV station' Ownership’in five of the eight largest markets in the U.S. by the unlawful use of NBC’s power as a network to grantor to withhold NBC network affiliation for the tv stations of NBC affili¬ ates. “This combination or conspir¬ acy,” the complaint continued, “has been carried out .in part by the acquisition in Philadelphia of the tv and radia stations formerly (Continued on page 20) By FRED HIFT Legion of Decency's blast vs. the Production Code in connection - /ith the issuance of a seal for “Baby Doll” has, again, spotlighted the predicament Qf the Code and the industry’s need to take a stand behind it. In condemning the Elia Kazan- Tennessee Williams story last week, the Legion noted that the film was “an obvious violation of the spirit and purposes of the Motion Picture Code.” It said, “The subject matter of the film indicates an open disregard of the Code by its administrators.” This isn’t the first time that a rift between the Code and Legion approaches has been obvious. Early last year, the Catholic group made it amply plain what it thought of Code “laxity.” This came at a time when several of the studios had or¬ dered changes in films that already had received a Code seal because the Legion had indicated that the Code-approved versions would draw “C” ratings unless altered. The “Baby Doll” case has brought up a number of pertinent points. One is that, in thq lijght of Hollywood’s obvious determination to go for “offbeat” themes, the Code will be faeffd with difficult decisions that will require some sort of definition of just where self T control starts and where it endsi Another is that, again in the 1 light of upcoming projectsrthe industry will have to take a positive stand (Continued on page 86) Lawrence Tibbett As MBS Disk Jack Mutual has signed Lawrence Tibbett to do a two-hour nightly music show, which will find the former Metropolitan Opera star hosting a record show which will range from pop to current show tunes, semi-classical music and folk songs. Thinking behind the move is that local stations, while they may be able to spin records, cannot corral a personality such‘‘as Tib- be 4 t to serve as emcee. As host, Tibbett will tell of some of,, his associations with the- music aired, occasionally sing a chorus or two, and relate anecdotes.' The show tentatively is set to kick off Dec. 17. It will be slotted Monday- thru-Friday from 10 to midnight and‘Sundays, t" > sar.e hours. Carl Hohengarten \ ' .irect and work closely with Ti -tt on the selec¬ tion of the records. Taken out of the slot will bo mostly “Music From Studio X,** which has been fed to the net by WOR, Mutual’s New York flag- 1 ship.