Variety (January 1957)

FILMS RADIO VIDEO MUSIC STAGE VOL. 205 No. 6 _ NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1957 _ _ PRICE 25 CENTS WHAT WAS, WHAT IS 4 WILL BE ‘Plus Ca Change’ By RICHARD MEALAND After five years in Europe, prin¬ cipally England, a return to Amer¬ ica is a return to a new world. It isn’t the same country that I left in 1951. Why, man, I even missed the whole cycle of moron jokes, and the jive-talk era that came and went while Princess Margaret was still trying to make up her mind. I’ve got a gray flannel suit which I now understand must be thrown away, along with my pink shirt and> black knitted tie. I can’t find the Ritz Bar anymore, and I’ve just, seen Walter Winchell with his hat off. I’ve got to have a split-level house and a two-tone car. Things come in squeeze bottles. Martinis are made with vodka. Kids get Salk vaccine, adults get Miltown. There are nikes set up in the sub¬ urbs, and a whole new tribe of peo¬ ple in the exurbs. Skyscrapers are mirrors, banks are transparent. Dinners are bought in packages, and packages are something put to¬ gether by the agents of independ¬ ent producers. There’s a liquid you pour on an old tree stump which dissolves it. Lawnmowers are ro¬ tary, think is spelled thimk, high¬ brows are eggheads, and you don’t buy a pullet anymore, you buy a rock Cornish game hen. I haven’t yet found out the difference be¬ tween dacron and orlon. All the telephone exchanges have -mew names, and whatever I want done I'm supposed to do-it-myself. Tele¬ vision has movies, movie houses are supermarkets, supermarkets are in shopping centres out in the country, the country is criss-crossed with throughways, throughways take you to Gimbel’s and Macy’s and Wanamaker’s. And where the hell is Wanamaker’s? I don’t know America any more. I'm lost. The station-wagon set lives in ranch-houses and has ranch-wagons. Ranchers have airconditioned Cadillacs, and Cadillac owners have Volkswagens as a spare. My left leg is useless driv¬ ing a car. The elegant gesture of tapping down the tobacco in a cigaret has disappeared. A good han¬ dyman is hard to find. A bargain in antiques is harder. Women wear (Continued on page 56) ‘Baby Doll’ Faces No Censor Rap in Italy; Cite U.K. Catholic OK Rome. “Baby Doll,” which has been cordemned by Cardinal Spellman, appears to be having no censorship difficulties in Italy where it is be¬ ing rushed in for an early show¬ ing. American films normally take six months to a year before they are given a first-run in Italy. Italian press has carried consid¬ erable copy to counter the Cardi¬ nal’s attack including a statement from Father John A. Burke, of the British Catholic Film Institute, who has approved the film “for adults only.’’ Film will have its Italian preem here late in January. f: : Critic Gets Religion Glasgow. William J. Weir, former drama critic of The Glasgow Bulletin, is now the Reverend W, J. Weir, of Church of Scotland. Entering My Own 2d Half Century I Bless Variety’ By SOPHIE TUCKER Now that Variety and I have celebrated our Golden Jubilees with wonderful and fond memories, I can look back and remember the days when there was no Variety to help show people and to help show business. Recently I went over to the N. Y. Public Library on 42d St. and 5th Ave., where I thumbed through my first scrap¬ book which is now a part of the Sophie Tucker Collection in the Theatre Section at the Libarry. I made a few notes, for I thought you readers might enjoy as much as I did reading again the first re¬ view I received in Variety in 1908. It was signed by Walt and read: “Sophie Tucker, Songs, 14 Mins.: ‘One,’ American — Enthusiasm ana evident delight in her work, a rou¬ tine of songs particularly adapted to Her voice and style and a most agreeable stage presence brought Miss TUcker to a substantial hit. She sang ‘The Cubanola Girl,’ ‘Southern Rose’ and ‘Carrie’ put¬ ting something new in all of them, and was forced to sing a verse and chorus of another ‘coon’ melody whieh rounded out a most pleasing offering. . The young woman has a way of -ingratiating herself at once, and possesses not alone good looks, but magnetism to back it.’’ As I turned the pages of my first scrapbook it was interesting to discover that the Variety re¬ views always were starred among my clippings and notices, for I knew then, as I do now, how im¬ portant they were to my career. Newspapers of those times re¬ viewed performers either pleasant¬ ly or unpleasantly, but few of them, except for Variety, came through -with constructive criticism and objective reporting. My early' days in show business were tough ones. I’ll never for¬ get when' I' arrived in New York and got hiy first taste of show busi¬ ness. I wrote the following letter to my family':' “Dearest Folks* I have de¬ cided to go into show business. I have decided that I can do big things and have definitely made up my mind that mother will never stand behind a stove and cook any more, and every comfort that I can bring you both I am going to do, and I (Continued on page 56) 1956= FORETftSTE OF NEW SHOWBIZ By ABEL GREEN The teenagers went for Elvis Presley. The “deanagers” dittoed for the late James Dean. Grace Kelly married a prince, Margaret Truman a newspaperman, Marilyn Monroe a playwright. Loew’s Inc. used up two presi¬ dents. Pix biz was in a tizzy. Legit booming. Disk biz rock ’n’ rolling. After reigning eight years as “Mister Television,” Milton Berle had had it. Color television was coming in, but not as strong as hoped. Now looks like 1957 and 1958 will be the “colorful” years. Television dominated show biz news. It was a tossup whether tv was more trouble to pictures or to itself. For a fast rundown of 1956 newsvalues: Diversification — in corporations. Spectaculars — in flops. Desegregation — in Dixie. Milltown— in pill boxes. B&K — in Bulganin & Khrushchev gags. Joe Smith — in politics (not Smith & Dale). Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis’ split. “Porgy’s” clicked in Russia. Satchmo’s and Dizzy Gillespie’s (Continued on page 58) Ballet Russes $1-Mil Season Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, currently in Chicago for a Civic Opera. House stand that preemed Christmas night (25), seems certain to hit a Brobdingnagian $1,000,000 gross for its 1956-57 tour. On returning from its solidly-booked expedition next spring, the terpers will go into the Metropolitan Opera House April 7-13, the company’s first Met booking since 1950. For the first eight weeks of the route, the company grossed $270,435. This portion of the coast-tocoast pilgrimage Is considered the least lucrative part of the bookings, yet the takings are imposing. . One night stands in Atlanta and Bir¬ mingham played to absolute ca¬ pacity, both auditoriums seating more than 5,000 each. Cleveland, (Continued on page 56) Early Press Time Because of its size, the 51st Anniversary Number went to press ahead of its usual Tuesday closing deadline. As result, certain set news de¬ partments are telescoped, viz, Vidpix with Radio-TV, and the like. The Reeperbahn, B way, Rue Pigalle, Piccadilly— Also B.A.’s Corrientes + Cabbie’s-Eye View Towards year’s-end the Manhat¬ tan cabdrivers and the posh res¬ taurants and niteries were starting to blame tv for “no night business” as they pointed to one current week’s schedule: Metro’s “They Met In Bombay” (Gable-Rosalind Russell). “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House” (Cary Grant-Myrna LoyMelvyn Douglas). “The Ox-Bow Incident” (20thFox) with Henry Fonda. Metro’s “Random Harvest” (Ron¬ ald Colman-Greer Garson). These were on different chan¬ nels, at varying evening and might hours. To Sophisticates: Please, May We Be Fond of Our Mom! By GEORGE LIBERACE Hollywood. I presume you have seen Liberace. If so, you have noticed me — I lead the orchestra. And when my brother sometimes uses me as a straightman, a “prop,” by direct¬ ing an offhand aside, “Isn’t that so, George?” I merely grin. Part of the act. While it is part of the act never to speak up — offstage I no longer can remain silent. My brother has been maligned for years, but lately the torrent of unjustified abuse swirled to avalanche proportions. There always has been an ele¬ ment which resents— most rudely, but also most vocally — anyone’s theatrical success. All performers endure this. At public perform¬ ances hecklers can be stilled sum¬ marily, either by a performer’s humorous retort, or the disapprov¬ ing frowns of the majority of an audience. But those harboring smoldering resentment now use other means— constant ridicule. It becomes a phobia. Last autumn we played London. Because , Liberace’s telefilm series and his . Warner Brothers film, “Sincerely. Yours,’* had been suc¬ cessful there, the hecklers were waiting — couchant, with droolingly moist chops. Our performances drew packed houses, to their obvi¬ ous chagrin. They looked around for a weapon and pounced on: “Momisml” Frankly, neither my brother nor myself ever until then had heard of the expression. Archly sophisti¬ cated Britons may disdain the Fourth Commandment, but Ameri¬ cans traditionally have cherished their parents. Because my brother, (Continued on page 56) By NID EMBER Buenos Aires. Corrientes is the street that never sleeps. The street that means to an Argentine what Broadway means to a Yanqui: the Hub of Show Business. From Dec. 10 to 14, 1956, the im¬ portance of Corrientes was cele¬ brated with a series of contests. One was for the best painting with a prize donated by exhibitor Clem¬ ente Lococo Jr. (himself no mean brush-wielder) who operates a string of deluxe firstruns on the street; there was a classic waiter’s race, a fashion display from the ’90s to the present day; bathing beauties, a motorcycle parade and an auto race with showfolk as con¬ testants. Like all else in Argentina at pres¬ ent, Corrientes is in a state of flux, but continues the street of bohe¬ mia, a tradition stemming from a past when all newspapers’ head¬ quarters were on it. The press boys were bohemian, so the street ca¬ tered to them, and has gone on do¬ ing so long after the papers moved. Corrientes has more theatres, filmtheatres, cabarets, bars, cafes, res¬ taurants, automats, pizzerias, milk bars, bookstores, cigaret and news¬ paper booths than any other city sector. In the last decade, Corrientes was widened, asphalted, promoted to “Avenida” and lives an accele¬ rated pace. Auto traffic is dense, the only one-way thoroughfare in the city, but the mass of humanity by night stops the car traffic. This fllws from East to West, from the Port a dozen blocks toward Callao, cut by the vast Avenida 9 de Julio, world’s widest, most dangerous crossing. T’other side of 9 de Julio is the (Continued on page 54) WRCA-TV to Pay Baylos In Full Despite Plugolas, But Gives Him Hard Time WRCA-TV, the NBC-TV flagship in New York, has backed down from its threat to withhold twothirds of comic Gene Baylos’ salary because he continued to plug brand name products after being warned off by the station during a oneweek stint on the “Punchline” show. Idea was to charge Baylos the equivalent of three 10-second spots, or $675 out of his total paycheck of $1,000, tut the station last week decided it couldn’t withhold the money on anything like a legal basis. Baylos won’t be let off the hook without some disciplinary action, however. Instead of mailing out his check, as is standard practice, the station will require him to appear in person to collect, accompanied by the William Morris rep who booked him on the show„ Presum¬ ably, he’ll get a verbal lashing at that time. Baylos is currently in Florida, so the occasion will have to be postponed until his return.