Variety (May 1957)

MTEHATI 61 Wediwfry, M«y 22, 1957 _ Literati Paperback PublUbera Win Five publishers of paper-bound books won a victory last week in Michigan-Federal Court on a cen¬ sorship issue when Judge Thomas p. Thornton granted them a per-, manent injunction restraining a prosecuting Attorney from banning books because- they were on the “disapproved” list of the National Organization for Decent Litera¬ ture. Latter is a Catholic group which screens paper-bound books and magazines. Victorious publishers . include popular Library, Bantam, Dell, Pocket Books and New American Library, They filed an Injunction action last October against Wilbur V. Hamm, prosecuting attorney of St. Clair County, Mich., to prevent him from enforcing a book ban. Case stems from a letter which Hamm mailed last Aug. 15 to the two wholesalers of paper-bound books in Port Huron, Mich. Both wholesalers* the American News Co. and Kramer News Co., were di¬ rected by the letter to discontinue sale of all publications appearing on the NODL’s proscribed list. Prosecutor Hamm consented to the permanent injunction last Mon¬ day (13) at a pre-trial hearing in Detroit before Judge Thornton. Under terms of the decree Hamm, of course, may .proceed against any bookseller whom he feels is violat¬ ing the law. Rapping the publisher plaintiffs in the suit were Horace S. Manges of the New York firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and Ralph R. Goldsmith of Goldsmith & Rosen, Detroit. Among books on the NODL list which Hamm had ordered'banned were “Facts of Life and Love for Teen Agers” by Evelyn Millis Du¬ val (Popular), “Battle Crv” by Leon Uris (Bantam), “Herself Sur¬ prised'' by Joyce Carey (Dell), “Search for Bridie Murphy" by Maury Bernstein (Pocket), “Catch¬ er in the Rye” b.V J. D. Salinger (New American Library) and “Ad¬ ventures of a Young Man” by John Dos Passos (Lion). Attorney Manges views the case as a “highly- significant” one. For, he said, this is the “first instance in which a court has issued an in¬ junction against a prosecutor re¬ straining him from directing books to be taken off sale because those books appeared on the 'disap¬ proved' list of the Rational Or¬ ganization for Decent Literature.” Barney Gerard's Book Frank Scully has completed col¬ laboration with the veteran bur¬ lesque impresario on “Leg Show; Barney Gerard’s Story of Bur¬ lesque.” Foreword is by Vina Del- mar, and" Jack Dempsey has writ¬ ten an intro since*such sports per¬ sonalities as Joe Gans. Jack John¬ son, ^Freddy Welsh, Stanlislaus Zy- byszko and others haive dipped in and out of burleycue in the past as “extra added attractions.” While Sculiy and his wife, Alice, are visiting Norway, where her family resides, Gerard is assem¬ bling the photographic material for the book. Publisher not yet set. Revive Boston Post? Possibility of reestablishment ofj the defunct 125-year-old Boston i Post was aired, this week as the Post Publishing Co., real estate and equipment of which will be sold at public auction June 4, 5 and 6, got an extension of one week to file a modified plan for reorganization by Referee EdwiU F. Hannon on Thursday (16). Louis J. Shrair, counsel for Post Publishing, asked Referee Han¬ non not to sell the trade name and good will of ttafe paper, its morgue, or accounts receivable at the June auction. N.Y. Post Scores On Appeal A newspaper, upon payment of the prescribed fees, has the right to an official stenographic tran¬ script of a judge’s charge to the jury. The Court of Appeals unani¬ mously held this at Albany Thurs¬ day (16), in an important decision reversing lower court rulings which had dismissed- a petition by N. Y. Post-Corp. for an order restraining Judge Samuel S. Leibowitz from giving any directive forbidding the court stenographer to furnish a transcript of his charge in the 1955 case of a N. Y. City probationary police officer accused of first degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy. The case, widely publicized in newspapers, ended with a jury PXhusff verdict of “not guilty.” When N. Y. Post Corp. requested -a trans¬ cript of the official stenographic notes on the judge’* charge to the jury, the stenographer at first agreed to furnish it. Later he re¬ fused to do so, because, according, to the Post’s petition, “deemed admitted”—to quote Court of Ap¬ peals Judge Stanley Fuld’s opinion —the trial judge “has forbidden and continues to forbid (him) from complying with (the paper’s) de¬ mand.” ' Judge Fuld’s opinion dismissed as “groundless” the fear expressed that stenographers would be “over- , whelmed” by & multitude of re¬ quests for transcripts from news¬ papers and other persons not parties to an action. Should there be requests for such strike-offs, the stenographer “would necessar¬ ily be vested with the discretion to work out a convenient schedule to avoid undue interference with the efficient execution of his over¬ all duties.” 11 Indictments Vs. 'Confidential’ Lengthy investigation into scan¬ dal magazines by a Lbs Angeles Grand Jury resulted in a total of 11 indictments charging conspiracy to violate criminal libel laws, con¬ spiracy to publish and distribute obscene literature, and to publish illegal information about male virility and female pregnancy. At¬ torneys for some of those named have indicated they will waive ex¬ tradition and come here to face trial. Heading the list of those in¬ dicted is Robert Harrison, publish¬ er of Confidential, whose format spawned a host of magazines sup¬ posedly retailing inside or hush- hush information, usually spicy. Others include Francesca de Scaf- fa, former wife of Bruce Cabot who, the Grand Jury was told, served as a* tipster for the maga¬ zine; Mrs. Marjorie Meade, Har¬ rison’s niece and president of Hollywood Research Inc., the mag¬ azine’s west coast headquarters: her husband Fred Meade; Michael Tobias, Harrison’s nephew and veepee of Hollywood Research; Mrs. Edith Tobias, Harrison’s sis¬ ter; Mi's. Helen Studin, another sister, and her husband Dan Studin; A. P. Govoni, editor of Confidential; Robert Kable, ©resi¬ dent of Kable Printing, Mount. Morris. Ill., where the magazine is printed; Richfird Cox, Kable’s sales manager, and the following corporations: Confidential, Holly¬ wood Research, Kable Printing, Whisper Inc., and Publishers Dis¬ tribution Co. The Harrison relatives all hold positions within -the corporate structure of the magazine or its affiliates. Suicide attempt (twice), in Mex¬ ico City, of Francesca de Scaffa, sometime film actress and former wife of actor Bruce Cabot, who was among those indicted as a Confidential mag contributor, also figured In the public prints,, on the heels of the indictments. She is married to Mexican bullfighter Jaime Bravo. 'Answer’ Mag To Exposes Arthur Whitman and Howard Winters have launched a new bi¬ monthly, “Celebrities Answer . (To The Scandal Magazines).” Format is in the same lurid style as the sundry “expose” periodicals of re¬ cent years. . Whitman is editor and Winters art director; both are the joint publishers. CHATTER Carl Bakal appointed editor of See and =Real magazines (Pines Publications). Newspapers Inc. authorized' to conduct a publications business in Dobbs Ferry, N. Y. Shelton Publishing Corp, chart¬ ered to conduct a printing and publishing business'" in N. Y. City. tJniversal Readers Service, Inc. authorized to conduct a business in magazines and .books, with offices in New York. Faith Baldwin’s “Person to Per¬ son” vis-a-vis Ed Murfow’s CBS teleshow on May 24 is timed to the June 10 publication of her latest Rinehart novel, “Three Faces of Love.” MacKinlay Kantor. Iowa-born novelist who won a Pulitzer Prize In 1955 for. “Andersonville,” will be the featured speaker during commencement weekend at Grin- nell college, Grinriell. la. Also he will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature. Later he will go to Webster City, la., his birthplace, to speak at the city’s centennial observance. Kantor’s home is now in Sarasota, Fla. Overseas Press Club was eom- mandered Sunday (19) by 350 guests in a sendoff for France- Soir’s New York correspondent Daniel Morgaine, returning after two-ana-a-half years here to the daily's Paris office. His replace¬ ment, Edgar Schneider, arrived last week. Here's '‘Banjo Eyes/’ “Kid Boots,” Isidore Itzkowitz, clown, butcher boy, outstanding citizen . .. Here’s an American story with delicatessen overtones that ranges from the canyons of New York’s Lower East Side to the hills of Beverly ... the personal life of the man who added magic to the Follies, captured radio, conquered the movies and made even a small TV screen burst with life . . . Here’s Fanny Brice, Eddie Fisher, Durante, Durbin, Jessel, Jolson, Will Rogers, one adoring wife and five loving daughters ... the inspiring story >of the man behind the March of Dimes, the humanitarian who raised $238,000,000 for charity, the devoted husband and father whose heart was big enough to love the entire USA. It’s now told in a cheerful, tearful self-portrait pf one of the best-loved individuals in show business. *f ISKE My LlF^ Written with Jan« Ardmore With 19 of wonderful photographs 93.99 at pll bookaollars DOU»LlDAY :: SCULLY’S SCRAPBOOK By Frank Scully +♦»♦♦♦♦*»•♦♦♦♦♦;; Palm Springs, May 21. “Do you know what Father did?” asked Mozo Scully, aged six, and burning up with 104 degrees of unaccountable fever. “No, what did Father do?” “Well, there was the nicest Irish boy in our class. And you know what Father did?” “No.” “He kicked him out of school!” “What was his name, Jimmy Curley?” VWhat?” -“Well, never mind, honey. Try to sleep and maybe the fever will go away.” This discourse took place the morning after Edward R. Murrow spliced two Irishmen on one of his “Person-to-Person” programs— one Gael doing his third hitch as warden of Alcatraz, the other with, all jail doors behind him. Or do governments clink people in this bewildering age who at 82 believe they are gojbng to live to he 125 and by the time they are centenarians all their enemies will be dead and buried? Murrow kept away from the rock piles in discussing James M. Curley’s Incredible'life, but it would be silly to believe the Curleys did not see the first half of the Murrow program, the half where Slip Madigan was being eulogized for his handling of the nation’s maxi¬ mum security prison in San Francisco Bay. Madigan shared the solitude with a lovely-looking wife, but Curley’s, hardly younger, came off the tv screen better. * . By now Curley -has decided, as far as “The Last Hurrah” is con¬ cerned, to join Edwin O’Connor in pointing out the similarities be¬ tween Frank Skeffingtpn and James M. Curley. Both were four times mayor of Boston. Both had been successful gubernatorial goobers, and preferred to be called “Governor” for the rest of their lives. But there were a couple of sharp differences. In “The Last Hurrah” Skeffington died at the age of 72 after losing an election to as syn¬ thetic an Irish youth as the stuffed shirt school of politics ever manu¬ factured, whereas the model on which O’Connor base v d his hero wa£ still living ten years later. Thus Curley has been hot only able to read his magnificent obit but in addition can use it as a springboard for his own dissenting opinions. Curley told Murrow that the last words of Skeffington were, “I’d do it again.” He was using it himself for an autobiographical item and held up the book (to see the dust jacket) for CBS’s cameramen. Seemingly hot off the press, it no doubt consists of extended remarks worked out from a Curley blueprint published in Life some time ago. It will of course he imperative for Hollywood to buy "I’d Do It Again” to clear “The Last Hurrab” of all the headaches*and personal privacy grief, which the picture biz, as separate from the publishing world, has built up for itself since some coward first decided aeons ago to pay off instead of fighting for equal rights with printers. Who was that original producer with the courage of a weazel? Famous Last Words For the record, though, Skeffington’s last words were not “I’d do it again!” ^ After Monsignor Burke had heard the» dying politician's last con¬ fession, a mortal enemy, the father-irt-law of Skeffington’s favored nephew, was sounding off in the death chamber. “Knowing what he knows now,” concluded the living critic of the presumably dead mayor, “if he had to do it all over again, there’s not the slightest doubt but that he’d do it all very very differently.” With this the mayor, thought to be dead, turned over and In a hoarse whisper replied, “The hell I would!” These were Skeffington’s last words in the book. What seemingly defeated Skeffington was the magic of television. He used the medium moderately, but relied more on the personal canvas type of campaigning, whereas the bunch manipulating his rival, the young McCluskey, supplied Mac with a rented Irish^setter that could take direction, an enlarged photo of the' Pope, for back¬ ground, and unlimited television'time. As dull as Mac was reported to be, it is quite possible that Skeffing¬ ton’s personality, which bounces off the pages of “The Last Hurrah” with delightful vitality, just didn’t shine on tv. Certainly Curley’s didn’t on the Murrow program. He seemed a solid and quite handsome man but the sparkle was no longer in his dialog. No Egg on Curley’s ^Vest Of course at 82 not even a critic who ’hated all performers and all performances could expect it. At that age Bernard Shaw,., who had no more formal schooling than Jim Curley and got even further, was drooling eggs down his vest and beginning to break up at the seams. No, 80 is not the time to test a man for central casting. But in Curley’s interview with Murrow I missed some sign of the satire that made Skeffington a great mind when surrounded by Har¬ vard stale eggheads, or his own lace-curtain Irish. Like the time Skeffington was telling Charlie Hennessey that urging men to become proficient c^npaigners over the sound tracks and air waves might be endangering the public health. “I listened to a political speech only once in my life,” the four times mayor was saying, “and I nearly died as a result. It was 25 years ago. Cal Coolidge was President. I w&s in the hospital, recovering nicely from a minor operation when some enemy turned the radio on in my room so I could hear a presidential address. Well, I was : weak and I didn’t realize what I was doing. I listened to him. I listened to every word for nearly five minutes, and then I began to sink fast. T ; hey got me just in time. They slapped me in an oxygen tent and it was touch-and-go for fhe next few days.” There was no humor like that in The Curley who sat for Murrow’s camera artists. The 12 Pound Look The only Curley anecdote that approached the heroics of Skeffing¬ ton was when Curley told Murrow about the time he invited a Henry George single-taxer to share a platform with him and some crazed dissenter heaved a . 12 pound steel spittoon at the economist. Quick¬ acting Curley yanked the speaker to the floor with him and the bucket went smashing through a window. “If it* had hit him it would haye killed him,” admitted Curley. As far from Boston as San Diego I was recently honored with a dinner and talking to one of the thirty guests I happened to tell about “The Last Hurrah.” My auditor was heSid man of a local cemetery. He had come from Boston. He knew Curley. He was devoted to him. Seems Curley once took an exam for a postman who could not write but had a fine pair of legs and a strong back. He was caught and clinked for the kindness. This was before Jim the Penman entered politics. “How many men today would go to jail for a friend?” my informer wanted to know. ‘ • I couldn’t think of one. The last I remembered was Miguel de Cer¬ vantes Saavedra, a 17th Century novelist, who served five tortuous years as a slave replacement in North Africa. He had gone to prison for a young man more in need of liberty, Cervantes thought, than . -himself. r Indeed, the number of times the author of “Don Quixote” .spent in jails make Curley’s seem like so many traffic tickets for over-parking.; Hollywood should try to make pictures of contemporaries as if they: were dead at least 200 years. That way they may help the hand of future historians as well as Edwin O’Connor has done. With their millions, it is no honor to them when they do less.