Variety (July 1957)

76 LEGITIMATE PiASUEtt Wednesday,. July 24, 1957 Legit Bits Producer and ex-dancer Eunice Healey planed to the Coast last Friday (19) lor about six weeks’ vacation. Rogar L. Stevens and Robert Whitehead, co-partners of Robert W. Dowling in Producers Theatre, will fly Aug. 8 to England to attend the opening Aug. 13 of John Giel¬ gud’s production of “The Tempest” at the Shakespeare Memorial Thea¬ tre, Stratford-on-Avon. Pressagent Sol Jacobson leaves next Saturday (27) with his wife and two daughters for a four-week motor vacation through the souths west, Los Angeles, San Francisco to the northwest. During his ab¬ sence his associate, Lewis Harmon r ■will handle the publicity for “No Time for Sergeants.” Richard Burton, currently com¬ pleting a film commitment in Holly¬ wood, is definitely set for the male lead in “Time Remembered,” in which Helen Hayes and Susan Strasberg will have the tw T o top femme roles. Russ Brown, who recently with¬ drew as the "Washington Senators manager in “Damn Yankees,” leaves next Saturday (27) for San Francisco, from where he’ll sail on the Matsonia for Hawaii to play Capt. Brackett in the film edition of “South Pacific.” Shooting is to take 14-18 weeks. It’s now definite that Paul Douglas will not return in the fall as star of “Hole in the Head,” so stager Garson Kanin and the Producers Theatre are seeking a name re¬ placement. The Arnold Schulman play won't return to Broadway, but will probably open in Chicago as the start of a season-long tour. Emmett Callahan withdraws next week as company manager of “Happy Hunting” to fake a similar assignment with "Rivalry," so gen¬ eral manager Herman Bernstein will double as company manager for the Ethel Merman musical. “The Rope Dancers,” the Morton Wishengrad drama slated for fall production on Broadway, will be done by the Playwrights Co., with Gilbert Miller as partner. Siobhan McKenna and Art Carney will costar. Joyce* Grenfell’s prospective ap¬ pearance on Broadway next spring will be under the management of Roger L. Stevens, one of the rare instances where h# takes sole pro¬ ducer billing. Stevens had a fi¬ nancial interest in the Lyn Austin and Thomas Noyes presentation two seasons ago of “Joyce Granfell Requests the Pleasure.” The seating capacity of the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre, Paris, was in¬ correctly given as 2,500 in a recent story on the reception of “Long Day's Journey Into Night” in the French capital. The correct figure is 1,243 seats. Alice Griffin, editor of the “The- atie U.S.A.” section of Theatre Arts mag, is recuperating at her summer home at New’ Paltz, N.Y., after surgery last week at French Hospital, N.Y. Clarence Jacobson is company manager for “West Side Story.” A British production of Marc Connelly’s “Hunter’s Moon” is planned for London production by E. C. Clift and Jack Minster, in association with* the Futurians, a group comprising the playwright and friends. Connelly will direct. Plans for a Broadway production of the play last season by Rita Allen and her husband, Milton Cassel, failed to materialize. Clayton Coots, son of songwriter J. Fred Coots, has joined the Paula Stone-Michael Sloane pro¬ duction staff on “Rumple.” Stock Tryouts (July 22-Aug. 3) Back to Methuselah, Arnold Moss' con¬ densed version, of Bernard Shaw’s play (Celeste Holm, Arnold Moss)—Spa Sum¬ mer Theatre, Saratoga, N. Y. (22-27); Boston (Mass.) Summer Theatre (29-3). Half In Earnest, musical version of Oscar WUde’s •‘Importance of Being Earnest/* by Vivian Ellis (Anna Russell) —Olney (Md.) Theatre (23-4) (Reviewed in VARIETY, June 26. *37). Man In the Do« Suit, by William Wright and Albert Belch from Edwin Corle’s novel. "Three Ways to Mecca" (Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn)—Falmouth Playhouse,. Coonamessett, Mass. (22-27); Westport (Conn.) Country Playhouse (29- 3) (Reviewed In VARIETY, June 26, '57). Roger the Sixth, by Joseph Carole (Dor¬ othy Lamour. Robert Alda)—Lakewood Playhouse, BamesvUle, Pa. (22-27); Grist Mill Playhouse. Andover, N. J. (29-3) (Re* viewed in VARIETY, July 17. '57). Something Borrowed, by Kurt Vonne- gut—Arena Theatre, Orleans, Mass. (23- 27). Time to Bo Rich, by Julian Funt—John Drew Theatre, East Hampton, L. I. (29-3). With Respect to Joey, by Ernest Pen- drell (Martin Balsam, Jacob Ben-Ami, Berta Gersten)—Westport (Conn.) Country Playhouse (22-27). Somewhere a TV producer or casting director may be trying to fill a role “tailor made” for you. A high fashion photographer is searching for a fresh new face. A night club owner would wel¬ come the unique talent you may have. Maybe you’re an artist or sculptor who just can’t get the right people to see your work. if YOU'RE A MISS (OR MR.) UNKNOWN, WE MAY BE ABLE TO HELP you. The Marcus B Corporation offers a unique new service to hope¬ fuls in the art and entertainment fields. It is a talent mart, not a talent agency. ' . _ HERE'S HOW WE DO IT! First, a photograph of you or your work is taken in our New York studio by Nick Bruno, famed for his glamorous photographic studies. Twenty 8 x 10 enlarge¬ ments are made. Three are for your use. One remains in our file. The rest are distributed to agencies or people likely to be inter¬ ested in your particular talents. Then, a Marcus B panel of well-known people such as Leonard Sillman of “New Faces”, Cholly Knickerbocker, Gypsy Rose Lee, Russel Patterson and Gualberto Rocchi will select 6 to 8 “Per¬ sonalities of the Week” from among those registered with us. Their pictures will appear in the New York Joumal-American. In addition, once a month, the panel will select a "Personality of the Month.” The person selected will receive an exclusive fash¬ ion creation from Oleg Cassini, America’s foremost couturier. Men will receive comparable attire from a famous men’s «hop. This event will be well-publicized every opportunity. HERE'S ALL IT COSTS 1 Marcus B’s fee Is twenty dol¬ lars, This is payment in full. However, Marcus B is willing to act as manager for those who obtain con- # tracts through contacts procured by the organization. HERE'S WHAT YOU DO I Call Marcus B immediately for an appointment to be photographed- If not for yourself, then do it for a friend or relative who has talent unfortunately unknown to the public. DO IT TODAY! CALL—or come to MARCUS B • TEmpleton 8-7426-7-8 33 East 61st Street • New York 21, New York Mielziner As Producer s s Continued from page 73 Nod Armstrong Marrying After writing a book on how to raise a motherless son, wi¬ dower Ned Armstrong is get¬ ting married again. Veteran legit pressagent, industrial public reiationist and -free¬ lance author will wed Mar¬ garet Bonner next Saturday (27) at All Souls Unitarian Church, N- Y. Bride is a cousin of pub¬ lisher George Rinehart, Legit Booking -Continued from page 73 agency m-the concert field, formed its subsidiary Alliance firm, to en¬ ter the legit field, starting with the split-week and one-night tour for the bus-and-truck edition of “Sergeants.” With that route al¬ most completely laid out for the full 1957-58 season, Alliance has begun booking a somewhat similar tour for the upcoming second com¬ pany of “Auntie Marne,” to be sent out by Charles Bowden, Richard Barr &. H. Ridgely Bullock, Jr., with Constance Bennett as star. The significant aspect of Broad- day Theatre Alliance plans, how¬ ever, is not the emphasis on split- week and one-night dates, but rather that the new agency intends to book other shows into the regu¬ lar key legit cities for extended engagements, and that it is organ¬ izing its own subscription setups in many local cities, along the lines ofthe concert business. The com¬ bined League—LITNA outfit, lacks comparable facilities for split-week and one-night booking and can of¬ fer only the Theatre Guild-Ameri- can Theatre Society subscription in the priricipal cities. The tour laid out by Alliance for the bus-and-truck company of “Sergeants” is impressive. This is the troupe currently at the Alvin Theatre, N. Y. hut after laying off and rerehearsing, it will take to the road in a new production spec¬ ially designed for quick taking in and out, with fixed lighting, etc. Meanwhile, the other “Sergeants” company currently in San Francisco after nearly a full year on the road, is filling a route laid Out originally by the old UBO and more recently by LITNA and IBO. The fact that the additional tour¬ ing edition of “Sergeants” will travel by bus and truck will en¬ able it to play numerous engage¬ ments beyond the reach of rail lines, including guarantee bookings at universities, schools and for civic groups. A novel angle is that for stands of more than one night, the guarantee performance will be the opener, so it will be to the local sponsor’s interest to push that night’s sale. For most engagements, attendance normally picks up for the final performances, so the open¬ ings are apt to be light, and local managements generally like to guarantee the final shows. Central Park sS3 Continued from page 73 ^ legittuners as originally announced, Grace and Anderson have been ad- libbing with one operatta (“Rosa¬ lie”), a ballet program (“Manhattan Magic”), a nitery origination (“Cotton Club Revue”) and, as of last Monday (22), a “Jazz Under the Stars” presentation. “Rosalie was generally rapped as a fiasco, jwhile the ballet and bistro offer¬ ings weren’t too enthusiastically received. Practically all the Grace-Ander- son presentations have been last- minute bookings, and in the case of “Rosalie” allowed for an apparent¬ ly inadequate one-week rehearsal period. The production team apparently intend continuing their deviation from legittuners. They’re now trying to get Joe Franklin to create a stage version of his “Memory Lane” WABC-TV show for park presentation. The offering would have Franklin emceeing the revue-styled show of old-timers. Meanwhile, there have been some shifts in the production staff for the Grace-Anderson operation. Paul Vroom has been appointed general manager, with Ed Scanlon succeeding A1 Rosen as house man¬ ager, Lee Martlnec succeeding Roy Jones as company manager, and Dave Lipsky succeeding Dick Weaver as pressagent. Richard Clemer, longtime prod¬ ucer-director for NBC, has been set as production coordinator for the Seven" Arts Center, N.Y. the production of a play.’ Call him impressario, director, manager, dictator, controller, administrator, superintendent, overseer, inspec¬ tor, organizer, pilot or promoter —he’s something of all of them. “I prefer the French word, en¬ trepreneur, which has no exact synonym in English, although it means ‘one who undertakes to carry out any enterprise.’ The entrepreneur organizes various de¬ partments, but he also stimulates —or should, if he has taste—the creation of all the elements that- go into a show. Above all, he must.be a business man, walking the tightrope between a natural desire to dazzle with splendor and a prudent regard for his own and his backer’s money. “Actually, of course, ‘Happy Hunting’ wasn’t my first dip into the producer ocean. With my brother, Kenneth McKenna, I pre¬ sented a comedy, ‘Co-Respondent Unknown/ which was a 121-per¬ formance puccess 21 years ago. (McKenna, at .that time an actor, is now story'editor of -M-G-M. —Ed.) But that still didn’t- explain why after all these years, he should elect to enter the risldest field of activity in the contemporary thea¬ tre, he Was reminded. Mielziner nodded arid smiled slowly: “Well,” he said after a pause, “I’m hot sure myself, but perhaps I felt that at least once in my life I wanted to accept a challenge and see if . I could rise to it I’m not a gambler by nature. But perhaps there’s something in what Bernard Shaw wrote, ‘The roulette table pays nobody except him who keeps it. Nevertheless a passion for keeping roulette tables is un¬ known’.” “Or maybe Moss Hart expressed it more succinctly recently when he called the Broadway Theatre ‘a floating crap game.’ In any case, the fact that ‘Happy Hunting’ lists me as sole producer means not that I wanted all the credit and all the profit, but rather that I wanted the satisfaction of making the decisions and would shoulder, full responsibility if it turned out badly. In what ways is producing dif¬ ferent from designing? “Primarily, I suppose, it’s that whereas the designer mostly works according to a set of specifics and ultimately from a detailed blueprint, the producer deals to a large extent with intangibles, in soma cases the basic one being his own initial concept of the show. “In the case of ‘Happy Hunting/ for exariiple, I learned a year ago that Ethel Merman might be will- j ing to do a new show after her three-year absence from Broad¬ way. That set me in motion. But instead of working from a blue¬ print, as I would have as a de¬ signer, I found myself gambling on the sole premise of Ethel’s availability, gambling on booking, a theatre and announcing an open¬ ing date before the book was writ¬ ten, the music composed or the cast engaged.” Back to School Mielziner feels that producing a large Broadway musical has taught him at least a few things he was never aware of as a de¬ signer. ‘Tve come to realize that no single element is the essential one to a show. Moreover, once you sense the problems of others you are likely to acquire a general awareness that will improve your work In your own special field, artistically and economically, in the future. Thus, after producing a show of my own, I feel as if I’d gone back to school for a refresher course, and I have a hunch I’m better equipped to design for other producers. “Maybe the best thing about being a producer is a sort of stage- struck one,” Mielziner admits. “It’s not just the matter of the greatly increased personal con¬ tacts I have as a producer. Most of these associations would have ended with the New Have® tryout if I were only the designer. “As the producer, however,. I’m a privileged character. I can liang around backstage or out. front every night without question. And I can call up anyone connected F with the show any day and talk over any of the artistic or financial elements. Imagine having a license to talk shop ahytime I want—when shop is the theatre!” Paris Season Continued from pace 12 public ate up heartily), while Ed¬ uardo de Filippo’s “Sacres Fan- tomes” (“Blessed Phantoms”), a i Neapolitan comedy-farce, hit the jack-pot and Is braving the hot weather. Among the year’s smashes were Marcel Achard’s comedy “Patate” (“Potato”), which Gilbert Miller will stage In New York and which. 20th Century-Fox has purchased for the screen. Also Felicien Mar- ceau’s‘‘L’Oeuf’ (“The Egg”),bought by Wolfe Bros, for London stage production ana subsequent film version. | Other clicks.have included Michel Andre's “Virginie,” a shipwreck [farce, Andre Roussin's dramatiza¬ tion of an Italian novel, “La jMammai,” with Elvire Poesco as a screaming Sicilian mother dis- [ tressed over her son’s reported im- r potency, and Andre Larigs “Voy¬ age a Turin,” with Pierre Fresnay .and Yvonne. Printemps. Jean Anouilh’s “Pauvre Bitos,” a bitter satire on modem France, broke even despite a critical drub¬ bing and the author, pleased Vith the boxoffice response, remarked, “What a failure for th§ critics.” Top musical was “Irma La Douce” (book by Alexandre Breffort and music by Marguerite Monnot, who has composed many Edith Piaf numbers), a comic operetta about a Montmartre B-girl and her man. “Irma” may be seen on Broadway during 1957-58, with Renee Jean- maire in the lead role. Several revivals joined some of new entries in hit class. Among the most successful were Sacha Guitry’s 1914 “Faisons un Reve” (pfayed on Broadway 35 years ago as “Sleep¬ ing Partners”), with Robert Lam- oureux, Danielle Darrieux and Louis de Funes; “L’Ecole des Cocottes” (seen on Brodway as “The Gold fish” back in the 1920's), with Jac¬ queline Gauthier; ouis Vemeuil’s “Mademoiselle Ma Mere” in an arena production, and Henri Var¬ na’s revival of “The Merry Widow.” While French plays are regain¬ ing popularity abroad, American and British plays are showing bet¬ ter returns in Paris. Among trans¬ lations from the English scheduled for coming season are O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Jounrey into Night,” and “Moon for the Misbegotten” (possibly with Ingrid Bergman), Other English language items on the future list include “Visit to a Small Planet,” “Separate Tables” (in Andre Roussin adaptation), “Romanoff and Juliet,” “No Time for Sergeants,”- .“Thunder Rock,” “Potting Shed” (translated by Jean Mercure) and “Janus.” Clear, Conclsa Bex Office Placards I That's what yew will gat whan you usa an ALTS BOX OFFICK REPORT form. Sand far free sample form American Legitimate Theatre Service 0000 SUNSET BLVD., Suite 109V Hollywood 21, California AN OPPORTUNITY AT A BARGAIN Wl ARE CONVERTING OUR TENT THEATRE TO A PERMANENT FIXED STRUCTURE—THEREFORE WE OFFER THE FOLLOWING FOR SALEt The reef of the tent Is ball ring supported on two main stoat canter pates. The tent Is designed so that alx of the "quarter” poles are at key lacings. Whara "quarter" pales coma at paints not having key lacings such points are provided with extra mains, except In the middle sections. At theser two points the extra main Is bridle-roped front the ridge to the "quarter" polai then diagonally to the feet the normal main ropes on either side of the extra main. TINT SIZE—90 Feat Igy 120 Feat Also 1200 CANVAS CHAIRS FOR SALE TENT WILL REMAIN IN USE UNTIL THE END OF THE SEASON, SEPT 7th. YOUR INSPECTION INVITED. BIDS WILL BE ACCEPTED AY CITY OF . PHILADELPHIA, PROCUREMENT BUREAU, PHILADELPHIA, PA.