Variety (January 1958)

MISCELLANY Jayne Mansfield, in Tokyo, Expounds Femme Figure; Her Future Fix Plans Tokyo* Dec. 30. 4 Actress Jayne Mansfield, who al j ACITOS .myiic. ATxaiiaj.xc±u, VY11U a* — .IF 1 71 A ■■ ways looks as if she is leaning put Vnf yftllQg LUIl UdIV of a window, said she feels the fe ■ male figure in general and the llffcpf I nral TV Willi bosom nn particular were being VII5C1 LUtdi i f If UU tremendously oversold by Ameri Mnrn Vonlr Rnnlnrifl can commercialism. IflUIC ldun DUUAlllg In the Far East touring during the Christmas, holidays with the Glasgow, Dec. 30. A greaten dumber of U.S. acts Bob Hope Show for the Armed! must be brought over to top bills Forces and NBC-TV, Miss Mans at the Auld Lang Syne “Palla■ field told Variety: “I feel that it’s dium,” the Empire here. That: is very unimportant and in bad taste one ^certain factor here towards to put tht emphasis on it. I, my solving live theatre worries as indie self, have never sought any pub tv and BBC-tele make further inlicity In my life. I went along roads on audiences. While many with the game and like tumble-' American names; still head the weed .it got. bigger and bigger (the ..Glasgow vaude house shows, they publicity).’* have been falling off . in : number Regarding her publicity, which recently. U.S. vaude . and tv acts has been mainly focused on her are high in popularity rating here, physical attributes, she continued, and would do much to hypo interr4*I wish people .would stop , talking est m vaude, which is not dying in about , my bosom and figure. I pa»ts of the U.K. really would: I feel that I have The* Empire vaudery .at. Edinhad a tremendous amount of great burgh, the Scot capital, badly needs publicity and wonderful breaks, reshaping on its policy of booking but I wish it~hadn’t had that em apts. This is another Moss EiriA , . . pires’ circuit house, arid has been WiU I be accepted in serious j facea with falling attendance beroles. If I in good. Ill be ac cause of mediocre acts and a seemccpted and I wouldn t want ^o do jngiy endless procession of jazz !t-if 1 didnt do a goodjob^ It billtoppers. Demand for vaude would be very foolish. My studio €xists but apparently isn’t being is very intelligent about it. When satisfied here. I signed contract Sept. 15 last The big talking point in Scotyear, Buddy Adler .said I d spend jgnd has-been the arrival of coin-., a year doing comedy, m flamboy merciaktv, with local program conant roles. After that he sam there tract' handled by Roy Thomson,, would be no more sex symbol roles Canadian newspaper owner and but roles showing me as the ac boss of Scotsman Publications, tress w^ know you are. Edinburgh: It has. brought a new J impact to fireside entertainment. , I think the studio will, go fodder Spread of tv is hitting cinealong with me and let me . con1 mas; an(j exhibs are on an all out centrate. on venous roles. There campaign to get a tax cut. is talk about my next doing ‘The Major Ghalns Mull Vaude Jean Harlow Story. Universal Major circuits have been experiowns a script called ‘Sutton Place/ Anting with Cine-variety of Show, based on the true story of a mixed pU^ting in vaude oner-night shows up girl who commits suicide, U-I a relief between pix. One exhib tried to boiTOW me for the part running a . small house in Fife has bl-n k dld£ * work «*■ , Mayba ^°x presented a rbck-’n’-roll group with will buy the, property for me. It’s £0me success. The Odeon here (Continued on page 5Q) staged Bill Haley's Comets to solid biz* arid also had Paul Anka Ifolrt Qistrlpf QaaItq concert. Count Basie and the. Jack 11410 oictneL otJcBS Teagarden outfits also notched up To Break Ponti Pact . worthwhile biz at the 2,700-seat Rome Dec 23 ! St. Andrew’s Hall. „ . ±tome, uec , Resident vaudecontinues strong M a r 1 s a * AUasio, one of Italy’s (Continued . on page 46) Rome Dec 2^ ■ oi. auiucw » __ . . e’ ; , , r Resident vaude continues M a r i s a * AUasio, one of Italy’s (Continued on page 46 fast-rising young femme stars, has ■ ■ ■ ■ ~ ■ decided to break Jier contract with Carlo Ponti; and has filed a peti Hammer Films PlaHS tion to that effect here. Signed in 1955, pact was slated to run Dr. Jekyll Kemake through Dec. 1962. Actress, who re London, Dec. 23. cently co-starred with Mario Lanza [ james Carreras, the Hamnier in “Seven Hills of Rome’’ (Metro), FiliriS topper, who has. virtually claimed in her letter to the Carlo cornered the horror market in Pdriti Organization that her deci Britain, is f0 remake “Dr. jekyU sion was motivated and justified by ^ Mr. Hyde’’ in the spring. Pie the fact that “the parts . . . re .will be in color and is due to start peatedly a s s i g n e d ;to her have rolling at its Bray Studios next turned out to be both artistically March. and morally negative.” Carreras said the new version of. Miss -AUasio added that she the R. L. Stevenson classic will.be planned to fulfill her present com an entirely new concept of the mitment with Ponti for “Viaggio story. Hammer, which now is comdi Piacere” {Pleasure Trip), but pleting the remake of “Dracula” that she hoped that her situation for Universal, is due to. start -‘The could be resolved “as soon as pos Revenge of Frankenstei ” for Coisible.” umbi# by the end of this year. Subscription Order Form Enclosed find check for $ Please send VARIETY for (Please Print Name) Zone. . . . State, Regular Subscription Rates One Year — $1 0.00 Two Years— $1 8.00 Canada and Foreign-^?! Additional Per Year ’'WRIETY Inc. 154 West 46tfa Street Mew York 36 j N. Y. P%!RIE?rt Marian Anderson Feted By Philly; Mtirrow There Philadelphia* Dep. 30. i Marian Anderson was; honored | by the city of Philadelphia at a luncheon in the Barclay Hotel last week (26) in recognition of her 10-week tour through Asia. Par¬ ticipating in the ceremony was Ed¬ ward. R. Murrow who presented films of the trip from his “See It. Now” session displayed tonight ^ (Mon.) on CBS-TV. i (^peaking of1, the; future of the * Negro entertainer on television, 5 Miss Anderson said She did not re. gard the CariceUation of the Nat ’• King Cole show on NBC-TV as the . end of hope for Negro, performers, ! . “All it takes is one man of courage, , in this cake g sponsor*' to step’' for; ward and prove that it can be done. r In the meantime, we must have patience arid faith,’’ the contralto ; declared. As Maine Goes, So Go Strips; Oust Poor Little Eves Boston, Dec. 30. Booking of peelers/ into Maine nlteries came to an end. Friday . (27) when1 the Maine Liguor Com¬ mission put a ban on strippers in the state’s 2Q0-odd clubs and liostelries, cancelling out. rash of bookings^jn the Pine Tree State for New "Year’s Eve. Boston hookers of exotics had lit¬ tle ‘time to make other . bookings for the holiday, shows and conse¬ quently New Year’s Eve will find plenty of disrobers out of work. Acts in . the Maine clubs were booked, through Hub agencies. The surprise ruling by the Maine Liquor Commission caught the bookers and exotics . with their itin¬ eraries down and contracts show¬ ing. The . new Maine rule says an entertainer cannot disrobe “in a manner commonly described as a strip tease.” It also' bars an en¬ tertainer: who “disrobes so that pri¬ vate parts of their bojly are wholly or partially exposed to view, either directly or through transparent garments.” The liquor solons said that banned is anyone who “indulges in vulgar, suggestive, indecent or lewd acts of language; portrays, persons of the opposite sex; indul¬ ges in any sort of entertainment which is obscene,' indecent, im¬ moral or impure.” ' The old law merely prohibited ‘‘objectionable or improper” entertairiment. ‘ Tel Am Legit at Crest; Hebrew Musical ‘Annie,’ 3 Othdr Openings Due Tel Aviv, Dec. 30. . The legit ^season, here has hit its peak this month, .with each of the city’s four theatres presenting, a local preem. Only one is a new Israeli work. . The other three rep ( resent first-time Hebrew . Versions ' of a Shakespearean classic, a Par¬ isian original and a Broadway mu¬ sical. The tuner, presented in a huge tent by the Do Re Mi operetta com¬ pany, is “Annie Get Your Gun.” George Val staged the offering, which has Edna Bors, a Hungarian refugee, playing the title character. The Bard vehicle is “Romeo and Juliet,” put on by the Chamber Theatre. American-born Rosita Fernhoff, who came to Israel two years ago, is alternating in the role of Juliet | with Orna PoTath. Josef Milo* founder-director of the Chamber Theatre, is portraying Romeo. Felicien Marceau’s French play, “The Egg;” directed by Andre Barasac, is being presented by tbe Habimah, while the Ohel has “A Blessing as Well” by Israeli play¬ wright Moshe Shamir. Steve Broidy on Mend Palm Springs, Dec. 30. Steve Broidy, prexy of Allied Artists, seriously irijured in an auto accident , two months ago, is re¬ cuperating at his desert home here. He had been hospitalized since Oct. 18. '• ”': Wednegday^ January 1, 1958 Politics & Prices Wagging the Tail Of Paris Nitelife; Names Get a Rise Lotsa Snafus (Rhonda At USO’s Xmas-for-GI’s Frankfurt, Dec. 30. “Operation Starlift,” the USQ show provided at Christmas time for American troops in Europe, got off to a bad start here with tiie last-minute info that stiar Rhonda Fleming — \vho had been widely touted in all the radio and press publicity here— wasn’t coming. As master of ceremonies, Johnny Grant, from KMPC'in Hollywood explained. Miss Fleming had been invited, and apparently before re¬ ceiving her answer, information had been released that she was coming. But she was unable to do the tour because of prior commit¬ ments. However; the 15-member show drew a good hand from a fairly well filled audience at its first ap¬ pearance in Europe, at the Idle. Hour Theatre in Frankfurt. Previous word earlier this year had been that the American Guild of Variety Artists would no longer permit top names of its members to make this nearly gratis tour for the services. At the last minute, though, they relented. And Bob Hope with a giant cast planed off to the Far. East, arid Johnny Grant with a smaller unit to the European theatre. Grant group is being paid only per-diem pay and has no big names in the cast. Only pay exceptions are the three musicians, who . are drawing union scale under the AGVA demands, presumably in be¬ half of the AFM. The Bob Hope show including Jayne Mansfield and Jerry Colonna will be tele¬ vised for later release of one of its ! appearances. Although formerly the big Xmas shows for the troops overseas ex¬ tended through New Year’s as 'well/ this year both Hope and Grant’s units are returning to Hollywood (Continued on page. 55) Fifth-Pleaders Case Up Week of Jan', 6 Washington, Dec. 30. U. S. Supreme Court has re¬ scheduled the case of Wilson v. Loew’s for the week of Jan. 6. Tribunal is figured to get to the case about mid-week, . Action is an appeal by more than 20 Hollywooders. They allege a conspiracy by the film studios to blacklist them because they took the Fifth Amendirient: before the House Un-American Activities Committee. The group: lost in the state courts of Cali¬ fornia. Defendants include all the. important film producers and the Un-American Activities Commit¬ tee. 4 By GENE MOSKOWITZ Paris, Dec, 30. . Political crises, economic ten¬ sions, rising prices, "etc., are blamed for the: current shifting look of the riitery picture here. The days of the specialized, offbeat nitery seem to be numbered, for patrons, both foreign and French, are late-. ly willing to shell out mainly for strip and spec: , In the face of adversity, show biz always tries, and now certain plush boites are getting name Values in spite of exorbitant fees, arid little spots are slowly gaining attention via new young and deter¬ mined, if not * ite. all talented performers. . Thus the lavish taste, ingenuity and! meccano marvels of the Lido keep it a mecca and: SRO nightly, while the strip joint, Crazy Horse Saloon, is also always packed. The plush danceries, Jimmy’s and L’Elepljant Blanc, also . get their monied clientele; "^lid^ flltto such windup places as the Calavados; Les Fleurs, Mars Club .and the burgeoning discothecques— for ex¬ ample, the EPI Club where one gets a'basket of food to eat to disk music, the Microtheque and others.. The smart cellar spot Au Franc Pinot gets a supper crowd for dance also, and Chez Gilles; Fon¬ taine Des Quatres Saisons and L’Amiral still get those yenning some cerebral material with their revues, plus the weightier offbeat fare. The Pigalle fleshpots still get the tourists and the . jazz crowd pays attention to . the Club Saint Germairi-Des-Pres and Metro Jazz, with those desiring some flamenco flavor going for the Hispano boites such, as Puerto Del Sol, Catalan, and Le Guitar. But some small, clubs now are beginning to get the restless nightlifers* and budding new talent is drawing other showfolks scouting young faves. New names are be¬ ginning to emerge, but these still (Continued on page . 50) Mex Nat-1 Board Bans . Yarik Pic, ‘Daughters’ Mexico City, Dec. 30. An American pic, “Runaway Daughters” (ARC), is the first to get gonged in the government’s in¬ tensified cinematographic moralization drive. Congressman Jorge Ferritis, chairman of the /National Cinematographic Board, which, rules over pix censors, verbally an¬ nounced that “Daughters” cannot be exhibited anywhere in Mexico because juvenile delinquency is its theme: In this country, it is titled “Adolescencia Perdidia” (L os t Adolescence). Ferritis explained that the theme (j.d.) has become the object of the censors’ special attention. Understood that the distributor failed . in the ' argument that “Daughters” is really moral be¬ cause it points up the lesson about crinie neveri paying. . HAPPY NEW YEAR Trade Mark Registered 1905 by SIME SILVERMAN/ Poblished Weekly by VARI . Syd Silverman, . President 154 West 46th St., New York 36. N.Y. JUdson 2-2700 Hollywood 28 . ■ .: 6404 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood ' 0-1141 • Washington 4 . 1292 National Press Building, STerling 3-5445 Chicago 11 612 No. Michigan Ave., DElaware 7-4884 London WC2 8 St.. Martin’s PL, Trafalgar Sq., COVent. 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