Variety (March 1959)

published Weekly at 154 West 46th Street New York 36, N. Y., by Variety Inc. Annual subscription, 315. Single copies, 35 cents. Second Class Postage Paid at New York, N. Y. COPYRIGHT. 1959. BY VARIETY. INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED yOL. 214 No. 1 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 195ft 64 PAGES ■59-60: SHO W BIZ BACK IN TV Queens Visit, Seaway, PanAm Gaines, 3 NETWORKS TO M™* Beach’s $3,750,000 Roorshow New Museum-’59 Is Chi’s Year Chicago March 3. - Over at City Hill they calculate 1959 as the “Chicago Year 1 '—when the town becomes a world cynosure for sports, culture and trade. The international focusing starts In April with festivities to mark the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway for ocean traffic to this and other Great Lakes ports. In July, touring Queen Elizabeth is down for a one-day once-over of the city; and the .same month will find Chi hosting the International Trade Fair. These doings, however, bear a ^preliminary” character about them in anticipation of the really big show in August—the quadren¬ nial Pan-American Games and the collateral Festival of the Americas, latter an obeisance to western hemispheric culture. , For the games alone, Chi will have spent some $2,500,000, mostly to prep existent facilities or create new ones. Some items: $1,000,000 for a new swim pool, and $100,000 to rehabilitate the track oval in mammoth Soldiers Field. Necessary monies are being put up by various city agencies, according to Col. Jack Riley, the city’s factotum for the month-long affair, who says the municipal treasury per se will (Continued on page 62) 'My Happiness’ Just That For Betty Blasco Family; It Got Them Out of Hock Kansas City, March 3. The comeback of “My Happi¬ ness” couldn't have been more timely for the songwriter if it was planned, according to Betty (Peter¬ son) Blasco, writer of the lyrics and now head of Happiness Music, the publisher. Within recent months the two Blasco children have had serious . illnesses, and Mrs. Blasco herself was hospitalized for many weeks. .Just as hospital and medical bills ^were about to overwhelm her, roy¬ alties began sifting in from the newest round on the happiness tone—again. It looked for a time last summer that Mrs. Blasco was on the brink with spinal meningitis, although she now has resumed her normal work routine supervising her com¬ pany, She lost her husband in 1954 and .was left with two small 6ons on her hands. But always there is “My Hap¬ piness” to cover the financial bur¬ den. It’s the bread and butter of the Blasco family, and seems to have a sixth sense about when to make the hit parade list again, she said last .week. The MGM recording by Connie Francis has been in the Top 10 here for several weeks run¬ ning. The song first made the list In 1948 and stayed there for 28 weeks. Reads Like a Page Out of Vegas Bischoff-Coslow’s Pic On Jukebox Racketeering Latching onto the Senate rackets committee probe into the jukebox industry, indie producer Sam Bischoff and veteran songwriter Sam Coslow are planning to turn out a film on gangsters’ infil¬ tration into the music biz. They have taken an option on Frank Kane’s novel, “The Living End,” which treats with the same sub¬ ject. It was published as a pocket book last year by Dell and racked up a 500,000 sale. The Bischoff-Coslow team, which is discussing the project with United Artists, expects to shoot the pic in New York. Senate, Leonetti’s Best Friend; Quiz Cues ‘Solid’ Work The Senate inquiry into the jukebox industry has paid off for Tommy Leonetti. He’s now in big demand as a nitery property. The national press coverage given to the singer’s direct link with mobster management (Johnny Am¬ brosia) jsix years ago has been fol¬ lowed by a flood of bookings. Even Dick Clark, who bounced Leonetti from his ABC-TV show the Satur¬ day before last (21), wants to give the crooner another booking. Prob¬ lem with the Clark shot, according to Leonetti’s current manager Dick Linke, is that “we can’t find the (Continued on page 50) Film & Dance Verdict Teople Won’t In Sim’ St. Paul, March 3. • After daylight saving time op¬ ponents, including exhibitors, other amusement purveyors, farmer, organizations’ delegations and individuals had their inning at a state senate general legisla¬ tion committee hearing, the demise of the two-year Minnesota experi¬ ment was predicted by one of its foes, State Rep. E. J. Chilgren of Littlefbrk. However, speaking at a meeting of legislators with Northwestern Minnesota Border Council mem¬ bers, Chilgren added quickly “the legislature can reverse itself quick¬ er than a basketball player.” The 1957 legislature enacted DST only for the 1957 apd 1958 summers and exhibitors found the fast time damaged their boxoffice badly. Even if the legislature does (Continued on page 16) By GEORGE ROSEN , On the strength of present spon¬ sor commitments for next season and plans on ^he three-network drawing boards, *59-’60 could very well materialize into one of tele¬ vision’s most exciting seasons in a decade. It’s backed by something ■ more than wishful thinking; around the three tv networks (as well as in the agency-sponsor precincts) there’s a sort of champing at the' bit in a bid to firm up next sea¬ son’s plans and get the present uninspired and better - forgotten one over and done with. (At CBS- TV, for example, there is every expectation that by April 1, ap¬ proximately six months in advance of the late September-early Octo¬ ber ’59-’60 premiere, virtually ev¬ ery major segment of the new sea¬ son’s schedule will be accounted for, sponsor ’n’ all.) There’s no precedent for this kind of advance tv booking. It’s as though the program war¬ lords at the-networks took a good hard look at their respective sched¬ ules, with their abundance of oat- ers, murder and mayhem, and pro- ,(Continued on page 38) Updated‘Romance’j Of Mobsters For I Show Business By ABEL GREEN The attraction of mobsters to :show business dates back to the Prohibition era and, in the evolu¬ tion of “legitimatizing,”' it’s no secret that “the boys” have moved into suaver show biz operations than the mere whimsies of the 1920s when most of-the top niteries j and speaks fronted mob money. For : a time, when Waxey Gordon an- I geled “Strike Me Pink” there was also a grave danger of invading legit musical productions as well. ! And the Browne-Bipff scandal in ' Hollywood is a black mark for all ■ concerned. j The recent jukebox expose, of ' course, has put further spotlight- j ing on the fringe-record business , operations, even unto the Tommy | (Continued on page 50) . Everything’s an Angle Paris, March 3. Paris coutouriers are hiring out their latest designs to French society women who wear ’em in public plaees and are photographed in them. Some U.S. film execs’ wives have the same deal. Garden of Eden: joe E. Nears 200G B.O. in Fla.l Joe E. Lewis, at the Eden Roc, Miami Beach, is credited with the biggest business oi the season at the Pompeii Room. He’s also fig¬ ured to be doing the top business cf any headliner currently in the Beach hotels. Lewis is estimated to have gone ■ above the $100,000 mark during his i | first week and came near to that: i figure on the second week. It’s J !■ claimed to have pulled the Harry j ! Mufson room out of the red so far : ' in the season. Cuba’s Many Lures; i (Fetes, Packages) To Hypo Tourism By JAY MALLIN Havana, March 3. The Fidel Castro government 'has launched an all-out campaign to bring back the tourists. The country’s 25-month civil war had, particularly during the past year, scared away most of those Yankee * ! dollars. : Those dollars had amounted to some $40,000,000 annually—a siz- . J able portion of the Island’s economy, j Over 200,000 tourists had been f visiting Cuba each year during peacetime. The first big step in bringing back the tourists was the reopen¬ ing of. eight of Havana’s luxury casinos. The other three had ca¬ tered mainly to low-income Cu¬ bans, and the government wants (Continued on page 56) i Homosexual Theorizing’ j j Itself Okay—Judges' Hollywood, March 3. ! Homosexuality is “older than * ! Sodom and Gomorrah” and is a ! legitimate subject for motion pic-; | tures if handled properly, the Ap-' : pellate division of the California i Superior Court ruled last week in [ reversing a conviction against local ! exhibitor Raymond Rohauer for j showing two experimental films ; j dealing With sex deviation. The court ruled 2-to-l in Ro-, i hauer’s favor, upsetting a previous i conviction against the owner of the: i local artie, the Coronet, which; [ found him guilty of “inciting las- 1 | eivious thoughts or lustful desires” j I by exhibition of the films, “The - Voices” and “Fireworks,” both dealing with homosexuality. ; Judge Edward Bishop, in writing! (Continued on page 62) i By LARY SOLLOWAY* Miami Beach, March 3. The once hard core of lavish in- | dependent night clubs that served this resort’s hotel guests wants in nocturnal divertissements is gone, except for a Latin Quarter. This booming season cues the reason: the hotel cafes. These began to book star layouts several years ago as guest inducements and now find themselves engaged in an ex- i pensive “side” venture that for : most hoteliers has become an an- ■ nual competitive headache that has j brought their budgets for such lures to an estimated $2,500,000 for the seven key hotels engaged in the bidding war. The rest of the inns, independ¬ ent night clubs, lounges, all-night ; intimeries, jazz-joints and strip ! spots bring the total estimated : talent-music expenditure for the area running from Hollywood to the Miamis to $3,750,000 for a 15- week period. Not even Las Vegas can match this figure, albeit on a compara¬ tive basis, in terms of numbers of operations, Vegas would probably top the average individual figures. The struggle for talent has be¬ come an annual—and bitter one —among the hotelmen. Pegging their annual advertising promo¬ tions now on free extras and with it, in major locations, on a pres¬ tige-talent basis, they must, of ne- | cessity, keep upping budgets or ’else go in for production shows that may cost less in terms of sal- , aries, but still can add up in the | (Continued on page 54) Chi Symph Hisses Reiner For Aloofness, at 70, In State Dept. Tour By JACK PITMAN Chicago, March 3. Chicago Symphony’s proposed fall European sojurn. its first, was apparently scuttled for good last week. State Dept, called off the project when it couldn’t agree with Fritz Reiner, the orch’s director, on length of the tour and what cities would be visited. That, at least, was the official explanation, but local reports chalk it up simply (and irritably) to Reiner’s refusal to go abroad on any terms. The maestro’s indiffer¬ ence has angered many of his mu¬ sicians who were looking forward to the extra income (estimated at $1,500 per man) which the trif* would have provided. Their feel« ings were made obvious to Reiner when they hissed his appearance aft rehearsal last Thursday (26), ac¬ cording to witnesses. Later, in the dressing quarters, several mem¬ bers threw down a tuxedo sym¬ bolizing their leader and stomped (Continued on page 62)