Variety (March 1959)

Wednesday, March 11,' 1959 PICTURES Amusement Stock Quotations American opera Week Ended Tuesday (10) N. Y. Stock Exchange' Over-the-Counter Securities' ‘ Bid Ask . Chesapeake Industries... 3% 3% ; + % Cinerama Prod. ••. ......, 3*4 3*4 + Vs Desilu 1894 19% Magna Theatre.- ... 274 314 . + % King Bros. 1% 1% ; Metropolitan Broadcasting 14 14*4 + *4 Scranton Corp... 1014 11*4 + 3 4 U. A. Theatres I.... •. 8 % 8^ 4 — *4 * Week Ended Monday (9) t Actual Volume $ Ex-dividend i (Courtesy of Merrill Lynch, .Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc.) Made-in-Madrid Rosary Films Possible Theatrical Dse Tho Very‘Partisan By GENE ARNEEL Joseph Breen Jr., writer-director ‘Hot’ Hits 100 at Easter °l “F ami L y theatre of the Air ’* « S ome Like It Hot,” the which is headed by the Rev. Pat- rick Peyton of Albany, has com- Marilyn Monroe starrer, will pleted .production of 15 half-hour open in 100 situations through- films dealing with the 15 mysteries 0 ut the country for the Easter of the Rosary. A theatrical pro- holidays duetioiris in the works and this IlrN Y conl edy m bow at the refurbished Loew's State' religioso conflict around the world. Theatre. In Los Angeles, it Breen shot the extensive footage follows “Auntie Marne” into in Madrid with non-name players . the* Chinese Theatre, but at substantial, but unspecified, expense. Money came via contribu- tions to Father Peyton’s movement i *11 TA 1 he’s been active for years in fur- I IIA # thering Catholicism through show rUIglUOi£i#U i VXl# business media ) y Controversy could result from U«I*a CaIaP the handling ofcthe crucification- YvJfVf* nlKP friUll resurrection theme in accordance • 11 IliliV lUMU with Catholic belief and stress: It’s __ _ __ New Testament so far as Jews are TV Mfl .II_ _ . concerned and Protestants are not I f| IV8R11V ITllllxPx in agreement with the Catholics’ , 1 u literal, nails-through-palms em- „ phasis on the passion of Christ. Theatre Owners of America is Breen’s treatment, of course, is launching a grass roots campaign strictly Catholic all the way. seeking' to convince Congress to Film-maker, son of the former aVQrvir , f - - _,._. - . administrator of the Motion Pic- exempt theatres from pending mul¬ ture Production Code, said last lmuni wa 6 e legislation. George week there have been.no decisions G. Kerasotes, president of TOA, on the specific marketing approach, contends that the minimum wage He has seven and a half hours of . Ille Q n 1nrn -, film in the can. And the possibili- bllIs now before the naUonal le e* s - ties include a couple of edited- lative body “would close thousands down hour and a half television of theatres.” The bills establish specials plus a feature that would $1J25 per hour minimum rates and run a c ouple of hours. ; include for the first time motion picture theatres,, meaning that ush- KASSLER’S BRITISH 'BRIDE' ers, doormen, candy attendants and “Happy is the Bride,” a British other hourly employees would-be Lion film, has been acquired lot eligible for .the >1,25 minimum. . the tJ.S. .by Frank Kassjer. j-Iah /ftie exhibitor association, has Carmichael, Janette : Scott,.. Cecil, organized a -Minimum Wage Com- Parker and Joyce Grenfell are mittee to conduct the grassroots starred. * drive. Kerasotes^ stressed that time The Roy Boulting-directed dim was. short because hearings will Is .a comedy of pre-marital com- begin later this month on some of plications. [the bills. Continued from pace 2 5f=5 appeal commercially. Washington will be an important first stand, to impress the foreign embassies and the hard - to - get - enthused- about-the-arts politicians. Rudel contemplates taking a repertory of about five works on the road for perhaps five weeks in all. Cincin¬ nati, Louisville, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland are likely stands. Albums & Parties The impresario sees time and promotion necessary adjuncts in building a market for American opera. He’s disappointed that the phonograph companies, despite the boom in classical music albums, have been unimaginative about recording the home-talent operas. “Such recordings ought to be made during the repertory season, to minimize the rehearsal costs,” Rudel points out. “If anjl when we get these works on disks we’ll have our one best leg-up, next to the Ford money itself.” Meantime still another “hope” is for an increase in theatre parties, hard to sell for opera. Center re¬ gards “Baby Doe” as a natural for parties. ; • For the 1959 spring season there is again an added, special $5,000 Ford grant under which some 30 selected composers will have part of their travel and hotel expenses borne while they attend rehearsals on 55th Street'and learn opera stagecraft. Rudel is setting up a number of workshop lectures for the apprentice composers. As usual, the mailing list of N. Y. City Center remains a great ticket- selling method,” Rudel testifies. This list is carefully checked, un¬ like mailing lists' generally, aver¬ ages near 75,000 names and really draws mail orders for opera, as it also does for the Center’s other events—ballet, plays,‘operettas. " Talent This spring’s American opera cycle, opens March 30 with Menot- ti’s “Maria Golovin.” Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week are reserved, for rehearsals. Another premiere, “Street Scene,” occurs Thursday of that week and on Sun¬ day a third premiere, the brack- etted “Devil and Daniel Webster” and “The Scarf,” will be mounted. A repeat from last season, “Baby Doe,” opens that Friday. As is well known in the trade, the backstage of the Center is cramped, along with the budget. For “Golovin,” it was a break to be able to rent the NBC-owned scenery used last fall at the Martin Beck Theatre. The spring cycle is able to offer singers provocative hew experi¬ ences, though not much money, since the top figure for principals is $150 a performance^ The main production item is, of course, the orchestra, averaging 60 men. Rudel suggests it would be necessary to go far to find a harder-working bunch of musicians while the sea¬ son is on. . Among the stage directors this spring are names from television (Kirk Browning, “Golovin”), mo¬ tion picture (Delbert Mann, “Wuth- ering Heights”) and legitimate (Jose Quintero, “Saint Joan”). A special effort is made at the Center to encourage young conductors (or new to opera), as per Boston’s Rus¬ sel Stanger (“The Scarf”), Max Gobermap of “West Side Story,” who’ll conduct “Dan’l, Webster,” and Werner Toranowsky from Is¬ rael, who’ll be in the pit for “The Medium.” NBC’s own Herbert Grossmmari wIV. handle the open¬ ing night “Golovin.” Mass, fhked Ham SS Continued from pace 2 fore Judge George Potter in the New Bedford court and was fined $250 and given 10 days to pay. She was fined $100 on the same charge six years ago after a raid on a night club in Berkley. The show emcee, Joseph Ardag- na, alias Joe Peppi, 30, of North' Weymouth, pleaded guilty to “im¬ moral actions” and was also fined $250. The five other men .were given lesser fines for sponsoring the show. The cops reported that between 175 and 200 men were present at the* show which cost $5 and was advertised on the tickets as “Vir- gipia Baked Ham Dinner.” Reverse Mig (Biz to Residential) Key to Zeckendorf-20th Project WB Serenade Music Warner Bros.’ domestic sales push during “Jack L. Warner Week,” Feb. 22-28, garnered the biggest single week’s gross i in the company’s history. It ex¬ ceeded by 15% the previous record week which marked the 20 th .anni of sound pictures in Auguest, 1946. Spokesmen reported that the quota set. for the domestic sales organization was exceed¬ ed by 150.14%,- with the New York branch oversubscribing the most at 240.87% of its quota. All 32 U. S. branches and the six Canadian offices went over the mark. Distribs Cheer Antitrust Win Over Georgian Distribution attorneys were jubi¬ lant this week over victory in an j antitrust. suit instituted against j various of the companies and a ; couple of theatres in the Atlanta area. Action, titled Greene vs. Lam, had as its plaintiff William Greene, operator of the Palmetto I Theatre, conventional house situ- ■ ated 28 miles south of Atlanta. I Greene sought damages of $500,- 000 , after trebling, and he alleged conspiracy among the distribs in discriminating, run-wise, in favor of the Roosevelt Drive-in, College Park, Ga.,- and the Alamo, four- wall situation in Newnan, Ga. Distribs’ lawyers say the action was meaningful beyond the imme¬ diate issue. For the Georgia plain- ! tiff’s complaint was filed and ar- ( gued by a Boston attorney named George S. Ryan, and it represented the first of eight similar suits pre¬ sented by Ryan in behalf of At¬ lanta exhibs. With this first having gone their \ way, the company legalites believe they are in a particularly good po¬ sition to defend themselves against the other seven. ♦In all eight, mul¬ ti-million dollar damages would be involved. It’s acknowledged, of course, that merits of the remain-! ing seven actmns have yet to be placed before the court. Trial of Greene vs. Lam went on for two weeks in Atlanta Federal I Court. Jury, after 20 minutes of ; deliberation, came out with the dis¬ missal verdict. Greene’s complaint about “hid¬ den clearances” against him brought the rebuttal from de¬ fendants that Greene’s Palmetto sometimes played simultaneously with the Alamo and the Roosevelt.; sometimes ahead of them, and j sometimes in back of them. Nothing wrong with this, they counter-ar¬ gued. * | Stanley Godofsky of the New. York office of Dwight, Royall, Har- i ris, Koegel & Caskey, ar>d local At-! lanta counsel Robert S. Sams of Tench, Coxe & Stanlev represented j the distribs. Judge Neil Andrews and James Groton sat in for the j exhib defendants. j As of Monday night (9), accord- ing to distrib lawyers in N. Y., there was no notice of appeal filed by Greene. 11 IN 28-DAY SLOT BUY TV CO-OP ADS Minneapolis, March 10. j Deciding, among other things, * that “if you can’t fight ’em, join ’em,” the 11 local neighborhood exhibitors whose subsequent-run theatres are in the earliest clear¬ ance slot, 28 days, have banded to¬ gether and raised $ 10,000 with which to buy that amount of sched¬ uled television time on KMSP-TV to plug the attractions that they usually play day and date: KMSP-TV is one of the two lo¬ cal video stations with the strong¬ est libraries of feature films^-sta- tions that make these films" pro¬ gramming prominent and cause ex¬ hibitors bad competitive headaches. h Sale of the 20th-Fox lot on the Coast to real estate tycoon William Zeckendorf involves a downpay¬ ment of $2,500,000, which is to be returned to him if the Los Angeles zoning 7 commission doesn’t okay his building plans. In fact, the whole deal hinges on the zoning okay, which involves making a residential area out of what now is zoned only for indus¬ trial uses. While there’s a possi¬ bility of trouble, 20 th actually ex¬ pects none, since the Zeckendorf projects imply an improvement of the acreage. Deal specifically provides that the studio itself is not to be sold for five years. After that, 20th must sell, but it has the right to lease back the prpperty for a peri¬ od running up to 25 years. Com¬ pany also retains the ' mineral rights to the entire piece of land. It has a number of oil wells now producing on the lot. 2Qth prexy Spyros Skouras last week said the deal, eventually, would bring the company $57,000,- 000 to $60,000,000. Money will be paid in five installments. It’s now understood that payment is over a ten-year period, with 20 th actu¬ ally selling pieces of land as Zeck¬ endorf needs them and pays for j them. He does, however, have the •right to take up as much as he wishes at one time. ! If the zoning commission gives j the nod. Zeckendorf then will pay a second $2,500,000 to 20th. This $5,000,000 in cash will -represent the first downpayment on. the deal. ; Schedule calls for a sale of land j and payment, every two years. Cftv Jiifce Okays Toledo Bank Nite Toledo, March. 10. Bank n : riits at the Co^nv Thea¬ tre. deluxe nabe house, have been held legal by Municipal Judge Homer Ramey, whose decision paved the wav’ for an early re¬ sumption of tlie cash giveaways. The ruling in favor of bank night was based on the fact that there was no consideration of any kind involved for participants, who did not have to pay ?n admission to be eligible, and could register in the lobby for the drawing. Should the person win a prize, he was ad¬ mitted to the theatre proper, with¬ out cost, to collect the award, ear¬ lier testimony had brought out. Urban R. Anderson, manager of th theatre, said that the bank night paraphernalia seized' by city officials would be returned and put back in use, but that he was going to start from scratch, because of the possibility that the records or tickets from the former bank nights may have been impaired As a result of the long impoundment. Ruling was hailed as a vindica¬ tion .by local theatremen, who felt that their particular business had been discriminated against, since other commercial enterprises, par¬ ticularly supermarkets, had not been troubled by anti-lottery type of law-enforcement. PUBLICISTS’ ‘WARNING’ TO 20TH,WB INDIES Independent producers associ¬ ated with 20lh-Fox and Warner Bros, have been warned by the N. Y. Screen Publicists Guild of the seriousness of the Guild’s dis¬ pute with the two film companies. Negotiations between the Guild and the companies are stalemated. The SPG is seeking a wage hike for senior publicists and wage parity with Coast publicists. Particularly alerted by the Guild were producers whose pictures are scheduled to open in New York in the next few weeks. These include Howard Hawks, whose “Rio Bravo” is being released by WB and George Stevens (“Diary of Anne Frank”), Jerry Wald ( 4< The Sound and the Fury”), and Darryl F. Zanuck (“Compulsion”), whose pictures are being handled by 20 th. Theatres at which the pictures are set to play in N. Y. have also been placed on notice by tho Guild. A meeting with 20th ~ Thurs¬ day (5) broke up in a f*' ock and no new session has b-e.i scheduled. I Talks are continuing with WB.