Variety (March 1959)

94 PfilziEff Wednesday, March 18, 1959 Legit Bits ; Continued from page 91 ; edy, “Hisorie de Rire,” is planned for Broadway production next Oc¬ tober by Ron Rawson, Robert Lantz and Marshall Earl, with Louis Jourdan, Jean Pierre Amnont and Claude Dauphin costarring. Julian Stein will be musical di¬ rector for the musical edition of “Talent '59,” to be presented May 5. The dramatic edition of the showcase is set for May a Aldyth Morris' “Secret Concu¬ bine” is scheduled for an early June opening at the Renata Thea¬ tre, N.Y., under the production auspices of Marker Productions Inc., headed by Liska March, Jane Schenker and Louis Singer. Alan Schneider will direct, with Ming Cho Lee designing the sets. “The Smokeweaver’s Daughter,” j a comedy by Thomas Barbour, with I music by Robert Chambers, will! :be produced and staged by Charles Olsen for an Aoril 14 opening at the 4th Street Theatre, N.Y. Legit-film director H. C/ Potter is moving from the Coast to New York to open a Broadway produc¬ tion office in April. Romeo Muller's “Mahoney" will be presented April 16-18 at The Lambs, with Bcb Hill and Bob O’Connell produe ng and Carlo De Angelo staging. The cast will in¬ clude John Alexander in the title role and Barry Macollum, Leslie Barrie and Lois Markel. A. J. Po- cock will be production stage man¬ ager. Jack Vaughan has been added to the Talent '59 Musical Revue staff as consultant on musical produc¬ tion numbers and continuity. He’ll also stage his own special material for some of the performers. Louis A. Lippa’s “Flight of the Children” is planned for off-Broad- way production next May by Philip Meister, who’ll also direct. Lloyd Bochner, Viveca Lindfors and Agnes Moorehead will costar next summer in the Vancouver Fes¬ tival production of John Reich's adaptation of “Mary Stuart,” which Reich will direct. The cast will also include Bruno Gerussi, Robert Christie and Robert Goodier. Charles Caron and Andrew Cox are planning an off-Broadway pro¬ duction of Shakespeare’s “Richard II.” An off-Broadway revival of “Waltz of the Toreadors,” with British actor Leigh Wharton in the lead role, is skedded for an April 6 opening at the Jan Hus audi¬ torium, N.Y., by producer-director John Hale. Music for Jay Garon and Bob Sokoler’s forthcoming presentation of “Kataki” is being composed by David Amram. James Yaffe has completed “The Deadly Game.” his stage adapta¬ tion of Friedrich Duerrenmatt’s novel, “Breakdown,” which Alton Wilkes, Joe Manchester and Emil Coleman plan producing on Broad¬ way next season. An English ver¬ sion of another Duerrenmatt play, “An Angel Comes to Babylon,” is also planned for Broadway presen¬ tation next season. The rights to the play have been acquired by George White, adaptor of Herman Gressieker’s “Rcval Gambit,” cur¬ rently running off-Broadway. White is working on‘the “Babylon” adap¬ tation. The. deal for the rights was made through the Kurt Hellmer office, which handles both authors. The principles of stage lighting for home use are the theme of “Light—As You Like It,” a new 24-minute color film produced by Transfilm for free loan or pur¬ chase through its sponsor. The Superior Electric Co. The picture also includes a brief pictorial resume of the history of theatre lighting. Bernard Kops' “Hamlet of Step¬ ney Green” will be published next May by Penguin Books. living Jacobson and Julius Adler have booked the Anderson Theatre, N.Y., for the production next fall of an American-Yiddish musical. Louis Beachner will direct * the double-bill. “The Well of the Saints” and “The Workhouse Ward,’ which begins a series of matinee and Monday evening per¬ formances April 9 at the Gate Theatre, N.Y. The presentation, for which Frederick Koester is design¬ ing the scenery, will be sandwiched between the theatre’s regularly- scheduled performances of ‘Hel- oise.” “Single Man a£ a Party,” by Richard Kayne, will be presented off-Broadway by Frank B. Haderer and Scotti D’Arcy, w’th Constance Carpr-ter and Ren Y-Nei! as co- stars. Pel or Flcu nry c'irector. Actrcis ITath -.*'- " .c;.':a:n, pro¬ ducer-realtor Joel Shonker, John Martin, president of Houblein, Inc., and Gerard Piel, publisher of Sci¬ entific American, have been named trustees of the American Shake¬ speare Festival Theatre & Acad- amy. They’ll fill vacancies left by the Festival board’s outgoing mem¬ bers Eugene Black, George Woods, . ^ Melville Thorpe, D. Croma De: “Li‘i Abner” the week of Aug. 3. I Ifdu’apH Rvrnn Smith pl. _ i ;_t. j._:_ week summer run in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The deal was set by Fred Amsel apd Jerry Levy’s Directional Enterprises. Lyn Swann, who’s planning a New York production of “I’ll Call You” in partnership with Sterling Noel, will handle publicity for the upcoming season at the Cape May (N.J.) Playhouse. The barn will be operated by Thomas White and Reid Perry. Wynne Miller will appear as Daisy Mae in the Sacandaga (N.Y.) Summer Theatre production of So They Say Iongh and Edward Byron Smith, j she played the role during the A collection of oils and paintings i latter part of the musical’s Broad- by Benjamin Klinger is being ex¬ hibited in the coffee lounge of the Gate Theatre, N.Y., where “Hel- oise” is now in its sixth month. Hermit Bloomgarden is chairman of this year’s Mary MacArthur Memorial Fund appeal. Irving Strouse, head of the Stage and Arena Guild of Amer¬ ica, Inc., has optioned George Pat¬ rick Welsh’s “Appointment in Judea” for off-Broadway produc¬ tion next October. Robert cMay- berry will direct. Frederick Brisson has acquired all rights to “The Clubwoman,” a new r play being written by Edward Chodorov. The Theatre Guild is planning on reopening “A Party With Betty Comden and Adolph Green” at an undesignated Broadway theatre April 16. Nathaniel Banks’ “Season of Choke” is slated for an April 13 opening at the Barbizon-Plaza Theatre, N.Y., under the produc¬ tion auspicies of Charles Bowden, Richard Barr and H. Ridgely Bul¬ lock Jr. The producing team is also planning an off-Broadway pro¬ duction of “Valerie Bettis’ Dance Theatre” for a mid-April opening. “Season,” which Bowden will direct, will costar Betsy von Furstenberg and Douglas Watson. Eldon Elder is scenic designer of the Banks play. George Abbott will direct “Once Upon a Mattress,” a musical slated for a May 12 opening at the Phoenix Theatre, N.Y. The tuner, which was presented as a one-act musical, “The Princess and the Pea,” in Tamiment, Pa., last sum¬ mer, has a book by Dean Fuller, Marshall Barer and Jay Thompson, lyrics by Barer and music by Mary Rodgers, daughter of Richard Rodgers. The musical will be presented by Phoenix operators T. Edward Hambleton and Norris Houghton in. partnership with scene designers William and Jean Eckart, “End of the Day,” adapted by Howard Richardson and Frances Goforth from the French film of the same name by Julien Duvivier and Charles Spaak, is planned for Broadway production next season by Gene Frankel, currently repre¬ sented off-Broadway as director and co-producer of “An Enemy of the People.” “The Jew r el Box,” by Ed Kamarck, Professor of Drama at the U. of Wisconsin, is planned for Broadway production next sea¬ son by Franchot Productions. The play is based on the life of archi¬ tect Louis Sullivan, who died in 1924. Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee have signed contracts with Harry L. Golden giving them the greenlight to proceed with their legit adaptation of Golden’s best¬ seller, “Only in America.” Costumes for the forthcoming Alan Jay Lerner-Frederick Loewe musical, “The Once and Future King,” will be designed by Gilbert Adrian. Peggy Mann’s adaptation of her novel, “A Room in Paris,” is planned for Broadway production next season by Alfred de Liagre Jr. “Innocent in Hell, by Andrew Rosenthal, is planned for London production late this spring by Eugene Paul. The Library of The Players, the Gramercy Park, N.Y., club, founded in 1888 by Edwin Booth, has been opened to writers and scholars on application. A charter has been granted by the Board of Regents “to establish and maintain for the use of the public a library devoted to the advancement of the arts in general and the drama in particu¬ lar.” Pat Carroll is in charge of the library, which last year was named the Walter Hampden Memo¬ rial Library in honor of the club’s fourth ^resident, who died June 11, 1955. The library contains about 15.000 books, over 2,000 letters and numerous playbills and photographs. The Connecticut Univ.. Summer Theatre. Storrs, Conn., will launch and eight-week non-Equity season June 14, with David C. Phillips as production head. Helen Gallarrher will appear as Ado Annie in F 'win Lester’s Civic Light Opera Co. production of “Oklahoma,” skedded for an 11- wav run. Michael Pollock will be produc¬ er-director this summer for the Casa Manana, which opens its musical stock season June 8 with “Wonderful Town.”'? Subsequent two-week bookings ; will include “Where’s Charley?,” i “Silk Stock¬ ings,” ‘The King and I,” “The Student Prince” and “Annie Get Your Gun.” n Robert K. Adams^, formerly as¬ sociated with the musical tent at Flint, Mich., will be co-producer this season with Walter and Vir¬ ginia Davis at the Lyric Circus Light Opera Assn., at Skaneateles, N.Y. The tent was formerly* called the Finger Lakes Lyric Circus. The season opens June 23 with, “Say, Darling.” Veronica Lake will tour the strawhat cirquit in a Stanley Phil¬ lips package of “Fair Game.” Tom Brennan, who’.s been asso¬ ciated with the Williamstown (Mass.) Summer Theatre since 1955, will be associate director, of the operation. Derek Salberg, managing direc¬ tor of the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham, and J. Ainslie Millar, of Glasgow, have been named di¬ rectors of the Sadler’s Wells Trust, together with Edric Cundell, prin¬ cipal of the Guildhall School of Music, and Evert Barger. “A human being with those capabilities is an adventure and a hope. All literature, all civilisation comes out of him.”—Archibald MacLeish, describing the title character in his play, “J. B.,” as quoted by Don Ross, in the N. Y. Herald Tribune. “Always I gazed outward at the world, not inward upon myself. Someone I knew or observed w'as to. become my bridge in a character I would portray. I’ve been too shy to use my own person. Maybe I don’t have the courage to face myself. Maybe I don’t want to seek inside myself too much. It embarrasses me to see a person picking away at himself like a monkey picking fleas. I do it, in my mind, to others all the time, but I just can’t bear doing it to myself.”— Helen Hayes in N.Y. Times Sunday Magazine. “By that time Charlie MacArthur and I had been married for some time. I had been to Hollyw'ood with him, had seen a talented writer create scripts and had heard actors—as was the custom not only with Charlie’s films but anyone’s—say, ‘I don’t feel that line, it doesn’t feel right for me.’ And the script would be torn apart. Instead of saying, ‘That’s the line; the character feels that line; now I’ve got to make my¬ self feel it,’ the trend was, ‘That character's got to say what I can feel like saying.”—Miss Hayes, in the same article. “All I can say on behalf of the somewhat romanticized prohibition days is that it was more fun drinking then."—Richard Watts Jr., drama critic of N.Y. Post. “The moral of the whole tiling is don’t talk to an author. You’ve got to watch what you say to them. It might be used against you. Authors are treacherous people. They have a different ethic. In some other field it niight be called by some bad name.”—Budd Schulberg, co-adaptor of “The Disenchanted,” based on his novel of the same name, as quoted by Don Ross, in the N.Y. Herald Tribune. Casting News Continued from page 88 Giffert. Submit photo and resume for consideration. Nat Greenblatt (524 W. 57th St.). Dela McCarthy Assoc., 515 Mad¬ ison Ave. Casting. Colin D’Arcy. Submit photo and resume for con¬ sideration. Grey Advertising, 430 Park Ave. Casting. Jim Kaye. Submit photo ,and resume by mail only. Huntington Hartford Agency, 18 E. 48th St.; casting director, Mar¬ shal Migatz. Auditioning by ap¬ pointment; applicants mail after March 10, photo and resume. “I,” filmed on'location — CBS; producer. Gilbert Ralston; casting through Marc Merson: address by mail only, Barbara Tuck, CBS, 524 W. 57th St. Available parts: un¬ usual types, interesting faces, good physical conditions, will consider applicants having had odd occupa¬ tions. Submit photo and resume. J. Walter Thompson ad agency, 420 Lexington Ave.; casting direc¬ tor, Evelyn Peirce. Commercials only; cast from file; application for appointment, photo and resume by mail. Kastor, Hilton, Chesley, Clifford & Atherton ad agency, 420 Lexing¬ ton Ave. Casting, Richard King. Mail photo and resume. “Lamp Unto My Fe<tt,” religious drama, CBS; producer. Don Keller- man; director, James MacAllen. Submit photo and resume for con¬ sideration. Nat Greenblatt (524 W. 57th St.). Lawrence Welk show (Plymouth Motors), ABC-TV — Seeking teen¬ age vocal and instrumental per- pormers for guest.appearances or as permanent band raembersi Sub¬ mit disk or tape uume-recorded acceptable) of ■ wellknown pop or standard numbers, plus recent photo, short biographical summary. Address Plymouth Show, ABC Studio, Hollywood, or 2623 Santa Monica blvd., Santa Monica. “Look Up & Live,” religious- dramatic, CBS. Producer, Jack Kuney; casting, Marc Merson. 524 W. 57th St. Casting from files. Mail photo and resume. N. W, Ayer & Sons, Inc., ad agency, PL 7-5700; casting direc¬ tor, Guy Wallase. Casting for Breck Shampoo, available parts for pretty natural blondes or femmes with light red or light brown hair, about shoulder length or there¬ abouts. Phone for appointment. National Screen Service, 1600 Broadway. Casting, Carl Carbone. Submit photo and composite for consideration. North Advertising, 6 E. 45th St. Casting Frank Higgins. Cast from files for the Toni commercials. Pre¬ fer models with good hair. Mail photo and resume for considera¬ tion. Reach, r.IcCiir.tlon & Co., 505 Pu h Ave.:^- iug, Esther Latterell. Photo and resume accepted via I m addicted to drink. In the part of Dublin I come from it’s no dis¬ grace to get drunk. It s an achievement.”—Brendan Behan, author of the drama, “The Quare Fellow,” as quoted by Time mag. “Being known as Elvis Presley’s girl friend is no way to get to be a serious actress.”—Dolores Hart, ingenue-lead of “The Pleasure of His Company,” as quoted by Dick K leiner in the N.Y. World-Telegram. mail only for commercials; boys, girls; middleaged and elderly men and women; also young and mature women for shampoo commercials. Schwartz & Luskin' agency, 15 E. 48th St., N.Y. Photo and resume of 8-year-old boys and girls ac¬ cepted by mail for future com¬ mercials. “Stakeout,” 36 half-hour films, to be shot on location in Florida. Producer, Ben Berenberg. There may be possibilities for performer resident in or going to Florida. .Contact Don Hershey, c/o Screen Gems, N.Y., PL 1-4432 for casting contact and wiiere on location. , . . _ “Swing Into Spring.” Sponsor, | tress > respectively. Texaco; choreographer, Matt Mat- 1 tox. Equity call for singers March 23 at 10 a.m.-l p.m. and 2-6 p.m. at the Nola Studios, Steinway Hall, 113 W. 57th St., N. Y. Equity call for dancers 20-35, March 25: femme, at 10 a.m.-l p.m.; male, 2-6 p.m., same address. To be tele¬ vised April 10. “The Verdict Is Yours,” unre¬ hearsed courtroom dramas. CBS; producer, Eugene Burr; director, Byron Paul; casting contact, Liam Bunn, CBS, 524 W. 57th St. (do not phone). No open casting; all done |-from files. Submit photo and res¬ ume for consideration. Milwaukee with considerable local sympathy, maintaining his pledge not to discuss the case. Members of the committee yielded to pres¬ sure of questioning from reporters, however, and charged that the managing director had been guilty of over-serious play selections, re¬ jection of Edward Everett Horton, a Milwaukee favorite, and the use of his wife in roles where her German accent was wrong. Both Mangums are returning to Europe in the near future. They worked in Italy, Turkey and Ger¬ many last year as director and ac- Leslie Howard Milwaukee Stock — Continued from page 89 as Mel Bartell, a radio station opera¬ tor, Mrs. Leonard Markson and Mrs. John Markson, cousins-in- law, both married to local doctors. Exact nature of friction is a matter of speculation locally. “Visit To A Small Planet,” starring Eddie Mayehof, opened Jan. 12. John Beal followed in Horton Foote’s “The Chase”, then Nancy Coleman in “The Country Girl”. The fourth vehicle was “My Three Angels”, with John Car- radine. Then came the first tryout of a new play, Milwaukee’s first in a generation, the current “Last Days of A Young Man”, by James Andrews, starring Vicki Cum¬ mings. Milwaukee seems divided be¬ tween partisans of the committee and the managing director. Mrs. Leonard Markson is believed to be a key factor, making a point of meeting stars at the airport, hous¬ ing them during their stay and allowing use of her drawing room for rehearsals when the theatre, nearer town, is not available. By contract, Mangum bad artistic approval of scripts and players, but was given a directive at a March 1 meeting which led later to a break, though he accepted the ultimatum that he accept Mrs. Markson as an aide. Mrs. Markson was against selection of “The Rope Dancers,” originally set for Miss Mundy, and the show was cancelled, the actress agreeing to learn “The Rainmaker” as a replacement. The male lead refused to switch and had to be paid off under Equity rules. Mangum, whose arena theatre experiences . include Washington, j___ Honolulu and other contracts, left | able popularity. Continued from page 90 both here and abroad; and while his daughter’s recap is understand¬ ably sentimental, she also reflects with commendable honesty the ups and downs of the star’s career. Born Leslie Howard Stainer in London in 1893, the actor was in¬ terested in theatre and writing from an early age. He served as an, English cavalry officer in World War I, after which he was engaged for the male lead in a touring com¬ pany of “Peg O’ My Heart.” He soon gained attention in the Lon¬ don production of “Mr. Pirn Passes By,” and by 1920, with several plays and films to his credit, he was in New York to act in “Just Suppose.” His Broadway appearance in “Outward Bound” (1924) was fol¬ lowed with “The Green Hat” 0925) with Katharine Cornell, and “Her Cardboard Lbver” with Jeanne Eagels (1927). He starred in both stage and screen versions of "Berkeley Square,” “Petrified Forrest,” and “Animal Kingdom.” “Of Human Bondage* and “Scarlet Pimpernel” were two of his out¬ standing pix. In 1936, in New York and on tour,, he essayed an elabor¬ ate production of “Hamlet.” How¬ ard wrote one reasonably success¬ ful play, “Murray Hill,” also done as “Elisabeth Steps Out” (1928). Tome contains a devoted ac¬ count of a close-knit, essentially “non-theatrical” family. It is a labor of love and a worthy addi¬ tion to penetrating studies of show biz stars. It is illustrated with stills and private photos, and appears at a time when Howard’s films are seen for the first time by a new generation on video. Book will give strength to the suggestion, often advanced since Howard’s death, that his son should enact a biopic of the actor's life. Ronald Howard is suited to the role; but Leslie Howard's life was qot fraught with the “dramatics” that make for lively film fare. Pro¬ fessionally* and privately, he was a steady, reliable citizen, and these are facts properly stressed by his daughter. Nostalgic and well-paced, this volume should acquire conslder- Rodo.