Variety (January 1961)

14 PICTURES Fifty-fifth USRIETY Anniversary January 4, 1961 GOTHAM S NEW FACADE Rockefellers, Uris Bros., Zeckendorf, Hilton, Loew’s (Tisch), Admiral Bergen, 1964 World’s Fair, Lincoln Center Keys To the Shifting Scenes Sentimentalists who shed tears for tiie w-terycar glamor that was Broadway will. it they live long tr ough, perhaps see a redcveloph.i ip. and a building renaissanee v.hkh nu.y more than make up for the t»jn n-iront raucous record s?.o]>-. catchpenny carnival game pmirr*. caL'terias. clothing stores, juice stands and the like. At long if.st both Sth Ave. and 6*.i Atf. or as the late Mayor LaGaardia dubbed it the Avenue a: t'.e Mumioas may lie rehabili¬ tated. Wnat Martin Brck, William K ili'.iN. Arthur Brisbane and Marion Davies couldn’t achieve more than th;rd-of-a-centur\ ago. v. id; their advance-oi'-the-times p ii}. hou-ts west of Sth Ave.. at Columbus Circle, and on Sth Ave., i* nov. Iming consummated by l.oeu’s Larry Tiseii. realty devel¬ op-; r Irving Maidman. the Zecke.ndorfs Webb & Knapp-, the Uris Bro*. and the Rockefellers. 'This doesn’t include the past decade's complete facelift of Park and Madison Aves., with luxury apartments riving way to tax-de¬ ductible GIIQ airconditioned office buildings for Big Business. Not to mention the slowlv-readving Lin¬ coln Square cultural centre; the boom that will *tem from the 1964 N.Y. World's Fair: and the just-an¬ nounced “more glamorous than ever” new Madison Square Garden, with its multiple arenas.* theatre, swimming pool*, icerink etc., as detailed below. Circa 1960 ha* seen the start of perhaps the nio<t dramatic moves to rehabilitate the Times Square adjacencies. Loev.'s is constructing the new 50-story. 2.000-room Amer-, ieana Hotel on the 52d St. and 7th Ave. corner, formerly the site of the Manhattan Storage Ware¬ house. It ha* another blockfront on 8th Ave. bt tween 48th and 49th St*., ter a po*-ibIe motel. The tor-, rner I.oew's Lexington Theatre will house the “.Pit-room Siimmit Hotel. S> m i r x( or Loew site, its s i ( * ■ ;H become a 33 siurv cooperative apartment hou*e » i t theatre chain will < t ^2 ‘ , or annum for 99 < t i t the $30,000 to $’ ' i o ( 1 ‘ ».e profit it derived 1; 1 <■ * r ’ iss Loew 72d St. operation. Extending Rockefeller Center Likv the old New Yorker cartoon about “L.A. City Limits” winding up near an Ala-kan igloo. Rocke¬ feller Center is now sprawling north and wot and ma\ st-m only at Central Park South. When the Zeckendorf*’ ‘‘hole in the ground” that v.a> to be “the tallest hotel in the world” was taken over by the Uris Brothers Building Cerp . fo- an office build¬ ing — it v. ill lie the 43-*tory Men’s IM-hi n Bldg, in tv o years— the Rockefellers lmud with them in thi* pro ?e; f. The Rockefellers and V. e l'ri.-e* a!>o eombined later j;»i ted iy C« nrad Nh Hilton on si* ill another undertaking two bh'dt* furti . r.f‘i th on 6th Avenue c \v« juu of the Americas . bet v. t en fio; :>l*. Fashion Bldg. T’v ex-Zei. kendorf, now the I'ri :Ro; j»e:e!l* r* Fe-kion iJuiid:uc. c >* to hate b'-en the Zeekemmrf IIo' c-t. w ’* new H.i'tship. It wa¬ tt-: t ;•> venture t at Webb K Krapw mment ef ‘ Z” Hotel' h i s : : (’!.•:;• .o (’. Philippe a* b: qa t am: r and genera! con-uiia: * Vo e then Philippe i ad :v ■f :te v , nci g.m. ot the il--* -1 Ce:r::..;d< -*jll anoMmr Ze. ken¬ do • lev and eariv i:i ’61 o.. h. * '* o another *hift, a* an e\ c 1 * *r Ti •< Hotel*. • Ineidmita iy. t > make room lor the proP d Z cken'oii; i pew-Uri* si?;'* (m nth Ave. and 51*t St.. Toots Shor ilnuilv >old his landmark, at 51 W. 51 5T.5':0.0U9 and fourd himself “ou. oi action” ior almost two year* unt I hi* pre*en^We*t 52d St. new n.c'i*on Shor's -next to “21”> was fin ely located.1 c Further adding to the new facade of Gotham will be the CBS B’dg. o>< 6: Ii Ave. lrom 52d-53d St. east side of the Avenue of the Americas, to give it the formal tag'*, and of By ABEL GREEN course the new Time-Life Bldg, op¬ posite Radio City Music Hall, 'backs into the old Roxy Theatre, on ground that included the long¬ time Roxy parking lot. The Roxy, the once proud “cathe¬ dral of the cinema," meantime has become another building casualty. It is being demolished for still an¬ other Times Square office struc¬ ture. For a time the Roxy was propcsed as a l.OUO-room wing addi-' lion to the adjacent Taft Hotel but a New Jersey syndicate bought the theatre and ground for an aireonditioned office building instead. That 38-story hotel, which will now be 45 floors in height, comes under a revised deal for a triplepartnership among the Hilton Ho¬ tels Corp. with the Uris Bros, and the Rockefellers. Hilton now has joined the venture '1' as the op¬ erating partner: -2 permanent financing irom the N. Y. Life In¬ surance Co.: ; 3 1 , enlarged land, in¬ creased from 80.000 to 92.000 square feet: 4'. heightened from 38 to 45 stories, now redesigned so that all are “outside” rooms af¬ fording a skyscraper panorama of New York; and -o' increasing the guest rooms to 2,200 which, inci¬ dentally, because of the added acreage will permit larger rooms per unit than planned heretofore. While it doesn't top the Ameri¬ cana’s 50 stories in height, it does shade the Tisch-Loew project's 2,000 rooms and 2.500-capacity ballroom. Hilton claims the con¬ vention and banquet facilities will permit 4.200 seats at a dinner and more than 5.000 at a meeting. It will have 34 additional private diningrooms and function rooms seating a total of 2,500. Hereto¬ fore. The Hotel New Yorker with it* 2.004 rooms enjoyed “the largest” distinction. New Madison Square Garden Like the Tisches’ Americana, an autolift will permit fully-loaded trucks docking at main exhibit areas, thus eliminating double¬ handling of exhibits. Motorists will not have to come into the main lobby: they can check¬ in within the hotel's 350-car garage and go directly to their rooms while their cars are being parked. This makes the fourth Hilton link in New York — he operates the Wal¬ dorf-Astoria, Savoy Hilton and Statler Hilton — and is the 41st link in the global network of Hil¬ ton Hotels besides the 13 under construction and 15 under contract. Still another keystone Manhattan project is being sparked by hotel¬ ier Rear Admiral John J. Bergen, board chairman of the Hotel Corp. of America -New York's Hotel Plaza is the flagship* as well as chairman of the board of Madison Square Garden Corp. and the Graham-Paige Co., a closed-end invest¬ ment company, besides being prez of the N. Y. Rangers hockey club. This is a new *uper-duper Madi¬ son Square Garden under the um¬ brella of a new corporation to be cailcd the N. Y. Sports & Enter¬ tainment Center ine., a wholly owned subsidiary of Graham-Paiae. v. hi oh v. ill retain the worldfamcd MSG tern, a* and when the proposed new $38.0biU«f;n amusement centre ; i* opened. Thi* will include the en¬ larged “end much: more glamorous | :ie-.” Mauinr Square Garden, two j : mailer arena*, a theatre, an audi¬ ts limm tv*. r»*o;»tirants. two out-1 door -w.ium ivg poo!*, one indoor The Mb*, kept J *( erf t for the n-'ie-e. In be; n vd iou-ly reported a ini:.:., direetlv \\e-‘ oi the pres¬ ent Ga-den nr; !b;,-9?h Ave*.. 50?h5 : *t St. although the N. Y. City tm* garage on 9th Ave. between 53d-54?h St. may also be a partial site. Evaluation of the present MSG is pegged at S8.h0('.000-Si0,000.000. Along with the Lincoln Center redevelopment and the N. Y. World's Fair 1964 believed good tor a second year* these will he the three major facelift* to the new* Gotham look. If Freedomland in The Bronx, ever catches on as “the Disneyland' of the cast” it . would be still another factor). Zeckendorf's Rockcleller Center debacle spares the famed. Hotel Astor grand ballroom, which was proposed for a possible “nevv-style cabaret and legitimate theatre with drinking-dining facilities,” since the Zeckendorfs envisioned its new super de luxe grand ballroom, seat¬ ing 5,000, as not only “knocking off” the Waldorf’s banquet busi¬ ness but being able to absorb that of the Astor as well. Irving Maidman like another stagestruck theatre operator, David J. Cogan, the accountant-producer !*‘A Raisin in the Sun”)-turned theatreowner meantime has the nearest-to-Broadwvay, off-Broadway theatre. It's called The Maidman, on West 42d St., between 9th and 10th Ave., where, also, he recently opened a drive-in hotel, which is more, of the shape of things to come in the constantly changing New York facade. The 1964 N. Y. World’s Fair has also accounted for the 18-month advance on the La Guardia Airport rehabilitation, and general influx of tourists is anticipated. Comes *64. Gotham's hotel and garage space will be at a premium. Continued Diversification This sort of diversification and aggressive, longrange planning where the picture companies’ real¬ ty is concerned is what has given "Wall Street a new and healthier respect for the film industry gen¬ erally and certain showr business entrepreneurs in particular. Barney Balaban set the pace with Paramount^ diversification. Spyros Skouras’ $43,000,000 Webb & Knapp realty deal for a chunk of its BevHills studio is another manifestation. Columbia Pictures sold off part of its Burbank ranch for $1,750,000. Joe Vogel has ex¬ pressed similar plans for the Metro realty in Culver City. The theatre chains converting the sick theatres into healthy rentals from mundane enterprises, be they bowling alley, stores, office sites and the like, is the pattern along the eastern front. As a corollary to the chancing facade of the midtown Park, Madi¬ son, 6th, 7th and 8th Avenues, the weight is in favor of office space. Displaced population, much of it shifted to suburbs, has also shifted niterv, restaurant and tavern cater¬ ing — and has also boomed other new enterprises. The reversal of population, from urban to suburban, has had its ef¬ fects on any number of contiguous businesses. This reverse-traffic is part and parcel of the overall real estate boom that is giving not only New York but the U.S. — and Cana¬ da as well — an overall new facelift. Time will tell if it’s for the better. One thing seems sure — Times Square remains a nondescript, honkeytonk, tawdry environment. Its once famed 42d St. is a blight on the community. West of 7th Ave., on some nights, it is an ugly, perverted, frequently downright dangerous thoroughfare In the late hours. THE MEMORY BIT By JIM BISHOP Jim Bishop ‘EXODUS’ MOMENTUM SANS BALLY BONUSES Hollywood. United Artists ran up the great¬ est advance sale of any pic locally — $132.000^for “Exodus” entirely without the benefit of company’s u*ual television radio billboard bally, which may not set a pattern lisr future openings but neverthelo-* points up the value of a' wellplanned campaign. Only media utilized to advertise opening at the Fox Wilshire, where Otto Preminger production is in for an extended liardtic run — was the publicity campaign which had been progressing since film started shooting in Israel, and local news¬ paper ads. TV. which in recent years has played a potent factor in sounding new pix to the public, will not be used, according to UA, nor will : billboards. Only additional medium i j will be radio, which is now starting this week. J It is like the opening chords of a song. The moment they strike, the same memory comes up every time. It never varies. The people and setting are always the same. If a name is men¬ tioned in table conversation, the same thing happens. One prime memory ! comes to the: surface at j once. It is as : though the; memory filefull of com¬ plex trivia about people and events and songs, sends one up to the conscious mind, hanging onto all the others until asked for more. Mine isn’t a great memory. Sometimes I think it isn’t even a • good one. But what it remembers it does with fidelity. Take a hand = ful of people, one at a time, and I’ll give you the memory that pops to the surface: JACKIE GLEASON: We were passing a birdcage in his apartment and I asked if it was a parakeet. “Somebody gave it to me.” he said, “and this guy says the thing can talk. Let the bird take it from there!” EISENHOWER: We were in his office, talking about a book called “The Day Christ Died.” “When I was a little boy in Abeline. I used to study the bible from cover to cover. I really knew the subject. Then, in the war. I flewT to Jerusa¬ lem and everything seemed small, sort of pushed together. I thought that the Mount of Olives would be a mountain. It’s a hill. Bethle¬ hem is only five miles from Jeru*alem the Gtarden of Gethsemani is only 800 feet from the wall* of the city. Did you get the feeling that it was all kaleidoscoped into a small space?” NIXON: At a cocktail party at Marshall Field's home: “I start off second. Not first. A lot of people try to make me think I’m starting off in front. This isn’t so. There are more Democrats than Republi¬ can*. I need the whole Republican Party — every wing of it— and then I need some independent Demo¬ crats. Otherwise, I can’t win.” KENNEDY: Standing beUde an open car door in Beverly II:!!*. “None of It is going to be ea*y. The nomination is one thing. Get¬ ting elected is quite another. I'm going to fight hard and, I hope, fairly. Mark my word*: on Elec¬ tion Night we’ll be sitting up until all hours tning to find out v. ho got what.” POPE PIUS XII: At Ca*iel Gondolfo, turning to a lady on my left. “You must be very proud of him.” The woman shook her heed. His Holiness had thought thi* woman was my wife. “Oh,” he said. “Excuse. Excuse.” He had iuadverdently married me to Mr<. Thomas Dodd, wife of the Sera' or from Connecticut. ANN SOTHERN: At the PUza Hotel, in New York. “I’m g<,*:r.g tired of working. I ’mean :* I produce m.y own stuff, I <*:-.r >i if. and I’ve got other hn.-irn -e.*ts. Then there’s Ti-h. She'*. 7 6 and when I open the door a ml see some of those rock hi’ roll b — or whatever you call them :th the sideburns and the (::::m..r( e^. I’m scared. I mean 'fane’ " BUDDY HAC’KETT: Sinking to Jack Gleason. “I'm *n make this girl in BronkLn a-.-i won't give me a nod. After a'.!. I'm ju*t a fat kid from 4: .• corner. One night site m< « * e { »; the street and tell* me a * M * : v. Her old lady went to L.»* . \ It’s a time to erv. ye.-* k . f I wanna make thi* InorM 1 < sited a tear. So all of a * M M n I Think of something I .. up into mv nose and pull a hai:.” JACK PAAR: At the Kt • Ri*Biscayne Hotel. Miami: “We do ! this every ChrLtma*. I don’t know j why. ’IVe’re not sentiment;.;*-?' At • lea*t I don’t think we are. Rut ! Miriam and I take one look at the ’ tree and we’re dead. We’re ready , to burst into tears. Why is that? Whatever it i*. we have to get out of the house, and take Randy down here.” FRANK HAGUE: On the phone. . “I just wanted to tell you that I’m quitting politics. For good. No, my , mind is made up. I have never i been beaten twice before. It** curtains. I told Mrs. Hague that I’m getting out for good and I just thought you might like to. know. It’s been a long time. Maybe I stayed around a little too long.” Jayne’s Ideas JAYNE MANSFIELD: “All ray life I wanted to be a star. Not just an actress. A real star. -You know’, with a big house in the hills and lots of grounds and a pink swimming pool with tiger cubs sitting around the edge and. iced champagne. It’s dreamy. I have everything any American girl could hope for. Have you seen Mickey’s pectorals. I mean, really seen them?” PHIL SILVERS: At a rehearsal, took one look at Jackie Gleason, and burst into laughter. “Gleason hasn’t said a word yet. You know why I’m laughing? He thinks funny.” SERGEANT McKEON: At his court martial: “I wish everybody would stop hoping for acquittal. How can I ever get those si c dead kids out of my mind if they acquit me? I never tried to hurt any of them, but if it will get the six of them out of my mind, let the punishment ccme.” KIM NOVAK: In a bungalow at Malibu: "It isn’t easy to tell. You have to know’ a person a little, trust a person. Not many people can understand what it is like to be 14 and have pimples. The boys used to wait for me to show up at highschool, not to make passes, just to laugh.” LIEUT.-GEN. BEN SHRIEVER: At the Missile Research Center in Inglew’ood: “You don’t aim the bird. All missiles must go straight up. It’s the shortest way out of the atmosphere. Once they’re out*ide, they turn toward the target. We have a bird that does its own navigating. It homes in on two stars, thinks its way to the target, and, if antiaircraft fire is heavy, it will bypass the target, turn around, and clobber it from behind.” TALLAHASSEE SHERIFF: At the rape trial. “Your honor, we. have all the people we can handle in this court. We can’t have any more. With your honor’s permis¬ sion. I’m shutting the doors. All the W’hites is downstairs; all the Colored is in the balcony. If that balcony collapses, your honor, we got integration.” WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST JR. At his office in New York: “I don’t care what the old svstem was. We have no policy. Just go out and get the story. Whatever way it falls, that’s the policy. It doesn’t really matter what I think, or even what you think, the story is the most im¬ portant thing in the world and we've got to go out and get it.” ADMIRAL ARLEIG1I BURKE: At the Office of Chief of Naval Operations. “He has got some very good advice on how to wreck his country and wreck ours too. He is net doing anything except to destroy. He :s not trying to build Cuba:, lie’s out to heip the Communi*t Party. lie’s out to bitch up the whole Western Hemisphere. We’re not moving. Not one inch. There are certain thing* you just don’t compromise on. This is one of them.” FRANKIE WESTP1IAL: Eleven years old, (living in a hospital: "Am I dying? I don’t feel like I’m dying. Then why jare mommy and daddy crying? I Peel okay except there’s■something on my 'chest. If the nurse takes it off, I’ll he fine.” It is. as I scid, a ridimhius thpe of i nonwrit. If Sonnour mentions Jack Paar or Frani \\\?u>hal or FAsm'wu'ef: or the. Pope, the same memory comes back each time, the same scithuj. the same words. Once the tjt v?«t has passed, sotne of them would be nice to forget. Both Presleys Dated ~ Honolulu. Elvis Presley is com*, .ing with Elvis Presley during the school kids’ vacation season. Consolidated is first-running “Flaming Star” i20th) at the Hawaii, Kaimuki and Drive-in Theatres. Rival Royal circuit is showing “GI Blues” (Pan on a second-run basis at the Queen theatre, just a block away from Consolidated’s Kaimuki Theatre.