Professional Documents
Culture Documents
G Michael Novel at The New York World 1964 - As Reported by Variety Magazine
G Michael Novel at The New York World 1964 - As Reported by Variety Magazine
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Vol. 232 No. 8 NEW YORKt WEDNESDA
RE: RELUCTANT R
Verdi -Ia Katharine Dunham Offbeat-
Met Op Debut; $101,108 One-Nile GrOss
BJ' ROBERT J. LANDRY
.Verdi's venerable "Aida" almost
defies change- but choreographer
Katharine Dunham di-d what she
could opening night (Mon.) at the
Met. Sht! introduced into Egypt a
'Cairo-bean' motif of fertility rite
simply by turning the . captured
Ethiopians into Haitians. Other-
wise, for the time being at least,
this is still the one and only Met,
dispensing grand opera' at the old
stand. -SoDn there will be a new
home, a new (second) constantly
touring company and, one may
guess, $100 opening nights at Lin-
coln Center. Suffice that at the
present $50 ad!Dission the Met
gathered $101,108 on the 1963
l!remiere, again a new record one-
night gross. Thus begins the 79th
season. It was the 474th Met pre-
sentation q_f "Aida," the alltinie
fave work of the repertory:
Unchallenged as the dressiest of
all Manhattan opening nights,
only place where critics may
viewed tn tails, this was the eadi-
est-ever (Oct. 14) Met premiere
and it fell in Indian summer with
Sherry's and the - always-packed
foyers wa[m,. General man-
ager Rudolf Bing, quick with the
hot coffee on cold days,
(Continued on page 60>
London, Oct. 15.
Sim taneous television .rep rl-
Jng of the 1964 Olympic sports
from Tokyo to B itain via satel-
lites is still on the cards, aecordlng
to Hugh Carleton Greene, direc-
- tor-general of the BBC.
- If it could be accomplis ed it
--------------------------
Cinematic Pigmentation
Hollywqod, Oct. 15.
Now it's not a matter of
Negro actors trying to wangle
a job on the screen, but how
dark they are!
Actress Mit t i e. Lawrence,
appearing, on Paul C o a t e a'
KTTV show last .week, aid
with a smile: "As
am, casting
said to me rAlePr>tJ,..r .,,.,e,wlmt
someone a
role'!"
W . GERI\f!l 'S NEWEST
NOVELTY: ROBOT ORCH
wo.uld have to be . on a limited
scale, say just a few minutes a day,
Carleton Greene explained. +nd
they would have to use at least
two satellites, one on ltbe West
Coast of America taking the trans-
mission from Japan, which, in turn, Hannover, oct.
would bounce the picture to an- Latest musical gimmick to pop
other which w JUld then l>eam it up in a night locale here is-a
to Europe. _ robot music orchestra.
It was just over two years ago Three life-sized mechanical man-
that the BBC's d.g. indieateli o sters P.our out every kind of music
:VARIETY that such a project <was from the Twist to classics, with
- being studied by technical experts. complete action to accompany the
His statement, at the time, was tune--the trumpeter or the saxo-
made before the launching of Tel- phonist stand up to their solos,
star, when simultaneous broadcast- and the three figures have a
fng across the Atlantic was still "raq,ge" of seven instruments.
a tv scientist's dream. His sugges- The robot orchestra, invention
tion in 1961 was pooh-poohed in of a Dutch engineer, operates elec-
many quarters, but now the break- trically and is entertaining . the
through has been accomplished, it guests at the Maschsee Guesthouse
ia being more seriously regarded. here. \.
It will be some months, however, Cost of the musical novelty is
before BBC technical experts Will around $20,000, with the accom-
be able to say possitively whether panying stereo equiRment to-
the direct..from-Tok-yQ transmis- out the sounds. Next robot orch
sions can be achieved fn time for is due to be installed shortly in . a
t_he Olfmpics. - - ; .:. ... .
OZONERS, -
STI
.Egypt Not
Anti-Semitic Now;
W anna Make Pix
Hollywood, Oct. 15.
Egypt, which banned Jew-
ish actors and refused to play cer-
tain American films, no longer Js
anti-Semitic, according to George
Nader, just _returned from Cairo,
where, he reported, the Egyptian
government is "eager to attract
American coproduction."
rom Brit.;
Alarmed
way, a growing source of irritation
among members of Actors Equity
during the last few seaS:ons, Is
reacHing explosive proportions. Of
the 12 new shows which have
opened on Broadway thus far this
season, six . were imported from
England and in most cases so
were the casta. Consequently, it's
not surprising that members of
Actors Equity votett 2il7 to 3 at
the union's .quarterly meeting- last
Friday (11) to ask the U.S. Attor-
ney General to "curtail indiscrim-
inate issuance" of work permits to
British actors.
The membership resolution di-
rects the Equity council to appoint
a delegation to meet with Wash-
o1flclals in an e11ort to
remedy what is regarded as "an
alarming situatiOn." Equity con-
tends that the Immigration & Nat-
uralization Service generally ig-
nores its recommendations con-
cerning the granting of work per-
mits to foreign actors. On the
other hand, the union states that
the British government closely fol-
lows recommendations made by
British Equity.
Dick Moore, editor of Equity,
the union's publication, and press
(Continued on page 58)
"There is no objection with re-
gard to race, creed,- color or re- 'JENNJE' B.n. POTENTIAL
ligion for filming by American U
companies in Egypt," he said. CAN HJT PEAK $
92
,
792
Swftch .in attitude has come,
actor asserted, because "they are The . potential weekly capacity
interested in furthering the
industry To this n.,,,r ...... -. gross on "Jennie," the Mary Mar-
only requirements in <:UIIJnrulmLwn tin-starrer opening to morrow
deals are script aoorclvaL night (Thurs.) at the Majestic, is
crew to be agreed upon one of the biggest in Broadway
and proceeds to be pro-rata. history. It's $92,792 with a max-
- Only restriction voiced to him imum of 40 standees each per-
by the-"government during his stay formance. Without standees the
there was in cases of stories that potential weekly take at the 1 655-
are Arab Republic," seater is $91,714. '
he noted. The tuner is scaled to a top o.f
Actor said he is aecudng deal $9.60 evenings, $6.25 Saturday
with Egyptian GeneraJ Co. for In- matinees an<\ -$5.70 Wednesday
. _ (Cg,gtJnue4 on 1') .mat1pe,Ja. ..... _ ..
PRICE
35'
..._ .
64 PAGES
RM-
Oct. 15.
symbol (a
"c" in a circle) seen on the front
of most books stirred up a
nest of objections at the
ribbon copyright revision
meet here. -
The symbol denotes -notice of .
copyright but for a large group of
publis)lers and authors lt spelled
trouble.
.Under the U. S. Copyright Of- -
fice proposal a omis-
sion of the notice would invalidate
copyright protection of the work.
Franklin Waldheim of Walt Dis-
ney Productions led off the talk
with a criticizing the pro-
posal ana before long a bandwagon
was rolling.
Jumping on were Julian T. Abeles
o{ .the Music Publishers Protective
Assn. Inc., Philip Wattenberg of_
the Music Publishers Assn., Leon
Kelman of .the American Guild of
Authors and Composers, Irwin
Karp o! the Authors League of
America, Horace Manges of the
American Book Publishers Coun-
cil and Alfred Wasserstrom of the
Magazine Publishers Assn.
Defending mandatory notice
were Robert Cahill of the Nation-
al Assn. of Ronald
Kaiser of CBS and Harry Rosen-
field of Public Affairs Press.
The anti-notice group consider-
ed it another stumbling block in
gaining full copyright protection.
The authors and publishers ar-
gued that notice has be.en peculiar
to American copyright law and
suggested junking to provision to
get in step with Europe.
The Copyright Office averred
the is true. Notice, a
l]. s. creatiOn, Js now slipping into
copyright law in Europe, La-
(Continued on page 19)
Govt. Imposing Cultural
Tastes on The People?
NAB Lobbyist Says J es
Washington, OCt. 15.
National Association of Broad-
casters lobbyist Paul Comstock
charged the Federal Communi-
Commission with imposing
the Government's cultural tastes
o,n citi1:ens. _ .
He told the Alabama Broadcast-
ers Assn. in Tuscaloosa, "There Is .
a definite distinction between the
role of Government and of the. in-
dividual conscience in our society.'
"The issue has been raised," he
said, "by the Government's efforts
to define the fairness doctrine, its
attempts to place artificial limits
upon commercial__time, and its de-
sire to-change 'the vast wasteland
of entertainment" into 'a verdant
vineyard of culture and educa-
tion.' -
"How many ilteps do we take
along this road before we abdicate
our integrity .-; eitizens?" Com-
asked. ,;__
.
48 VAIJDEVILUI Wednesday, Oeiohr 16, 1963
Valachi Vague on Mob Cafes, Jokes;