MPAA

WNTERESTING and significant
beyond its
newsworthiness is the announcement that
Warner Bros, has signed Comedian Milton
Berle to a film contract calling for him to
star in at least one feature, with options for
additional pictures. Berle's first for the outfit,
to be made this summer, will be "Always
Leave Them Laughing," the productional
chore on which has been assigned to Jerry
Wald.
Reportedly Warners bagged Berle after
winning a heated race with several other
film-making outfits that also were bidding
to sign the actor to a picture pact.
And thus is launched the first experiment
to determine whether or not the rapidly growing
television field will be fertUe and profitable
recruiting ground for motion picture
talent.
In which connection, industry railbirds are
advancing two opinions, the usual pro and
con, of course.
The doubters hold that it is the same
Milton Berle who had a try at screen acting
throughout the early •40s when he was featured
in nearly a dozen pictures (RKO Radio
and 20th Century-Fox) and who subsequently
departed Hollywood because there was no
longer a call for his services before its
cameras and presumably because the magi
of production doubted his worth as a boxoffice
draw. These skeptics point out, further,
that the raiding of radio—when that medium
of entertainment was at its zenith—for names
that were top-drawer therein brought many
an ambitious picture-making venture to an
unhappy and unprofitable fate. Examples:
Lum and Abner, Bums and Allen, Fred Allen,
Henry Morgan, Jack Benny, Fibber Mc-
Gee and Molly, etc., ad infinitum. The unbelievers
argue also that such successful ones
as Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Red Skelton
are the exceptions that prove the rule, that
they always have been just as much a part
of the screen as of the airways, sort of
chlcken-or-egg-came-first personalities whose
popularity as film stars made them ether
topliners rather than vice versa.
Furthermore, the diehards contend, an
analysis of the records down through the
years establishes beyond argument that a
dominant percentage of film luminaries who
always have been and still are reliable marquee
magic are the personalities who were
discovered and developed for the screen; that
theft- composite position as concerns both
popularity and the profits from their pictui-es
rarely has been seriously challenged by imports
from other media—stage, radio, opera,
sports or what have you?
There is no reason to think, the doubting
Thomases say, that television will be any different:
and they submit additionally that
turning to teevee for names, most especially
names that earlier had established their ineffectualness
in films, is a grasping-at-straws
gesture. It is, they opine, a departure from
the fundamental, solid-showmanship practices
which have made motion pictures
history's alltime most popular source of mass
entertainment and can keep them in that
position if wisely and unwaveringly pursued.
On the pro side, the briefs are weighted
with comparably obvious items. There it is
argued that video definitely is different because
its visual factor makes it more closely
related to films than is any other instrument
of show business: that there is bound to be
a strong liaison between the two: and that
an interchange of talent is miavoidable and
will work for the best interests of both.
Such being the case, the advocates maintain,
Berle is the hottest thing in today's entertainment
world because he is undisputedly
the most popular personage on television and
because of the widespread publicity he currently
and resultantly is being accorded^
as highlighted by the liberal space recently
devoted to him by such publications as Time
and Newsweek.
How, then, they ask, can a picture staiTing
him be anything but a smash hit?
Time and the turnstile reports on the
Warners' first Berle starrer will determine
which school of thought is right.
In the meantime, the industry must admire
and thank the Burbank brass for supplying
the fortitude, the laboratory and the considerable
wherewithal to dissect the motion
picture-television guinea pig— and none will
gainsay that they bought the best specimen
the market could provide.
Hollywood's public relations doghouse
never known to want for tenants—currently
seems to be sporting a "For Ladies Only" sign.
There's the deplorable and costly situation at
mighty Metro, where production on "Annie
Get Your Gun" had to be stopped because
studio executives found it necessary to
suspend Judy Garland when she failed to
show up for work one morning, and for hinted
reasons which gave the gossip columnists a
field day. Witness, too, another suspendee,
Rita Hayworth, and her pre-marital adventures
with Aly Khan. And—the topper—the
space devoted to Ingrid Bergman, heretofore
assumed to be the epitome of filmdom's
gentility and conventionality, and the reports
that she will divorce her husband and marry
her Italian producer, Roberto Rossellini.
Come, boys—you Mitchums, Flynns and
Tierneys—are you going to stand idly by and
allow the weaker sex to steal your show?
"Johnny Holiday" iR. W. Alcorn Productions).
"Johnny Allegro" (Columbia).
"Johnny Belinda" i Warners).
"John Loves Mary" (Warners).
And, a few years ago, "Johnny Eager"
(MGM).
Wonder what ever became of Manny, Moe
and Jack?
MGM Compiles Best
Scenes of 25 Years
HOLLYWOOD—"Some of the Best," a
four-reeler commemorating MGM's silver anniversary,
has been completed under supervision
of Frank Whitbeck. studio advertising
executive, and will have its initial screening
at the June 1 western premiere of "The
Stratton Story" at the Egyptian Theatre
here.
Narrated by Lionel Barrymore. "Some of
the Best" is a compilation of clips from the
25 pictures considered the studio's best, each
year, for the past quarter-century. The subject
was prepared primarily for exhibition to
newspaper editors, drama critics, educational
groups and similar organizations. It was compiled
by Herman Hoffman and edited by
Laurie Vejar.
Scenes therein are from 'The Big Parade,"
1924: "The Merry Widow," 1925: "Flesh and
the Devil," 1926: "Ben-Hur," 1927; "Tell It
to the Marines," 1928; "Broadway Melody,"
1929; "Min and Bill," 1930; "Ti-ader Horn,"
1931; "Grand Hotel," 1932; "Tugboat Annie,"
1933: "Dinner at Eight," 1934; "Mutiny on
the Bounty," 1935; "San Francisco," 1936:
"The Good Earth," 1937; "Boys Town," 1938;
"The Wizard of Oz," 1939; "Boom Town,"
1940: "The Philadelphia Story" 1941; "Mrs.
Miniver," 1942; "Random Harvest," 1943;
"National Velvet," 1944; "Met Me in St.
Louis," 1945; "The Green Years," 1946; "The
Yearling," 1947; and "Easter Parade," 1948.
Charles R. Metzger Dies;
Production Code Official
HOLLYWOOD—Funeral services were to
be held May 28 in Indianapolis for Charles
R. Metzger, 55, member of the staff of the
MPAA's production code administration, who
died at the Wilson sanitarium here May 23.
Metzger had been ill more than a year, following
a stroke.
A former Indiana educator and lawyer, he
joined the production code in 1935 under the
Will Hays regime. Previously he had served
as counsel and director for the Associated
Theatre Owners of Indiana and as director of
Allied States Ass'n of Motion Picture Exhibitors.
Metzger is survived by his mother and
three daughters.
To Law Officers Session
HOLLYWOOD—A group of film luminaries
will make personal appearances June 2 at
the Long Beach auditorium to highlight a
session of the Pacific Coast International
Ass'n of Law Enforcement Officials. Scheduled
for the turn are Mickey Rooney, Jimmy
Durante, Jane Powell, Dan Dailey, George
Murphy, Keenan Wynn, Betty Garrett, Marina
Koshetz, Andre Previn, Marcia Van
Dyke and Rafael Mendez.
'Quo Vadis' Data to UCLA
HOLLYWOOD—Being presented to UCLA
by MGM for permanent exhibit in the university
library is a 3,000-page document on
the life and customs of early Rome. The material,
assembled as the result of a year's
work, was garnered by the studio's research
department in connection with the forthcoming
production of "Quo Vadis."
48 BOXOFFICE :: May 28, 1949