Boxoffice-11.11.1950

. . . Pausing
. . David
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Dorothy Lamour Gets Role
In DeMille Circus Film
You can call her "Iron Jaw" Lamour now
Dorothy, that is. She's been signed by Producer-Director
Cecil B. DeMille to portray
a trapeze performer who hangs by her teeth
. . . Gene
in his forthcoming entry for Paramount,
"The Greatest Show on Earth"
Autry and Smiley Burnette will be reunited
for the first time in eight years on Autry's
next Columbia release, "Whirlwind." Burnette.
who supplies the comedy in the Charles
"Durango Kid" Starrett westerns at Columbia,
will take the place of Autry's regular
comic, Pat Buttram. in the one picture
Buttram having been forced out of action
temporarily as the result of injuries received
when he was working in a video picture a
Robert Lord's Santana
month or so ago . . .
Productions borrowed actress Marta Toren
from U-I to co-star with Humphrey Bogart
in "Sirocco," the outfit's next for Columbia
Topline roles in MGM's "Rich,
release . . .
Young and Pretty," starring Jane Powell,
went to Wendell Corey, Una Merkel and
Marjorie Main.
Only Three Story Sales
Recorded During Week
Things continued to look tough, mighty
tough, for that segment of the film colony
which depends upon the sale of literary properties
to the studios for the wherewithal to
keep their swimming pools filled and their
sports cars running. The typewriter brigade
and their agents could muster up no better
than three .«ales during the period. To 20th
Century-Fox, as a vehicle for Jeanne Crain
Quimby's Pact Renewed;
25 Years With MGM
Twenty-seven years in the short subjects
field—the last 25 of them with
MGM—is the record
set by Fred C.
Quimby, head of
the Culver City
studio's shorts department
and producer
of the company's
cartoons.
Quimby, Just
signed to a new
term contract,
joined Leo a quarter
of a century
ago to organize its
then new short
.subjects department.
He began his career
in the field with Pathe in 1913 after
gaining his early show business experience
as a theatre owner in Missoula,
Mont.
He has accepted six Academy Oscars
for his organization during the past ten
.years.
Fred C. Quimby
By
IVAN SPEAR
. . . "College Days," an
and Mitzi Gaynor, went "The Loud Red
Patrick," a novel of high school life by Ruth
McKenney. It will be produced by Jules Buck
amid his activities as a nightclub
impresario, Herman Hover dashed out
an original "Gestapo," and peddled the yarn
to Lippert Productions. It's concerned with
postwar Germany
original by Richard English, was purchased
by Warner Bros., where Louis F. Edelman
has been assigned as the producer.
Film Stars Entertain GIs
At California Air Base
With a minimum of fanfare and a maximum
of efficiency filmdom has been shouldering
its share, and more, of the burden
of boosting the morale of Uncle Sam's armed
forces now involved in the Korean conflict.
"Operation Starlift," sponsored by the
Hollywood Coordinating Committee, landed no
less than 74 film players at the Fairfield
Suisun air base in northern California during
October to comfort wounded GIs returning
from Korea and cheer departing replacements.
Thirteen units of from one to ten personalities
visited the giant base, which serves
as a combined evacuation hospital and staging
area, the HCC reported. Stars played to
wounded who four days earlier had been
fighting on the Korean front—in some cases
appearing before troops who had flown out
from the base less than three weeks before.
Players began their "Operation Starhft"
appearances in mid-September as soon as
airplane transportation could be arranged by
the U.S. air force. Trips will be continued at
the present rate of approximately two a week
"as long as they are needed," the HCC said.
In addition to the Fairfield-Suisun appearance,
17 other film entertainers have journeyed
to Camp Cooke and the Victorville air
base.
Video Producer Is Signed
For Wald-Krasna Film
While the growing TV medium continues
to attract motion picture technical and creative
names, the situation periodically re-
. . . Charles
verses itself when a video personality is
lured into the moviemaking field. A recent
case in point is the signing by Producers
Jerry Wald and Norman Krasna of Marc
Daniels to function as associate producer
on "Girls Wanted." Among other TV assignments,
Daniels directed the "Ford Television
Theatre" for two years
Marquis Warren, author and scenarist, will
make his debut as a director on Lippert's
upcoming "Little Big Horn." He steps into
the spot vacated by Harold Shumate, forced
to withdraw becau.se of a conflicting commitment
Twentieth-Fox handed the associate
. . . producer chores on "The Silver 'Whi.stle,"
forthcoming Clifton Webb starrer, to
Andre Hakim . Butler and William
Jacobs were handed the directorial and production
reins, respectively, on Warners'
"Painting the Clouds With Sunshine" . . .
Edward H. Knopf, MGM producer and writer,
will try his hand at the megaphone for the
Disney TV Debut Set
For Christmas Day
To the growing list of motion picture
brass that opines video can be made a
"vital medium" for the exploitation of
movies has been added the name of Walt
Disney. The cartoon producer has closed
a deal for his own TV debut on Christmas
day in an hour-long program.
Disney's television bow will be made on
film—combining his own pen-and-ink
characters with the talents of Edgar
Bergen and Charlie McCarthy in "One
Hour in Wonderland," which will be
beamed simultaneously on Christmas afternoon
in all television areas reached
by the NBC network—a total of 62 stations.
The Disney cartoon characters will recreate
scenes from his past productions
and, in addition—as a plug for motion
picture attendance—will present a trailer
of his next feature-length animated subject,
"Alice in Wonderland," due for release
in 1951 by RKO Radio.
People will always want to go to the
theatre, Disney declared. Television wiU
not kill this desire any more than did
radio. His Christmas day TV appearance,
he said, is an "experimental effort
to reach millions of people who might
otherwise never see our motion pictures."
The creator of Mickey Mouse, Donald
Duck and other celluloid immortals
added:
"I've always felt a keen dissatisfaction
over the fact that out of 150,000,000 people
in America, only about 20,000,000 ever
see even the greatest of our films. I'm
hoping that by taking the American people
behind the scenes, in our studios, to
meet our characters and see how oiur
pictures are made, we will gain millions
of new friends and theatre patrons."
Along with Disney himself, who will be
facing TV cameras for the first time,
will be Mickey, Donald, Pluto, Goofy,
Snow White, the Seven Dwarfs and
others. Real-life characters set for the
show include Bobby Driscoll, who starred
in Disney's "Treasure Island," and Kathryn
Beaumont, the voice of "Alice" in
"Alice in Wonderland."
The TV show is under the sponsorship
of Coca-Cola, which is participating in
an exploitation campaign on behalf of
"Alice."
first time on "The Law and Lady Loverly,"
next Greer Garson starring vehicle . . .
Frederick de Cordova drew the megging assignment
on U-I's "Little Egypt."
Warners Promotes Weisbart
To Full Producer Status
Promotion from within caught up with
David Weisbart. former film editor who was
boosted recently to an assistant producership.
W'hen Warners elevated him to a full producer
status. His fli-st assignment under the new
title has not yet been made. Meantime the
Burbank studio lost one producer-writer when
Everett Freeman, winding up a one-year
tenure, checked off the lot. He has just
completed "Jim Thorpe— All American" for
the studio.
32 BOXOFFICE :: November 11, 1950