Boxoffice-November.24.1951

New Mary Pickford Suit
In Goldwyn Studio Case
HOLLYWOOD—Another chapter in the
lengthy legal battle between Mary Pickford
and Samuel Goldwyn concerning control and
occupancy of the studios in which the Goldwyn
production unit now headquarters was
written when Miss Pickford filed a $115,000
damage action against the producer in superior
court. She charges Goldwyn with violating
a leasing agreement by allegedly failing
to make repairs to the property.
Miss Pickford owns slightly more than 50
per cent of the real property involved. Goldwyn
and his studio subsidiary, the Formosa
Corp.. own the balance.
Still pending on appeal is a suit filed by
Goldwyn against Miss Pickford demandmg
that the property be sold and its assets distributed.
West: Don Hartman. Paramount supervisor
of production, returned to the studio
after a ten-day trip to New York for home
office conferences. Meantime William Perlberg
planed to San Francisco for huddles
with Paramount personnel there anent sales
and exploitation plans for an upcoming picture
which he produced.
* * *
West: David A. Lipton, U-I vice-president
in charge of advertising and publicity,
checked back at his studio desk after eastern
parleys.
East: Concluding a four-day policy-making
session at the studio, Pi-esident Ned E. Depinet
and three members of the RKO board
of directors planed back to their New York
headquarters. Departing were Ti-easurer William
F. Clark, Controller Garrett Van Wagner
and Francis O'Hara, in addition to
Depinet.
* * *
East: Frank Melford, who recently produced
"Fort Defiance" for United Artists release,
planed for Manhattan for conferences
with UA executives concerning distribution
plans.
* 1: *
West: Sam Zimbalist, Metro producer, returned
to the Culver City film plant after
attending the New York world premiere of
"Quo Vadis." Also checking in were Robert
Vogel, studio executive, after a week of
eastern huddles with officials of Loew's International,
and Jean Martin of Loew's International
office in Paris. Martin will spend
a month here.
* + *
West: Gunther Lessing, vice-president of
Disney Productions and board chairman of
the Society of Independent Motion Picture
Producers, returned from a month's trip
to Manhattan, during which he transacted
Disney and SIMPP business.
* * *
West: Douglas Fairbanks jr., head of the
Dougfair Corp. and Sol Lesser's partner In
Odyssey Productions, planed in from New
York, where he huddled with United Artists
heads on release plans for a Bette Davis
starring film which Fairbanks produced.
^r^ AGEBRUSH, always a staple on the
^^ agenda of filmmaking, figured more
prominently than normally in the
week's news and blurb.
From George Pal, Paramount producer of
Buck Rogerish thrillers, an opinion—which
Teet Carle's pedantic praisers parlayed into
a full-dress interview—that "science fiction
films may replace westerns ... as bread and
butter product ."
. .
Maybe. But until Roy Rogers learns to ride
Pegasus instead of Trigger, the average showman
will still book hoss operas for the Saturday
matinee trade.
* * «
Then a yarn about Metro's current "Callaway
Went Thataway," the satirical western
about a has-been movie cowboy star who
becomes famous all over again when his old
sagebrushers hit the TV circuit. The characterization
of the boots-and-saddles hero as
etched in the comedy is far from a flattering
one, which led Bob Stabler, manager of the
redoubtable Bill (Hopalong Cassidy) Boyd, to
view the picture at a special screening set up
for him by Leo.
Stabler, it is said, expressed satisfaction
with the "Callaway" story line and opined it
does not reflect unfavorably upon his silverthatched
client. However, to avoid any possible
misconception, Metro has decided to
add, at the picture's finish, a notation that
it was made "in the spirit of fun" and was not
intended to "detract from the wholesome influence
... of western idols of our American
youth, or to be a portrayal of any of them."
If it is to be assumed that the "Callaway"
characterization might have found genesis in
Boyd's career, which assumption is subject
to argument per se, there could easily be
basis for a beef. But anyone who rode thataway
with as much loot in his saddleba.gs as
Hoppy garnered through his phenomenal
comeback shouldn't mind too much.
* * *
And from Jovial Johnny Flinn, Monogram's
maundering magnifier, press-stopping intelligence
that Wild Bill Elliott's partner in the
Possum Kingdom rodeo arena in Graham,
Tex.—one Charles E. Hipp, president of an
oil-drilling outfit in the Lone Star state
checked in for huddles with the cowboy star
anent an upcoming quarter-horse racing meet.
Wild Bill probably greets his partner with
a hearty, '"Hipp, Hipp Hooray!"
* * *
From Columbia's campanologists come news
that Gene Autry's leading lady in "Apache
Country" will be Lady Hardwicke, wife of
Sir Cedric. Possible dialog;
Gene: Which way did they go, ma'am?
Lady Hardwicke: The bounders about whom
you make inquiry, my good man, departed
hastily astride their mounts in a southerly
direction. Possibly you can apprehend them
in the lane. Pip-pip, old boy.
* * *
And lo! the poor cowpoke. What's happening
to him under the shifting productional
plans of Wald and Krasna shouldn't happen
to the orneriest varmint that ever rustled a
dogie. With the usual loud beating of RKO
Radio's tom-toms, originally It was announced
that the W-K outfit would make a western,
y-clept "Cowpoke." It was to be, according to
initial space-snatching activities, an unglamorous
western, which would undertake to debunk
the cinematic legend that the life of a
hand is romantic and adventurous. The job
of cowboying was to be projected in its true
state, that of a sweaty, grimy, backbreaking,
endless chore.
Next revelations anent the film posed the
opus as dealing with the hectic careers of professional
rodeo performers.
Now, an ambiguous announcement from
Perry Lieber's praisery informs that the title
has been changed to "This Man Is Mine"
and that Susan Hayward has been borrowed
from 20th Century-Fox to appear opposite
Battling Bob Mitchum, who from scratch has
been cast as the cowpoke.
But the last straw—the one to break the
maverick's back— is Praise Pundit Perry's most
recent description of the feature: "A modern
drama of a girl's fight for emotional security,
"This Man Is Mine' is an original
screenplay by Horace McCoy."
Another tidbit from the above-mentioned
Teet Carle makes reference to "A. W.
Schawalberg (sic), president. Paramount Film
Distributing Corp."
Schwalberg should understand that under
our democratic way of life being a mere
president doesn't entitle one to have one's
name spelled correctly by one's publicists.
The marquee-dressers are due for a nervous
breakdown if theatre managers decide to
dual bill 20th Century-Fox's "Down Among
the Sheltered Palms" and Warners' "She's
Working Her Way Through College."
. . has
Warner publicists believe that the "most
printed face in the U.S. in 1952 is certain
to be that lovely Lucille Norman .
been named TVllss Printer's Devil' for 1952."
If memory serves correctly, it was just a
year ago that the Burbank blurbery hung the
same doubtfully flattering honor on another
of its femme luminaries, and which brought
forth in this space designation of Anxious
Alex Evelove as "Mr. Pied Type of 1951." He
can now claim permanent possession of the
appellation.
Frank Whitbeck of Metro studio's publicity
department, functioned as master of ceremonies
at the recent Hollywood premiere of
"An American in Paris." He was not assisted
by his widely touted troupe of elephants
but hearing the gravelly, bellowing sounds
that came over the p.a. system, listeners would
never have suspected it.
BOXOFFICE November 24, 1951 41