Boxoffice-April.07.1958

Orson
Wald Attends Tribute
To Joanne Woodward
NEW YORK— Jerry Wald. producer of "The
Long, Hot Summer," came on from Hollywood
Wednesday (2i to attend the opening of the
picture, which was a tribute in honor of
Academy Award-winning Joanne Woodward
at the Fine Arts Theatre Thursday (3).
Also attending the performance at the
Fine Ai-ts were : Welles, who is starred
with Miss Woodward: Sarah Marshall,
featured player, and 24 Pulitzer Prize winners,
including Edna Ferber, Thornton Wilder,
John Steinbeck. John Hersey, Herman
Wouk MacKinley Kantor, Elmer Rice, Robert
Penn Warren, Mark Van Etoren, Charles A.
Lindbergh. Also on hand were: Ben Hecht,
Fannie Hurst, Quentin Reynolds, Kathleen
Winsor, Truman Capote and Eugene Lyons,
who paid homage to William Faulkner, on
whose novel, "The Hamlet," the picture is
based.
Regular performances of "The Long, Hot
Summer" started Friday at both the Fine
Arts and the Mayfair Tlieatre in Times
Square.
Selectivision
Hearing
Adjourned One Week
NEW YORK—The preliminary hearing on
methods employed in the sale of Selectivision.
Inc., stock was adjourned Wednesday
i2> to Wednesday (9) in the offices of Louis
J. Lefkowitz. attorney genei-al. Charges had
been brought against P. J. Gruber & Co.,
stock broker, claiming the use of "fraudulent
literature." A temporai-y restraining order
was continued.
Those being examined are Gruber, J. T.
Hamilton, Selectivision president, and Bernard
L. Goldenberg, assistant to the president.
The attorney general has charged statements
that $4,000,000 had been invested in
the toll TV system while the actual investment
was only $150,000, and that 100,000
apartments were to be wired by the end of
March while only a few have been wired.
He said Gruber had sold 65,000 shares of the
stock at prices ranging from $1 to $2,
Two-Performance Opening
For 'Stage Struck'
NEW YORK—"Stage Struck," the RKO
picture being distributed by Buena Vista, will
have a two-performance opening at the Normandie
Theatre at 8:30 and at midnight April
22. The picture, which was fUmed in New
York in Technicolor, stars Henry Fonda and
Susan Strasberg.
The 8:30 showing will be a benefit for the
Actors' Fund of America while the midnight
showing will be a "Salute to the Legitimate
Theatre" program for the casts of all the
Broadway shows. Susan Strasberg, who is
starring on Broadway in "Time Remembered,"
will present the first pair of tickets for the
benefit to Mayor Robert F. Wagner at City
Hall Monday (7). Fonda is also starring on
Broadway in "Two for the See-Saw."
Producers for Life, Times, American Can, Pepsi-
Colo Shorts. Edited Feotures, "CODE of the Underworld,"
"Operotion Monhunt," Billy Groham's
Crusade "Times Square Story."
Spot News Coverage by our cameraman.
Will Produce any Subject 16mm. 35mm.
Technicians foi meriy with March of Time.
David J. Cazalet, Inc.
333 W. 52nd St., N. Y., N. Y., Tele. Plaio 7-7847
BRO ADW A)(
T GUIS J. BARBANO has been elected llnancial
vice-president of Columbia. He has
held posts of dii-ector,
finance
committee
chairman and vicepresident
of Columbia
International and is
an authority on motion
picture financing. " " *
Robert Wile, director
of exhibitor relations
for 20th Century-Fox,
is back on the job after
an extended illness.
Wile took sick at the
Allied drive-in convention
in Louisville
LfOuis J. Barbano
in February. ' * * Milton Rackmil, president
of Universal, returned from studio conferences.
* • And Spyros P. Skouras, president
of 20th Century-Fox, came back from Paris,
Athens, Rome and London. * - * Al.so back at
their desks following lengthy studio meetings
were A. Schneider, newly elected president of
Columbia, and Leo Jaffe. first vice-president
and treasurer. » * * Martin Davis, executive
assistant to Jerry Pickman, Paramount vicepresident,
is back in town from Hollywood.
* *
George Seaton, president of the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, came in
from Williamsburg, Va., and will leave today
(7) for Chicago and Hollywood. * * * Marcello
Gerosi, co-producer of Paramount's "Tlie
Black Orchid," also a visitor.
Gil Golden, national ad chief for Warner
Bros., who moved to the coast a couple
of months ago, was back in town for a
week's visit and parleys on some of Warners'
upcoming pictures. • * * Dave Blum, who
beats the drums for Loew's International,
began a three-week vacation. He's spending
his time catching up on his chores on his
farm near Morristown, N. J. * * * Here from
the Culver City studios are J. Shearer and
H. J. Glick of the MGM studio legal department.
• * * Sidney Lumet, who directed
"Stage Struck," is back in New York aft«r
discussing futm-e assignments in Hollywood.
The RKO-Buena Vista picture will open
this month at the Normandie Theatre. * * *
Sy Gomberg and Jack Sher are in New York
to ballyhoo "Kathy O," new Universal comedy
which will be released in the early summer.
Gomberg produced, Sher directed and they
both wrote it. • * * Thomas W. Moore, formerly
general sales manager of CBS Television
Film Sales, has been appointed vicepresident
of ABC in charge of TV programming
and talent.
it"
Benjamin Lorber, insurance manager for
Universal Pictures, has been re-elected president
of the Jewish Community Council of
Perth Amboy. N. J. ' » • Phil Cowan, formerly
head of his own public relations firm
and P. R. director of Screen Gems, has joined
National TelefUm Associates as director of
exploitation.
* * * Buena Vista's western sales
manager, Jesse Chinich, has returned from
sales sessions in Dallas and Denver. • • •
Alfred Daff, executive vice-president of Universal
Pictures, hopped off Wednesday (2i
for Singapore. Manila and Japan for meetings
with Universal personnel and exhibitors
of the areas. • • • Walter Reade jr., circuit
operator, returned from a four-week buying
trip to Europe, looking over product for his
CuiUinenlal Distributing, Inc. • ' * Harold
Sharp, Coca-Cola's vice-president; Charles
Okun, theatre repi-e.sentative, and Mrs. Okun
will sail for London to attend the Variety
Clubs International convention.
Sophia Loren, star of "Desire Under the
Elms," an-ived by plane from Hollywood
Saturday (5) and .sailed immediately for
Europe on the He de France, accompanied
by her hu.sband. Carlo Ponti, co-producer of
"The Black Orchid," which .she just completed.
• • • Robert Stack, who will play the
title role in "John Paul Jones," and Erin
O'Brien, who will be featured, flew to Europe
April 1 to film the picture in Spain. * • •
Virginia McKenna, Rank star, and her actor
husband. Bill Ti'avers, aiTived from London
Sunday March 30, en route to Kingston, Jamaica,
to star in "The Shadow and the Peak."
• *
Frankie Vaughan, British singing .star
of "Dangerous Youth," which Warner Bros.
will dustribute here, returned to London via
BOAC Monday (31).
t"
Robert Evans, who played the bullfighter
in "The Sun Also Rises," has left for Hollywood
to co-star m another 20th-Fox Cinemascope
film, "Rope Law." * * Pier Angeli.
who has been promoting "Merry Andrew,"
MGM's Easter film at the Music Hah, returned
to the coast April 1, the same night
her husband, Vic Damone, sang at the Ascap
annual banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria. • •
Peggy Cass will take a leave of absence from
"Auntie Mame" to recreate her role of Agnes
Gooch in the Warner Bros, picture starring
Rosalind Russell, being filmed in Hollywood.
* * * Pat Boone, singing star of "April
Love" for 20th Century-Fox, flew to England
via BOAC Thursday 1 3 • * *
) . Mary Ure, star
of Rank's "Windom's Way" who is currently
staiTing on Broadway in "Look Back in Anger,"
appeared on the Omnibus TV play, "The
Lady's Not for Burning" Sunday (6).
Dick Winters, publicity representative of
20th Century-Fox, will address the Catholic
Educators Ass'n of America Wednesday (9)
in Philadelphia in connection with the showing
of 'The Song of Bemadette" to the organization's
annual convention. • * Samuel
Goldwyn jr., producer of "The Proud
Rebel," flew to the coast to set up openings.
• * * Louis Brandt of the Brandt circuit
sailed on the He de France Saturday (5).
• * • Arthur Fiedler, conductor of the Boston
Pops Orchestra, is in town for the premiere
of "Windjammer," in which he and his men
appear in an important sequence. • • • Roger
Caras, radio-TV contact in Columbia Pictures'
publicity department, is in Booth Memorial
Hospital, Flushing, for surgery.
United Artists' "Showdown in the Sun" Is
the story of two men who develop a silver
mine in Mexico.