The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 57

AMUSEMENTS, FINANCI A International, pp. 4, 5, 6, 7, 1 0 Religion, pp. 8, 9 Real Estate, pp. 12, 13 I ON 5 SEPTEMBER 7, 1947 Markets and Financial, p. 15 Radio p.

16 The Theater, p. 1 Movies, pp. 2 Broadway Season-Opener Lands With a Dull Thud By JACK O'BRIAN, Associated Press Drama Editor some notable stage successes, including 'The Bandwagon," "Three's A Crowd," "The Little Show," "Flying Colors" and At Home Abroad." Their tunes included such lovely items as "Dancing In the and "If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You," as well as some amusing ditties like "Hammacher-Schlemmer, I Love You." Plans Are Imposing Schwartz sat over a 1 p.m. breakfast in Twenty-One the other afternoon and described his plans for putting the Gunther tome into legitimate stage form. He will utilize the literary talents of a good many famous Hollywood and Broadway writers to turn out his satirical sketches.

He was quick to make clear, however, that by "satirical" he did not mean a smart-alecky sophistication whose provincially urban connotations are understandable to Lucius Beebe, Elsa Maxwell and possibly four or five others. There have been many so-called satirical musicals whose specialized humor and content was a matter of fashionable delight to first-nighters, but which failed even moderately to divert the folks who saw them thereafter. Schwartz wants to avoid this popular pitfalL "I want something which will be amusing, satirical I mean entertainment understandable to someone who has never been in the Stork Club," was his laudable explanation. "It will cover geographically the same territory that has proved fascinating to Gunther's readers. The chance to wander scenically anywhere in the country supplies all the background variety a set designer could wish.

Now it is up to me to get together the sketch-writers who can put this rich literary background into words suitable for a successful revue. After that, of course, I'll have to write the music and Howard supply the lyrics to fit all these big plans. And then, when I get all that finished, I have to produce it." Associated Press Photo. If its bizarre enough that's for Carmen Miranda, break in America by putting bananas in her hat, and singer from Portugal by way of Brazil. She got her big recently spent $9,000 for a set of flamboyant costumes.

Make the Public Look and You 're In Neiv Orleans Gives Music To Negroes By W. G. ROGERS Associated Press Writer NEW YORK, Sept. 6. New Orleans has two musical associations, the Philharmonic Society, which imports soloists and one major orchestra every year, and the younger New Orleans Symphony Society, about 12 years old, giving 40 to 45 concerts a year with Italian-born Massimo Freccia as its conductor.

As far as the Symphony Society's concerts go, New Orleans also has two audiences, Negro and white, says Freccia. The conductor, staying in the North as late as possible this summer to benefit from cooler temperatures, says it is quite possible more Negroes hear symphonic music in New Orleans than in New "York. Concerts for whites are given in the Municipal Auditorium, which seats about 2,600, and for Negroes in the smaller Booker T. Washington Auditorium. There are 23 concerts for white children, four for Negro children, 14 regular subscription white concerts and three or four for Negroes.

There were three last year, when adult Negro concerts were inaugurated, and the number may be raised to four this season. City Is Pleased The Symphony, which has a 20-week season from October to March, engages only white soloists for the white concerts, and either white or Negro artists for the Negro events. Actually, Freccia says it means white support of concerts for Negroes; and the city is pleased, he says, with the arrangement whereby its Negro population has the chance to hear good music. The orchestra plays to capacity houses of both races. Freccia, who began his musical career with the study of the violin, conducted in the major concert halls and opera houses in Europe, made his first appearance in America in the Lewisohn Stadium in 1938, and went to his present post from Havana.

Ballet Records Here's a look at, or a listen to, recent ballet records: A part of a part of a part of Prokolieff's "Romeo and Juliet," a full-length three-act ballet, comes from R.C.A. -Victor. Played by the Boston Symphony, Koussevitzky conducting, it consists of four of the seven episodes from the second of two suites arranged by the composer. There are two 12-inch records. Sixteen excerpts from Glazounoff's "Ray-monda," another three-act work and again from R.C.A.-Victor, are played by the Boston "Pops" Orchestra, Fiedler conducting.

This charming and most danceable music, with the "Entrance of Raymonda," the "Prelude and La Romanza" and the "Variation Raymonda" especially notable, covers four large records. From Decca comes an album of two 12-inch records, on three sides of which are Gustav Hoist's "The Perfect Fool," played by the London Philharmonic, Sargent conducting. Ride of the Valkyries," London Philharmonic with de Sabata conducting, is on the fourth side. Hoist's dramatic effects, though his mood is comic, in spots are reminiscent of Wagner's. Music In Neiv York On September 22, the New York City Symphony begins its third season under conductor Leonard Bernstein.

The program, given in City Center, will feature the Mahler Second Symphony, and the orchestra will be assisted by Ellabelle Davis, soprano; Nan Merriman, mezzo-soprano, and the Schola Cantorum, High Ross conductor. The New York City Opera Company will begin its eighth season in City Center on September 25 with "Salome." That Is Carmen Miranda 9s Philosophy NEW YORK, Sept. 6. Out in Columbus Circle, the soap-box orators were taking any side of any question, and it was too hot for even these veteran sidewalk Demostheneses to attract their' usual circle of shabby admirers. Across the Circle was the International Theater, and inside this handsome edifice last Wednesday evening, the fall theatrical season was about to begin as the curtain ascended on something which was described in the program as a "new comedy," but which turned out to be as tragic a little exhibit as has been seen hereabouts since last spring's "Heads Or Tails" started Broadway old-timers off on a hopeless chase through their lengthy memories to find something as bad.

"The Magic Touch," in this department's memory of some 20 years of theatergoing, is quite as bad as "Heads Or Tails." Not only is it an example of comedy writing at its approximate worst, but the authors, Charles Raddock and Charles Sherman, somehow had an idea that it might be amusing to describe the domesic antics of a young couple to live right here in Manhattan on a salary of $28.50 a week. Actors Dejected Not only is that possibility a little terrifying, but the authors even managed to make their dialogue more dispirited than their discouraging central story line. After a few moments of the first act had passed away, and "expired" I think is the word for it, it was quite clear what was in sorry store. The actors, some of them as expert as might be available under happier circumstances and this wasn't it seemed to don some of the dejectedness of the dialogue. They seemed actually to be ashamed of what they were doing, for which no one could much blame them.

Howard Smith, who drew handsome accolades for his performances in "Decision" and "Dear Ruth," plays a publisher, employer of the young husband in his publishing business, who decides a book describing the rigors and supposed humor of living on $28.50 would have all the ebullient attraction of, say, "The Egg and The brace of authors thereby broke the first rule of successful comedy writing. To make trouble attractive, it must be something transitory, temporary, something the audience immediately must recognize as a swiftly passing phase which can be corrected with" the proper attention of the author to structure and dialogue. Raddock and Sherman attack their problem from a strange vantage point, as if they believed all folks who live in such shabbily reduced circumstances are objects of roaring amusement. Further, the amusement bestowed by the writers is not a sympathetic mood, but a hooting style, such as urchins use in yelling at a cripple. Miracle Needed This unsympathetic literary handling helps to submerge even farther any possible attractions "The Magic Touch" might have assembled.

And atop, all else, the confused direction and complete failure of the authors to sustain their foolish little tale beyond the simple primary exposition keeps all the players busy flailing conversationally about in what seemed to be a basic ambition to keep things noisy until 11 p.m., the traditional time for a theater curtain to This, then, was the fall and winter's first production. It would take more than magic to turn "The Magic Touch" into a hit. It would necessitate a miracle, and no puny one, either. There is a fashionable weekly magazine which has a department it calls "The Hungry Critics," in which it describes the gustatory reactions of reviewers who announce they will eat their hats or some other unlikely item of nourishment in case their judgment is wrong. Well, to add to magazine's file of famished critics, if "The Magic Touch" becomes a hit, I'll eat the magazine.

Broiled. Inside to Be Revue John Gunther's best selling "Inside U.S has been acquired for transfer to Broadway by Arthur Schwartz, composer and Hollywood producer, whose intention is to turn it into a topical, satirical revue. Schwartz is one of the best Broadway composers. His music is mentioned in the same awed tones as those bestowed on the tunes of the late George Gershwin and Jerome Kern, and of the very-much-alive Irving Berlin. Lyrics will be added to the Schwartz score by Howard Dietz, who in moments away from his vice-president's cubicle at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is 'quite a fellow with songs.

Schwartz and Dietz have collaborated on Show Boat Acquired Emphasizing that they are in the business of producing Broadway shows as well as writing them, is they've done so brilliantly with "Oklahoma!" and "Carousel," Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II announce they have acquired all stage rights to "Show Boat," the musical play written by the late Jerome Kern and Hammerstein, which has assumed the stature of a modern classic in its own generation. Included in the recent purchase is the lavish physical production which ran for a year at the Ziegfeld Theater last season, which the Rodgers and Hammerstein firm will send touring in October. It is the fifth production to play under the composers' managerial banner, the others being the current hits "Annie Get Your Gun," "Happy Birthday," and "John Loves Mary," as well as the so-called national company of "Annie," which starts touring October 3 in Dallas, Texas, starring Mary Martin; and "I Rmember Mama," which was the pair's initial effort on the business end of Broadway shows. Both were active before ''Carousel" and "Oklahoma!" with other collaborators; Rodgers with the late talented Lorenz Hart, and Hammerstein with a number of notable composers, including Kern and Sigmund Romberg. Their next creative collaboration is "Allegro," now being prepared for Broadway under the managerial eye of the Theater Guild.

And among other items of solvent Broadway interest to Messrs. R. and H. are various theatrical real estate corporations and a music publishing business, Williamson Music, which was given that name because both their fathers are named "William." These talented lads hae money coming in from so many different entertainment directions that they literally do not know how much they earn in any given period. 'Hamlet Trimmed With Wendy Hiller, Basil Rathbone and Patricia Collinge on hand, Jed Harris and Fred F.

Finklehoffe have begun rehearsals for their new production, "The Heiress," by Ruth and Augustus Goetz. Bert Wheeler opens in "The Benchwarmer" in Detroit prior to a Chicago engagement which begins September 22. Despite opposition from some stubborn sources, Michael Meyerberg is going ahead with his production of "Dear Judas," construction of the sets already being under way. Although the standard stage version of "Hamlet" runs four hours, the British movie version, starring Laurence Olivier, will run only 2. J- Arthur Rank's technicians have discovered that Shakespeare can be constricted into swifter dramatic shape for the films.

it was not quite the sort of house for a little girl to enter. Straitlaced Papa, although realizing tiny Mario was completely ignorant and innocent, was righteously indignant. So, a few years later, the job of preparing Father for the news she was going to become a public singer was a tough one. It happened this way: Carmen was singing, just for fun, at a friend's house. An American recording firm's representative heard her.

He persuaded her to cut a few discs. She was only 15, but the agent promised her identity would remain secret, and fashioned the pseudonym Carmen Miranda from her mother's name. Carmen's records were an instant hit. Her first remuneration was a check for 15,000 milreis a tremendous fortune to poor Papa da Cunha. But Carmen didn't know how to break the news.

Papa Gave In One night. Papa da Cunha brought home one of the new Carmen Miranda records. He thought the new singer was a sensation, but did not recognize his daughter's voice. So Carmen told him. Papa hit the ceiling.

When he came down. Carmen handed him the check for 15,000 milreis. Her family, her friends and the record agent argued. Finally, Papa da Cunha said, "O.K." (or the Portuguese equivalent), "I agree that our good name has not been smirched. I allow myself to be convinced." Tickets On Sale For Young Folk Tickets are on sale at the office of the Louisville Philharmonic Society, 228 Guthrie, for a series of young people's concerts which will be given at the Memorial Auditorium by the Louisville Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Robert Whitney.

This season's young people's concerts will consist of music of people who have contributed to American life, music of the out-of-doors and music of story and legend. Features of one program will include dancing. The first of the four concerts is scheduled for November 12. Students' season tickets, including tax, sell at $1. By RALPH DIGHTON Associated Press Writer she stepped out of character and out of her bizarre costumes.

Critics were a little disappointed. Now, Carmen knows better. She recently spent $9,000 on new costumes, the most flamboyant she ever has designed. One consists of a beaded skirt, which weighs in at 50 pounds, and a beaded and feathered turban weighing 15 pounds. With her platformed shoes, the whole get up.

totals 85 pounds and 5-foot 1-inch Carmen tips the scales at only 117. "Copacabana" may not have been Miranda's best picture, but she says it was one of her luckiest. It was during the filming of that picture that she met her producer-husband, Dave Sebastian. Carmen Accepted "She's a perfectionist, but still a great person to work with," says Dave. "We developed a mutual respect and admiration, and by the time the picture was finished, we were great friends.

"Then she had to take a plane to fill an as she calls it, in Miami." While Carmen was in Miami, Dave telephoned and proposed. "I was afraid she would think I was kidding," Dave says, "but she accepted the first time I asked her." Carmen has always been a little shy about her personal life. She loves an audience, but she has insisted that although her professional life belongs to her public, her personal life is her own. "Besides," she used to explain, "maybe they like me better as a woman of mystery. If they know too much, they lose interest." Apparently Carmen forgot to coach her bridegroom of a few months on this, because Dave spilled the beans.

Carmen, born Mario do Carma da Cunha in Lisbon 32 years ago, was taken to Brazil at the age of three months. She was educated in a convent, then began working to help support the family. The Wrong House-Once she took a job scrubbing floors. The wages were good and the tips frequent. The family was pleased, until they learned that IS This is no pose for a film by Susan Peters for she'll never walk again.

But she is taking the lead in "Sign of The I refuse to be any more of an invalid than necessary," she told me. At Columbia, producer Irving Cummings has made Susan as comfortable as possible while she is at work. In addition to the upholstered wheelchair, there is a special air-cooling system installed in her dressing room, as well as on the sets where the picture is being filmed. She works the shortest day of any star in Hollywood usually from about 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Two nurses attend Susan while she is at the studio, and their sole job is to look after the actress' welfare. HOLLYWOOD, Sept 6. A gaudy little woman walked into the patio of. Los Angeles Union Station. The patio, which looks more like a movie-set hacienda than a railroad waiting room, was jammed with people.

Not one appeared to notice the little woman, despite her 7-inch-high heels and her peculiar headdress containing all the raw ingredients of a fruit salad. "I'll feex them," she whispered to her companion. Then she said, in her best stage voice: "Ooh, I am fah-meeshed. I hev not had my lonch." Whereupon, she extracted a banana from the headdress, peeled it, and began to munch. Learned a Lesson That did it.

Everyone was watching the little woman. She was Carmen Miranda, of course. And she was merely practicing a lesson learned years ago: You've got to make them look at you. This is more than petty egotism. It's the secret of Carmen's success.

(She was America's highest-paid actress, with $201,458, in 1945). "Many years before," says Carmen, "when I was singing in night clubs in Brazil, it happened to me. A New York impresario (or maybe it was a Cooking agent) came to hear my show. He was not impressed. "She's nice, he conceded, 'but we have such singers by the dozens in the "So I feex that.

"I make myself a typically Brazilian costume, with all splashy colors. And just to make it different, I design a turban with a basket on top, for bah-nah-nas and pine-ahpples. She Got the Job "Now, other Brazilian singers have good voices. They wear slinky Paris clothes. But nobody has costumes like Miranda, with bah-nah-nas and pine-ahpples on top.

So I get the job." Carmen has been getting the jobs ever since. First, there was a series of night-club jobs in New York. For eight years, she has had more movie offers than' she can handle. In one of her latest movies, "Copacabana," Graham making because of a heart attack. But he decided to come out of produce "The Sign of The Ram" if Susan would star in it.

A corporation w3s formed, with Susan, the Cummings boys and the Orsatti Agency participating, and a Columbia release was arranged for the production. "So now I'm in business for myself," said Susan. "The average life of a picture is 10 years, and with this percentage deal, I have an income for at least 10 years." Her next movie, is "The Miracle of San Michele." It's a love story with a continental background. And Susan is writing it now with Margaret Tracy, mother of Peggy Cummins, and author Charles Bennett. Between movies, Susie tries to live as normal a life as her wheelchair will permit.

She her husband adopted a 2-week-old boy, Timothy, soon after her accident. He is now 16 months old. "And we expect to adopt two more children, a boy about Timmy's age and a baby girl somewhat younger, so she can have two 'big' brothers." Plans to Ride The accident has not made Susan antisocial. She and Dick dine out frequently, and attend parties. Susan drives her own car, a convertible equipped with hand-driving devices of the kind used paralyzed war veterans.

The Quines drive out to the Mojave Desert on week ends, and from her wheel chair, Susan takes pot shots at rabbits that pass her way. She is swimming again, too. Dick and Susan go to an unfrequented beach beyond Malibu. He carries her into the water, and from then on, Susan is on her own. And she also is planning horseback riding.

"I want to be as self-reliant as possible. Little Theater Sets Tryouts For 'Green Grow the Lilacs' A Little Thing Like Inability to Walk Can't Keep Susan Peters From Acting HOLLYWOOD TODAY Bv Sheilah TRYOUTS for "Green Grow the Lilacs," opening attraction of the University of Louisville's Little Theater Company, will be held at the Playhouse, on Belknap Campus, tomorrow night at 8. Ever since the announcement, made last Sunday, that this Theater Guild success from which "Oklahoma!" was developed would be the Playhouse's opening attraction, everyone connected with the active work of the organization has been pestered by telephone calls from aspirants for parts in the play, Annie Ferry, president of the group, said yesterday. Miss Ferry wants all and sundry to know that the Little Theater Company is a liberal Choral Club to Meet Tuesday At Y.M.C.A. The Louisville Choral Club's first meeting of the season will be held at 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday at the Y.M.C.A., Director. Virgil P. Cassaday said. The club is scheduled for more than 20 concerts here and elsewhere in the state in addition to its annual performance at Memorial Auditorium in December. and democratic organization open to all those eligible to become members; that parts are assigned at open tryouts and auditions, and that it is usually the best person for the part who gets it.

Rollo Wayne again will design the scenery for the Little Theater Company, and work will start on the production next week. Rehearsals as usual will be held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights during the coming year, and on such other dates as the director deems advisable. The Board of Governors met last night at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Edward L.

Strater, at Harrods Creek, to map out complete plans for the new season. Voice of the Turtle," which concerns two actresses and a G.I. spending a week-end furlough in New York. One of the actresses, the younger and more whimsical type, is getting over the effects of a disappointment in love. The G.I.

is undergoing a similar experience. The action starts when the older actress, a more worldly, somewhat hard-bitten personality, makes the mistake of introducing her prize date, the G.I., to her girl-friend. They fall in love. A high light in the play is its famous setting showing a cross-section of a three-room apartment bedroom, living room and kitchenette designed by Stewart Chaney. Additional attractions which Manager Hoke Camp expects to have at the Auditorium this season include "Alice In Wonderland," matinee and night November 25: "Tha Desert Song," January 5 and 6, and "Song of Norway," March 9 and 10.

'Alice In Wonderland9 Is Scheduled At Memorial Auditorium November 25 HOLLYWOOD, Sept. 6. Susan Peters will never walk again. But take it from me and everyone who knows her, she is one of the happiest and most useful citizens in Hollywood. When her spine was paralyzed in a hunting accident 2Y2 years ago, Susan was well along in her career as a young movie actress.

We all thought that the tragic accident meant Susie was through as an actress and as a person. She has proved us all wrong. I hadn't seen Susan much since the accident. Of course, in the old days of "Random Harvest" and "Song of Russia," I saw her every day of the week, and she seemed a cute and nice ingenue. She's Gay Again When I called on her on the set of "The Sign of The Ram," her first picture since her illness, Susie welcomed me to her dressing room with her old-time gaiety.

She was seated in a very fancy wheelchair the gift of Columbia, the studio releasing her picture. She wore little, make-up on her beautiful face her illness has made her look almost ethereal. She wasn't unhappy, and she wasn't self-conscious. "It's wonderful to be acting again," Susan told me; and she meant it. "I found that being away from the studios was one of the worst things about being ill.

Taking greasepaint away from an actress is like crossing off lollipops from a kid's diet. Life just doesn't seem the same. Now that I'm back at work, life again is interesting and complete." Susan admits that the period of readjustment was hard. "When the doctors first told me I'd never walk again, I was unhappy and rebellious. Then, slowly, I began to realize that I had a good many years of living ahead of me in my wheelchair.

Unless I wanted to spend those years making my husband (Richard Quine) and myself miserable, I'd have to snap out of it. Just as soon as I admitted the wheelchair had become part of my life and accepted it, things became less gloomy and my interest in life picked up." Settled Contract Susan was under contract to at the time she was hurt. When she began to recover, they sent her several manuscripts which had the heroine in a wheelchair. "But the parts were all false to me," said Susan. "There wasn't a good reason why the girls shouldn't get out of their chairs to walk, except for the fact that then they wouldn't be suitable for me.

The studio wanted to dig up a film, 'The Outward Room', in which I appeared with Bob Young, and which had been shelved. They planned to write in a scene with a balcony collapsing, film it with a double and have me play the rest of the story in a wheelchair. I refused. The part was too saccharine. I wanted to return to pictures in a strong acting role." So Susan settled her contract with and decided to freelance.

And she decided that the only way she could keep what she earned was to participate financially in every picture she makes. While she' was still ill, a family friend, actor Charles Bickford, brought Susan a copy of Margaret Ferguson's best-selling novel, "The Sign of The Ram." She read it, liked it and Bickford took the book to the Orsatti Agency. The late Frank Orsatti also liked the story, and passed it on to Irving Cummings, Jr. Junior took it to his dad, Irving, who thought he had retired from picture- "ftlEMORIAL AUDITORIUM will inaugurate its 1947-48 season of dramatic productions on Saturday, September 20, with a return engagement of the well-known comedy, "The Voice of the. Turtle," by John van Druten.

The play was a box-office success when it ws here last season. It will be seen for two performances, matinee and evening. The cast is headed by Haila Stoddard, who is starred. Miss Stoddard has appeared on Broadway in such previous successes as Elmer Rice's "Dream Girl" and with Clifton Webb in Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit." Featured players include Sheila Bromley, the heroine of many a Warner Brothers Western picture, and Philip Faversham, son of the eminent American dramatic star, William Faversham. There are only three characters in "The.