The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 65

Amusements Movies Books Resorts Radio Section 4 Art Music The Indianapolis Star SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 21, 1948 Enterprise Still Pays On Broadivay, Figures I fj lTf UtSft itfj I a w. From Variety Show By Corbin Patrick JF YOU THINK no rewards worth the risks are to be had in show business, take a look at the record, as laid bare in Variety this week. That august journal of the profession discloses that two writer-producer teams, between them, have been responsible for grosses exceeding $60,000,000 in the last few years and the figure doesn't include everything. The rival partnerships, of course, are Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who already have rung up $40,000,000 with attractions, most of which are still going strong, and Russell Crouse and Howard Lindsay, who seem to have struck another bonanza In "Life With Mother" to keep their first $20,000,000 company. The sums, according to Variety, include only their box-office take in the United States, leaving their overseas returns and Hollywood deals to be accounted separately.

"Life With Father." for Instonr. C-ljiSr. II IIP grossed $10,000,000 for Lindsay and douse in its spectacular runs 1 -I noll'ood Today Jarie Russell Boom Comes After 8 Years Of Big Pay Films By SHEILAH GRAHAM Hollywood, Nov. 20 JANE RUSSELL signed her first movie contract with Howard Hughes eight yearg ago. Until now she has appeared in only three pictures, "The Outlaw," "Young Widow" and "The Paleface." Suddenly, however, it's full steam ahead with the Russell career.

She Is co-starring with George Brent in "Montana Belle" at Republic, then she dashes to RKO to star with Frank Sinatra, of all people, and Groucho Marx in "It's Only Money." After that something is cooking for her at Metro. "What Induced Mr. Hughes to loan out like I ask Jame, 11 dressed up as a boy foV her Belle Starr role in "Montana Belle. "My agent that and the money," replies Russell with a deadpan face. "Howard always tells me that he wants to sure that pictures are right for me, but he doesn't have time to look at the scripts.

So it's usually easier for him to say no." Woolley's Beard Attracts Highwaymen un uioauway. ana me roaa, then brought $500,000 down and a split of half the profits for movie rights extending only seven years. Lindsay and Crouse wrote "Life With Father" and "State of the Union" and backed "Arsenic and Old Lace" and "The Hasty Heart" to amass their impressive total. Rodgers and Hammerstein theirs by collaborating as composer and librettist for "Oklahoma!" "Allegro" and "Carousel," then investing their profits as producers in "Annie Get Your Gun," the revival of "Show Boat," "I Remember Mama," "Happy Birthday" and "John Loves Mary." All the musicals listed are still alive, in New York or on the road or both. Of Plays And Prosperity "ANNIE GET YOUR GUN," of course, played to big houses as the only UBO attraction to visit the Murat so far this season.

"Oklahoma!" is supposed to return here sometime in "Carousel" cease headway. Jerking to, Monty obeyed as the other car a dark, low, rakish, sinister vehicle cut across his route and stopped. Three men emerged and they were all big, formidable-appearing persons. They stalked to the side of Monty's car. "Is that tne easiest wora in I want Mr.

Hughes' vocabulary to know. By LAWRENCE PERRY New York, Nov. 20 MONTY WOOLLEY arrived here from the West coast in his convertible and sped at once to a barber to have a new point put on his beard. "It was a pleasant trip all the way, he said, between frequent admonitions to the shears-welder to be very, very careful. "At least It was pleasant save for one incident which frightened me badly for a time but 'finally turned out favorably." MONTY, it seems, was driving through one of the loneliest areas of the Mojave Desert.

He had the car's top down, for it was a fine day; skies blue and the sun tempered by a cooling breeze which toyed with his luxuriant beard, wafting it up and down and sideways and generally making the actor conscious of its presence. And this is an agreeable feeling to Monty who loves his facial windshield. Behind him in Hollywood, his latest picture "Miss Tatlock's Millions," Paramount was in the can, and he was thinking of the good long rest he was going to take in his beloved Saratoga Springs. Thus involved, Monty automatically let the car slow down to some 10 miles an hour. He did not notice another car approaching the opposite direction along the lonely desert road.

The other car called itself to his attention, however, by a warning honk, and a hail to might have been here this week- but is playing Louisville Instead. The wily John Thuman, who manages the road shows in Louisville, established a blockade the Murat by getting five Tuesday nights there in November for Burton Holmes, whose travel lectures he books throughout this territory. So Louisville has "Carousel." The Murat still is carrying "Allegro" in its books as a possibility for later in the season. Speaking of plays and prosperity, it may be news to his friends if not to Dave Gurian, proprietor of the Parkway Tavern on North Illinois Street, that checks representing the first 10 per cent return on their $90,000 investment have been sent to backers of Tennessee Williams' "Summer and Smoke," which opened in New York Oct. 6.

Mr. Gurian, as related in this column a few weeks ago, is one of the show's "angels," by virtue of being the brother of Manning Gurian, who is associated with Margo Jones in the production. "Summer and Smoke," which breaks even around $15,000. has THE ACTOR thought of the fat wallet in his hip pocket. He thought of his platinum wrist watch, of the big signet ring he wore.

His very beard shivered in apprehension. But he tried to be calm, poised. "Well, gentlemen," he aid, in that suave, velvety voice which has carried appeal to, audiences of the world, "what can I do for you?" "Listen," said the spokesman of the trio, "who are you?" "I'm really a poor man," Monty said. "Just a little money to get home on and "Who are you?" "Monty Woolley, at your service and very much so," was the faltering reply. "WOOLLEY, EH!" The man turned to his companions.

"I win! I said it was Monty. Dig up." This they presumably did. All Monty knows is that they all got his autograph, then waved him on with good wishes. "They told me," Woolley recalled, "at least the man who won the bet did, that he spotted my- hirsute growth 200 yards away and so identified me. But I am not denying I was-scared to death for the time being." not for television." Mr.

Hughes was too canny for that. He saw which way the entertainment wind was blowing as long ago as 1940 when he first signed Jane. "Do you have any choice about the pictures you make?" I query Miss Russell. "None whatever," she replies blandly. "The first I heard about the Sinatra picture was when I read about it in the papers.

But I can read the-script and if I don't like it I can scream like hell, I suppose." She never has yet. That might, change, however, now that she is getting more movies to make. "One day soon," concludes Jane, "I hope to go into a picture that is not what they call a man's picture. I hope to do a Jane Russell picture." That should not be too long now. BETTY GRABLE anJ Cesar Romero (left) enjoyed a hearty chuckle off tg! while the blonde actress was working in the Technicolor musical, "When My Baby Smiles at Me," a Wednesday opener at the Indiana.

Romero was just visiting. Dan Dailey is her co-star. ANN JEFFREYS (center above) adds romantic spice to a film that brings together most of the notorious highwaymen in the history of the West. "Return of the Bad Men" opens Wednesday at the Lyric. THE INDIGNANT baby-sitter charged with two squawling (oungsters is Monte Wooley right) one of the leads in "Miss Tatlock's Millions," which comes to the Circle Thursday.

GENE KELLY (below), the swashbuckling D'Artagnan, receives a toast from Van Hef- been grossing more than $20,000 a week consistently, according to Variety. So our Mr. Gurian may continue to live in hope. It may stimulate his thinking to know that "Life With Father" earned a profit of 6,000 per cent on an original investment of $23,000. If "Summer and Smoke" ultimately earns 6,000 per cent on $90,000 well, Imagine.

'Born Yesterday' Still Next IT SEEMS reasonably certain at this late date that our play season will include at least one more attraction the second before Christmas. Garson Kanin's comedy, "Born Yesterday," still is set for Dec. 12-15, Sunday through Wednesday, and has just about passed the point where a cancellation is possible. After three years on Broadway "Born Yesterday" is fairly well known throughout the land as a ribald play about sad adventures lin, Gig Youhg and Robert Coote in a scene from "The Three Musketeers," which begins its run at Loew's Thursday. "No," replies Janie definitely.

"He never uses the word Instead he says, 'Well, I'm sorry, but It is all the same with Jane. Whether she works or not, she gets paid her $2,500 a week. With the money she can help pay for her new house in the valley and furnished It with 17th -Century Chinese stuff including the Buddha sitting on top of the (tairs. "IT ISN'T a big house," Jane tells me, although the living room is bigger than most houses are altogether. She has two bedrooms and four baths! "The playroom has an extra kitchen behind the bar for parties," explains Miss Russell adding, "we don't give the kind of parties other people give.

Everyone waits on himself." The other half of the "we" Is hubby Bob Waterfield, crack football player with the Los Angeles Rams. At this point I ought to tell you that Jane and I are having lunch and she has, in addition to steak 'and french fried potatoes, nearly half a bottle of hot mustardstraight out of the bottle! HERE'S SOMETHING else that distinguishes Miss Russell from the crowd, and I don't mean her figure. She reads the Bible for one solid hour every evening "and when I get up in the morning. All my brothers do the same. "That's the way we were all brought up," Jane explains.

She has read the entire Bible all the way through and knows huge portions of it by heart. When she was telling me about "The Way ef an Eagle," the title of a future picture of hers, she recited almost the whole Book of Proverbs from which the title is taken. "When you first start to read the Bible," asserts the down-to-earth-looking Jane, "it is just a bunch of dry bones. Yet I think the dry bones have a great spiritual lesson. You can read the same passages 15 times and get a different meaning each time.

THE GAL who once was known for her figure only, has learned how to emote in the eight vears of her Hollywood apprenticeship. She surprised everyone here at the photographers' ball recently with her singing-and-chatter act. She was poised and vprv Drofessional. New Plays Turn oi a millionaire junkman out to take Uncle Sam for another fortune. He is undone by the combined efforts of his somewhat dim-witted girl friend and a crusading reporter.

Jean Parker, who plays the feminine lead, was born Mae Green in Deer Lodge, Mont. She doesn't say what year, but she was old enough to appear with the three Barrymores in "Rasputin and the Empress" in 1932. She also appeared in "Lady for a Day" and "Little Women" early In her career. Hollywood of late has used her mostly in action films. But for the past two years she has been on the stage, first with Bert Lahr in "Burlesque" and now in "Born Yesterday." The male headliner in "Born Yesterday" Is Lon Chaney, who must play the part of the junk dealer.

He, of course, is the son of the late Lon Chaney, wizard of make-up, and a star of film chillers in his own right. Lon, who was known as Creighton Chaney until after his father's death, has appeared in both "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" pictures. He wears his own face in "Born Yesterday." Around A Hobo And Kleptomaniac New York, Nov. 20 UP) A NEW THEATER Guild production and one from Vinton ilk J1 Freedley make up this week's brace of new plays. "The Young and Fair," by N.

Richard Nash, opens Monday at the Fulton Theater under Freed-ley's management. It's about a kleptomaniac in a girl's school. Harold Clurman is directing and Paul Morrison designed the sets. Richard W. Krakeur is associated in the production.

The cast includes Frances Starr, Mercedes McCambridge, Lois Wheeler and Patricia Kirkland. "The Silver Whistle," by Robert E. McEnroe, the Guild play opening Wednesday at the Bilt-more Theater, takes place in an old folks' home, the principal role being a glorified hobo. Paul Crabtree directed. Herbert Brod-kin designed the sets, Ernest Schraps the costumes.

The cast includes Jose Ferrer, John Conte and G. Marshall iS I "I've made a lot of public ap-' Ice Revue" through Dec. 5 at the Coliseum. Robert Breen (standing right) and Frederic Warriner have key roles in the Barter Theater's "Hamlet," which will play Rushville tomorrow and Muncie, Anderson and Richmond on successive days. HOOSIER PLAYBILL attractions, current and forthcoming, including Lon Chaney and Jean Parker (left) who will head the cast of Garson Kanin's "Born Yesterday" at the Murat Dec.

12-15. Sonja Henie and Michael Kirby (center) art featured in the nw edition of th "Hollywood PIANIST WILLIAM KAPELL will play Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra next week end. pearances." she tells me, ana keep all the money I make from them," $15,000 a week. own my own radio rights, too. But.