The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 93

-x- -icr ft: EN Olivier To Sing in New Film Actor Had to Go nto Training for STAGE, SCREEN AND MUSIC trite fulabclpfua inquirer SUNDAY. AUGUST 23. 1953 in 11 mi iiim imiIiii ri iirir.vavxiwiy, J.atfrZ: i nu itili wit iiiWi'tI'ftiiiiliViiM-riiiiiiiiMMMiMii ii in If'H 1 "fay I '-aA I V-V Sn 4 'k jW rHf7 TiZ. 1 I fe "4 Ptf REHEARSAL Director Martin Ritt goes over "Detective Story" script with Mary Welch, John Baragrey and Sally Gracie at Playhouse in the Parle, for show opening tomorrow. Tent Theater Is Exciting' To Baragrey By Samuel Singer 'Beggar's Opera1 (Sir Laurence Olivier will shortly be seen as the singing highwayman in the movie, "The Beggar's By Laurence Olivier K.

Y. Herald TridiiM Ntwt Servic LONDON, Aug. 22. IT WAS Tyrone Guthrie who first suggested "The Beggar's Opera" to me as a film subject, and he is a man whose ideas I treat with respect. I went back to John Gay's original script, savagely satirical and iconoclastic in its treatment of character and situation, and that put an end to my meditations.

It couldn't be done. I could not for the life of me see what framework could be devised into which this challenging piece would fit as a film. It was nearly eight years later, when I was about to take the two "Cleopatra" playa to New York, that I received a telegram from Peter Brook. Probably the most distinctively original young tal-lent in the British theater, Brorc had never tackled the direction of a film and he wanted to do so. He had had talks with Herbert Wilcox to that end and he had named the subject "The Beggar's Opera." He had aroused Wilcox's enthusiasm for the project and he had enlisted the support of Christopher Frey and Dennis Cannan as writers and Sir Arthur Bliss to do the music.

Would I play the singing highwayman hero. Captain MacHeath? Naturally I wanted to know how it was proposed to tackle the problems which eight' years before had seemed to be insurmountable. Brook quickly satisfied me that he had devised a workable and attractive framework. There remained problems a plenty, but at least there were a shape and a mood both of which I liked. As Brook outlined his plan and we got down to detailed discussion and a pooling of ideas, it began to appear that, without damage to the original, we had a story line.

And, by infusing the whole picture with the spirit of the Hogarth drawngs of the period, we would have a style and be true to the period. Brook's groupings and crowd scenes in the picture seem to me to capture exactly the Hogarthian flavor. Meanwhile Brook had cabled to New York, where Wilcox was, among other things, negotiating for another actor to play Mac-Heath. To my surprise Wilcox was emphatic that I could and should play Lhe part. Why? I asked.

He told me that he remembered that after his film, "Victoria the Great," in which the choir at the Coronation sang the famous "Long Amen," he had heard me sing it quite informally, I may sayl We decided that I would take singing lessons while In New York and when I could make recordings of the "Beggar's Opera" songs that satisfied me I would send them to Wilcox In London. Incidentally, Wilcox confirmed me in my decision that if I did not ing the MacHeath role I would not play it. I gave myself a month in which to decide. Before the month was i'p I almost lost heart. There were the two "Cleopatra" plays in performance, so I was playing Anthony or Caesar every night, and was also directing "Venus Observed" for its New York presentation.

I kept at my singing lessons, but it was all extremely tiring, and fatigue shows very quickly in singing. My first recordings showed me quite clearly that my vocal mechanism was well below par. However, I persevered, my energy came back and at last I dispatched the records. Wilcox and the others at home were happy about them and the die was cast. I would play MacHeath, and with Wilcox, co-produce the picture.

In England I continued my sing- Continued on Page 14, Col. 3 13 Video Makes Guy Madison Star Again By Louella O. Parsons HOLLYWOOD, Aug. (INS). I HOPE the movies wont strike me dead when I say it was TV and radio that brought Guy Madison back to acting life.

I must tell the truth. Ten years ago Guy became an overnight sensation in a small role in "Since You Went Away." In 1949 his contract with David O. Selznick ended and Guy was not considered a good buy moviewise. Selznick did not use him again in a film. Today he can come pretty near to writing his own ticket.

His Wild Bill Ilirkok TV-radio series has put him right back on top. At 31 years of age, the former baby-faced romantic Madison is lean and mature, in direct contrast to the somewhat pretty look and naive manner of the freshly discharged sailor who suddenly found himself a member of the fabulous David Selznick stable of stars. When Guy came to see me, his agent, Helen Ainsworth, accompanied him and she's as proud of what he has accomplished as if it had to her. It was Helen who persuaded him to study Continued on Page 14, Col. 1 'MISTER SCOUTMASTER' Clifton Webb, spic and span in his new uniform, gives an order to one of his charges in the film opening Friday at the Fox.

Broadway Hits Adorn Straw Hats in Area By Barbara L. Wilson A DRAMA, comedy and musical which have scored successes on Broadway during the past four seasons will be the attractions at Playhouse in the Park, Bucks County Playhouse and Lambertville Music Circus this week. Sidney Kingsley's "Detective Story," the police station 1 LMfcrfi'fai3 m. fctf -t ihitiUlKr -mt-r 1 urn -T'lrif ntlrr la 1)-llfW--J--v--- PAUSE THAT REFRESHES Francis L. Suflivan ponders the question while Patricia Medina and Glenn Ford tensely await his aid in their Zapotec treasure hunt, in "Plunder of the Sun," melodrama opening Saturday at the Stanton.

Finest Precision Dancers Are Virtually Anonymous By Saul Patt NEW YORK. 22 (APh OTHER chorus sirls may dream of dancing so well and smiling so radiantly their personal glow will overwhelm the Hollywood scout sitting in eighth row center. But not the Rockettes. Whho not averse so stardom, they have a dread of attracting individual attention on stage. Too often that would Players offering at Reading's Green Hills Theater, Tuesday through Saturday "Gigi," Anita Loos' adaptation of Colette's novel, opens at the Pocono Playhouse in Mountainhome, tomorrow evening.

Five members of the New York cast will be featured: Betty Ben-dyk, Peter Donat, Marjaret Ben-nerman, Doris Patston and Phoebe Mackay. The Millville Playhouse will present "Little Green Isie," a new musical by Norman Meranus and Charles Jules, Friday through Labor Dny. The Gretna Playhouse split-bill for the week includes "Lo and Behold," Monday through Wednesday, and "Invitation to a Murder," Thursday through Saturday "Be Your Age" will be the attraction at the Totem Pole Playhouse in Caledonia State Park The Town and Country Players will offer "See How They Run" at the Guthsville Hotel Playhouse rear Allentown, beginning tomorrow. NEW JERSEY: "Stalag 17." the Continued on Page 15, Col. 5 JOHN BARAGREY.

a tall, dark and handsome actor who made such a hit as Hannibal in "The Road to Rome," the season's opening attraction at Playhouse in the Park, is glad to be returning tomorrow. "That's the advantage of summer stock. 'Detective Story' is so different from the other play, it will give the same audience more of a chance to see me as an actor," he said, adding modestly that any actor can do the "Road to Rome" role. "It's a knockout of a part, and will 'make any actor." Perhaps it helped "make" Baragrey, because he and Arlene Francis were asked to do the play at the Theatre Guild's famous West-port, playhouse, "strictly on the success of the show here," Baragrey commented. "We would have broken the house record set by Ezio Pinza, but there were 75 empty seats the night of the hurricane a week ao." "Detective Story," in which Baragrey plays the tough Detective McLeod, is the actor's second assignment in a r-i n-t e-round, and he was enthusiastic about the local tent theater.

"Playhouse in the Park is the most exciting thing I ever saw," Baragrey declared, during dinner last week at nearby Belmont Mansion. "Cut it's a terrific job to act on the arena stage. One must face different ways instead of just out beyond the proscenium of a regular theater. "The voice projection is much more difficult, since the audience surrounds you. The voice must come from your very depths." The actor also had high praise for the Playhouse's technical staff.

"The apprentices are wonderful," he declared. "They are most efficient in managing the scenery and props." Baragrey enthusiasm extended to the city as a whole. "Philadelphia Is a fine town for actors. You have a choice of hotels and restaurants. In some cities there's only one good hotel, and sometimes you're lucky to find any place where the food is good." Now 34, Baragrey has only a soft trace of his native Southern accent.

He has been acting in Broadway shows and movies and on television, since his graduation from the University of Alabama in 1939. And acting is all he wants to do. "It's the most exciting thing in the world," he said. "And my only ambition is to be a good actor." Last season Baragrey did nothing but television shows 19 of Continued on Page 14, Col. 3 i t-? AUNT CISSIE Connie Sawyer is in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," opening Tuesday at Lambertville Music Circus.

p7 This Week's Amusement Calendar thriller of the 1949 season, will be the 11th offering under the Fairmount Park tent. John Baragrey, who became the Belmont Plateau matinee idol while appearing as Hannibal in "The Road to Rome," will be seen as the hard-bitten lieutenant. Mary Welch, of last week's "Arms and tha Man" cast, will portray the lieutenant's whose past drives a wedge in their marriage. Sally Gracie will be the shoplifter, the only other female role. Male parts will be handled by Tom Reynolds, Benn Hammer, James Reese, Carl White, Fred Sade and Charles Boaz.

Martin Ritt, well known for his acting and directing in the legitimate theater, will stage the production. Edward Mabley's 1951 comedy, "Glad Tidings," about a journalist who returns to the United States after 20 years' absence and discovers that he is the father of a 1-year-old daughter, is tne New Hope offering. Frances Reid and John Morley have the leading roles, while Kaye Lyder, Sara Seegar, Ruth White, Ronald Telfer, Gerrianne Raphael, James Clark and James Goodwin complete the supporting cast. Robert Caldwell is directing, and David Reppa has designed the setting, a terrace of a house on the Connecticut shore. "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn," another product of the 1951 sea- son, will arrive at Lambertville i Tuesday evening.

With melodies I by Arthur Schwartz and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, the musical was adapted from Betty Smith's best- 1 selling novel by George Abbott and Miss Smith. i Connie Sawyer, a performer from the light opera circuit, w.ll be cast as Aunt Cissy, the role originated on Broadway by Shir-j ley Booth. Patience Jarvis will be Francie, while Evelyn Ward Willi portray her mother, Katy Nolan, and Warde Donovan will sing the part of Johnny Nolan. Robert C. Jarvis is staging the production.

Rex Cooper is doing the choreography and Sylvan Levin will conduct the orchestra, AROUND PHILADELPHIA The Friends' Central Summer Theater, made up of high school and college students, will present Mary Chase's comedy hit, "Harvey," Friday and Saturday at 8:30 P. in the Rex Gymnasium, 68th st. and City Line ave. Hedgerow Theater has scheduled "Heartbreak House," Tuesday evening; "Arms and the Man," Wednesday; "The Great' Gesture," Thursday; "Man and Superman," Friday at 7:30 P. and "Too True to Be Good," Sat- urday.

UP-STATE: Tommorrow the Kenley Players at Barnesville will present John Kenley'i new comedy "Sassy Little Lassie." Concerning a young lady with i pink hair, Kenley says that his comedy is "zingy and xany." Phil-adelphiana will be able to judge for themselves when he brings the i play in town during the coming legit season Tennessee Williams "Summer and Smoke" will be the Berks Many Face Loss of Jobs IfBing Quits By Clement D. Jones HOLLYWOOD. Aug. 22 (UP). BING CROSBY would love to retire but he's got to think of all the people such retirement would put out of work.

At least, that's what the crooner aid after watching a preview screening of his new film, "Little Boy Lost." at Paramount. "Me rd loTe to spend the next 10 years traveling, fishing and 'playing all the good golf courses around the world," he said. "Boy, that'd be heaven! 'But I can't do it. Look, I'm producing some TV films, I have 3500 head of cattle on 25,000 acres In Nevada. I have some oil interests and Bob Hope and I share In others.

Nothing much just a thin, barely discernible stream of crude In Texas. "Then, too. I help finance some inventors and make novelty toys and frozen orange juice. And there are a few other things I can't remember at the moment. But, all told, I guess I have about 100 people working directly for me who'd be put out of work if I retired.

Gotta think of them. Bing had considerable more holdings. But he has had to sell his race horses, two estates, and some of his cattle In an effort to raise enough cash to pay a million-dollar inheritance tax. The tax, which Larry Crosby says "is close to a million dollars," came after the death of Bing's wife, Dixie, last fall. She left her half of the Crosby fortune to Bing and the boys.

And under California law they have to pay an inheritance tax to claim it. "Singing doesn't interest me like It used to," he said. "Acting, yes, but not singing. It seems these days you gotta wave your hands and holler into an echo chamber and generally have a nervous breakdown, if you're to catch the public fancy as a singer. Me, I can't do this sort of nonsense." Nonetheless, Bing admits hell keep on singing.

Leon Ames in Comedy Scheduled for Locust Originally scheduled for Boston. Elaine Perry's production of "The Paradise Question" will begin a two-week pre-Broadway engagement at the Locust Theater. Sept. 21. The comedy, written by Walter Hart and Richard Maibaum, features Leon Ames and Barbara Rob-bins.

It will have its world premiere at the Lakewood Theater, Skowhe-gan, Maine, next Monday. Renoir and Dallo. (2. 4:35, 7:15. 10) and Lucrezia Borgia (79 min.) Revival about the infamous Roman family, with Edwiee Feuillere.

(3:15, 5:55, 8:35, STUDIO. Moulin Rouge (118 min.) Jose Ferrer as Toulouse-Lautrec in John Huston's Paris-filmed Mography. Colette Marchand, Suzanne Flon in cast. 25th week. (Today: 2:15, 4:25, 6:35, 8:45.

10:55) TRANS-LUX. My Darling Clementine (97 min.) Revival, with Henry Fonda and Victor Mature. (Today: 2:18. 5:30, 8:40) and Call of the Wild (81 min.) Revival of Jack London adventure, with Clark Gable and Loretta Young. (4, 10:20) WORLD.

V) On the Summer Stages Glad Tidings Edward Mabley comedy, with John Morley and Frances Reid, BUCKS COUNTY PLAYHOUSE, tomorrow. Detective Story Sidney Kingsley's police drama, with John Baragrey and Mary Welch, PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK, tomorrow. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Arthur Schwartz-Dorothy Fields musical adapted from Betty Smith's novel, LAMBERTVILLE MUSIC CIRCUS, Tuesday. mean they were out of step. Their job is to look alike, dance alike, smile alike.

As a result, the average Rockette has become one of the world's most famous nonentities. She dances before 8.0CO.000 people a year at Radio City Music Hall. As a tourist attraction she ranks with the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Bu'ldin? and Broadway's bright lights. But no fame ever involved more anonymity. She usually gets about as much personal attention as an usher.

Loss of stage identity goes with the job. And the job giving the audience the illusion of watching 36 smiles and 12 legs perform as one, whether they're tapping, kicking or wheeling around the block-long stage in complicated formations. "About the only time the audience might notice you particularly is the time you'd lik-3 to forget," says Mary Limbach, a prety, blue-eyed blonde from Massillon, O. Like the time the elevator didn't go down." This she recalled with a shudder, although it happened two years ago. The whole line was turning in a wheel.

Mary's end was backing up, kicking confidently, serene in the assumption that a section of the stage which was elevated 18 inches a lew seconds ago would now be level. It wasn't. Mary and three others hit the deck backward. "It was a nightmare," she recalled, "but we got back in line without losing more than two counts. How, I'll never know." Mishaps like this, of course, are exceptions to the Rockette rule of ultra-accurate timing and sameness.

They look so much alike onstage, they don't even attract their fair share of wolves. Romance, it seems is not encouraged by the feeling that a girl may have 35 sisters. The closest Mary Limbach has come to romance across the footlights is far from anything her mother need worry about. During the run of every stage show they change only when the Mu3ic Hall puts on a new movie one old, whitehaired man manages to see the Rockettes at least a dozen times. Invariably tn sits on the stage right side of the house Mary's sde.

He Junt sits there, never waves, smiles, winks or otherwise tries to get the girls' attention. "Every now and then," Mary said, "he'll see me looking at him. Continued on Page 14, Col. 4 'Show Boat9 Set for Arena ST. JOHX TERRELL'S famous Music Circus will present Jerome Kern's immortal "Show Boat" at The Arena, 4Gth and Market sts.y on Monday evening, Oct.

12, under the sponsorship of The Philadelphia Inquirer Charities, Inc. The gala Arena viewing will be the premiere performance of the first Music Circus one-night-stand tour, a new experiment for Terrell and his musical theater-in-the-round. The cast will feature most of the same artists who played to packed houses at Lam-bertviile recently. Full details of this exciting Philadelphia "first" will appear in The Inquirer early in September. Rita Hayworih's Next HOLLYWOOD.

Rita Hay-worth's next film for Columbia re lease will be "The King's Mistress." 4 SURPRISED John Mor-ley takes a leading role tomorrow in "Glad Tidings," comedy at the Bucks County Playhouse. ft New Films Plunder of the Sun Searching for the Zapotec treasure in Mexico, with Grenn Ford, Diana Lynn, Patricia Medina. STANTON, Friday. Mr. Scoutmaster Clifton Webb's harassed scout leader, with Edmund Gwenn and George "Foghorn" Winslow.

FOX, Friday. Devil's Canyon Technicolor 3-D Western, with Virginia Mayo, Dale Robertson, Stephen Mc-Nally STANLEY. Saturday. Current Films Latin Lovers (104 min.) Romantic complications in Brazil with money supplying the ways and means, with Lana Turner, Ricardo Montalban and John Lund. (Today: 2:25, 4:20, 6:15, 8:10, ARCADIA.

A Blueprint for Murder (76 min.) Homicide by poison, with Joseph Cotten, Gary Merrill, Jean Peters. (3. 4:45, 6:35, 8:25. FOX. The War of the Worlds (85 min.) H.

G. Wells science-fiction thriller, in Technicolor, with Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. (Today: 2, 3:45, 5:30, 7:15, 9, 10:50, GOLDMAN. The Master of Ballantrae (88 min.) Robert Louis Stevenson adventure, with Errol Flynn, Beatrice Campbell, Roger Livesey. (Today: 2:15, 4:15, 6:15, 8:10.

13:10) MASTBAUM. Return to Paradise (103 min.) Samoan Island romance based on James A. Michener's "Mr. Morgan," with Gary Cooper, Roberta Haynes, Barry Jones. Third week.

(Today: 2, 3:50, 5:40, 7:30, 9:20, 11:10) MIDTOWN. The Band Wagon (112 min.) Backstage musical starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Jack Buchanan. Nanette Fabray. Third week. (2:05, 4:05, 6:05, 8:05.

10:05) RANDOLPH. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (91 min.) Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell as those "little girls from Little Rock." Songs, dances. 5th week. (2:30. 4:05.

6:05. 8:05, 10:10) STANLEY. A Slight Case of Larceny (71 min.) Mickey Rooney and Eddie Bracken trying to earn a shady dollar. (Today: 2. 4:35, 7:15.

9:55. 12:25 A. 'and Cry of the Hunted (78 min.) Chase through the Louisiana swamps, with Barry Sullivan, Vittorio Gassman. (3:10, 5:45. 8:25, 11:05, 1:30 A.

STANTON. Forbidden Quarters (80 min.) Love affairs among the French aristocracy, with Jean Films on the Way Island In the Sky Rescue of survivors of crash-landed plane in Labrador, with John Wayne, Lloyd Nolan, Walter Abel. MASTBAUM, undated. Dangerous Crossing, melodrama, with Jeanne Craln and Michael Rennie. MIDTOWN, undated.

Roman Holiday Ro- mance of a newspaperman and a princess, with Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert, RANDOLPH, undated. the Jury Biff Elliott as Mickey Splllane's Mike Hammer. GOLDMAN, undated. Future Summer Plays Gig! Anita Loos comedy, with Betty Bendyk and Margaret Bannerman. BUCKS COUNTY PLAYHOUSE, Aug.

31. Springtime for Henry, Benn Levy's classic farce, with Edward Everett Horton, PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK, Aug. 31. Call Me Madam, Irving Berlin hit musical. LAMBERTVILLE MUSIC CIRCUS, Sept.

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