The 3664-seat Paramount Theatre had the week's third biggest box office draw, the western THE VIRGINIAN, accompanied by a stage show headlined by movie comedian Eddie Bracken, and crooner Bob Eberly. The theater had an ornate main lobby modeled after the Paris Opera, but on a grander scale, with an enormous crystal chandelier. The auditorium held a huge pipe organ. Smaller lobbies, lounges, foyers and waiting rooms were located at various levels.
The biggest names in show business appeared on the Paramount stage, performing in front of the curtain. The theater went for the young crowd with stars like Frank Sinatra and Danny Kaye. The new show debuted April 17. Headliner Eddie Bracken, like Joel McCrea, star of "The Virginian," had been the leading man in Preston Sturges' comedies, in his case “Hail the Conquering Hero” and “The Miracle of Morgan Creek.” A native of Astoria, Queens, Bracken made his name on Broadway before heading to Hollywood. He was not everyone’s cup of tea; the over-privileged twits at Harvard Lampoon had named him the unfunniest comedian of the year earlier that month. The Variety reviewer felt that his prolonged stint away from live audiences was evident from his rusty timing and delivery. However, the reviewer duly noted that the enthusiastic young crowd called Bracken back for an encore. Billboard reviewer was more appreciative, writing that Bracken came in with a routine that was more than the standard Hollywood star appearances. His best were his pantomimes of a baseball pitcher and a Golden Gloves contender. He finished with a scene from "Hail the Conquering Hero." Less effective were his stutterer with hay fever and asthma.
Also featured on the bill was Bob Eberly, a major heartthrob for the bobbysoxer set when he was the male vocalist with the Jimmy Dorsey Band in the early '40s, often performing duets with Helen O’Connell. His Paramount appearance was part of a comeback attempt, now as a solo act, after his two-year stint in the service. He sang "Love Is Right Around the Corner" and "Love in Vain," then ended with a medley of his hits. Variety found him a disappointment. The reviewer said he was relying heavily on his Dorsey repertoire but, without the backing of the Dorsey band, his performance fell flat. Billboard also was not impressed, saying he sang every song but the opener "as if it were hard work." The crowd, however, liked him. Here he is with Jimmy Dorsey singing "A Sinner Kissed an Angel."
The Paramount stage production also included Johnny Long and his band. A regular at big hotel ballrooms, Long had never managed to parlay his band’s hit records, such as “In a Shanty In Old Shanty Town,” into a large fan base the way Benny Goodman, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, or Artie Shaw had. The Variety reviewer thought that the band had improved of late and he found the glee club-style singing and novelty numbers entertaining, but he complained that the standard numbers were given a pedestrian performance. They opened with a favorite number of big bands that month, "Hey Ba-Ba-Re-Bop," which was a hit for Lionel Hampton. Long's big number of the night was "Symphony," featuring Long playing a black-lighted fiddle. The band's "canary," Francey Lane, in a blue off-the-shoulder gown, sang "Personality" and a novelty tune, drawing whistles from the audience. Rounding out the bill was The Acromaniacs, a team of comedy acrobats.
According to Variety, THE VIRGINIAN from Paramount was doing big business everywhere in April. In 1946 the studios were betting heavily that postwar audiences wanted to see big budget “class” westerns, according to Time. Oaters were reliable profit makers, generating on average 50 percent profit off their relatively modest budgets, according to the magazine. Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were the biggest cowboy stars of the moment; while their movies might not get star-studded world premieres or A picture promotion, they were staple programmers in small town theaters as well as Saturday matinee fare everywhere.
Many middle-aged filmgoers in 1946 had grown up reading the classic 1902 Owen Wister novel and would remember the 1914 silent version that had starred Dustin Farnum and was directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Fifteen years later, a young Gary Cooper, wearing a lot of powder and eye makeup, uttered the famous line “Smile when you say that” in an early talkie version directed by Victor Fleming. A second silent version, in 1923, came in between.
This time around Joel McCrea starred and most critics agreed the new version was not up to its predecessors. “This old sway-backed horse opera should have been put out to pasture long ago,” said James Agee in Time, voicing a widespread critical sentiment. Paramount boasted that this version was in Technicolor, but by filming on studio sets they had wasted even that potential asset, according to Bosley Crowther of The New York Times. The movie had tepid endorsements from The Daily News and Herald-Tribune. While Crowther, the paper’s film critic was among the nay sayers, the Times editorial page on April 19 devoted a “Topics of the Times” column to an appreciation of Wister, noting that neither the novel nor its subsequent stage adaptation had pleased critics but both had been great successes with the public.
Tuesday night was two-for-one night, a preview of “The Virginian” along with the stage show and the departing film attraction, “Road to Utopia.” What a deal. Or, as they would say in 1946 “What a deal!”
McCrea had been a versatile leading man in dramas and comedies since the 1930s but his popularity had peaked in the early 1940s. He had done a few westerns before but it was the success of “The Virginian” that would turn him into a western star.
THE ROAD TO UTOPIA wrapped up its seven-week run with a box office bang, exiting the premises with Benny Goodman’s band to make way for “The Virginian.” This fourth installment of the popular road franchise took Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour to the Alaska Gold Rush and was one of the top moneymakers of 1946, although the film had been sitting on the shelf at Paramount for over a year. TCM has the original trailer here.