The Smash Menagerie

In Hollywood's Carthay Circle Theater, movie folk watched and applauded last week as seven animals got their "Patsy" awards (the annual animal "Oscar") for outstanding performances. The first-prize winner: Rhubarb, a stealthy, orange-colored cat which starred in the picture of the same name. The other winners: Diamond and Smoky (horses), Corky and Chinook (dogs), Cheta (a chimpanzee playmate of Tarzan), and Francis (the "talking" mule). There were minor disturbances--Smoky was frightened and frisky; Diamond was nervous enough to misbehave onstage--but, all in all, the evening was a success. Moreover, it was a true sign of a new Hollywood trend: movies starring animals are really making money, hoof over paw.

Both Rhubarb and Francis, the grey, mild-mannered first-prize winner of last year's Patsy, are the proteges of Independent Director Arthur Lubin. Lubin produced Francis in 1949 for $624,000, grossed $4,000,000, and thus .helped put Universal-International Studios comfortably in the black. He followed with three more mule films. Francis Goes to the Races is already popular. Francis Goes to West Point and Francis Covers the Big Town are still to be released.

Now that he is known as a talking-animal entrepreneur, Director Lubin receives dozens of story suggestions every day. Says he, gloomily: "One guy wanted to sell me a love story of two fish. One guy wanted to do a story about a seal. Another story was to be called The Trimming of Goosey, about a man who sprouts wings and talks to birds. It has become important for me to do a picture about humans--quick."

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