Columbia Records says sales of its classical records rose 40 per cent last year, thanks largely to “youth market.” Seems classical/rock fusions spark interest in the real thing. . . . Now Columbia hopes to draw rock fans to midnight Radio City Music Hall concert featuring E. Power Biggs, pianist Eugene List, swinging harpsichordist Anthony Newman. . . . Concerts helping Music Hall out of trouble, but good movies still do well there. 1776 had largest advance sale ($1 million), largest one-day gross ($52,000), set seven other records. . . . Coming to Broadway this month: Nash at Nine, musical Ogden Nash completed just before his death.
As predicted here, Mission: Impossible goes off the air at end of this season; Gun- smoke, however, has been renewed. . . . Hooray for Rod Serling: He’s launching a new radio drama series, The Zero Hour, to consist of week-long plays in half-hour episodes. Patty Duke, Howard Duff, and John (Gomez Addams) Astin are featured in the premiere. . . . Movies ahead: Ken Russell (The Devils) will do an adaptation of Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel; an animated version of Gulliver’s Travels with the voice of Richard Harris is under way in England; John Wayne’s next is McQ, a police thriller. . . . Columbia’s musical version of James Hilton’s Lost Horizon looks headed for the stratosphere. Coming soon: L.H. jewelry (by Pierre Cardin), perfumes, drapes, bedspreads, coloring books, neckties, body oils. Airplanes?
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