Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1959)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY VOL. 86, NO. 67 NEW YORK, U.S.A., MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1959 TEN CENTS EDITORIAL Trailer Tribute By Sherwin Kane HERMAN ROBBINS, president of National Screen Service, recently announced that his company, founded Oct. 15, 1919, had decided to hold a 40th anniversary celebration to extend for six weeks from this Oct. 15. The company knew what it didn't want the celebration to be, he said. For example, a sales drive was out. So was any glorification of executive personalities within the company. And it needed to be something more than just an observance of the completion of four decades of industry service, Robbins said. But what? Then, from an exhibitor source completely unaware of the approaching anniversary, came the suggestion that at a fitting time there should be a "Once-in-a-Lifetime Tribute to Trailers," in which all segments of the industry would be invited to participate "in emphasizing and dramatizing the importance of trailers to the motion picture box office." The exhibitor's idea became the anniversary theme. The vital role that trailers play in bringing patrons to the box office is known to every exhibitor. So well known, in fact, that there is danger of their being taken too much for granted. With that in mind, National Screen's 40th anniversary "Tribute to Trailers" will be dedicated, first of all, to generating activities which will encourage members of the industry to pause and reflect on the importance of trailers in their business. Whatever the means decided upon to pay a "once-in-a-lifetime tribute to trailers" from Oct. 15 to Thanksgiving, the main point is that the industry give thought to the proven worth of these effective, indefatigable salesmen of motion Pictures and how for 40 years they have been persuading more people to come to the box offices than otherwise would have been there. The congratulations due trailers and National Screen on this occasion are indeed well merited. India Newspaper Features Article on Quigley Pub. Special to THE DAILY ADMEDABED, India, Sept, 29 (By Air Mail).— A brief history of the Quigley Publishing Company, its organization and the periodicals it publishes, is the lead story on the weekly theatre page of "Daily Jansatta" here. Written by Harsukhray L. Raval, of the India Advertising Agency, which has headquarters here and in Bombay, the article quotes from an anniversary issue of "Motion Picture Herald " The article is illustrated with photos of Martin Quigley, Martin Quigley, Jr. and the late Terry Ramsaye, former editor of the "Herald." Raval has been a reader of the "Herald" for 19 years. Producers, Credit Group Plan Closer Liaison Closer liaison between the Film Producers Ass'n. and the Motion Picture Credit Group here is predicted as a result of a meeting of representatives of the two organizations last week. The producers' viewpoint on financial and technical problems, his business outlook and the ways in which he believes motion picture laboratories, (Continued on page 3) SAAPT Conventioi PAGES 4-6 | Harrison To Speak on General Film Outlook Special to THE DAILY BALTIMORE, Md., Oct. 4.-Alex Harrison, general sales manager of Twentieth Century-Fox, has joined the roster of speakers for the first fall conference of the Maryland Theatre Owners Association, at the Emerson Hotel here on Wednesday, Oct. 14, John G. Broumas, president, announced. Harrison will outline the general product situation for the (Continued on page 2) Pitt. Drive-ins' Trust Suits Discontinued Here Anti-trust suits brought in U.S. District Court here five years ago by the Colonial and Harmer drive-ins, located in the Pittsburgh area, were discontinued on Friday without having been brought to trial. Some time ago the plaintiffs were warned by the ( Continued on page 2) COMPO Warns Newspapers They Are Censors1 Targets As Well As Films Newspapers also are among the targets of pro-censorship forces, it was charged in a letter sent over the week-end by Charles E. McCarthy, information director of COMPO, to Lee Wood and Paul Sann, executive editors respectively of the New York World Telegram and Sun and the New York Post. McCarthy's letter was prompted by the papers' publication of a series of Associated Press stories written by Bob Thomas from Hollywood. The series discussed the effects on church groups of franker language and film subject matter which Thomas says are now being used in pictures as a result of changes in the Production Code. "Surely you must be aware," McCarthy wrote the editors, "that these stories are heavy ammunition for procensorship zealots and that they will be used with devastating effect in the (Continued on page 3) Opens Today Space Age Is Theme of 86th SMPTE Meet Curtis Will Address First Luncheon Meeting Today With "Motion Pictures and Television in the Space Age" as its theme, the 86th semi-annual convention of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers will get underway here today at the Statler Hilton Hotel. Highlight of today's program will be a luncheon speech by Edward P. Curtis, a director of Eastman Kodak Co. and vice-president in charge of professional motion picture film sales and foreign sales and advertising. His sub(Continued on page 5) AB PT Buys 244,968 Of Preferred Stock From THE DAILY Bureau WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 4. According to papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission here, American Broadcasting Paramount Theatres, Inc., during the span from January 3 to July 31, 1959, bought 244,968 of its 320,799 five per cent preferred stocks outstanding. Purchased on the New York Stock Exchange for a total of $4,779,777, the company made the major seg(Continued on page 6) Goldstein Begins Tour For 'Solomon'' Today United Artists' advance campaign for Edward Small's "Solomon and Sheba" moves into its second stage with Jack Goldstein, of the film's special promotion unit, embarking on a 15-city coast-to-coast tour beginning today, it was announced by Fred (Continued on page 3) IE NOW FOR «5 EVERY FILM NEED : IN B&W OR COLO Speed, Quality and Service at Lo Cost • Specializing in 35mm Colo M« Developing ■ Dailies * 16;nm Color Prints • Precision Optica Is • Title or ND HOLLYWOOD Stand Work