Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1960)

6 Jelevis'ion Joday Motion Picture Daily Tuesday, October 18, 196( 1959 Revenue ( Continued from page 1 ) year before. Television profits alone were up 29.3 per cent to $222,300,000. Radio profits rose bv 13.7 per cent of $42,400,000. Total 1959 revenues of the four nation-wide radio networks were $60,400,000, down 6.4 per cent from 1958. These nation-wide networks and their 19 owned-and-operated stations reported a 1959 loss of $4,500,000 as compared with $4,900,000 in 1958. Total revenues were up 9.3 per cent to $499,600,000 and total pretax profits were up 11.9 per cent to $46,900,000 for the nation's other 3,509, AM, AM-FM, and independent FM stations. Of the 3,380 AM stations that reported to FCC, 1,174-or 34.7 per cent— reported a loss from operations in 1959. A year earlier, 34.6 per cent of stations reported losses. Of the 148 independent FM-only stations, 110 reported losses from operations last year. There were 3,418 radio stations operating in 1,889 metropolitan statistical areas and other communities in 1959; 1,357 of these radio markets had one station and 275 had two stations in operation. TvB Annual Meeting Set for Nov. 15-18 The 1960 annual meeting of the Television Bureau of Advertising will be held here Nov. 15 through 18. Climaxing the four-day session will reports by Norman E. Cash, TvB presentation, 'The Progress of Discontent," to be shown in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Friday, Nov. 18. The Friday agenda also includes reports by Norman E. Cash, TvB president, and Otto Brandt, board chairman, and others. Election of new directors and officers will be held in the afternoon. The Thursday meeting of the membership will include discussion of current sales problems with guest speakers from leading advertising agencies and advertisers. Meeting of the TvB sales advisory committee is slated for Wednesday, Nov. 16, while the TvB board of directors will gather on Tuesday, Nov. 15. The board will meet at One Rockefeller Plaza. All meetings on Thursday and Friday will be at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Kreisler TV Deals Negotiations have been completed in Paris by B. B. Kreisler, president of International Film Associates Corp., and Fred Orain, head of Armor Films, for the co-production of an original series of 39 "Passport to Adventure" half hour subjects for television showing in the U. S. Also for an art series in color featuring the paintings of Picasso, Braque, Gris, Dufy and other post-impressionist artists for exhibition in American art theatres. REVIEW: 'Coexistence The Village of the Damned Ronald Kinnoch — MGM "The Village of the Damned" is based on an eerie and incredible novel which author John Wyndham called "The Midwich Cuckoos." It is a credit to the craftmanship of director Wolf Rilla that he has made a film which is enthralling to the point that its vague premise is unimportant. It is a combination of science fiction and good old-fashioned horror. This Ronald Kinnoch production opens on a small English town which is mysteriously put to sleep by unknown factors. The government is alerted and when the town awakens and seems to be no worse for the event, the troops are withdrawn, but George Sanders, a prominent townsman, is asked to report any unusual recurrences. What he later reports is that a score of the village women, including his wife, Barbara Shelley, have become pregnant and most have no natural explanation for the fact. The women all give birth prematurely on the same day and all the offspring show similar physical characteristics, including prominent blond hair and arresting eyes. The children grow far too rapidly and the town, upset by their superior intellects and unusual mannerisms, want to destroy the newcomers. Sanders, in hopes of gaining scientific advances from their knowledge, effectively pleads for them. The situation become impossible, however, when the children are found to be the cause of certain of the villager's deaths. The fatalistic ending of the picture is a disappointment, but the screenplay by Stirling Silliphant, Wolf Rilla and George Barclay really made it the only one possible. Geoffrey Faithfull's MetroScope photography gives the film an air of reality and the photographic effects accomplished by Tom Howard are chilling. Sanders, in a switch from his usual roles, gives a very good depiction of the disturbed father who wants to break the barrier separating the children from the humanity of the world and the children, especially Martin Stephens as David, give professional portrayals of the unnatural beings. Running time, 78 minutes. Release, January, 1961. William Werneth TV Code Services Are Offered on Post-' 48s From THE DAILY Bureau WASHINGTON, Oct. 17. The Television Code Review Board of the National Association of Broadcasters has offered its services to television code subscribers and to television film distributors in the event assistance is needed in interpreting code provisions as they affect motion pictures produced after 1948. The announcement was made by E. K. Hartenbower, vice-president and general manager of KCMO-TV, Kansas City, Mo., and chairman of the Television Code Review Board. Sees 'Rich New Source' "The post-'48 films provide a rich new source of television programming," Hartenbower commented, "and undoubtedly are in great demand among stations. As in all programming, there are instances when interpretation of the television code may be required. When such occasions arise, the board and its staff will be available to assist code subscribers and film distributors as we have done since the code was adopted almost nine years ago." Hartenbower said a number of Film Technicians Get Raises in New Deal From THE DAILY Bureau LONDON, Oct. 14 (By Air Mail)Some 1,500 film technicians, mostly engaged in making documentary and sponsored films, get a salary increase as a result of a new agreement signed between the Association of Cinematograph Television and Allied Technicians and the Association of Specialized Film Producers. The agreement ensures for the first time regular instead of casual employment for many technicians. It gives established staff a minimum guarantee of 12 months' employment with salary increase of 7% per cent. Top Minimum $67 Weekly The new rates give established technicians a minimum top rate of £24 ($67) a week previously £21 ($58) and to a limited number of casual employees, who will still be engaged, minimum salaries 18V4 per cent above existing rates. post-'48 film packages already are being distributed and that others would be offered to television networks and stations within the next few months. (Continued from page 1) ence'." They submit that the "invalii censorship accomplishes but or. thing: it chokes off the moving pictui. as one of the communicating arts ii Chicago, a great city which has beei traditionally identified with the art. . . . There can be only the demis. of the censor here, lest free speed perish in Chicago." Times Film Corp. notes that tb City of Chicago, its mayor and i police chief-respondents-admit tha the issue is whether prior censorshii clashes with First Amendment gua antees as applied to the states througl the Fourteenth. The company assert. "Respondents cannot cite a single i| stance in which this Court has actei in other fashion than to invalidat prior censorship of speech. There no such instance in our judicial hi tory— even in Colonial days speed: was not subjected to the imprimati of the censor." Since the Supreme Court has he! "repeatedly" that motion pictures fd under the scope of the First Amenc ment and the "general rules pertain ing thereto apply," the reply brii argues, "it follows that Chicago cai not erect a censor's barrier betwee the motion picture as a form c speech, and the public. Hit 'Big Brother Role' Times Film claimed that Chicag and its officials "seek to base the: Big Brother role on the totally ui substantiated assumption that censoi ship is an 'effective' remedy." Tf company says that a mere look I the record of the present case in tr? courts, "which sheds 'light' on the ai tual operation of Respondents' boan can easily lead to the opposite cor elusion, that censorship as a remec is most inept." It adds that the dt gree of 'effectiveness" of a remec is not "determinative of its constiti tionality." Respondents have claimed that tf petitioners seek their constitution, guarantee to exhibit "what the please" as long as they "like it" ui der the "guise" of freedom. In response to this, Times coi tends "that the issue as to whethi speech as an absolute is a differei one from the question here befoi the Court." The Times original bri« "is replete with references to oth< methods of control, all less hars| than out-and-out censorship." High Court Supports Insurance FW In Case Covering 'Junk Film' Firej WASHINGTON, Oct. 17. Tfj Supreme Court has refused to revie a decision of the Ninth Circuit Couj which held that Azteca Films, Inc., I distributor of Spanish-language filial was not covered by an insurawjl policy for certain damage that tec j place when "junk film" caught firjl The lower court upheld the assertiol of the insurance company, Gener: I Casualty Co. of America, that in tl circumstances its policy did not a ply.