Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1948)

12 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, October 9, 1948 No Peace Till You Book — Rank (Continued from Page 5) yet competitive, basis. I still wish to operate on this basis in spite of what has happened over the last 12 months. "... I would still like to reach an understanding with them but I doubt if it can be reached under the leaders of the Hollywood industry until prepared to accept the fact that the British film industry is an established industry and is one which must be treated on that footing. I am equally satisfied that there can be no peace or real understanding between the American industry and the British industry until otfr films receive reasonable playing time OK by Independents Independents and other non-Rank theatres in Great Britain have accepted the "AllAmerican" programs which American distributors are insistent upon and are booking them heavily, London reported this week. The "All-American" bills, designed to beat the British quota which would arbitrarily cut into American film rentals by classifying many of them as B's and entitled to the smaller part of the revenue on double bills, is a sales policy set up by the Americans whereby both halves of a double feature have to be American. To date J. Arthur Rank's circuits have not bought on this basis, but his buying month is not till mid-November, London said. in the U. S. A. which they are not doing today. . . . "In 1945," Rank continued apparently thrusting at arguments that British films could not succeed here, "1 was told by Hollywood leaders that the Canadian and American markets were virtually the same. I can only reiterate that, if the earnings of British films in American bore the proper relationship to those which we achieve in Canada, we should receive many millions of dollars per annum from the U. S. A." Critical of Report London trade sources this week were reportedly critical of the financial statements issued by the J. Arthur Rank companies. Press comment claimed that Rank had borrowed more than $52,000,000 from the bank and had listed as assets $48,000,000 which covered inventory and story rights on films to be produced. (This is usually regarded as an ordinary bookkeeping procedure.) Rank reported $16,727,032 profits before taxes on his $268,000,000 investment. Video Council Elects Mel Gold was elected president of the National Television Council this week. Other officers are Vice-President Burt Balaban, Secretary Robert M. Wormhoudt and Treasurer Robert W. Paskow. Football Films Theatres in Columbus, O., are finding competition in the films made of football games of the Ohio State University team on the home diamond. The films are shown in University Hall on Ohio State campus with a general admission of 50 cents and 25 cents for students. Only one performance is given of each home game but it is a complete coverage of the preceding day's games. A babysitter service is being provided on the campus so that university student families may attend the home games. Silent Films Back Silent pictures came back to San Francisco this week at one of the city's most historic theatres, the Bella Union in the Barbary Coast section, which first opened its doors 99 years ago. On the anniversary bill was Charlie Chaplin's "The Count" and William Haines' "The Thrill Hunter." WiU Sell You Coffee And Sugai It Too A coffee dispenser which makes drip coffee, can make change, and take nickels, dimes or quarters while serving a six-ounce cup of hot coffee, is the latest drink dispenser available for theatre use, according to Jay Means, who operates the Oak Park at Kansas City, Mo. Means unveiled the new dispenser last week. It is the product of a firm in which he is interested with Tom Willard, Coleman Buck, Ronale E. Lime and the Lymean Manufacturing Company. Means is working on additional financing to put the machine, a pilot model of which has been produced, into actual production. He estimates cost of the finished product will be $800 to $900 a machine. According to Means the consumer places a coin in the slot, the machine goes into action and brews a fresh cup of coffee and pours it into a paper cup behind a glass trap door. The consumer then may add cream and sugar by means of push buttons. After that he raises the trap door and helps himself to the coffee. Once the door is raised and lowered the cycle must be reactivated by a coin. Red Probe to Start filter Election— McDowell The House Committee on Un-American Activities will resume its probe of alleged red activities in Hollywood shortly after the election, Rep. John McDowell said in Washington this week. The new hearings will be held in Hollywood. Meanwhile counsel for Screenwriter John Howard Lawson, who is one of the 10 held in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions on his political affiliations, asked the U. S. Supreme Court to act immediately to determine the right of the Committee to compel witnesses to answer such questions. Calendar OCTOBER 13-15, annual convention, Independent Theatre Owners of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, Hotel Schroeder, Milwaukee. 14, testimonial dinner by Kansas City film industry to N. Y. Radio City Music Hall Manager Gus Eyssell, Muehlbach Hotel, Kansas City, Mo. 17, ninth annual dinner dance, Motion Picture Bookers Club, Hotel Commodore, New York. 26, seventh annual meeting, Motion Picture Theatres Association of Canada, King Edward Hotel, Toronto. 27-2S, annual convention, Kentucky Association ot Theatre Owners, Seelbach Hotel, Louisville. 25-29, semi-annual convention, Society of Motion Picture Engineers, Hotel Statler, Washington, D. C. NOVEMBER 1-2, convention. Allied Theatre Owners of Texas, Dallas. 12, 13, convention, West Virginia Theatre Managers' Association, Terrace-Plaza Hotel, Cincinnati. 27-28, fall board meeting of National Allied, New Orleans. 29-Dec. 1, annual convention, National Allied, New Orleans. N. O. Unit Youngest Allied Meet Host When national Allied holds its convention in New Orleans Nov. 29-Dec. 1 it will be meeting in one of the oldest cities in the United States . with the youngest Allied units — Allied Theatre Owners of the Gulf States — eager to be a host to a national organization, Maurice Artigues claimed this week. Artigues, manager of the Gulf States unit with offices at New Orleans, declared that the coming convention will not only be an important one for business, but that on the pleasure side it probably will top any Allied convention held to date. He pointed to the fact that New Orleans, in addition to offering a modern seaport industrial city and the hub of Latin-American air transportation, was one of the few new world cities to preserve an old world charm. Famous Old City The famous French Quarter, built by the French and Spaniards and bringing to America one of her first theatres, even before Washington led continental armies against the British, stands in its original charm and quaintness, he said. In addition, New Orleans' famous restaurants, where food and drink are an art, are still operating. One of them, he said, has been feeding epicures for better than a century. The youngest, he added, is better than a quarter of a century old. Details of the social festivities at the National Allied convention were released this week by W. A. Prewitt, Jr., convention chairman. On Monday, Nov. 20, the ladies attending the convention will be taken on a walking tour of the old French quarter during the afternoon. That evening a party will be held aboard the steamer President, which will plow up and down the Mississippi while the revelries go on. Ladies Day On Tuesday the ladies will attend a special luncheon and fashion show at the Roosevelt Hotel, and from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. a cocktail party will feature all the famous New Orleans drinks. The annual banquet (informal) will take place Wednesday evening. The committee announces that every effort is being made to insure sufficient hotel accommodations, but warns that late-comers may have difficulty obtaining rooms. Award Atwater Kent has added $500 to the winning Youth Month tuition scholarship at the University of Denver, headquarters of the Theatre Owners of America declared. Unscathed The flurry aroused in Mississippi by Novelist James Street's criticism of the States' Rights Democratic movement, has seemingly had but little effect on the pulling power of "Tap Roots," New Orleans reports. One Mississippi exhibitor canceled the film, but the picture has since been shown in Meridian as a benefit for the States' Rights campaign fund, netting the southern cause about $1,000. Many residents of the state made contributions to the fund immediately after Street's attack — money which they said they would have spent at theatres, so the States' Rights movement gained two ways. In New Orleans "Tap Roots" was held for a second week at the downtown RKO Orpheum.