Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1952)

11 Financial & Trade Notes: Among officers’ and direc tors’ stock transactions reported by SEC for November 1951: Earl E. Anderson sold 1G00 ABC, holds 50C0; T. Earl Robinson bought 100 Arvin, holds 732; Gordon T. Ritter bought 10 Arvin (Oct.), holds 624; William C. Decker sold 1000 Corning Glass, holds 1541; Benjamin Abrams bought 1200 Emerson for trust for children (Jan.), holds 295,336 personally and through trusts and foundations; Ralph J. Cordiner bought 200 GE, holds 500; Leicester W. Fisher sold 340 General Instrument (Oct.), holds 599; Howard K. Halligan bought 100 General Precision Instrument, holds 100; Matthew J. Hickey Jr. bought 56 Motorola personally, bought 700, sold 1631 through Hickey & Co., holds 2500 personally and 600 through Hickey & Co.; Barney Balaban exercised option to buy 30,000 Paramount Pictures, holds 30,000; Thomas A. Kennally gave 40 Philco as gift, holds 19,934; William Fulton Kurtz gave 10 Philco as gift (Feb.), holds 200; Charles B. Jolliffe bought 100 RCA, holds 500; Waldo I. Stoddard bought 100 Sparks-Withington (Oct.), holds 100; N. J. Blumberg sold 700 Universal Pictures (Oct.), holds none; Decca Records bought 14,300 Universal Pictures, holds 251,800; Hugh Robertson sold 200 Zenith, holds 1318. * * * * Emerson reports net income of $3,592,397 ($1.85 a share on 1,935,187 shares) for year ended Oct. 31, 1951 vs. $6,514,716 ($3.36) in fiscal 1950. Profits, net sales and earnings before taxes were all second highest in Emerson’s history, first being record year of 1950. Sales totaled $55,797,963, compared with $74,188,297 for fiscal 1950; earnings before taxes were $6,875,877 vs. $11,969,778 for 1950. President Benjamin Abrams said Emerson had substantial military orders and that 80% of its electronic and mechanical engineers were engaged in Government work. Proxy notice for Feb. 6 stockholders meeting lists these officerdirector beneficial stockholdings: Benjamin Abrams, 220,000 shares (salary $60,239, bonus $37,500); Max Abrams, secy.-treas. 80,000 (salary $40,090, bonus $28,275); Dorman D. Israel, executive v.p., 1364 (salary $32,103, bonus $19,000); Louis Abrams, director, president of EmersonNew York, 47,863; F. Eberstadt, director, banker, 1100; Richard C. Hunt, director, attorney, 704; George II. Saylor, director, retired, 484. Standard Coil Products Co. 1951 sales totaled more than $40,000,000, and net profits were close to $2,000,000, reports Wall Street Journal, quoting “source close to the company.” Fourth-quarter sales were at estimated monthly rate of $4,500,000. First 9 months sales topped $27,000,000 for profit of $1,164,957, or 79(1 a share. Standard and its subsidiary, Kollsman Instrument Corp., have defense backlog estimated at $42,000,000. Journal says Kollsman div. earned $760,000 and Standard $975,000 in first 11 months of 1951. Reports current in Wail Street have it that Standard Coil and General Instrument Corp. may soon merge, but there’s no comment from principals. It’s said consolidation would be effected on basis of 5 shares of Standard Coil for 6 of General Instrument. Of International Resistance Co.’s 325,000 shares registered with SEC for public sale (Vol. 8:1), 25,000 shares are being sold by these stockholders: Ernest Searing, president, holder of 78,496 shares (7.3%); Charles Weyl, executive v.p., 124,116 (11.6%); Mrs. Harold Pender, 99,709 (9.3%>). Offering at $5 per share was made this week. Raytheon reports net profit of $718,000 (35(1 a share) on sales of $45,348,000 for 6 months ended Nov. 30, 1951 vs. $1,278,000 ( 67<t ) in same 1950 period. Muntz TV Inc. reports $20,487,607 sales for 8 months ended Nov. 30, 1951, compared with $15,320,827 same 1950 period. RIVALRY between film industry and TV is “bareknuckles controversy,” in blunt appraisal by Milton MacKaye in first of series of 3 articles titled “The Big Brawl: Hollywood vs. Television” in Jan. 19 Saturday Evening Post. Result of 3 months of research and writing in New York, Washington and Hollywood, author’s approach is realistic, hard-headed, rational — -and, if succeeding articles are as good as first, they’ll make fine contribution to the reporting and thinking on a vitally important subject. Second article (Jan. 26) will deal with rise of TV production in Hollywood, third (Feb. 2) with problems of networks, advertising agencies, sponsors, etc., including costs of talent and programs. What MacKaye calls the “entertainment revolution” is “not only promised but under way.” He goes on: “It will be not only a war of showmen and technicians but a war of financiers. There will be, whether aboveboard or secret, great mergers and amalgamations, alliances between very strange bedfellows indeed. Because of the need for large pools of ready capital, because of the unpredictability of the future, this tentative choosing up of sides by powerful Wall Street and banking interests has now begun.” The writer pooh-poohs Hollywood statements that TV’s maximum impact is over, says freeze-end station construction will lead to battle’s climax. On financial side, he presents this summary of relationship between movie and TV stocks: (1) From 1946-1950, stocks of 4 major film companies (Columbia, Loew’s, 20th Century-Fox, Warner Bros.) declined 40%, while stocks of 4 TV firms (Admiral, Motorola, Emerson, Philco) increased 243%. (2) “In the rising market of June 1948 to Dec. 1950, film company stocks remained practically unchanged, while the average price of TV company stocks increased 60%. During this same period the Dow-Jones averages of all listed stocks showed an advance of 46%.” (3) From June 1947 to June 1949, when market as whole was at approximately same level, avex-age price of movie company stocks dropped 25%, while TV stocks increased 71%>. Article quotes National Theati’es chain president Charles P. Skoux-as (bx-other of 20th Century-Fox’s Spyros) as predicting TV would eventually eliminate 50% of the some 22,000 present theatres in U. S., other theatre men seeing 25-33% casualty figux’e. In attempt to delve into what is happening at boxoffice, author examines Fedex-al theatre tax admissions. These dropped from $385,844,000 in 1949 to $345,492,000 in 1951 despite soaring boxoffice prices and incx’easing national income and population. Tax figures also include admissions to legitimate theatres, baseball, football, circuses, etc., MacKaye points out, but “movie theatres pay the lion’s share.” c Phonograph and record sales showed healthy increase in 1951, in spite of TV — or perhaps because of TV, which keeps people home. RCA Victor record div. sales mgr. L. W. Kanaga estimates public spent 10% more for records in 1951 than in 1950, and that recox’d industry sold some 500,000 of 45rpm turntables last 4 months of this year. RCA president Frank Folsom reported December sales of 45rpm players were 40% above same month of 1950. He said 45 & 33%rpm long-playing records accounted for 90% of industry’s classical recox-d sales in 1951. Current boom in record sales evidenced by report of Paul Wexler, sales v.p. of Columbia Records Inc., that more than 1,000,000 popular records were sold between Jan. 7 & 11, largest sales pex-iod in firm’s history; 600,000 were accounted for by 11 hit discs. DuMont now ranks about fifth in TV industry, Dr. Allen B. DuMont testified at Paramount hearings this week (see page 7). He added firm now employs 4500, at peak employed 5200, expects to have 6000 by end of yeai\