Variety (Dec 1947)

passim MPA Surprised at Hmmler of SOence' foactionto€DiiiiiiiePprgeM0Ye;SoiM hm ConmK&t Stroi^ Pkro and Coo "■^HST' iTdiiicalilyKeeiisTfaidw AtM-<:aiitRKOAx<isScQtt,fiiii]rtryli And M-Fox y&MUtk/stk. Anxiously awaiting press and man-f« In^he-street reaction to its ban oa plleged' Communists in tt>e studios, : the film industry , this week—much to its amazement—found the move had been received with "almost a thupdei^ of silence," as one surprised JMCotion Picture Assn. exec quipped 'Monday (t). MPA at the end of last week had a spot check made of edi- torial opinion expressed in the country's 90 most important news- papers and discovered that' hardly a '^ozen had commented at all. ' Tfiany more papers did have edi- ieirials on Congress' action in citing Jot contempt the 10 witnesses who Yefiued to answer questions of the 'Stousie Un-American Committee on their political affiliations. This oc- curred the day before the .industry announcement and won wide, com- mendation by the nation's press. It may have had some bearing on the lack of editorials on thfe iriWe ot the 'film industry's brass in New York. Within the industry itself, the re- action was also suprisingly apa- thetic. Cfertainly it aroused strong meaction in Hollywood itself, due to friendships and associations . with those affected, as well as because' of ' etrong political beliefs. Among in- dusttyites in New York and other parts of the country there was little - «nthusiasm for the strong action, but a -generally resigned feeling that it SHnething.t^at had t» be done under the «ircumsta)aces. Those op- posed to the move were fewer but anete vociferous than those in favor. ;&eason for the hushed response in the press to Erie Johnston's 'State- ment is thouglit tiy sonie MPAites to^ t)e that it might be too close to'home, . If the. public' reaction engendered "^S a Congressional committee can ■ force- one form of mass comji(iunica iion to fire workers, press might ' Je^t-rit's thou^tc—thatjit could be . next. Press, Ccmment ' Jjew York Herald Tribune' Wash .ingtoa Post and PM were the only papers in the .MPA' 00-paper check that expressed .strong doubt or op- position to the antl-Coaununist ac- 'tion. .The others eithet found it ^mmendable or limited tiiemselve^ CContinued on page 20) HEW BILLS FOR-AGAINST PROBING COMMfHEES . Washington, Dec. 2 • following in wake of the contempt citations ' against the' 10 Hollywood figured laiat .week, Congress is being' deluged ht^ a flock of resolutions af- fecting tb^'House Committee on 'Un- 'American Activities and its chief tar- : '^et, the Cctttmunist Party. At lea.st ;. three of the bills introduced recently ivould have a serious impact on the committee's cpntining probe of sub- versive dements in the film industry. > According to one resolution put , Jnto the hopper by Rep. Gordon Mc- Donou^h (R., Cal.), membership in 'the Communist Party .would be con- °£ideied a treasonable act with im-; position of corresponding penalties. Bill urges that "Communism be de-. fined and declared to be -not a polit- ical policy;'but is an internal con- spiracy... which advocates and prac- tices, deceit, confusion, subversion, irevolution. ..which has for its pur- poses the overthrow of government i)j-'.fofCe and violence." McDonough's bill covers the rec- ommendation of'Eric Johnston, Mo- ■ tion Picture Assn. prez* who recently! esked Congress to incorporate in its etatutes a law permitting industry to lire known Communists. Strong 'wording of this. resolution, It was pointed out, would not only make Communists eligible for dismissal but jaij as well. . From another wing of the House, Bep. Helen Gahagan Douglas (D., Cal.), entered a bill that would clip^ the powers of the House- Un-Ameri-' can Activities Committee, tJnder her ' Resolution, all legislative committees v/ould be forced to conduct their proceedings in a more judicial man- lier, BilJ advocates the right of coun- eel to witnesses, the right to make an cral statement and the right to rea- Eonable cross-examination. Another resolution for the killing of the XJn- American Activities Committee was , Jntroduce;} .by Re]^. Jticob Javits (R., Polling the Probe The Gallup Poll on Monday (1) revealed an almost even division of opinion on the ques- tion of the House Un-American Committee's handling of the Hollywood probe. A small pluraUty Of those qu^ied thought-the 10 who refused to answer' committee questions should be'punished. The handling of the investiga- tion was- approved by'37%, dis- , approved by 36%, with 27% having no opinion. The lionr answering writers and directors should be punished according to 47%, while 39% . think they should not be and 1.4% have no opinion. Segment of population with least education plumped greatest for .punishment, while college grads were 54% to 34% against the cctittempt proceed- . lnt«rniitiQnai repercussions to ac- tios of U. S. producers last week in deciding to oust, alleged "left- tinged writers and director.i was heard here. Sprin:;boarded by Eric Johnston's announcement Ih New York, a large group of Swedish fllm- it*s made a protest to the American Embassy on actions recently of the House Un-American <Activiti(es. Com- mittee. , ' " ■■■ •■ ^ ■ "• Orpupi o^nsistiDg. ot 24 actors, wrifors «»4 direct«>rs, delivered, ..a resolution -to the Ambassador pro- testing "the action .taken by the Committee on Un-American Activi- ties against some of om- Ameilcan colleagues." Eight tmt of every 10 asked had heard of the inve^tiigation. £nc$ Kvided Ob Sbeigdi Of Red Purge More 'While all of the 48 industry brass- hats at last week's New York policy meeting stood up to make the final count unanimous in favor of the anti-Communist resolution, there | Mo£titt who WarCostHiBiHBp .Washington, Bee. 2. Jadt Itolfitt was fired as a Holly- wood screen writer because of Com- niiunist pressure against him. Rep. John McDowell (H., Pa,),, meml>er«f the House Un-American Activities Committee, told the House last Fri- day (28). Moffitt was one of the witnesses before the Committee dur- ing its recent hearings hcr^, charg- in,g that the Screen Writers Guild •was "under Red domination." "There has been a great scream go up in the Communist Daily Worker and from a few thin voices in Holly- wood," said McDowell, "that the 10 Communists 'who were cited for con- tempt by this House are going to lose their $100,000-a-year positions in the'film industry. I do not know whether this is true or not, as the Committee on Un-American Activi- ties has nothing to do with 'Who is hired or fired in Hollywood. "But I would like to point out to the film industry that the only per- son 1 Jwow who actually lost his job because of Communism in Holly- wood was a gentleman named Jack was fired and barred MPA's Press Crossley l^an>mering away «t winning public opinion to the Side of the 'film industry, following the re- cent House Un-American Com- mittee hterings. on Holiywood Communism, the' Motion Pictur* Assn. last week issued two bro- chures. One' was a 10-page - pocket-size reprint of MPA prez Eric Johnston's statement to the committee during his appear-^ arice before it on Oct. 27, , The other was « SB-page, pamphlet containing photo-oilSet reprints in full of 82 editorials from. the nation's press and 30 excerpts ot others commenting on the hearings. The great ma- jority, of the editorials are criti- cal of the committee's handling of ttic probe. was a considerable division of opin- {fr6m selling the product of his diind ion in Inner councils, on- how strong to the film- makers, not because he the 'action, should-.l>e.: "Libera}'' was a Communist or'a Communist viewpoint in the 11-man subcom- Fellow Traveller, but-because, he mittee which drew up the pol^py | openly and vigorously opposed Com- ^Jatement was strongly spoken for munism, pointing out that these 10 by Samuel Goldwyn, Dore .Schary men were Communists, - and their and Walter Wanger. They received grip was so strong on the people who ardent support from former Secre-| produced-the fUms that America sees tary of State James F. Byme^- spe- cial counsel to the Motion Pictm-e Assn. :■• . I Although both Ithe main and sub- committee meetihgs were held in camera, it -was learned that Gold wyn was bitter in his denunciation of the -whole .action. His. viewpoint | ment."- was that producers should bear the responsibility for what is in their pictures and that by firing aAd re fusing to hire alleged Communist writers and directors they were ad- mitting their own ineptitude at ex- ercising their responsibility. He de clared in the. subcommittee huddles that the firings were buck-passing and the setting up of fall guys to absorb blame—which if it existed at (Continued on page 20) ' Washington, Dec. 2.: \ The 10 Contempt citation cases will prolbably' not be presented to the Federal Grand Jui-y here before to- morrow (3) or Thtii'sdayj it waslndl- ca-ted?'today; .'i.The- «ases-,.,'<fri!i^e''.«x-; pecti^: to: be offered, yesterday to the special <3rand V Jury - cpiiveiied last week but. there was not sufKCi^ni time to. get th^m- ready. ;0eorge M. "IPiCy, the XT. S. district attorn^i ex- plained that the - cases were , not turned over tp him until the latter part of' last -weeK and thirt his^^- atits w^re busy Wittt ittdiclfaD)*^is f Or theiMtgulai'''&ra^d' JuKy I<ast 'Wednesd^^i :>!Q.iu^ for the cited to madc^ .ttf|othei? unsuccessful eiffort to block action. Bobert W. Kenhy and Bartley .C. Crum, 6t California) : and Martjba; Popperi of „^„ ,. . ~ . , Waabington, called upon Attorney Hollywood because hf was exposing General Tom C. Clark to shelve the every day that a year and one -week ago, Jacic Moffitt was taken otit'of Qte lousiness-as a -.script Writer in ' Hollywood, Dec. 2. Dalton Trumbo i|nd Lester Cole, slated for axing at Sletio in con. nectlon with Red pitrge, still ho)d their jobs owing to legal obstacles. 0 S. J. HbtamiK, aiudio manager, and attorney. Miaurt^ Benjamin,' hud- dled all day Monday (1) trying to figure out angle to jump or bypass. legal hurdles presented by 'Trumbo's contract. It's understood his pact ' has no so-icalled '^morality clause," . and there Is no apparent ^Out for the . studio. (dole's pact, it was stated, pre- sents no such problems but the - studio is withholding firing him in order to axe both together. RKO was the first studio to act in the '. industry - wide pur^'e. Adriiya Sootti producer, and Edward: Dmortryk, producer-director, were ' 'dismissed and two pictures they had lined rop- 'or p{oduction were dropped'from the studio schedule. Third to go was Ring Lardner, Jr., screen writer, who vras tossed out of 20th.Fox. Pictures cancelled by RKO were Scott's "The Boy with Green Hair,"; a story stated to have social impli* cations, and.Dmyti^k's "Tlie- White Tower," a tale of Switzerland with' .an international backgrouncL An- other 'Dmytryk production, "The Harder They FaH," will be turned over' to another RKO producer. RKO's ousters of Scott -and Dntytryk read: "You have recently refused to answer certain questions, propounded hy t comuditee of the House of Representatives. By your conduct in that regard and by your actions, attitude, associations, pub- lic statements, and general conduct before, at and'since tliat time you have brought yourself into disrepute with a large -section of the public, have offended the community, have prejtWiced this corporation as your employer and the motion picture in- ctu^ry in- general, have lessened your capacity fully to comply with your employment agreement end have -otherwise violated your em-- ployment agrcemenfwtth iis." The following statemeiit was is- sued by ^Scott and Dmytryk: -• "We have received our dismissal • CContinued on page 23) Communism. "I challenge the film producers of California to investigate'itbis state- Montez Files 2506 Suit . Over U-I 'Exfle' Bflling Los Angeles, Dec. 2.- . Maria Montez filed suit for $250,- 000 against Universal-International, charging the studio v^ith failure to carry out an agreement to givp her top billing in the Douglas Fair* House citations and not permit them to.be presented to a Grand Jury, A similar request was made of -George Morris Fay, V. S. Attorney for tiie District of Columbia, whose office received the citations. The move, of course, was one fdr the record in the event the case should go up to the Federal appel- late courts. In the petition to Clark, a copy of which also went to Fay, the A. G. was urged to "instruct the United States Attorney for the Dis- trict of Columbia not to present the citations to the Grand Jury. As At- 'Roosevelt Story' Set For 40011 Playdates "Roosevelt Story," semi-documen- 1 taiy biopic of the late FDR, will | preem in.'London early in January i and is booked for 400 flrstrun en- I gagemeuts throughout the United | :Kingdom immediately afterwards. British distribution of the film, I produced by Tola Productions, is to I be -handled by Pathe, whose man- | aging dhrector, William Moffatt, signed the booldng pact. Most of the theatres that will play it are in { the ABC circuit. "Story" is being distributed in i the U. S. and elsewhere abroad by United ArtistSii. banks, Jr., production,'"Hie Exile, . „ ^, Federal Judge J. P. T. O'Connor Itorney General of the United States, . ' the peopje'r attbriiey, you are caUed I issued a temporary order. restrain- uig Universal from issuing publicity or billing- on the picture until the hearing, slated for Dec. S. . PCA Scores Purge Roundly condemning the film in- dustry for capitulating to the House I Un-American Activities Committee, i 65 prominent citizens, including 1 show biz personalities, charged in an open letter that Holly wood "has I opened the door, to Government censorship of all commimication me- dia." Issued by the arts, sciences and professions council of the Progres- sive Citizens of America, statement | was .signed .among others by Oariinn Kanin, Ruth Gordon, Deems Taylor, Leonard Bernstein, O. John Rogge, I Oiin Downes, Uta Hagen, * Paul Robeson, Marc Blitzstein, Dorothy Parker, Robert Heller, Goodman | Ace, Libhy Holman, IttineVva Pious, !%ilip Loeb and Jerome Chodoro^^. L. A. to N. Y. Neil Agnew Martin Block Harris Brown Sidney Buchman Marian Carr JoanCaulfield Bob Cobb !pame Cronyn Gene Kelly Arthur M. Loew Diana Lynn Douglas MacLean Ilona Massey Kenneth MacKenna Charles C. Moskowitz Hal Roach, Sr. John Rubol E. L. Scanlon Arthur Schenck George A. Smith Barry Sullivan 'Vera 'Vague Bichard Whorf Carey WilKon Not Even in Jest Columbia has an old Hodgcrs & Hart legit musicdll, "Pal Joey," on the agenda, and of course the Gene Kelly (now a Metro Star) to attention was anything but Communistic. . None the less, because of the Stalin connotation that prop- erty is currently a ticklish property. [upon to exercise your independent I judgment on the presentation of this citation." 3^he brief argued that the XContintjied on page 23} N*Y. to Europe Robert Benjamin Virginia Bruce .Gladys Cooper Margalo Gillmore Greta Keller " Arthur W. Kelly . Wladimir Lissim Jan Struther~ Terrence Rattigan Michael Weight N. Y. toL.A. taurcn Bacall .. Humphrey Bogart Sidney Franklin Dorothy Gulraan Grace Hayes Bob' Hope Carol Hughes Sammy Lewis Nicola Lubitsch Lou Mandel Lana Turner Rjul Villard John M. Whitaker Sol Zatt Europe to N. T» Belvins Davis Grade Fields Beatrice Lillle Artur Rubinstein George Shearing John C, Wilson Mrs. Cobina Wright SEMCK EAST ON BIZ AND 1RQ«E'S LEGIT£R David O. Selznick arrived in New York Thanksgiving.; bay (27) to spend the weekend school holiday with his two sons and- expects to remain east another week or so. Another purpose of his visit is to be on hand for opening- tonight (Wednesday) of "A Streetcar Named Desire," legiter which his estranged wife, Irene, is producing. Selznick is also east to accept one of the Chinese government's high- est decorations, the Order of the Brilliant Star, tomorrow (Thurs- day) . It is being awarded in recog- nition of his "unstinting efforts" on behalf of China Relief, in which he has bem active as a board member for the past seven yeant Decora- tion will be '.presented by the Chinese Ambassador, Dr. Wellington Koo, at the St. Regis hotel, N. Y. *Paul MacNamara, Selznick's v.p. in charge of advertising and publicity, and Neil Agnew, prez. of ^Selznick- Releasing Organization, also' arrived in New- York from the Coast over the w e c k e n d. MacNamara was bedded with the grippe 6i» Monday (1). He's to, work with Bob Gillham, eastern pub-ad Chief, on the cam- pa^n for '^Paradine Case," which will be iSBO's next Agnew was on the*Coast to huddle on a number of decisions and con- fab with Charles P. Skouras on Na- tional Theatres' returns on "Duel in the Sun." NT's Fox-West Coast also will be used for test engagements on "Intermezzo," which Selznick is planning to reissue. If it goe.s well, SRO will set up a special sales force to handle it so it won't interfere with release of "Paradine.^' 'Paradine's' Oscar Pitch Hollywood, Dec. 2. David O. Selznick registered the first official entries in the Oscar Derby with "The Paradine Case" as the best picture and Alfred Hitch- cock as the best director of 1947. Picture, currently in the scoring and editing stages, will be shown in a Los .Angeles theatre late this month, its only screening before Its January opening in New York^