Variety (January 1952)

fednH^r< JmnuuT *> 195* By WILLIAM J. HEINEMAN To Mr, Exhibitor, the man at the payoff end of the biz, I address this question: What ate you doing about the care and feeding of t the independent producer? And this plea — ' don’t kill the goose that has laid the golden egg! You know what an independent producer is — independent in iU Heineman spirit, but not always m income. He’s the guy who takes a gamble on Something a little bit newer, a little bit out of the ordinary, a little bit less hackneyed And— in So many cases— -a little bit better. Does the independent producer come through every time? No. Does he come through often enough to pay off? Obviously, yes; it Some of the greatest films of all time— great in hbyoffice as well as critics’ notices^ Have been independent productions.) That’s why United Artists' is in. business; if it didn’t pay off, we wouldn’t have bothered. The fact is that down through the years the independents have: provided, the spark which gives a lift to the whole industry. Sam Goldwyn and David 6. Selznick are proof enough. But even in the more difficult years since the end of World War II, great new independent producers have; come torward as advance scouts for the industry. Stanley KramOr is an outstanding case in point, ‘turning pix (Continued On page 63) Board of directors of RKQ Pictures has again elected Ned Depinet to head the Corporation. Board also returned to office alk the fop-policy execs of the company except Walter V. Derham, who is on a leave of absence because of illness, Named for new terms were Noah Dietrich, chairman of the board; J, Miller Walker, v.p,; secretary, and general counsel, William H. Clark, treasurer; Garrett Van Wagner; comptroller; Joseph J. Laub, assistant secretary, and Elwin J. Smith, Jr., assistant treasurer. Forty-sixth 'Anniversary REHABILITATION JOB By ARTHUR B. KRIM (President*, United Artists) United Artists had to face the test of our faith in the future of motion pictures in a very personal way some 10 months ago. We had1 to decide whether we would expend our time and our energies arid our resources in the task of rehabilitating a motion picture company which was on the verge of disaster. This task made sense only if we, within ourselves, could find an abiding faith in the strength and future health of motion pictures, We had to believe, that the sickriess of this company was not chronic and. thatu it did not in any sense represent a symptom of the decline of the industry itself from its place at the head of the entertainment world. We had to reach this conclusion at a time when the industry had its too generous quota of pessimists. PICTUBES By NED E. DEPINET (President, RKO Radio Pictures) If the owners of any or all of the 20,000 or more picture theatres i the country thought they could make more money by turning to vaudeville, The Judy Grarland show at the Palace Theatre, N. Y., was expected to hang up a record $58,000 for the week ending Monday (31). New Year’s eve price was hiked to $120. There were standees , at virtually every performance. Despite the matinee on Christmas Day, regular schedule of 10 shows Weekly prevailed inasmuch as the matinee was withdrawn Thursday (27). For the. Week previous, Palace did $35,000 which was okay considering that the fierce , competition of Christmas shopping gave all Broadway houses slim grosses. ’52 Paramount will provide films for* test of Skiatron’s subscription on the same basis as it did for Zenith’s Phonevision, company informed Skiatron prexy Arthur Levey last week. There’s *«. blg “but,” however, in Par’s Offer. T ^or .?n® thing; it. informed Levey, it feels his request forpix is premature” since he " hasn’t even applied to the Federal Communications Commission yet for permission to make the test. Also, Par declared, it wants a lot more specific information about the trial run, proposed for New York, be ahle ^ ma^es ^ features avail . .Lichtman, 20th-Fox’s director cLt ^‘stribution, previously had stated that his . company will not provide pix: to Skiatron. That’s in Keeping with its policy oh Pho'nev si°nf when it was the only riiajor which refused product to Zenith ior the experiments in Chicago jrom. January through March of last year. Meantime) Other companies coril1 * * 4™ed study therletter from nctoJ Pf the previous week. He asked preiues of all majors to pros'fil™5 ,for the test. It is.be-I16Ved/whey 11 LbMow the pattern of (Contirfjed on page 61) Jan Sterling Doesn’t Like 20th to Age Her So Fast T Hollywood. Jan Sterling bowed out of corole opposite .her husband, nn?i t)puglas, in. one of six se20th’s “We’re ‘ Not Mamed” it’s just been disclosed, ^he mxed part before trekking to Korea and Japan on troop entertainment junket. She didn’t care to undertake' nngiamorous role of a longtime marsuburban wife sinking into xrge' and asked to be reueved. No replacement yet. zsa-Zsa Gabor is set for another sequence, • leaving ,only the; male star to appear opposite her and mss Sterling’s replacement still to be set. Chicago. Robert Lippert, at his cornpany’s first national convention! told 110 district and division managers that the coming year should up the firm’s shooting schedule from around a $2,000,000 production outlay of the past year to more than $4,000,000 in 1952. Present list calls for 22 releases. He pointed out that “merchandising films” instead of distribution would add more profits to the company and is the . only way to combat declining boxoffice. Lippert claims that new financing is becoming much easier under the new ownership setup of the firm, with stars, writers, and producers eager to join the firm. We . made the jdecision to invest ■ our future in motion pictures, be-, cause we felt then, as we do now more than ever, that the riiotion picture .industry continues to be basically healthy and that there is a place in the industry for a United Artists. We, have been so preoccupied with the day-by-day task of rehabilitation that it would not be appro-? priate for Us to attempt, to draw specific conclusions as to the impact of television or of divorcement or of the. relative economics of high budget as against low budget pictures or of any of the many other factors which confront the industry over the long range. We feel that with all the Ups and downs, the pros and the cops, the balance is still on the right side of the ledger. We are tremendous .optimists at United Artists. We feel there is no substitute for motion pictures. Because of out* . friith in this belief, our plans for the future are very ambitious; But' Over Martin-Lewis Pact 4 Hollywood. Screen Associates’ $10,000,000 breach of contract sUit against Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Hal Wallis and York Pictures Corp. was settled out Of court for an undisclosed sum. | Plaintiffs, as co-producers of the M&L starrer, “At War with the Army,” claimed they had options on the services of Martin & Lewis for six more pictures. Ben Goetz to Coast For Brit. Lensing Huddles -Ben Goetz, managing director of Metro’s British Studios, in frorn London, left N. Y. yesterday (Tues.) for a three-week Coast visit. * This will be Goetz* first huddle with Culver City toppers in a year. Up for consideration will be future lensing in England and probably corporate changes in consequence Of theatre divorcement; ' Les Bernstein to Rome Lester Bernstein, film critic for Time mag for the past two years, Sails from New York Jan. 30 to join Time & Life’s Rome bureau. No replacement for the reviewing post has been chosen. Bernstein moved to Time three years ago from the N. Y. Times’ legit department. He covered theatre ahd film news for the Luce mag prior to assuming reviewing chores. By BARNEY BALABAN (President of Paramount Pictures) 1951 will be remembered for three significant developments in the motion picture business : ( 1 ) , The steady decline of recent years 1 e v e 1 e d off and, in recent months, moved ahead of last year: (2) the fact that good pictures could continue to' get a good reception at the boxoffice; and (3), as an industry, we Barney Balaban 1 e a r e d * 0 work together for the benefit of all of us. The big news of 1951 was the end pf the decline and the beginnings of new hope for the future. It was an “upbeat” year. We found comfort in repeated evidence that good pictures would hold up well at the boxoffice. Although this presented a challenge to all of us, it was also an assurance that if we produced the right product and merchandised it with showmanship at the distributor and exhibitor levels, We were on Solid ground. And,; finally there was the encouraging, heart-warming experience of COMPO apd “Movietime U S. A.” We learned that by working as a team we could advance the general welfare of every branch of our business. 1952 figures to be challenging, in some respects more so than the (Continued bn page 57) Jack Benny to Narrate Pic Memorial to Jolson Hollywood. jack Benny wili narrate the upcoming “Memorial to A1 Jolson” being put together by Ralph Staub for Columbia’s “Screen Snapshots” • 4 l series. • Pic covers 30 years in Jolson’s life as entertainer. video, bingo or converting to parking lots, it would be done and there would be nothing unethical or immoral about telling .Hollywood to go fly a kite. It would simNed Deplnet ply be practical business. By the same code* if the creators of motion pictures are eventuallyforced by financial malnutrition into an untenable position, and should turn inquiring eyes to what might be greener pastures, it would simply be in the. best tradition of our profit motive system. As it is unlikely that $3,000,000,000 worth of movie theatre real estate could be quickly arid profitably converted to' Other uses it is in the best interests of the owners of this property ib keep the production machine oiled and running smoothly. There is only one lubricant that Will do this; It is called Profit. The trickle of this essential oil to the production machine is getting smaller arid smaller and the . hazards of production are getting larger all th’e time. With the hue and cry for bigger and better pictures, with the public’s apathy toward the average film and with television’s free distribution of eritertainment,. poor, mediocre arid excellent, we Come to the inevitable conclusion that something must be done. The responsibility is not Hollywood’s alone. 4 To appease the insatiable appetite of the public, new and costlier devices must be created to keep it thrilled, amused or merely interested. This is nothing new; it is merely mpre intense now, due to the whiplash of new and vigorous competition, maturity* and therefore greater selectivity, in public taste arid a new and vital force which we can call the “shrunken clock,” No longer is there “time to kill.” The leisure hour. is crowded With things to do. The public’s problem is no longer a matter of spending money, but of profitably spending time. That the cost of making individual motion pictures will grow greater rather than less is inevitable. Each year since their invention they have cost more to make. Each new improvement becomes routine arid is taken for granted, by a glutinous ahd somewhat sated public. In the natural evolution of this business we are nearing the point where it is neither profitable to make nor exhibit the average low budget picture. They are doomed along with many other things We have discarded in the march of progress, including the thing that first made us, the great silent picture art itself. Many other things will have to be discarded as we go along, obsolete methods of distribution arid exhi bition, worn out policies, threadbare arid provincial thinking. There are dire prophecies that thousands of theatres will be forced tri close. Undoubtedly those that have served their purpose, outgrown their usefulness, and have become barnacles and parasites on the body of the industry will go, just as they always have. It is no different in production, stars have come and gone, producers and companies vanished. That which canriot pay its fare cannot travel. |. , ■ Simple Economics [ As we go along it is inevitable that there will be fewer but ; costlier pictures. Their, makers will try, as they always have, to make them better pictures, but whether they turn out to be bonanzas or boxoffice busts, they will cost more money to make. Time is the big factor in production, time, for writing, creating, preparation, time for polishing arid refining and in this business where the bulk of cost is for labor, time is money! Today, and likely in all the days to come, every picture starts off with the weight of a terrific tax (Continued on page 57) By HERBERT J. YATES (President, Republic Pictures ) Recently I stated that. Republic planned to spend $15,000,000 in production for the screens of theatres throughout the World during the next 12 months. This, I believe, more eloquently than anything else I could say or do, reaffirms my faith in the future of our industry. I have spent over 50 years Herbert J. in brirs i n e s s and have been identified with the motion picture industry almost since its inception. If I learned nothing else in my long experience than the fact that ours is a fast-moving business, and that one must constantly be alert to everchanging conditions and new developments, I would have learned the most essential lesson of show business; In this regard a large new competitor has recently looriied upon the horizon to join in sharing the public’s entertainment dollar, I refer of course to television .and its ever-increasing influence the American scene. None of us look upon this with any particular, delight. Yet TV is something we must, learn to live with; It must (Continued oh page 61) Subscription Order Form Enclosed find check for .$ Please send VARIETY for T ^0 Years CPleaso Print Name) ' Street ; . < . * . . . , . Zone. ... , , Strife; . . . . ; • Regular Subscription Rates , One Year— $10.00 Two Years— $1 8.00 Canada and Foreign— $1 Additional per Year 154 West 46th Street lite. New Ydrk T9. N. Y.