Variety (November 1954)

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Wednesday, November 10, 1954 Exhibs’ Long Gripe Against Integrated (Production Theatres) Operations Reversed by TOA ■ .4 --- . . • v J ' - ; Last week’s Chicago convention of Theatre. Owners of America had many an industryite commenting, “This is where we came in.!’ Their reference was to the TOA decision to ask the Department of Justice (and 'apparently Congress itself,, if necessary) for a ruling that \yould permit the now-divorced, major theatre circuits to participate in the financing of production. Through, the 1920’s, film produc- ers bought up theatres as a means of providing themselves with guar- anteed' outlets for their product- while, theatremert went into pro- duction as a means of building their , own source of supply. Loew’s, Warner Bros., Paramount, 2Qth-Fox .and RKO thus came to be giant combines. They, were inte- grated companies' each engaging in production, distribution and ex- hibition. The courts, of course,, put an en^ to this with the divorce- ment decrees which first took ef- fect with the split of Paramount on Jan. I, 1950. •New,'. on. the basis of develop- ments at' tlie TOA conclave, the same major chains want a direct Jink -with production agai.. One of the champions of the plan at the: TOA gathering was asked how this could come, to be in view of the courts’ nix of integration. “It’s a matter of desperate economic .necessity,’! h said, adding that the theatremen would submit to vari- ous safeguards against the trade restraints that led to the court orders! on separating exhibition from production., CARTOONS TOO CRUEL FOR MAT KID TRADE? Toronto. Editor, Variety: T notice in a recent Variety that Hollywood’s cartoon makers are meeting to honor Walter Lantz. I should like to suggest to them (ex- cluding. Disney and Bosustow). that; they discuss ways arid means of making cartoons attractive and en- tertaining- once again . instead of vulgar -display, of., violence and viciousiiess. Their creations these •days are made up of crude and hrelnted incidents iii which ugly liimals inflict the riiost painful rid cruel acts upon each .other. In recent Tom and Jerry the cat’s Whiskers were torn out and its claws cut off; it. was frozen, bat-:, tered into different shapes, squashed and stripped of its fur. “Bugs Bu ny” are the same. This happens in ^cartoori.-after-cartoon withoiit relief; eyes are bloodshot, teeth fall out, ugly lumps rise on heads and dynamite is the climax to every scene. It’s enough to make sensitive people ill, and those who go to see intelligent pictures must sit through this so-calic.d enter- tainment. And they are shown to children by the. score on- Saturday afternoons! . Do the makers of these cartoons not realize what harmful effects these horrors have on children arid adults in their appreciation of films and attitude toward, and treatment of. animals? If it is not possible for them to use intelligent stories arid artistic interpretation, as. do the UP A and Disney studios, then the other producers should stop making ‘cartoons; for. they are de- basing one of. the most skillful and expressive forms of film making. : This much is certain: if produc- ers do riot cut put this Violence there will soon be such as outcry from parent-teacher associations that they will bring stricter censor- ship, upon themselves. All that is necessary ' is a little, beauty', art rid imaginati They cost no more than the ugliness \ve see at presept. Gerald Pratley, ' (CBC Film Commentator) Add: Popcorn Gags Omaha, Nov. 9. Managers of Hastings, Neb., theatres last week fielded an unusual appeal. One of the city's staunchest filmgoers; who has a strong liking for popcorn but can’t eat it because his physician has ordered him not to, asked the house bosses to permit him. to enter through the exit. “The temptation to buy pop-, corn is just too much for me. I’ll have to use the rear en- trance or stay home,” he told them. Rhoden Roots Deep, May Keep Home in Active as Cattle Kansas Cily, Noy. 9. .. Election of Elmer. C. Rhoden as president of National Theatres was not a surprise to the-home • office crowd, but neither was it expected. Word here, when Rhoden .left for the board meeting of last week was that .he was not seeking the post. The new se.triip will call for his presence on. the Coast much of the time, while many of his ties apd liis residence are here. Rhoden is re- ported to have told Senn Lawler, Fox Midwest ad-pub chief, that he will not move his residence out of Kansas City under any circum- stances. He continues to head the Fox- Midwest unit of aboutTOO. theatres in. a five-state area, arid Common- wealth Amusement, a circuit of about 65 houses. These are the out- growths of a career that began in 1925 with a single house and grew into the Mid-West Theatre circuit. It was this circuit which waa'cbm- bined with the Midland circuit to form Fox Midwest in 1929. Rhoden and partner, L. M. Miller;' Wichita, were paid $3,000,- 000 by Fox West Coast Theatres, for their interests. Rhoden was per-, suaded to become head of Uve new circuit of about 125 houses. He stayed; on, seeing tlie company through bankruptcy during the. depression, and later'- buying -in, with the Skouras Brothers, to Na- tional Theatres. Rhoden sold out :his interest in. 1946, but continued to head Fox Midwest. He once operated the famous Star Lane farm, here, with an out- standing, stable of palominos, but has since sold r that interest. He. continues as a stockman with a ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley near Santa Barbara; On the Kansas City scene Rhoden, is prominent . in civic affairs, is a director on the board of a department store, and a lead- ing bank, a governor of the Ameri- can Royal Live Stock and Horse Show, director of St, Luke’s Hos- pital. Operating set-up at Fox Midwest apparently will peri it him time on the Coast as he desires, as. it is organized into five divisions with .an. operating head for each one, three of them here, on in Wichita and one in St. Louis. sonable level, perhaps filrris would cost less, and they couid sell them to us at a more reasonable price." The Hollywood pbint-of-view on'; this question came in N. Y. last week from Julian Blaustein, a 20th- Fox producer. While agreeirig that, there, was such a thing as over- doing the. research angle, lie main- tained that it was difficult to know just where to draw the line, “If you don’t pay fiiil attention to authenticity, you may abandon research too early," he said. “You might riot know where to stop. A rigid yardstick is needed on where the producer can afford to make compromises and where practica-: bility sets .in. It’s difficult to spell put the difference, but even though an audience may not be; able to point to the exact detail, they can tell whether a film is authentic or not. The sum total of the; work shows up in its final value." Blaustein said ini his own. film, “Desiree,” he had made certain, compromises to effect savings-^he skipped a set which would have re- quired showing. a huge, mirrored ballroom—but observed that, in the long run, it was “almost as expen- sive to do it properly as tq. do it improperly." Point being made by film com- pany publicists is that, while it may add comparatively little to a pic’s value to have every button of the correct design, this kind of atten- tion to dqtail provides, them with plenty of meaty press copy which, in turn,, translates itself into in- creased interest in the filrii, §ide aspect, of Hollywood’s flair, for authenticity is that it quite fre- quently gives way to new mores. In “The Egyptian," for instance, 20th found that the men of the pe- riod were in the habit of Wearing lipstick-arid other female makeup, while women of stature, would would shave their heads bald. None of that showed up ori the screen. During the. 17th century, French women vied with one another for the sheerest dress material. The mode of the day was much too. re- vealing for. present-day screen standards. Exhibs Desire to Minimize Screen Credits, Pare to Selling Bone Henry Ephron’s Epaulets Hollywood, Nov. 9.. Henry Epliron, collaborator with his wife., Phoebe Ephi’on, many of 20th-Fox’s features, in past six years, has been signed to a pro- ducer; corilract by Darryl F. Zan- uck. ... Ephron will produce both scripts written by his wife and himself and the work of other writers. Mrs. Ephron will' not be associated with his duties as a producer. Republic Earnings Off Earnings of Republic Pictures for the 39-weeks ended July. 31 showed a drop of $46,184 from net profit of $823,155 racked up over the similar 39-wcek stretch in 1953. Take amounted to $776,971 after provision of $84i,000 lor var- ious Federal taxes. Federal taxes for tire comparable 1953 period were slightly higher with a total bite ,of $875,000. Raibourtl ; Continued' from, page 3 limited by the ideas for th pic- tures." (The T0A-ers are backing the finance company as a .means of al- leviating what they Term a severe shortage -of product. They allege the distributors intentionally cre- ated such a shortage.) Parariiount’s proposal to finance exhib production is believed the first such invitation ever made by a major film company. Started the Trend In pursuit of fresh screen mate- rial, Raibourn declared. Par start- ed the trend of major studio part- nership deals with outsiders via its tieiip with Hal Wallis eight vears ago. This was .followed by tne company’s acquisition of Lib- erty Pictures in the stock transac- tion that brought George Stevens, William Wyler, Frank Capra and Sana Briskin into the Par fold. The exec disclosed that Par now has $25,000,000 tied up in per-, centage production deals with other producers,. Par’s percentage of negative ownership varying with each deal. These demonstrate, said Rai- bourn in effect, how the company is reaching out. in its effort to. come upon suitable properties for the carneras. . Raibourn said Par disowns re- sponsibility for the cutback in the availability o.f pictures for thea- tremen;. He stated the company hadn’t made more than .26 .films in any one of the last five years, con- sequently next year’s sked of 20 doesn’t represent any drastic drop. Sandwiches Yet Minneapolis, Nov. 9. Mike’s kosher restaurant here is negotiating withh se.v-, eral film theatres for Sale of .its corned-beef sandwiches at lobby concession counters. ' One local ozorier has already decided to .include the sand- wiches among its edibles next- season. ' Rhoden Names Associates; Sees Exhibs Sharing The Burden of Production , Los Angeles, Nov; 9. Elmer G. Rhoden, new .president of National Theatres, in his, first decision selected Frank H. Ricket- son Jy„ president of Fox Inter- mountain, to head up circuit oper- ations east ‘of Denver. Under Ricketson’s supervision will be the Fox Wisconsin division, the Fox theatres in Detroit and Philadel- phia, and the Roxy in New York. Rhoden also named John B. Ber- tero, NT vice president, as his choice for president of the "Fox West Coast Theatres Corp.. It is expected that Bertero will be awarded the job at the next meet- ing bf. the FWC board of directors. At his . first : meeting with, the press Rhoden promised to do all in his power to bring about better relations between exhibition and production, “I aril holding my hand out to the producers," he said. “The time has come when the. ex- hibition end must furnish some, of the risk capital.’’ Independent producers, he add- ed, will be encouraged to produce more, and the shortage of quality pictures will be eased through- financial aid coming from exhibi-. tion. Currently . National has a 4% interest iri: “Oklahoma!’’ and holds $1,000,000 debentures of Magna, controlling the widescreen process. What the industry needs, he Said, is long range selling oF pic- tures. “We don’t have the oppor- tunity for. longrange selling be- cause of the product shortage and the selling methods brought about by various regulations. 'Hence the full, potential of many pictures is not realized.” National Theatres,. he predicted, must be in a position to build new film houses to take care, of the en- tertainment, needs, with th na- tion’s population increasing arid new corimiunities springing up overnight. It was revealed' at the; press, conference that none of NT’s divi- sions has entered into the Makelim Plari, regardless of reports. Recent report that Fox 'Wisconsin had signed was inaccurate. Signing was done by Harold Fitzgerald, who recently retired as Fox. Wis- consin president, for his personal theatres which have no connection with the division. Concerning the various wide- screen installations, Rhoden de- clared the circuit has spent $5,- 000,000 because of the new devel- opments and is ready to spend more if better processes come Metro’s “Ticket Selling Work- shops," designed to aid exhibitors in the promotion of pictures, may have the indirect effect of elimi- nating many credits from film ad- vertising. For example, at the first workshop session recently in Pitts- burgh,. Edward M.. Hyde, advertis- ing director of the Sharon, Pa., Herald, suggested that many of the credits that are now carried iriean nothing arid, waste space. While the film, companies ar bound by contract to include cer- tain names in the credits, exhib- itors feel they, are- not under a similar obligation. They are con- vinced that the .names of directors, producers, associate producers, sound engineers, etc,, while;, im- portant toward the. 'making of a picture, do not mean anything at the: bpxoffice. A move has started to eliminate the “extraneous" names “in order to concentrate on what you know will sell tickets," Another idea advocated: by Hyde is the listing of the time of the feature, in all ads. There are sorne theatremen who oppose this idea, pointing out that, it does ript en- courage continuous traffic but has the customers coming in spurts. Those who favor the time listings note that it helps a patron’s enjoy- ment of the film. -D Hollywood, Nov. 9. Prints of four Metro pictures will be transported over.the North Pole Nov. 15 on the first west-to-east passenger flight to, the Scan- dinavian countries via the new Arctic route. Films, in possession of Metro player Walter Pidgeori, will be “The Last Time I Saw. Paris," “Brigadoon,” “Rhapsody" and “The Student Pri " They will be shown in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Theatres-Boothnen Snarl Minneapoiisi/Noy. 9. Local independent subsequent run .exhibitors are in a deadlock in their negotiations with the AFL projectionists on new contract terms.- The. booth operators- are asking for what amounts to a 25% pay boost and other concessions. . A North Central Allied commit- tee, . headed by Ted Mann, ap- pointed to negotiate for the. the- aitreowners, has countered with a demand for a 25% reduction from the present pay scale and the two sides continue, far apart, with the “threat" . that the exhibitors will close their, theatres if a satisfactory agreement isn’t reached. Come next May, Universal is go- ing to have another go at 3-D when it’ll revive “Revenge of the Crea- ture” in both third-dimensional and flat versions. Film is already in the can, According to Charles Feldman, U v.p. and general sales topper, U feeis that there may be some money left in 3-D. “Some of our customers think so, anyway,” he said this week. “And, as always, we are willing to service. them." ; Feldman also - stressed that U was the only ^company at the mo- ment releasing standard versions of Cinemascope pix sirnultaneously. With the anamorphic versions. Only U C’Scoper in release so far is ‘‘Black Shield of Falworth." The U exec explained that the company was making 2-D prints On its C’Scope pix so as to protect , the exhibs who didn’t have Cinema- Scope equipment installed; “Black Shield" ’ being booked without any special protection to C’Scope houses. However, Feldman said, practically everywhere when a C’Scope theatre was available, the exhib would book the film in that form. It’s U’s intention to continue serving standard prints of future C’Scope releases simultaneously with the C’.Scope version, Feldman indicated. It costs the company about $200,000 to lens a duplicate flat edition of its C’Scope films. Cinemascope installations in The U.S, run over 8,000 at the moment, leaving some 6,000 of U’s regular customers still without the wide- screen ‘equipment. . It’s rioted that, whereas “Black Shield" is doing nicely, U’s -biggest grpssers this year will.be standard version pix—-“Magnificent Obses- session" and “The Glenn Miller Story." Release of the "Revenge" 3-Der next May cues the possibility of a revival of the third-dimensional fad which died out early this year after a brief flareup. Nevertheless, a lot of theatres Cashed in on the 3-D: ypgue at that .time, and they. still :have the equipment installed. Feldman. said the 3-D version of "Revenge" would be in the two-, print; form. Combination of both eye views on a single print hasn’t worked out too well. Ed Svigals' New Job Edward Svigals, vet in foreign pic distribution,, has joined Harri- son Pictures as sales manager. Out- fit how has “Ugetsu,” Japanese entry, iri release. Svigals left N. Y. for L. A. yes- terday (Tues.) to set up openings of the film.. Allah’s Chahge of Status Hollywood, Nov. 9. Ted Allan has resigned as man- ager of Ted Allan Studios, Inc., which will be reorganized under a new corporate name, according to Andrew Berger, president and chief stockholder. Allan, who re- tains his holdings in the company, will remain as an indie producer with a tunefilm ori his program. Studio will continue as a rental lot for both motion pictures and television, Berger is sole owner of the “Hank McCurie Show."