Variety (December 1954)

10 PICXtlBES Wednesday, December 1, 1954^ Film peddlers; via their Colo$r4 geum of Motion Picture Salesmen, are fighting the “growing menace” of independent buying and book- ing combines. Subject will be high on the agenda in contract talks with tfie distributors set to begin shortly. The salesmen feel that the es- tablishment of these booking and buying combines eliminates the need for field men to call on in- dividual exhibitors and may cause the distribs to cut down their sales forces. Demand will be made that “each exhibitor—even if a member of an outside buying group—re- main on the books of the. salesman for sales and service." . , According to David B, Bartell* general counsel of the Colosseum, efforts will be made to continue the personal calls, with- “contact man- datory even though there is a com- bine.” In a: blast at the combines, Bar- tell, in a report to the Colosseum’s recent Chicago convention, said that “the exhibitor who falls prey to the sugary talk of the combine will- one day find that another ex- hibitor has taken his place in the affections of the. erstwhile swain.” He declared that, there’s nothing on which to build' a permanent rela- tionship, “since the combine is not wedded to anyone, but plays the field of distributors and exhib- itors.” He maintained that distribs “are being seduced by the magical mu- sic of apparent savings in sales costs. The moment the combine controls the exhibitor, at this mo- ment has the distributor placed his future sales in jeopardy.” Bartell contended that personal contact between distributor. arid exhibitor “has paid off for both. It is a pat- tern of success. The distributors who want to save a penny today may lose their market tomorrow.” Strange aspect of the current situation is that many exhib or- ganizations. have complained', that salesmen were not calling on ex- hibs as Often as they should. Bob Wile, executive secretary of the In- dependent Theatre Owners of Ohio, recently charged that many sales- men were stuffing off their contact activities, a contention that brought a sharp retort from Bartell. Upcoming negotiations between the Colosseum and the distribs will also be concerned With wages and possibly a welfare and pension fund. At its Chi convention, the Colosseum named the following of- ficers: Glenn Haviland, president; Milton Simon/ first veepee; Robert Lightfoot, second veepee; Jack Eckhardt, secretary; Leo Shatter, asst, secretary; Edgar E. Shinn, treasurer; ahd J. P. Mosely, asst, treasurer. Regional veepees include Charles Dortic, W. G. Bugle, Ken- neth Dotterer, Dave Chapman, Paul Weiss, Walter Walker, Charles Turner, William Tomlinson, and Wayne Bateman. Next year’s con- vention has been set for Los An- geles. NOW BENNIE BERGER - IS PRAISING COLUMBIA Minneapolis, Nov; 30. Bennie Berger, . North Central Allied president, who was instr - lental in having his organization picket •Columbia Pictures' exchange here i protest against “The Caine Mutiny” ternis, now is tossing bou- quets to the company and holding, out the olive brarich to it. It’s because Columbia in the smaller grossing situations has been making some flat deals for its pictures, according to Berger. “That's, a corisummation we’ve been wishing all along the line, ex- plains the Allied head. “We realize that we have to live with Columbia and need its prod- uct. Besides, we never, have been hostile to it as a company, only to its sale policy in regard to some of its recent releases. “We’ll be glad to go along with Columbia now. It all resolves it- self into our learning to. live to-, gether.” r t r r Rank Needn’t Build Theatre Owners of America Is “contacting” all foreign pro- ducers with the recommenda- tion they slant their pictures for the American market, a. “If they do. this,” stated TOA prez E, D. Martin, l ‘I guarantee they will get play- ing time and it will. not be necessary for Mr. Rank to come here to. build, theatres.” J. Arthur Rank not long ago announced plaris to acquire U. S. theatres as outlets for his British productions. Golden Anni Veits All, Glad to Eat on Loew Loew ? s Theatre pub-ad chief Er- nie Emerling is slightly bewil- dered by a promotion stunt designed to, tie-in with Loew’s celebration of its 50th anni. Planting stories in the metropolitan, press to the effect that Loew’s would wine and dine couples marking their golden wedding anriiversary, Emerling expected about a dozen: replies. He received 258. Loew’s and Emerling, of course, are keeping their, word. The company has taken over the roof of the Sheraton. Astor Hotel fior a December date. Invitations will be sent to all 258 couples and all those who R. S. V. P. will be Welcome to an evening of wining, dining, and entertainment at Lpew’s Theatres’ expense. 9 Montevideo, Nov. 28. Officials of the upcoming inter- national film fest here are frank in admitting that the quality and extent of the: American participa- tion in the event will “make or break” this competition. Selection of the three U.S. en- tries-—"The Caine Mutiny,” “Sa- brina” and “The Living Desert”— has been noted with great satisfac- tion here. Fest, which for the first time will award the Grand Prix of . South America, is skedded for Jan. 14 through 31 at Punta del Este. Festival organizers have urged the American companies to line up the strongest possible contingent of personalities. Three press reps are being invited to go on me Uruguayan junket. Bids have also been put in for four directors and a contingent of stars. It’s felt that the presence of a strong U.S. delegation will give the festival the weight it needs and serve as a clear demonstration of American support of the event. No Iron Curtain countries have been asked to attend the fest. Film companies are giving whole- hearted support to the Punta del Este festival, it’s\indicated in N.Y. Motivation in part is the realiza- tion that Uruguay is one of the most democratic nations in South America and that heavy American representation at the Uruguayan event has definite political implica- tions. That’s particularly true due to the U.S. attendance at the last Buenos Aires, Argentina, film fes- tival. There is considerable rivalry between the Peron domain and democratic Uruguay. The next South American Grand Prix will be handed out by Argentina at a fest skedded for December of 1955. However, it’ll be Counted as the 1956 prize. Under the regulations of the International Federation of Film Producers Assns., there can be only one competitive film festi- val in. Latin America each year. Arrangements for coralling UiS. film reps to junket to Purita del Este are being made in N.Y. by Robert Corkery, the MPEA Latin American supervisor. He said he Was getting goofi cooperation from both Coasts. Vogel Aids Campaign i Joseph Vogel this week was named associate chairman of the amusement division of the 1954-55 funraising drive of the Federa- tion of Jewish Philanthropies. Of •N. Y. He’ll serve with Adolph Schimel, chairman. Federation has set a $16,950,000 goal this year. Chairman of various committees were named by Schimel. They'in- clude; Spyros P. Skouras, chair- man of special gifts; Harold Rinz- ler, exhibitors committee; Saul Jeffee, laboratories; Abe Dickstein, film exchanges; Walt Framer, broadcasting and tv; Irving Caesar, Carl Haverlin and Mitch Miller, record companies and music pub- lishers. Oscar Hammerstein 2d, legit; Nat Lefkowitz, actors arid agents; Morris Jacobs, ticket brokers, and Jack.. Alicoate r ~jiublicity. Hollywood, Nov. 30. Republic bought “The Long Watch,” sea yarn by Robert F. Mir- vich, for round-the-world filming . . John Ireland and Joanne Dru slated to co-star in “Joe MacBeth,” tri be produced by Mike Frankovlch in England . . . Edward Small pur- chased “Fierce Is the Desert Wind,” novel by Laurents Savoir dealing with the Foreign Legion .... War- ner stuntman Fred Stromsoe Jr., cast as an actor in “The Sea Chase” . . . Firm of Walter E. Hel- ler acquired title to the film “Red Planet,” also known as “Red Planet Mars” . . Edmurid C. Grainger formed. Ram Pictures Corp. to pro- duce his first film under his new release deal with RKO. , James Gleason drew a key role in Frederick Brisson’s “The Girl Rush” at Paramount . . . Tommy Noonan signed for a featured lead in “Violent Saturday,” produced by Buddy Adler for 20th-Fox . * . Metro cast Joanne Dru as a co-star in “The Cobweb” , . . Constance Smith draws femme lead opposite Richard Conte in William F. Broidy’s “Twilight Alley” at Allied Artists ... William Hartwell joined the “Deadlock” cast at Columbia . . . Lewis Allen will direct “Cana- da’s Great Manhunt,” to be pro- duced by Samuel Bischoff and Dave Diamond for United Artists release . . , Copa Productions, Ted Richmond-Tyrone Power unit, ac- quired “The Calico. Pony” for indie filining *.. Vince Perry plays a Revolutionary War drummer in Metro’s “Scarlet Coat,” Karen Steele signed with Hecht- Lancaster Productions and as- signed to “Marty” . . . Bruce Ben- nett will star as an Army scout in Maurice Geraghty’s indie, “Apache Blood” . . . Palo Alto cast Jonathan Haze in “Five Guns West” . . Hanya Holm will stage the. dances for Paramount’s 1 Kath- ryn Grayson starrer, “The Vaga- bond King” .... . Sam Katzman signed Linda Dansori for “Chicago Syndicate” at Colombia . . . UI bought “Back Trail,” authored by Lewis B. Patten and assigned Howard Pine as producer , . . Carl Post will portray a concert pianist in UI-s “Third Girl. From the Right” and will play excerpts from his own coiriposition, “Fantasie for Piano and Strings” . . . Charles Marquis Warren negotiating with British actress Susan Shentall to co-star with Jack Palance in his indie, “The Norman.” Metro assigned Charles. Walters to direct the Lillian Roth biopic, “I’ll Cry Tomorrow,” with Law- rence Weingarten producing and Susan Hayward in the top role . .... Mickey Rooney Enterprises signed John Fenton Murray and Benedict Freeman to screenplay “Jaguar,” starring Sabu at Republic . . . First picture for Edmund Grainger Pro- ductions for RKO release will be “The Treasure of Pane ho Villa,” based on a yarn by Robert Bren and Gladys Atwater . . Metro signed Claude Stroud for a role in “Love Me or Leave Me” . . Robert Adler and Tony Hughes joined the “Daddy Long Legs” cast at 20th-Fox . . . Bob Foulk cast in “Strange Lady in Town” at Warners . . Peter Votrian snagged a part in 20thrFox’s “A Man Called Peter” , . John Al- derson inked for “The Scarlet Coat” at Metro . , % Warners handed Gavin Muir a part in “The Sea Chase.” Paul Douglas filed papers with the Secretary of State in Sacra- mento for Senadla Corp., formed to produce for screen, stage and television . . . Richard Dean Will play an archibishop i Danny Kaye’s "The Court jester” at Para- mount . . Allied Artists will re- lease “The Black Prince” on the » »4»»»4444»4 > 4»+444 fr 444 44 4 4 ♦ 4 4 44444444 4 4 44444 ♦ 4 44 ♦ 4444444*4 4* 4 4 ♦ 4 44 4 Included on Metro’s 1955 schedule Is a musical spectacle based on “Juiribo," which in its day was a two-way flash on Broadway, a radio, show, sponsored by Texaco, about a stage show then playing the N.Y. Hippodrome. It was but plenty expensive, that “Jumbo,”; as produced by Billy Rose and starring Jimmy: Durante, Paul Whiteman and Donald Novis . . . Metro’s version will be produced by Rodgers Edens and directed by Stanley Dorien from a screenplay of Leonard Spigelgass . , . One of the many units of the farflung Ford Foundation is digging for the “definitive study” of the whole blacklisting history in Hollywood, New York, films and other amusements . . . may take years. : Cecil B. DelVliHe dropped 21 pounds lensing “Ten Commandments” in Egypt .., Zenith (Phonevision) is circulating reproductions of an interview with Sir Alexander Korda in Britain’s Picture Post. Mag quotes the producer as being strictly in favor of home subscription television. He’d like to see this first, then wider Screens and then color as the major steps i developing ip England . . Author William Gibson has left for the Coast to work with producer John Houseman arid director Vincente Minelli on script revisions for Gibson’s novel, “The .Cobweb;’’ which went before, the cameras at M-G-M this week. Amalgamated Productions either gets off the ground with a film- making program within a few weeks or does a fold* All depends on the outcoirie of current negotiations to set up financing. Outfit’s formation was announced idst May wjith William F* Rodgers, Cliff Work, Sam Dembow and Jack Skirball as partners, Nothing has happened: since because of the money snarl . .. . Myer P, (Mike) Beck, indie press rep, leaves N.Y. for the Coast tomorrow (Thurs.) for a week’s huddles, with producer Stanley Kramer re the “Not As A Stranger? campaign. Film* is Kramer’s first under a new tieup with- United Artists’, . , Cor- respondence from'Down Under ‘reports Eric A. Johnston party doing a nifty job of ambassadorial goodwilling both within and beyond the picture business.. Johnston group left Sydney for Manila and Tokyo last Wednesday (24). Hy Daab, vet ad-pub specialist, anhled Hal R. Makelim Productions after , a brief association. Producer meanwhile is. continuing on the prowl for exhibitor contracts in advance of the actual lensing of hjs pix. Signe Hasso planing to Stockholm this week to arrange financing for a series of English-language features to be made in Sweden, One would be a romantic comedy drama starring Miss Hasso . . , Pakistani mag, “Bull’s Eye,” in &n editorial in the Nov. 21 issue, went on a rampage against George Cukor, director of Metro’s “Bhowani Junction.” Urging that Cukor and his crew be given the heave-ho, the ;mag ob- served that it was the Americans’ “Sole aim to make money by pandering to the superiority complex of the White Man by deriding and ridiculing an Oriental nation.” Mag maintained the film would vilify India . Hugh M..Flick, the N.Y. censor; persuading film companies to let him scissor excessive violence out of pix . . . Actors Fund expected to get behind. 20th-Fox’s “No. Business Like Showbusiness” in a big way. Tickets to the film’s charity preem, which benefits the Fund, Will be blank, with donations left up to individual “buyersi” Western Hemisphere as “The War- riors” because it sounds too much like. Columbia’s “The Black •Knight" . . . Robert Rossen talk- ing a deal with Jack Palance to co- star with Richard Burton in Alexander the Great,” to be pro- duced for United Artists release . , , Warners signed Eliri Kazan to direct an unspecified number of pictures on a rion-exclusive basis . . . William Slack gets the heavy role in Cy Roth’s indie, "Stone Dragon” . . Betsy Blair will co- star with Jean Gabin in “At the Green Devil,” to be filmed in Paris next year. U assigned Richard Quine to di- rect “So This Is Rio” with Tony Curtis, Gene Nelson and Paul Gil- bert as: topliners . . , Columbia bought Harriet Arnow’s best-seller, “The Doll Maker,” for filming as one of 1955’s top productions . . . arrters signed Janies Webb to screenplay the Frank P, Rosenberg production, “So Shall I Live” . . . Queenie Smith returning to the screen to portray Jack Lemmon’s secretary in Columbia’s “My Sister Eileen” ...., Gregory Walcott joined the cast of “The McConnell Story” at Warners .. . , U signed Harry Mendoza, Vera Frances a&d John Close for roles in “Tacey” . . . Belinda Lee snagged a part in Columbia’s “Deadlock.” Edward G. Robinson and George Raft will co-star in “Canada’s Great Man Hunt,” Sam Bishoff’s indie for UA release . ... Marty Melcher’s Arwin Company is readying “Rhythm and Blues” to star Doris Day . . . Milton Sperling registered “The Court Martial of General Mitchell” at the Johnston office . . Hecht - Lancaster - will produce “Trapeze” in England and “Until They Sail” in Ney/ Zealand . •. . Mark.Robson^ purchased “Fire iri the East,” a novel by Roland Crane Greene dealing with the first treaty between the U.S. and Japan . . . Joseph Kaufman bought “Medicine Whip,” a western yarn, for production in Australia . Robert Dix plays a featured foie in Metro’s “Love Me or Leave Me” . . . Margherita Pasquero makes her film bow as a grandmother in S al Wallis’ “The Rose Tattoo” . . . ushy Callahan staging the box- ing sequences i “The McConnell Story” at Warners. Walter Hampden will portray the King of France in “The Vaga- bond King” at Paramount . . . Barry Curtis drew a role in U’s “Tacey” . King Bros, signed Irving Rapper to direct “The Boy. and the Bull” in Spain . . . Peter Miller joined the “Blackboard Jungle” cast at Metro . . . Ray Teal shagged a role in Paramount’s “The Desperate Hours” French ‘Dedee Cleveland, Nov. 30. Booted around by police and cen- sors, a private film club called Group 16 rail into a blockbuster, when two of Its directors were ar- rested for publicly showing a film not approved by the Ohio Board of Censors. Latter signed the warrants under which Victor Salupo.and Anthony Dennison were pinched by state agents after they had viewed part of “Dedee,” French film, at the Moreland. Nabe house was leased by Group 1.6 sponsors after they had been kicked out of Manger Hotel’s ballroorii and also denied right to use Masonic Hall recently. Nathan Botwin, attorney who ar- ranged bond for both arrested men, said the group has for a long time conducted private showings of foreign films banned by state censors. Police and state agents, he claimed, started gunning for it as soon as organization bought newspaper ads to ballyhoo “Dedee” and its new headquarters of More- land. Arrests were carried off so quietly that 300 persons seeing the picture were not disturbed. Case to be heard in municipal court is expected to expose the controver- sial authority of Ohio’s board of censors to an acid test. Ed Fahey to Pittsburgh In Shea Manpower Shifts In personnel changes at James- town Amusement (Shea Circuit), Ed Fahey has., been switched from : manager of Shea’s Theatre, Man- chester, N. H., to manager of the Fulton, Pittsburgh, effective Jan. 4. He succeeds Bernie Hickey, who has moved to the N. Y. homeoffice - in charge of coordinating exploita- tion and promotion with film buy- ing and booking. . Fenton Scribner goes to the Man- chester location from the Shea Theatre, Nashua, N. H., and new manager of the latter house is Ar- mand Pepin, ti'ansferring from the Park Theatre, Westfield, Mass.