Variety (December 1954)

16 PICTURES PfiniEfY Wedneiday, December 1, 1954 Favor Incentive for Execs Hollywood, Nov. 30. 4 A four-point program to build boxoffice, paced by a $500,000 ad- vertising research fund was out- lined by Elmer C Rhoden, neW prexy of National Theatres, at coi - pany first divisional convention 1952. Rhoden told 89 dele- gates assembled in circuit's home office he wants the fund to carry ut research work in field of pro- rotion, advertising and direct sell- j ,ing of pi Other three points outlined in speech were; f Organization of a traveling caval- - cade to be brought to all key cities, to draihatizie development of in- dustry in its 50-year history, cavalcade to be staged through, co- operation all Hollywood studios as well as local theatre owners; Creation of incentive plan: for theatre managers, district man- agers and department heads. This nist be approved by stockholders and .would supersede former , peri- odic drive . bonuses. Rhoden de- clared he---favors Sears Roebuck plan whereby employes are given ; chance to invest in company; ' Compliance with consent decree by Jan. 1 by which time company would be in position to request Dept, of Justice approval for ac- quisition of additional theatres. Purchases have been held in' abeyance because of Government freeze, Rhoden explained that research program would determine relative values of presently-used advertis- ing media.; value of premiums; rec- reational habits of ^potential cus- tomers, proper.admission prices, j Other speaker^ included Fox j West Coast prexy John B. Bertero; , merchandising chief Andy Krappr i man, and film buying head Bert! Pirosh who said forthcoming prod- j uct is five-lo-one better than last j year. Zenith Seeks Speed Washington, Nov. 30. Zenith Radio $oi Chicago moved, yesterday (Mom), to force a decision on toll televi- sion from the Federal Commu- nications Commission which has been putting this off for same years. The new Zenith petition supersedes one filed in 1952. A considerable portion of the latest : Zenith brief argues' the-^behefit's*' to the video i diTstry that would flow from, an FCC go-ahead. V«r«C0it Prmdvft ► r Samuel Goldwyn detail* hi* vtawt on • Quality Ptx Product Cashing in on TV 9 Quantity-Huckstering ai) lnftrcttlnqV aditor ial footura lir»ha~ rs 49th Anniversary Number of' ’ Dm SOON New system of marketing pic- tures in Latin America has been established by Warner Bros, inter- national ‘department. At a recent sales confab in Mexico City attend- ed by all Warner managers from South and Central America, W£ international prexy Wolfe Cohen told sales staffers to sell each pic- ture individually on its merits after it has been screened locally in each territory. This is a de- parture *from the block-booking method formerly employed where- by a group of. pictures or an en- tire season’s lineup was sold at one time. According to WR, the new policy will enable both the sales force and exhibitors “to properly evalu- ate each release and, determine its fullest possibilities as to best, the- atre; playdates, admission prices, arid type of promotion campaign.*' Cohen declared that “in the fu- ture we shall not ask any exhibitor to buy any picture before, it is available for. screening.” • The new, policy will be instituted With, pic- tures recently delivered to the ter rltory. Cleveland Houses Sold -Cleveland, Nov;: 30, Loe’w's Park and Granada,, two of largest neighborhoods in. Cleve- land, were , sold by the chain last week in transactions totaling $850.- 000. Built in. 1922, the 3,200-seatcd Park was acquired for $250,000 by the Park Amusement, Inc., headed by Meyer £., Fine, chief of. Asso- ciated Theatres, Inc. Fine also represented the newly -formed Granada Amusement, Inc, which leased the 2,200-capacity Granada for 20 years and a tota rental of $600,000.. Proponerits of subscription-tv are launching on campaigns designed to create a favorable atmosphere for toll-tv when the Federal Com- munications Commission gets around to holding hearings on pay-, as-ydu-see. Latest p.r. pitch comes from Zenith, which has circularized the broadcasters with'a three-page let- ter pointing out the advantages of fee-tv arid the fallacy of the ex- hibs’ arguments against it. Earlier, Telemeter's Carl Leser- man said he. would contact all the exhibs he could to convince them that they could work with Tele- meter or should at least let some- one else work with it. Theatremen have banded to- gether ' to fight toll-tv. Group of Allied and. Theatre Owners of America officials has engaged, in sharp exchanges with Zenith prexy ~ ugene McDonald. Exhibs have einerged as champions of free tele; vision and dan be expected to urge the FCC to stick to its traditional policy of “the free air’” McDon- ald has ridiculed the exhibs’ posh lion, pointing out that, they pre- viously and vigorously fought reg- ular commercial tv all dovvn the No one knows for sure just when he FCC will get around to calling the toll-tv hearings. However, ob- servers are noting the divergence of views between Matthew Fox’s petition before the FCC arid the petition filed Monday (29) by Ze- nith. Whereas the latter wants ’im- mediate-authorization of , the serv- ice for all stations, Fox’s bid is based on the plight of the ultra high frequency broadcasters. Fox asked : that, for the first three years f at least, toll-tv be restricted' to the uhf outlets only. It’s hot known what position Telemeter will take at the hearings. Attitude of the; film companies before the FCC hasn’t jelled, even though the experience of Tele meter at .Palm Springs is seen as a straw-imthe-vvind. According to Louis' N. Ridenour, Telemeter aoard chairman, the system had tq call off*/its test run due to its in- ability • to get first-run features 1'rom the studios. He blamed this attitude on exhib resistance, There is, every indication that, whereas indie .producers may be pnsiderabiy interested in the toll- potential, the major studios -.ren’t eager to show their hand. Y1 Libhtman, 20th director of sales, mly last \yCek told Variety that his company wouldn’t make avail- able films for fee-tv “unless rfe breed to.” ^ Companies’ attitude is very much tinged by a doubt that pay- is-you-see can be made to work ‘conomically. There is, however, considerably more interest in the . dea among distrib execs than they will let on in the face of such de- ermined exhibitor opposition. (N.Y. Stock Exchange} For Week Ending Tuesday (SO) 1954 High' Low 2214 14%' 85 41% 85% 41% 33% 19% 18% 9% 68%' 46% 19% 13% 10 % 6 % ,36% 26% 39% 28 38% 22% Weekly Vol.Weekly Weekly In 106s Am Br-Par Th 433 7 8% 5% 2 % 4% 3 13% 10% 20 11 % 29% 18%. 32% 18% 81 63% High 22 % CBS, "A” 27 84% CBS, “B” 6 84% Col. Pix. 18 31% Decca ... ... 267 17% Eastman Kflk. 92 >72 Loew’s ...... 196 < 18% Nat. Thea, 120. 9 'Paramount 90 36 Philco ...:,, 132 39% RCA........ 278 38% RKOPicts... 53 6% RKOThea. 128 9% Republic 65 . 5% Rep., pfd. ... 6 13% Stanley War. 85 19% 20th-Fox 254 29% Univ. Pix. 25 32% Univ.; pfd. *70 80 Low 20 % 79% 81% 29% 16 : 68 % 17% 8% 35% 38 37% 6 % 9% 5 12 % 19 28% 30% 76% Tuea. Close 21%. 79% tm 16% 89% 17% 8% 35% 38 37% 6 % 9% . 5% 12 % 19% 28% 30% 80 Net Change for week +1 • —5% —334 4- % —1% — 3/4 ~ % % — %, — 34 +. % % ; % 4 1 Chief Barker George . Hoover on the road currently for talks in Mil- waukee arid Minneapolis, thence back to Washington, Toronto, Nov. 30, Scathing attacks on film dis- tributors’ alleged current practices [involving too many high %"and/or ^roadshow films, this, necessitating advanced adriiission prices, key- noted the annual, meetings'here , of coast-to-coast Canadian exhibitors Smalltown operators were particu- larly vehement, claiming that, On top of expensive', widescreen equip- ment expenditure, upped- admish prices A would drive them, out of business andi there-would be no hope of eyen getting back that “lost audience*’ exhibitors are so anxious to recover. Several delegates to the ^n.eet- ing of the Motion. Picture Exhibi- tors Assn, of Canada presented bitter protest and criticism, this incorporated in a resolution to the Motion Picture Council of Canada for immediate action,: including an appeal to the Federal government.; Exhibitors' will also strenuously fight the proposed move of the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada to raise its niusic fees for 1955^56 and Will carry the battle to the Copyright Appeal Board to prevent the up- ping of a tariff that has remained unchanged for |the past .three years. Delegates appointed N. A. Taylor to consolidate the exhibitors* fight against the music performance pool with Taylor promised ade- quate financial support in the as-. sembling of a. top legal battery. The GAP AC claims should become an obligation of the producers and riot be levied on the exhibitors, it was the general feeling of the meeting. (Present annual CAFAC fee is lOc.per seat for 499 and under; 12c for 500 to 799; 15c for 800 to 1,599; 20c for 1,000 seats and over.) 1 To • obviate The. present pressing" possibility that many of the smaller exhibitors will be forced to shutter -—and deprive their communities pf film entertainment—delegates ap- proved the formation of an indus- try group to. establish a new pub- lic relations program, with its cost per theatre coming up for immedi- ate future discussion. Arch Jolley, secretary-manager, reported that a request to have cost of premiums deducted from ad- missions when computing . the 12%% tax was made to the Gov- ernment’s Treasury Dept, but re- fused. The Assn, also took up with publishers of. Canadian city dailies, the matter of non-theatrical advertisements appearing on theat- rical pages and asked that in fu- ture, such ads be kept off the amusement pages. (The Toronto Telegram, Canada’s second-largest afternoon paper, Today (30) com- menced a. nc\v. daily." consolidated two-page amusement, section.) - ConcOrniiig;failure of some small town and lesser ■ city exhibs to dress up a performance, Morris Stein, veep of MPT AO, pointed out to delegates that old-fashioned methods, won’t do arid that the small screen is out. He said ; * "If you don’t run size, you are not a showman and defeating an invest- ment. Put in a big screen and fill it .with pictures. This sense of show manship must guide you." On subject of a public, relations plan, Dick Mai smalltown chain exhibitor,. endorsed the MPTAO “For the cost of a ticket or two a week, these Main Street theatres rmist be maintained. They must be kept in business and the big op- erators must take less profit, The big houses in the major cities can gross some $30,000 a week but what about the smaller theatre grosses of $5,000 or less? The high- (Quotations furnished, by Dreyfus A Co. r * Actual volume. Musical Director, Film Critic and Film Exhibitor Get Plaques in Toronto By ROBERT A. McSTAY Toronto, Nov. 30. Named, by The Canadian Picture! Pioneers as the film industry’s 7 “Man of the Year” in this country, Jack Arthur, who has been in every branch of show business for the past, half-century (he is currently producer of the annual Canadian National Exhibition 24,000-seater. grandstand §how, plus his weekly trans-Canada*tv senes, “Mr. Show- business”) was tendered a banquet and heard glowing tributes paid his activities from the last of the showboat and minstrel days up through his years in the film in- dustry as musical director and pro- ducer of stage presentations for Famous Players (Canadian). Also'honored at the banquet in the King Edward Hotel .ballroom here, with some 600 members of the film industry preseht from coast-to-coast, were Will McLaugh- lin, film critic and amusements edi- tor of. The Ottawa Journal;, and Charles Stephenson? pioneer show- man, who Was managing the Bijou Theatre, Toronto, in 1897, N. A. Taylor, president, Cana- dian Picture Pioneers, ’chose J. J. Fitzgibbons, president, Famous Players (Canadian), to present the statuette to Jack Arthur, this prior to further tribute from Attorney- General Dana Porter. Said Fitz- gibboiis; “The honor you are re- civing tonight represents the ap- plause of the entire Canadian en- ter tainriient industry for a job well done in the most famous phase in Canadian show business. Present was Mrs. Jack Arthur (formerly Margaret “Midge” pressure" salesmen will have to be told to take it. easy if they them- selves intend to stay in business.” The same angle was pursued by MPTAO luncheon speaker Arthur L. Mayer, who said, “The distribu- tors have lost their heads. Their indifference is callous in their lack of regard for the fate of a large number of small businessmen in the film exhibitor industry. It will be a bad day for the industry when the lights begin to go out from Broadway to Vine street. It used to be that distributors’ sales de- partments were interested in com- mon sense and fair business re- turns; but we see no continued vestige of this in the New York head offices.” Cousins of Washington, who was a dancer with Publix units when she Was introduced to Arthur by Lester Alien, who stayed to do the Ohore- ography and dance direction of a Junior ^League revue that Arthur was producing in Toronto and mar- ried the. guy); their three sons; and Arthur’s daughter, Mrs. Helen Mc- Clintock, who was secretly brought , up from New York by the Picture Pioneers- to surprise him at the head table. Re other two who got plaques; (1) Charles Stephenson, dates from 1911 imported to Canada and ex- ploited such early pictures as “The Whip” and Mabel Nofmand’s “Mickey’;; (2) Will McLaughlin be. came Canada’s first film critic, i 1916 with The Ottawa Journal. His award marked the first time Cana- dian Picture Pioneers have singled out a newspaperman for citation. World’s Largest Drive-In In Hartford—2,010 Cars Hartford, Nov. 30. Hartford’s City Council will not officially protest construction of the world’s largest drive-in theatre in the North Meadows section. Efforts were defeated, by a vote of six to three, to have the Coun- cil membership oppose an applica- tion by A. J. (Jack) Bronstei president of MeadoWs Drive-i Theatre Corp., now pending be- fore State Police Comi issioner John C. Kelly. Both, the Council majority and former Mayor Thomas J.;Spellacy’s Committee on Development of the North and South- Meadows, pressed the belief that the eity was powerless to halt the outdoor ven- ture in favor 'of preserving the acreage for more tax-productive industrial development. Bronsteiri, who also heads the East Hartford Family Driye-In Theatre Cofp., South Windsor, Conn., is planning an. expenditure pf $500,000 on a 2,010-car. capacity drive-in. Features unduplicated in' the Connecticut drive-in field will include children’s Wading pools and two children’s playgrounds, Sal Adorno Jr., building 850-car drive-in south of Middletown, Conn., for 1955 opening.’ Son of. Sal Adorno Sr., gm. of M&D The- atres, was formerly associated with the local theatre circuit.