Variety (December 1954)

20 PICTURES Wednesday* December 1, 1954 Harry Brandt' Puts 'Evil Fruit’ Of Renewing his attack on Abram F. Myers, general counsel of Allied States Assn., Harry Brandt, presi- dent of the Independent Theatre Owners Assn., declared that ."the fruits of his (Myers) efforts nave been a distinct disservice to. inde- pendent; exhibition." Brandt placed on Myers’ shoulders the blame, for the elimination of block, booking* diyorcement, competitive bidding, an absence of arbitration, and the threat of government regulation. Brandt's charges were contained In a letter to Allied prexy Ben Marcus. It was in reply to a letter from Marcus calling Brandt to task fpr comments he. had made about the Allied general counsel. In a breakdown of the industry conditions which Myers “mote than any other individual, is en- titled to recognition," Brandt stated: "Block booking, even at its worst, insured theatre owners of' a product inventory and the major- ity of independent exhibitors wish that they could have it how. "With divorcement, the produ- cer-distributors were ho longer un- der obligation to produce a supply of films for their former theatre affiliates.. And, conversely, the pro- ducer-distributors no. lohger had a guaranteed market, This, above all, is most responsible for the acute product shortage .from which ex- hibition is presently suffering. "The Competitive bidding situa- tion, inspired by the antitrust suit, has been responsible for a new era of cutthroat competition between, exhibitors and has needlessly suc- ceeded in feathering the nest of distribution at the expense of the- atre owners. , "The failure to establish an in- dustry-wide system of arbitration is the primary cause for the industry friction and conflict between buyer and seller. "And, last but not least, govern- ment regulation would be dis-. astrOus to the independent exhib- itor.^and immediately, dry up the potential, supply of necessary inde- pendent production that is now be- ing encouraged." Brandt maintained that these conditions have been costly to ex- liibs, have brought about countless litigation, and would again bring "a lot more than it (exhibition) bargained for" if there were addi- tional government regulation. He said it was about time for "re- sponsible elements to sit down around the table and work out their differences in a spirit of mu- tual understanding." He said this has not been done yet because of "stumbling roadblocks." Brandt said he was "pleased to hear" of Allied’s willingness to participate in meetings with the company pres- idents and sales managers as sug- gested by 20th-Fox sales chief Al Llchtman. Poison Garries Own Cute The Harry Brandt-Abram F. Myers controversy has all the ear- marks of developing into a. full- scale feud. . Myers, general counsel of Allied States Assn., lias so far remained on the sidelines* Allied prexy Ben Marcus has been carry- ing ball, taking the initiative in .re- plying to Brandt’s attacks on Myfersj Reached; at his Washington of- fice, Myers, however, answered Brandt’s most recent blast thusly: "Harry Brandt’s record is '• well known that his poison carries its own antidote.” In Milwaukee, Marcus said lie Was preparing answer to Brandt’s letter; Intellectuals Rally Continued from page V 1 dean of the Harvard Business School prior to his long tenure as general manager of WOR, N. Y. Group- meeting at Cambridge will be well alerted to the sched- uled appearance around Feb. 1 of a book by Eugene W, Castle, re- tired producer of 16m home films, who has long held that American propaganda is a waste of tax- payers’ money, and a boondoggle to keep jobholders in jobs. The opposite extreme to the Castle viewpoint advocates establishment of foreign information as a depart- ment whose chief would, have cabi- net rank under the President. Howard Hughes Praised Floyd Odium,, ■ president. of Atlas C.orp., touched upon, the personal side of RKO’s head ■ man at a meeting of Atlas stockholders in N. Y. yester- day jCTues.h: Said ■ Odium: "Mr. Hughes and I have been friends for more than 20 years. He is a man of great talents which are obscured by his personal idior syncrasies that attract head- lines. I like him in spite of, and perhaps in part because of, his foibles and we have spent many hours together in odd places at odd hours dis-. cussing and negotiating." ’ 5 Conti lied from page 5 paid by Hughes in buying the pic- ture outfit, its two major stock- holders are Hughes and Atlas. Od- ium wants to take ’over manage-, ment and organize the company in some sort of business endeavor to take advantage of cajpital-loss-carry- forward advantages. Odium said Hughes •appears agreeable, to this but it hasn’t yet ' been made firm; Hughes paid $23,500,000 to the holding corporation for RKO pro- duction-distribution. RKO stock- holders were given, and still have, the privilege of surrending their shares for $6 per. share. Deadline for such sellouts is now Dec. 31, by which time, states Odium, there apparently must be an understand- ing with Hughes on how he, Od- ium, can take over management on an assured long-term basis. RKO Pictures Corp. now has about $15,000;000 in cash on hand. This represents the $23,500,000 put up by Hughes less $8,500,000 shelled out to those investors who have surrendered their stock. Mae West •. Continued from page 1. to a bottom nick of $6. In addition, most of the parties she drew didn’t have to worry about the minimum. Miss West is remembered best by the more mature elements, who have the money to spend. Young- sters who came were drawn by the legend Surrounding the s.a. ex- ponent. With three shows nightly on Wednesdays, Fridays and Satur- days, there were no dance sets be- tween shows, hence it cut down on that "extra" round of drinks. It, was necessary to get one house out and prepare for a new mob; loiter- ing couldn’t be. encouraged. Table cards also stipulated that an extra minimum would be charged if tjiey stayed for another show. According to Walters, during her worst week, she scored $10,000 more than the previous record holder $67,000 set by Milton Berle. Berle, of course, worked under considerably lower minimums, and prices were far below those charged today. Variety Club Front *♦ ♦ ♦ ♦»»♦ ♦ > ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦»♦* Philly Names. Coffman Philadelphia. Louis J. Goffman, attorney, was elected Chief Barker of the Vari- ety Club, Tent 13; Other officers named were Maxwell Gillis, .first assistant; Harry Romain, second second assistant; George T. Beattie, ■doughguy, and Meyer Lewis, prop- erty master. Board members named included Roger W. Clipp, Sylvan , M; Cohen, Michael' Felt, Jack Greenberg, Leo posel and Lester Wurtele. Ehrlich D. C. Chief Barker Washington. Alvin Q. Ehrlich is new/Chief Barker of Washington’s Tent 11, Variety Clubs International. He is veepee of Kal,v Ehrlich & Merrick ad agency here. Other new officers are Phil Isaacs, Paramount ex- change manager, first assistant barker; Orville Crouch, Easter* Division manager of Loew’s Thea- tres, second assistant barker; Frank M. Boucher, property master; and Sam Galanty, Columbia Pix mid- eastern division. manager, dough- guy. . ... New officers were all named to the board were J. E. Fontaine, United Artists; Marvirf Goldman, K-B Theatres; Nathan D. Golden, head of film division, Commerce Dept.; George A. Crouch, zone manager Stanley-Warner;. and Hirsh de la Viez, head. of Hirsh Coin Machines Co. Following for- mer Tent 11 prexies are board holdovers: Jack Fruchtma*, Victor J. Orsinger, Morton Gerber, Wade Pearson arid Jake Flax. Be on Celluloid Within 5 Years Zaniick’s, School ■ V s Continued from page 3 5 = Tent 17 Names Kendall. Way Dallas. . KehdalL Way, Interstate Thea- tres’ exec, named Chief Barker at the Variety. Club’s Tent 17 annual elections recently. He’ll succeed incumbent Albert H. Reynolds, who refused a second term. Others named' were. Charles E. Darden, first assistant barker; Don Douglas, second , assistant barker; Meyer Rachofsky, doughguy, and Joe S. Caffo, property master. Silverthorne Named'in Cleve, . Cleveland. Jack Silverthorrie, general man- ager of Hippodrome, was again made Chief Barker of Variety Club Tent No. 6 here for second term at the annual elections. Thomas McCleaster, 20th - Fox division manager here, was elected first assistant barker, and Dari Rosen- thal, United Artists branch man- ager, become second barker; I; J. Schmertz, 20th-Fox branch man- ager, doughguy; Nat Barach, manager of National Screen Serv- ice Corp., as property master. expressed his awareness of 20th’s responsibility to make enough pic- 1 tures to help exhibitors keep their theatres open. Later, the 20th studio topper; in- dicated he’d like to make "not less than 20 pictures" next year. "You might say that’s our aim," he stat- ed: "But. I’m not sure We’ll be able to fulfill it." With outside pix 20th is likely to take on, that would bring the company’s 1955 releases to anywhere, between 24 and 30; Zanuck said that the 20th pro- gram would continue to accent “larger subjects," i.e., pix that are fullblown With many starring parts. "We’ll concentrate on every type subject,"'he stressed, pointing out that his company owned the rights to four but of the 10 top bestsell- ers. . ’ / He said 20th was doing every- thing possible to overcoipe the sev- ere print shortage In Britain. The company is currently experiment- ing with making. quality dupes of its negatives and is. also consider- ing cutting second negatives of films for shipments abroad where prints could be struek off them; Regarding the test film, Zanuck saicFhe expected it to be of great value both to 20th end to the other- producers with whose C’Scope out^ put he is not altogether happy. He said the picture would help them and 20th avoid mistakes made in the past. Bout Sets Record Albany. • An attendance for amateur box- ing bouts here was established Sat- urday night (27) when 1,800 passed through the gate of Mid-City Arena attending the Variety Club’s second IriterrCity Championships. Tent No. 9 expected to receive almost $5,000 for its Camp That- cher fund from the ticket sales and a souvenir booklet. Miami Tent (33) has new amend- ment: no event may be sponsored unless ail proceeds go to Tent's own Children’s Hospital. Maurey Ashman is new barker. Other of- ficers: Hal Kopplin, Louis Beren- son, S. K. Bronstein, Stanley Stern. Illinois Tent (26) is supplying funds to research rheumatic heart fever, big killer of kids and short- ener of adult spans. Dr. Morris Fjshbein has been lecturing there op the disease. Los Angeles, Nov. 30. United Artists has filed suit in Federal Court against James Nas- ser and pther defendants, charging infringement of copyright arid breach of contract involving tele- vision release of four indie films. Double-barreled action stems from the bankruptcy proceedings under Which the Nasser Brothers were granted approval of , such releases. One action covers three films, "Cover Up," "Without Honor" and "A Kiss for Jorliss" and the de- fendants* in addition to Nasser, are Strand Productions, Quality Films, Charles Weintraub, George T. Gog- gin, live Does and five Doe corpo- rations. Second action substitutes Ressan Films for Strand and in- volves the picture, "Don’t Trust Your Husband." Plaintiff contends the defendants have collected more than $100,000 from . television sjiowings of the four films, and asks an accounting and Judg- ment. , Yellow Cruise," travel film classic of the 1930 Citroen-Haardt Expedition following Marco Polo’s route from Beirut to Peking, will be shown by Cinema 16 on Dec^ 14 and 15 at the Central Needle Trades High School, N.Y. and at the Beck- man Theatre, N.Y: Sunday morri- j ings Dec. 5, 12, arid 19. Through With Rank London, Nov. 30. A b.o. record.for amateur box- breach with the J. Arthur Rank Organization was permanent as far as their Cinemascope policy was concerned, Darryl F; Zanuck, here last week estimated that by next March the company’s earnings in Britain would outstrip the best pe- riod in history* He felt that by sell- ing to independents 20th-Fox had done a service for the whole Brit- ish picture industry, particularly benefitting. other 1 producers and creative workers. Zanuck came .here to investigate British receipts of C’Scope pix making compari- sons with take of 2-D films arid to analyze the viewpoint ’ of British producers towards filming C'Scopei On the first score Zanuck said his survey , indicated that nowhere had grosses 'risen by around 50%. The figures; were based on com- parative periods of weeks in the previous year. He admitted that their earnings this year would be slightly down compared with past years, but emphasized that, they Were -playing in far fewer houses and had only half-a-dozen or so pictures in release. His estimate for next March, however, not only concerned actual earnings but also attendance.. Reviewing the Increasing inter- est in anamorphic production in Europe, Zanuck intimated 20th-Fox had had inquiries for 22 produc- tions to be lensed in West Ger- Richard Suey, a Chilean magician, many, 11 in Italy and seven in France. In Britain about 18 Were already in circulatipn. In. view of this new trend, there was no need for 20th-Fox to of- fer incentives to British producers although in. certain instances • it would be willing to participate fi- nancially and also offer distribu- tion facilities. He believed that Within three to four months there would be important developments in British anamorphic production as a sequel to his meeting here. ■Xmas’ Quits Hall though B.O. Pace Rates Extension : Paramount’s "White Chirtsmas" will be yanked from ,N. Y.’s Radio City Music -Hall at the end of its eighth Week although the Current boxoffice pace, under normal cir- cumstances, would warrant .a still longer engagement. Seventh week ends tonight (Wed.) with around $150,000, fancy. In booking the pic, Par agreed to the eight-week maximum .to avoid possible conflict with the Hall’s policy of bringing in its year-end holiday show a few weeks before Christmas. Metro’s "Deep in My Heart" bows Dec. 8. Washington, Nov. 30. The joint project of ‘.the Library of Congress, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts arid Sciences has transferred to film’ about 200 titles! thus far of those iriotion pic- tures which are available only as paper prints in the Library’s copy- right division. The project has been under way about a year. By the time, the job is completed filmed copies will be available of more than 3,00(1 early motion pictures jm-the library. These run from "The Sneeze," copyrighted from Jan. 7, 1894, to 1912, when- the copyright laws were changed. The law originally made no provision for copyright- ing motion pictures as such, al- though it did permit the copyright- ing of still pictures. Thomas A. Edison conceived the idea of mak- ing paper prints, frame by frame, of motion pictures to. protect hi films from being pirated. This practice was followed until 1912 When Congress permitted motion picture film to be copyrighted. HoWeyer, the 3,000 paper prints in the library do not represent all films produced In that early era since many were never copy- righted, Col. Willard Webb, in charge of the motion picture section at the Library of Congress, says, the Li- brary has no money for the job. The Motion Picture Acaderiiy does all the copying on the West Coast and foots the bulk qf the bill. Some payment is received from those commercial firms,: which pur- chase copies of the films. Hi-Brow Payoff l —J Continued from page 1 [ simSmm -large enough to . make quite a dif- ference at the b.o. While feature films for the most part can’t afford to address them- selves to any one group in the audi- ence, theatre-tv can be—arid has been—more selective; The Metro- politan Opera preem was a hit and, together with the strong' showing of "Aida," is expected to have in- fluence. Projected theatre televis- ing of the "Anth Album” show next February will continue the pattern. On the theory that one good operatic turn deserves another and another and another, Italian film- makers are following through on the successful "Aida” with three more cinematic workouts in this lofty art form. "Rigoletto" is being readied for 1955 release in the U. S. by Diva Films. "Madame. Butterfly” is now being produced jointly by Italo and Japanese interests at the Cine- citta Studio, Rome. Lux Films is preparing for production of Um- berto Giordano’s "Andre Chenier.’* All three films will be in color.. S. Hurok, who’s presenting "Aida" in the U. S. plans to visit Italy next spring to investigate the possibilty of personally produc- ing an opera pic, perhaps "Barber of Seville.” It’s considered significant that, in discussing 20th-Fox’s Eidophor color theatre-tv system, Spyros P. Skouras has repeatedly referred to future theatre-tv presentations of opera, legit shows, concerts, re- citals, etc. Skouras apparently be- lieves that there is an untapped audience'for such attractions both In the keys and the sticks, Primary purpose of exhibs is to revive their houses as the focal point of community and entertgin- ment activity, a : status which they once attained but which Was weak- ened by the: onset of television. Theatre tv is considered one im- portant means of accomplishing that end. An increasing' number of houses also. are experimenting with the showing of foreign films. In plug- ging for such a policy, Edward L. ■Hyman of United Paramount Thea- tres not long ago pointed out that it has the potential of. attracting patrons that ordinarily don’t: at- tend; The audience in these situa- tions is apt to be less selective than in the keys’ artie outlets. It’s felt that, while, the campaign to widen the general audienee must necessarily, be laid out along conventional lines, the introduction of "cultural”- subjects on the screen-^-whether via film or tv—is likely to bring back tb'' "intelli- gentsia" which broke with Holly- wood after t^e War and has never returned in strength to the b.o,