Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1947)

ATA: IRREPARABLE DAMAGE' IF INTERVENTION IS DENIED Newspaper Ads to Help N.J. Fight New Taxes SCTOA Joins With Ass'n In Asking High Court To Kill Big-5 Appeal WASHINGTON — The American Theatres Ass’n, joined by the Southern California Theatre Owners Ass’n, Friday filed with the U.S. supreme court an answer opposing the motions of 20th-Fox, Loew’s, RKO, Paramount and Warner Bros, which asked for an order dismissing the ATA appeal to intervene. “To deny intervention in the present case is to subject intervenors to irreparable injury resulting from the court’s decree without an opportunity to be heard,” the exhibitor petition said. OPPOSE MAJORS’ VIEWS The brief said the defendant companies are objecting to giving intervenors an opportunity to defend their rights in court. “They are the very persons who will benefit by a plan of united action sanctioned by the court which would be illegal without that sanction,” the exhibitor association said, pointing to the competitive bidding section of the decree to which they object. “The united front which the decree directs the defendants to take against the intervenors destroys intervenors’ power to bargain individually to protect themselves against the enhanced prices which defendants will be able to obtain through competitive bidding after the destruction of existing commercial relationships with independents,” it said. ATA and SCTOA denied that intervention will delay or complicate the litigation. “Intervenors do not seek to introduce new evidence. They ask no part in the litigation except to protect their rights against the unlawful and harmful provisions of the decree,” the petition said. SUMS UP DAMAGE Summing up the damage which the exhibitors believe will result from initiation of the competitive bidding system, the petition respectfully asked the supreme court to repeal the lower court order which denied direct intervention. ATA and SCTOA are already before the court as amicus curiae, as well as Allied States, and the Conference of Independent Exhibitor Ass’ns. Signers of the petition were Thurman Arnold for ATA; Paul Williams for SCTOA, Paul Barton and John G. Jackson, counsel for W. C. Allred and other exhibitors. Longer Seeks Stiff Penalty For Antitrust Violators Washington — Senator W’illiam Langer of North Dakota this week renewed his demand that violators of the antitrust laws be punished by a jail sentence plus a stiff fine. At hearings of the senate judiciary committee, the lawmaker ridiculed spokesmen for the federal trade commission who were called to testify on enforcement of antitrust laws. “I think the antitrust laws we have are sufficient,” Langer said. “One thing certain, however, is that the government has not been enforcing them properly,” he added, indicating that his committee plans to do something about it. NEWARK — The Federation of New Jersey Theatres will set up a legislative lobby program and use full page ads to fight the proposed state law permitting local communities to tax admissions and retail sales. This campaign was arranged here Wednesday at a meeting of federation trustees in the office of Frank Damis of Warners. Details of the lobby program will be worked out April 7 at a Federation-sponsored meeting at the Stacy-Trent hotel in Trenton. All exhibitors in New Jersey have been invited. They will be urged to write to their local state representative, protesting against the proposed law. The legislators also will receive briefs from the Federation attacking the measure. The bill, assembly No. 27, was reported out of committee and passed on first and second readings. After a third reading it will be put to a vote. It would permit localities to levy a 2-cent tax on articles and admissions costing from 13 to 50 cents, a 3-cent tax on transactions between 50 cents and $1, and 3 cents on each even dollar after the first dollar. George Gold, operator of the Rivoli Theatre, Newark, and chairman of the Federation, presided at Wednesday’s meeting. Others present were Edward Lachman, president of the New Jersey Allied, Damis; Bud Hunt, Hunt Theatres; Edward Gage, Walter HOLLYWOOD — Hal Roach, who has been making comedies for a lot of years and should know what he is talking about, evidently is of the opinion that the world needs a good laugh. Furthermore, the veteran film maker has bobbed up with a plan to do something about it. At a press conference at his Culver City studio, Roach declared it is his belief that “brevity is the essence of comedy” and that, for that reason, he intends hereafter to turn out his laugh-makers with a running time of only 55 minutes. Two of these, Roach said, will be combined in one distribution package, giving showmen a 110-minute program. Already completed under this plan are “Curley” and “The Fabulous Joe,” two Cinecolor productions which will be called “Hal Roach Comedy Carnival,” Part One and Part Two. They will be sold on a straight feature-length rental, but the exhibitor will be given his choice of running them separately or as a package. Roach cited the fact that some of our greatest comedians came out of the old tworeelers — Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd — but that Reade Theatres; Lee Newbury, Newbury Theatres; Morton Sunshine, Leon Rosenblatt and J. Joshua Goldberg of the ITOA; Hardie Meakin, RKO; William Phillips, Loew’s, and Harold Blumenthal, Fabian. Billion-Dollar New York Budget Calls for Real Estate Tax Hike NEW YORK — Theatre owners were stunned when Mayor O’Dwyer submitted his budget for $1,029,000,000 for the year starting July 1. It calls for a real estate tax rate of $2.95 per $100 of valuation, a jump of 25 cents over the current fiscal year and the highest in the city’s history. Theatre operators, as distinguished from owners, had little to say about the proposed expenditures and indicated no protest would be made. They seemed relieved that the mayor had decided not to take advantage of the new 5 per cent admission tax which he could impose with the help of the board of estimate and city council as a result of the new law signed by Governor Dewey. Theatre men have been worrying particularly about the admission tax because all theatres in the Bronx and Queens and Brooklyn could lose patronage to theatres in Westchester and Nassau counties if a 5 per cent tax were slapped on top of the federal impost. when they graduated into feature-length films, many comics seemed to fall by the wayside. Roach submitted as the reason for this belief, that there is extreme difficulty in sustaining quality humor over the period of time Which normally constitutes a feature. Roach plans to make eight units on his upcoming production schedule, and will aim them toward first run attractions with the use of top people to delineate the comedies. They will be sold in packages of two each. He also revealed that in double-feature situations, the exhibitor will be given a choice of running the film as a whole or breaking it into Part One and Part Two and using it in combination with another top feature, thereby eliminating the possibility of booking a class A film with a poor B. In other words Roach suggested a program of a feature and a half, instead of the ordinary two features for a double bill. Roach trains out for New York shortly Where he will show his first “Hal Roach Comedy Carnival” to United Artists distribution executives and discuss distribution plans. Upon his return to Hollywood the package will be shown to the press. Hal Roach to Limit Future Comedies To 55 Minutes, Two to a Package 10 BOXOFFICE : : April 5, 1947