Boxoffice (Jan-Mar 1961)

Revival of Censorship Proposed in Ohio Bill MGM Readies Library Of Post-48s for TV NEW YORK — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has started to arrange and classify its library of post1948 features in anticipation of licensing them for television release, President Joseph R. Vogel said in his address to the annual stockholders meeting Thursday (23) in the Hotel Astor. Vogel said it was the company’s intention to maintain a significant gap between the time a major release was presented in theatres and the time for release to television. The period of time has not been determined yet. He said sales plans were being developed to release features to TV on an orderly and progressive basis. Vogel reported that earnings currently were running ahead of the 12 -year record set last year and that the full fiscal 1961, which ends August 31, the net was expected to exceed the last fiscal year by 25 per cent. The stockholders reelected all directors and voted down a proposal by Lewis and John Gilbert for the election of directors by cumulative voting. Exchange Workers Get $5-a-Week Pay Hike NEW YORK — A blanket wage increase of $5 per week, retroactive to December 1, 1960, will be given to film exchange employes in 30 key cities under terms of an agreement just reached by 11 distribution companies and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes and Moving Picture Machine Operators. In addition, company payments into the film exchange employes pension fund will be increased by two cents per hour. This will bring the total payment for a fulltime worker (37 V2 hours) to $3 a week. Also provided is a 13th week of severance pay after an employe has been on a company’s payroll for 24 years or more, and an improved vacation clause which provides for a third week of vacation with pay after 13 years instead of 14 years of service. The agreement applies to employes of MGM, Paramount, 20th Century-Fox, Warner Bros., United Artists, Universal, Columbia, Allied Artists, Buena Vista, National Screen Service and National Film Service who work as inspectors, shippers, bookers, billers, cashiers, stenographers, typists and clerks. Film, Equipment Exports For '60 Up 13% Above '59 WASHINGTON — Exports of all types of motion picture film and equipment during 1960 rose 13 per cent, totaling $48,769,944. The previous year the figure was $43,159,642. Exports of 8mm cameras led the gain, the 106,444 such cameras shipped during the year being more than double the previous year’s figure. The statistics came from Nathan D. Golden, director of the motion picture division of the Department of Commerce. Golden also announced the exports of exposed motion picture film during 1960 were valued at $10,597,794, a drop from the $10,855,994 total of the previous year. COLUMBUS — Motion picture censorship would be revived in Ohio under a bill introduced in the Ohio senate by Senator Robert Shaw (Rep.), Columbus, first censorship measure to be presented at this session of the legislature. Film censorship at the state level was abolished in 1954 by court decisions ruling the law unconstitutional. Senator Shaw said his bill is designed to avoid similar legal challenge. Shaw’s proposal would create a fivemember Ohio motion picture board under the state commerce department. The board would be made up of one representative from the commerce department, one from the state education department and three members at large, one a representative of the film industry. All motion pictures, except those specified as exempt, would have to be submitted to the commerce department. If the department decides the film is obscene, as defined in the bill, the findings would be submitted to the censor board, which would view the film within ten to 30 days tp approve or reject it. Rejection could be appealed to the common pleas court of Franklin County. An appeal would be heard by a jury which would be required to view the film. Should the jury determine the picture to be obscene, the trial judge would be required to permanently enjoin its showing any place in the state. If the jury would decide the film is not obscene, the judge would immediately have to issue approval. The bill sets the following penalties for exhibiting a film not submitted and approved: $500 maximum fine for the first offense and $1,000 for each subsequent offense; for exhibiting a trailer of a film before it is approved, or for counterfeiting Colorado Assembly Urges Stricter Product Control Denver — The Colorado General Assembly has adopted a resolution urging industry self-control in story themes as a way of avoiding censorship and has forwarded the resolution to the Motion Picture Ass’n of America in New York. The resolution commended producers and exhibitors “who have refrained from producing and showing films that have not measured up to the long-accepted standards of the industry” and then “urged the motion picture industry to set up stricter controls of the type of films produced as well as the means of advertising these films . . . that this self-control is urged both because of its previously demonstrated effectiveness and practicality, and because it can most effectively forestall attempts at bureaucratic censorship and regulation, contrary to the American spirit of free speech and press.” approval, a maximum of $300 fine and 90 days in jail. Exempt from the proposed law would be newsreels; scientific or educational films used by the professions, schools or affiliated groups, and religious films used on behalf of a specific religion or religious group. The new proposal is similar to a bill Shaw sponsored in the Ohio senate two years ago. It died in committee. Shaw also was cosponsor of a censorship bill four years ago. Three More Groups Join MPAA Censorship Plea HOLLYWOOD — Added backing in the fight against censorship was forthcoming last week, when the National Ass’n of Broadcasters, National Book Publishers Council and Authors League of America joined the Motion Picture Ass’n of America in a petitioning move on the Supreme Court to request a new hearing of the recent Chicago-based film censorship decision. Monday (27) is the final day on which a petition can be filed. It will be made by the Times Film Corp., the plaintiff in the “Don Juan” Chicago case. The Court has the right to decline a petition or to reconfirm its original decision. In either case, the industry would then have to wait for another test case of sufficient merit to come along to again go to this body to determine the rights of prior censorship. Twelve RKO Theatres Set To Show Fight on TV NEW YORK — The Patterson-Johansson World’s Championship fight in Miami March 3 will be shown via closed-circuit TV on the screens of nine RKO out-oftown theatres, in addition to the RKO 86th Street in Manhattan, the RKO Fordham in the Bronx and the RKO Madison in Brooklyn. The fight will not be shown on home television. The other RKO theatres are: RKO Memorial, Boston; Albee, Cincinnati; Palace, Columbus; Orpheum, Davenport; Keith’s Dayton; Pantages, Los Angeles; Golden Gate, San Francisco; Keith’s, Syracuse, and Keith’s, Washington, D. C. U. S. Films Get 40% Time On Denmark Screens WASHINGTON — In Denmark U. S. films account for about 40 per cent of the Screen time and the same portion of gross income, according to the U. S. Department of Commerce. Average gross per feature was estimated at 400,000 to 500,000 kroner (one kroner equals $0,145). Rental rates range from 25 per cent to 45 per cent, depending on size of the theatre. Denmark completed 16 feature films during 1960, the same as the previous year, but the cost of production rose slightly, ranging from 400,000 to 600,000 kroner. BOXOFFICE :: February 27, 1961 7