20th Century-Fox Dynamo (February 1960)

President Eisenhower is pictured chatting with Edmund Reek (above, left), Vice-President and producer of Movietone News, Inc., after he joined the world’s and industry leaders in con- gratulating the latter on completion of 40 years of service with 20th Cen- tury-Fox Film Corporation: four ex- citing decades... the roaring ’20’s, the jittery ’30’s, the world upheaved ’40’s, through the cold war of the ’50’s; 40 years that saw motion pictures leaving the so-called “silent era”, taking on sound tracks to give voice to the screen, to CinemaScope to give it new dimensions... and meanwhile, take an active role in television. Right: Mr. Reek as he looked at press-time. MOVIETONE NEWS Still Rates No. 7 The World Over The global leadership of Movietone News, produced by Movietonews, Inc. is today more pronounced than ever. More than 22,000 theatres throughout the world today regularly feature Movie- tone News. It still rates No. 1 in screen circulation in the domestic market. There are many reasons for this cir- culation leadership of what is univer- sally acknowledged to be, qualitatively and in alertness, the finest newsreel of the industry. For one thing, Movietone News maintains a larger global camera staff than all the other newsreels com- bined. It regularly turns out editions in 37 foreign languages and dialects. Movietone News continues featuring stellar commentators. The domestic edi- tion’s stars not only narrate the news, but also figure in the CinemaScope short Sub- jects output. These stars include the No. 1 sports newscaster, Mel Allen who for more than a quarter of a century has been “the voice of the New York Yankees” and for many years has won distinction for his broadcasting and television reportage of baseball’s world series and major inter- collegiate football contests; Joe King, Joe Wills and Vyvyan Donner. Fox News came into being in 1919 and made it debut as Movietone News at New York’s Embassy theatre on Aug. 3, 1927. Today, Movietonews, Inc., employing about 2,000 people, full and part time, operates from New York, London, Paris, Sydney and Munich. 84 MEL ALLEN DRAMATIC MIRROR OF EXCITING CONTEMPORARY TIMES Short Subjects in Production on the 12 CinemaScope short sub- e jects for domestic release this year is well under way. In fact, Jack Kuhne, their production director, stated at press-time, that that program was more than 609c completed. All will be in De Luxe Color. One Movietone-CinemaScope short subject team, headed by Dick Kuhne, is circling the globe, “shooting” material for featurettes that will be bookable later this year. This crew is currently in Australia and New Zealand. Out of that stay will come a short subject on the “bush men”. From New Zealand, it will head eastward to Singa- pore, Thailand, Burma, In- dia, Pakistan, Turkey and on to Europe. In each country the team will ponder long enough to film material for incorporation later into a short subject. The journey is scheduled to be completed next October, which will mean the crew will have been away 11 months. Completed at press-time for 1960 release were these CinemaScope short subjects: “State 50”, and “Navy Angels”. Com- pleted, but only presently with tentative titles are a golf story wherein golf notable Sam Snead gives a lesson on how to successfully negotiate the trickiest shots; the self-explanatory “Japan Today”, and “Sails Ahoy”. Additional 1960 CinemaScope short subjects, currently being edited, are: one on the training of Navy frogmen, filmed in the Virgin Islands; “Operation Little Bear”, dwelling on missile equipped troops stationed in Alaska; another on the startlingly increasing outpouring of refugees into Hongkong; “Down The Road To America”, an Americana story on wheels, and a subject on Manila today. 18 NEW CARTOONS AND SIX RE-RELEASES More Terrytoons This Year JACK KUHNE TERRYTOONS* MIGHTY MOUSE & CO f Instead of 12 new Terrytoons in color, as has been the practice in the past, this year, there will be 18, according to announce- ment by William Weiss, Vice-President and General Manager of CBS-Terrytoons, Inc. In all, domestically, 24 Terrytoons will be in release this year. An even dozen of those new Terrytoons will be in CinemaScope with color. Six, also in color will be in all-purpose 2-D dimensions. Additionally, this year there will be six All-Purpose Terrytoon re-releases, all in color. Increase the new Terrytoons for 1960 from 12 to 16 entails a production budget boost of about 20%. The first 12 Terrytoon releases for this year have been completed. The first six CinemaScope Terrytoons are: (5001-3), “Hide And Go Sidney”; (5002-1), “The Mis- understood Giant”; (5003-9), “Foofle’s Pic- nic”; (5004-7), “The Famous Ride”; (5005-4), “Tusk, Tusk”, and (5006-2), “Hearts And Glowers”. The first three new 2-D Terrytoons com- pleted and labelled are: (5021-1), “Thousand Smile Check-Up”; (5022-9), “The Tiger King”, Aesop’s Fable, and (5023-9), “Mint Men”. Initial three Topper re-releases are: (5031-0), “How To Relax”; (5032-8), “The Helpless Hippo”, and (5033-6) “Nonsense Newsreel”.