The Exhibitor (1953)

EXHIBITOR 15 WE SCORE BOARD ( Complete reviews of pictures mentioned will appear in The Pink Section. — Ed.) U-I “Seminole” — Good action show. COLUMBIA “All Ashore” — Pleasing musical. FTC Wins Decision In Ad Case Appeal Washington — The U. S. Supreme Court, upholding a decision of the Federal Trade Commission, last week decided in favor of barring advertising film producers from making long-term exclusive screening con¬ tracts with theatre owners. The court re¬ versed a decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals by a seven to two vote, Justices Frankfurter and Burton dissenting. The FTC originally brought proceedings against four ad film companies, Motion Picture Advertising Service Company, Inc., Reid H. Ray Film Industries, Alexander Film Company, and United Film Ad Service, Inc. The FTC found that these companies used exclusive contracts to restrain competition and promote mon¬ opoly, and said all exclusive contracts for more than one year were illegal. The companies had appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court, and the FTC had, in turn, appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court. The high court’s ruling was directed against Motion Picture Advertising Serv¬ ice Company, Inc., a Louisiana concern that had shipped advertising films under exclusive contracts to exhibitors in 27 states and the District of Columbia. Some of the contracts ran for terms of five years, but the standard one was for a year. Justice Felix Frankfurter, in a dissent¬ ing opinion, in which Justice Harold H. Burton joined, held that the court should not sustain the “mere say so” of the commission, and asked for a clear state¬ ment of the criteria on which the ruling had been based. Distrib. Negotiations Continue New York — The distributors’ exchange operations committee last week resumed contract negotiations with the unions representing front and back office employes of the national companys’ exchanges. Tom Murray, committee chairman; Michael Rosen, Loew’s, and Joseph Mc¬ Mahon, Republic, were in Cincinnati and Kansas City. Clarence Hill, 20th-Fox, and Jules Chapman, United Artists, were in Pittsburgh, and a third team, headed for west coast conferences in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland, con¬ sisted of Arthur Israel, Paramount; A. A. Schubart, RKO; Ely Drexler, National Screen Service, and Larry Leshansky, Warners. A long delay in reaching agreements on new contracts covering IATSE front and back room employes is seen. The situa¬ tion is said to be due primarily to two factors, the new policy of negotiating all contracts separately with local units and the reported unwillingness of distributors to grant wage increases or boosts in sev¬ erance pay. Union spokesmen say com¬ pany negotiators are offering merely an extension of present contracts for two years, effective last Dec. 1. NSS Celebrating Third-of-a-Century NEW YORK— Herman Robbins, president, National Screen Service, announced last week that all company branches would participate in the observance of the “Third Of A Cen¬ tury Jubilee.” Robbins said the observance “will be essentially confined to a rededication by NSS and its employes to the prin¬ ciples of service, a principle on which the company was founded and has progressed these 33 years.” The company has developed from a handful of employes in a single office in 1920 to a nationwide service or¬ ganization with 31 branch offices throughout the country and special trailer production facilities in New York, Hollywood, Chicago, and Dallas, as well as an office and studio in London. NSS now employs 2,000 persons, approximately one employe for every nine theatres in the United States. Since 1935, the company has provided a service of standard and specialty advertising accessories for exhibitors. SEC Files Stock Report Washington — The Securities and Ex¬ change Commission reported last fortnight the following transactions in motion pic¬ ture stocks for the Dec. 11-Jan. 10 period: Warners: Jack Warner acquired 17,100 shares of common, bringing his total to 392,348 shares. Translux: Jacob Starr notified the Commission he had purchased 7,000 shares of common from April through November, bringing his total to 15,400 shares. Ralph Weiner disposed of 500 shares, leaving his holdings at 2,000. RKO Theatres: Board member David J. Greene acquired 4,200 shares of common. Through his family and his own accounts, he now controls 70,750 shares. Loew’s Boston Theatres: Loew’s, Inc., bought 331 shares, making the parent company’s holdings total 130,323 shares. Columbia: Abraham Montague acquired options for 10,250 shares during November. According to contract modification filed with the Securities Exchange Commis¬ sion, the contract of Harry Cohn, Columbia president, has been extended to Feb. 10, 1955. Under the agreement, Cohn will continue to receive $3,500 a week plus a general expense allowance of $300 a week. The modified contract also eliminates the six-month cancellation clause which per¬ mitted either Cohn or Columbia to end the agreement, and permits the board to allow $600 weekly for general expenses. After more than five weeks, negotiators covering the 33 exchange areas have yet to complete the initial round of exchanges. Weltner Heads Foreign Managers New York — George Weltner, president, Paramount International, was last week elected chairman, foreign managers com¬ mittee, Motion Picture Export Association, at the first session under the plan set up by Eric A. Johnston to hold meetings the first Wednesday of each month. The board of directors also gave a unanimous vote to the donation of 25,000 guilders to Neth¬ erlands authorities for flood victims. PEOPLE Hollywood — A1 Horwits, for the past four years studio publicity director at Universal-International, was last week advanced to the newly created post of executive aide to the studio executive committee, and will handle special public relations. In addition to his duties with the executive committee, Horwits also will be charged with special projects involv¬ ing studio talent. Sam Israel, assistant to Horwits, for the past three years, succeeds him as publicity director. New York — Mervin Houser and David Cantor last week took over their duties at RKO as home office publicity director and exploitation director, respectively. Houser has been in the industry in various advertising, exploitation, and publicity capacities with practically all the major companies. Cantor’s industry experience began 25 years ago with Warners. He joined RKO in 1940 as western field super¬ visor, and was appointed assistant exploi¬ tation director at the home office in 1950. New York — After many years of asso¬ ciation with 20th Century-Fox, Herman Temple, home office art department, left on Feb. 13 to engage as a consulting art director and free lance visualizer on inde¬ pendent accounts. Temple has had exhibits of his work displayed at the New York Art Directors show, and has been honored on many other occasions for his distinctive campaigns. New York — At a meeting of the board of directors of the Motion Picture Pio¬ neers, Inc., William German, William Ger¬ man, Inc., was unanimously elected a director, it was announced last week by Jack Cohn, president. German makes the 22nd director on the board. New York — David Golding, national di¬ rector of advertising and publicity, Samuel Goldwyn Productions, announced last fortnight that Leon Brandt was joining the organization, and will be in charge of exploitation. SIMPP Moves On Expansion New York — The Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers, in a session last week with President Ellis Arnall, dis¬ cussed ways to improve its financial position so that it may expand activities in the foreign market. Arnall will submit to the distribution committee a proposed budget for the operations, which must then be approved by producer members on the coast. Object will be to engage one or more representatives to serve in the interest of independent producers in foreign countries. The committee also discussed threedimensional pictures, and expressed the opinion that the medium’s potentialities rested with quality entertainment rather than its current attraction as a novelty. Enthusiasm was expressed on the grounds that it turned the spotlight once again on motion pictures. Arnall presented offers by trading com¬ panies to buy frozen pounds in Israel, and representatives will submit them to their respective managements. Attending the meeting were Arnall, James Mulvey, Leo Samuels, Edward Peskay, George Schaefer, Seymour Poe, Manny Reiner, and Vladimir Lissim. February 18, 1953