The Exhibitor (May-Aug 1948)

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THE EXHIBITOR Distribs, Salesmen Sued In Maryland Washington — The Centreville Amuse¬ ment Company, Centreville, Md., last week filed a $150,000 suit against four film companies and two local film salesmen in U. S. District Court. Plaintiff John D. Femicola charges that 20th Century-Fox, Columbia, Paramount, RKO, and F. B. Klein and Charles Wing¬ field, salesmen, who operate the Church Hill Theatre Company in partnership, have “conspired and contracted to injure . . . and restrain the trade and business of the plaintiff in the exhibition of motion pictures at its New Center, Centreville, Md, by “(1) refusing to furnish first run feature motion pictures (2) conspiring to enable the defendants Klein and Wingfield to monopolize the exhibition in the Eastern Shore Territory of the . . . product of the defendant distributors (3) conspiring and combining to cause plaintiff to pay arbi¬ trary and excessive film rentals, and (4) uniformly and unlawfully subjecting plaintiff’s theatre to arbitrary and unrea¬ sonable clearances in favor of the theatres of defendants Klein and Wingfield located at Church Hill and Queenstown. . . In addition to the financial settlement and costs, the plaintiff asks that the sys¬ tem of release of film and Klein and Wing¬ field’s “monopoly” be declared to be in unreasonable restraint of interstate trade; that the defendants be permanently en¬ joined from entering into licensing agree¬ ments in which any provision is made for the granting of clearance to the Church Hill and Chester over the New Center; that the distributor defendants be perman¬ ently enjoined and restrained from enter¬ ing into licensing agreements in which any provision is made for the granting of clearance to the Queenstown over the New Center; that the defendants be en¬ joined from licensing product to the Queenstown, Church Hill, and Chestertown theatres in any manner which “re¬ sults in conferring on or giving such theatres a monopoly of first run feature films in the Eastern Shore Territory . . and that the distributor defendants be directed to grant to the New Center on feature product a 14 day clearance over the Church Hill and Queenstown. Attorneys for Fernicola are Isseks, Mayers and Verdon, New York, and Mil¬ ler, Sher and Oppenheimer of this city. Klein is a salesman for 20th-Fox, and Wingfield for Columbia. Plaintiff Fernicola purchased the Center several years ago. Scully On Tour Chicago — William A. Scully, UniversalInternational vice-president and general sales manager, was here last week on the first stop of a tour which will also take him to Milwaukee and Kansas City, where he and John C. Woolf, joint managing director, J. Arthur Rank’s General Film Distributors, will hold meetings with the branch managers and personnel of these exchanges. Woolf is studying the U-I ex¬ changes in this country. Volk Brothers Suit Delayed In Minneapolis MINNEAPOLIS— Suit of Volk Broth¬ ers, Minneapolis independent exhibi¬ tors, seeking an injunction against major distributors to halt proceedings in fraud complaints on the grounds distributor contracts are invalid as they fix admission prices in violation of the Sherman Act, was last fort¬ night postponed for hearing until Sept. 13 in U. S. District Court, Minneapolis, by agreement of attorneys for both sides and Judge Gunnar Nordbye. The major distributors brought action against the Volks charging false re¬ turns on percentage engagements, and also seeking to recover on flat rental pictures, claiming the flat rentals were determined on low figures furnished by the Volks, instead of the higher grosses actually accumulated by per¬ centage pictures. In the Volk counter suit, which seeks no damages under the Sherman Act, it is alleged that the contracts are invalid, and therefore unenforce¬ able due to the price-fixing clause of the percentage pictures. "Blandings" House Bows Hollywood — One of the largest and most unusual press parties in Hollywood his¬ tory was held on June 3 when the Los Angeles replica of the “Blandings Dream House,” which appears in “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,” was formally previewed. The model house, which cost $60,000 to build, went on display to the public on June 5. All proceeds from its display go to the building fund of the Memorial Med¬ ical Center’s $7,000,000 hospital and medi¬ cal research facility on Sepulveda Free¬ way, north of Sunset Boulevard. The Los Angeles “Blandings Dream House” is located at 913 Chantilly Road, Bel Air. April Collections Up Washington — The April collections of admission taxes on March business totaled $31,146,236, according to an announcement by the Bureau of Internal Revenue last week. The previous month’s take was $30,461,573, while April of last year saw a sum of $32,412,814. Up to the April col¬ lections, admissions tax returns for the year added up to $115,707,000, about 85 per cent estimated to come from film theatres. U-I Holds Meeting New York — Universal-International held the first of two sales meetings of its dis¬ trict managers last week, to set plans on pictures to be released during the coming months in connection with the company’s current Presidential Sales Drive. A second meeting will be held in Los Angeles. DeLuxe Case Delayed Chicago — Another postponement, in the De Luxe anti-trust case last week moved the date to July 28, by Judge Campbell, when Attorney Abe Brussell will argue against Paramount’s and B and K’s motion to strike certain paragraphs from the De Luxe complaint. 13 The Completely NEW 1947-48 EDITION is now available! • 612 PAGES • 1454 PHOTOS and DRAWINGS • NEARLY 6 POUNDS • BURSTING WITH USEFULNESS 30 Pages, 56 Photographs and 7 Blue¬ prints (one 34"x20") on Drive-in Theatres 27 Pages and 32 Blueprints and Detail Drawings on Building and Design Notes 96 Pages, 231 Photographs and 11 Floor Plans on the Past Year's New Building 19 Pages, 39 Photographs and 8 Blue¬ prints on Quonset Arches in Theatres 38 Pages and 93 Photographs of Star¬ tling Theatre Fronts the World Over — plus hundreds of other subjects all carefully indexed for ready reference. DON'T DELAY! GET YOUR COPY WHILE THE SUPPLY LASTS! $3.00 in the Domestic Field ($5.00 per copy for all Foreign shipments.) Official Order Form NO COPIES WILL BE SHIPPED unless the infor . motion itemized below is on file in the Publisher's I Offices. | JAY EMANUEL PUBLICATIONS, INC. 1225 Vine Street, Phila. 7, Pa. Please ship . copies of the 1947-48 I EDITION at the earliest possible date. Attached I find remittance in the amount of $ . NAME . | TITLE or OCCUPATION . I SHIPPING ADDRESS . June 9, 1948