The Exhibitor (1951)

12 EXHIBITOR This Was The Week When ... U-I’s “Daff World-Wide Sales Drive” wound up with the biggest week ever re¬ corded in the history of the company. . . . WB held the world premiere of “Fort Worth” in Fort Worth, Tex. . . . Marc J. Wolf, International Chief Barker, Variety Clubs International, announced that an application for a charter to be issued for a club in Dublin, Ireland, to be known as Tent 41 of Ireland, had been received. . . . Alfred Hitchcock, director of WB’s “Strangers On A Train,” started a cross¬ country publicity tour in Boston. . . . Paramount held a three-theatre world premiere of “Ace In The Hole” in Albu¬ querque, N. M. British exhibitors launched a talent search to select the “Festival Girl,” who will visit this country in connection with the current Festival of Britain. . . . RKO concluded a deal for the distribution of three pictures to be made by Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollexfen for American Pictures Corporation. . . . UA revealed that it would have six pictures on Broadway in one month, from June 11-July 10, “He Ran All The Way”, “Three Steps North”, “The Man With My Face”, “Four In A Jeep”, “Circle Of Danger”, and “The Prowler.” Paramount said it will produce a sevenminute, 16mm. fashion show film in a four-way tieup for “That’s My Boy,” to serve as a trailer for 100 department stores in key cities scheduled to participate, plus fashion schools, TV stations, and colleges. ... In Chicago, a federal grand jury probe of alleged price-fixing by area drive-ins was scheduled to start. ... In Richmond, Va., the U. S. Circuit Court affirmed the decision handed down in the Windsor-Walbrook Amusement Com¬ pany, Baltimore, Md., clearance case. NPA Processing In D. C. Washington — The National Production Authority announced last week that all applications by theatre owners for excep¬ tion or exemption from the NPA con¬ struction control order will be processed only in Washington. The application may be filed in NPA field offices but will be forwarded to Washington for action. The NPA set the use of iron and steel in the manufacture of theatre seats and certain other equipment in the third quarter at 70 per cent of the base period rate of consumption. The base period, however, was made to be either the first half of 1950 or the last half of 1949, at the option of the producer. The use of steel for these items during the second quarter was 80 per cent of the base period, but the base period was required to be the first half of 1950. Affected by the order, in addition, are manufacturers of display cases, radio and television sets, amateur box-type cameras, and 8mm. motion pic¬ ture cameras and projectors, signs, and vending machines. Makers of floodlights asked NPA to in¬ crease the amount of secondary aluminum which they can use. Louis, Savold Fight Providing TV Test NEW YORK— Nathan L. Halpern, Fabian Theatres and TOA video con¬ sultant, and James D. Norris, president. International Boxing Club, jointly an¬ nounced last week the exclusive theatre televising of a series of major outdoor prize fights during the sum¬ mer on an experimental basis, with some seven theatres in five cities ex¬ pected initially to comprise the net¬ work. The first event to be so handled will be the Joe Louis-Lee Savold fight scheduled for tonight (June 13). This will not be channeled for home recep¬ tion, neither will it be shown in the¬ atres in the local area. Participating theatres will be Fab¬ ian’s Palace, Albany; Loew’s Century, Baltimore, Md.; RKO Keith’s, Wash¬ ington; Shea’s Fulton, Pittsburgh; RKO Palace, Cleveland, and B and K’s Tivoli and State Lake, Chicago. RCA theatre-TV equipment is be¬ ing installed in the Baltimore and Cleveland houses, to be completed in time for the fight. Depending upon clearance, further fight pickups may also go to TV-equipped theatres in Minneapolis, Boston, Detroit, and Binghamton, N. Y. The second fight attraction will be the LaMotta-Murphy battle on June 27, to go to the same theatres partici¬ pating in the first pickup. Hughes Appeal Action Delayed Washington — The U. S. Supreme Court last week put off until October action on Howard Hughes’ appeal from the New York Statutory Court decision giving him two years in which to sell his trusteed RKO Theatres stock. Rep. D. M.^s Aid Drive New York — Republic district managers Walter L. Titus, Jr., James V. O’Gara, and John P. Curtin, left last week for visits to Republic branches currently conducting a “Jimmy Grainger Friendship Drive” in tribute to Republic’s executive vice-presi¬ dent in charge of sales and distribution. MPSC Executives Sued Chicago — Henri Ellman Enterprises, Inc., last fortnight filed suit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, against Neil Agnew, Charles Casanave, and Mo¬ tion Picture Sales Corporation for alleged non-performance of contract. m SCORi BOARV (In this department will be jound a rating of pictures screened by Warners, MGM, Paramount, RKO, and 20th Century-Fox under the decree. Complete revieius appear in The Pink Section. — Ed.) 20TH-FOX “The Frogmen” — High rating. PARAMOUNT “That’s My Boy” — High rating. 20TH-FOX “Take Care Of My Little Girl” — Should get into the better money. Green Asks Admission Controls Washington — William Green, president, American Federation of Labor, said last week while testifying before the House Banking Committee that while the list of items exempt from price controls is com¬ prised of many small individual items, they add up together to almost 15 per cent of the average family budget. Motion picture admissions account of 2.2 per cent of the consumers’ price index and newspaper prices for 1.5 per cent. Green said. “We feel,” the AFL head testified, “that changes are required in the subsection, which concerns the prices established for newspapers, magazines, books, and admis¬ sions to motion pictures.” When the special panel of the Wage Stabilization Board completed hearings, it had a record made by motion picture and other price ceiling-exempt industry labor unions seeking to make the point that wage ceilings are not justified in any business which may fix its prices for the commodities it sells. Frank R. Murdock, lATSE general coun¬ sel, and Claire Meeder, American Federa¬ tion of Musicians, challenged the pro¬ priety of wage ceilings where prices aren’t controlled, and were supported with legal argument by Robert W. Gilbert, AFL film counsel, who contended that the law did not provide, nor did it intend, that there should be wage ceilings in the motion picture industry. Scrap Program Aid Asked Hollywood — Manley Fleishman, Na¬ tional Production Authority administrator, last fortnight requested the Theatre Equip¬ ment and Supply Manufacturers’ Associa¬ tion to organize among its members a program to help meet the urgent need for iron and steel scrap for the defense effort. Seen at the recent trade press meeting in New York City held by Al Lichtman, director of distribution, 20th Century-Fox, at which he introduced his eastern and western sales managers, Arthur Silverstone and E. W. Aaron, were at head of table, Chas. Einfeld, Aaron, Lichtman, Silverstone, and W. C. Gehring. June 13, 1951