Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1950)

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Netvs and Opinion (Continued from Preceding Page) Adolph Schimel and Leon Goldberg, was the reshuffling by vice-president William A. Scully of his sales cabinet. Effective with the new year, Scully announced, Charles J. Feldman will replace Fred Myers as Eastern Sales Manager. The latter had been a member of the sales cabinet and Eastern sales executive for the past eight years. Feldman comes to the new post after five years as Western sales manager, and before that, West Coast district manager. Peter Blake, moves up from the West Coast post to succeed Feldman as Western sales manager. Other changes announced by Scully: Barney Rose, district manager for Portland, San Francisco and Seattle, takes on added duties and will supervise Los Angeles, Denver and Salt Lake City in addition to his present duties. Manny Gottlieb, Chicago district manager, will handle Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Omaha and Des Moines; Joe Garrison will supervise St. Louis, Kansas City, Okla. City, Dallas and New Orleans; Peter Rosian will head the Atlanta, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Memphis and Indianapolis branches; Peter Dana will supervise Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Albany, Buffalo and Detroit; John Scully manages Boston, New Haven, Philadelphia and Washington, and David A. Levy will be district manager in New York. Dave Miller replaces Joe Gins as Buffalo branch manager. The latter, it was announced, will be given a new assignment in the near future. "KING'S MEN", CRAWFORD, OLIVIA, N. Y. CRITICS CHOICE As it does each year-end, the "bests" medley was given the starting gun and in the first heat it was Columbia's "All the King's Men" for best picture Broderick Crawford, its star, for top actor; Olivia de Havilland, best actress for "The Heiress", (she took the award last year, too, for "Snake Pit"), and Carol Reed, best direction ("Fallen Idol"). The judges were 17 New York Film Critics and there were some strong differences of opinion before the heated balloting ended. The only selection to win on the first ballot was Italy's "The Bicycle Thief" for the best foreign language film. Closest voting was tor top film, best actor and best director, all of which had to go to the sixth ballot where a simple majority decides. The first five require a two-thirds vote. "King's Men" finally outdistanced its closest rivals, M-G-M's "Intruder in the Dust" and Selznick-Korda's "Fallen Idol". The balloting closed at 7-5-3, with one vote each for Film Classics' de Rochemont production, "Lost Boundaries", Metro's' "Battleground", UA's Stanley Kramer production, "Home of the Brave", and two J. Arthur Rank British offerings, "Fame Is the Spur" and "Quartet". Crawford triumphed over Sir Ralph Richardson ("Fallen Idol" and "The Heiress"), Juano Hernandez ("Intruder in the Dust"), Mel Ferrer ("Lost Boundaries"), Michael Redgrave ("Fame Is the Spur") and James Whitmore ("Battleground"). Miss de Havilland received a two-thirds majority on the fifth ballot, with 12 votes to five for Dame Edith Evans, British actress, and Mercedes McCambridge ("King's Men"). Also-rans were Lea Padovani, Nora Swinburne, Judy Holliday and Deborah Kerr. For best director, initial ballot found a three-way tie between Reed, Clarence Brown ("Intruder in the Dust") and Robert Rossen ("All the King's Men"). Reed won out over Brown, 11-6. FTC DROPS CRI PROBE, SEES NO FURTHER ACTION Confidential Reports, Inc., was given a clean bill of health by the Federal Trade Commission. Under investigation since the beginning of 1949, the checking organization, composed of all the major companies except M-G-M, announced that it had received word from the FTC in Washington that "on the basis of the facts disclosed by its investigation of the complaints fil3d against the company, it does not contemplate further proceedings in this matter." The probe, engendered by complaints from various exhibitors that CRI permitted exchange of information among its distributor members, was continued throughout the year, during which the entire operation of the organization was examined. The "informal investigation" included interviews with sales executives in an effort to determine whether there was any violation of FTC rulings The companies claimed that the only purpose of a mutually supported checking organization like CRI was to effect economy. Individual checking operations, it was said, would be much more costly. Judging from the conclusion of the probe, that was good enough for the FTC. "SAMSON" BREAKS RECORDS IN TWO-THEATRE B'WAY RUN It was a merry Christmas weekend for first-run theatres generally, but Broadway really chortled as it racked up some of the biggest grosses in years, and the greatest of these was Paramount's "Samson and Delilah," which in two theatres with a combined seating capacity of 5700 enabled the film to set a new record of almost $200,000 for its first week on Broadway. The 3-day weekend alone was good for $112,000. The phenomenal gross, achieved at the Paramount and Rivoli, outdistanced any previous attraction at any one or two theatres and was the climax of a tremendous publicity campaign which culminated in the twotheatre world premiere Dec. 28th. It had to go some to do it, too, for the 6,000-seat Radio City Music Hall with M-G-M's "On the Town" for its screen attraction and the popular Nativity Christmas show on stage, also eclipsed its own record of last Easter with better than $170,000 for the week. The third Big Bertha was 20th Century-Fox's "Prince of Foxes," which had its star-studded debut on Thursday at the Roxy, with all receipts going to the United Hospital Fund. Beginning Friday, the film approximated $90,000 for the holiday weekend and was expected to near the $150,000 mark for its first week. FOH SQUELCHES REPORTS IT WILL DROP TV PROJECTS Any doubts that 20th Century-Fox was going to drop its long-standing, painstakingly-developed plans for theatre televis'on and for its quota of TV channels we;e emphatically killed by Fox counsel Kenneth C. Royal 1. The reports were originally initiated with the advent of theatre divorcement. Last fortnight a report in a trade paper credited National Theatres president Charles P. Skouras with statements which indicated that 20th Century Fox was abandoning its theatre video project. The story spurred Fox president Spyros Skouras to authorize counsel to make an immediate denial that 20th-Fox was contemplating any such action. "There has been no thought of abandoning this application," Royall declared, "but on the contrary every effort is being mads to obtain a hearing before the Commission at as early a date as practicable." He added that statements to the contrary "erroneously credited to Mr. Charles P. Skouras are entirely incorrect." According to the 20th-Fox prexy, brother Charles' statement merely referred to present home television as "not suited to theatre use." 20th-Fox is petitioning the FCC for allocation of micro-wave channels which would link some 22 of the Fox-West Coast theatres into a theatre video chain, with large-screen TV as a supplementary attraction to a regular film feature. QUIEU AT THE PARAMOUNT Old Time llidlvhoo Breaks Records JANUARY 2 , 1950