Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1950)

t Volume 18, Number 19 September 11, 1^50 JSfetvs 4i ml OpinioMB FILM BUYING 'CLINIC TO FEATURE ALLIED CONVENTION How to administer the panacea of > [selective buying" guaranteed under the kcent Supreme Court decree will be aemonstrated in a National Film Clinic , by Allied specialists at the organization's national convention in Pittsburgh, Oct. 1-3-4. General chairman of the 1950 National meeting, William Finkel, reveal; |d the idea of a film buyers' "school" to | pe conducted on an open forum basis. Ini Hividual meetings for various types of \ Theatres — first-run city, prior run small\ own, sub runs, drive-ins, etc. — will tackle l he subject of film buying to secure the l benefits accruing exhibitors under the • Decree, as well as methods of dealing j with misallocated pictures. "Exhibitors know their number one t problem is film buying," Finkel pointed | but. "We guarantee that any exhibitor I mending this National Film Clinic will 1 feceive enough information to compenI late him many times for the cost of comf mg to Pittsburgh," he added, extending r he invitation to all independent exhibitors to attend the conclave and the Clinic, if Due to be on hand from the film com > banies are 20th-Fox's Andy W. Smith, Jr., I Ind Metro's William F. Rodgers. Other I tales or advertising toppers from product 'ion and distribution are expected to at end. Gene Autry, central figure in the •urrent television film controversy, has Deen invited to explain personally his i pews on making TV shorts. He has signi,5ed his intention to attend, as has Rex I Kllen, new Republic western star. The National Allied Board will hold its i lessions during the two days preceding I [he general convention. t' THEATRES IN SHARPER DIP THAN FILMS, FOX NET SHOWS Down, but still respectable, the net garnered by 20th Century-Fox for the 26 .veeks ended July 1, 1950, reached a total jf $4,683,000, including one and one-half nillion income of prior years from counties with currency restrictions which is ■ low dollar income. At the half year I mark in 1949, the company netted $5,695, [ boo. I I For the second quarter this year, however, the net topped earnings for the I Comparable quarter in '49, with $2,842,000 egistered in '50, against $2,677,000 last 'ear, indicating a healthy trend in the !0th-Fox profit picture. Theatre receipts showed a much more dzeable drop in the consolidated gross han did film rentals. The former slipped rom $38,366,000 for the 26-week period ast year to $30,227,000 for the first half \ bf 1950. Film rentals dipped about $3,pOO.OOO from last year's figure to $43,DOO.OOO. \|l Federal taxes were estimated at $1,750,pOO currently, while the tax bite for the I 49 first half was $4,225,000. GRAD SEARS A Clean Bill of Health HEALTHY GRAD SEARS BACK AT UA AS DISTRIBUTION HEAD Grad Sears was back with United Artists. After having been written off by most of the trade as UA's general sales manager following the entry of the McNutt-McNamee-Kravet regime, with settlement of his pact as the sole formality, a series of swift actions brought Sears back into the picture with surprising and denness. After ailing for several months, during which the recently resigned Paul N. Lazarus, Jr., assumed his duties, Sears filed suit for fulfilment of his contract with UA, which included a clause guaranteeing him $35,000 per year for the next 10 years. At the same time, Sears' physician presented him with a certificate of health, noting that he was completely recovred and capable of reassumng his duties on a full-time basis. Th sales chief's salary payments had been stopped since July, when the new maagement took over. Instead of contesting the suit, president Frank L. McNamee immediately invited Sears to return to work, at his present $2500-per-week salary, as stipulated in the pact which runs to the end of 1951. According to Abraham Bienstock, counsel for Sears, the suit will be dropped providing the company fulfills all terms of the contract. Any loose ends, however, will be covered by litigation, he added. Meanwhile, board chairman Paul V. McNutt, back in New York after a vacation, met with home office executives to plot UA's future course. A report, widely circulated in the trade recently, that he was considering withdrawal -from the company, was denied emphatically by the executive. TV FILMS NOT SUBJECT TO STATE CONTROL, COURT RULES A final ruling by the U. S. Supreme Court determining whether State censor boards have jurisdiction over films used in television loomed as a Pennsylvania Federal Appeals Court upheld a lower court ruling against State censorship of TV films. The appellants, members of the Pennsylvania censor board headed by Mrs. Edna R. Carroll, signified their intention to carry the case to the highest court. In an opinion written by Circuit Judge John Biggs, Jr., with Judges Albert B. Maris and Herbert F. Goodrich concurring, it was held that censorship of all or any part of a video program was within Federal jurisdiction via the Federal Communications Commission. "The Communications Act of 1934 applies to every phase of television," the ruling declared, and it is clear that Congress intended the regulatory scheme set out by it therein to be exclusive of State action." The Court pointed out the "inherent" interstate commerce nature of TV broadcasting and the impossibility of limiting the reception within State borders. Judge Biggs further held that under the FCC Act, there is "no doubt but that it was the intention of Congress to occupy the television broadcasting field in its entirety." The decision further agreed that Congress has provided "exemplary penalties," including loss of license and penal sanctions, to prevent the transmittal of obscene matter through the ether, and that the program control entrusted to the Commission is "an effective one." The action to upset the Pa. State regulation governing censorship of TV films was brought by the three major network video stations in Philadelphia, WPTZ, WFIL-TV and WCAU-TV; WDTV in Pittsburgh, and WGAL-TV in Lancaster. ELC-BERNHARD RHUBARB TO BE UNSNARLED VIA ARBITRATION The Eagle Lion-Film Classics snafu will be unfouled by arbitration and the merger will be consummated, according to William C. MacMillen, president of Eagle Lion Classics. The ELC topper expressed this conviction at the three-day sales convention in New York last week, which distribution chief William J. Heineman opened by reading a buddy-buddy wire from Joseph Bernhard, former president of Film Classics. The telegram read: (Continued on Next Page) REVIEWS in This Issue No Way Out 9 Born To Be Bad _ 9 Walk softy. Stranger _ 9 The Sleeping City 10 Mr. 880 ID I Shot Billy The Kid __10