Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1956)

THEY MADE THE NEWS SCHIMEL Page 12 Film BULLETIN May 14, l?S4 CHARLES M. REAGAN, CHARLES J. FELDMAN & ADOLPH SCHIMEL will speak for distribution at the May 21 hearings before the Senate Small Business Subcommittee in Washington. The group to represent distributors was limited to three because testimony must be completed in one day. Reagan is Loew's general sales manager; Feldman and Schimel are general sales manager and general counsel, respectively, of Universal. Other recent developments relating to the hearings: (1) Theatre Owners of America has named a committee of four to sit in on the hearings, Albert M. Pickus, Alfred Starr, Herman M. Levy and George Kerasotes. (2) National Allied has scheduled an Emergency Defense Committee meeting in Washington for the day following the SSBC hearing, and Allied president Ruben Shor has asked TOA to attend. Allied's board of directors will also meet in Washington on May 22. (3) Senator Hubert Humphrey, chairman of the subcommittee, has written to the Department of Justice asking for comment on the charges made by exhibitors at their April 21-22 hearing that the Department is not enforcing the Paramount consent decree. Written comments on this charge were requested by Sen. Humphrey, to reach the Subcommittee by May 20 so it could prepare its final report on industry trade practices following distributor testimony. 0 BARNEY BALABAN reported to Paramount stockholders that operating revenue and net profit for 1955 were the highest since 1950. In his message with the annual report, the Paramount president said the company's 1955 net profit was $9,700,000 and its operating revenue $114,000,000, an increase for the latter of almost five per cent over 1954. Film rentals declined during the last quarter of 1955 because of a slower release of films, but this should improve as the momentum of releases accelerates, Balaban pointed out. Principal money-makers should be "The Ten Commandments" and "War and Peace". The Paramount president said that he is more convinced than ever that VistaVision is the "logical answer to outstanding clarity, definition, depth, focus and compatibility with existing projection equipment." He said the company now owns 85 per cent of International Telemeter Corp. 0 RKO THEATRES CORP. took a first step toward diversification last week when stockholders, at a special meeting in Wilmington, approved the acquisition of the business and assets of the Cleveland Arcade Co. and 84.4 per cent of the outstanding common stock of the Gera Corp., a New Jersey textile and electronics manufacturer. The corporate title of RKO Theatres was officially changed to RKO Industries Corp. [More NEWS on Page 17] FABIAN S. H. FABIAN, it developed last week, was one of the principals in the deal engineered by Serge Semenenko for the purchase of controlling interest in Warner Brothers Pictures. Details of the recentlyrumored sale were finally made public last week. Semenenko, senior vice president of the First National Bank of Boston, said the group of investors he heads has acquired approximately 800,000 shares of common stock held by the Warner Brothers for about $27.50 a share, representing a purchase price of $22,000,000. Warner Brothers confirmed the sale late last week with this statement: "Messrs. Harry, Albert and Jack Warner have agreed to sell a major interest in Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc., to a group headed by Mr. Serge Semenenko, who plans to continue to operate the company actively and aggressively under strong and competent management. The three Warner brothers will continue on the board of the company, and they and their families will retain a substantial interest". According to Semenenko, Jack L. Warner will continue as production chief of the company for the time being. "This is no time for change and we're not interested in change," Semenenko stated. "We're simply interested in increasing the flow of the highest quality films from Warner Brothers. We're a small group of investors whose basic interest is the rebuilding, not the tearing down, of the company." The Boston banker would not name the members of the group he represents, with the exception of Fabian. Latter is president of the Stanley-Warner Corporation and the Stanley-Warner Cinema Corporation and, as such, possibly could be prevented from participating in the Warner deal under the government's consent decree divorcing production from exhibition. Stanley-Warner operates the former Warner chain of theatres. Final decision in this matter rests with the Department of Justice. Last Mach Warners sold 850 feature films and about 1500 short subjects for $21,000,000 to P. R. M., Inc., a group of American and Canadian investors who plan to resell them to TV.