Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1959)

THIS MADE THE NEWS Ulied Hopeful ACE-MPAA Summit Meet Will Bear Fruit Yielding to the unanimous request of the lational officers and directors, Horace Adams innounced at a special board meeting that le will remain as president of Allied States jntil the expiration of his present term. All \llied officials agreed to assume whatever idditional tasks may be necessary to relieve \dams of the burdens of his office, including :ravel and attendance at meetings. The Allied jresident previously had announced his intention to lighten his work load for reasons af ill health. At the meeting, Adams gave assurances that he will be available to national officers for consultation on matters of importance. His alternates on the Executive Committee of ACE, Jack Kirsch and Irving Dollinger, will represent him at the May 12 meeting with the MPAA Committee on Exhibitor Relations. The Allied board, while expressing its disappointment "by the five months' delay in putting ACE into operation and arranging for the summit conference . . ." announced its gratification that the meeting is about to take place and ex' pressed the "hope that helpful solutions will be found without further delay." In other developments, the board "renewed its faith in and approval of the White Paper Campaign and, considering the probable adi journment of Congress in the late Summer, , called upon Allied leaders and members to ! press the campaign with all possible vigor until success is achieved." The board also discussed the new United Artists sales policy. The directors were vehement in their denunciation of the setup and expressed indignation at what they called vice president in charge of distribution William J. Heineman's imputing "unfair or unethical practices to exhibitors." They said that Heineman's subsequent statement of clarification was "inadequate to re-assure exhibitors who were shocked and disturbed by his original statement . . ." Hope was expressed that Heinei man will issue another statement. The board also voiced its displeasure with the practice of distributors in the Pittsburgh area of zoning theatres regardless of the kind and ' degree of competition, and of instituting : competitive bidding. Ben Marcus, a member of the COMPO triumvirate, said that the money contributed by exhibitors toward the business-building campaign should be returned to them, with the recommendation that the funds be pooled locally for promotional drives. Marcus was authorized to present this view to COMPO as the official Allied stand on the matter. The board voted a commendation of the Academy Awards show and expressed hope that it will continue to be an unsponsored event and grow better in the years to come. Several directors condemned National Screen Service for making an overall increase in prices of 15 per cent. The regular spring board meeting scheduled for Boston, May 11 and 12, was cancelled. Metro In all the glamorous history of the motion picture industry, no name ever glittered more brightly than MetroGoldwyn-Mayer. The lion that roared the introduction of a film from that studio in the good old days was as well known and evoked almost as much audience excitement as any of the host of stars who sparkled in the M-G-M heaven. This was once the symbol of the best in moviedom. Somewhere along the route, the lionized Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer name became submerged under the corporate title, Loew's Incorporated, which bespoke the once-dominant influence of the theatre branch. But now the film company has been divorced from the theatres, and Joseph R. Vogel, president of the division that retained the studio, yearning and laboring to recapture its ancient glory, wants the name again to be Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The question will be put to the stockholders, and there is little doubt but that the Loew's, Inc. title will go. By the time the shareholders get around to approving the switch to M-G-M, Metro-GOLDEN-Mayer may be a more appropriate title. The company's latest financial report for the fiscal first-half year produced some figures that brought a happy glow to Joe Vogel's ascetic face. And even the most jaded Wall Streeter was bound to be dazzled by this striking transformation in Loew's financial picture: Consolidated net income for the first 28-week period of the current fiscal year, before divorcement, totalled $5,749,000 ($1.08 per share), compared to a profit of $509,000 (10c per share) in the same period last year, and practically all the credit for this great surge must go to what is now the film company. The portion of the firm which is now Loew's Theatres, [nc. accounted for $951,000 of the gain, the remainder —$4,798,000— being attributable to the new Loew's, Inc. Further dramatizing the phenomenal resurgence bv the film branch, a wellpleased Vogel had this to tell equally pleased stockholders: "Last year, during the first half, a 28-week period, the divisions which | More NEWS on Pace 12 | GLOWING VOGEL now make up M-G-M incurred a loss of $483,000 before interest and taxes. For the same period this year, the same divisions show a profit, before interest and taxes, of $10,792,000. The big difference is due to a sharply improved performance in film production-distribution . . ." In the light of these imposing figures, one must wonder what Joe Vogel's adversaries in the protracted fight for control must be thinking now. The faces of Tomlinson, Newman and the other liquidators who fought so hard to force a spin-off of the studio must be a bright red. As Vogel told the stockholders at the annual meeting last February, Loew's has "weathered the storm successfully". He said the company is "ready to take advantage of new opportunities ". Now he is talking about diversification. But to Joe Vogel the primary business of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is the production of motion pictures. This week he is taking the members of the board of directors on a lour of the studio, and out there he will give them their first glimpse of parts of "Hen Hur ", the multi-million dollar spectacle that might very well he the greatest grosser in the whole, storied history of movie business. Film BULLETIN April 27, 195? Pago 11