Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1962)

What They're Talking About □ □ □ In the Movie Business □ □ □ BALABAN TO STOCKHOLDERS. Industryites are speculating on how Barney Balaban will explain to stockholders the continuing drain on Paramount's pocketbook of the pay-TV test in Etobicoke. He is expected to follow his now-familiar line of terming it a "noble experiment" which, while it has reaped no profit, nor drawn a thundering response from subscribers, is adding to the understanding of feevee economics. One fact that becomes increasingly clear, however, is that Paramount's investment in Canadian pay-TV is likely to go down the drain, for if the pay system ever becomes commercially feasible it will be as an over-the-air system, and not the costly, cumbersome wired method into which Balaban has poured so much of his company's money. In that case, of course, a whole new set of economic factors will enter the picture. Even more basic is the growing conviction in some quarters — including Wall Street — that if Etobicoke has proved anything, it is merely that the public displays little desire to pay for its television fare. That, it would seem, is the one really concrete result of Balaban's experiment. o BRANDO NOT MUTINOUS. Contrary to reports that Marlon Brando had refused to do a few re-takes on "Mutiny on the Bounty", he will return to M-G-M for that stint as soon as he completes "The Ugly American" at Universal. The actor recently saw "Mutiny", expressed vast enthusiasm, and told Metro studio officials that he wanted to replay two or three scenes. Those who have seen a rough print say Brando gives his finest performance, and sans . his familiar "mumbling" speech style. OSCAR ON THE SPOT. Exhibitors in many areas are beginning to ask the questions asked in the April 16 issue of Film BULLETIN: Is Oscar Doing His Job? Despite the usual press releases emanating from Hollywood to the effect that this year's Academy Awards telecast was the "best ever," more and more voices are expressing doubts as to Oscar's value as a medium for selling moviegoing to that vast viewing public. Mrs. Glenn Fliehman, who operates the Monroe Theatre, in Woodsfield, Ohio, wrote to the Independent Theatre Owners of Ohio complaining of the lack of public interest in the Oscar show. According to Mrs. Fliehman: "The evening following this year's telecast, I questioned, as they came in, persons entering the theatre to see my screening of 'Flower Drum Song' and not one was induced to attend because of some mention made of it on the Awards show ... A very few watched the entire telecast, some went to sleep and awoke to turn off the set before it was over, and others got bored soon after it started and either switched channels or went to bed. There was a notable lack of enthusiasm among my patrons for the telecast . . . My own opinion of the telecast was: excluding that talented Hope fellow, Jack Warner and Joan Crawford, the participants were walking, talking examples of the adage, a star is only as good as his director, and most of the stars who appeared surely needed their directors . . . From a woman's point of view it was even a lousy fashion show and the cameras' swings over the audience were few and fleeting." A reply to Mrs. Fliehman from National Allied president Marshall H. Fine also pointed up exhibition's growing discontent with the dullness of the Academy show. Said Fine: "I think it is generally considered that this month's show was wearisome at best, and I have heard some rumblings that a change come about for future years, in the nature of a shorter program, making it much more taut and eliminating much of the drabness. I do not feel that this show had even a small percentage of the glitter and glamour of most of the past ones; this may have been due, in large part, to what seems to be Hollywood's growing apathy over award night. Few of the top names seemed even to be in attendance — indeed, I believe only eight of the twenty nominated stars were even there." From the directors of the Virginia Motion Picture Theatre Association, too, has come criticism of Oscar night, in the form of a request for "TOA to conduct a study of the Academy Awards, which we do not feel are presented in a showmanly manner." Are you listening, Oscar? o SPACEARIUM SHOWCASE. Cinerama officials are elated by the reception their 360-degree film process is receiving at the Seattle World's Fair. Visitors have been jamming the modernistic Spacearium to stand (there are no seats, just hand rails, for the 12-minute "Journey to the Stars" film that completely encircles them on all sides and above. Page 4 Film BULLETIN April 30, 1962