The Film Daily (1940)

W1! DAILY Monday, December 16, 1940 New Anti-Trust Laws Are Urged (Continued from Page 1) the enactment of legislation to: 1. Create an Industrial Court of five or seven members with power to hear and act on all litigation to be brought by the Federal Government involving the Sherman Act and other antitrust laws. 2. Authorize the power of subpoena to the D of J. 3. Provide heavier civil penalties for anti-trust violations, similar to the O'Mahoney-Hobbs Civil Remedies Bill offered at the last session of Congress. 4. Authorized larger appropriations for the Anti-Trust Division so that it can more affectively police on a national scale all violations of the anti-trust laws. In urging the creation of an Industrial Court to handle all anti-trust litigation, the report says: "Its bench of five or seven members should be as competent in the usages of business as they are learned in the law. To it should go cases concerned with the Sherman Act and the industrial codes by which it is implemented. It would determine guilt and assess fines, order dissolution and divestment, enjoin unlawful conduct. An appeal, strictly limited to questions of law, would lie only to the U. S. Supreme Court. A host of cases, now scattered throughout the courts would be gathered into a single calendar to be handled by jurists competent in matters of the national economy. In time its mounting body of decisions would come to constitute for business a flexible code of public control." The report advocates increased use of "advisory opinion" and consent decrees. "They need only to be combined and to be fitted out with requisite instruments to emerge as an administrative process. Safety in the uses of such a weapon demands adequate knowledge and industrial anlysis. It likewise requires a competent and continuous oversight of the operation of the trade." Jefferson to Miami Miami, Fla. — Tom Jefferson has taken over publicity here for Paramount Enterprises, Inc. Formerly with Schine circuit, Skouras theaters, Prudential and the New York HeraldTribune, Jefferson comes here after almost three years in Paramount Pictures' New York office. "Love Thy Neighbor" In 247 Spots Dec. 25 Paramount's "Love Thy Neighbor" co-starring Jack Benny, Fred Allen and Mary Martin, will have 247 dayand-date Christmas engagements, Neil Agnew said Friday. Pix has its world premiere at the N. Y. Paramount tomorrow; national release is on Dec. 27. • • • THESE iinal weeks of 1340 are as usual the span given over by the film editors and critics the nation o'er to their collective selection by individual ballots of your favorite trade paper's Ten Best Pictures In a large number of instances editors and critics through the good offices of their publishers probe their readers' opinions via contests presented in the news columns It's a very democratic process which amounts to an unofiicial referendum — unofficial because it does not nscessa.ily bind the balloting editors and critics to cast a vote corresponding to the consensus of the readers Too, it's all a very constructive process for the newspapers to employ because of the great promotional value to them Moreover, it is a happy situation for filmland because of the public interest it excites in screen entertainment ▼ T T • • • BEING in the Ten Best's G.H.Q. as it were this corner sees and hears most of the goings-on anent each annual FILM DAILY Poll and, truth to tell, it's a fascinating thing not only to witness the growth of newspaper interest in the Ten Best but also the cities and towns in all sections of the land beaver-busy on their contests Somehow, the further removed from local Film Row the more glamorous events become Probably it's that distance lends enchantment But there's one nearby forest we can see regardless of the trees and that is a current Ten Best event in Brooklyn There, the Brooklyn Eagle is conducting one of the most effective and intelligently-presented contests yet to come to this corner's attention It's under the personal aegis of Film Critic Herbert Cohn He is giving fresh vitality and new and novel slants to contest procedure Witness: generously illustrating space with stills of pix which his readers might like to remember as ballot possibilities Employing fresh ideas in explanatory copy Helping the voters and potential voters to understand the several more important elements in weighing the comparative merits of features The do's and don'ts in judging pictures And even employing neat psychology on his followers by selling them on the angle that "it's fun being a movie critic" Mister Cohn makes it a fine art T ▼ T • • • FRIDAY ushered-in important prelims, to tomorrow night's "hemispheric premiere" of Metro's "Flight Command" at Loew's Capitol in Washington via the Advertising Club there presenting to the company a scroll commending its "Civic consciousness and spirit" in connection with its activities aimed at celebration of Pan-American Aviation Day — the highlights of the program being the said premiere and the big banquet preceding it Also on Friday, Pennsylvania Central Airlines' Stewardess Adeline Cox of Detroit was named "Miss Flight Command" by the National Aeronautic Ass'n and plans were all set for the Washington scribes to go aloft yesterday for a screening of the picture in a PCA transport plane as the ship wings to Kitty Hawk, aviation's birthplace T T ▼ • • • TOMORROW night at the local Paramount the Jack Benny-Fred Allen-Mary Martin starrer "Love Thy Neighbor" will world premiere ushered-in by a whirl of varied events such as last night's Jack Benny air program, interviews and special appearances today, and tomorrow's resplendent cocktail party for the stars at the Stork Club The Paramount Theater will shutter at 5 p. m. tomorrow to allow for set-up of special lobby displays, radio equipment and a new stage program House'll light up and tickets go on sale at 7:30 p.m and "Love Thy Neighbor" will flash triumphantly on the screen about 9:30 o'clock. Allied to Get All Decree Squawks (Continued from Page 1) Abram F. Myers, it is pointed out that the decree provides for close observation of its workings by the D of J. "This continuing supervision by the Government," the bulletin reads, "leaves open the door cf the De^ partment for registering complaints" as to abuses or hardships experienced by the exhibitors in the actual operation of the decree. The Depart ment is convinced that the fears of the exhibitors as to possible ill effects are grcundless; protests based on actual experience are quite a different thing." "To make such protests effective," the bulletin continues, "exhibitor organizations will have to gather and compile the facts, will have to accumulate enough instances to make a substantial showing, and will have to submit these in such manner and through such channels as to do the most good." For that reason, Myers suggests that Allied regionals call them to the attention of national Allied so that the full scope and national character of the violations can be pointed out. In this manner, it is understood that Allied will act as a clearing house for the protests. In regard to the decree, itself, Myers contends that there is no evidence that any exhibitor group in the country, except Allied, is taking any steps to find out what the decree really means. He points to the regional Allied meetings that have made a careful study of the document and to his own analysis of the text as an example of Allied's efforts to become thoroughly acquainted with the provisions. As to the threats of ether groups to combat the decree, Myers asserts that it gave the "opportunity for a few publicity seekers to grab the limelight." But in less than one month, he continued, after the signing of the decree the situation "reminds us of the Night Before Christmas— 'not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse.' Those who were going to perform mighty deeds have faded out of view, or have found some new toy to play with." Pollak's Company Moves Theater on Film, Inc., Joseph Pollak's new company, moves today to 1619 Broadway. Md. Censor Fees May Jump Dollar Baltimore — A Legislative committee, created as a major reform in Maryland's ancient lawmaking system, is ready to recommend to the State Legislature a bill which would raise censorship fees from $2 per reel to $3 It will also recommend that the censor board be given jurisdiction over itinerant exhibitors operating with motor vehicles.