The Film Daily (1943)

Tuesday, May 4, 1943 OAJlY 15,000,000 Budget or CIAA Pix Setup The motion picture division of the i-ordinator of Inter-American Afirs is due for an operating budget approximately $5,000,000 for the irrent year, provided the over-all ' dget of the CIAA is approved by e Senate Finance Committee. The Ens budget is said to be about dou Jjiat of last year's appropriation. — fc CIAA total budget is expected "be approximately $30,0000,000, or increese of about $3,000,000 over Bt year's figure. yrd Asks OWI, CIAA for i for motion on Expenditures oshington Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Washington — The joint Congresnnal committee on non-essential Dvernment expenditures, headed by •nator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, |s requested full information on e money spent by both the OWI id the CIAA motion picture bur;us, it was learned yesterday. The mmittee has been contemplating tr several months a study of the AA activities and is interested in e OWI bureau mainly in those tases of the program where the two rencies function closely together. •\nother study of the film activities of these encies looms as the Senate Judiciary Comttee prepares to delve into the whole quesn of Government information activities. Al>ugh attention will be given to the motion ■ture policies of CIAA, OWI and Other vernment agencies, radio and the press • expected to be the chief concern of the •cstigators. Army and Navy films, especialthose for public release, will also come in review. The Truman Committee of the Senate, almgh it will "keep its eye" on the new my pictorial service, will probably not put ich time into studies of the film activities ether agencies. Committee leaders feel it these matters will be scrutinized by other ngressional committees, and the Truman }up is apparently not in possession of any■ng sufficiently startling to cause them to much time on the motion picture offices. tew Employes Oversubscribe Employes of Loew's home office, Y. exchange, N. Y. theaters, and dio station WHN, have over-subribed by $225,000, their second War •an quota of $5,275,000, according David Bernstein, vice-president d treasurer. STORKS 'Seattle, Wash. — Married 18 years, son, their first child, has finally rived at the home of Bert and me Rowe. Rowe is head shipper National Screen. Omaha — Mr. and Mrs. Charles eb are parents of a daughter, nda Lee. He's a Metro salesman re. On This and That • • • FROM "Somewhere in North Africa." Lt. Col. Kenneth Clark. MPPDA's ace publicist on leave tor the duration, writes ot calling upon Sergt. Dave Golding. erstwhile FILM DAILY staff writer, now on the staff of the African edition of Stars and Stripes, which is now a daily. Ken adds Dave passed along several copies of this 111' ol' paper and pens, "I was up 'way past 'taps' last night" Yes. sir, once a FD reader, always a FD reader. ... • As a paper conservation measure, Warners is making up a new type postcard size fan photo which can be mailed without an envelope. ... • 1943 United China Relief pic. "China — First to Fight." will be previewed at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Town Hall Club. ... • Vera, vera cute, that tag line you'll find in Paramount double spread "China" ad today, "The Paramount picture that beats the band" That's catching in the band vs. pic argument, brother! . . . • National Wartime Conference which opens at the Hotel Commodore Saturday will discuss the screen's importance to the war effort and how the industry's usefulness can be increased. ... • A great "plug" for WB's "Mission to Moscow," that Simon & Schuster seven-column ad saluting Joseph E. Davies in the Times yesterday. ... • Speaking of "Moscow." Alfred E. Smith in a wire to Warners yesterday hailed its picturization as helping "to establish the principle of freedom of the screen". . . . • No more national release dates for RKO Radio pix Reason: Company's new policy calling for emphasis on special handling of features. • Something new in radio commercials was that clever "air trailer" interpolated in WMCA's "Five Star Final" live talent show last night for Para.'s "China" Studio cast did a scene from the pic. . . . • The Silver Screen Canteen occupies new and larger quarters in the Fraternal Clubhouse tomorrow. ... • Lee Mayer has succeeded Wally Howes as Warner salesman covering the Northern New Jersey sector out of the N. Y. metropolitan office. ... • From the trenchant pen of Terry Ramsaye in the current Motion Picture Herald: "Said Mme. Chiang-Kaishek at a press conference the other day, 'Brains have no sex.' And she might have added, 'Vice versa' " Aha, sex and vice again! ▼ TV • • • AVENGE PEARL HARBOR! United Artists Withdraws Offer for Korda's Stock Jerry Mason, movie editor of Tiis Week," has become the dad 4a baby girl, Judith Ann. Weight: x pounds (Continued from Page 1) valuation of $800,000 on his holdings. The highest figure yet paid for a partner-ownership interest in UA was in 1934 when Art Cinema Corp. was paid $650,000. The same year Joseph M. Schenck sold his interest to UA for between $500,000 and $550,000. The lowest amount ever paid for a partner-ownership in UA followed the 1929 crash and was $150,000. United Artists' stockholders held a brief meeting yesterday and adjourned until tomorrow. Edward J. Raftery, president, presided. Owners present were Mary Pickford and David Selznick, Attorney Charles Swartz represented Charles Chaplin and Attorney Mendel Silberberg represented Korda. Others who attended were Secretary Loyd Wright, Arthur W. Kelly and George Bagnail. Heineman Joins Goldwyn As Sales Manager Monday (Continued from Page 1) try in the interest of G-oldwyn product. Heineman has resigned as assistant general sales manager of Universal, having been with the company since 1925. He will headquarter at 729 Seventh Ave., although new offices may be acquired in the RKO Bldg. His duties will come under the supervision of James A. Mulvey. Heineman started in the picture industry as a poster clerk for Pathe in 1918 and was placed in charge of of Pathe's sub-offce in Butte, Mont., in 1919. His rise in the business was rapid and he served successively as First National manager in Seattle, sub-franchise holder for Warner Classics in Montana and Idaho, Universal branch manager in San Francisco and Salt Lake City, then Pacific Coast district manager, Western division manager and finally assistant general sales manager. See Pix's Manpower Relief Up to Public (Continued from Page 1) deferments are concerned, with local draft boards acting more and more independently of the various WMC policies. Most local draft boards, representative as they are of public opinion in their area, reflect in their treatment of industry employes the attitude of their neighbors toward the industry. WMC's essential activities committee meets today for the sixth time in an attempt to reach a decision on the question, "Shall we continue to give the same degree of guidance to local draft boards?" There is general agreement that the answer should be in the negative, but the members have not yet been able to get together and decide what their new policy should be. Under consideration is the complete elimination of the list of essential activities with only "critical jobs" listed — those requiring three or four years or more of qualifying training. A possibility is the retention of an abbreviated list of essential activities, with the index of jobs essential within those activities done away with. Another possibility is the elimination of both lists. For some time the committee was working on the project of paring down the list of essential jobs — attempting to cut the list of 900 to about 350 — but this procedure was finally tabled because it was felt that it would not be sufficient to solve the tight manpower situation of today. Local boards hereafter will be called upon to use their own judgment, with the suggestion that they attempt to decide "who are the key men of the key men" presumably of the key activities. In the meantime, the board has yet to announce its lists of "useful" and "nonessential" activities. These lists were due last week and there is doubt now that they may be brought out at all. Until they are there is, in effect, no "twlight zone." If the lists are brought out, motion picture distribution and exhibition are expected to be included in the "useful" brackets. A new list of non-deferrable jobs is also overdue. Until decisions on these various matters are reached there appears to be little to gain in the submission of the WAC plan for essential listing of seven theater workers. Even though the plan does not call for military exemptions the needs of the armed forces make a shifting of men to the essential war production and basic civilian activities vital and the WMC will not be kindly disposed to anything tending to exempt a large group of workers from the call to shift. In fact, the commissions' general attitude toward the motion picture industry has led some observers to wonder whether an attempt to press the case for the theaters will not prejudice the status of production workers, with WMC deciding to put the whole industry on the same fooling — with no more protection than other civilian activities not now considered "essential." WAAC as Theater Officer Camp Atterbury, Ind.— Third Officer Mary L. Porter has been appointed post theater officer, succeeding Lt. George M. Harris. She is the first WAAC officer here to be assigned to post staff duties. The ... . FEMME TOUCH GERTRUDE HOROWITZ, assistant, Loew-Po!i, New Haven. JOYCE FOSTER, Loew-Poli, New Haven. RENA GAGE, Warner ad sales department, Seattle. DOROTHY O'NEILL, booker's stenographer, Warners, Seattle. DEE GORMAN, switchboard, Warner's, Seattle.