The Film Daily (1943)

M p P I? M I) 13 I S T 2 1ST F L Z() W 44TH ST NYC TOB DAILY Monday, May 24, 194H| Five Major Points in MPTOA Decree Memo (Continued from Page 1) be the principal exhibitor protests and proposals on the decree. The MPTOA memorandum includes these main points: 1. The right to buy a full season's product with an option to cancel 20 per cent of the features in every contract. a — Abolish blocks-of-five selling. b — Abolish the meaningless required tradeshows. c — Option to be exercised by exhibitor as pictures become available. d — Option without unreasonable conditions and restrictions 2. A new non-legalistic arbitration system with : a — Arbitrators experienced in our business (not lawyers) who understand local theater conditions and the peculiar problems involved in these disputes. b — No appeals to New York for final decisions. c — No lawyers. d — More authority and jurisdiction for arbitration. e — Reduce cost of arbitration. Organized mediation of local grievances and complaints by experienced, resourceful mediators. a — -Before complaint is filed for arbitration. b — On grievances not subject to arbitration because of diversity of interests and other obstacles, such as overbuying to deprive a competitor of product, cut-throat competition between theaters, city-wide zoning and clearance systems, etc. Simplified standard form of exhibition contract. a — Enable average exhibitor, to know his rights and obligations. b — Standardizes and accurately defines fair competitive practices on moveovers, availability, checking rights, unethical advertising, allocation of prices, designated play-dates, unsuitable pictures, etc. Theater divorcement no important problem. a — We think it is a fake issue, 100 per cent destructive in that if achieved, it will be of no benefit whatever to the small independent exhibitor, who still will be faced with circuit aggression and the unrestrained competition of the nearby big theaters operated by other independents. b — Agitation for theater divorcement inevitably lends support to the government plan to break up all circuit theater operation eventually by antitrust suit (Crescent, Schine, Griffith) or otherwise. 3. Morey Leaving Rep. to Supervise for Monogram (Continued from Page 1) ton and will headquarter in the RKO Bldg. Prior to his connection with Republic, Morey had been with the original Monogram company as New England district manager after having been with Universal in the same capacity for 12 years. RKO Termer ior Emmet Lavery West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — RKO has signed Emmet Lavery to a seven-year producerwriter contract. His first picture will be Pearl Buck's story, "China Sky." Huge Goal Is Set For Copper O'Donnell Speech Launches Local Campaign (Continued from Page 1) luncheon tendered him at the Hotel Astor by the New York exchange area of WAC. O'Donnell rallied local forces to a copper salvage campaign for the balance of the war, and called for the abandonment of the term "drive," which he pointed out suggests an effort of short duration. Praising the industry's forceful initiative in having collected 1,164,727 pounds of vitallyneeded copper from December, last, to April 23 of this year, he nevertheless stressed the tremendous urgency for more and more of the metal in order that the wai can be efficiently and successfully waged to Victory. O'Donnell declared that we would, according to official channels, have 40 per cent more ammunition for our armed forces today if sufficient copper were available, and he repeated the statement which he made recently on his current "Chautauqua" that scarcity of copper held up the Tunisian triumph for 30 days, — likewise an official Washington disclosure. The Government, he said, is putting some $50,000,000 into a new mine in order to obtain more copper. Iron Out Local "Bottleneck" Touching on tbe subject of tho socalled "bottleneck" which has been created on scrap metal collections in the Metropolitan area, he pointed out that co-operation with the New York City administration will prob ably iron-out this situation, and definitely with respect to copper-culling, since campaign uo collect this metal presents little difficulty as to bulk. He pointed to the magnificent job of copper collecting which Minneapolis, with 192 tons, and Denver, with 128, has done, as well as other cities in various sections, such as Omaha and Des Moines. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Boston, he asserted, are set to duplicate the performance of Minneapolis proportionately. Showmen are the backbone of every industry wartime campaign, he concluded. 23,000 lbs. for Replacements Allen Smith, Chief of WPB's Amusement Section, and successor to Chris Dunphy in that post, told the luncheon meeting that 23,000 pounds of copper have been needed for theater replacement parts, and. that the 1,164,727 pounds garnered by the theaters for the Government came from 14 per cent of the nation's film houses. Sam Rinzler served as luncheon's toastmaster and introduced the speakers. He pledged 100 per cent co-operation of Metropolitan showmen to the new campaign, and announced that the New York area theaters had poured the huge sum of 13,000 pounds of copper drippings and strippings alone into the Government's metal pile. Among those at the luncheon, in addition to O'Donnell, Smith and Rinzler, were: Si Fabian, Arthur Mayer, Herman Gluckman, George Skouras, Harry Brandt, William F. Rodgers, Sam E. Morris, Oscar Doob, Bob Weitman, Joseph Bernhard, Ed Rugoff, Louis Frisch, Ed Alperson, Harry Mandel, William White, Joe Seider, Walter Higgins, Charles Moses, Leo Brecher, Leon Netter, Max A. Cohen, Nick John Matsoukas, Walter Dunn, Leonard Satz, Harry Hecht, Ed Schreiber, Don Jacocks, Charles "Chick" Lewis, James Cunningham, Barry Barrymore, Jack Harrison, James Jerauld, Jack Stuart, Floyd Stone, etc. Today, O'Donnell will be in Buffalo, then visit a string of other keys before winding up his current nation-wide "ride" as the industry's Copper Paul Revere in Charlotte on June 16. Odeon Partnership With Firestone Is Dissolved Toronto — Haskell Masters, general manager of Odeon Theaters of Canada, has announced the dissolution of partnership. with Firestone Theater Enterprises, operating two suburbans in Toronto and one house in Brantford. Masters refuses to confirm the recent reported purchase of property in Halifax by Odeon for the erection of a deluxer when peace-time comes but did say that the recent addition of the Marpole and Lonsdale Theaters in British Columbia would be followed by other important houses. Unions to Participate In Program at Strand National Maritime Union and the American Communications Ass'n will take part in a program in the New York Strand today at 5:30 p.m. About 300 members of the two groups, among them many merchant marine heroes, will be present. The event is part of the co-operation between Warners and the Maritime Commission, tied in with "Action in the North Atlantic," for the purpose of stimulating enlistments in the merchant marine. Among the other participants will Maritime Service Victory Flag Presented to Warners A signal honor was bestowed upon the film industry on Friday when Warner Bros, became the first recipient of the new Victory Flag of the U. S. Maritime Service. The presentation ceremony took place at the Strand before the premiere of "Action in the North Atlantic," the production of which won the company the award. Jack L. Warner, executive producer, accepted the flag for his firm from Capt. Edward Macauley, deputy administrator of the War Shipping Administration. In a brief acceptance speech Warner told the packed house that "no greater honor" had ever fallen to him and his brothers. "It makes us prouder than ever of having made the picture," he said. He added the flag would be hung in front of the Strand for a while and later would be flown at the studio "as long as Warner Bros, stands." Capt. Macauley in praising Warners for making the film said that he knew no better medium than the screen for making the public aware of the great job the merchant marine is doing toward the winning of the war. The ceremonies were broadcast nation-wide over WOR. Among the Warner executives in the audience were Ben Kalmenson, Charles Einfeld, Mort Blumenstock, Harry Goldberg, Harry Kalmine, Leonard Schlesinger. In the audience were some 300 seamen from the Maritime Service training station at Sheepshead Bay. be Irene Manning and Cab Calloway, who will turn over part of his show time to honor the seamen. USO lo Ask Rating For Actors Over 38 (Continued from Page 1) of greater service if they could con] tinue entertaining the service me than if placed in factories where the,, would have no skill or training. Th« essentiality move will apply orj^ tc those men who are over-age fop itary service. The USO-Camp Shows Summei plans reveal that greater stress is, being placed on the entertainment 1 needs of the men in the nation'aj armed forces. Whereas last Sum^l mer there were 15 units traveling the organization's "Red" and "White' circuits, this year there will be 25|j The latter figure does not includn. the 51 units in the "Blue" circuit' designed for the entertainment o: small and isolated detachments, nor the overseas units (more than 20 o:r which have been sent out during the1 past three months), nor the many "spot-booked" units from the Nev York, Chicago and Hollywood of fices of USO-Camp Shows. Paramount Calls Its 4% Outstanding Debentures (Continued from Page 1) pany's outstanding 4 per cent de bentures due 1956. This announcement follows the ac tion of the company's board of direc tors at a meeting held on May 6 a J which time the board authorized th payment in cash of $3,090,000 to th trustee, under indenture covering th; company's 4 per cent debentures, t< be applied in anticipating futur sinking fund obligations. Announcement of the numbers o the bonds drawn will be made today in an advertisement in the Wal Street Journal and the list of num bers will appear in the same publica tion once a week for three additions weeks. Ont. to Okay Early A.M. Shows for War Workers Seigniory Club, Que. — Ontario mo tion picture theaters in war indus try districts will be permitted to re main open in the early morning hour to entertain war workers on the p.m. to midnight "swing shift," C J. Silverthorne of Toronto, chairman of the Ontario Board of Censors, an, nounced here. Silverthorne mad his announcement in an address be fore the annual meeting of the Dom inion Fire Prevention Association which opened here Friday in conjunc tion with the conference of the Asso ciation of Canadian Fire Marshals. "As head of the Ontario board o censors, I wish to make it clear t you that we want our war worker to get the greatest amount of en tertainment possible under thei usual hours of work," Silverthorn said.