The Film Daily (1941)

Monday, August 18, 1941 Crescent Anti-Trust Case Continues (.Continued from Page 1) ward H. Raftery, New York, for Universal and United Artists, scheduled to begin immediately the introduction of testimony to rebut testimony offered during a five weeks' period by Government counsel, headed by Robert L. Wright, special Assistant to the Attorney General and head of the movie anti-trust division of the Department of Justice. Defense counsel expect to consume about a week in presenting their case. Presentation of the plaintiff's testimony and action of Judge Elmer D. Davies Aug. 8 on motions to dismiss will narrow the defense presentation to probably half a dozen situations, anions: them Madisonville and Earlington. Hopkinsville, Ky.; Union City, Tenn., and Newport and Copperhill, Tenn. These involve not more than a dozen theaters as compared with the 157 houses considered a part of the alleged combine. May Clear Universal Counsel Raftery has only one situation to clear up for Universal and claims he can do this in two hours with witnesses to be heard from the Universal exchange at Memphis with reference to the claim that an independent exhibitor from Union City was informed that his contract for 1937-38 with Universal had been prepared and approved and then it is alleged he failed to get it when he called at the Memphis exchange office. The exhibitor defendants must clear up the implication of illegal and monopolistic control of pictures, clearance on first-runs, etc., in various franchises held with distributors including members of the "Big Five," comprising a muchly discussed series of contracts and franchises involving 73 theaters of the several corporation defendants to the suit. A bitter fight is certain between plaintiffs and defendants' counsel over the legality of the franchises since Wright and his D of J associates must establish their illegality as a prelude to a successful prosecution of other pending litigations between the Government anti-trust division and exhibitor and distributor groups. Charge Government "Pressure" On the day of the adjournment of the case Raftery, counsel for two members of the "Little Three" charged in open court that a principal purpose of these suits is to force the "Little Three" to join the "Big Five" under the consent decree and which his clients plan to oppose to„ the bitter end. He predicted at that time that the "Big Five" will "come from under" the decree in 1942 if the "Little Three" does not come in. As he sees it, this puts the matter squarely up to plaintiff's counsel; Wright, to make his case in Nashville. Motions to dismiss acted on fav Erickson Gets His Man; Warfield Manager Tracks Down Soldier Who Lost His Wallet San Francisco — The Northwest Mounted Police may always get its man — but that outfit has nothing on A. A. Erickson, manager of the Warfield here. Seven months ago, Private Raymond L. Suen lost his wallet in the theater. A member of the staff found it. Manager Erickson since then has spent most of his time addressing letters to the warrior. The soldier was moved from the Presidio of San Francisco to the Presidio of Monterey, then to Fort MacArthur, from there to Fort Francis Warren in Wyoming. Finally Erickson, the 'Frisco bloodhound, tracked his man down at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. It took 12 letters to get the wallet, containing about $100 in valuables, back to the soldier. RKO Again Extends Time For KAO Stock Purchase (Continued from Page 1) pheum at the price of $5 a share. Offer originally was to have expired July 31 but was extended to Aug. 15 and now has been set back one month. Approximately one-half of the common stock of Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation held by the public at the time the offer was made has been acquired by Radio-KeithOrpheum Corporation under the offer. Some years ago the holders of the minority interest in the common stock of Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation were entitled to exchange their stock, share for share, for the common capital stocks of the predecessor of the present RKO company, but such exchange is no longer available. First All-Selectee-Made Training Film Completed Fort Monmouth, N. J.— The first all-selectee-made training film has just been completed at the Signal Corps film lab here. The picture was shot at Fort Dix and around Fort Monmouth, and its subject is "Point Control of Traffic and Duties of a Military Policeman." The picture was also the first to use the system of giving the scriptwriter the job of production as well, in this ease Col. Franklin Coen. The Unit Officer on the project was Lt. Garland C. Misener. Sgt. Lee Sholem did the directing, and camera work was done by Pvt. Henry Gerzen, Pvt. Harry Kreider, Pvt. Joseph McElliott, Pvt. Joseph Spalucci, and Pvt. Paul Husserl. The picture contains several animation shots done by Sgt. Chris Gronewald, and processing and stills were handled by Pvt. Ray Estes. An elaborate miniature was also used in the project, showing a large intersection with convoys of trucks and pleasure cars coming in from all sides. The miniature was made under the guidance of Col. Ed Calkins who did similar work at 20th CenturyFox in Beverly Hills. orably Aug. 8 set Columbia among the distributors, and Strand Enterprises, Inc., and Nu-Strand Corp., among the exhibitor groups, free as defendants. Missing from the defense counsel group is Louis T. Frohlich, counsel for Columbia, and his associate. Western Electric Farms Out Government Orders Western Electric Company is letting subcontracts at an average rate of approximately 40 per cent of its Government orders. On $37,000,000 of Government orders now in production in the company's Specialty Products Division Western Electric has farmed out more than $16,000,000 in purchase orders. On the largest single contract included in the above total, a $17,000,000 order for radio equipment, Western Electric has sublet contracts in excess of $10,000,000, consisting cf some 1,400 purchase orders on 250 different suppliers in 14 different states. Principal items for which the manufacturer is making these sub-contracts include vacuum tubes, transformers, generators, meters, and radio parts. Company officials pointed out that these orders on secondary suppliers represent an efficient means by which the services of skilled workers and the combined plant facilities of scores of smaller manufacturers can be mobilized to speed the delivery of vital communications apparatus, and at the same time relieve the pressure on the machine tool builders of the nation. Skouras Takes Stahl's Theaters in New Jersey (Continued from Page 1) join the Skouras organization as head of the circuit's Long Island theaters. Two Players Get RKO Term Pacts West Coast Bureau, of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — Marion Martin and George Cleveland have been signed to long-term contracts by RKO Radio. Blond Miss Martin's work in four recent RKO pictures brought her a flood of fan mail. Her first assignment under the new contract will be a leading role in "The Mayor of 44th Street," to be produced by Cliff Reid. Charles Hamill Dies Chicago — Charles Hamill, veteran theater and political leader, is dead, His wife survives him. Drive-in Buys Equipment Indianapolis — National Theater Supply Co. reports the sale of complete booth equipment to the new Drive-In Theater in Louisville, Ky. Industry Escaped Adverse Legislation (Continued from Page 1) increase in sales taxes although several such bills were introduced unsuccessfully. Encouraging to the industry was the fact that no lej lation dealing with censorship ) ley ipL Attempts at regulating the length of performances because of double and triple features failed, according to the survey, particularly in Illinois where there was a strong organized movement against that type of film program. Only setback recorded was the legislation passed in Minnesota which outlawed that portion of the consent decree dealing with the sale of pictures in blocks of five. Also in Missouri, third and fourth class rural houses were affected when an old law exempting such houses from taxation was repealed. The survey indicated that although 92 bills were still pending, there was nothing to fear among those statutes; nor in the business to be enacted by the legislatures of Massachusetts and New Jersey which will reconvene this Fall. States and the number of bills introduced in each follow: Arizona, 18; Arkansas, 30; California, 295; Colorado, 22; Connecticut, 113; Delaware, 17; Florida, 21; Georgia, 12; Idaho, 8; Illinois, 30; Indiana, 21; Iowa, 20; Kansas, 8; Maine, 49; Maryland, 34; Massachusetts, 75; Michigan, 41; Minnesota, 20; Missouri, 16; Montana, 22; Nebraska, 12; Nevada, 2; New Hampshire, 17; New Jersey, 7; New Mexico, 18; New York, 109; North Carolina, 10; North Dakota, 15; Ohio, 17; Oklahoma, 30; Oregon, 8; Pennsylvania, 36; Rhode Island, 23; South Carolina, 17; South Dakota, 13; Tennessee, 11; Texas, 19; Utah, 21; Vermont, 8; Washington, 21; West Virginia, 26; Wisconsin, 23; Wyoming, 8. Miller, Former Pathe Contact Man, Joins OEM Washington Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Washington — Charles Herbert (Herb) Miller, for the past four years assignment and contact man for Pathe News here, has been appointed assistant to Robert Collyer, head of OEM Information Division's Newsreel Unit. Miller's Government job will be similar to his former work except that now he will be watching defense news for all five newsreels. Complaint Withdrawn San Francisco — Second Northern California arbitration case went the way of the first when Al Karski, owner of the Laurel Theater in Oakland, withdrew his complaint. Local arbitration record to date reads no runs, no hits, no errors.