The Film Daily (1943)

Thursday, July 1, 1943 <?ity 11 DAILY Bargaining Power Over Rentals Unfair -Myers Holds Allied's Caravan Best Approach to Film Rentals, Terms Solution (Continued from Page 1) .advocating of straight Americanism. r_JVIyers indicated that the industry Slight be doing a little too much or more than the Government requested in the war effort. Enthusiasm is necessary but it must be properly directed, he said. Myers said that some of his Congressional friends had "ribbed" him because motion pictures had stopped their functions of entertainment and had become a mouthpiece of certain Government factions. Myers said he reminded those Congressman that the exhibitors don't formulate the policies of the producers. He said the situation would be more dangerous to future legislation if the industry becomes associated in the minds of Congress and the public as an instrument of propaganda for any particular political party. He said Warners' "Mission to Moscow" had been characterized as partisan political propaganda and he pointed to the recent move by industry leaders to enter into the political fight for appropriations for an emergency, referring, presumably, to the issue over the maintenance of the OWI. Declaring that a real danger confronted the business, Myers said he hoped that the motion picture would continue to do everything possible for the war effort but not to allow itself to be catalogued as anything but a well-conducted private business and not a political mouthpiece. As to the present controversy over film rental and terms, Myers said that the selling side of the business was in the hands of a few, making the bargaining power unfair. The dream of every independent, he said, was to find an inexpensive method of curing the so-called evil, but that the job was up to the exhibitors themselves. He believed that the Allied caravan plan was the best approach to the problem. He said the job could be done by nationwide co-operation. Myers recalled that by united efforts the exhibitors agitated fixed admission prices by distributors out of the business. He said the same could be done to combat 50 per cent terms if exhibitors would show fortitude and refuse to play pictures on that basis. While many exhibitors are doing the biggest business in their careers, he warned them that the end of the war might be the end of those high profits and he advised them that while they have the resources they should strengthen their organizations. Sweeney Wounded in Pacific Hollis Sweeney, formerly of the Poli, Hartford, is in Guadalcanal Hospital after being wounded in action. The ... . FEMME TOUCH MARION PARDOLL, cashier, Service, New Haven. National Screen Radio Plugs Paramount's "Bell Tolls" and "Dixie" Opening gun in the radio campaign for the world premiere of Paramount's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" at the Rivoli July 14, will be fired tonight with participations on three major programs. Time has been bought on the Arthur Godfrey program on WABC; the Mary Margaret McBride period on WEAF, and the Adelaide Hawley program on WABC. These will continue at least through the film's opening. Plans are under way for one-minute transcribed announcements on other New York stations, to start about 10 days before the premiere. Para, is also looking to radio to give impetus to pre-release engagements of "Dixie" in some 20 Southern spots over the coming holiday week-end. Pic bows in at the Paramount, Beach and Sheridan, Miami. Heaviest radio "gun" will be NBC's Kraft Music Hall program tonight, with Dorothy Lamour appearing with Bing Crosby. Other radio plugs will come via a guest appearance of Crosby on the Chase and Sanborn program over CBS on Sunday, a guest appearance of Dorothy Lamour on the Philip Morris Playhouse program on July 16, over CBS, and the first Bob Crosby-Old Gold program on July 9, over NBC. Merchants Sponsoring Free Summer Movies Des Moines, la. — Free movies continue to spread again in Iowa with the business men of New Hartford now deciding to hold Saturday night free movies in the street for the rest of the Summer. Edgerton, O. — Business men here are sponsoring free outdoor motion picture shows every Wednesday night in Village Park for the Sum Berne, Ind. — Local Chamber of Commerce has arranged free public entertainment each Thursday and Saturday evenings weekly during the Summer, with outdoor motion pictures on Thursday and high school band concerts on Saturday. Alexander's New Office The New York office of the Alexander Film Co. will move today from 630 Ninth Avenue to a new office at 42nd St. and Fifth Avenue. Toronto Ignores Dominion Ban on Civic Holiday Toronto — The wartime holiday issue in Canada gained further emphasis in the action of the City of Toronto in setting aside Monday, Aug. 2, as Civic Holiday, as in previous years although the date is on the banned list of the Dominion Government. Other cities in Canada are expected to follow Toronto's example. A survey also shows that a number of cities and towns will observe Monday, July 5, as Dominion Day, although the Canadian Government had switched the official date from July 5 to July 1. Allied May Re-write Its Decree Changes {Continued from Page 1) quested changes by the independent exhibitors. How far the Justice Department in general and Robert W. Wright in particular are being guided by Allied's proposals for decree change? could not .be learned, but it was reported in some quarters that the over-all recommendations could have more teeth in them. Individual proposals, which have appeared to be too general, are expected to be revised in more specific language. Film Daily Year Book Knows All and Tells It By GRAYDON HEARTSILL Off the presses has rolled the silver anniversary edition of the Film Daily Year Book of Motion Pictures to feed the nation's columnists with facts and figures for many a week to come. For twenty-five years now the volume has appeared, filled to the brim with the statistics and listings which make it an invaluable asset to the newspaper amusements desk as an inexhaustible source of data and, this year, a painstaking record of the forward march — to martial music — of the motion picture industry for 1942. From Editor Jack Alicoate's compilations in 1,014 pages is gleaned the following random harvest: The capital invested in the United States film industry is estimated at $2,061,000,000. The industry employs 200,000 persons whose estimated pay roll totals $325,725,000. The average weekly attendance in movie houses in 1942 was 90,000,000, as compared to 85,000,000 in 1941. The figure has only been duplicated once in 1930. Story purchases in 1942 by Hollywood studios amounted to $4,975,000. The top price paid for a Broadway play was $300,000 for "Eve of St. Mark," acquired by Twentieth Century-Fox. The same studio paid $300,000 for John Steinbeck's "The Moon Is Down," top price for a novel. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer paid the top price for an original story when it signed a $60,000 check to William Saroyan for his "The Human Comedy." Since the birth of the film industry, 45,173 features and short subjects have been made. Last year 4,219 rolled through the mill. The film footage handled daily by exchanges totals 27,000 miles. The average number of prints required for each feature is 220, for each newsreel is 650. Twelve Persons Per Seat On Jan. 1, 1943, there were 17,728 theaters in operation. There is one picture theater seat for every twelve inhabitants of the United States. There is one theater open for every 8,000 persons. Texas, with 1,322 theaters, is only topped by New York with 1,433. The average admission price is 25.5 cents. The average length feature is 80.2 minutes. The United States amusement tax receipts in 1942 were $146,372,271, as compared to $87,819,000 in 1941 and $3,544,554.70 in 1930. A new high mark in the production of features in Technicolor was reached in 1942 when twenty-five pictures were turned out by seven producing companies. The year's deaths included Sidney R. Kent, president of Twentieth Century-Fox (succeeded by Spyros Skouras), John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, May Robson, Edna May Oliver, James Cruze, Laura Hope Crews, George M. Cohan, Morris Guest, Joe Jackson, Otis Skinner and Buck Jones. The last named died as a result of the show world's major tragedy, the Boston night club holocaust last November. Tribute is paid in the "In Memoriam" pages to the only Dallas man included in the listing — Ed Sullivan, who was manager of the Majestic at the time of his death in February, 1942. He is credited as originator of the military style of ushering. Reprinted from the Times Herald, Dalas, Texas May 6, 1943