The Film Daily (1945)

^*X DAILY Friday, July 27, IS ide Trust Suit (Continued from Page 1) a supplementally complaint, filed in the U. S. District Court on April 2, 1945, asked for an additional $150,000, charging that the alleged conspiracy has continued. A motion by Hillside to have an early trial date set was denied on March 19 by Judge Knox who ruled that film company attorneys could not be i^eady because of the issues involved in the New York equity suit pending in Federal Court. First Two ITT Films To Be Released in Fall (Continued from Page 1) release this Fall, George Hirliman said yesterday. Pictures wlil be produced in Kodachrome on 16 mm. and will be "blown up" to 35 mm', for release through United Screen. Herman Wohl is making ''Meet Calamity Jane" and Ed Finney is making "The Parson of Devil's Gap." A series of eight "Calamity Jane" features is planned. Meanwhile, ITT, a Delaware corporation, has certified to the New York Secretary of State that it will enter New York State. According to the certificate, the corporation is capitalized at $1,500,000 in $1 shares. Mum on Report Selznick Has "Cleopatra" Interest IV est Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — David 0. Selznick representatives declined to comment on a published report that Selznick has acquired a financial interest in "Caesar and Cleopatra" and that he also has a deal to produce a picture in London with J. Arthur Rank financing, with the deal a settlement of an action Selznick instituted over the extended services of Vivien Leigh in "Caesar and Cleopatra." An official announcement of Selznick-Rank negotiations is expected later this week. Hal Hall to Masquers West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — Ward Wheelock advertising agency has signed Hal Hall to handle national publicity on the Masquers Club's new radio program which goes on the air this Fall. ^^Southerner^* Gets Page 1 Sun Breah Seldom, if ever, does a hand-out publicity release hit the first pages of the metropolitan newspapers. But United Artists' story on the banning of "The Southerner" by the Memphis censor and its approval by chapters of the Daughters of the Confederacy got a Page One splash in The New York Sun on Wednesday. DEAD MAN'S PROMISE, LEASE ISSUE Minnesota Supreme Court to Get Unique Zuckman Suit Over Mounds Nabe Theater in St. Paul By EMIL J. KRIEG FILM DAILY Stajf Correspondent Minneapolis, Minn. — Minnesota's Supreme Court will decide whether a man, long since dead, promised in 1937 that Sam Zuckman's lease on che Mounds neighborhood theater in St. Paul would be re-newed upon expiration on Feb. 28 this year. Involved is the question of whether Zuckman's installation of an expensive well in the theater was consideration for the alleged oral promise of lease extension. When Zuckman's written lease was expiring, John Friermouth and his half-sister, Mrs. Philip Riley, issued a lease to the Mounds Theater Co., dating from March 1 of this year. Zuckman sued for performance of the oral contract and obtained a temporary writ holding up the new lease on the grounds he had been promised orally in 1937 by George Kopp, full brother of Mrs. Riley and trustee of her interests in the property, that he would be granted a new five-year lease when his old one expired this year. Kopp died in 1939. Conflicting Testimony When hearings were conducted in Ramsey county (St. Paul) district court on whether to make the restrainer against the Mounds Theater Co. lease permanent, there was a mass of conflicting testimony, Zuckman insisting Kopp had made the verbal promise with the well installation as consideration, Friermouth and Mrs. Riley denying this and demanding proof. Although not a party to the court action, the Mounds Theater Co. was drawn into the hearing and showing was made that this company had not sought the lease, but that it had been offered and that M. W. Montgomery, R. J. Rydeen, Howard Dale and A. ri. Hays, associated in operation of other movie houses, organized the Mounds company separately so as to accept the lease offer. New Trial Is Refused The court found for Zuckman and granted a 40-day stay. Challenging the existence 'of an oral contract and of consideration to make such a contract binding, Hugo Hendricks, of counsel for Friermouth and Mrs. Riley, moved for amended findings and for a new ti'ial, both of which have just been refused by the district court. Hendricks says the case will be appealed to the state supreme court, now in Summer recess. Filing of briefs and hearings of oral arguments after court re-convenes in Fall are expected to run into 1946. In the meantime, Zuckman holds the fort. Para, to Give Kamikaze Film Widest Distribution "The Fleet That Came to Stay," official Navy combat film which Paramount released nationally yesterday, will be given the most extensive distribution possible, Oscar A. Morgan, general sales manager of the company's shorts and Paramount News, let it be known yesterday. A pressbook and accessories provide the material needed to exploit the film, which is being released without charge for the OWI through the WAC. All accessories will be available from National Screen Service exchanges. Paramount exchanges are co-operating with exhibitors and the WAC in each territory in promoting the picture, which deals with attacks on our fleet by Jap Kamikaze suicide planes in the battle of Okinawa. Moore to M-G-M-International iCharles Moore, formerly a salesman at Atlanta, has rejoined the M-G-M International department. He has arrived from the South to assume his new duties. Recently Harold Goldraben, Loew booker for out-oftown, switched to the M-G-M foreign department as assistant to William Melniker, head of foreign theater operations. Hollywood Pix Outdrew All Others At UN Parley Washington Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Washington — ^Hollywood proved itself again at San Francisco by outdrawing the feature productions of all other countries at the Conference Theater, WAC Co-ordinator Claude Collins told the Washington visual war workers yesterday. He spoke also of the extensive newsreel coverage of the conference — with 2,000 feet released every two weeks and as many as 32 cameras grinding simultaneously. The documentary market was given a major boost at San Francisco. Mary Losey of the British Information Service said she estimated that 75 to 80 per cent of the hundreds of representatives of various national organizations who attended the Conference as well as delegation members, attended screenings at the documentary film theater, which she managed. This audience can be expected to go back to their "constituencies" with glowing accounts. Miss Losey believes. One reaction of those who saw the pictures has been to wonder why this country has not produced more and better documentary films, she said. Our films did not have the audience appeal of the Soviet and French films, she said. Canadian Eagle-Lion!] Completed (Continued from Page 1) Canada and to the same post Monogram Pictures of Canada, L Laurie takes over both posts as August. 1. Monogram branches will open in conjunction with Eagle-Lion, >i thanson said, but separate corporj identities will be maintained. Eag Lion will distribute two or more Br ish pictures and a series from Fren Gaumont, while Monogram prodi will be distributed in the usual ma ner. Further Eagle-Lion executi appointments are scheduled to ta effect in August. £xport-Import Blackout Relaxed; Will Help Trade ia (Continued from Page 1) Commerce to furnish figures of vah to film industry foreign department according to a statement yesterds by the Department's Journal of Ii ternational Economy. The relaxation, effective July will permit the obtaining of detaile information now from field office and from Washington. Manpowt difficulties may delay early resuraj tion of monthly reports on industr statistics, however. The war-tim blackout on these figures was th first such blackout in United State history. How soon Nathan D. Golden, Corr. merce pix chief, will be able to re sume the releasing of monthly fig ures on export and import of film; raw stock and the various items o pix equipment is uncertain. Befor the blackout on issuance of these fig ures. Golden had a staff of sevei working to prepare these figure from the regular code reports. To day he has only his own secretarj^ and there is no assurance as to hov soon he will have additional help. At the same time, most pix item are included in the table of 1944 ex ports for 3,500 commodities and imports of 5,000 commodities. Ii regard to the monthly statement or pix and other industrial figures, th( Department said: "These monthlj figures are not to be fully resumed at this time," but nearly all the figures are available in the omnibus reports. w k IN NEW POSTS HERBERT FALKS, formerly with the Griffith circuit, to student manager of the Palace at San Antonio, for the Interstate Circuit. )OHN LASKO, operator. Fine Arts, Detroit. BOB SULLIVAN, assistant manager. Fine Arts, Detroit. JERRY WECHSLER, Warner branch manager, Cleveland. BOB LEVINE, Warner's Rhode Island salesman. |. FOSTER HAWTHORNE, Florida Theaters, Inc., Jaksonville, Fla. H. PACE GILLS, manager, Florida, Sarasota, Fla.