The Film Daily (1945)

lednesday, August 15, 1945 lletroin16mm. lislrib'n Abroad (ConHnued from Page 1) l-G-M international film distribu |pn set-up. Overseas distribution in im., Loew said, was expected to krt about Jan. 1, 1946, when every l-G-M release would have its nar w-gauge counterpart. Loew said (e venture made Metro the first ma ir company to take advantage of the Iperience accumulated by the Unit i Nations armies in showing motion |;ture entertainment on 16mm. film "" troops stationed all over the globe. Declaring that 35mm. would not be (^carded in favor of 16mm., Loew serted that 16mm would open up a \v audience for pictures that 35mm ver reached or rarely touched. ley are the people, he said, who e in isolated communities or in wns too small to support a regular eater. Mobile projector units will ■ used, similar to the mobile units at have followed the troops. A separate staff of specialists in 16 mm. operations is being created and in Metro territories abroad, experts, trained in the United States, will be added to the personnel of each office. Of equal importance, Loew said, is [6 simultaneous launching of an ed;ational and documentary film proj•t for training and classroom use. he State Department and officials ' many other governments have exressed interest in the widespread 5e of such films and Metro will ^operate closely, he added. M-G-M will enter into arrangements with specialists in modern visual education who will produce the pictures which will be prepared and approved by the world's foremost educators, Loew said. Films will be used in the teaching of such subjects as geography, chemistry, physics and history, as well as regular school subjects. Victory! — — [ero's Show Biz Background Detroit— Don Molony, USCG aprentice pharmacists' mate, hero of he Empire State Building plane rash, turns out to be a showman nth a family tradition in show busiess. He was employed at Walled jake Amusement Park here last ummer. Molony is the nephew of Fred W. 'earce, owner of Walled Lake, who t one time operated a large circuit n the South. SEnO BIRTHDAV GREETinCS TO: AUGUST 15 Estelle Brady Leroy BIckel Signe Hasso Shirley O'Hara Harry Akst Rose Marie Edwin Van Pelt IT-/ Day Cuts Pix Attendance Celebrating Crowd Estimated at 2,000,000 (Continued from Page 1) a part — the time differential and house location among them. Generally speaking, however, attendance dropped sharply downward as John Q. Public and his entire family joined in the historic country-wide celebration. To what extent business and in what direction, up or down, would In compliance with President Truman's declaration, no edition of THE FILM DAILY will be published tomorrow (Thursday), Next regular edition of THE FILM DAILY will appear on Friday. be affected today when closings of countless factories, stores, offices and other commercial establishments are scheduled was anybody's guess last night. In Washington President Truman last night declared today and tomorrow legal holidays. Subsequently Governor Dewey of New York issued a similar proclamation. In New Jersey Governor Edge declared today a legal holiday. It was indicated that other state executives would fix today or today and tomorrow as legal holidays. Times Square and the Broadway area last night was jam-packed with milling thousands, and necessarily attendance went down sharply. Earlier, however, as New York staged its pre-V-J celebration, along with other metropolitan centers, theater matinee "takes" were generally described as good. Late last night it was estimated that the crowd in and about Times Square was close to 2,000,000. According to reports received by circuit headquarters and to dispatches from THE FILM DAILY'S nation wide field stafi, the pre-official celebrations yesterday were larg-eiy confined to the metropolitan centers. In some provincial key spots, there was little or no celebration activity, pending the official White House announcement. In the Bi-oadway belt, houses describingbusiness as slig-htly off during the early hours included the Roxj' and the Music Hall. Later, however, attendance bounded back, it was said, to drop again when the surrender became official. Roxy currently has "Capfain Eddie," the Music Hall, "A Bell lor Adano." Biz at other Main Stem houses was described as follows: Capitol, "Anchors A-weigh." fourth week, peak; Paramount, "Incendiary Blonde," good: Strand, "Xmas In Connecticut," standing room and change of schedule for an additional stage show: Holly%vood, "Rhapsody In Blue." capacity at 1:30 p.m.: Rivoli, "Junior Miss." okay for a ninth week: Loew's State, "Valley of Decision," picked up, picture being held for a third week: Astor, "Wonder Man," big; Criterion, "Thousand and One Nights," slightly better for fifth and final week. Despite "no official announcement from Washington," cro-n'ds began gathering on Broadway at daybreak yesterday following the first Nip radio reports of Jap acceptance of Allied peace terms. Newsreel cameras were stationed in Times Square, the garment district. Wall Street, Chinato-«'n, and in New York harbor to film reaction of soldiers on ships returning from Europe, Newsreel coverage was reported in other key cities throug-hout the nation. NBC television mobile units also captured the hilarious activity of the New York crowd. One television camera was focussed on the crowds outside the .4sfor Hotel: and a group of films were telecast from time to to time highlighting the Pacific war as a background to current events. Nearly all home offices and exchanges yesterday were expected to shutter today, or, in some instances, to operate with skeleton staffs. Para News Victory Extra Paramount Newsreel victory extra, a full reel-lengtli special edition, was released promptly at 7:01 p.m. on announcement by President Truman of Japan's surrender acceptance. This up-to-the-minute news-reel was showing to Bro^idway audiences at 7:35 p.m. The reel contains a dramatic salute to our victorious warriors and architects of vietor.v, also last-minute developments at the White House and films of Admiral Halsey's third fleet in final blows against Japan's shores — ■ a record of our Pacific victory from Pearl Harbor to the final surrender. V-J Day was the signal for New York display on Broadway celebrating the event by "Wondersign," the gigantic electrical display covering the entire eighth story front of the RKO Palace. Wondersign. with 27,000 lights in four colors, flashed the glad tidings as follows: sequence of photograph of Iwo Jima: service flag with star in center, dissolving to military show discharge emblem: picture of a home-coming scene between a soldier and his sweetheart: picture of broken sword over large letter V: mother-son homecoming scene: reproduction of upper arms of the Statute of Liberty bearing a torch: letters reading "V-J Day." Hundreds of thousands of Broadway celebrants admired the sign, prepared by technicians after the atomic bomb dropped. Nat Sanders to London On British Film Deals Nat Sanders, president of English Films, Inc., will leave today on the Queen Elizabeth for London to consummate deals for the acquisition of Latin American rights to British films, and for additional distribution deals for British films in the United States. Sanders plans to be gone about four weeks during which time he also will make a trip to Paris to complete deals which he negotiated in New York as agent for Company France Films of Montreal for distribution in Canada. While in London he will also arrange for the organization of English International Films, a company to handle Latin-Ameiican and Canadian distribution of British films. Technicolor UK Execs. On Coast for Confabs IVest Coast Bureau of IHE FILM ■DAILY Hollywood — Kay Harrison, managing director of Technicolor, Ltd.; George Gunn, head of the Photographic Department, and Leslie Oliver, plant superintendent, officials of Technicolor, Ltd., have arrived from England to confer on post-war expansion plans with Dr. Herbert T. Kalmus, president and general manager of Technicolor Motion Picture Corp. and chairman of the British affiliate. Perl and Wolfi Home Master Sgts. Sid Perl and Lou Wolff, formerly of the Brandt circuit staff, are back in New York after more than two years overseas. They are due for discharge under the point system. No Early Post-War Aussie Construction (Continued from Page 1) rived from England on his way back home, cited the fact that all construction activity having no direct bearing on the war had been in suspension for six years. According to the Australian theater man, the industry down-under has a low priority on building material. Jle indicated this would work no hardship since he felt new houses were not a necessity because "Australia is adequately seated." Turnbull said the Australian theater business "will return to the status quo until such time as the population can carry expansion." The first consideration, he asserted, "is to restore existing houses." With the departure of the American armed forces, theater trade in Australia is expected to return to normal, TurnbuU said. He asked American distributors to realize that the big increases in Australian grosses was strictly an abnormal condition created chiefly by the heavy influx of American service men. TurnbuU expects to leave for home two weeks hence after a Hollywood visit. Victory! ANG Board to Ponder Move on "Struck Work' The decision of the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild, CIO, to invoke a "sti-uck work" clause in an effort to prevent the handling of studio publicity copy out of sympathy with the film strikers will be considered by the executive board of the American Newspaper Guild at meeting on Aug. 25, it was learned here yesterday. Three Los Angeles papers, the Herald-Express and Daily News, and the Hollywood Citizen-News, which hold Guild contracts, would be the only ones affected by the action of the ANG. Headlines Came True . . . In-Dooh-atahly! Away back in May, 1942, Oscar A. Doob of Loew's Theaters designee/ a poster for the First War Loan, and, being of a prophetic as well as an inspirational turn of mind, he wrote nine headlines simulating what that number of famous U. S. newspapers would clarion as the march to victory progressed and actual triumph came. They read: "Bataan Retaken," "Japs Quit!," "Tokyo Afire!," "Berlin Falls!," "Russia Frees Poland," "France Cheers A.E.F.," "Hitler Begs For Mercy!," "Hitler Assassinated!" and "Victory." They've all come true except Hitler's assassination, and it was no fault of Oscar's crystal ball that the plot to do just that went haywire.