Film year book (1950)

recreation building for the Boys’ Clubs of America . . . and already juvenile delinquency has been reduced over 79 per cent in that area. The Boys’ Club is open six days a week, has been in operation a year and has 3,000 members with an average daily attendance of 800 boys. The operation is supervised by five men trained in boys work . . . plus volunteer workers from the Variety Club. The building is equipped with all types of playground equipment, reading rooms, a small library, and kitchen facilities for snacks. The entire operating and maintenance cost is borne by the Variety Club of Southern California. The Variety Club of Houston also plans to work with the Boys Clubs of America . . . and drawings are being prepared for a Boys’ Club, to be built in a section of Houston where the requirements arc the greatest. The Variety Club of Dayton, working with outstanding psychologists, is building a school for emotionally disturbed children. There are only two or three such schools in the United States . . . and the current thought is that such institutions will do much to curtail future instability. The other tents of Variety Clubs International are doing equally fine work . . . for insight into the plight of unfortunate children has been and always will be the inspiration which provides the continued growth of Variety Clubs International. SWG IN 1949 By VALENTINE DAVIES President T* HE SCREEN WRITERS’ GUILD set forth two specific themes for 1949: 1) To make writers a greater part of the motion picture industry; and 2) to inform the movie-going public on the writers. With the formation of the Motion Picture Industry Council, which now is an integral part of COMPO, the SWG immediately became a part of MPIC’s day-by-day functioning operation. We provided members for all working committees and gave close cooperation to SWG member Art Arthur, MPIC’s executive secretary. The highlight of SWG’s MPIC activity came at the Chicago all-industry public relations conference to which the SWG board sent Allen Rivkin and Leonard Spigelgass as its representatives. Spigelgass’ resolution, adopted unanimously by the entire conference, underscored for all the world to see the magnificence of the movies. Developing the second theme, the SWG inaugurated its first annual Award presentation. At a gigantic mid-Summer party attended by 800 industry personalities, five “bests” in American screen writing were awarded. More than 1,200 screen writers honored their colleagues in choosing, for 1948, the best written American drama, comedy, Western, musical and the Robert Meltzer Memorial Award “for that writing achievement which most ably dealt with the problems of the American scene.” The press and radio of the nation gave more than enthusiastic reaction to the Writers’ Awards. contributions made to films by screen In order to give more immediate recognition to the previous year’s writing awards, the 1919 presentations were moved up to Feb. 5, 1950. Replete with a nationwide network broadcast, a two-hour "gridiron” show, the highlight of the affair was the appear-, ance of Benjamin Cohen, assistant generalsecretary and head of the department of public information for the United Nations. Cohen presented the Meltzer Award over the radio and spoke to the assembled guests on the contribution of screen writers to the screens of the world. The SWG ended its 1949 year with a total membership of 1,165: 770 actives and 395 associates. Employment steadily rose during the 12-month period with a spectacular trend observed in the changeover of writers to writer-directors and writer-producers. The Dec. 31, 1949 working figures showed 208 writers employed by the eight major studios, plus 50 hyphenated-writers in this category; independents employed 165 with 33 hvphenateds; television and documentary fields absorbed another 45 scribes. For 1950, great strides are predicted in the TV field and the National Television Committee, of which the SWG is a powerful part, will make itself felt. 931