The thirty-third edition of the film daily year book of motion pictures (1951)

****★★**★ 1950: A REVIEW **★***★★* City Investing Co. interests. Sir Alexander Korda's London Film Co., British Lion and llya Lopert, the latter head of an art house circuit. Lesser also launched Principal Pictures International in August to cater to American art theaters. In late October, Souvaine Selective Pictures, formed by Julius Fleischmann, Henry Souvaine and Howard L. Taylor, acquired .American riglits to films of the French Government-owned L'Union Generale Cinematographique. Another alliance was eliected by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Jack Wrathers and SchroederRockefeller with British interests for Anglo American production under the banner of Dougfair Corp. headed by Fairbanks. Of note, too, was the formation in London in mid-September of Cinecolor Great Britain, Ltd., by the I'. S. Cinecolor Corp. and London's Radiant Films, tlie new company to be headed bv Sir Sidney Clift and A. ]. Taylor. V. S. Cinecolor holds a 2(j per cent stock interest. • ON DEC. 28, THE FILNI DAILY disclosed the details of a 20th-Fo\ theater building program overseas pro\iding for four new houses, three in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israeli, and the fourth in Alexandria, Egypt. In Jerusalem, the company also is considering the erection of a municipal building in association with the city. • OTHER IMPORTANT international developments of the year are reflected in these summaries of FILM D.AILY stories: British Parliament approved the 30 per cent ciuota. MPEA and BFPA entered into a frozen currency swap agreement. Loew's, RKO, Columl)i.i and l'ni\ersal were victors in Will H. Hays' arbitration decision in a foreign remittance dispute. 20th-Fox Int'l took over distribution of 12 Film Classics features in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Indonesian devaluation cost I'. S. companies an estimated 82,000,000. Special adult PCA seal was proposed for foreign films by Dr. Renato Gualino, president of the Italian Film Producers .Association, Loew's International expanded in Central and South .America with 16 mm. versions of 50 Mexican features. Properly classified as international was an interesting Hollywood development of the year— a United Nations story penetration. Sequences concerned with UN activities went into nearly a dozen stories, and as the )ear ended, others specifically concerned with LJX undertakings were in the planning stage. XI 5 TELEVISION. Topic of the hour, any hour. East and West, North and South, in the industry-at-large in 19,50 was television, and what to do about it. The proposals were many, and, as was to be expected, generally reflected self-interest. Yet, despite the year's advances and experimentation, some of the more importatit ciuestions relating to industry participation in, and utilization of, television remained unanswered. While there were other contributing causes for the decline in film theater attendance during 1950, it was obvious that the greatest inroads were made bv television. Set sales soared, and as of Sept. 1, an independent market research study placed the number of American families owning TV receivers at 7,213,700 or 17.9 per cent. The numlier increased sharply in the last quarter, although the actual figures were not available. The national emergency, declared by the President in December, made it plain that in the new year there would be severe cutbacks in set manufacturing and indicated, further, that commercial introduction of color television by CBS and possibly the lifting of the new station "freeze" were unlikely. Left in doubt also as the nation turned its attention to "first things first" were the advent of certain technical advances, among them Paramount's new color tube, upon which attention centered in 1950 and, possibly, FCC allocation of exclusive channels for theater TV. • PERHAPS the most far-reaching of all industry television moves during 1950 was the decision reached by major companies to make available product for the experimental run of Zenith's "pay as you see" system, Phonevision. Reportedly, the decision was influenced by Department of Justice representations, indirectly if not directly made. The FCC on Feb. 9 originally gave Zenith the green light for Phonevision's test period of 90 days, restricted to 300 Chicago subscribers. With distributors for months adamant in their refusal to provide necessary features, there was a series of postponements. Then, in December, came the change of front, paving the way for the inaugural of Phonevision on Jan. 1 with Metro's "Homecoming," Paramount's "Welcome Stranger" and Warners' ".April Showers" as the first day's ofterings. Meanwhile, Skiatron Electronic & Television Corp., (formerly American Scophony), had been granted permission by the FCC to make engineering tests of its own SubscriberVision ★****★★★★★★★★*★*★*★★***★★****★ 73