Harrison's Reports (1958)

Entered as second-class matter January 4, 1921, at the post office at New York, New York, under the act of March 3, 1879. Harrison's Reports Yearly Subscription Rates: 1270 SIXTH AVENUE Published Weekly by „ j o,^ . »iC nn Harrison's Reports, Inc., United States $15.00 New York 20> N> y. Publisher U. S. Insular Possessions. 16.60 1R(-n . « « t>< * t> . • c i P. S. HARRISON, Editor Canada 16.50 A Motion Picture Reviewing Service AL pjcoULT Mexico, Cuba, Spain 16.60 Devoted Chiefly to the Interests of the Exhibitors ManaWine Editor Great Britain 17.60 Australia, New Zealand, Established July 1, 1919 India, Europe, Asia 17.50 its Editorial Policy: No Problem Too Big for Its Editorial 35c a Copy Columns, If It is to Benefit the Exhibitor. Circle 7-4622 A REVIEWING SERVICE FREE FROM THE INFLUENCE OF FILM ADVERTISING Vol. XL SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 1958 No. 33 A REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT Although not yet official at the time this is being written, there is not the slightest doubt that the motion picture industry has won additional relief from the Federal admission tax. This relief exempts the first one dollar of the movie admission charge from the 10% Federal tax. Under the present law, admissions up to 90 cents are exempt, but the 10% tax is applicable to the whole admission price if it is more than 90 cents. Under the new law, there will be no tax on admission charges of one dollar or less, and in cases where the admission price is more than one dollar, only that portion above one dollar will be taxable. In other words, if the admission price is $1.50 the tax will amount to 5 cents rather than the 15 cents now required. The new tax rate will be effective as of January 1, 1959. Actually, admission prices up to $1.05 will be exempt, because the law provides for a tax rate of one cent for each ten cents "or major fraction" of the amount over one dollar. Since 6 cents or more is considered a "major fraction," a $1.05 admission price would be tax free. A ticket price of $1.06 would have a one cent tax. The relief won by the industry started when the Senate Finance Committee, on August 1, voted favorably on an amendment offered by Senator Robert S. Kerr, of Oklahoma, to a House bill providing for a technical revision of the excise tax laws. This bill, including Senator Kerr's amendment exempting the first one dollar from the tax on admission, was passed by the Senate on Tuesday of this week. Since the measure, as passed by the Senate, differed from the version passed by the House, it was referred to a joint House-Senate conference committee, which met on Wednesday and, acting with unusual speed, agreed to accept the Senate amendment. On Thursday, the House gave its final approval to the compromise bill, passing it without a word of debate. At press time, the bill had been submitted to the Senate for the final and assured favorable Congressional action. The bill then will go to the White House for the President's signature, which, according to Congressional tax experts, is assured, despite his concern over the mounting deficit. As a matter of fact, officials of the Treasury Department, which opposed the admission tax change, concede that there will not be a presidential veto of the bill because other provisions in the comprehensive measure are too important to the Administration to be nullified by a veto. This new reduction in the admission tax is indeed another legislative triumph for COMPO, and a very special industry thanks is due Robert W. Coyne, COMPO's special counsel, who, as in the three previous successful COMPO tax campaigns, led this latest industry fight for relief. During the past year, Coyne has spent nearly all his time in Washington keeping the industry's fences in shape among members of the House and Senate. Coyne has been quick to give credit to other industry leaders for their "enormous help," but there can be no question that he is deserving of the main credit. It is estimated that the savings to the industry from this newest tax reduction will be $25,000,000 a year. Added to the estimated $175,000,000 saved yearly by previous admission tax reductions, the overall savings to the industry will be raised to $200,000,000 a year. If for no other reason, these savings alone justify COMPO's continued existence. THE DRAGGING B-B CAMPAIGN On June 6, because of the serious lag in exhibitor contributions, the executive committee of the industry's Business Building Campaign held an emergency meeting and decided that a "showmanship approach" to the fund raising should be put into action immediately in the form of a special "Business-Building Day." Meanwhile, the committee decided to postpone the first phase of the program — the radio campaign, which had been scheduled to start on July 1 to take full advantage of the important summer market. At that time, only $60,000 in cash had been contributed by the exhibitors, which sum was insufficient to meet even their one-half share of the $300,000 required for the radio campaign. The overall campaign has a budget of $2,300,000, of which $ 1 , 1 50,000 is supposed to be raised by exhibition, with a like sum to be contributed by production-distribution. In the more than two months that have gone by since the June 6 meeting, approximately $55,000 more has been contributed by the exhibitors, making for a total of $115,000, which is still short of the $150,000 needed for their share of the radio campaign costs. Meanwhile, the executive committee has done nothing about the "showmanship approach" to the fund raising, and the "Business Building Day" idea seems to have been abandoned. On Wednesday of this week, the executive committee, co-chairmaned by Abe Montague, of Columbia, and Ernest G. Stellings, president of TOA, met once again. But just what is happening with the campaign or what progress has been made is bein^ kept a secret. A terse statement issued to the trade press by the committee merely stated that "a discussion of the campaign was held and it was decided (Continued on bac\ page)