Harrison's Reports (1962)

Entered aa second-class matter January 4, 1921, at the post olliee at New York, New York, under the act of March 3, 1879. Harrison's Reports , Yearly Subscription Rates: Published Weekly by United States $17.00 Harrison's Reports, Inc., U. S. Insular Possessions... 19.00 Canada and Mexico 19.00 A Mot,on Picture Reviewing Service 1270 Sixth Avenoe Other Countries 19.50 New York 20, N. Y. 45c a Copy Devoted Chiefly to the Interests of the Exhibitors Circle 7-4622 Established July I, 1919 Martin Starr, Editor A REVIEWING SERVICE FREE FROM THE INFLUENCE OF FILM ADVERTISING Vol. XLIV SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1962 No. 1 Lay-Press Lays Off Films Tv Executives to Pictures Not so long ago, the public relations primer of the motion picture industry was a way of life in the pub' lie prints envied, copied and lifted by most of the other industries away up front of the industrial parade. Today, films is the low man on the totem pole of the lineage pumpers. Many of the other industries have thrown away our primer, because they've passed us. That it should be so, is one of the deplorable con' ditions of our business. " and, what would be more calamitous is to continue doing little about it as has been the sad case, these past few years. The motion picture business is not begetting for itself the kind of laypress treatment it deserves, mer' its and is entitled to. Ours is an industry of flesh and blood, beauty and brains, romance and excitement. What makes up the world of everyday reality, is the warp and woof of the film industry in its own world of make'believe. These are the very emotionalities that the newspapers of the nation deal with in their news stories, features, editorials, alharound reporting. That's life and the films interpret it. With each passing year, it seems from the metropolitan papers we read, the general news of the films gets less and less space in the entertainment section of the dailies. We're not speaking of spot news of big, topical stories that break and which involve the names of the movies. They bolt their way to the front page becasue of the circulation strength and reader' ship value of the items, the "name" protagonists, etc. But, where the film industry has lost the ball game is in the everyday run of material that fails to see the light of the printed page to any measurable extent. Motion Picture News Gets Brush-Oft We can go down the list and come up with one that's as big as our arm wherein little, if any, space was given to items that seemed to have basic news value for the readers. We know that the movie editors on the papers, the wire services are serviced with appropriate press releases from our publicity departments. Only the other day, for instance, those of us on the trades were serviced with a Motion Picture Industry Review (news release) by the United States Department of Commerce. For trade paper editors it was big news. We ran to our typewriters. Each in his own way, saw to it that this good news was relayed to his readers. For good news, it was indeed! The Washington tabulators made it known that box office re' ceipts, throughout the country, had gone up in the year gone by. In 1960, the take, in admissions, was (Continued on Back Page) Things moved fast this past week out at the Culver City studios of Metro'Goldwyn'Mayer. In short sue' cession Sol C. Siegel, vice president in charge of pro' duction, asked to be relieved of the mammoth job of running the studio; a few days later, Joseph R. Vogel, president of the company announced that Robert M. Weitman would head up studio operations. The last year has been an unhappy one for Siegel. While he will continue supervising production on the long overdue "Mutiny on the Bounty," it is a year late and several million dollars beyond original budget' ing. "Lady L" with a $5,000,000 cost chalked up against it is reported to have been shelved. "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," is another blockbuster that has given Siegel a big headache. In midAugust, at lunch with Vincente Minnelli, who had just completed the film, he told us that the spectacle should be on its way to the moviegoers much before the end of '61. It is not yet in release. Weitman, New Hand at Movie Making Weitman is primarily of the theatres (Paramount, N. Y.) . But, that background he left behind him when he began to labor in the vineyards of network Tv from where he went about a year ago to head up M-G-M's Tv setup. In the realm of movie production, Weitman is a "brand new hand. To what uses his Tv experience could be put in film production, is hard to say. Tv, at best, is a faltering medium entertainment'wise. It is dressed up with gimmicks, gizmos, gadgets. It's a free, (Continued on Bac\ Page) Extra Production Issue, Next Week There'll be two issues of "Harrison's Reports" next week. One (Vol. XLIV, No. 2) will be the regular weekly issue with the news, editorial, reviews. The other issue will deal, in full, with the indexing of the releases, the listing of the product of the releasing-distributing companies. This will take in the latter months of 1961 and such of 1962 that is set production-release-wise. . . . This, (called "the pink") will detail, in full, what the distributing companies are definite will reach the screens of the theatres in the forepart of "62 . . . There will also be, of course, in this extra issue (next week) the listing of the schedules of the Short Subjects to be released by the distributing companies in the year ahead. All in all, it will be a supplemental issue worth waiting for!