Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1944)

r i DO NOT REMOVE MOTION PICTURE DAILY Alert, tion Picture Industry WOL. 55. NO. 41 NEW YORK, U.S.A., TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1944 TEN CENTS Cite Value of Showmen's AnnualAwards Joseph Vogel Addresses Luncheon for Judges The annual Quigley Showmanship Awards competition attract some of the best theatre talent in the country year after year, Joseph R. Vogel, head of Loew's outof town t h e tres, stated yesterday in addressingapproximately 75 persons who attended the 10th annual judging at the Hotel Astor, followed by a luncheon. Vogel said it had been his observation and that of other Loew's executives that the circuit's managers who are most frequently singled out for promotion are (Continued on page 7) Joseph R. Vogel Four-City Rallies of Exhibitors for Drive More than 1,500 theatres in the Washington, Detroit, New Haven and Denver territories were represented in four Red Cross exhibitor rallies held yesterday as the first of the nationwide series of key city meetings to launch the motion picture industry's 1944 Red Cross drive, March 23-29. Joseph Bernhard, national chairman of the industry's campaign, and Sam Dembow and A. W. Smith were prin (Continued on page 7) Kentucky Advances 20 Per Cent Tax Frankfort, Ky., Feb. 28. — Kentucky's house of representatives has passed a bill calling for a 10 per cent increase in the present 10 per cent state tax on admissions and the measure is expected to be acted upon by the senate this week. The bill provides that proceeds from the tax be applied to the construction of tuberculosis sanitariums within the state. A late amendment to the tax bill stipulates that it is to be repealed or discontinued on July 1, 1946. Company Heads Will Meet Studio Unions On Three New Pacts Negotiations between major companies and IATSE officials covering new contracts for some 10,000 studio technicians and workers whose contracts expired Dec. 31, 1943, will get under way here March 6 at the office of Pat Casey, producers' labor contact. Discussions between the Conference of Studio Unions, comprising seven AFL locals, and the company heads will begin March 10. Meetings between seven other AFL international unions, signatories of the studio basic labor agreement, are scheduled for March 13 or 14. Principal item on the IATSE agenda is the union's proposal that the companies levy five per cent of their gross pay checks to the estimated 10,000 studio union workers to finance a "retirement, vacation and health benefit fund" to be controlled by the (.Continued on page 8) Graetz Made Ealing U.S. Representative Paul Graetz, president of Transcontinental Films, Inc., of Hollywood and head of the AFE Corp. of New York, has been named United States, Canadian and Latin American representative for Ealing Studios of London. Graetz will supervise distribution of 20 Ealing films to be released here during the next year, 12 of them within the next four months. The first (Continued on page 7) Unrestricted Appeal From WMC Rulings Washington, Feb. 28.— The War Manpower Commission, under revised rules, is now allowing both workers and employers the unrestricted right of appeal from its decisions, chairman Paul V. McNutt has announced. The order is understood to apply to the film industry, in which many cases have been heard by area WMC boards on unsuccessful appeals to have theatre and exchange employes declared essential. 'Lady' Hits $131,000 Here;WeekendSnow Cuts Grosses 20% Light snow and rain last weekend sent some Broadway theatre grosses down 10 to 20 percent resulting in the lowest grosses in many weeks, although they were still above par. "Lady in the Dark," at the Paramount, with a stage show headed by Xavier Cugat and his band, is said to have ended its first week last night with $131,000 to set a new high for that theatre. The fourth and final week for "Jane Eyre" and a stage show at Radio City Music Hall will yield about $93,000 to wind up a brief but profitable run. Samuel Goldwyn's "Up in Arms" will open there Thursday. "The Sullivans" and a stage show headlining Martha Rave at the Roxy will wind up its (Continued on page 8) Free French Preparing to Restore Film Industry Korda Arrives for M-G-M Conferences Sir Alexander Korda, British production head for M-G-M, arrived here yesterday from England for two weeks of conferences with home office and studio executives. Merle Oberon was scheduled to leave the Coast yesterday to join Korda in the East. First picture under Korda's arrangement with M-G-M will be "Perfect Strangers," with Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr. Wesley Ruggles will direct at Denham Studios, London. Korda plans to return to England after his visit here. By JACK BERK The Free French are well along with plans to restore the French motion picture industry and to resume film production in that country upon liberation. With the Allied invasion believed imminent, the Office Francaise dTnformation Cinematographique, operating under the Free French Ministry of Information, headed by Henry Bonnet in Algiers, now is laying the groundwork. Dr. Simon S. Schiffrin, New York head of the films division of the Free French Press and Information Service, told Motion Picture Daily here last week. While the U. S. market for French (Continued on page 8) 7,000 Office W orker sUnder Wing of AFL Plans International for Film, Other Workers More than 7,000 union white collar workers in the film industry are seen as eventually being affected by a plan of the American Federation of Labor to charter a new international union composed of all office workers, which potentially could be the largest in the Federation. The AFL's executive council has instructed president William Green and secretary-treasurer George Meany to confer with officials of existing office workers' organizations and to issue an international charter to them as soon as technical questions of jurisdiction are adjusted. Industry "white collarites" affected include 3,000 members of the Screen Office Employes Guild, comprising workers at most studios in California now affiliated with the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers ; 3,000 office workers in exchanges (Continued on page S) Honor Skouras at Coast Lunch Today Hollywood, Feb. 28. — With Eddie Cantor as master of ceremonies, some 500 industry leaders tomorrow will give a testimonial luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills, to Charles P. Skouras, who recently completed his duties as national chairman of the Fourth War Loan Drive. Speakers will include Louis B. Mayer, Y. Frank Freeman, Jack L. Warner, Joseph M. Schenck, B. V. Sturdivant. (Continued on page 7) Fromkess Is Manager Of PRC Companies Hollywood, Feb. 28. — Leon Fromkess, vice-president in charge of Production of PRC Picturees, Inc., has been named also general manager of the company and of PRC Studio Corp. and PRC Productions, Inc., the studio announced today. Such a step was anticipated by Motion Picture Daily on Feb. 3, when the resignation of O. Henry Briggs as president of PRC was confirmed. r