Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1944)

6 Motion Picture Daily Tuesday, October 31, 1944 No Copyright Protection On Video Shows, Stars Sauter Reappointed War Finance Head Coast Filming Rises to 45, From a Low 39 Hollywood, Oct. 30. ■ — Production took a spurt forward last week, as 11 new features were started, and work was completed on only five others. Total before the cameras was 45, compared to 39 in the preceding week. The production scene follows : Columbia Finished : "Let's Go Steady." Started : "I Love a Mystery," with Jim Bannon, Nina Foch. Shooting : "Our Wandering Daughters," "One Against Seven." M-G-M Shooting : "Without Love," "Our Vines Have Tender Grapes," "Hold High the Torch," "Women's Army," "Son of Lassie," "Valley of Decision." Monogram Shooting : "John Dillinger." Paramount Started : "The Lost Weekend," with Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Philip Terry, Doris Dowling, How,ard da Silva ; "The Love Letters," with Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ann Richards, Cecil Kellaway and Derek Cooper ; "The Affairs of Susan," with Joan Fontaine, George Brent, Dennis O'Keefe. Shooting : "Duffy's Tavern," "Salty O'Rourke," "Miss Susie Slagle" (formerly "The Golden Years."). PRC Finished : "The Whispering Skull," "The Kid Sister." Started: "Fog Island," with Sharon Douglas, George Zucco, Jerome Cowan, Lionel Atwill, Veda Ann Borg ; "Marked for Murder," with Tex Ritter, Dave O'Brien, Guy Wilkerson, Ed Cassidy. RKO Radio Started: "The Body Snatcher," with Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Edith Atwater, Henry Daniell. Shooting : "The Enchanted Cottage," "West of the Pecos," "Isle of the Dead" (temporarily suspended), "Wonder Man" (Goldwyn), "Tarzan and the Amazons" (Lesser). Republic Started: "Earl Carroll's Vanities," with Dennis O'Keefe, Constance Moore, Eve Ard,en, Alan Mowbray, "Pinky" Lee, Woody Herman and his orchestra. Shooting : "The Phantom Speaks," "A Daring Holiday." 20th Century-Fox Started : "Circumstantial Evidence," with Michael O'Shea, Lloyd Nolan, Trudy Marshall, Ruth Ford, Reed Hadley, Roy Roberts. Shooting : "Bon Voyage" (temporarily suspended), "A Royal Scandal" ; "Where Do We Go from Here?" "Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe," "Hangover Square." United Artists Finished: "It's in the Bag" (Skirball). Started: "A Walk in the Sun" (Samuel Bronston), with Dana Andrews, Barton Hepburn. Lloyd Bridges, Matt Willis, Luis Rosado. Shooting : "Blood on the Sun" (Cagney), "Hold Autumn in Your Hand" (PAC). (Continued from page 1) which would prevent an exhibitor from picking up certain types of television programs even if the broadcasters attempt to invoke the right of privacy to prevent exhibitors from doing so, it is pointed out. Only telecasts involving the use of literary, musical or dramatic source material can be protected by copyright, it is said. However, broadcasters cannot use films without permission in their telecasts under existing copyright laws. Should' the radio industry attempt to prevent exhibitors" from taking telecasts off ,the air, the ensuing battle would presumably be on the basis of an invasion of the rights of privacy, it is assumed. The possible precedent in this case is the split U. S. Supreme Court decision in the Associated Press vs. the International News Service case, where the court felt the accumulation of news and facts gave the accumulator a property right in the information assembled. New York State has a common law statute on the right of privacy but with certain exceptions. Though these exceptions serve to prevent the use of the images of Hollywood personalities in connection with advertising and trade without their authorization, they are not viewed as likely to enable these Hollywood personali Sudekum Plans 2 Cumberland Houses McMinnville, Tenn., Oct. 30 — Cumberland Amusement Co., with headquarters here, of which Tony Sudekum, head of Crescent Amusement Co., is president, is planning two additional new theatres. One house will be in the Red Banks section of Chattanooga. Planned to seat 1,400, the house will cost approximately $150,000. The other theatre, to seat 900, will represent an investment of $75,000. Speight and Hibbs of Clarksville are the architects for both projects. The two new theatres will make a total of 17 houses for Cumberland and more than 100 for Crescent and affiliates. It is reported here that the injunction in the Government antitrust suit against theatre combines forbids acquisitions in competitive areas but does not refer to the construction of new houses. Sudekum also has purchased the Vauxhall Apartment House in Nashville. He is reported to be planning to clear the site but his building plans have not been revealed. The cost of the tract was about $175,000. Universal Finished: "The Suspect." Started : "Here Come the Co-Eds, " with Abbott and Costello, Donald Cook, June Vincent, Peggy Ryan, Martha O'Driscoll, Charles Dingle, Lon Chaney, Jr. Shooting : "Salome — Where She Danced," "Frisco Sal," "She Gets Her Man." Warners Shooting : "The Big Sleep," "God Is My Co-Pilot." "Pillar to Post," "Nobody Lives Forever," "San Antonio." ties to prevent the use of their likenesses if they were picked up during the telecasting of an outdoor or indoor event at which they happened to be present. Although Great Britain does have a law which gives copyright to recordings and provides for criminal action in case of violations, U. S. copyright law has no uniform interpretation along these lines. When Fred Waring sued to prevent a Pennsylvania radio station from broadcasting his recordings in connection with their advertising, he was upheld by the state courts of Pennsylvania, which ruled that his common law rights had been violated, but Federal Courts in New York held that his common law right had been transferred by the public sale of the record. Several Congressmen seught to introduce a revision of the copyright laws some years ago which would have provided protection on recordings similar to that in Great Britain, but nothing came of the attempt, it is said. The general feeling is that once any sort of sports event is telecast to the public, there is no legal basis to prevent exhibitors from picking up this event and projecting it in theatres, but a long drawn-out legal battle is expected to result between the radio and film industries on the point once it becomes a reality. Disney CIAA Films On RCA Video Show Walt Disney films made for the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs will be used in a new television program titled "The World in Your Home," sponsored by the RCA Victor Division to start Nov. 17 over NBC's New York television station WNBT, it was announced yesterday by John F. Royal, NBC vice-president in charge of television, and Charles B. Brown, RCA Victor advertising manager. Live talent will also be used in this new program series which will feature entertainment, sports news and special events as well as science and education. Among the Disney CIAA films, subjects which will be televised are "Defense Against Invasion" and "Grain That Built A Hemisphere." Other selected films dealing with electronics, chemistry and associated science topics will also be scheduled. John T. Williams, NBC manager of television, Paul Allev, film program manager and Dr. Herbert Graf, television opera producer, will all supervise. Rank Canada Deal Announcement Due (Continued from page 1) Nathanson and general manager Haskell Masters, are remaining in Toronto, where John Davis of London, personal representative of Rank, has not yet arrived. It is rumored here that Davis is already in New York on business involving the distribution of British films in the U. S. and has been in touch with Canadian Odeon officials from there. (Continued from page 1) ception of the war bond organization in New York in 1941. He holds a similar position with both the American Red Cross and New York War Fund. Record Breaking 306 At Kansas City Rally Kansas City, Oct. 30.— Before 306 exhibitors, distributors and guests from Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Illinois and Texas, the message of theatres' participation in the Sixth War Loan drive was brought to reality at a luncheon meeeting held at the Muehlebach Hotel here. The national committee was represented by Harry Brandt, chairman; Ned E. Depinet, distributor chairman ; John Hertz, Jr., publicity chairman ; Captain Raymond W. Wild, Fred Wehrenberg and John Rugar, co-chairman. Speakers representing the Treasury Department included David Beals, local War Finance committee chairman ; Dan M. Nee, Internal Revenue Department executive, and Harvey Pierce, representing the Treasury Department of Kansas. Also in attendance were Tom Edwards of Eldon, Mo., president of the Missouri-Kansas Theatre Owners Association; Rex Barrett, co-chairman for Eastern Missouri ; H. E. Jameyson, Kansas State chairman ; J. B. Underwood, Dallas, Texas War Activities official; Joe Garrison, Missouri exchange territory distributor chairman ; Jerry Zigmond, Missouri public relations chairman ; Woody Barrett, public relations state chairman for Kansas ; Jack Langdon, Kansas City-Missouri distributor chairman ; Senn Lawler, Missouri cochairman, acting as toastmaster. S chine Defense Is Begun; U. S. Rests (Continued from page 1) make no prediction as to the length of time that will be required to complete its case. He stated, however, that it w>uld take considerably less than the 29 days required by the Government for its case. "There is not and there will be no evidence calling for a finding that there has been a conspiracy by the defendant to restrain interstate commerce," McClennen said. "The only conspiracy alleged is a separate one by the defendants with certain distributors. These distributors are not parties to this case. The plaintiff does not make any charge against the distributors. The plaintiff continues to charge against Schine only that Schine conspired with individual distributors alone. There has been in plaintiff's evidence no evidence of any one of these eight separate conspiracies. I predict that at the close of the entire evidence, there will be none," he stated. McClennen declared an exhibitor of motion pictures is not in the business of interstate commerce, but that a distributor of motion pictures frequently is. "An exhibitor of motion pictures is no more engaged in interstate commerce than the man who runs the village grocery store in the same town," said McClennen. "His business is a local business. So is the exhibition of motion pictures. Nothing could be more definitely local." McClennen's opening statement will be continued when court resumes today.