Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1945)

First in FWffl-an< (Radio )ni Accuragc and Impartial MOTION PICTURE DAILY Alert, tion Picture Industry 2 OL. 57. NO. 4 NEW YORK, U.S.A., FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 1945 TEN CENTS $4,500,000 a Year Is Cost Of Checking 10,000 Checkers Used To Tab Percentages Distributors are currently spending upwards of $4,500,000 a year to check some 450,000 playdates yearly on percentage pictures, a survey by Motion Picture Daily reveals. Some 10,000 checkers are employed with Ross Federal Service, which checks for Paramount, RKO Radio, 20th Century Fox, United Artists, Universal, Columbia and others, using an estimated 5,000 checkers; Warner Bros., using 3,000, and M-G-M, 2,000. It is estimated that Warners and M-G-M each spend upwards of $750,000 a year on checking while Ross Federal derives upwards of $2,500,000 from its regular checking service for other distributors. M-G-M is understood to* be studying a rather widespread overhauling of its checking system, with final de (Continued on page 3) Call for Action on ITOA's Trade Bill A membership meeting of the I. T. O. A. of New York went on recoro yesterday as favoring immediate action by the organization on the draft of proposed legislation regulating trade practices which it has prepared for introduction in the State legislature. Following lengthy discussion the draft was referred to the L O. T. A.'s (Continued on page 3) Murray Will Have Arlington Burial Washington, Jan. 4. — Funeral services will be held on Monday at the Church of the Nativity for Raymond B. Murray, 48, for 23 years director of the Army Motion Picture Service, who died of a heart attack Wednesday, while driving his car. Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery. Murray, native of Rockville, Conn., helped to organize the Army Motion Picture Service in 1920. He was made assistant director at that time and two (Continued on page 6) Convention Ban Is Expected Today Announcement of a ban on national conventions in 1945 is expected today or tomorrow from the Office of War Mobilization and the Office of Defense Transportation. The ban was predicted yesterday by the American Transit Association as a means of relieving the increasing burden on wartime transportation facilities. Name Titus Head of Republic Exchanges Walter L. Titus, Jr. has been made executive assistant in charge of branch operations for Republic Pictures, according to an announcement made here yesterday by James R. jrainger, president and general sales manager. Titus will assume his new post immediately and will accompany E. L. Walton, assistant general sales manager, on a tour of all Republic branches in the U. S., as well as the Canadian offices of Empire Universal, Republic's Canadian distributors. This :our will begin after sales meetings, vhich start Monday at the New York Vthletic Club. It is expected that Herbert J. Jates, chairman of the board, and Grainger, after consultations following the West Coast regional sales meet (Continued on page 6) Arthur Loew and Harry Goldberg Are Named by WAC Major Arthur M. Loew, who recently returned to his post as head of the international department of Loew's after active service with the Army, was yesterday elected chairman of the foreign managers division of the War Activities Committee. Major Loew was advised by phone in Mexico City of his election. He is vacationing. Major Loew expressed the Maj. Arthur 51. Loew hope that during his term of office the foreign managers division (Continued on page 3) Depinet, Bamberger To Be Cited by WAC Ned E. Depinet and Leon Bamberger, chairman and assistant chairman, respectively, of the distributors division of the War Activities Committee during 1944, will be honored at a WAC staff luncheon to be held at the Astor Hotel here next Tuesday. Plaques will be awarded to them for their services during the year. Gradwell L. Sears succeeds Depinet (Continued on page 3) Wartime Teamwork Should Be Preserved, Zukor Says If exhibitors and distributors cooperate with each other on trade problems as they do in their participation in the war effort, those problems could be solved within the industry much more satisfactorily than by out siders, Adolph Zukor, chairman of the board of Paramount, said in an In t erview with Motion Picture Daily yesterday. Zukor, who will celebrate Adolph Zukor his 72nd birthd a y Sunday, emphasized that disputes and griev ances within the industry can be adjusted in the same spirit of wholehearted cooperation that distributors and exhibitors accord their contributions to the war effort. The industry will continue to serve the country after the war, if it is needed, Zukor believes, since its patriotic spirit will be the same then as it is at present. "The industry has made a great contribution to the war effort," he observed. Expressing the opinion that the industry has reached its highest point in production and technical developments, and predicting a bright future for it, Zukor said : "We have developed the art of producing pictures to the point where their appeal now is to all kinds of people. The necessity of creating a (Continued on page 6) Heaviest Raw Stock Cut to Hit Big Users WPB, Committee Rule Out Horizontal Slash Washington, Jan. 4. — Although five hours of discussion here today between Lincoln V. Burrows, chief of the War Production Board's photographic division, and members of WPB's motion piccure industry advisory committee failed to reach a decision on the extent of the raw stock allocation cut that will be necessary for the current quarter or on specifically how the cut shall be applied to individual companies, application of the slash on a horizontal basis was ruled out in favor of the development of a formula under which the companies most able to curtail their consumption will take the heaviest reduction, thus aiding the smaller companies, which might find themselves in a serious situation if they had to bear their full share. Several formulas, it was decided, (Continued on page 6) Will Sell 359,000 Of RKO Common Public sale of 359,000 shares of RKO common stock, representing about 13 per cent of common shares outstanding, and valued at the current market price of $9 at over $3,230,000 is understood to be contemplated soon by Dillon Read and Co. The stock, according to an RKO spokesman, is presumably that held (Continued on page 6) Crosby, Rogers Win 'Fame' British Poll British exhibitors, voting in the annual Motion Picture Herald-Fame poll of 'International Box Office Winners' (either American or British players), for 1944, have selected the following top ten : Bing Crosby, Betty Grable, Greer Garson, Deanna Durbin, (Continued on page 3) Reviewed Today Review of "She Gets Her Man" appears on page 3.