Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1945)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Thursday, March 1, 1945 Personal Mention EDMUND C. GRAINGER, president of Shea Enterprises, yesterday spotted one of 'his boys', 'Andy' McDonald, now a Marine, with his buddies in a news picture, beneath the American flag they had just raised atop Iwo's volcano, Mount Suribachi. McDonald was on the Shea auditing staff, here, of Bill Barry. • . Wolfe Cohen, Warner International Corp vice-president, arrived in Panama City yesterday. He is on a tour of Central and Latin America, and thereafter Australia and the Far East. • Jack Schlaifer, 20th-Fox Central division manager, and E. X. Callahan, Eastern district manager, were in Albany this week, from New York, conferring with branch manager Harry Alexander. • Walter Titus, Republic's supervisor of branch operations is in Atlanta from New York, and will return here tomorrow. • Herb Gordon of the Forum Theatre, Philadelphia, and Mrs. Gordon, have become the parents of a girl, Donna. • Phil Williams, March of Time advertising director, returned here yesterday from a Southern business trip. • Harry Graham, Universal's Southern division manager, is vacationing in Florida. • Spencer Pierce, 20th Century-Fox Southeastern publicity representative, Atlanta, is in Nashville on business. Harry Ballance, 20th CenturyFox Southern division manager, is visiting Southwest branches. • Herman Silverman, Wometco Theatres, Miami, is visiting Atlanta's Film Row. • Max Westebbe, RKO Radio exchange manager at Albany, has been visiting here. • H. M. Richey, M-G-M exhibitor relations head, will return today from a Southern trip. • Maurice N. Wolff, M-G-M New England district manager, arrived here yesterday from Boston. • Alexander Korda, who planned to leave for England this week, Jias delayed his departure due to a cold. • Gordon Lightstone, Paramount's general manager in Canada, is in New York from Toronto. • J. Robert Rubin, M-G-M general counsel, has returned from the Coast, o Paul Wilson, 20th-Fox Atlanta manager, is visiting in New Orleans. Insider's Outlook By RED KANN Hollywood, Feb. 28 FDR a pivotal production figure like Darryl F. Zanuck to expound his approach on services to be rendered by the industry is important enough. When Spyros Skouras, president of a major company engaged in international operations, follows in the identical channel in the same place at the same time, the event could be even the more significant. Thus, the possibilities of the future to which both gave public utterance at the "One World" dinner in New York, where the memory of Wendell L. Willkie was honored, have captured the interest of part of Hollywood. There is no unanimity of opinion, but plenty of opinion. ■ Briefing Zanuck in the cause of fast reading, his pivot was this : "The motion picture industry can play a vital part in' shaping our future destinies. A start has been made, but it is only a start. . . . Resources and the potentialities . . . have yet to be brought fully into play. . . . Movies . . . have advanced to the point where they can be one of the decisive factors in educating the people of the world to peace and understanding." Skouras said, in part: "You will continue to see films whose sole purpose is to entertain and divert. Also you will see many more films which not only entertain but, at the same time, enlighten and instruct. They will be pictures which are not divorced from reality. They will have both a point of view and a point to make. They will have something to say in a world struggling for better things. . . . I don't mean ... we are ready to forget the primary purpose of entertainment. That is the mainspring which makes all else possible." ■ The dissident opinion is well established, of course. It acknowledges no other function for this induustry beyond its obligation to make motion pictures which provide the escapisms which push the realisms aside and thereby entertain. This, correctly, is the industry's primary purpose, and it is an essential purpose by many approaches. To endeavor to reduce it to complete rubble is ridiculous and uneconomic. Yet in these decisive and incisive times, and in the difficult times ahead, thei opposite ap proach, which we have shared for many years, has its merits as well. ■ Not alone is it possible, but it is also feasible within the framework of that which comprises entertainment, to have something to say. A point of view and a point to make, which are Skouras's words, we are convinced, will play their part in the normal course of production because the stringencies of the times will find — and must find — reflection on the screen. Dream worlds and ivory towers are not very marketable these days. To assume, in turn, this means Betty Grable will not dance or Carmen Miranda will not sing or Roy Rogers will not roam the range would be to assume a state of affairs that will not be. Nor should it be. As long as audiences pay, they'll get the merchandise on order. ■ Moreover, attractions with a point to register need not be stuffy, ponderous or weighty. Additionally, they need not fly in the face of public acceptance. A serious objective has its best chance of success if the producer is astute enough to develop it dramatically and, therefore, entertainingly. If he does not and embarks on straight argument or preachment, his chances of coming through will be nil. Such a fate will be deserved because his effort will be spurious. And it will be spurious since what he offers as entertainment, is not. If the reasoning is valid and in the general interest, the films of purpose which Zanuck and Skouras declare they see on their inevitable way can add to the industry's stature and hasten its maturity and responsibility. Like man's estate, an industry must reach its majority, too. ■ U Irving Cummings, taking note of his 36th year in the industry, is busy directing "The _Dolly Sisters." How does it look to him after three decades, plus ? Like this : "There's nothing wrong, except, perhaps, we're a bit spoiled. We are apt to forget those terrific early struggles to gain recognition, to survive financially and to be accepted as uplifting entertainment. Hollywood has nothing to fear except itself. Therefore, as long as nobody rocks the boat too hard, the industry should continue to scale unprecedented heights." Coming Events Today — Start of Producers Releasing Corp. fifth anniversary celebration, to run five weeks. Today — Independent Theatre Owners Association meeting with Spyros Skouras, Hotel Astor. New York. £ Mar. 2 — War Activities Commitrv_ meeting with Theodore R. Gamble on Seventh War Loan plans. Mar. 5 — Association of Motion Picture Producers annual directors' meeting and election of officers. Mar. 6 — Allied Theatres of Illinois 15th annual convention, Blackstone Hotel, Chicago. Mar. 8-9 — Paramount regional sales meeting, Atlanta. Mar. 13-15 — Pacific Coast Conference of Independent Theatre Owners' annual meeting of trustees, Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles. Mar. 14 — Universal's annual stockholders' meeting, Wilmington. Mar. 15 — Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' annual awards, Hollywood. Mar. 15-21 — Industry Red Cross 'War Fund' week. Mar. 17 — RKO 'Depinet Drive' meetings in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Indianapolis. Mar. 29 — Loew's annual stockholders' meeting, New York. A. /. Silverstein Joins U. S. Treasury Here J. Edward Shrugue, director of the motion picture and special events section of the War Finance Division, Treasury Department, announces the addition to his staff, here, of Adolph J. Silverstein. Silverstein is a former member of the Hal Home publicity staff of 20th Century Fox, and was recently honorably discharged from the Army. He will serve as assistant to Max Youngstein in publicizing the activities and promotions of the department in connection with forthcoming War Loan Drives. • Reagan Names Roper Owens' Assistant Charles M. Reagan, Paramount vice-president in charge of distribution, yesterday announced the promotion of Jack Roper, statistician in the distribution department, to the post of assistant to Hugh Owen, New York and Southern division manager. A native of London, Roper came to this country following World War service in the British army, and shortly thereafter joined Paramount. He lias been with the company 24 years. 20th Promotes Wingart Earl Wingart has been made assistant to Jules Fields, 20th Century Fox's publicity manager. Wingart was formerly in charge of the service division of the home office exploitation department. MOTION PICTURE DAILY, Martin Quigley, President and Editor-in-Chief; Colvin Brown. Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Executive Editor. Published daily except Saturday, Sunday, and holidays by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., 1270 Sixth Avenue, Rockefeller Center. New York, 20, N. Y. Telephone CTrcle 7-3100. Cable address, "Quigpubco, New York " Martin Quigley, President; Colvin Brown, Vice-President; Red Kann, Vice-President; Theo Sullivan, Secretary; Sherwin Kane. Executive Editor; James P. Cunningham, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; Chicago Bureau, 624 South Michigan Ave., Hollywood Bureau, Postal Union Life Bldg., William R. Weaver, Editor; London Bureau, 4 Golden Sq., London Wl, Hope Burnup, Manager; Peter Burnup, Editor; cable address, "Quigpubco, London." All contents copyrighted 1945 by Quigley Publishing Co., Inc. Other Quigley Publications: Motion Picture Herald, Better Theatres, International Motion Picture Almanac, Fame. Entered as second class matter, Sept. 23, 1938, at the post office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Subscription rates per year, $6 in the Americas and $12 foreign: single copies, 10c.