Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1945)

10 Motion Picture Daily Tuesday, March 27, 1945 Production Is In Slightly Better State Hollywood, -March 26. — With "started" a qualified term meaning anything from "pre-recording" to "shooting location backgrounds," under strike-imposed conditions, production rose slightly from last week's level as four features were started and three finished, the shooting index standing at 32. The production scene follows : Columbia Started: "The Bandit of Sherwood Forest," with Cornel Wilde, Anita Louise, Edgar Buchanan, George Macready. Shooting: "Over 21," "Kiss and Tell" ( Siegel). M-G-M Started : "For Better, for Worse," with Robert Walker, June Allyson, Audrey Totter, and Hume Cronyn. Shooting : ".They Were Expendable," "Dangerous Partners," "Early to Wed," "Yolanda and the Thief," "The Harvey Girls." Monogram Finished : "Here Comes Trouble." Started : "Springtime in Texas," with Jimmy Wakely, Lee "Lasses"* White, Dennis Moore, Marie Harmon. Paramount Started: "People Are Funny" (Pine-Thomas) with Jack Haley, Rudy Vallee, Frances Langford, Bob Graham, Helen Walker. Shooting: "Our Hearts Were Growing Up," "The Well Groomed Bride," "You Came Along" (Hal Wallis). RKO Radio Finished: "George White's Scandals of 1945." Shooting: "The Amorous Ghost," "The Bells of St. Mary's." Republic Shooting : "Man from Oklahoma," "Tiger Woman," "Colorado Pioneers." 20th Century-Fox Finished: "State Fair." Shooting: "Within These Walls," "Dragonwyck," "Junior Miss," "The Dolly Sisters." United Artists Shooting: "Captain Kidd" (Bogeaus) ; "Young Widow" (Stromberg) ; "Duel in the Sun" (Vanguard) . Universal Shooting: "Serenade for Murder," "Lady on a Train," "A Night in Paradise." Warners Shooting: "The Time, the Place and the Girl," "Stolen Life," "Shadow of a Woman." Robinson to Condon Frances Robinson, actress of screen and radio, has joined the public relations -staff of Richard Condon, Inc., here. Miss Robinson was under contract for two-and-a-half years to Universal and also to Columbia. Miss Robinson will specialize on magazine and radio promotional work for the Condon office. Video Seen as 5-10 Billion Industry Indianapolis, March 26. — Television as a five or even a 10-billion dollar industry employing thousands, and one which can completely revolutionize our way of life, was envisaged by Dr. C. B. Jolliffe, vice-president in charge of RCA Laboratories in an address here recently before a joint meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers. "Sound broadcasting revolutionized our ideas of entertainment and altered our way of living," Dr. Jolliffe declared. "Television can provide a second revolution of entertainment and affect our mode of living to an even greater degree," he said. Outlines Goals "Television engineers should not be satisfied that their job is done until they have made it possible to project in the home, pictures of adequate size in color and also for anyone to attend, by television, all major happenings wherever they occur in the U. S. or in any other part of the world," Dr. Jolliffe pointed out. These objectives may be accomplished in a few years, or many years may be required, he said. Alberti Agency Will Handle Ameche Show The Jules Alberti Ap^cy has been granted representation and sales rights for 'oackaged' radio shows produced by Ameche Enterprises, Inc., it is announced by Jules Alberti, president. The Alberti Agency, which holds exclusive management on James Ameche as an individual, will now have the services and availability of the entire Ameche organization, heared by Ameche and Frederick Bethel. The initial acquisition will include five shows and it is planned that some of the properties will be used as vehicles for Ameche, Elsa Maxwell, Constance Bennett, Gregory Ratoff, Fay Wray, John Baker and Richard Arlen. Paris Film Workers Got 30% Increase Settlement of the one week strike of personnel in Paris theatres resulted in a wage increase of 30 per cent for employees, "on account," with the understanding that an additional 10 per cent will be granted in the near future. Press reports from Paris indicate the strike was called because film personnel found it impossible to live, under black market conditions, on the wages they had been receiving. Other French industries are expected to follow the film industry in demands for higher wages. Comerford Books Plays Comerford Theatres' Capitol in Binghamton, Masonic Temple in Scranton and the Capitol, Wilkes-Barre, will inaugurate a 'legitimate' policy by bringing "Kiss and Tell," "Life with Father" and "Student Prince" first for one night engagements in each town. The shows, booked by Abe Feinberg, will then play three nights, beginning April 3. Thereafter vaudeville will be resumed. Secret War Work an Aid to Television Stockholders of Columbia Broadcasting System are being informed that secret electronic work and research for the Government as a war job has made CBS engineers certain, in their opinion, "that postwar television, simply by following in the footsteps of military electronics, could emerge at a much higher level than its prewar 'freeze,' " with pictures "twice as clear, twice as sharp and perhaps twice as large." Paul W. Kesten, executive vicefpresident, points out three accomplishments of CBS in 1944, two of them entirely outside the field of audio broadcasting, one being the design and construction by CBS's television laboratories of special electronic equipment for the Navy. Another was "the challenge constructively offered to the radio industry in the warning that better television on higher wave lengths and in full color, was inevitable and, therefore, should not be delayed after the war lest millions -of consumers invest hundreds of millions of dollars in old-style sets which would not receive the coming better pictures." A third was the audio broadcasting reports from battle fronts on 'D-Day' and ensuing days. Nation's Theatres Aid Clothing Collection 'United National Clothing Collection' posters is being distributed to theatres this week by National Screen Service, on behalf of a clothing collection, April 1-30. This is a united effort on the part of United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, and all of the voluntary war relief agencies of the U. S., under the chairmanship of Henry J. Kaiser. War Activities Committee, Office of War Information, and National Screen are cooperating in furnishing the posters to theatres. Goal of the clothing drive is 150,000,000 pounds, for free distribution to needy and destitute men, women and children in war-devastated countries. Radio Stage HandsGet Wage increases New contracts covering some 40 stage hands employed by National Broadcasting, Columbia, Blue Network, Mutual and WMCA have been signed by the companies with IATSE Theatrical Protective Union, No. 1, and have been submitted to the War Labor Board for approval. Contracts for the stage hands used in studios and New York radio theatres, provide for a five-day week instead of the present six-day week and 10 per cent wage increases permitted under a balance due under the 'Little Steel' formula. Provisions are retroactive to March 17, 1944. Republic Drive for 'Vanities' Launched Newspaper advertising and radio spot announcements highlight the campaign which is backing the Broadway opening of Republic's 'big-budget' musical, "Earl Carroll Vanities," at the Republic Theatre in New York, where the picture will open on Saturday. The campaign covers every New York newspaper. Radio spot announcements will begin today. I Hollywood By THALIA BELL Hollywood, March 26 DIRECTOR Curtis Bernhart has had his Warner contract extended . . . Casting of Natssha Gurdie and Sonny Howe for juvenile roles completes the selection of players to support Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles and George Brent in International's "Tomorrow Is Forever." • Columbia has exercised its option on Janet Blair. . . . Rex Lease has been added to the cast of Monogram's "Springtime in Texas." . . . Universal's horror character, first introduced in "The Spider Woman," will be seen again in "The Spider Woman Strikes Again," with Gale Sondergaard starred. • Charles Russell has been selected for the romantic lead in 20th Century-Fox' "The Embezzler" . . . Rosemary De Camp is set for the role of the Queen of Spain in "The Adventures of Don Juan," Warner production in which Errol Flynn is starred . . . Dorcas Cochran has been signed by Leon Fromkess to write the screenplay of "The Wife of Mojite Cristo." Audrey Trotter and Hume Cronyn have been assigned top featured roles in M-G-M's "For Better, for Worse" . . . Andy Russell, singer, has been put under contract by B. G. De Sylva and will make his screen debut in "The Stork Club." . . . The feminine lead in M-G-M's "They Were Expendable" has been given to Donna Reed. • Hal Wallis is planning a film based on the life of the Russian composer, Tschaikovsky, as one of his scheduled productions for Paramount release. . . . Thomas Mitchell has been selected for a top subborting role in M-G-M's "This Strange Adventure," which stars Clark Gable and Greer Gar son. Ohio Situations to Adopt War Time Columbus, O., March 26. — Many Ohio situations, and those just across the line in adjoining states, will move clocks ahead one hour to Eastern War Time, April 1, with others making the change later in the month. However, communities which retain the present Eastern Standard Time will observe the midnight curfew one hour later than adjacent towns where the change has been made. This, it is believed, will tend to attract considerable patronage to the situations where the extra hour prevails. ClAA Becomes OI AA, Harrison Is Head Washington, March 26. — Wallace K. Harrison has been appointed director of the Office of Inter-American Affairs which has been changed to this new designation from the former name Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, by executive order of President Roosevelt. Harrison was formerly deputy coordinator and had been serving as acting coordinator since Nelson A. Rockefeller, former coordinator, was made an Assistant Secretary of State.