Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1946)

2 Motion Picture Daily Wednesday, January 16, 1946 Personal Mention N PETER RATHVON, RKO % president, will leave Hollywood for New York at the weekend. • Capt. Norman Walker, studio manager for the J. Arthur Rank group of independent producers in England, will arrive at Halifax aboard the Ariguani tomorrow, en route to New York and Hollywood. Rudy Weiss, head of Warner Theatres' real estate department, and Herb Copelan, WB theatre department executives, left New York last night for Cleveland to return at the weekend. • W. Ray Johnston, Monogram board chairman, and Lou Lifton, advertising-publicity director, are expected in New York from the Coast this week. • W. Stewart McDonald, assistant treasurer of Warners and comptroller of Warner Theatres, left New York yesterday on a Mid-west tour. • Jerry Thomas, son of Harry Thomas, president of PRC, will leave New York tomorrow for Hollywood to enter production. • Edward G. Simmel, Monogram's Near and Mid-Eastern representative, left Washington by plane for Cairo on Monday. • David Rose, Paramount British production executive, will sail from London for New York at the weekend. • Jules Lapidus, Warners' Eastern division sales manager, left New York yesterday for Philadelphia and Washington. • A. A. Schubart, RKO Radio exchange operations manager, is en route to Hollywood from New York. • John Shea, Jamestown Amusement Co. booker, has resumed his duties after a six-months' illness. • Ned Depinet, president of RKO Radio, will leave Hollywood for New York on or about Jan. 26. • John Wayne, actor, will wed Esperanza Bauer, Spanish-French actress, at Long Beach, Cal. • Nate Spingold, Columbia home office executive, has arrived in Hollywood from New York. • Ed Hinchy, head of the Warner playdate department, is in Washington from New York. • Jack P. Byrne, M-G-M Detroit district manager, has returned there from St. Louis. • . Everett N. Crosby, brother of Bing, has arrived in New York from Los Angeles. Insider's Outlook By RED KANN Hollyivood, Jan. 15 '"pHE Association of Motion *■ Picture Producers, long a corporate entry on the books, remains there despite Eric Johnston's originally announced intention of combining New York and Hollywood under the single banner of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. The story behind the change : The old name is familiar. It has been around for many years. It is a California name. On problems and issues confined to this state — the legislature in Sacramento, the city council in Los Angeles will suffice as examples — a native association has more standing than a foreign association. There are accrual values attached to the Association of Motion Picture Producers, developed over its span of operations, which it is felt should not be snuffed out for whatever the strategy of a consolidated EastWest front is regarded to have been. Insofar as MPA itself is concerned, the intention is to slip gradually into regular reference to it as "the Motion Picture Association," allowing the "bf America, Inc.," to apply when formalities require. Describing the MPA as "the Johnston office"— an immediate replacement for the widely used "the Hays office" — will be discouraged, hopefully to a point where it will not be used at all. ■ ■ Bob Hope again was voted one of the top ten money-making stars of 1945 in the recent Herald-Fame poll. Again he was voted • Champion of Champions, the best comedian, etc., in Motion Picture Daily's tenth annual radio poll. This rated him two handsome engraved scrolls, delivered to him before-, he went on the air a week ago Tuesday evening. "Hmm," he remarked, "Nothing for carnivals this year." ■ On that show, Joan Davis, who won in radio's best comedienne division for the third unbroken year, was his guest star. Universal and Paramount Newsreels shot it after the program. Crackling from Hope : "How are they lighting me for the Uni-* versal stuff?" Crackling from Miss Davis, as busy and efficient Jack Melvin beamed off the sidelines : "The Universal sound track is dead ? For Heaven's sake, fix it quick." She has a film contract there. Bob told his studio audience, but not over the air, "There won't be any more Road pictures at Paramount after 'The Road to Utopia.' They're going to make them in alleys hereafter." ■ ■ Two biggest production ventures on the atomic bomb are "The Beginning of the End" at Metro and "Top Secret" at Paramount, Hal Wallis producing. Sol Wurtzel, about to resume production with his own unit for release through 20th CenturyFox, reputedly has a similar yarn. Thus, a cycle brews. Joe Bernhard and Milton Sperling — with a name like United States Films, it's hard to figure how they can go wrong — have "Cloaks and Daggers," a tale about the Office of Strategic Services. Paramount calls its "O. S. S." Others springing off the same dramatic base are talked about. Thus, perhaps another cycle. Chief conclusion, however, is the canard this lays low. Hollywood definitely does not move in circles. It's cycles. ■ ■ The town is well nigh submerged in returning veterans who functioned as public relations officers or on staffs of various service papers and now declare themselves qualified for publicity posts. A number of publicity directors find this embarrassing on two counts. First, the applicants lack the rounded experience they claim. Two, there are not that many jobs open. ■ ■ Mary Pickford is rating serious attention for mother to Fredric March's father in "Life with Father," and there's no press agentry about it either. If closed, it will mark Mary's first picture since "Coquette," in 1929. ■ B Of the $4,200,000 grossed by "Stage Door Canteen" domestically, Sol Lesser says 85 per cent came from 1,500 engagements. One reason why your average producer thinks he ought to be in the exhibition businesss. ■ ■ "Delighted to see you again," said one woman to a second woman at the Beverly Club. "Who is she?" first woman asked her husband later. "Don't you remember ? She was hostess at that wonderful party for us last week." Newsreel Parade KfEW YORK'S "G.I." victory par» ade, personalities such as Winston Churchill, Generals Eisenhower, Doolittle and Donovan and n-ezv aviation_ achievements are featured in current newsreels, together with miscellaneous other items, including sd/^ events; full contents follow. MOVIETONE NEWS, No. 40-New York hails 82nd Airbourne Division in victory march. News flashes: Eisenhower in Canada. Heliocopter sets record, British planes sink U-boats, Winston Churchill arrives in U. S. for a vacation, Gen. Doolittle dedicates airport at New Orleans. Fireman save my child!— in Texas girls go to rescue. Sports: auto racing, ski thrill. NEWS OF THE DAY, No. 238— Millions hail "G.I." victory parade. Churchill in U. S., cheerful as ever. Homesick Yanks protest delays in demobilization. Nazis sail for home without jubilation. Last of Uboat pack gets final K.O. Heliocopter sets new world record, PARAMOUNT NEWS, No. 41-Heliocopter sets new world record. U. S. holiday for "Winnie." Death rides South's rivers. Victory parade— mighty "G.I." tribute. RKO PATHE NEWS, No. 43—Heliocopter sets five records. LaGuardia as a private citizen. Winston Churchill in U. S. 82nd Division in victory parade. UNIVERSAL NEWSREEL, No. 468-82nd Airbourne parades for "G.I." victory. Gen. "Ike" is honored by Canada. Airmen seek peacetime pilot jobs. Gen. Donovan decorated. Heliocopter sets record. Plane skiing. SPU Defies SIMPP Contract Stimulus Hollywood, Jan. 15. — The Screen Players Union has formally rejected a notification by the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers that it would terminate its interim agreement on Feb. 4 unless the SPU has negotiated a contract with the major studios by then. The SPU stated that negotiations are continuing with the majors and the interim pact must remain in force until they are completed. Simultaneously, the SPU .has offered to submit jurisdiction of its dispute with the Screen Extras Guild to an election limited to Class "B" members of the Screen Actors Guild. The SPU-SAG conflict is the last -major issue remaining over from the studio strike settlement. AMP A Meets Thursday Anticipating the holding of regular fortnightly meetings thereafter, the Associated Motion Picture Advertisers will hold its first closed luncheon-meeting for 1946 at the Bristol Hotel tomorrow. David A. Bader is president. Niemeyer to Bogeaus Hollywood, Jan. 15. — Harry Niemeyer has resigned his publicity post with Columbia studios to become assistant to William Piece, advertisingpublicity director of Benedict Bogeaus Productions. , MOTION PICTURE DAILY, Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; Martin Quigley, Jr., Associate Editor. Published daily except Saturday, Sunday and holidays, bv Quisrley Publishing Company, Inc., 1270 Sixth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, New York 20, N. Y. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address: "Quigpubco, New York." Martin Quigicy, rfesident; Red Kann, Vice-President; Martin Quigley, Jr., Vice-President; Theo. J. Sullivan, Treasurer; Leo J. Brady, Secretary; James P. Cunningham, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; David Harris, Circulation Director; Chicago Bureau, 624 South Michigan Avenue, Sam Honigbcrg, Representative; Hollywood Bureau, Postal Union Life Bldg., William R. 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