Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1946)

2 Motion Picture daily Wednesday, December 4, 1946 Personal Mention HUGH OWEN, Paramount's Eastern and Southern division sales manager, is in Boston from New York; he will return on Friday. • Harry M. Kalmine, president and general manager of Warner Theatres, and Herman R. Maier, head of the construction department, are due to arrive in New York from Havana and Mexico City on Friday. • Alan Cornell, national secretary of the Theatre Authority, has been named to the executive board of the Sister Elizabeth Kenny Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. • Curtis Mitchell, national publicity-advertising director of Paramount, has left New York by plane for Chicago. • Edith Stone of Paramount's home office publicity department, has returned to New York from an upstate New York vacation. • Walter L. Titus, Jr., Republic vice-president in charge of branch operations, is visiting Boston and Albany from New York. • John Corfield, British producer, left New York for Hollywood yesterday. • Rodney Bush, 20th-Fox's exploitation manager, left New York yesterday for Dallas. o Herb Copelan, Warner Circuit executive, is in Memphis from New York. o Win Barron, Paramount Canadian public relations executive, has returned to Toronto from Miami Beach. • Harry McWilliams, Columbia's exploitation head, left New York yesterday for Scranton. o James Winter has replaced Joy Shapiro as booker in Universarl's Atlanta office. • Paul Soskin, British producer, will leave New York today for the Coast. • Spyros Skouras, president of 20thcentury Fox, left New Orleans last night by plane for Mexico City, o Gene Kelly, M-G-M star, is due here from the Coast on Saturday. Steiner Budgets $750,000 Joseph Steiner, president of Broadcast Pictures, Inc., reports that "Universal Station," by Beth Brown, will go into production immediately following "Rhythm Rhapsodies," which is slated to go before the cameras, here, in January. Miss Brown will write the screenplay and be co-producer with Steiner. Picture is budgeted at $750,000, according to Steiner. Court Reverses 'Hit Parade' Decision Albany, N. Y, Dec. 3.— The New York State Court of Appeals, unanimously reversing the Appelate Division in New York City, has ruled that Advance Music Corp. had cause for action against the American Tobacco Co. over what is alleged to be "capriousness" in choosing songs played on the weekly radio broadcasts of the "Hit Parade," to an audience estimated to total 15,000,000. The motion picture industry is direcently interested in the "Hit Parade" song selections by reason of the fact that many of the numbers selected are published by film company musicpublishing subsidiaries, with the plaintiff's bill of particulars in the case also explaining that, motion picture producers, music jobbers and dealers, band leaders, and others, in choosing songs, are largely influenced by the selections and ratings which the defendants give to current numbers. The plaintiff claims that the defendents acted "wantonly and without good faith" in selecting the 10 most popular numbers weekly. Songs published by the plaintiff, which are said to be "among the first nine or 10 most popular musical compositions of the nation, are either passed over by the defendents or placed on the radio program and weekly list in improper order of popularity," it is alleged. Coast Film Office Strike Threatens Hollywood, Dec. 3. — The danger of an outbreak of labor strife on a new front loomed tonight as the Office Employes International Union prepared to take a strike vote in behalf of its 150 members employed in film exchanges. The workers, whose contract expired on Oct. 19, have demanded a 20 per cent increase in wages, while exchanges have offered 10 per cent. A vote favorable to calling a strike, as anticipated, would involve OEIU's 3,000 members in the studios, if the exchange workers extend their picket lines to the studios. Union officials have announced that they would comply with provisions of the Smith-Connally act by applying to the Central Labor Council for permission to picket the exchanges. A 30-day period must elapse under the law before the union implements a vote to strike. Lehman Joins Coast Buying -Booking Unit Los Angeles, Dec. 3. — Syd Lehman, PRC branch manager here, has resigned to become a vice-president of Exhibitors Service, Inc., the president of which, Harry Rackin, describes it as the oldest buying and booking group in Southern California. Sam Milner, PRC district manager in the Dallas-Salt Lake City-Omaha City territory, moves into Lehman's spot in Los Angeles; his successor will be named shortly. Sales Plans on New UA Films to be Set United Artists executives yesterday extended the agenda for their forthcoming studio meetings to include the mapping of sales plans and exploitation, advertising and publicity programs for product now in the vaults, said to total $25,000,000 in value. Gradwell L. Sears, vice-president in charge of distribution; J. J. Unger, general sales manager, and Walter Gould, foreign manager, will leave New York tomorrow by plane. Chief among the pictures to be considered are Enterprise's "Arch of Triumph" and David O. Selznick's "Duel in the Sun," confirming a report in Monday's Motion Picture Daily that a compromise is "in work" on at least that part of the company's dispute involving the Selznick production. Others to leave tomorrow are : Edward M. Schnitzer, Eastern sales manager; Maury Orr, Western sales manager; Robert M. Goldfarb, home office manager, and six district managers including Jack Ellis, Clayton Eastman, Moe Dudelson, Charles S. Chaplin, Rud Lohrenz and C. W. Allen. Joining the group in Hollywood will be W. E. Callaway, Los Angeles district manager, and Fred M. Jack, Southern district manager in Dallas. Also leaving from the home office will be Tom Weller, publicity manager, and Mori Krushen. exploitation manager. Howard LeSieur, advertising manager, left here yesterdav and Paul N. Lazarus, Jr., advertising and nublicity director, left last Friday to prepare the groundwork for the sessions. Name Segal N.E. E-L Sales Representative Henry G. Segal has been appointed special sales representative of EagleLion Films for Boston and New Haven, by A. W. Schwalberg, vicepresident and general sales manager. Segal started in the industry with the old Motion Picture Patents Co. in 1909. Later he was associated with Lewis_ J. Selznick's World Films and organized the distribution set-up for that company. He was later one of the original organizers of First National and part owner of First National in Boston. Following this he owned his own film exchange in Boston for many years. Latterly, he has been sales supervisor for Warners in Boston. Zukor, Foreign Aides To Studios Jan. 27 Adolph Zukor, Paramount board chairman, and George Weltner, head of the foreign department, both due here from Europe on the Queen Elisabeth on Dec. 12, will introduce James E. Perkins, new managing director in the United Kingdom, and John Nathan, managing director of Continental Europe, to the company's studio personnel late next month. Perkins and Nathan are expected here from Europe around mid-January and will leave for the Coast on Jan. 27. Newsreel Parade ARMY NAVY football game, ■SI scrapping of the liner Normandie and the rescue of air-crash victims in the Alps are featured in current newsreels; complete contents follow. MOVIETONE NEWS, No. 28 — Rescue epic in air crash in the Alps. Oncemighty Normandie's last mile. Army-Navy game. NEWS OF THE DAY, No. 226— ArmyNavy game. Air rescue in Alps. Voy?"of doom of the Normandie. PARAMOUNT NEWS, No. 29 — No. , mandie's last voyage. Nation's top ribbers kid Eisenhower. Army-Navy game. Middies spring surprise of the year. RKO PATHE NEWS, No. 31 — Army. Navy game. Alpine plane crash rescue. UNIVERSAL NEWSREEL, No. 560 — First pictures of air rescue in icy Alps. Army-Navy game ends season. New Jersey Allied Plans Tax Battles Passaic, N. J., Dec. 3. — Plans to combat proposed state or municipal levies against the amusement industry, including motion picture theatres, were laid this afternon at a meeting of the Allied Theatre Owners of New Jersey. The battle lines were drawn following a recent statement by Mayor Joseph Altman of Atlantic City that he would ask the state legislature for power to tax amusements three per cent if the move is approved by a referendum by the resort's electorate. The members also discussed ways and means of killing any move toward censorship of films — another recent suggestion from a member of the clergy following exhibition of "The Outlaw" at Atlantic City. President Ed Lachman of New Jersey Allied said the organization would be ready to go into action at Trenton, when legislature meets, "to cut off the neck instead of many heads" of a move in this direction. He referred to making a concerted stand at the capital instead of ' individually fighting actions as they were proposed by municipalities. Members and their guests, including officials and department heads of many head offices in New York, later attended the Allied's annual beeksteak dinner in the Ritz restaurant. More than 200 persons were present. Ramsay to Greenthal Hollywood Office Hollywood, Dec. 3. — Clark Ramsay has been appointed a vice-president of the Monroe Greenthal Co., and head of that advertising agency's office, here, it was announced here today by Greenthal prior to his return to New York. The agency has among its accounts Universal-International and J. Arthur Rank Productions. Ramsay and his staff will handle the West Coast advertising for all Greenthal agency clients. Before joining the Greenthal agency, Ramsay was with Universal for seven years, six of which he served as advertising manager. 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