Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1947)

2 Motion Picture Daily Thursday, January 30, 1947 Personal Mention MAURICE BERGMAN, Univer sal Eastern director of advertis ing-publicity, is in Mt. Zion Hospital San Francisco, recove/ing from minor injuries suffered when he was thrown from a horse. • Beverly Kurtz, secretary to Earl Wingart of 20th Century-Fox's home office publicity department, will be married to Irwin Lasky on Sunday at the Linden Heights Center, Brook lyn. • Don Mersereau, general manager of Film Daily, is in Doctor's Hos j>ital here with a fractured leg, having been struck by a hit-and-run driver near his Manhattan home ' Tuesday night. • W. C. Gehring., Central sales man^ ager of 20th Century-Fox, has left New York for Rochester, Minn where? he will enter the Mayo Clinic for a~ physical check-up. • Bp A. M. Kane, Paramount district manager, Boston, and Edward Ruff Albany, N. Y., branch manager, have been visiting Gloversville. • Les S. Gruenberg, Frank Drum and Gus Schaefer, RKO Radio sales executives, have returned to New York from Albany. • Norman H. Moray, short subject sales manager for Warners, will return to New York on Tuesday from a Southern tour. • Stanley Shuford, Paramount advertising manager, has returned to New York from a West Indies vacation. • Sid Mesibov, Paramount's assistant exploitation manager, has returned here from Columbia, Mo. • Earl Rettig, secretary-treasurer of Rainbow Productions, will return to the Coast from New York this week. • John S. Allen, M-G-M district manager at Washington, will arrive here tomorrow. • Joseph Kaufman, Monogram producer, is visiting New York from the Coast.,. i -. ...... Greenfield in Video Felix Greenfield, who appeared in a radio "series as "The Man of Magic," has been signed by General Film Productions, of which Harry A. .Kapit is president, to make a series of television shorts titled "Tele Trix." The contract is for one year, with options. Williams on Film Ads ; . Advertising accounts of Phil Williams on Fortune Magazine have b~en expanded to take in major film companies here. Williams was formerly advertising publicity director of March of Time. s By RED KANN 'M' EVER a party to the Gov; ernment suit, Sam Goldwyn and any others similarly situated are not bound formally by the consent decree. This being the case, he has organized Samuel Goldwyn Pictures, Inc., for the express purpose of leasing theatres to house roadshow engagements of "The Best Years of Our Lives." It is an interim plan to function on an interim basis between now and next January when the film will go into regular release via RKO Radio. It does not follow necessarily that Goldwyn is entering exhibition on a permanent basis. In declaring the policy, moreover, Goldwyn's statement pointed out that arrangements have been made with RKO to assist in the acquisition of such theatres and in the physical servicing of the picture. ■ Whether or not Goldwyn is taking a chance via this device to skirt the decree's prohibition of roadshows through stipulating the fixing of minimum admission prices to be in contravention of the Sherman Act now becomes a matter of interesting discussion. That he does not believe he stands on ground in any wise treacherous, of course, is evidenced in his decision to proceed. Inevitably, this development must tie to the Department of Justice viewpoint set forth by Robert L. Wright recently. Although independent producers "and "distributors who were not defendants cannot be bound by the decree, he also observed they are not free to engage in practices which the court has found to be in violation of the antitrust laws ; that, if they were to engage in such practices, they would be subject to law suits in which event the decree could be employed as precedent in determining the issue. There are some, perhaps more squeamish, who speculate over RKO's position if that companv, which was a defendant, should help Goldwyn acquire his roadshow houses. Insofar as the servicing of these theatres with prints may be concerned, no ■question has arisen. It seems agreed" that RKO can do it without any trepidations over the outcome. I B Twentieth Century-Fox advertising proudly proclaims "The Razor's Edge" played to 991,251 people in eight weeks at the Roxy here in New York, offering this as an all-time at tendance record for any theatre anywhere in the given period. It is a performance never to be minimized and a proud circumstance for the company to acknowledge as its own. But the Music Hall has a few statistics of its own, too. Here they are: "Mrs. Miniver," 1,179,656 in eight weeks; "Random Harvest," 1,132,682; "Dragon Seed," 1,094,973; "The Valley of Decision," 1,086,874; "WeekEnd at the Waldorf," 1,040,863. ■ ■ Everyone understands and appreciates how vital are its foreign markets to the American industry. But figures help paint the picture ever more graphically. Take Universal's for the past eight years. Its percentage of total sales from overseas distribution rose from 38 per cent in the company's 1939 fiscal year to a record 44 per cent in 1945, then dropped slightly to 43 per in the fiscal year which closed Nov. 2, 1946. It went like this: % of In 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 Total Millions 38 $9.0 37 37 36 37 37 44 43 10.1 11.3 14.1 17.4 19.2 22.3 23.1 Or, another way of putting it : In the year ending Nov. 2, the company did a total gross of $53,934,865. Domestic sales accounted for $30,809,450, and foreign, $23,125,415, despite blocked revenues in a number of countries. This reminds of the prediction made some time ago by Eric Johnston that the day was not too distant when fully half of the American industry's revenue might come from the foreign field. The foreign sales manager of a rival company, incidentally, observed yesterday that Universal's export volume was something to be recognized for its formidability. ; He -likewise ventured the opinion that no other distributor is doing as well, percentage-wise. ■ ■ Theatre business on these shares bounced back mightilv in November, by the. way. Government tax collections reported for that month were $41,182,757, indicating a picture-house gross of $179,174,561, or an increase of $19,958,913 over October grosses of $159,215,648. This compares with $130,640,505, or an increase of $48,534,056 for the same month last year. $35,200,000 for U.S. Films in Britain London, Jan. 29. — British imports of U. S. pictures from July to Dec, 1946, amounted to $35,200,000 out of an import total of $496,000,000 from the U. S., Hugh Dalton, Chancellor of the Exchequer, revealed in the House of Commons today. Youngstein Expands E-L Promotion Staff Max Youngstein, Eagle-Lion's advertising-publicity director, has increased his field force from 10 to 12. The additions are Richard Owen, formerly with 20th Century-Fox, who will cover the Southwest, out of Dallas, and Vernon Berg, formerly with National Screen, who will operate out of San Francisco covering the Northwest. Berg recently resigned as Warner's exploitation man in the Columbus-Cincinnati-Cleveland area. Court Sets Feb. 4 For Hughes Hearing Arguments on the motion by Howard Hughes to dismiss the defense claims of New York City license commissioner Benjamin Fielding in Hughes' suit to restrain Fielding from banning "The Outlaw," here, were postponed yesterday to Feb. 4 in the New York Supreme Court. Dr. Clifford to Korda Alexander Korda has appointed Dr. Hubert Clifford musical director of London Film Productions, Korda spokesmen disclose here. Dr. Clifford, a composer, is professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and during the war was in charge of BBC's empire music services. QP Team Wins— AGAIN The basketball five of Quigley Publications was again victorious, last night, in a pitched floor-fight with the sturdy quintet of the Compton Advertising Agency. The score was 27 to 14, in an exciting game played at the Rockefeller Center Gymnasium to the plaudits of many, many fans of both sides. Hollander to Albany Elmer Hollander, in charge of playdates at Producers Releasing's home office in New York, has left for Albany as temporary replacement for Joe Miller, New York state district manager, who has been hospitalized with pneumonia. Upon Miller's recovery and return to the Albany exchange, Hollander will return to his own duties at the home office. Dortic, PRC Terms Fail Albany, N. Y., Jan. 29.— A lastminute hitch ended negotiations which were to install Charles Dortic as Producers Releasing Corp. manager here. Dortic has returned to his former post as salesman for Columbia. Hollywood Bureau, Postal Union Life Bldg., William R. Weaver, Editor; Cunningham, News;idito7^ Sullivan, Treasurer; , Leo J. Brady. Secretary f James > Chicago Bureau, 624 South Michigan Avenue" «»■--«-» — "~ " " • ■ ■■ ■ cable address, "Quigpubco, London." International Motion Picture Almanac, tion rates per year, $6 in the Americas and $12 foreign; single "copies. "lOc,