Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1947)

FIRST IN FILM NEWS MOTION PICTURE DAILY Accurate Concise and Impartial J VOL. 61. NO. 52 NEW YORK, U.S.A., MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1947 TEN CENTS I^prieve for Arbitration May Be Asked Consider Court Move to Keep Tribunals Intact By TOM LOY Theatre-owning defendants in the industry anti-trust suit are considering asking the U. S. Supreme Court for a stay of the New York Federal District Court's order ending the industry arbitration system on April 1, except for the liquidation of cases filed prior to that date. Having appealed from the New York order, the companies, which strongly urged retention of the system when the case was tried, now face the fact that, even if the high tribunal should grant the appeal, there will be no officially-constituted arbitration machinery between the end of this month and the early part of next year unless a stay is sought and obtained. Paramount, Loew's and 20th Century-Fox are understood to favor seeking a stay, with RKO and War(Continued on page 2) President and Army Cite Jack Warner's War Work Riverside, Cal., March 16. — The highest award of the U. S. Government to a civilian, the Medal for Merit, was presented Friday by General of the Army H. H. Arnold in behalf of the President to Jack L. Warner, Warner Brothers' production vicepresident, in a ceremony at March Field, here, attended by military, industry and civic leaders. The award covers Warner's services to the War Department in the recruiting and organization of motion picture personnel for the Armed Forces, for the production of training and recruiting films, and for his participation in the provision of entertainment films for overseas. In a personal tribute to Warner, (Continued on page 6) CSU Requests AFL Aid Here Three representatives of Holly wood's Conference of Studio Unions, establishing temporary Eastern headquarters here for the purpose of so liciting financial support from American Federation of Labor locals in the New York area, reiterated CSU charges that the West Coast jurisdic tional dispute was provoked by the producers, in presenting their case be (Continued on page 6) 5 at 20th Promoted By Silverstone Arthur G. Doyle, formerly 20th Century-Fox managing director in India, has been named district man ager for India, China, Hong Kong the Philippines, Singapore, Siam and Indo-China, and Herbert White, un til recently managing director o (Continued on page 2) Jack Warner Columbia Meeting Starts Tomorrow A three-day meeting of home office executives, district managers, and top sales personnel will be held by Colum bia tomorrow through Thursday at the Hotel Warwick, New York. A Montague, general sales manager, will preside. Purpose of the meeting is to discuss selling plans under the Federal anti (Continued on page 2) Studio Workers Want House to End Strike Washington, March 16. — A plea for an immediate Congressional investigation of the Hollywood studio strike was made to the House Labor and Education Committee Friday by a studio employes committee. The group urged that Congress enact legislation authorizing the courts to issue injunctions halting jurisdictional disputes. The committee said studio workers do not want to "resort to strikes." Its appeal was made by telegram to Congressman Richard Nixon (R.-Cal.) who turned the request over to the committee. Plans 50 Theatres For Foreign Films Conversion of nine West Coast theatres and plans to develop a 50-unit, nationwide circuit; all for the exhibition of imported product was disclosed here Friday by Sidney J. Pink, president of Trans-international Pictures Corp. of Los Angeles. Pink simultaneously announced that his company has entered into distribution of foreign product, covering all territories west of Chicago, in asso ciation with Trans-international of New York, which will handle the films here. The company will release product of Super Films, Siritzky Brothers and others, he said. UA Joins Tf\ Columbia in Asking Stays Seeks Postponement of Distributor Injunctions The three non-theatre-owning defendants in the industtry anti-trust suit lined up solidly at the weekend on a campaign to keen much of the New York Federal District Court's decree from going into effect this year, so far as their own distribution activities are concerned. United Artists, unexpectedly joining Universal and Columbia in their efforts to obtain stays from the U. S. Supreme Court, prepared to file a petition today asking that the company be exempted from virtually all the injunctions against distributors until after a final ruling in the case. Excepting only the decree clause that bans franchise agreements, UA will seek a stay of the orders against admission-price fixing, clearances other than those which are "reasonable" in competitive situations, formula deals, master agreements and the "arbitrary refusal" to license a (Continued on page 6) Radio Looks For PC A Aid End of Exhibitor Trust Attacks Seen Under a Decision Sustained by Court Compliance with the New York Federal Court's equity decision, if sustained in U. S. Supreme Court, will mean the end of exhibitor trust suits against distributors, according to a consensus of legal opinion here. Attorneys drew this conclusion from the fact that the decree covers all situations which prompted legal action by theatremen to date, and the unlikelihood of any new cause for anti-trust proceedings is remote to them. One lawyer while in agreement on this, however, said he is frankly pessimistic as far as other exhibitor-distributor litigation is concerned. He explained that while he can assure conformity with the decree, he feels certain that some theatremen probably will have complaints concerning the injunction against product sales discrimination. Washington, March 16. — The National Association of Broadcasters, now in the process of revising and strengthening its "standards of practice" for the radio industry, has consulted the Motion Picture Association on the Coast on the workings of the (Continued on page 6) Legion Explains Its Position on 'Duel' The National Legion of Decency has classified "Duel in the Sun." after revision, as "B-Objcctionablc in Part." The reason for the classification is as {Continued on page 6) In This Issue "Time Out of Mind" is reviewed on page (i.