Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1948)

FIRST IN FILM NEWS r ILL trUPY L MOTION0 PICTURE DAILY Accurate Concise and Impartial J VOL. NO. 65 NEW YORK, U.S.A., MONDAY, APRIL 5, 1948 TEN CENTS MARSHALL PLAN AID FOR FILMS COURTS RUN BUSINESSTsf THEATRE ELECTS A LAWYER DETROIT, April 4 ~ Increasing legal problems confronting theatre management due to court and other decrees is given by the La Salle Garden Theatre Co, here as the reason for the election of Everett F. Hayes, Detroit attorney, to'the company's board of directors, Hayes also was elected to the board of the Grand Riviera Theatre Co, here. E, R, Holtz, president-treasurer of La Salle Garden, saidi "Clearance and run, once matters of negotiation and buying, now are legal problems. Other theatre operations have been similarly complicated by court actions. I believe this to be a sad state of affairs but, as it exists, this is how we are meeting it." Expect U.K. Dollar Split-up Formula Within 2 Weeks Film company foreign managers , who ' are meeting two and three times a week as a Motion Picture Association of America committee assigned to the administration of such British tax settlement matters as the division among U.S. distributors of income from the settlement's dollar pool, are expected to hove ready in about two weeks a formula for consideration by a meeting of company presidents , the MPAA reoorts. Lewis Bill Rehearing on April 7 WASHINGTON, April 4. — The House judiciary subcommittee has tentatively scheduled a meeting for Wednesday morning for reconsideration of the Lewis bill. DeMille Labor Hearing Postponed WASHINGTON, April 4. — The House Labor committee hearing scheduled for Wednesday, at which Cecil B. De Mille was to testify, has been postponed while the committee clears up its current calendar. MPAA Is "Elated" Over Help to Production, Distribution Abroad WASHINGTON, April 4 — The Marshall Plan guarantees to film companies and ether information media will provide for convertibility into dollars of production and distribution costs of films shown in Marshall Plan nations* itself provides for conof income from approved in Europe to $15,000,000 How this would apply was not clear until The bill vertibil i ty inves tments the first year, to film companies House-Senate conferees filed a conference report on the provision. Says the report: "The conference recognizes that the nature of the information media industry is such that in many cases the investment to which the guaranty will apply will have been made in the United States and the product of the investment sold or exhibited abroad. In these cases, the guaranty might well apply to the convertibility of foreign currencies earned by the sale or exhibition of the products of the industry, to the extent of the dollar cost of production wholly attributable to those specific products, " Motion Picture Association of America officials were overjoyed at the language in the report, regarding it as a tremendous step forward in solving the overseas currency problems." Obviously the provision kills all chances of other plans to aid the frozen funds problem, including those worked on at the State Department . However, State Department and industry officials thought the ERP bill more than adequate. One Government official put it this way: "The Marshall Plan nations have been the chief headache for the $15,000,000 for the quite enough to keep those countries." industries, and first year is them operating in