Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1948)

Motion Picture Daily Wednesday, July 28, 1948 Personal Mention CTEVE BROIDY, president of ^ MonogramAllied Artists, an ' Louis F. Lifton, director of adver tising-publicity, will leave New York for the Coast tomorrow. • Samuel Schneider, Warner vice' president; W. Steward . McDonald vice-president of Warner Theatres and their wives, returned to New York yesterday from England aboard the S. S. Queen Mary. • Maria Vincenza Trotta, daughter of Vincent Trotta, National Screen art director, has become engaged to Harold Douglas Hall of Rossville Ga. • William A. Scully, Universal International distribution vice-president, will return here tomorrow from England aboard the 5". S. America. • Jules Lapidus, Warner Eastern and Canadian sales manager, will return here over the weekend from Buffalo and Cleveland. • Eric A. Johnston, Motion Picture Association of America president, flew from Hollywood to Spokane yesterday. • Rudolph Weiss, Warner real estate department chief, is in Springfield, O., from New York. • Sidney Kulick of Bell Pictures has been visiting Albany from New York. Reach No Accord in Strike of 'Coolers' The strike of Local No. 30, International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL, against Loew and RKO houses in the New York Metropolitan area was no nearer to a settlement yesterday as the circuits held firm in their refusal to accede to the union's demand for a 15 per cent wage hike. The air-conditioning men have been offered a 10 per cent raise. S chin e Promotes Hart and Slither Albany, N. Y., July 27.— Lou Hart has been promoted by the Schine circuit from district manager at Gloversville to Northern New York zone manager at Watertown, to succeed Harold Slither who has been advanced to zone manager at Lexington, Ky. Seech, Fire Victim San Francisco, July 27. — Funeral services will be held at Halsted's Funeral Parlor here tomorrow for George Robert Seech, 62, RKO Radio salesman for 27 years, who died Monday afternoon at St. Luke's Hospital here from burns sustained while he was attempting to repair an automobile. Survivors include a son, a daughter, four sisters and two brothers. Tradewise . By SHERWIN KANE "^EW YORK independent ex^ hibitors won a legal "victory" over the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers last week. It remains to be seen how much the "victory" will cost them. The New York Federal District Court found Ascap's method of licensing the performing rights of its music to theatres to be in violation of the anti-trust laws and enjoined the Society from further issuing blanket music licenses, among other things. The court suggested as an alternative to the present method of licensing that producers acquire the performing rights to the music in their pictures at the same time that synchronization, or recording, rights are obtained. That, in effect, is what exhibitor sponsors and supporters of the Lewis Bill in the last session of Congress wanted. Many exhibitors and this column saw nothing more in the Lewis Bill than an instrument by which the Ascap music tax could be transformed into a hidden tax. As a hidden tax, added to film rental, as it most certainly would be, the exhibitor could be required to pay more for the music in the films he licensed than he paid to Ascap. His only balm would be that he wouldn't know about it when he did it. The New York court's Ascap decision promises to bring about the same result. • Allied States, sponsor of the Lewis Bill, contends that the exhibitor need not pay more, and possibly might pay less, for music performing rights obtained from the producer rather than from Ascap. The New York court found that exhibitors not only did negotiate with Ascap in 1933 and 1934, as the trade knows, but that the result of the negotiations was a '"schedule of rates which were very reasonable." It was on this ground and in the absence of any showing by the New York exhibitor plaintiffs that their business had been injured by the Ascap levy, that the New York court denied damages to the plaintiffs against Ascap. The court observed that "The exhibitor got something of value (from Ascap) and received what he paid for." Newsreel Parade That means, of course, that if the exhibitor is to continue getting that "something of value," i.e., music performing rights, he will continue paying for it, whether he pays Ascap, the producers or the individual copyright owners. • How much the exhibitor will pay for that "something of value" in the future remains to be seen. The court left the way open for Ascap to continue licensing theatres on a per-piece basis. No exhibitor ever has applied to Ascap for a per-piece license, even though the Society is required by its consent decree with the Government to make such licenses available upon request. The reasons are obvious. The time and cost involved in obtaining a license for each piece of music in every film played by a theatre, for every exhibition of the picture in that theatre, eliminate the method from all practical considerations. Unless Ascap cooperates by devising a more practicable and economical per-piece licensing system than it has offered up to now. If the exhibitor were to attempt to clear the rights through the individual copyright owners, assuming Ascap gets out of the theatre licensing field completely, he would find the task even more impossible than attempting to do it through Ascap. The producer may find some of the same difficulties in attempting to acquire the performing rights himself because, if it is illegal for Ascap to issue blanket licenses then it is reasonable to assume that it will be equally illegal for any other agency which might supplant Ascap to do so. Thus, the producer would be put to increased expense in negotiating with individual copyright owners, expense which would be reflected ultimately in film rentals. • In the final analysis, of course, it was not the exhibitors who defeated Ascap in the New York ease. Ascap, by its greed or arrogance in demanding the exorbitant fees of exhibitors it did last August, defeated itself. The decision makes that clear. Ascap had a similar experience in its 1941 fight with the broadcasters. Apparently, it learned nothing from that experience. 60 Gen.^lay A REPORT from Gen. Clay as well SI as the Third Party convention mark current newsreel highlights. Other items include people in the news, a plane crash and sports. The confession of Robert Daniels, youthful killer, is claimed as an exclusive by] Movietone News. Complete contents follow. MOVIETONE NEWS, No Party nominates Wallace. Gen. "nay reports on crisis in Berlin. Gov. Dewey holds conference on foreign affairs. Giant 180-passenger plane joins TJ. S. navy. Klu Klux Klan initiates new members. Exclusive confession of Robert Daniels. NEWS OF THE DAY, No. 294— Progressives name Wallace for President., Report by Gen. Clay. Klu Klux Klan. Refugees from Soviet terror flee to the: U. S. Greatest airship in first flight. TJ. S. Olympic team hailed in London. PARAMOUNT NEWS, No. 97—1948 Olympiad: London host to top-flight athletes. Weekend at Pawling: Gov. Dewey keeps pace with world issues. Minneapolis stages water spectacle. Wallace Party states policy. UNIVERSAL NEWS. No. 164— Gen Clay sees no war despite blockade of Berlin. Third Party nominates Wallace. Abbott and Costello meet radio program contest winners. War-mutilated kids meet the Pope. Refugees' ship arrives in Boston. New 180-passenger plane. WARNEK PAT HE NEWS, No. 99— Ku Klux Klan rears its head again. Third party convention. Air news : B-25 crashes; Navy giant; jets on parade. People in the news : General Clay ; Andre Marie. Refugees from Red-dominated countries. Dewey and Eisenhower discuss Berlin crisis. Minneapolis Aquatennial. Albany Paper Cites Smakwitz Promotion Albany, N. Y., July 27.— The Albany Knickerbocker News has greeted with editorial praise the promotion of Charles A. Smakwitz from assistant to zone manager of Warner Theatres here, succeeding C. J. Latta who will head Warner theatre operations in England. Smakwitz "has a well-deserved reputation in Albany for being a tireless worker," the editorial said. "He is a dynamo of energy in his business as a theatre man and in all publicspirited movements. During the war he was the spark in many events in behalf of various war bond drives." Mason Is Signed By Enterprise Hollywood, July 27. — James Mason has been signed by Enterprise Studios for his first production in America, "Wild Calendar." M-G-M will distribute. The British actor, No. 1 in the Motion Picture HeraldFame British "Money Making Stars" poll for four years (1944-47), will check in at the Enterprise lot this week. The deal was made by Charles Einfeld, Enterprise president, and David Loew, board chairman. Lufkin Enters Video Washington, July 27. — Lufkin Amusement Co. of Beaumont, Texas, which last week applied for a television station, is half owner of East Texas Theatres, it is learned. Sundiy^an^hoS? ^O^fv^S^W^i^'f^i-irl ?uuhlisher' SDh™ „KanS: Editor; Martin Q^ey, Jr., Associate Editor.' Published daily, except Saturdays, New York." ^ Mart^ O,,^ Rockefeller Center New York 20, N. Y. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address : "Quigpubco, gley, Jr., Vice-Presiden^ ' ' " ' ~ ' Gus H. Fausel, Produc lie Street, Editorial an ishington, D. C. London {' Th»ai^~«£lZ, f-;a"""rj> TM"'C' iruuncauons: motion Picture Herald, Be1 3, 1879. SuTs'c?^ ropfeTloc^55 ^ ^ *» ^ °^ * ^er"^^^