Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1948)

motion Picture Daily Thursday, August 12, 19 Personal Mention DORE SCHARY, M-G-M production vice-president, left here yesterday for the Coast. • Howard Strickling, M-G-M studio publicity head, and his wife ; Paul Terry, Terrytoons producer, and his wife ; Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Charles Boyer and Tom O'Brien, general secretary of the British National Association of Theatrical and Kine Employes, are among passengers arriving in New York today on the SS" Queen Marx. • Paul Kamy of M-G-M's exploitation department will spend his vacation, starting next Wednesday, at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference at Middlebury, Vt. • Leonard Hirsch, home office assistant to M-G-M Southern sales manager Rudy Berger, will leave here tomorrow for a vacation at Beechaven, N. J. • James Mulvey, president of Samuel Goldwyn Productions, will return to New York Monday from a Maine vacation. • Morey Goldstein, Allied ArtistsMonogram general sales manager, will return to New York tomorrow from Boston. • David Horne, Film Classics foreign sales manager, has left New York for a two-week tour of the Caribbean territory. • Jim Harris, assistant to Realart vice-president Budd Rogers, is visiting the company's Denver and Los Angeles exchange this week. • Russell Moss, IATSE Local No. H-63 business agent, will leave here today for the union's convention in Cleveland. • Max E. Youngstein, Eagle-Lion advertising-publicity vice-president, is expected back in Ne/w York this weekend from Charlotte. • Howard Dietz, M-G-M advertising-publicity vice-president, will fly to Paris on Saturday from New York. • Sherm Harris, Allied Artists production aide, has entered Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles. Harold Mirisch, Allied Artists vice-president, has returned to the Coast from New York. Delay Seen in RKO Stockholders* Meet Delay in preparing the RKO proxy statement is expected to set back the company's annual stockholders' meeting from August 31 to sometime in September. Originally the statement was due for mailing to stockholders by mid-August. Insider's Outlook By RED KANN "^TOTICE how Metro's lineup -L^ has been running since the first of the year ? Twenty attractions, omitting reissues, have been spotted for release on an even split between straightaway comedies and/or musicals and dramas. Several in the latter category have been generously interlarded with both comedy and music, to boot. It comes about through no accident, moreover. While appreciating that any program must seek to establish a balance, the trend has been toward the lighter side in the belief that is what the public wants more of in these days of national and international uncertainties. This is how it has been going : Hand-running with nary an interruption in June-July were "The Pirate," "On an Island with You," "Easter Parade" and "A Date with Judy." The comedy-and-musical cycle interrupts itself with "The Search." Then, eschewing any breaks again, will be "Luxury Liner," "A Southern Yankee," "Julia Misbehaves" and "No More Vices," in September-October. After "The Three Musketeers" gets moving at Loew's State here, where it will succeed "Easter Parade," its general release will be set thereby adding still another to the lightand-happy score card. In production are "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and "The Barkleys of Broadway," another brace. ■ ■ Jimmy Nasser, a producer who persists in remembering he also is an exhibitor, is one independent, at least, who has learned what Metro already has. Checking key city theatremen and a number of critics for their approach on current public tastes, Nasser has made his decision : Heavy stress on comedy in his lineup following "An Innocent Affair," itself a comedy. He won't forego dramatic overtones or touches, but comedy "as an escape from the war-threatened, inflation-shadowed world" will be his ticket. ■ ■ What with headache of studio overhead, which runs on if in somewhat reduced degree even when cameras stop grinding, and the desirability of maintaining a safe and reasonable inventory, the tendency toward backlogs remains essentially unaltered. At Paramount, where Henry Ginsberg is maestro, for instance, the shelf has been consistently stocked for some years now. Now comes a studio recap to prove things will stay that way. Eleven films will be released during the balance of '48. Eight of them ready. Eight others have been polished off awaiting distribution's signal. Three are in production now and five more go before the end of the year. Six or seven are to be launched early in '49. By spring, at the latest, Paramount will be virtually set for all of next year. ■ ■ One of Dore Schary's first attentions as V. P. in charge of Metro production will be directed toward product reserves. The company's position in that regard needs strengthening, he told reporters on Tuesday. On a general question about the executive lineup at Culver City, he indicated clearly there'd be some changes made. A couple of hours later one developed. Sam Katz's contract, dated March 1, 1954, washes up five years ahead of expiration. ■ ■ Note for Howard Hughes of RKO and the Hughes Tool Co. : "The mounting demand for oil will be met by the drilling of 40,000 new wells in the United States during the current year, a goal which six months ago would have been considered impossible, if not ridiculous." — The New York Times. ■ ■ Exhibitors concerned over night baseball and nervous "A's" ought to become less concerned. The U. S. Department of Agriculture foresees a 1948 popcorn crop approximately 51 per cent greater than last year's when plantings totaled 83,700 acres. This year's: 126,700. ■ ■ Sad commentary on the dear public, or enough of it, is to be found in Paramount's need to advertise "A Foreign Affair" as "A Foreign Affair Is a Funny Affair." ■ ■ Buried in the news: That Universal was bidding for the stock of National Theatres before 20th-Fox repurchased it from Charlie Skouras, Rick Ricketson, Harold Fitzgerald and Elmer Rhoden. Coming Events Aug. 16-21 — International Allianc of Theatrical Stage Employes b annual convention, Public Aud torium, Cleveland. Aug. 24 — Motion Picture Theatr Owners of Connecticut p-olf tnm nament, Racetrack Countr Orange, Conn. Sept. 14-15 — Independent Theat Owners of Ohio conventioi Deshler-Wallick Hotel, Columbu Sept. 14-16 — Pacific Coast Confe: ence of Independent Theatr Owners' trustees annual meetinj Ambassador Hotel, Los Angele Sept. 16-18 — International Variet Clubs' mid-year convention, Stat ler Hotel, Washington. Sept. 24-25— Theatre Owners America convention, Drake Hotel Chicago. Sept. 27-301 — Theatre Equipment and and Supply Manufacturers Asso ciation national trade show and convention, Jefferson Hotel, St Louis. Sept. 28-29— Kansas-Missouri Theatre Association annual convention Kansas City. Oct. 14-15 — Independent Theatre Owners of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan annual convention, Schroeder Hotel, Milwaukee ?;.; pel c h r:,a i Air Force to Cite Wartime Performers Washington, August 11. — The U. S. Air Force will award scrolls to screen, stage and radio stars who entertained Air Force personnel overseas during the war at an Air Force reunion to be held on September 25 in Madison Square Garden, New York. Producer Hal Roach has been asked to serve as chairman of the committee to nominate the entertainers to receive the scrolls. Other members of the committee, all members of the Air Force Association which is sponsoring the reunion, include Jack L. Warner, James Stewart, Clark Gable, Merian Cooper, Tex McCreary, and New York financier J. H. (Jock) Whitney. P Mid Central Allied Regional August 18 St. Louis, August 11. — The new Mid-Central Allied Independent Theatre Owners Association will start activating its field activities on August 18 when it will hold its first regional meeting, in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Henry Halloway is president of the organization. Eastern Directors Of Allied Meet Here Eastern regional directors of national Allied met here yesterday. Meyer Leventhal of Baltimore, Eastern regional vice-president, presided. Others in attendance included Sidney Samuelson, Jules Rivkin, Irving Dolhnger, Wilbur Snaper, George Gold and Ed Lachman. ¥,2J}2 ,J h i ? n ■ i prt^ SmS^V' Edlt°>"-in-Chief and Publisher, Sherw.n Kane, Editor; Martin Quigley, Jr., Associate Editor. Published daily, except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays by Quigley Pub.shing Company, Inc., 2/0 Sixth Avenue Rockefeller Center, New York 20, N. Y. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address: "Quigpubco, £ew M.art!n Qui5ley. Pres.dent^ Red Kann^ Vice-President; Martin Quigley, Jr., ^Vice-President; Theo J. Sullivan, Vice-President and Treasurer; Leo J. Brady, Secretary; "Bureau, YuccaJimmy Ascher, Peter Burnup, Motion Picture . „he act of March $12 foreign; single copies, 10c.