Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1948)

Motion Picture Daila Monday, October 18, 19 Personal Mention JOSEPH HAZEN, president of Hal Wallis Prod., left New York last night for the Coast. He is due back here next week. • Ellen Charlin of Columbia's publicity office here was married to Samuel Walotsky at Sunrise Manor, Brooklyn, on Saturday. They will reside in Cleveland. • A. W. Smith, Jr., 20th CenturyFox distribution chief, will return to New York today from Chicago. Sam Shain, 20th-Fox exhibitor relations director, returned from Milwaukee on Friday. • Mary Helen Perky, daughter of A. W. Perry, general manager of Empire-Universal Films, was married recently to Arthur E. Guay in Toronto. • W. Ray Johnston, chairman of the Monogram board, has been named to the board of trustees of West Coast University. • Norman H. Pader, member of Republic's exploitation staff at the home office, and Mrs. Pader are parents of a son, Douglas Ian. • Margie McCarthy has been promoted to manager of the Rialto Theatre of New York, from assistant manager. • Leon J. Bamberger, RKO Radio sales promotion manager, is due back in New York today from Milwaukee. • Carroll Puciato, Realart general manager, has returned to New York from the Coast. • A. A. Ward, vice-president of Altec Service, is in New York from the Coast. • Gus Lampe, of the Schine Circuit, is touring the company's Maryland houses. Moe Silver, Warner Pittsburgh zone manager, and Harry Fein stein, his assistant, are New York visitors. • Lawrence Kulick of Bell Pictures is in Los Angeles from New York. U.A. Board Will Hear Kelly on Wednesday Board of directors of United Artists will meet at the home office on Wednesday to hear a report on conditions abroad by Arthur W. Kelly, executive vice-president, who has concluded a two-month tour of England and the Continent. Kelly is due in New York from London at the weekend following his longest stay abroad in several years. UA product deals with J. Arthur Rank's Odeon Circuit in London, in which the film company holds interests of about 25 per cent, were one of Kelly's chief concerns in England. Tradewise By SHERWIN KANE CURRENTLY there is beingstudied a program for vitally expanding the industry arbitration system in matters both of trade problems which may be submitted to arbitration and number of companies participating. Heretofore, only the five theatre-owning companies, Loew's, Paramount, RKO, 20th Century-Fox and Warners, agreed to submit to arbitration of trade complaints by exhibitors. The former consent decree under which the industry arbitration system was established limited, for all practical purposes, the type of problem which could be satisfactorily arbitrated. The result was that complaints of unreasonable clearance far outnumbered any other type of complaint brought by exhibitors and in the latter period of the arbitration boards' operations even that type of complaint became less numerous. The comprehensive and efficient industry arbitration machinery was there but it was not being used. Exhibitors have been free to state their dissatisfaction. They felt that arbitration had been so restricted by its own rules that no vital problem could be brought to it for hearing and decision and, covering as it did only a part of the industry, it was limited not only by the type of complaints which courcl be submitted to arbitration but also by the number of non-participating companies. • The arbitration program now being studied contemplates the inclusion of Columbia, Universal, United Artists, Republic, Monogram and Eagle-Lion, in addition to the original five. It also proposes to include among matters which may be arbitrated such subjects as specific run, forcing of pictures, extended runs and other subjects not heretofore arbitrable but of vital concern to numerous exhibitors. Arbitration could also be extended to cover additional specific matters concerning which some injunctive relief is sought of defendants in the Government's anti-trust suit. The principal objection of companies not now consenting to arbitration appears to be the cost. They feel that the arbitration system is primarily of concern to theatre-owning companies and that their own interest is too minor to justify the payment of assessments to meet maintenance costs of the boards, including the appeal board. It would seem that against that the "Little Six" might weigh the value of having a ready method of settling customer complaints and of furthering industrial harmony. There is, too, the consideration that many complaints which have no industry tribunal in which to be aired and adjudicated must inevitably become cases in the public courts. They can be resolved in far less time and more cheaply in the industry arbitration boards. As for the cost of the system to the "Little Six," there already has been proposed an eminently fair and reasonable basis of assessments. Heretofore, arbitration costs have been met by apportioning them among the five participating companies on the basis of a small percentage of the distribution revenue of each for the preceding year. It is now suggested that the "Big Five" add their theatre income to distribution revenue and pay on the basis of the combined sums. Non-theatre owning companies, paying on the basis of distribution revenue alone, thus would share a very small, yet equitable, proportion of the cost. • • If you listened to that Town Meeting of the Air program over the ABC network last week on the subject "How Will Television Affect Motion Pictures?" it was difficult to escape the impression that the television champions, Mark Woods and James Carmine, had little to contribute after they both had made their "pitches" for having films made available to video. We thought Paul Raibourn of Paramount answered them quite neatly. He said that spending $400 with an electrical equipment dealer (for a television set), buying a pound of coffee and a bar of soap didn't entitle anyone to see a company's multimillion dollar film productions in his home for free. Lagniappc : United Artists contributed $10,000 recently to the litigation fund of the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers, currently antitrusting the independent exhibitor buying combine, Co-Operative Theatres of Michigan, and the Paramount subsidiary, United Detroit Theatres. Newsreel Parade THE DEWEY STORY \ and th installation of Gen. Eisenhowe are highlights of all current news reels. Other items include a new j helicopter and football. Complete con tents follovo : MOVIETONE NEWS, No. 83 — Tli Dewey Story. Eisenhower installed at XV umbia University. if! NEWS OF THE DAY, No. 213-V ' hower installed as Columbia president. Spee boat thrills on unique track. Football. Th Dewey Story. PARAMOUNT NEWS, No. 16 — "Littl Henry," world's first in jet helicopter. Speed boat racing. Weirdest water arena. Th Dewey Story. UNIVERSAL NEWS, No. 187— Eisei hower takes office at Columbia. The Dewe Story. "Little Henry," jet helicopter, ha novel debut. WARNER PAT HE NEWS, No. 18— Columbia installs Eisenhower. The Dewey, Story. Football. 5 Films, Stage Play For Jennifer Jones After having been seen in only one picture in the last three years, Jennife Jones now has five pictures in prospect1 of release in 1949 and will be starred on the stage in the Theatre Guild production of "Romeo and Juliet." Her forthcoming pictures are : Da vid Selznick's "Portrait of Jennie for SRO release; "China Valdes," Co lumbia; "Madame Bovary," M-G-M "Trilby," Warner, produced by Jesse Lasky, and "Tess of the D'Urber villes," to be made in England as a Sir Alexander Korda-Selznick picture. Magazine Executives Promote Kaye Film Promotion and advertising managers of some 50 mass-circulation magazines have been writing letters to exhibitors all over the country urging them to book Samuel Goldwyn's "A Star Is Born," starring Danny Kaye. Promotion is angled to advise theatremen that by the end of the month magazine ads will reach a combined circulation of 60,000,000, among such publications as Life, Look, The American Weekly, Puck, This Week, Parade and The American Girl. Loyal Legion Dinner The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, organized immediately following the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865, will hold its 63rd annual meeting of the Commandery-in-Chief, at a banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria, tomorrow evening, to be presided over by Commander of the New York Commandery, Captain Messmore Kendall, president of the Capitol Theatre here. Moskowitz Honored Charles C. Moskowitz, vice-president and treasurer of Loew's Inc. was sworn in as honorary deputy police commissioner by Mayor William O'Dwyer at a special ceremony here at the weekend. Police Commissioner Arthur W. Wallender and other ranking officials witnessed the ceremony. 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