Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1948)

2 Motion Picture Daily Friday, October 22, 194* Personal Mention SIR ALEXANDER KORDA left London by plane last night for a 48-hour visit in New York to discuss his American releases. • Murray Silverstone, 20th Century-Fox International president ; Arthur Abeles, Warner British managing director, and Elizabeth Taylor, film star, are among passengers sailing for Europe tonight on the 55 Queen Elisabeth. • Jack L. Warner, who entered Cedars of Lebanon hospital several days ago for a routine checkup, underwent surgery yesterday for gallstones. He is expected to be discharged in a week to 10 days. • Leon Bamberger, RKO Radio sales promotion manager, will leave here on Tuesday to attend the convention of the Kentucky Association of Theatre Owners in Louisville on Wednesday and Thursday. • Marcello Girosi, Superfilm president, and Antonio Mosco, president of Minerva Studios in Rome, are due here Monday from Italy on the 55" Mauretania. • Steve Strassberg, Republic publicist, and Mrs. Strassberg have become parents of a son, Richard Eric, born at Jewish Memorial Hospital here. • W. C. Gehring, 20th-Fox assistant general sales manager, and Harold Minsky, Eastern division sales manager, will return here today from Boston. • Charles Schlaifer, 20th-Fox advertising-publicity director, is due back in New York today from Omaha. • George D. Burrows, Allied ArtistsMonogram executive vice-president and treasurer, will leave the Coast today for New York. • Sid Blumenstock, 20th-Fox assistant exploitation manager, left here yesterday for Chicago. Writers' Unit Loses Tax Free Status Washington, Oct. 21. — The Bureau of Internal Revenue has ended the tax-free status of the, Hollywood Writers Mobilization and some other groups listed as "subversive" on recent Justice Department lists. Not only will income of these organizations no longer be tax-free, but contributions to them may no longer be deducted as gifts on tax returns of contributors. Phila. MPA Meet Set Philadelphia, Oct. 21. — Election of officers will be held Monday evening when the Philadelphia Motion Picture Associates holds its annual meeting at the Broadwood Hotel. Insider's Outlook By RED KANN THESE are the steps by which Will H. Hays emerges from inactive to active status as adviser of the Motion Picture Association in the impasse over allocation of $11,912,000 remittable from France under the recently implemented U. S.-French film pact: Methods of cutting up the money were several, but the standoff became neatly Mexican with four companies in favor and four others against any of the plans broached. Company presidents were unable to breach the deadlock and neither could their foreign managers. It was agreed to submit the matter to arbitration in keeping with a decision of the presidents, made on August 17, to resolve any. dispute amicably. The issue involving the eight majors arises out of an agreement, which the MPA officially describes as "alleged" by the way, to use gross billings in France during the period ending June 30, 1947, as the basis for a division of dollar remittances in the face of insistence by the French government that payments be made to the companies in proportion to cash on hand as of that date. MPA further explains the matter remained dormant as a result of failure of the French to send dollar remittances under the Blum-Byrnes accord which the recently-effected agreement supersedes. Since the initial payment of $1,572,138 is at hand, the necessity for a scheme of allocating it is imperative. It is understood Hays' name entered the situation at a meeting of the . Motion Picture Export Association, which finally determined he was the man. This decision thereafter went up the line to the company presidents, who ratified it. Each company is expected to file a brief outlining its solution. While Hays will make the decision that binds, there is not much anticipation that everyone will be pleased. Question: Where is Eric Johnston in all this? Answer: On the deliberate sideline, removed from the middle where he did not want to be. ■ ■ An English appraisal of Johnston's travels abroad, from The London Financial Times: "The recent journey of Hollywood's agent behind the Iron Cur tain suggests that Mr. Johnston is now qualifying for the post of secretary to the United Nations in succession to Mr. Trygve Lie. When Mr. Johnston recently left the company of our bouncing Mr. Wilson, he paid his next call on the grim Mr. Molotov, whom he has persuaded to buy Hollywood's wares. No man could have a greater gift for gregarious acquaintanceship than Mr. Johnston. No sooner had he left the awesome portals of Marshal Stalin's headquarters than he set off to pay his* respects to that 'Fascist hyena', Marshal Tito, who has also agreed to buy Hollywood's pictures. Now he has found an 'intelligent' friend in General Franco. "There was a time when Hollywood was not bowing to the totalitarians. A year or two ago the movie moguls were paying their respects to Mr. J. Arthur Rank and making him many lush promises. Mr. Rank now confesses his disillusion, and I honor him for doing so." But Rank need not lose complete heart nor suffer complete disillusion. His "Henry V," now in its third year, today shows a net profit of $1,650,000 divisible on a 30-70 basis with United Artists. To Rank: $1,155,000. To UA: $495,000. Last week's Life Magazine devoted nine pages to Laurence Olivier with a concentration in text and photo on "Hamlet." Rank's American office, aware of rate schedules, calculates the cost of the cover and 21 pages which Life has given "Hamlet" thus far would have cost more than $350,000 in the form of paid advertising. In Atlanta, advance sale is $10,000, and in New York over $40,000. Moreover, New York's critics united in launching "Hamlet" with reviews ecstatic enough to make any producer, British or American, swoon in his tracks. We have no misconceptions about the inherent fairness of the American critic or of the American public. The measure by which they evaluate quality and appeal responds to that which is offered them. In that sense, J. Arthur Rank could be Joe Schmoe for all the difference a name would make. ■ ■ "Industry in Turkey Is in a Bad Way," reads a Motion Picture Daily headline. "Too many turkeys in Turkey?" ponders a cunning film man who knows they could have been raised in Southern California. Premiere for AVC The motion picture chapter of the: American Veterans' Committee will sponsor a special premiere here o Paramount's "Sealed Verdict" or Monday, Nov. 1, at the ParamounTheatre. Regular run of the film begins at the theatre on Nov. 2. Taking over the entire theatre for the showing, the group will also present special stage show. The chapter has arranged for attendance at the pre miere of hospitalized veterans >/"^n neighboring Army, Navy and j( \ v,e hospitals. ^* Young stein To Speak Max E. Youngstein, Eagle-Lion vice-president in charge of advertisingpublicity, will deliver an opening day address at the Tri-State Motion Picture Theatre Owners convention in Memphis on Monday, on the exhibi tor's part in improving public rela tions. NEW YORK THEATRES c — RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL \ ROCKEFELLER CENTER Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon in "JULIA MISBEHAVES"; * Peter Elizabeth Cesar ! LAWFORD TAYLOR ROMERO } A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture ' spectacular stage presentation EDWARD G. ROBINSON GAIL RUSSELL JOHN LUND., A Paramount Pictu ikou FIRST TIME AT POPULAR PRICES! RKO PRESENTS "MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA" Brandt's «■ *^ ■ 1 1% 47th St. JEANNE CRAIN WILLIAM HOLDEN Edmund Gwenn 'APARTMENT FOR PEGGY' Twentieth Century-Fox Picture Color by Technicolor ON VARIETY STAGE — KAY THOMPSON AND WILLIAMS BROS. — ROLLY ROLLS ON ICE STAGE — RHYTHM IN PLAID = ROXY 7h Ave& 50th St. MOTION PICTURE DAILY, Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; Martin Quigley, Jr., Associate Editor. Published daily, except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., 1270 Sixth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, New York 20, N. Y. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address: "Quigpubco, New York." Martin Quigley, President; Red Kann. Vice-President; Martin Quigley, Jr., Vice-President; Theo J. Sullivan, Vice-President and Treasurer; Leo J. Brady, Secretary; James P. Cunningham, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; Gus H. Fausel, Production Manager; David Harris, Circulation Director; Hollywood Bureau, YuccaVine Building, William R. Weaver, Editor; Chicago Bureau, 120 South La Salle Street, Editorial and Advertising. Urben Farley, Advertising Representative; Jimmy Ascher, Editorial Representative. Washington, J. A. Otten, National Press Club, Washington, D. C. London Bureau, 4 Golden Sq., London Wl. Hope Burnup, Manager, Peter Burnup, Editor; cable address, "Quigpubco, London." Other Quigley Publications: Motion Picture Herald, Better Theatres, published every fourth week as a section of Motion Picture Herald; Theatre Sales; International Motion Picture Almanac, Fame. Entered as second class matter, Sept. 23, 1938, at the post office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Subscription rates per year, $6 in the Americas and $12 foreign; single copies, 10c.