Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1949)

2 Motion Picture Daily Friday, July 15, 1949 Personal Mention HARRY M. KALMINE, Warner Theatres president, and Rudy Weiss, head of the real estate department, will return here today from Wilmington and Philadelphia. • Harold Boxall London Film Productions managing director, and Mks. Boxall ; Carl Dudley, Dudley Pictures Corp. director, and Mrs. Dudley, and Charles Miller, Music Corp. of America vice-president, are among the passengers leaving here today for Europe aboard the 6". Jf. Queen Elizabeth. • Edw ard L. Walton, Republic assistant general sales manager, is in Portland, Ore., today on a countrywide tour of exchanges from which he will return to New York on July 27. • William Xedley. M-G-M booker at Omaha, is the father of a son, named after the grandfather, Carl Pat Nedley, M-G-M manager at Salt Lake City. • Dore Schary, M-G-M production vice-president, will be host tomorrow at a studio luncheon for Dr. Ralph Buxche, United Nations mediator in Israel. • Arxold Johnson, owner of the Iowa and Onawa theatres at Onawa, la., and Mrs. Johnson are the parents of a second son, born on July 4. e M. L. Simons, assistant to H. M. Richey, M-G-M exhibitor relations head, returned here yesterday from Biloxi, Miss. • Ed Ruft, Motion Picture Sales Corp. New England sales manager, left here yesterday for Buffalo, e Dan Friendly, RKO vaudeville booker, is in Chicago from New York and will return Monday. • E. M. Saunders, M-G-M assistant general sales manager, will leave here today for a vacation. • Sam Galanty. Columbia Mideast division manager, has left here' for Cincinnati. To Picket U-I Opening The premiere of Universal-International's "Yes Sir, That's My Baby," in Chicago on August 10 will be picketed, the Screen Publicists Guild advised Nate Blumberg, the company's president, in a letter yesterday. SPG recently notified several other company heads that openings would be picketed, unless the "dispute which now exists is settled satisafctorily." $12,000 for 'Gatsby' "The Great Gatsby," Paramount's new Alan Ladd film, on Wednesday gave New York's Paramount Theatre "one of its biggest non-holdiay opening days in three years," the company said yesterday. It is understood the picture grossed $12,000 on that day. Insider's Outlook By RED KANN DLUS Sign No. 1 : The Loew A financial report for the 40 weeks to June 9. Net income for the period stands at $5,160,773, an increase of $431,710 over the comparative net of $4,729,063. This places the company only $148,886 short of its total net for the entire precedingyear with 12 weeks to go. It would be decidedly surprising if the profit for the year closing out August 31 fails to run ahead of the previous year. Not without significance is the curve in gross sales and operating revenue. These items, combiningfilm distribution and theatre receipts, show a slight gain —it's only $71,000— but a gain. For the current 40 weeks, gross income is estimated at $43,427,000. For the same period last year, it was $43,356,000. Footnote to this was provided by Mike Simons, a herald for Loew's, at the Biloxi convention of Mississippi Theatre Owners. There, he said, intensive merchandising has sent box-office returns ahead of last year. ■ Sign No. 2: A bit more on what Bob Mochrie told the RKO delegates in Buffalo : "It takes very little in our business to turn the tide from pessimism to optimism, or viceversa. Since the beginning, our business has suffered lapses into the blue moods of depression, but it has only needed the hypodermic of one or two oustanding box-office attractions to turn it back into the rosy-cheeked optimism that is as essential to show business as is enthusiasm, advertising and a desire to enjoy life. "All of us . . . have barometers . . . and mine distinctly records fair weather ahead. . . . Already I see in many sections of the country a definite upturn in the box-office grosses and I say that we will go into the second half of this year with optimism, confidence and full steam ahead." Sign No. 3 : Nice jump in Republic's net for the first half of its fiscal year. Current net : $504,466. Comparative net : $236,832. Increase: $267,634. "Wake of the Red Witch," released in this period, was substantially responsible. The attraction did very well. Tip on "Pinky," Zanuck-produced attraction, which deals with "the inflammable topic of the Negro in American life." "... our film will present no one point of view as the definitive one. We try to tell a complete personal story. . . . We have tried to present [the facts] fairly and objectively as we have tried to avoid preaching and confine ourselves to the facts. . . . But I would not give the impression that we have remained completely neutral because neutrality is as sterile dramatically as it is politically. ... In our case, I feel that I can safely predict that no member of the Ku Klux Klan will find our film either entertaining or edifying. . . . We are propagandists only insofar as we insist that every human being is entitled to personal freedom and dignity." These remarks are Philip Dunne's, co-author of the screenplay with Dudley Nichols. The anything-for-a-buck theory of exhibition is flirting with good taste again. This time the Ambassador theatre has been trying to excite New York ticket buyers' palates for "Marked Girls," a French import handled by Siritzky International, with sensational illustration and lurid catchline in newspaper advertising. It's old, old stuff. Theatremen who know something about compensating values gave up the idea years ago. Coast Owners Pledge Para, Drive Support Representative exhibitors of Southern California have pledged their support to "Paramount's Gold Rush of '49" sales campaign which will get under way with "Paramount Week" on September 4 and continue for 13 weeks, the company reports. Support was pledged by circuit and independent exhibitors at a luncheon attended by 250, including Paramount stars and the entire personnel of the Los Angeles Paramount branch. Sears Returning East Gradwell Sears, president of United Artists, is due back in New York over the weekend from the coast where he conferred with co-owners Mary Pickford and Charles Chaplin on fiscal affairs of the company. It was his second visit to Hollywood in the past month. Move Back Premiere World premiere for "Love Happy," United Artists release starring the Marx brothers, set for the Palm Theatre, Detroit, will be on July 28. Set Para. Division Heads Meet July 28 A. W. Schwalberg, Paramount vicepresident in charge of sales, has called a meeting of all division managers, including Gordon Lightstone of the Canadian territory, at the home office on July 28 for a discussion of new product and campaigns. The new Paramount plan of selling the balance of the company's line-up for this year to outlying accounts, which Paramount feels has made good progress already, may be further advanced at the session, although it is not specifically on the agenda. Youngstein to Chicago M ax E. Youngstein, Paramount advertising-publicity director, and Victor Ratner, Columbia Broadcasting System advertising-sales promotion vicepresident, left here yesterday for Chicago, where they will confer with executives of Lever Bros., sponsors of the radio serial "My Friend Irma" from which Paramount made a film, on promotion plans for the picture. NEW YORK THEATRES RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL Rockefeller Center [June HAVER Ray BOLGER Gordon MacRAE "LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING" Color by TECHNICOLOR A Warner Bros. Picture \ SPECTACULAR STAGE PRESENTATION ! Paramount prpien The GREAT y**^ Gatsby tOwlGHl F 1 A I U B 8 J. Arthur Rank presents "THE RED SHOES" Color by Technicolor BIJOU THEATER, 45th Street West of Broadway All Seats Reserved, Mail Orders Twice Daily Extra Matinees Saturday and Sunday Late Show Saturday Evening 11:30 An EAGLE LION FILM Release The Louis de Rochemont production of "LOST BOUNDARIES" Beatrice Pearson Mel Ferrer AST0R Bwayand Air Conditioned 45th St. EDWARD G. SUSAN RICHARD ROBINSON HAYWARD CONTE "HOUSE OF STRANGERS" A 20th Century-Fox Picture On Variety Stage — Janet Blair Herb Shriner On Ice Stage — "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" starring Carol Lynne ROXY7 Ave& 50th St MOTION PICTURE DAILY, Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; Terry Ramsaye, Consulting 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 \ork." 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. Hollywood Bureau. YuccaVine Building, William R. Weaver, Editor. 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