Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1949)

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2 Motion Picture Daily Monday, October 3, 1949 Personal Mention JESSE L. LASKY is in New York from Hollywood. • Douglas Russell-Roberts of M-G-M's London sales office, and Orton H. Hicks, Loew's International 16mm director, are in Toronto. • George Reik has resigned as a Universal-International salesman at Albany, N. Y. It is understood he will join Paramount at Charlotte. o William Heineman, Eagle-Lion distribution vice-president, will leave here next weekend on his annual hunting trip in Montana. • Joseph Walsh, head of Paramount branch operations, has returned to New York from Cincinnati and Springfield, O. • Burtus Bishop, Jr., M-G-M Midwestern sales manager, has returned to Chicago from a tour of company branches. Nate Levin, Monogram Boston branch manager, and Mrs. Levin, announce the birth of their second child, a boy. • Charles Lazarus of the Motion Picture Herald staff left here Friday for a two weeks visit to Montreal and Ottawa. • Syd Gross, Film Classics advertising-publicity head, returned to New York over the weekend from New Orleans. Samuel Seidelman, Eagle-Lion foreign sales chief, left here Saturday for a month's tour of the Caribbean territory. • Harry M. Popkin and Samuel H. Stiefel, independent producers, will arrive here tomorrow from Hollywood. • John Joseph, assistant to Howard Dietz, M-G-M advertising-publicity chief, left here Saturday for the Coast. • Russell V. Downing, vice-president and treasurer of Radio City Music Hall, is vacationing in Canada. • A. J. O'Keefe, Universal-International assistant general sales manager, is in Seattle from Portland. « Leo Seligman, Favorite Films treasurer, will leave here tomorow for Toronto. • Colin Miller, producer will arrive here today from the Coast. • William Dieterle will arrive here from Italy tomorrow. Extend EL-SPG Pact The Screen Publicists Guild contract with Eagle-Lion, which expired Sept. 26, has been extended 30 days. The extension agreement calls for retroactivity of all new provisions. 'GJ. Joe' Pulls More Second Time Around Evidence of what William J. Heineman, Eagle Lion vice-president in charge of distribution, believes to be sharpened public interest in films of the late war was the company's experience with "The Story of G.I. Joe" in Youngstown, O., last week. Picture had played the city previously and local exhibitors were reluctant to book it the second time around. E-L accordingly leased Warners' first run State, a 1,600-seat house, for $3,000 for a one-week engagement for the picture. House considers $4,000 an excellent gross. With the assistance of four veterans' organizations, "G.I. Joe" grossed over $6,000 for the seven-day period ending last weekend. Attendance was equivalent to 25 per cent of the city's population and well ahead of the first time the Lester Cowan picture was exhibited in Youngstown. Advance ticket sale indicates similar results for the film's next engagement, at Uniontown, Heineman reports. Bolger Sues RKO on Dance Sequence Use Hollywood, Oct. 2. — Ray Bolger, screen and stage dancer, has filed suit in Federal Court here against RKO, charging the studio with use of a dance sequence, made by Bolger eight years ago in "Four Jacks and a Jill," in "Make Mine Laughs." He is asking $75,000 damages and injunctive relief. The suit is of interest to the industry due to possible precedental action under the Lanham Act and its possible effect on re-releases and use of picture properties for radio and television. Monogram Sets Nine For Fall Release Hollywood, Oct. 2.— Nine pictures will be released by Monogram at a three-a-month rate between now and the end of the year, Steve Broidy, president, has' announced. October releases are : "Black Midnight," "Western Renegades," "The Wolf Hunters" ; November : "Riders of the Dusk," "Master Minds," "Lawless Code"; December: "Square Dance Katy," "Bomba on Panther Island," and "Roaring Guns." Canadian Imports Up, Exports Drop Ottawa, Oct. 2. — Canadian government announces imports of films into this country advanced to $360,000 during June compared with $251,000 a year ago and reached a total of $1,971,000 in the first half of 1949, against $1,664,000 in the same period last year. However, exports of films from Canada dropped to $377,000 in June compared with $386,000 a year ago and totalled only $1,887,000 in the first half of 1949, against $2,100,000 last year. Brannan Services Today Funeral services will be held here at 10 A.M. today for John F. (Jack) Brannan, Universal branch manager at Milwaukee, who died there suddenly Wednesday night, at St. Benedict's Church, Bruckner Blvd., the Bronx. 'Life With Riley' Telefilm Amuses ! The first in producer Irving Brecher's film video series, "Life with Riley," shown to the press in advance of its debut next Tuesday evening over the NBC network, represents a good example of the production scope of motion picture fare which can be made exclusively for the medium with important commercial success. The half-hour-long comedy, starring Jackie Gleason and Rosemary DeCamp, teems with evidences of strict budget limitations. The sets are few and modest, the characters confined to very narrow areas and, obviously, there were few if any retakes where there might have been. Brecher's production, though, is a good one for television considering the dollars-and-cents difficulties. It is smooth enough, the performers appear to have been well rehearsed and show competence before the camera. And the dialogue provides a reasonable number of chuckles. It makes for a satisfying entertainment in a field where audiences are known not to be too demanding. The plot material centers around Gleason's impending tonsillectomy which he considers to mean almost certain death. One rather aged but still sure-fire situation has him seeking the advice of the woman in the neighborhood who he thinks has just has her tonsils removed, but actually returned from the hospital with a new set of twins. ' The series is being made on 35mm. film, at Filmtone Studios, Hollywood. On both ends and in the middle will be the commercials of the sponsor, the Pabst Brewing Co. Producer Brecher also did the "Life with Riley" radio series and produced the Universal International feature of the same title. Lanny Rees, Sid Tomack and John Brown are the other players. Gene Arneel Dividends Lower in Incomplete Report Washington, Oct. 2.— Publicly reported cash dividends of film companies in August were sharply below August, 1948, again because there was no report of a dividend from Stanley Co., the Commerce Department reported today. Commerce said only $511,000 was reported by industry firms for this August, compared to $7,716,000 last year. But Stanley, which in 1948 paid a $7,240,000 August dividend has not yet reported for this year. Similar situations occurred in February and May. Commerce officials admit that due to this development their preliminary film dividend figures lose much of their significance. Mrs. David Gould, 49 Mrs. David Gould, 49, wife of the former United Artists manager in the Philippines, died suddenly last Wednesday following a heart attack aboard the President Monroe en route to New York, the UA home office reports. The husband, who was with her on the boat, and two sons, Michael and Jay, survive. Newsreel^\^ Parade ^ 3 rHE Motion Picture Industry Council report and the meeting of the nation's defense chiefs mark current newsrecl highlights. President Truman signing a trade bill, sports and fashions are included among other items. Complete contents follow: MOVIETONE NEWS, No. 79— President Truman signs trade bill. Greek cross celebration. George Murphy reads Motion Picture Industry Council report. Navy in sea and air exercises. Fashions. Rodeo. Football. Acrobatics. NEWS OF THE DAY, No. 209— Defense chiefs see Navy might. Motion Picture Industry Council reports to the public. Strange room at Princeton University. Jungle jive for African farmers. Football. Y"ogi acrobatics. PARAMOUNT NEWS, No. 12— Football. Film industry pledges to guard freedom. Paris and New York fashions. Yogi gymnastics. Defense chiefs meet on carrier. TEEENEWS DIGEST, No. 39-B— Secretary Johnson checks Navy defenses. Cuban police raid student revolutionists. World youth congress in Hungary. Germany: Berlin prepares for fuel shortage. British Parliament meets on pound devaluation. President Truman signs trade bill. Duke and Duchess of Windsor vacation in Italy. New plastic house. UNIVERSAL NEWSREEE, No. 287— Navy demonstrates power. Crooked room at Princeton University. U. S. sailors visit Spain. Motion Picture Industry Council pledges faith in democracy. Yogi acrobatics. Rodeo. WARNER PAT HE NEWS, No. 14— Chiefs of staff at naval demonstration. Church leaders hold convention. Gary Davis jailed. Architecture at Miami University. New parking garage. Princeton's room of horrors. George Murphy reads Motion Picture Industry Council creed. Children's orchestra. Yogi acrobatics. Rodeo. UN Screening for Children's Short A screening of Warner Pathe News' short, "For all the World's Children," will be held Wednesday for delegates to the United Nations at UN headquarters at Lake Success. English, French and Spanish sound tracks will run simultaneously. The three-reel film depicts the work of the UN's International Children's Emergency Fund and is the result of the work of 10 camera crews shooting in 17 nations. It was produced by Warner Pathe as a public service, under the supervision of Sydney Morrell. Alfred Butterfield was writerproducer and William K. McClure was cameraman-director. Set K.C. Orpheum Bow Kansas City, Oct. 2. — Fox Midwest will open its remodeled Orpheum Theatre here on Oct. 12, playing 20th Century-Fox's "I Was a Male War Bride." Admission prices will be 55 cents for matinees and 75 cents for evenings, an advance of 10 cents over other first-run houses here. Dancers Tour Loew's Ed Durlacher, square dance caller, and the "Roseanna McCoy" dancers will tour several Loew's theatres in New York and Yonkers this week. The dance team will appear as part of the stage attraction at the Capitol Theatre here Oct. 12 when the Samuel Goldwyn production released by RKO Radio starts its run. 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, Rockefelle 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. Cunnineham, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke. Advertising Manager: Gus H. Fausel, Production Manager. Hollywood Bureau, Yucca-Vine Building, William R. Weaver, Editor. Chicago Bureau. 225 North_ Michigan Avenue, Editorial and Advertising; Harry Toler, 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 and Theatre Sales, each published 13 times a year as a section of Motion Picture Herald; Internationa1 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 pe< year, $6 in the Americas and $12 foreign; single copies, 10c.