Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1949)

Motion picture Daily Friday, October 7, 1949 Personal Mention OSCAR A. MORGAN, Paramount short subjects sales manager, has returned to New York from Charlotte. • Phil Wasserman, publicist formerly with Astor Pictures, is now associated with the publicity firm of Yolen, Ross and Salzman, Inc. • Max Youngstein, Paramount director of advertising-publicity, will leave here Sunday for Los Angeles. • Leo Seligman, Favorite Films treasurer, has left New York for Toronto. Morris Safier is in New York from Los Angeles. • Hannegan Dies at 46; Was on 20th's Board St. Louis, Oct. 6.— Robert E. Hannegan, 46, 20th Century-Fox board member and formerly U. S. Postmaster General and Democratic national chairman, died today of a heart attack at his home here. A close friend of National Theatres president Charles P. Skouras, Hannegan at the time of his death had a partnership interest in St. Cloud Amusement's Oriental and Tower theatres in Milwaukee. He had a large number of friends in show business. Benefit Planners to Meet Here Today First meeting of the production committee for the 16th annual "Night of Stars," will be held this afternoon in the Paramount board room, it was reported yesterday by James Sauter, newly-elected chairman of the cortTr mittee. The "Night of Stars" benefit is scheduled for Madison Square Garden on Nov. 14 with proceeds to go to the United Jewish Appeal. Taplinger Opens a Branch in London A London office to meet what is described as the increased need for public relations and promotional activity on behalf of imported film and other products in the U. S., has been opened by Robert S. Taplinger and Associates, public relations firm with offices in New York, Chicago, Washington, and Los Angeles. Honors for Brown Hollywood, Oct. 6. — Clarence Brown, producer-director of M-G-M's "Intruder in the Dust," will leave this weekend for Oxford, Miss., to attend the world premiere of the picture there Tuesday and also to receive a "Certificate of Merit" from the University of Mississippi for his contributions in the field of entertainment. Coast Variety to Elect Los Angeles, Oct. 6. — Variety Club Tent No. 25 will hold its annual election of officers at a dinner-meeting Tuesday night at the Ambassador. Insider's Outlook By RED KANN ADOLPH ZUKOR, venerable chairman of Paramount's board, told Jersey Allied at Atlantic City he was unworried over theatre divorcement; in fact, had foreseen it 10 years ago. That would be '39. The late Ed Kuykendall had five years on him. On April 10, 1934, in his presidential address before the MPTOA convention at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles — same city, same hotel where TOA, into which MPTOA had merged, met last month — he stated: "I predict that day will soon be here when production and exhibition will be separated entirely. This separation will improve the quality of pictures and enable us to make much constructive progress." The day did not arrive as quickly as Kuykendall thought. Paramount and RKO are divorcing. The Government has had its say about Loew's, 20th Cen ] tury-Fox and Warners, but what it gets finally may not necessarily be what it demands. There are places to try lawsuits, and this column is not one of them. But it is a reasonable speculation that the pattern already worked out with respect to Paramount and RKO will apply in principle to the undivorced three when the finals are fought. ■ It indulges in the obvious to observe that, meanwhile, the period of readjustment will be long-drawn out and difficult. Were the fundamental changes made mandatory by the Federal courts confined to Paramount alone, the repercussions would be sufficiently far-flung to leave an impress on the whole industry. New theatre entities are springing out of divestiture. New first-runs are being established. Buying power is being rearranged. These and other changing conditions probe deeply into the exhibition structure, far and beyond the principals directly concerned. In addition, there are those other restrictions gradually altering the familiar face of the industry. None is more all-embracing than clearances. The burden of adjusting long-pre-! vailing setups rests on the dis-i tributors, but, since the distributors have been drubbed pretty badly for acting in concert, they now must travel individual roads. Short-cuts might save time and temper, but they can be dangerous. Much has been done since the U. S. Supreme Court has had its say, but much remains to be done. The exhibitor who will voluntarily reduce the clearance he now enjoys might be found, but who can be sufficiently enduring to locate him? Clearances are being shuffled and re-shuffled, and, dependent upon how the results come out, is the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of those who are involved in the process. Distributors entertain no illusions that the results can be perfect. In fairness to them, it must be recognized that they are right. ■ Ted Gamble went on record in Los Angeles that TOA members lean favorably toward a system of uniform clearances. Herman Levy, the organization's general counsel, moreover, took the view that such a system is legal, although his reasons would be interesting to know. How clearances can be uniformly maintained without the participation of the distributors who expressly flaunt the law if they partake in such a plan calls for considerably more explanation than has been ventured thus far. Wishful thinking seems to be playing a significant part in any such hope. Both the thinking and the hope trace to an impression that the Department of Justice might be induced to amend its views if a formidable enough presentation can be put together by theatre interests, chain and individual, which feel they are suffering inequities through no fault of their own. The force of such a stand would have to rely on strength assembled in the field, supported by weighty enough proof to demonstrate that the protesting innocents ought not to bear punishment for the business deportment of others — in this instance, the distributors. No one can say that such an approach is doomed to failure. No one can say it has any chance of success, either. ■ ■ Said Bernard Diamond, assistant to Louis Schine, at a recent regional pow-wow of the Schine Circuit: "All we have to be concerned with is getting the amusement dollar into the movies instead of allowing it to go elsewhere". That's all, Bernie. Deneau to Preside at SRO Meeting Today Sidney G. Deneau, vice-president and general sales manager, will preside over a meeting of district sales managers and home office executives of the Selznick Releasing Organization at the Hotel Warwick here today. The meeting was originally scheduled for the SRO home office. Number one on the agenda is the setting of sales policies on two forthcoming Selznick releases, "The Fallen Idol" and "The Third Man." Following the conferences both pictures will be screened. Sam Israel Is Named U-I Publicity Aide Hollywood, Oct. 6 — Sam Israel has been named assistant studio publicity director at Universal-International by Al Horwits, studio publicity chief. A former head of the Eagle-Lion publicity department and a veteran of the film business, Israel will report at U-I on Oct. 17. Frank McFadden has been named executive assistant to Horwits. Maryland Censors Hit Foreign Films Baltimore, Oct. 6. — The Maryland Board of Censors wants the state censorship law strengthened in order to "shelter citizens" from the "deteriorating" effect of European films. The call for more rigid censorship was in the board's 33rd annual report. NEW YORK THEATRES RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL Rockefeller Center Montgomery Clift Ralph Richardson Olivia deHavilland in William Wyler's "THE HEIRESS" with Miriam Hopkins A Paramount Picture SPECTACULAR STAGE PRESENTATION Paramount prcianri 1 HAL WAUIS Prrtntll. Uarring JOHN LUND ■ DIANA LYNN , DON DiFORE • MARIE WILSON And introducing DEAN MARTIN m JERRY LEWIS UAH *» «1 «w 2?rvoLi . SWAY AT <» ST. DARRYL F. 2ANUCK' ELI* KAZAN Starring j JEANNE CRAIN ETHEL BARRYMORE ETHEL WATERS WILLIAM LUNDIGAN LEE J. COBB »» RICHARD VALENTINA CONTE . CORTES A "THIEVES' HIGHWAY A 20th Century-Fox Picture ON VARIETY STAGE— Ed. Sullivan —his "TOAST of the TOWN" TELEVISION REVUE Plus Big Ice Show! RA V V »i Ave. & W >V I 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. 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