Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1950)

Motion Picture Daily 2 Personal Mention DAVID BEZNOR, counsel for the Colosseum of Motion Picture Salesmen of America, was in Washington yesterday from New York. • Hugh Owen, Paramount Eastern and Southern sales manager, A. W. Kane, assistant division manager, and Phil Isaacs are in Philadelphia from New York and will return here Monday. • Charles Cohen, who handles special publicity assignments for Samuel Goldwyn Productions, will enter Adelphia Hospital, Brooklyn, today for minor surgery. • Steve Broidy, Monogram-Allied Artists president, will sail from here for England on Tuesday aboard the ■S'.-S'. Queen Elizabeth. • Albert S. Howson, Warner scenario editor and director of censorship, will celebrate his 25th year with the company on May 26. • Lige Brien, Eagle-Lion exploitation director, will leave here today for Buffalo and Detroit. • John May, Schine circuit treasurer, is in Shelby, O., from Gloversville, N. Y. • Margaret Ettinger, film publicist, is here from the Coast. Harold Hecht, Warner producer, is due here today from Hollywood. Networks to Salute Start of Bond Drive The Independence Bond Drive will get underway Monday across the country with industry activities designed" to display the urgency for complete cooperation in what Secretary of the Treasury Snyder has termed "the most important peacetime bond drive." Motion picture participation in the drive, which _ runs through July 4, is being coordinated by various committees, under the direction of Sam Pinanski, president of the Theatre Owners of America, as national chairman. In Boston, ceremonies on historic Boston Common are set to launch the drive, according to James King of Keith's Memorial, publicity chairman for that territory. Pinanski will participate in ceremonies centering around the city's Liberty Bell, symbol of the drive. From other sections of the country come reports of similar celebrations. NJ Allied Meet Monday New Jersey Allied president Wilbur Snaper will conduct a general membership meeting here Monday to complete the agenda for the organization's annual convention, to be held June 15-17 at the Hotel Traymore, Atlantic City. French Visitors to Talk with Johnston On Market in U.S. Georges Lourau, Pierre Frogereais and Robert Cravenne, film delegates here from France, will confer with Eric Johnston, Motion Picture Association of America president, in Washington today, prior to Johnston's departure for New York, on ways of expanding the market here for French product. The delegates were honored yesterday at a luncheon here at "21" by the International Motion Picture Organization. IMPO is forming a committee of five members to work with the delegates. The committee will coordinate activities aimed at establishing closer relations between the French industry and the American distributor. A reception in their honor was also given here yesterday, at the Harvard Club by the Advisory Unit of Foreign Films of the MPAA. Foreign department executives in distribution and exhibition attended. The delegates will return here from Washington tomorrow and proceed to the Coast on Monday. While there they will confer with Joseph I. Breen, Production Code Administrator, as well as other industry figures. Einfeld in Brussels On Showmanship Charles Einfeld, ad-publicity vicepresident of 20th Century-Fox, currently on a tour of Europe, addressed 150 Belgian exhibitors at Brussels yesterday on the showmanship program now in effect in the United States, the company stated. Einfeld returns to Paris on Friday to address French film industry leaders. Schmidt Heads MP A Ad-Publicity Group Arthur A. Schmidt, advertisingpublicity director of Columbia, was elected chairman of the Motion Picture Association's Eastern Advertising-Publicity Directors Committee at a meeting held here yesterday. The term is for six months. He succeeds Max E. Youngstein, Paramount director of advertising-publicity. The office is filled on a rotation basis. 1st 8 'Annie' Runs Holdover, Moreover M-G-M's "Annie Get Your Gun" has either been held over or moved over in all eight pre-release engagements in Loew's, it was announced yesterday by the company. The moveover situations are Hartford, and Evansville, Ind. The other six playdates have been continued indefinitely. 'City Lights' in Capital Joseph Wolhandler, special publicity representative for "City Lights," Chaplin-United Artists, left here yesterday for Washington where the film will open at the DuPont and Little Theatres on May 16. D. of J. Supports Bill To Amend Trust Law Washington, May 10.— The Justice Department today supported a proposed bill to aid plaintiffs in private treble-damage anti-trust actions and to set up a uniform six-year Federal statute of limitations for such actions. The Justice stand was outlined by anti-trust official John Stedman in testimony before the Celler Monopoly Investigating Committee. Meanwhile the House Rules Committee temporarily refused to clear for House floor action a bill to boost the maximum penalty for violating the Sherman Act from $5,000 to $50,000. U. S. vs. Crescent (Continued from page 1) when it "had no immediate intention" of building new theatres in those situations. Crescent's purpose in securing the court's permission was to discourage anyone else from building a theatre in these locations, the Department said. The petitions also charged that Crescent violated the decree by keeping from the court evidence of the true competitive facts which the court needed in order to pass on new theatre construction. The Department claimed also that the defendants had failed to divest themselves of stock in other theatre corporations, as required by the decree. Contempt actions to enforce consent decrees or judgments in anti-trust suits have been used very sparingly by the Department, although there has been some increase in their use in the last few months as part of a new compliance drive. Department of Justice attorneys said they thought the Crescent action was the first time a film company had been charged with contempt. Named as defendants in today's contempt proceedings were : Crescent Amusement Co. president R. E. Baulch, executive vice-president Kermit C. Stengel, Rockwood Amusements, Inc., Cherokee Amusements, Inc., Muscle Shoals Theatres, and Louis Rosenbaum, a partner in Muscle Shoals. The contempt proceedings were prepared by Maurice Silverman and Philip Marcus of the Department, in cooperation with Ward Hudgins, Nashville United States Attorney, and under the supervision of Sigmund Timberg, chief of the Department's consent decree and enforcement section. U. S. to Study Decree Compliance Here Washington, May 10. — Assistant Attorney General Herbert Bergson, in disclosing that a contempt proceeding had been begun against Crescent Amusement, said today he has assigned a "number of attorneys" to investigate compliance with other anti Thursday, May 11, l'j NEWS | in Brief . • UNIVERSAL-International exe tives today will meet with rep sentatives of Winchester Arms finalize promotion plans on the fi "Winchester 73." U-I and Winches; are sponsoring a premiere press p view in New Haven on June 1. Minneapolis, May 10.— 'C n R erts, booker at the 20t?^ " entu Fox branch here, has been prot ted to office manager, replac Jerry Weisfeldt, resigned. Jos< Rosen former booker for Pa mount, has been named to Robe old post. • Scranton, Pa., May 10. — Au Interrante, operator of the Rowl Theatre in Philipsburg, Pa., named defendant in five percentage tions filed here today. United i ists, RKO Radio, 20th Century-F Warner aqd Paramount each file suit in U. S. District Court, e complaint alleging damages due" under-reported receipts on percent pictures. • John Howard Lawson and Adi ; Scott, film writers convicted of ( tempt of Congress, were amon delegation at Lake Success yes j day which appealed to the L Commission on Human Rights1 investigate an alleged "drive regiment the American people war." • A total of 32 merit increases L thus far been awarded the Sc| Employes Guild as a result of i recent negotiations with the comps ! in accordance with the merit rejj contract provisions. Other incre are anticipated, according to Ryan, SEG business director. 30 to 40 Candidate For Key COM PO Pi Between 30 and 40 names air are in the "hopper" for consider; by a yet-to-be-appointed committe management personnel in the sele( of a salaried executive vice-presi for the Council of Motion Picture1 ganizations, it was revealed here terday. Many more names may be r&i mended for consideration before committee, to be appointed by COY president Ned E. Depinet, underl, its task. The COMPO exec! board will have to unanimously i firm the committee's recommenda> trust judgments and promised 'V ous" prosecutions of any violatior (In New York, film compam torneys said they have been aske the Department of Justice for concerning runs and play-offs ir. area, in what evidently is an im gation of Loew's and RKO M, politan's circuit operations. Film yers said there had been no re> for information covering any i area). MOTION PICTURE DAILY. Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; Terry Ramsaye, Consulting Editor. Published daily, except Satui Sundays and holidays, by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., 1270 Sixth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, New York 20, N. Y. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address: "Quigi New York." Martin Quigley, President; Red Kann, Vice-President; Martin Quigley, Jr., Vice-President; Theo. J. Sullivan, Vice-President and Treasurer; Leo J. Brady, Seen James P. Cunningham, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; Gus H. Fausel, Production Manager. Hollywood Bureau, YuccaVine Building, William R. W< Editor. Chicago Bureau, 225 North Michigan Avenue, Editorial and Advertising; Harry T.oler, Advertising Representative; Jimmy Ascher, Editorial Representative. Washii 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, Lon Other Quigley Publications: Motion Picture Herald; Better Theatres and Theatre Sales, each published 13 times a year as a section of Motion Picture Herald: Interna 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 rate year, $6 in the Americas and $12 foreign; single copies, 10c.