Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1950)

2 Motion Picture Daily Wednesday, May 31 Personal Mention GAEL SULLIVAN, Theatre Owners of America executive director, will return to New York from Houston tomorrow. • X. Peter Rath von, independent film financier, A. Schneider, Columbia vice-president and treasurer, and Mrs. Schneider; Joseph McConvtlle, Columbia International president, and Mrs. McConville ; Gregory Peck and Mrs. Peck were among the passengers arriving here yesterday from Europe on the 5". 6\ Queen Elizabeth. • Catherine Falcon, secretary to Felix Sommer, Universal-International foreign department executive, will play the role of Yum-Yum in a performance of the "Mikado" to be given June 15 by the 23rd Street Playhouse here. • James Miller, of the Warner studio labor relations department, and Mrs. Miller are the parents of their second son and fifth child, born last week at the Queen of the Angels Hospital, Los Angeles. • William F. Rodgers, M-G-M sales vice-president, and Charles M. Reagan, sales executive, have returned here from San Francisco. • James R. Grainger, Republic sales vice-president, returned here Monday from the Coast and a tour of exchanges. • Roy Konkright, Monogram chief accountant, is due here from the Coast for a two-month stay. Skouras to Paris for Brotherhood Meeting Spyros P. Skouras, president of 20th Century-Fox, is scheduled to leave over the weekend for Paris, where he will participate in the European conference to create a World Organization for Brotherhood, the company reports. The organization, headed by Dr. Everett D. Clinchy, president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, will hold its meeting June 8-11 at UNESCO House in the French capital. Skouras is scheduled to take part in the seminar on "Inter-group Education Through the Media of Information," slated for June 9. On 'Lawless' Tour Lalo Rios, young Mexican-American player in "The Lawless," yesterday departed on a tour of seven major cities ahead of the first openings of the Paramount picture, produced by William Pine and William Thomas. 50c Republic Dividend Republic Pictures' board of directors on Monday declared a dividend of 50 cents per share on preferred stock, payable July 1 to stockholders of record on June 12. 263 from New York and Field To Attend Coast Para. Meet Sears Group Back, No Stock Price Set Gradwell Sears, president of United Artists ; executive vice-president Arthur W. Kelly, and board member Vitalis Chalif have returned to New York from Coast conferences on the UA offer to sell its 60 per cent treasury-held stock interest. Sears, Kelly and Chalif were appointed by the UA board as a committee to negotiate, with no actual price tag placed on the stock. It is said here that the "highest reasonable offer" will determine a sale. Persons close to the situation state here that the offer has stirred "considerable interest in various parts of the country," and is not limited to Hollywood, where Harry Popkin and Joseph Justman, among others, are known to have given a possible deal some consideration. As of late Monday there had been no UA board meeting scheduled to hear the committee's report on West Coast conferences on sale of the stock. Eleven clerical workers have been dismissed by United Artists followingrevision of operation of its home office playdate department. Elect Bent, Walker To Board of RKO Maurice H. Bent and J. Miller Walker were elected members of the RKO board of directors at a meeting here Monday, Ned E. Depinet, president, has announced. They fill the vacancies on the board created by the recent resignations of L. Lawrence Green and Frederick L. Ehrman. Noah Dietrich, chairman of the board of RKO, was also elected chairman of the board of RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. Bent was for some years a partner of Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Beane and is now associated with that firm. Walker is vice-president and secretary of RKO. Approximately 263 home office ex ecutives and field representatives wil attend the Paramount national sales convention in Los Angeles June 12-14, according to A. W. Schwalberg, president of Paramount Film Distributing Corp. This will be the company's first national sales meeting in nearly a decade. The home office group will include Barney Balaban, Paramount president; Adolph Zukor, chairman of the board ; Paul A. Raibourn, vice-presi dent in charge of budget and planning Schwalberg ; E. K. "Ted" O'Shea, vice-president of the distributing com pany ; George Weltner, president of Paramount International ; Oscar A Morgan, general sales manager for short subjects and Paramount News; Monroe Goodman, executive aide to Schwalberg ; Hugh Owen, Eastern Southern division manager ; A. M. Kane, assistant EasternSouthern divi sion manager ; Fred Leroy, head of the statistical department ; Joseph A Walsh, head of branch operation; Arthur Dunne, head of the contract department ; Martin Friedman, head of the playdate department ; Louis Phillips, assistant general counsel ; Lawrence Flynn, head of the traffic department ; Russell Holman, Eastern production manager, and Hiller limes, assistant Eastern production manager. The advertising, publicity and exploitation department will be represented by its director, Max E. Youngstein ; Jerry Pickman, assistant director ; Sid Blumenstock, advertising manager; Mort Nathanson, publicity manager ; Sid Mesibov, exploitation manager ; Robert Montgomery ; Carl Clausen, department controller, and John Tassos, field exploiteer. Four-Reeler on Holy Year from 20thFox Celebration of Holy Year in Rome has been filmed by 20th Century-Fox for a four-reel feature to be released this summer. Produced by Edmund Reek and directed by Anthony Muto, the film is entitled "Holy Year, 1950." Father Robert I. Gannon, former president of Fordham University, will act as narrator. $23,333 for Charity A total of $23,333 of a $35,000 quota has been raised to date by the amusement division of the Special Cardinal's Committee of the Laity in the 1950 annual fund appeal of New York Catholic Charities, it is announced by John J. O'Connor, division chairman, and Bert Sanford, vice-chairman. Raleigh Ready for 'Bright Leaf Debut Raleigh, May 30. — Backed by an intensive advance campaign, Warner's "Bright Leaf" will open at the Ambassador here tomorrow in full-dress premiere fashion. Patricia Neal and Donald Crisp, who appear in the film, will be here to participate in the scheduled events, including a tobacco festival. Gov. Kerr is scheduled to lead a parade to the state capitol. The opening will be followed by 292 other engagements in the South. Aldine Books 'Congolaise' Philadelphia, May 30. — "Congolaise," the African adventure feature, which is now playing at the Times Square Rialto, New York, on a holdover, and in Milwaukee, has been booked into the downtown Aldine Theatre here, it is reported by Jack Rieger whose Trinity Picture owns rights to the production. Col. Stoopnagle, 52 Boston, May 30. — F. Chase Taylor, 52, radio, screen and stage performer known professionally as Col. Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle, died here on Monday at the New England Baptist Hospital following a long illness. NEWS in Brief NEWSPAPER, magazine and correspondents will leave tomorrow on a chartered trail New Haven as the guests of Univ International at a press premie "Winchester 73," to be held a Shubert Theatre there tomi night. Joint sponsor of the^-^. the Winchester Repeating $)V# a division of Olin Industrie? v| plant is in New Haven. • The Warner Club's annual ride and outing will be he! June 23, with a sail up the Hi River to Bear Mountain. • Detroit, May 30.— The Gol Zimmer Theater Enterprises ha! gun operations in Detroit, ma the return to exhibition of Jack \ har, active' head of the venture. Zimmer, former United Artists man and Goldhar's son-in-law, sociated with him. Ben WaschrJrecently general manager of Drive-in Theatres, will be in ci of operations. • Cleveland, May 30. — Fire o known origin at East Liverpool c $100,000 damage to the Arm Theatre, operated by the A. G. stant Circuit. The audience h orderly fashion just before flames around the proscenium arch. N was injured. Full Promotion fo RKO Pathe's 'Post RKO Pathe's "Trading Post" ing given an intensive, three-pr< publicity push by the Motion Pi Association of America, whic sponsoring the short as the six its public affairs series ; by the chandise Mart, Chicago, which i subject of the film, and by the pr ing company, according to M here. MPAA is calling attentii the short because it is "symbol America's abundance, opportunih spectacular commercial progress.' NEW YORK THEATf RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL __ . Rockefeller Center Spencer Tracy Joan Benne! Elizabeth Taylor "FATHER OF THE BRID Don Taylor Billie Burke I A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture Plus Spectacular Stage Presentation f HUMPHREY BOGARt "In a Lonely Place" with GLORIA GRAMME A COLUMBIA PICTURE Vbf'£Z'">>n9\ Midnight F> Night! MOTION PICTURE DAILY. Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; Terry Ramsaye, Consulting Editor. Published daily, except SatuiB bundays and holidays, by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., 1270 Sixth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, New York 20, N. Y. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address: "QuigpJB 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 F Cunningham, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; Gus H. Fausel, Production Manager. Hollywood Bureau, YuccaVine Building, William R. W<« i 4°rri ^nl<S?°. Bureau, 225 North Michigan Avenue, Editorial and Advertising; Harry Toler, Advertising Representative; Jimmy Ascher, Editorial Representative. Washir H ri u ^te"', Na*i°"al 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; Internal ■ 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.