Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1950)

FILE COPY MOTION PICTURE QD lOTrON PICTURE 42<?nr» »w row 18, ST" I. NfcW5 ILY Accurate Concise and Impartial L -\AJnO. 109 NEW YORK, U. S. A., WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 1950 TEN CENTS ehearing May till Be Asked y Companies ade Shocked By High urfs Summary Action ne possibility that Loew's, 20th itury-Fox or Warner may ask U. S Supreme Court again to r appeals from the New York :utory Court's Feb. 8 decision was jested in industry legal circles erday as expressions of surprise shock at the high court's summary iosal of the case on Monday were e heard on all sides. It was felt that Loew's might lopt such a course although impany officials who could be •ached for comment said that ) decision of any kind had een made as yet on future •ocedure. Loew's officials were rriously disappointed by the jpreme Court's action in afrming the New York court's (.Continued on page 6) V A Scale Would it Pay: Thomson /enneth Thomson, television admin1'itor of Screen Actors Guild, deed here yesterday that George jfer, national executive secretary of '■vision Authority, gave a "distorof the fact" in asserting on Mon. that SAG's demand for $55 a day (Continued on page 3) Skouras, Gaitskell To Meet in Paris Paris, June 6. — Spyros P. ikouras, president of 20th ]entury-Fox, who arrived iere last weekend from New fork, is scheduled to meet nth Hugh Gaitskell, British jYeasury official, who is here ttending an OEEC meeting. ; It was Gaitskell who introluced into the recent AngloJ. S. film remittance negoiations in London the British erms now being considered. Myers Says COMPO Will Not Yet Write Off Bill for Excise Tax Cut Washington, June 6. — Despite continuing pessimistic reports from Capitol Hill on the outlook for any tax bill this year, the Council of Motion Picture Organization's tax committee will not yet write the bill off, according to committee chairman Abram F. Myers. The fact is, Myers said, that more than two-thirds of both houses have pledged themselves for tax relief to the motion picture industry, and probably have many similar pledges to other industries. "I cannot believe," Myers declared, "that all those legislators will face their constitutents on a record of broken promises. For Congress to break its word wholesale in such a manner would do more to undermine confidence in our government than all the communists could." McCarthy Sees Quota in Italy and Germany Avoided Italian proposals involving the question of exchange remittances and other industry matters were brought back by John G. McCarthy, Motion Picture Association vice-president in charge of foreign affairs, on his arrival here yesterday on the .S^S" Qvieen Mary. McCarthy, who was abroad for 10 weeks visiting various European countries, declined to divulge in detail the nature of the proposals, but he declared he was "optimistic we can avoid a quota in Italy." In Germany, too, McCarthy said he thought a quota could be avoided but that we would have "to understand German problems." McCarthy disclosed he plans to confer shortly with Spain's Minister of (Continued on page 2) Para. May Swap Its DuMont Interests For Its Own Stock Paramount may liquidate its 26 per cent interest in DuMont Laboratories, which it figures has a value of close to $15,000,000, by offering it to its own stockholders in exchange for Paramount stock, Barney Balaban disclosed here yesterday. He said tlie exchange would be based on the respective market values of each of the stocks, and the offering would be made if "circumstances made it advisable." EXHIBITION, LABOR TO TESTIFY TODAY ON N. Y. WAGE MINIMUMS AFM Signing Pacts Covering Television Houston, June 6. — James C. Petrillo, president of the American Federation of Musicians (AFL), disclosed to the delegates attending the AFM's 53rd annual convention that he has signed four contracts permitting the union's members to make motion (Continued on page 3) Representatives of production, distribution and exhibition and organized film industry labor from various parts of this state will meet this afternoon at the Bar Association Building here for the New York State Minimum Wage Board's first public hearing on motion picture industry wage conditions. As reported in Motion Picture Daily on May 25, labor's representatives will propose at the hearing that the state's minimum wage, as it ap (Continued on page 3) Prospects Are Encouraging, Says Balaban Tells Stockholders of Gains Here and Abroad Citing gains in domestic readjustment to peacetime economy and progress over trade obstacles abroad, Paramount president Barney Balaban sketched an encouraging picture of film industry prospects at the corporation's annual meeting of stockholders at the home office here yesterday. On the third key subject which he discussed at length — t el e v i s i o n — Balaban was fully optimistic. He said that while it (Continued on page 6) Barney Balaban Holdovers Hold Up At N. Y. 1st Runs Business generally is good enough at New York first-runs this week with several spots doing better than average and a few others at a sub(Continued on page 3) Para. Earnings Near Jan.-March Average Paramount earnings in April and May maintained close to the average of the January-March quarter when a net profit of $1,441,000 was reported, company president Barney Balaban disclosed here yesterday. Meeting of the Paramount board of directors to vote on dividend action is scheduled to be held here tomorrow. 'A PARAMOUNT PICTURE IT'S THE BEST SHOW IN TOWN! • IF IT'S A PARAMOUNT PICTURE, IT'S THE BEST SHOW IN TOWN ! « IF II'S A PARAMOUNT PICTURE, IT'S THE BEST SHOW Quick Magazine predicts: GLORIA SWANS0N WILL WIN AN 'OSCAR' FOR Paromount's ICTURE, IT'S THE BEST SHOW IN TOWf SUNSET BOULEVARD J A Hollywood Story IN TOWN !