Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1950)

FILE COPY MOTION PICTURE DAILY Concise end NO. 95 NEW YORK, U. S. A., THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1950 TEN CENTS Allied Charts Fight Against Bidding Today Meeting Here Today Will Consider New Strategy Allied States Association's committee on competitive bidding will meet here today and tomorrow to map plans for implementing Allied's war on competitive bidding. No meetings with distributors are expected at this time but instead new methods of tackling the problem, including soliciting the aid of the Department of Justice, will be discussed. On hand for the meetings will be Abram F. Myers, general counsel, H. A. Cole, Dallas ; Jack Kirsch, Chicago ; Nathan Yamins, Boston ; Sidney Samuelson, Philadelphia, and Ray Branch of Hastings, Mich. The unit was set up at the Allied Board meeting in Pittsburgh, with members specifically charged to aid Myers in efforts to halt or curtail competitive bidding practices as initiated by the New York Statutory Court decree. Allied's fire has been drawn espe (Continued on page 2) NPA Again Changes Orders On New Theatre Building Washington, Nov. 15. — The National Production Authority said here today that theatre owners planning to replace a theatre destroyed by fire, disaster or other Act of God before July 29, 1950, must obtain permission from the government. This was one of the points in a statement issued by the agency to clarify its original building ban order. The statement changed the original order in several points. The original order said simply that {Continued on page 4) All-out Allocation Seen by Next July Washington, Nov. 15.— Complete government allocation of all key materials will probably be in effect by next July, according to Manny Fleischmann, general counsel of the National Production Authority. This plan, similar to that in effect during World War II, will mean that the government will say exactly what (Continued on page 2) Court's Temporary Order Blocks CBS Color Television 'Pioneer of the Year' Award Will Be Given to Spyros Skouras Tonight The mid-century dinner of the Motion Picture Pioneers, at which Spyros P. Skouras, president of 20 Century-Fox, will be honored as the Pioneer of the Year," will be held here tonight at the Waldorf-Astoria. Skouras, who will receive the Pioneers' award for outstanding achievement fn his field, was selected by a unanimous vote of the MPP's board of directors, which is composed of the heads of the film companies. Other award winners include Cecil B. De Mille, Adolph Zukor and Gus S. Eyssell, president and managing director of Radio City Music Hall. Scheduled to speak at the dinner, which marks the Pioneers' 11th annual affair, are Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association, and Jack Cohn, founder and president of the Pioneers. Among the guests invited are Bernard Baruch, David Sarnoff, Greek Am (Continued on page 2) AdvanceThree Projects for Compo Action Offer National Contest Festival, Exposition Three major projects, designed to improve the status of the American box-office, were approved by the program and planning committees of the Council of Motion Picture Organizations yesterday and are slated to come before COMPO's executive committee today for action. The projects were : 1. — A nation-wide "Starmakers" contest conducted through theatres to the public. 2. — A nation-wide "Film Festival," backed by national advertising and exploitation, in which the production talents of Hollywood will combine to offer audiences the best product their ingenuity can muster. 3. — A Motion Picture Exposition, suggested first for New York around Labor Day, and duplicated in approximately 20 key cities on a staggered schedule, provided the local industry in these major centers look with favor (Continued on page 4) Chicago, Nov. 15. — A temporary restraining order blocking the beginning of Columbia Broadcasting color television was ruled this afternoon in Federal Court by Judges Sullivan, Labuy and Major. The order will remain in effect un (Continued on page 2) U.S. Admits That Slump in Film Industry Started in '47 Allied Unit Warns RKO Denver Office Denver, Nov. 15. — Allied Rocky Mountain Independent Theatres' directors, meeting here, declared today that it has been brought to their attention that the Denver RKO exchange is forcing films, and if the practice is not stopped, the group threatened to take the matter to the RKO general sales manager as well as to the Justice Department. Directors approved the aims of COMPO and urged exhibitors to support it. The next meeting is slated for March 14. TOA Undecided on Prof it Tax Stand Washington, Nov. 15.— Theatre Owners of America president Gael Sullivan conferred here late today with A. Julian Brylawski, TOA's legislative committee chairman, to determine whether the organization should have a representative testify at the House Ways and Means Committee hearings on an excess profits tax bill which are underway in Washington. Sullivan came here directly from St. Louis, where he attended a meeting of the Theatre Owners of St. Louis, Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois. It is expected that Brylawski will be in attendance at the hearing when (Continued on page 2) Washington, Nov. 15. — Some figures presented to the House Ways and Means Committee today by Secretary of the Treasury Snyder graphically showed the wartime prosperity and the 1947 slump of the motion picture industry as compared with other industries. Snyder said that while corporate net income before taxes increased from 1946 through 1949, film industry profits started falling off after 1946. The Secretary was presenting figures showing the rates of return on net worth before taxes and after taxes by industrial groups, for selected years from 1936 to 1947. In 1944, according to the figures, of 42 different groups, the motion picture industry had the 13th highest return on net worth before taxes. In 1946 (Continued on page 2) 1TOO Will Discuss Ad Problems Here; Smith Is Reelected Cincinnati, Nov. 15.— Martin Smith today was reelected to another term as president of the Independent Theatre Owners of Ohio. Two film clinics at today's meeting of the organization combined and agreed that conventional theatres have (Continued on page 4) T.O. of Washington Reelects Brylawski Washington, Nov. 15. — A. Julian Brylawski was elected president of the Theatre Owners of Metropolitan Washington for the 28th consecutive term today, certainly a local if not national record. All other officers were reelected at a luncheon meeting, which also featured a report from Sidney Lust on the Houston meeting of the Theatre Owners of America. Fred Kogod will continue as vice-president, Harry Bachman as secretary, Lloyd Wine(Continued on page 4)