Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1950)

OO NOT WfcW® FIRST IN FILM NEWS MOTION PICTURE DAILY *VOL==^ NO. 97 NEW YORK, U.S.A., MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1950 TEN CENTS Top Showmen IRally Here to IBoom Business Informal Meeting Aims To Beat TV Threat A score of the country's top exhibitors and circuit executives met in private session all day at the Hotel Astor here on Friday in expressed determination to circumvent what is regarded as a deadly threat to theatre grosses posed by television. Out of the meeting two distinct possibilities may emerge in the immediate future: (1) Action by the Council of Motion Picture Organizations on a blueprint which could be set up by the theatremen, and (2), formation of a strong exhibitor-producer alliance in an all-out fight to keep the motion picture theatre supreme in the field of entertainment. Friday's informal conclave grew out (Continued on page 5) Bankers Trust Co., Cinema Prod. Conclude Deal Cinema Productions, organization of leading exhibitors which, in association with Cinerama Corp., will produce three-dimensional motion pictures for theatres, has concluded a financing deal with Bankers Trust Co., it was reported here at the weekend by Lester Cowan, CP production chief. The arangement, covering four pictures which will be produced in a single year, includes financial participation by the exhibitor members of the company. The deal was closed with Alex (Continued on page 4) Throngs in Tribute To Carter Barron Washington, Nov. 19. — Film industry, government and civic leaders turned out in throngs yesterday for the funeral of Carter T. Barron, Loew's Eastern district manager and one of Washington's leading citizens. Among the many tributes received by Barron's family over the weekend was one from President Truman, who said that the Loew's official was one of the ablest men in Washington (Continued on page 4) COMPO Set to Go; Hopes To Resolve TOA Issue TOA Proposals on COMPO Drafted, Now Go to Depinet Proposals to revise the Council of Motion Picture Organizations more to the liking of the Theatre Owners of America were drafted by the TOA committee headed by Ted R. Gamble, which met here over the weekend. Next step is to transmit these proposals to Ned E. Depinet, COMPO president, who will in turn relay them to COMPO board members for action. Gamble was reluctant to divulge the (Continued on page 5) Rodgers Presiding At Chicago Meeting Chicago, Nov. 19. — M-G-M's releasing plans for 14 pictures to be distributed in the five months beginning December are being discussed in detail by the company's six field sales (Continued on page 4) Allied Holds Fire In Attack on Bids 'Sympathetic Hearing' for MPAA "s Anti-Excise Stand Washington, Nov. 19. — The House Ways and Means Committee at the weekend gave Motion Picture Association of America Eric Johnston a very sympathetic hearing after he finished presenting the MPAA's position on the proposed increase in Federal excise taxes. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Doughton (D., N. C.) declared that he was "impressed with the statement" read by Johnston. Blocked funds earned in years prior to the first excess profits tax year should not be subject to an excess profits tax when they are later converted into dollars, Johnston told the Committee. He termed the problem of frozen funds "an outstanding point that concerns the MPAA vitally in the drafting of excess profits tax legislation." At the outset of his appearance, Johnston stated his opposition to the principle of excess profits taxation but, (Continued on page 4) Approves Five Projects for Industry Protection, Aids to Box Office, Wartime Activity: Waiting to Hear TOA Proposals The Council of Motion Picture Organizations on Friday was launched on a full-scale, affirmative program of public relations ac • tivity, and set its sail without regard for any possible defection among its constituent member organizations. The program clearly suggested that COMPO would proceed with or without Theatre Owners of America in its ranks. The COMPO board wound up its two-day meeting at the Hotel Astor here following a long and frequently heated discussion of TOA's bid for an increase in board membership to accommodate regional exhibitor association representation and the TOA proposal that COMPO confine its public relations activity to the national level. The upshot of this discussion was the designation of COMPO president Ned E. Depinet as chairman of a committee to meet 'with a sub-commitee, headed by Ted R. Gamble, which this weekend met and drafted a proposal embodying the demands contained in TOA's convention resolution. Depinet, who was left free to be joined by other COMPO members in his conference with the TOA group, or do so singly, is expected to be in communication with the latter today. Supplementing the public relations steps taken at its initial session on Thursday, the COMPO board on Friday adopted five additional programs designed to stimulate box-office business, protect the industry's interests in legislative halls and further elevate the motion picture theatre and the industry in general in the eyes of the public. These additional steps were: ( 1 ) The board approved a revised version of the Motion Picture Indus (Continued on page 5) A two-day meeting of Allied States' special committee on competitive bidding ended here on Friday but participants in the parleys declined to disclose details of proposals drafted to halt bidding between independent exhibitors. One of the members explained that considerable correspondence would be necessary before the proposals could be considered complete. "We will inform the distributors of our plans, and the Department of Justice, if neces (Continued on page 5) Griffis R etir e s From Gov't Service Washington, Nov. 19. — Stanton Griffis, chairman of Paramount's executive committee, has retired as Ambassador to Argentina and plans "to take a long rest." This was announced after a White House call on Friday. Truman accepted the resignation but said he is taking Griffis' word that he will be "available for future public service." Griffis has spent the last nine years in government service, previously acting as Ambassador to Poland and Egypt. During the war he was in charge of the film division of the Office of War Information. Foreign Operations Of UA (In the Black' ' United Artists foreign operations are now "in the black" for the first time in almost two years, according to the company's foreign department. Being a closed corporation, the company does not disclose figures. The profit, although "a small one," was shown in a foreign sales report as of Sept. 30. The report includes costs of home office foreign operations. The upswing was noted as early as; (Continued on page 4)