Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1950)

6 Motion Picture Daily Tuesday, November 21, 1950 National Pre-Selling PARAMOUNT has arranged a nationwide tieup with the Jayson Shirt Co. to promote Bing Crosby's "Mr. Music" which goes into release in December. Thousands of Jayson Shirt outlets from Coast to Coast have been supplied with display materials and newspaper mats and the company will pay one-half of the advertising cost incurred by local dealers who tie in with the picture. Theatre managers are encouraged to check the special kit of advertising material available to Jayson dealers and with their nearest Paramount field man. The Jayson company has been supplied with a list of theatres and playdates. • "Seventeen" magazine and Universal-International, after a successful tieup in Cincinnati, launched a similar promotion for "Louisa" in New York Posters were distributed to newsstands throughout Manhattan and distribution trucks were bannered. Almost 2,000 bulletins announcing the tieup were sent to newsdealers. A scene from the picture showing Piper Laurie reading a copy of "Seventeen" served as a pictorial tieup. "Seventeen also announces "Cyrano de Bergerac" has been selected its "Picture of the Month" for January. • The Dec. 5 issue of Look, now on the stands, carries four film stories, including a review of "Harvey" and articles devoted to Bob Hope, Arlene Dahl and Esther Williams, whose picture adorns the front cover. Warner has a full page ad for "The West Point Story" and M-G-M runs the "Lion's Roar" column in the issue. • Frances (Mrs. Samuel) Goldwyn tells how to stay married in Hollywood, in a by-line article in the Woman's Home Companion for December, just out. Piece is entitled "Dear Sam : Do You Remember?" and recounts the memories that were celebrated on their 25th wedding anniversary. She says in her opening paragraph, "This is the first letter I've ever written you, for we've never been separated long enough for letter writing and we have no secrets from each other." Readers of the Companion, and plenty of those who write by-line film columns or read the news of the industry, will enjoy her silver anniversary letter to "Dear Sam." Any psychologist would have to read it twice, though. The first time is all for fun and laughs. • Esquire for December lists its choice of the 10 best pictures of the year, as follows: "Asphalt Jungle," "Sunset Boulevard," "Treasure Island," "No Way Out," "Bicycle Thief," "Kind Hearts and Coronets," "Annie Get Your Gun," "The Winslow Boy," "Hasty Heart" and "City Lights." The list is selected with particular emphasis for their appeal to male tastes. • "King Solomon's Mines" and "Kim" will be given special advertising by M-G-M in 14 national magazines with a combined circulation of 38,490,449. The magazines in which the copy will appear are the Ladies' Home Journal, Saturday Evening Post and Woman's Set Equipment Show Plan After Holiday Representatives of the Theatre Owners of America, Theatre Equipment Supply Manufacturers Association and Theatre Equipment Dealers Association who have been conferring on arrangements for a jointly-sponsored equipment exposition next year, have postponed until after the Thanksgiving holiday their meeting at which final plans are scheduled to be set. Meanwhile, TESMA representatives have begun informal negotiations with Allied States Association officials with a view toward holding a TESMATEDA-Allied exposition in conjunction with a national Allied convention two or three years hence. TESMA reports that the WaldorfAstoria Hotel here has advised that it could not accommodate the exposition which would be held in conjunction with the 1951 TOA national convention other than in next July. The only other time the hotel could provide facilities is in July-August, 1952, TESMA has been informed. TOA had planned to hold its 1951 convention in New York. A TESMA spokesman said yesterday that hereafter the equipment _ associations and exhibitor associations will have to plan joint expositions at least two years in advance, so monumental a task is such planning. In the past it has been TESMA' s practice to plan for its own expositions at least 18 months ahead. Home Companion, each with more than 4,000,000 circulation; Look, Collier's, Good Housekeeping and Mc Call's, each with more than 3,000,000 circulation ; American and True Story, with 2,000,000 each, and Parent's, Red Book, Cosmopolitan and Seventeen, which have more than 1,000,000 each • Despite the fact that its pre-release engagements were accompanied by one of the most powerful national advertis ing and promotion campaigns ever given a picture, "Samson and Delilah," which is scheduled for general release on Jan. 15, will receive the benefit of another full-scale campaign that will equal the original pre-selling. Max E. Youngstein, vice-president in charge of national advertising-publicity for Paramount, says there will be extensive use of national magazines and local neivspapers. • In line with the company's policy of star appearances at civic and cultural functions, William Lundigan, who appears in 20th CenturyFox's "I'd Climb the Highest Mountain" addressed 2,000 delegates to the United Council of Church Women in Cincinnati last week. He discussed the motion picture as a medium of inculcating religious ideals in American youth and drew upon his experience in making this picture which deals with the struggles of an itinerant Methodist preacher in Georgia. • Mike Weiss, Paramount exphiteer in the Philadelphia area, is setting a campaign with Ted Vamiett of the Goldman Theatres for the world premiere of "The Goldbergs" and the opening of the new Midtown theatre. Arnold Van Leer, Paramount' s Boston field man, following through with a big Prim Hosiery tieup in Boston and Providence with cooperative advertising for "Let's Dance." —Walter Brooks N. E. Power Failure Darkens 60 Houses Boston, Nov. 20.— Electric power failure last night which blacked out Boston and several surrounding towns for one hour at 6 :15 P.M., affected approximately sixty theatres. Managers reported that patrons were orderly and that no panic ex'sted. Patrons stayed in their seats until power was restored and the shows resumed. Few asked for refunds. I V A Pacts Curtail Kinescope Refuse Organization of talent in television took a long step forward when 'Tele vision Authority, the unit set up by five talent crafts allied with the AFL's "Four-A's," won two-year contracts with NBC, CBS, ABC, DuMont and WOR-TV. The pacts, signed only minutes be fore the TV actors were scheduled to start picketing, provide for minimum wage scales, ranging from for a 15-minute show, to $475 for a four-performer specialty act, and cur tail the use of Kinescopes for re broadcasts. The contracts negotiated deal only with talent on "live" shows, as juris diction over television films is still being contested between the TVA and the Screen Actors Guild. The latter organization, though a member of Four-A's, refused to go along in the formation of TVA as an overall video bargaining unit. The success of TVA in winning recognition of the right of actors to be recompensed when the original "live" show is used again through Kinescoping is seen as a factor aid ing the SAG argument that TV films should also return more pay to actors when used more than once. No direct agreement on Kinescope was reached, but the telecasters will not show a Kinescoped film for a second time without the written consent of TVA. TOA-Depinet Talks (Continued from page 1) board and for limiting COMPO public relations activity to the national level, both of wdiich were voted by the TOA national convention in Houston early this month. The Gamble group met here at the weekend in full assemblage. A number of its members returned to their out-of-town headquarters on Sunday, and a few remained to continue discussions here yesterday, it is understood. Allied Bid Proposals (Continued from page 1) and Means Committee on excess profits taxes depends on "developments of the next few days." He said that he personally did not feel the coming "Lame-Duck" session was going to pass an excess profits tax law, but that in any event whatever bill passes the House will get a thorough goingover in the Senate and Allied will concentrate its efforts on that body if the bill gets that far. Telecasters' Pact l With Ascap Effective Telecasters have been notified that their television agreements with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers of Oct., 1949, have become fully effective, Herman Finkelstein, the Society's general attorney, announced. The television agreements^-f^r the performance of ASCAP'S L jibers' works in the new entertainim. ,Vmedium were originally signed with the* provision that the Society obtain consents from its members representing 85 per cent of its domestic distribution for the year 1948. In a letter to the telecasters, J. M. Collins, ASCAP sales manager, advised that the Society, having received the necessary rights from its members, had now fulfilled its obligations under the agreement with the telecasters, and that all amounts deposited by the networks and local stations with Judge Robert P. Patterson as escrow depository under their license agreements, would now be paid to the Society. The blanket license agreements now become fully effective for the period ending Dec. 31, 1953. TV Members of NAB To Be Autonomous Washington", Nov. 20. — Television members of the National Association of Broadcasters will be given autonomy under a proposal adopted by the NAB board. The TV broadcasters will elect their own board, which will set dues and policies for the TV stations. It will operate within the NAB and be administered by the NAB. The NAB board said there should be a convention in Chicago within the next month to set up further mechanics. Lopert to Manage Latest 2 Theatres Lopert Films, Inc., will take over] the management of its two most recent theatre acquisitions this month, I. E. Lopert, president, has announced. Both the Bijou, here, and the remodeled Ziegfeld Theatre in Chicago, will be operated by corporations in which Lopert and Astor Theatre Corp., a subsidiary of City Investing, will each have 50 per cent ownership. RKO Cuts Prices Cincinnati, Nov. 20.' — The firsts price reduction at first-run theatres here in years has been inaugurated by RKO, with a 39-cent "early bird" admission until one P. M. daily, except Sunday. Children's admissions have been reduced from 30 to 25 cents. The ! regular scale is from a low of 40 cents to 75 cents top. Billy B. Van, 72 Boston, Nov. 20.— Billy B. Van, 72, famed comedian at the turn of the century, died at the Newport Hospital, Newport, New Hampshire. Van was lecturer, author and soap manufacturer. According to information here he was connected with M-G-M pictures when that company was founded. Pule Goes to Chicago Norman Pyle has been appointed M-G-M press representative in Chicago and will assume his new duties immediately.