Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1951)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Impartial VOL. 69. NO. 51 NEW YORK, U. S. A., THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1951 TEN CENTS Stockholders 'OK' New Pact For Blumberg Directors Re-Elected; Board Meets March 22 The stockholders of Universal Pictures at their annual meeting in Wilmington yesterday, reelected the following 13 members of the company's board of directors : Robert S. Benjamin, N. J. Blumberg, Preston Davie, John G. Eidell, Albert A. Garthwaite, William J. German, Leon Goldberg, R. W. Lea, John J. O'Connor, J. Arthur Rank, Budd Rogers, Daniel M. Sheaffer and G. I. Woodham-Smith. The stockholders approved the fiveyear employment agreement between the company and Blumberg, president, negotiated on July 1, 1950, effective last Jan. 1. Blumberg, who is now on a Caribbean tour with Mrs. Blumberg, is due back in New York in time to attend the company's annual board meeting on March 22 at which officers will be elected. The board set the annual election date yesterday following its reelection. It was announced at the meeting that although final income figures are {Continued on page 5) Question 'Early' Drive-in Openings Chicago, March 14. — Some distributors here have questioned the early openings of outdoor theatres, pointingout that none did particularly good business at the same time last year. Distributors also say the weather is still very representative of winter and hardly conducive to visiting outdoor theatres. Drive-in operators, however, are {Continued on page 5) British Festival May Lack Top Film London, March 14. — Film executives here assert that the British Film Institute's plans for motion picture representation in the Festival of Britain, opening in late April, are dangerously behind schedule and thus far have failed to include the industry itself in its participation. They point out that a project for a (.Continued on page 5) U. S. May Give Tax Stand Next Week Washington, March 14. — Rep. Reed (R., N.Y.), top G.O.P. member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he understood that top Treasury officials would appear before the Committee next week to outline the Administration's recommendations for raising an additional $6,500,000,000 in new taxes, over and above the $10,155,000,000 already requested. Top Democrats said, however, that no final decision had yet been made on this point. DuMont Urges FCC To A ctNowon Para. Control Question Washington, March 14. — Allen B. DuMont Laboratories today asked the Federal Communications Commission to rule without any further delay that it is not controlled by Paramount Pictures. The DuMont request took the form of a motion to dismiss an application for FCC permission to transfer the DuMont stock owned by the old Paramount Pictures to the new Paramount Pictures Corp. The FCC has never acted on this motion, nor has it ever made final its two-year old proposed decision that Paramount does control DuMont. By asking the FCC to dismiss the transfer application, DuMont in effect was taking the only legal avenue to prod the Commission into acting on the control issue, for (Continued on page 5) PCCITO Becomes 7th to Ratify New COMPO Setup The Pacific Coast Conference of Independent Theatre Owners has become the seventh charter member to ratify the new governing structure slated for the Council of Motion Picture Organizations. The eighth of the 10 charter members to ratify is likely to be the Metropolitan Motion Picture Theatres Association, which will meet at the St. M oritz Hotel here on March Zl. Theatre Owners of America's ratification as a national organization is expected at the TOA board meeting in Washington on April 4. The Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers will formally ratify in the near future, according to its president, Ellis G. Arnall. Approval of the COMPO changes are recorded for the Motion Picture Association of America, Allied States (Continued on page 5) NPA Construction Limit Narrowed Washington, March 14. — In computing construction costs to determine whether a theatre or other buildingproject comes within the $5,000 government limitation, the expense of demolishing any existing construction preliminary to the new construction must be included, the National Production Authority has ruled. This was one of a long series of "explanations" of the M-4 order which the agency announced in a press release. Another "explanation" said a build (Continued on page 5) 'Legit' Theatres Ask Congress to Tax Free Tickets to Radio and TV Washington, March 14. — The League of New York Theatres today urged the House Ways and Means Committee to apply the Federal admission tax to tickets to radio and television studio programs. "We do not feel the vast audiences served by radio and television should go untaxed, to our detriment and also at a loss to our government," the League said. It pointed out that since 1937, 14 theatres in New York City alone, with a seating capacity of 16,955, have been taken over for radio broadcasts or television performances. "These theatres are filled several times each day for different presentations," the League declared. "Add to this the countless studios throughout the country where broadcasting and televising are carried on and you can realize the vast audience that is not only seeing entertainment without paying but from which the government is deriving no revenue in the form of taxes. That is the unfair competition part of it, inasmuch as the people attending these theatres and studios are watching and listening to 'live' actors and not films or mechanical reproductions." Buy Theatre TV Equipment Now: Hodgson Says Present Quality Warrants Investment By VAUGHAN O'BRIEN Exhibitors contemplating the installation of theatre television equipment were urged yesterday by Richard Hodgson, Paramount television technical director, to go ahead with their plans without further delay before defense demands cut down on production. Hodgson said that in his opinion the quality of currently available equipment warrants the necessary investment by the exhibitor. The next big step for theatre TV, he said, lies not in the development of a different type of projection equipment, but in obtaining the wider megacycle bands needed for telecasting better-defined images suitable for large screens. This is up to the Federal Communication Commission, he explained, but by having more theatres equipped with television facilities, and demonstrating (Continued on page 5) U.S. -DeVry Sign 5-Million Deal Chicago, March 14. — Contracts in excess of $5,000,000 for the manufacture of sound projectors for the Armed Forces have been awarded to the DeVry Corp., it was announced here today by William C. DeVry, president. The equipment to be manufactured under the contracts is to be used in conjunction with the long-range (Continued on page 5) Theatres Unruffled By FCC Report Washington, March 14.— Theatre television officials here are not disturbed by reports that the Federal Communications Commission is considering allocating 70 new channels in the Ultra-high frequencies to television broadcasting, rather than the 42 proposed more than two years ago. They said that the additional 28 (Continued on page 5)