Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1951)

2 Motion Picture Daily Tuesday, March 20, 1951 U. K. Theatre Tax Cut Unlikely: Eady London, March 19.— British exhibitors can expect no reduction of the entertainment tax this year, Sir Wilfrid Eady, second secretary to the Treasury, told exhibitor representatives who discussed the subject with him here. Though he offered no encouragement, stating that the government is looking for sources of increased revenue for the rearmament program, Sir Wilfrid promised to see Cinematograph Exhibitors Association leaders again before the Treasury presents its new budget on April 10. Harry Mears, new CEA president, said he would continue his campaign for a tax reduction for small exhibitors. He is preparing a proposal which would reduce the tax on the cheapest admissions and increase it on the highest, thus giving relief to the small theatre while maintaining the proportion paid to the Treasury. Personal Mention SPYROS P. Century-Fox turned to New SKOURAS, 20th president, has reYork from the Coast. Ask US Decree Ban For Private Suits Washington, March 19. — Eight major distributors told a U. S. District Court here today that the various court judgments and decrees growing out of the government antitrust suit should not be admitted as evidence in any private anti-trust suit brought against them by exhibitors unless the decrees had an absolutely direct bearing on the facts in the private suit. They took this stand in filing a lengthy opinion requested by Judge Tamm on the grounds for their mo tion to strike from the record in an anti-trust case brought against them by Leonard Lea, of Danville, Va., all reference 1o the government suit and the decrees that grew out of it The distributor motion said all these references are "immaterial to the issues involved and contain scandalous, impertinent and prejudicial material.' Mort Freedgood, Paramount publicist, will have another book published, "The Man in Question," by Doubleday later this year under his pen name of John Godey. • Leo Wilder, Warner Brothers' publicist here, and Mrs. Wilder announce the birth of a boy, Robert Michael, their second child, on Friday at the French Hospital. • Robert Goelet, producer, J. Fefebre, of 20th Century-Fox, and Mrs. Fefebre are to leave here today aboard the S.S. Queen Elizabeth for Europe. Cliff Geissman, Oakland, Cal., district manager for Blumenfeld Theatres, announces his resignation effective April 4. H. M. Rickey, assistant to William F. Rodgers of M-G-M, returned here yesterday from a Florida vacation. Al Lichtman, 20th Century-Fox vice-president, is due here today from the Coast. JOSEPH HAZEN, president of Hal Wallis Productions, headed for Florida for a two-week vacation following his return here at the weekend from the Coast. Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell, producers, Kenneth Hargreaves, director of 2'0th Century-Fox Film Co., Ltd., and P. F. Leahy, producer for Walt Disney, arrived here yesterday from Europe aboard the S.S. Queen Elisabeth. • Carroll Puctato, Realart's general manager in charge of exchange operations, has returned from a two week tour of Midwest exchanges. • Emanuel Silverstone, 20th Century-Fox foreign executive, is due to arrive here today from South Africa. Sidney Kramer, short subjects sales manager for RKO Pictures, is slated to leave here today for Atlanta. Montague Salmon, managing director of the Rivoli, has returned here from a Hollywood vacation. • Halsey Raines of M-G-M's home office publicity department returned here yesterday from Washington. FCC to Witness Skiatron Tests Brookside Lawyers Get $150,000 Fee Kansas City, March 19. — A fee of $150,000 to the three lawyers who represented the Brookside Theatre Corp. in its damage suit against nine film companies was awarded by Federal Judge Richard M. Duncan here. The lawyers, William G. Boatright, Arthur C. Popham, Sr., and Nick C. Spanos, had asked for $250,000, plus expenses. 'Red' Hearing One Day Only in March Washington, March 19.— Present plans for the House Un-American Activities Committee's hearings on Hollywood call for hearings Wednesday, at which the committee will try to hear four witnesses, and then adjourn until early April. Chairman Wood (D., Ga.) said it was likely the committee would try to develop information about contributions by film industry workers to Communist organizations and also "quite conceivable" that questioningwould turn to whether the screen had been used for Communist propaganda. "But we're not trying to smear anybody or any group," he declared. End Tenn. Rental Tax Nashville, March 19. — The state legislature has passed an act relieving film rentals of the two per cent sales tax which has been paid for the past four years. Proponents of the measure based their release claims on the fact that rentals were already paying the state's gross receipts tax. Steiner Returns to Independent Filming Joseph Steiner has resigned from the managership of Walter Reade's Park Avenue Theatre here and wili re-enter independent production, through the newly-formed Joseph Steiner Enterprises, Inc. Steiner reported yesterday that he has signed Maxie (Slapsie) Rosenbloom to an exclusive management contract for motion pictures. AFL Janitors Strike on Coast San Francisco, March 19. — AFL janitors have called a strike against 21 San Francisco theatres and 65 others elsewhere in Northern California, but temporarily postponed a threatened walkout in the Fox West Coast chain and several other major houses. There was the possibility that picketed theatres would have to cancel shows because projectionists and other empolyes would honor the janitors' picket lines. George Hardy, international vicepresident of the Building Employees Union, was to meet with George Bower, general manager of FWC, today regarding an agreement. Similar arrangements were made with other exempted houses. The Federal Communications Commission will arrive in New York this morning, to view a demonstration of SubscriberVision, the television system developed by Skiatron Electronics and Television Corp., New York. The FCC will get its first view of the pay-as-you-see system at the WOR-TV transmitter at North Bergen, N. J., from which experimental broadcasts of SubscriberVision havebeen issuing for the past few months with FCC authorization. The Commission will witness a closed-circuit demonstration at the transmitter from 11 to 11 :30 A.M. Following the showing, the Commission will visit the Skiatron laboratories, here to see an over-the-air broadcast of Subscriber-Vision originating from WOR-TV, and which may be seen simultaneously by TV viewers within 60 miles of the WORTV transmitter, from 2:30 to 3:00 P.M. At the Skiatron laboratories members of the Commission will test the operation of Skiatron's decoders with the use of perforated punch-cards, which, it is said, clear up the scrambled image without intervening telephone connections. Subject to FCC approval, subscribers to the system would pay for the decoding cards, which would be changed periodically. Their subscriptions would allow them to view a group of special programs which would not be available to TV set owners who were not paid subscribers. Color TV Tops IRE Convention Color television is dominating the 40th annual convention of the Institute of Radio Engineers, which opened here yesterday, with more than a third of the 32 papers to be delivered dealing with the subject. The convention, with an exhibit at Grand Central Palace, will run for four days, concluding Thursday. Business meetings and discussion of papers are being held at the Waldorf-Astoria. Westrex Sells to U. S. The U. S. Signal Corps has acquired 14 Western Electric-type 235D newsreel recording systems from the Westrex Corp., New York. Vidicam Demonstration Vidicam Pictures Corp., television film producers, will hold a press conference and reception here tomorrow to demonstrate its facilities and discuss the Vidicam system of makingpictures. Vidicam, with Larry Gordon as president and Alfred Justin as executive vice-president, is a successor to Television Features, Inc. Canadian MPDA Reelects Lightstone Toronto, March 19. — Gordon Lightstone, general manager of Canadian Paramount Pictures, has again been reelected president of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association. Harvey Harnick, sales manager of Columbia Pictures of Canada, was named vice-president for the next 12 months. Censors for Knox County Knoxville, Tenn., March 19. — A board of censorship for Knox County, outside of Knoxville, is authorized in a measure passed by the state legislature. Complaints against the showing of certain films by drive-ins outside the city are blamed for the new restrictions. 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