Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1951)

...... ■1ST MOTION PICTURE A , Accurate NEWS DAILY Concise and Impartial VOL. 69. NO. 60 NEW YORK, U.S.A., WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 1951 TEN CENTS Court Orders Hughes to Sell Theatre Stock Has Until Feb. 20, 1953, Then Trustee Must Sell Howard Hughes was ordered to sell his 24 per cent trusteed stock interest in RKO Theatres by Feb. 20, 1953, by the New York Statutory Court yesterday. If he fails to dispose of the stock by the deadline, the trustee, Irving Trust Co., will be required to sell it within the following two years, under the terms of the court order. Yesterday's action was taken without further hearings on a government motion submitted by Philip Marcus, special assistant to the Attorney-General in the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice. Marcus and Thomas Slack, Hughes' attorney, had presented opposing briefs previously. The government last Feb. 20 asked for a one-year deadline for the sales of Hughes' theatre stock, but had accepted a court compromise proposal for two years. Hughes refused the (Continued on page 18) Hollywood Girded Against TV: Levy Oklahoma City, March 27. — Hollywood is fully prepared to "meet the competition from television with good box-office pictures at the high levels of patron appeal," Herman M. Levy, Theatre Owners of America's general counsel, told the annual convention of the Theatre Owners of Oklahoma. Levy said he had just come from the Coast and based his observation on what he had seen and learned there. "It is necessary for exhibition and (Continued on page 17) Compo Press Group Headed by Alicoate Jack Alicoate, publisher of The Film Daily, has been elected representative of the trade press on the executive board of the Council of Motion Picture Organizations, it was announced here yesterday by Arthur L. Mayer, COMPO executive vice-president. Alicoate succeeds Abel Green of Variety, whose one-year term as trade press representative had expired. Alicoate is expected to name his alternate shortly. Ascap Reports $9,044,842 Net for 1950 A net income of $9,044,842 for 1950' was reported yesterday by Ascap, marking an increase of $944,312 over the previous year. The report was presented to the membership of the Society at its annual meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel here. With the Society's gross income for 1950 put at $11,874,371, an increase of $1,273,186 over 1949 was noted. A pronounced increase in license fees was attributed mainly to an additional $400,000 secured during the year from radio and a $925,000 rise in receipts from television. Operating expenses for 1950 amounted to $2,829,528, against $2,500,654 for the preceding year. The increase in expenses of $328,874 was explained (Continued on page 18) Leo Devaney, 60, RKO Veteran Leo M. Devaney, RKO Radio Pictures' Canadian district manager for the last 18 years, and an industry veteran of 38 years, died in Toronto yesterday from a heart attack at the age of 60. He was taken ill en route to Toronto from Winnipeg by plane and placed in an oxygen tent in Toronto's Western Hospital, the RKO home office reported here yesterday. (Continued on page 19) MPAA TIGHTENS PRODUCTION CODE Showmen, Daily And Herald Hit '46 Code Change When in September, 1946, the Motion Picture Association board relaxed the Production Code ban on the presentation in motion pictures of the illegal drug traffic, Quigley Publications took an uncompromising editorial stand against the board's action. At the same time exhibitors in every corner of the country began to register protests against the substituted amendment which yesterday was repealed by the MPAA board in favor of a readherence to the original edict, namely, "Illegal drug traffic must never be presented." Motion Picture Daily, following (Continued on page 18) Name Flinn Mono., Allied Ad Director Hollywood, March 27. — The appointment of John C. Flinn, Jr., as national advertising and publicity director of Monogram and Allied Artists, was announced today by Steve Broidy, president. He succeeds the late Louis S. Lifton, who had held the post 15 years at the time of his death. Sanford Abrahams was appointed (Continued on page 19) Scores Book 20th-Fox Crime Feature, Has Laughs, Drama i Exhibitor response to 20th CenturyFox's news feature based on the Kefauver crime hearings kept the home office and branches throughout the country busy yesterday as bookings reached record proportions. The Movietone feature reached Broadway yesterday on the screens of the Rivoli, Astor and Palace and by last night more than 50 theatres in the N. Y. area had booked the_film. Late yesterday afternoon, exhibitors were standing in line at the N. Y. exchange waiting for prints coming from the laboratory 10 at a time. The same pattern was in evidence across the country with Chicago ex (Continued on page 17) Public service and solid entertainment are combined in 20th CenturyFox's timely presentation of the Kefauver Senate Crime Investigating hearings as recorded by the newsreel cameras. The entertainment ranges from the laughs provided by Virginia Hill Hauser's seemingly ingenuous replies to the drama of acknowledged gangsters and racketeers brought into the glare of kleig-lighted publicity. But, surprisingly enough, the main impact comes from a thorough realization of the committee's aims and purposes in holding the hearings. Sen. Estes Kefauver, chairman of (Continued on page 17) Bans Narcotics Stories, Restricts Suicide and Other Crime Treatments The Motion Picture Association of America board of directors at its annual meeting here yesterday adopted four amendments tightening up the industry's Production Code on treatments of crime in motion pictures, one of which restores the Code's ban on presentation of narcotics subject matter, which was relaxed in 1946. Other amendments strengthen Code restrictions on the employment of suicide in film plots; proclaim abortion an improper subject for theatrical pictures and qualify the present regulation covering scenes depicting the killing of lawenforcement officers. The new amendment pertaining to narcotics provides that "neither the illegal drug traffic, nor drug addiction, must ever be presented." The amendment returns the Code to its pre-1946 status when it contained the flat provision that "Illegal (Continued on page 18) O'Hara An MP A Y-P; Johnston Reelected Eric Johnston was reelected president of the Motion Picture Association of America at the organization's annual meeting here yesterday, and Joyce O'Hara, who is filling in during Johnston's service on leave of absence as Economic Stablization Administrator, was elected an MPAA vice-president. All other officers and directors were reelected. Officers in addition to Johnston and O'Hara are : Joseph I. Breen, Francis Harmon, and John G. McCarthy, (Continued on page 18) See More Time for Loew's, 20th Decrees Washington, March 27. — Justice Department officials had consent decree talks today with spokesmen for both 20th Century-Fox and Loew's. Indications were that while progress was made in the talks with each company, still further postponements would be required in the deadlines now set for presenting divorcement plans to the New York court. The Loew's deadline is March 31 and the (Continued on page 18)