Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1951)

Personal Mention j. Motion Picture daily Tradeivise . . . Monday, May 21, 1951 By SHERWIN KANE Arthur Rank is due to arrive here from England on the 5.i. Queen Elisabeth tomorrow and is scheduled to return to England May 30 after visits to Chicago, PhiUde} phia and Toronto. John Davis, Rank s managing director, is scheduled to arrive here by plane tomorrow. • Alfred E. Daft, Universal-International's world-wide sales chief, _ is due to leave here July 20 # for a sixweek tour that will take him to London, Paris, Singapore, Egypt and Australia. • Herman Silver of Columbia's pressbook department and Mrs. Silver announce the birth of a second child, a daughter, Dorothy, born last week at Women's Hospital, N. Y. © Frank Whitbeck, M-G-M studio advertising manager, arrived here from the Coast yesterday and starting next week will visit 12 cities contacting exhibitors and exchange personnel. Maurice N. Wolf, field assistant to M-G-M's director of exhibitor relations H. M. Richey, is scheduled to address the Kiwanis Club at Stanton, Va., today. • Hiller Innes, executive assistant to Paramount' s Eastern production head Russell Holman, is due to leave here today for Cleveland and Columbus. • Nate J. Blumberg, Universal president, and Leon Goldberg, treasurer, are expected back here from the Coast today. • William W. Spencer, M-G-M studio executive, is scheduled to arrive here from the Coast on May 30 for a week's visit. Hugh Owen, Paramount' s Eastern and Southern division manager, left Atlanta for Charlotte over the weekend. Dorothy Altmann of Motion Picture Daily will be married on Saturday to Salvatore Moscato. • Joseph Walsh, in charge of branch operations for Paramount, left here over the weekend for Atlanta. Sylvan Simon, 41 Columbia Producer Hollywood, May "20. — S. Sylvan Simon, 41, producer of "Born Yester day" and many other films, died here last Thursday night. His widow, a son and daughter survive. The Chicago born director-producer was appointed an executive producer at Columbia in 1949 following employment with M-G-M and Warner Brothers. His picture credits include "Salute to the Marines," "Whistling in Brooklyn," and "Song of the Open Road. CURRENT bulletins of regional exhibitor organizations circulated to their membership are, almost without exception, preoccupied with charges that distributors are endeavoring to maintain or increase film rentals and playing terms while theatre attendance continues in a slump. The bulletins contend that rentals should be lowered and playing terms eased and, to clinch their argument that distributors can afford to do it, the bulletins cite the profits of some companies recently reported in financial statements for 1950. In basing their argument on 1950 financial reports, the exhibitor organization bulletins do not make clear to their readers that those reports covered a period beginning 17 months ago and ended five months ago. The bulletins do not break down reports of such still integrated companies as Warners, ^ 20th Century-Fox and Loew's to show that theatre operations contributed a large or the major portion of the 1950 consolidated profit. Nor do the bulletins bother to mention that in the case of divorced Paramount the profits of the new theatre company ran well ahead of the new picture company last year, and the recent report of RKO revealed that on a pro forma basis last year, the picture company was deeply in the red, whereas the theatre company had a substantial profit. The same trend appears in the first quarter statements of the two independent companies this year. • It cannot be denied that theatre profits are down. But distribution profits are down, too. Those exhibitors who point to profitable results as they leaf through the financial reports _ of distribution companies, citing them as evidence of "gouging" of exhibitors, for the most part head privately owned companies whose books are not open to a similar inspection. If their own audited accounts were made public for proportionate comparison with distributors' their arguments could be accurately appraised. But not otherwise. Newsreel Parade Instead of adding to industry dissension in these seriously disturbed times with charges that one branch of the industry is fattening at the expense of another, exhibitor organizations and their leaders should be reminding fellow exhibitors that any decline in theatre attendance is as much a concern of production and distribution as it is of exhibition. There should be encouragement for exhibitors in the ability of production and distribution to continue to operate profitably, for only by so doing is there any assurance for the exhibitor of a continuity of good product. It cannot be emphasized too much nor repeated too often that the several branches of the industry are wholly dependent on each other. There cannot be prosperity for one and disaster for another. One example of distributor awareness of that was given by M-G-M recently in directions toi its field force to extend every 'aid of which the company is capable to really distressed theatres. Unity is the message which, in good times and bad, exhibitor organizations should give to their members and which distributors, no less than exhibitors, should back up with deeds. • • Allied States' position, taken at its board of directors' meeting in Kansas City, that it wants modification of competitive bidding practices by distributors as the price for its participation in a new industry arbitration system appears to be a fair one. It is to be assumed from manifestations of distributor interest in a reactivation of industry arbitration that the matter is as important to it as is a restriction of competitive bidding to Allied. There is an apparent area therein for good-tempered bargaining. An acceptable solution for both sides might be found in a definition of competitive bidding practice mutually agreeable to distributors and exhibitors, with inclusion in new rules of arbitration of provisions for the submission to arbitrators of all complaints of violations of the competitive bidding rules. PARAMOUNT devotes all of its footage to a tribute to the Armed Forces. Other items in other reels are reports from Korea, a> triplets convention, sports and fashions. Complete contents follow: MOVIETONE NEWS, No. 41— Coal ship rams vessel. Helicopter saves injured seaman. Gen. Marshall hailed by Alma Mater. Cite British heroes in Korea. Triplets convention. Atomic Energy report. Golf tournament. Jeep race. NEWS OF THE DAY, No. 275— Films from Korean warfront. Gen. Marshall honored by Alma Mater. Israel's third Independence Day. Triplets convention in Pali sades Park. Archery tournament. Swimming lessons for wounded "G. I. s . PARAMOUNT NEWS, No. 78— Entire footage is devoted to a salute to the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps as Defenders of Freedom," a record of service of the Armed Forces on land, sea and air. TELENEWS DIGEST, No. 20-B— Report on Panama. The Krupp Works today. U S troops in Iceland. Hong Kong prepares. New flight record. Dr. Paul Nagai dies. Atom exhibit. Armed Services torture test. Motorcycle thriller. UNIVERSAL NEWS, No. 457 — British honor King Frederick of Denmark. Medical research laboratory in Michigan. Gen. Marshall honored at Alma Mater. Army trucks overhauled. Triplets convention. Jumping jeeps. Timber topping. WARNER PATHE NEWS, No. 80— Gen. Bradley on stand at Senate probe. Gen. Marshall honored by Alma Mater. Alaska defense maneuvers. Haile Selassie sends troops to aid in Korea. Summer fashions in wool. Ask support of New York's P.A.L. Fire Destroys Ritz Alexandria, La., May 20. — The biggest fire here in five years destroyed the Ritz Theatre with a loss of between $150,000 and $200,000. A fireman was fatally trapped when the theatre walls collapsed. 20th to Reissue 'Buffalo' "Buffalo Bill" has been added to the six past 20th Century-Fox Technicolor Westerns which are being rereleased by the company. It will go to theatres late in June, like the others 8 AT OI Annual Meet On— If It Rains French Lick, Ind., May 20.— The annual convention of the Associated Theatre Owners of Indiana will open here tomorrow with a busy agenda of social events, strictly in accord with tradition. A single business session has been scheduled for Tuesday evening based on weather forecasts of inclement weather then. Scheduled for informal talk are : Maurice Bergman, assistant to the president of Universal Pictures ; Robert Coyne, special counsel of the Council of Motion Picture Organizations ; H. M. Richey of Loew's and Leon' Bamberger of RKO Pictures. Trueman Rembusch, president of ATOI and of Allied States, will preside. Rosenblatt, Conley In New RKO Posts Maxwell M. Rosenblatt, manager of RKO Pictures' branch in Des Moines, has been transferred to head the company's office in Omaha, Robert Mochrie, sales vice-president, reported here at ' the weekend. Also, Donald H. Conley, salesman in Minneapolis, has been made manager in Des Moines. Rosenblatt replaces Jack Renfro, who resigned to go into business for himself. Sell Oriental Building Chicago, May 20.— The 22-story Oriental Theatre building has been sold by Doubleday Co. to the Walco Building Corp. motion PICTURE 1 1 1 ... Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; Terry Ramsay* ^ C^!^^rcle ^^clbte'^dr^f "Ji^u^