Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1951)

Monday, July 9, 1951 Newsreel Parade Motion Picture daily Personal Mention Tradewise . . . By SHERWIN KANE. WILLIAM B. ZOELLNER, head of M-G-M's short subject and newsreel sales, will be in Minneapolis tomorrow from New York, the first stop on a cross-country tour. • M. N. Wolf of M-G-M's exhibitor relations department today will speak before the Rotary Club at Norwood, Mass. Tomorrow he is due to appear before the Rotary at Framingham, Mass. Raymond J. Wylie, former branch manager in New Haven for United Artists, has entered the insurance field as a Monarch Life Insurance Co. representative. Barbara Charnas, daughter of Toledo theatre owner Nat and Mrs. Charnas, was married recently in Cleveland to Alvin Arshman of that city. Evelyn Wegener, assistant to M. L. Simons of M-G-M's exhibitor relations staff, was married to William Lindberg, Jr., at Holy Trinity Church, Rockville Centre, L. I., on Saturday. • Irving Maas, Motion Picture Export Association vice-president and general manager, has returned here from a world wide tour of branches. • Hiller Innes, executive assistant to Russell Holman, Paramount' s Eastern production head, will leave here tomorrow for Washington. Herb Crooker of M-G-M's publicity department will arrive in St. Louis today from New York on the first lap of a Midwest tour. o Pincus Sober of Loew's legal department will return to his New York office Tuesday or Wednesday from the Coast. • Fred H. Hotchkiss, Western European regional manager for Westrex Corp., is now touring European subsidiary company offices. • William Zimmerman, RKO Pictures home office sales executive, will leave here by plane today for Los Angeles. • Martin Qtjigley, Jr., and Mrs. Quigley announce the birth of a son, William John, born Friday evening. John P. Byrne, M-G-M Eastern sales manager, is in Buffalo today from New York. E. J. Mannix, M-G-M studio executive, has returned to the Coast from here. Dorothy Blanchard of M-G-M's studio publicity department is expected here from Baltimore today. Anatole Litvak, producer-director, has arrived here from the Coast. THE Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers at its recent annual meeting in Hollywood adopted a resolution urging the Federal Communications Commission "to speedily license worthy systems of subscription television so as to afford the public a more abundant opportunity to enjoy the quality of feature length motion pictures . . ." It is difficult to understand how any SIMPP member-producer could convince himself that putting his feature length pictures into pay-as-you-see television circulation will "afford the public a more abundant opportunity to enjoy them." • There is no reason to believe that the commercial theatre will continue to be interested in the exhibition of motion pictures which have been made available to television, whether or not a fee has been paid for them by the TV subscriber. There is every reason to believe that the commercial theatre will not be interested in such product. Accordingly, the producer would become almost exclusively a producer of television films. He would not be expanding his market; he would merely be exchanging his established, traditional market for a new and untried one. On the other hand, if SIMPP members believe that the potential subscriber television market is a larger, more remunerative one than the commercial theatre market there are few who share with them that belief, always excepting, of course, those who have a direct, financial interest in its exploitation. For instance, Zenith Radio of Chicago, which has the habit of taking a few local Phonevision subscriber dollars collected and projecting them into some fabulous millions of illusory revenue from a theoretically limitless number of national subscribers. That method of calculation presupposes that all or most motion pictures possess a comparable earning power and that all one has to do to realize it is to install a collection device in the home and telecast the pictures. As large screen theatre television has been demonstrating, the success of pay-as-you-see tele casts depends on two factors — the exclusivity of the program and its quality. Whether they want it or not, producers who offer their feature films to subscriber television will be getting exclusive exhibitions in homes. Whether that will compensate them for forsaking the theatre market is doubtful. While it may reasonably be conceded that quality product may command large subscriber-television grosses, the same always has been true of the theatre market. There is, of course, the possibility that SIMPP members were thinking only of making their old pictures available to subscriber television, after they had played off all possible theatre accounts. There still remain complications in that course, as a number of independent producers have learned and are in the process of learning now. Moreover, after sharing with unions, guilds, stars and owners of the subscriber marketing systems, the indicated rewards do not appear to be very enticing, particularly in view of the fact that once a picture has been made available to subscriber telecasting its reissue value has been dissipated forever. The reissue values of some of the pictures of such SIMPP members as Samuel Goldwyn and Walt Disney are enormous. It is not easy to believe that they are prepared to exchange them for a shot at pay-as-you-see television. • e Walt Disney has made a distinguished addition to his TrueLife Adventure series with the production of the Technicolor "Nature's Half Acre," to be released by RKO Pictures startingearly next month. The engrossing, beautifully produced 30-minute subject depicts the continuity of life in birds, plants and insects throughout the four seasons of the year, the dramatic interdependence of one life on another, and Nature's master plan of providing and caring for all. A diverting score and good commentary help earn it a place alongside its Academy Award winning predecessors in the series, "Seal Island" and "Beaver Valley," making it deserving of a place in any program (theatre, that is — it's far superior to TV standards). 7 HE Iran oil crisis and the impending Korea peace talks are current newsreel highlights. Other items include sports and fashions. Complete contents follow: MOVIETONE NEWS, No. 55— UN allies meet on Korea truce terms. Truman urges post-war might. England honors U. S. war dead. Some 5,000 troops sail for Germany. British cut down Iran oil output. Sports : Bullfighting. NEWS OF THE DAY, No. 289— Tense scenes in Iran. President Truman's speech urging post-war strength. Tennis fashions startle British. News flashes from the world of sport: golf. PARAMOUNT NEWS, No. 92— Crown golf and tennis champions. Iran: showdown near in oil crisis. Korean refugees await conflict's end. American message of independence: Philadelphia, Washington, Paris, London and New Orleans. TELENEWS DIGEST, No. 27-B— Washington: 4th of July. Course tests tanks. New jet fighter. India: cadet graduation. Iran: cadets train. Italy: festival of the lilies. Jennifer Jones in Korea. Jack Benny and Errol Flynn in Tokyo. Life on Germany's Red border. UNIVERSAL NEWS, No. 471— Crisis in Iran: nationalists seize British oil field. Korea tragedy : homeless wander. President Truman calls for vigilance for price of peace. Sports: cycle race, baseball, pushball. WARNER PATHE NEWS, No. 94— America celebrates 175th anniversary of independence. Snead wins PGA golf crown. Fort Worth: Premiere of "Fort Worth." Baseball in Tokyo. News flashes of Iran oil crisis. Schwalberg Sales Drive Is Now On Spearheaded by the national release of Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole," Paramount's "A Salute to Al Schwalberg" two-month sales drive has started. Branches throughout the country report saturation bookings for this and other pictures, as well as shorts. The Dallas branch has already set more than 2,000 short subjects bookings during July and August. As part of the drive, Duke Clark's South Central division is out to set a record for herald sales, and has already scored sales of over 1,000,000 on current releases, it was announced. Five Paramount Branch Managers Meet Managers of five branches of Paramount's South Central division met Friday in Dallas with division manager Duke Clark to map merchandising and distribution plans for the "Salute to Al Schwalberg" sales drive. This get-together was a follow-up to the meeting recently held by national drive chairman E. K. (Ted) O'Shea and honorary chairman Jerry Pickman with Clark in connection with the Schwalberg Salute. Trotta on His Own Vincent Trotta, veteran commercial artist in the film business, has opened his own art service business for the motion picture trade and other commercial fields, at 18 East 48th Street, New York. MOTION PICTURE DAILY. Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; Terry Ramsaye, Consulting Editor. Published daily, except Saturdays. Sundays and holidays, by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., 1270 Sixth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, New York 20, N. Y. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address: "Quigpubco, New York." Martin Quigley, President; Red Kann, Vice-President; Martin Quigley, Jr., Vice-President; Theo. J. Sullivan, Vice-President and Treasurer; Leo J. Brady, Secretary; James P. Cunningham, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; Gus H. Fausel, Production Manager. Hollywood Bureau, Yucca-Vine Building, William R. Weaver, Editor. Chicago Bureau, 120 South LaSalle Street, Urben Farley, Advertising Representative, Fl 6-3074. Washington, J. A. Otten, National Press Club, Washington, D. C. London Bureau, 4 Golden Sq., London Wl; Hope Burnup, Manager; Peter Burnup, Editor; cable address, "Quigpubco, London." Other Quigley Publications: Motion Picture Herald; Better Theatres and Theatre Sales, each published 13 times a year as a section of Motion Picture Herald; International Motion Picture Almanac; Fame. Entered as secondclass matter, Sept. 21, 1938, at the post office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Subscription rates per year, $6 in the Americas and $12 foreign; single copies, 10c.