Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1951)

4 Motion Picture Daily Tuesday, July 10, 1951 National Review Pre-Selling (iQHOW Boat Music Week" was O launched on a nationwide basis over the past weekend, with M-G-M Records and M-G-M Pictures contacting a complete list of disc jockeys all over the country. Two special recordings have been prepared by the studio which will permit the mdividua jockey to interview Ava Gardner and Howard Keel, as though in person, on separate programs. "Guest Stars on Record" as a radio show has ' \ ou Are My Lucky Star" as a musical theme. Theatres are advised in a Metro release how to contact thenlocal disc jockeys and obtain the lull benefit of the tieup. Dan Terrill, exploitation manager for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, also supplies a list of Westinghouse dealers and distributors throughout the country who will leap into action m cooperative tieups at the local level, for the release of "Rich, Young and Pretty " in which Jane Powell and Vic Damone sing "How D'You Like Your Eggs in the Morning?" as promotion for electric appliances. • This week both the Sunday magazine sections of the New York Daily News and the Mirror, with a combined circulation of close to 7,500,000, devoted color spreads to the upcoming Cecil B DeMille production of "The Greatest Show on Earth," based on location shots made with Barnum and Bailey Cir cus in Philadelphia. The News carried a front cover of Dorothy Lamour in costume and center doublespread with circus scenes featuring Betty Hutton, Jimmy Stewart, Gloria Grahame and Cornell Wilde, while the Mirror had a similar center spread in full color to capture the attention of picture fans. • The largest film, tieup ever made in the field of men's wear has been set by 20th Century-Fox with Eagle Clothes for "Daznd and Bathesheba." The promotion will involve large scale newspaper and magazine ads national radio and TV time and ai abundance of local-level tieups keyed io playdates. The campaign will kickoff with a fntl-page color ad in the "October Esquire, on sale Sept. 9, to be followed immediately with full-page ads in more than 300 top-circulation ncivspapers. An estimated 3,500 retail outlets will use Gregory Peck stills and posters on the picture if local window displays. The Daily News Record, trade paper of the men's wear field, carried a fxdl-page ad in advance regarding the tie-up. • The July 31 issue of Look magazine, on the stands July 17, will contain a six-page preview of "Quo Vadis," more space than the magazine has ever before given to any motion picture. Two of the six pages will be in full color, the rest in black-and-white. The article will say "one of the first and most popular of religious novels has now become the most collossal movie ever made." In its July bulletin, the Protestant Motion Picture Council selects another Metro picture, "Excuse My Dust" as its picture of the month, and says, "this gay comedy does not pretend to do anything but entertain, and it will provide hearty laughs for the whole family." "On Moonlight Bay" {Warner Brothers) A TECHNICOLOR FANCY, full of turn-of-the-century song and sentiment, is given an attractive polish in "On Moonlight Bay." The romantic comedy is styled in the time-honored tradition and aims at offering entertainment a la carte to all members of the family. Since it is neither taxing in plot nor pretentious in presentation it should meet with the full satisfaction of the average filmgoer. Doris Day and Gordon MacRae play the romantic lead, she as a hoydenish youngster and he as a socially-conscious college student. After the pair meet, becomes a sure thing that each is going to have an uplifting effect on the other. When it gets around to marriage, a complication is reached by Miss Day's father, Leon Ames, who objects to the prospective groom because of his radical chatter. Popping in and out of scenes with juvenile fervor is Billy Gray, Miss Day's 12-year-old brother, who gets entangled in every form of mischief. Some of the best sequences in the film revolve around the boy's dilemmas. Also in the cast are Rosemary De Camp, as Miss Day's mother, and Jack Smith, a stuffy boy friend with a facile way with a song. Miss Day and MacRae sing number of tunes. Among those heard are "Moonlight Bay," "Beautiful Dreamer," "O, Promise Me," and others. As time passes war breaks out and MacRae abandons his college cap and gown for khaki, 1917 vintage. A few more incidents develop and finally poppa gives his consent to the marriage, bringing a happy ending. William Jacobs produced and Roy Del Ruth directed. The screenplay, by ack Rose and Melville Shavelson, was adapted from Penrod stories by Booth Tarkington. Running time, 95 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, July 28. Mandel Herbstman Gilhool Huish Sell Two More Theatres Salt Lake City, July 9.— Gilhool-Huish Theatre Enterprises, once one of the biggest circuits in Utah, sold the Lyric and Huish theatres at Richfield to Van Anderson, who also operates the Pamela Theatre, Salina. The sales, seventh and eighth for the Gilhool-Huish circuit in recent months, leave it with only four theatres at present. Republic Must Show 2 Films in Suit Some of the most spectacular frontpage picture layouts and news stories carried by the Neiv York Daily Mirror in recent weeks came as a result of hundreds of news tips made by contenders in the Paramount-Dai/y Mirror News Tip Contest, held in conjunction with the run of "Ace in the Hole" at the Paramount Theatre. Many who called or submitted photographs are eligible for prizes being offered for the best news value, either as news tips or pictures made by amateur photographers. Paramount has completed a national tieup for "A Place in the Sun" with Modern Photography, one of the nation's popular magazines, and Photo Dealer, leading trade journal in the photo field, which will afford exhibitors playing the picture the cooperation of thousands of photo dealers all over the country. The tieup is based on the film's having received the special award for excellence from Modern Photography and will show dealers hozv to utilize the picture in promoting amateur photo equipment. • For the first time, Walt Disney Productions has made provisions to advertise something other than a fulllength feature in national magazines. Convinced of public interest in the forthcoming True-Life Adventure, "Nature's Half Acre" the company has taken a half-page in the Aug. 14 issue of Look magazine to promote the featurette, which is the third release of the series, including "Seal Island" and "Beaver Valley." • Two hundred film critics, columnists and drama editors in all parts of the country will shortly become acutely aware of Hal Wallis' "Pe king Express" as a result of Para mount's unique exploitation stunt of air-expressing full-course Chinese dinners to newsmen in 80 cities. The meals will be flown to their destinations by American Air lines, flying an estimated 183,400 air miles, and will consist of Egg Foo Young, Sweet and Sour Pork, Pork Chow Mein and fried rice. —Walter Brooks Essaness Sheridan May Be Synagogue Chicago, July 9. — Negotiations for the sale of the Essaness Sheridan Theatre to the Anshe Emet Congregation for use as a synagogue are under way, Ralph Smitha, Essaness general manager, said here today, and attorneys representing the interested parties are trying to work out the deal. According to local real estate brokers, the Balaban and Katz Granada also is available and a local rumor has it being taken over by Loyola University to be used as an auditorium. Columbus, O., July 9.— Republic Pictures was ordered by Common Pleas Judge Cecil J. Randall to show to the court two features, "The French Key" and "Winter Wonderland" in a $1,800,000 breach of contract and damages suit here. The suit was brought by the John K. Teaford Co. here, which had loaned producer Walter Combes $315,000 to produce the films. Later, the Teaford Co. acquired the contract which Combes had made with Republic to distribute the pictures. On March 24, 1949 the company sued Republic, charging that it had not lived up to contract provisions. The Ohio company asked $1,000,000 for breach of contract and $800,000 damages. The suit accuses Republic of having the features shown as support for other films in double-feature billings so their income would be reduced. Date for examination of the films has not been set. Judge Randall also ordered Republic to submit records in the case. Essaness Appeals Woods Decision Chicago, July 9. — Essaness Theatres Corp. filed a petition here today for a rehearing of the Woods Theatre case. A decision reversed a lower court and awarded to the partners of the Woods the option to purchase the theatre building at the price for which Essaness bought it or to rent the theatre from Essaness for three years at the old rental, $60,000 a year. Discuss Allied Plans For N. Y. Convention Washington, July 9. — Plans for Allied States Association's convention in New York in October were discussed here today by President Trueman T. Rembusch, general counsel, Abram F. Myers and convention chairman Wilbur Snaper. Rembusch said advance reservations are already beginning to come in, and all indications are that it will be a stand-out meeting. 4LV Coast Meet to Set Wage Demands Hollywood, July 9. — IATSE officials of craft and technical unions are due to meet here tomorrow to formulate new demands for wage increases and working conditions. The new demands will be made under the wage reopening clause of the contract between the studios and the IATSE, which represents about 15,000 workers here. The deadline date for renegotiations is July 27. Film studio labor began a campaign for more pay last winter, following which the studios offered a 10 cents an hour wage hike, together with a flexible cost-of-living allowance based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics Index. This offer, however, was withdrawn when a number of unions turned it down. Wanger in Broidy Office Hollywood, July 9. — Walter Wanger, recently signed by Allied Artists president Steve Broidy, has moved into his offices at Allied Artists studio. Wanger has been operating out of offices at the Hal Roach lot in Culver City. Bachman Takes Over Monogram Exchange Charlotte, July 9.— John Bachman, former manager for United Artists in Atlanta, has arrived here to succeed Hal H. Jordan as local Monogram manager. Jordan resigned to take over active management of his theatre in Dunn. Bachman formerly was manager of the Warner exchange here and left a few years ago for the UA management post in Atlanta.