Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1951)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Accurate Concise and Impartial ... VOL. 70. NO. 9 NEW YORK, U. S. A., FRIDAY, JULY 13, 1951 TEN CENTS All-Industry Meet on TV Channels Due NETTCAllied Accord Impetus for Master Plan Producer and exhibitor representatives will be asked to attend a meeting here in the next two to three weeks to work out a "united front" position to take before the forthcoming Federal Communications Commission hearings on theatre television, it was disclosed yesterday. Host for the meeting probably will be Si Fabian, head of the National Exhibitors Theatre Television Committee. Invited will be spokesmen for NETTC, Allied States Association, the Motion Picture Association of America, individual film companies, the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers and possibly the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. The way has been cleared for the (Continued on page 4) Stage Set for Start Of U.K. Remittance Negotiations Today London, July 12. — Joyce O'Hara, acting head of the Motion Picture Association of America, and James Mulvey, Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers' representative, arrived here from New York by plane today to begin discussions tomorrow with British government officials on the new film remittances agreement. F. W. Allport, MPAA's London (Continued on page 4) $426,830 6-Month Republic Profit For the 26 weeks ended April 28, 1951, Republic Pictures and subsidiaries report a net profit of $771,830, before Federal tax provision, with estimated federal normal and surtaxes of $345,000, or a net after taxes of $426,830. For the 26 weeks ended April 29, 1950, Republic reported a net profit of $1,168,589, before Federal tax provi(Continued on page 2) Virtual Sell-out Scored by Exclusive Telecast of Fight Loew's Officers Meet In Chicago Tomorrow Seven top Loew's executives from the home office and seven from the studio will meet in Chicago tomorrow for a general business conference on company plans and policies. The meeting, expected to be a brief one, may be concluded tomorrow but, if not, would be continued on Sunday. Attending from the home office will be: Nicholas M. Schenck, president; J. Robert Rubin, C. C. Moskowitz, W. F. Rodgers, Arthur Loew, Joseph Vogel and Howard Dietz, and, from the studio: Dore Schary, E. J. Mannix, Ben Thau, Louis K. Sidney, Laurence Weingarten, J. J. Cohn and Howard Strickling. The Rex Layne-Rocky Marciano fight, telecast exclusively last night from New York's Madison Square Garden to 11 theatres in eight states, brought capacity audiences to virtually all but three of the theatres. According to reports received from Motion Picture Daily correspondents, the audience response was excellent, with hundreds turned away as in the Louis-Savold and the MurphyLaMotta exclusive telecasts. However, initial reports in such cities as Chicago and Albany indicated that lines did not form outside theatres as early as in the other two exclusive theatre telecasts, indicating to some observers that last night's bout, not featuring big name fighters, lacked the same drawing power as the other bouts. In Philadelphia, the Warner Brothers' Stanley, which has a 2,945 seating capacity was sold out. The same situation held true in Pittsburgh, where Shea's 1,547-seater Fulton fea (Continued on page 5) UPT-ABC Request FCC Approval of Merger By Oct. 1 ARM Hitch Blocks Republic, TV Deal _ Hollywood, July 12.— The transaction in which NBC television station KNBH was to acquire 26 Republic features and 48 serial episodes for $77,000 went cold today. Republic subsidiary, Hollywood Television Service, notified KNBH's (Continued on page 5) Washington, July 12. — United Paramount Theatres and American Broadcasting Co. today asked the Federal Communications Commission to approve their proposed merger by Oct. 1 at the latest. The firms, filing the first formal application petition with the Commission, explained that the fall season is the beginning of the year for TV network operations, and therefore they wanted clearance by then. The boards of directors of both (Continued on page 5) ENTERTAINMENT TO SUPPLANT 'MESSAGE' FILMS: GRAINGER RKO producer Edmund Grainger predicted here yesterday that there will be more entertainment pictures coming out of Hollywood in the next 18 months than ever before and that the so called "message" picture — where "preaching takes the place of entertainment — has no place today in the film industry's scheme of things." Grainger had just arrived in New York from Hollywood and Washington. In the Capital his "Flying Leath ernecks," . a Technicolor film which will be released nationally about Labor Day, was given a screening for military personnel at the Pentagon. "The Marine Corps was enthusiastic about the picture," he said. The producer, who keeps alert for headline stories that can make provocative pictures, has another two which will be released in the months to come. The first is "The Racket," (Continued on page 4) Presidents To Act Today On 'Jubilee9 Weigh Ad-Publicity Plan For Compo's Fall Project At a meeting here this morning of the presidents of the Motion Picture Association of America member companies important decisions are due to be made with respect to the nature and extent of the role the distributors will play in the box-office jubilee slated for the fall under Council of Motion Picture Organizations' auspices. The presidents' meeting was announced yesterday following a conference here among members of the MPAA national distributors' committee who, after assaying proposals submitted by the association's advertisingpublicity committee, arrived at recommendations which the presidents, acting as the MPAA board, must pass upon. The nature of the sales chiefs' rec (Continued on page 4) 20th -Fox Calls A 2 -Day Sales Meet; 6 Releases in Color Twentieth Century-Fox yesterday called a two-day sales conference and set six Technicolor releases for August through December. A two-day conference of all 20th Century-Fox division managers on the special handling of forthcoming top product will take place at the company's home-office Monday and Tuesday, it was announced by Al Lichtman, director of distribution. Set for discussion at the sales con (Continued on page 4) Disney to Appeal 'Alice' Reversal Walt Disney Productions will appeal to the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals here from the Federal District Court's refusal Wednesday to issue an injunction restraining Souvaine Pictures from distributing Lou Bunin's "Alice in Wonderland" concurrently with the Disney production. In announcing the decision to appeal (Continued on page 4)