Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1951)

FIRST NEWS MOTION PICTURE DAILY 1 IVOL. 70. NO. 11 NEW YORK, U. S. A., TUESDAY, JULY 17, 1951 TEN CENTS S chary Named To Top MGM Studio Post Chicago Weekend Meet Hands Him Studio Reins The appointment of Dore Senary in charge of M-G-M production and studio operations, acting as chairman of an executive board consisting of E. J. Mannix, general manager; B e n j a m i n Thau and Louis K. Sidney, was announced yesterday by Nicholas M. S c h e n c k, president of Loew's and M-G-M. The report followed the weekend meeting at the Ambassa dor Hotel, Chicago, of the company s top 14 executives, seven from each {Continued on page 5) Dore Schary Unity Meet on TV Channels in August A day or two during the first week of August are expected to be devoted to the all-industry meeting scheduled for New York to work out a "united front" position in connection with the forthcoming FCC hearings on theatre television. Motion Picture Association of America, Allied, Theatre Owners of America and other organizations will be represented, with Si H. Fabian, head of the National Exhibitors Theatre TV Committee, expected to function as host. Loew's Opens Fight Film Tomorrow First Meeting on UK Pact Leaves US Men 'Pessimistic 9 Martin-Lewis Set Pace as Broadway Grosses Hold Firm Despite the strong appeal of the beaches as summer temperatures Amount, Broadway's first-runs appear to be holding their own this week in the competition for the amusement ►dollar. » In the forefront of the better boxoffice performers is the bill at the Paramount, which combines the comedy team of Martin and Lewis on {Continued on page 2) Loew's and Brandt theatres here concluded deals yesterday with Republic Pictures to open the 5,000-foot film of the recent Sugar Ray Robinson-Randolph Turpin fight in the Metropolitan area tomorrow. Loew's booked the film for its entire 54 houses in the Metropolitan circuit, while six Brandt houses will show the fight picture. The film also has been booked for Loew's theatres elsewhere around the country and deals are being set with leading circuits in all areas, Republic said. Loew's State here will open the film day-and-date with Loew's Metropolitan, Brooklyn, tomorrow, retaining it as long as business justifies. The booking for the remainder of the Loew's Metropolitan circuit is for five days minimum, starting tomorrow. Brandt's Mayfair and Lyric will also open tomorrow on the same basis as the State and Metropolitan. Brandt's Carlton, (Continued on page 9) London, July 16. — American representatives emerging from a 50-minute preliminary meeting here today on| the new film remittance agreement; expressed a feeling of "slight pessimism" at its outcome. Meeting with Bank of England, Board of Trade and Treasury officials were Joyce O'Hara, John McCarthy and F. W. Allport of the Motion Picture Association of America, and James Mulvey of the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers. Government sources declined to comment on the meeting except to confirm that it had taken place and to state that no time had been set for the next meeting. Observers feel, however, that both sides are feeling each other out and that the meeting will resume without, any unusual delays. O'Hara and Mulvey, in fact, are planning their return to the U. S. {Continued on page 9) Jubilee Plans Will Dominate Coast Seminar Prints Going Out In Flood Areas Kansas City, July 16.— Floodwaters are receding in Kansas, and; prints are going out by Exhibitors Film Delivery to theatres that are operating though in many cases exhibitors have to meet the trucks and take prints to theatres by boats or other means. No prints had gone by express up to noon today. In Kansas City, Mo.j theatres do not open until five o'clock weekdays and do not operate air conditioning equipment as a water con-; servation measure. Attendance is dowri from 25 to 50 per cent. TV, Color, Actors, Ads, 'P.R.' Also on Agenda The industry box-office jubilee drive which the Council of Motion Picture Organizations will sponsor in the fall will dominate discussions at the COMPO seminar July 23-26 on the Coast, Gael Sullivan, seminar chairman, reported here yesterday with the release of a virtually completed agenda for the round table parley. Although discussion of the fall industry box-office campaign is expected to be uppermost in the round table program "and color most of the debate," the agenda calls for speeches by two or more delegates on each of 14 other subjects, Sullivan said. These subjects are: quantity and quality of pictures, new screen faces, picture cycles, message pictures, small budget pictures, television, public relations, trailers and advertising, audi {Continued on page 5) Government Asks Industry to Unload All Scrap Metals California Theatres Reelects 9 Directors San Francisco, July 16.— The California Theatres Association and Affiliated Industries, Inc., has reelected nine of its former board members in addition to naming Mark Ailing, manager of the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco and D. B. Levin, owner of the Grand Theatre, San Francisco, to the directorate. Reelected were Abe Blumenfeld, Blumenfeld Theatres; Roy Cooper, Golden State Theatres; L. S. Hamm, {Continued on page 5) Levy Chides Industry for Inaction on Arbitration Schwartz Head of UA's Purchasing Robert Schwartz has been named purchasing agent of United Artists. Schwartz, formerly production manager of Eagle-Lion Films, will be in charge of all purchasing for the UA home office and branches. He joined UA following the company's purchase of Eagle-Lion. Schwartz succeeds Ida Garretson. Present inaction with respect to the proposal that an all-industry meeting be held to determine whether a system of arbitration can be devised was deplored yesterday by Herman M. Levy, general counsel of the Theatre Owners of America, in a statement issued here. _ , "There is the universal call within the industry for arbitration but there is no universal response," he chided. He would not say if his comments were inspired by the apparent stalemate which followed recent conversa(Continued on page 9) Washington, July 16. — National Production Authority film chief, Nathan D. Golden said a plan has been set up to salvage obsolete, inoperative film equipment for scrap, and requests all industry groups to cooperate. The program covers equipment in theatres, studios and exchanges. The Institute of Scrap Iron and Steel is {Continued on page 4) Tighter Curbs Seen On Theatre Repairs Washington, July 16. — The proposed changeover in the National Production Authority's construction control order may mean much tighter curbs on theatre alteration and repair work, in the opinion of some government officials. They feel that the new restrictions, in terms of copper, steel and aluminum, may hold down such work much more sharply than the present dollar restrictions. {Continued on page 4)