Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1952)

4 MOTION PICTURE DAILY Friday, January 18, 1952 Offered Para. $ 12,000,000 (Continued from page 1) Paths Plans (Contiiiui'd from page 1) dicated yesterday by William C. MacMillen, Jr.. Patlie president. The suit, tiled over a year ago, alleges that RKO and Loew's had conspired to keep independently-produced pictures out of the New York Metropolitan market. Pathe subsidiary Eagle Lion Classics also was a plaintiff at the outset, but was withdrawn from the action when its physical assets were sold to United Artists. AlacAIillen said most of the records requested of the defendants already have been received, but additional documents are due to be handed over by Feb. 1. He forecast that a trial date would be set for sometime in the spring, unless the defendants chose meanwhile to have a number of pretrial hearings. The Pathe Industries president, who is also board chairman of Souvaine Selective Pictures, will leave New York on Monday for the Coast wliere he will examine a number of films with a view to their acquisition by Souvaine. He will return here in about 10 days. Pathe's 1951 earnings, MacMillen said, are expected to total $1,250,000, which would compare with a loss of over $1,300,000 in 1950. AFM Contract (Continued from page 1) described their sessions as "routine" and said they had no statement to make when the conference was adjourned this afternoon. Tonight's negotiations with James C. Petrillo, AFM president, are scheduled to take up proposals for wage increases and changes in worT<ing conditions for studio musicians. Petrillo said earlier that conditions governing the use of recorded film music on television will not be introduced by the AFM and added that he didn't believe the film company executives wanted to discuss the subject, either. Another meeting was planned for tomorrow with the possibility that a joint statement might be issued then. Myers Submits (Continued from page 1) vance of the board meeting, and to prepare recommendations to give the board. Final decision will be up to the board when it meets here Feb. 4-6. Meanwhile, Theatre Owners of .America's board at a meeting in Los Angeles Jan. 28-31 will put the finishing touches to a TOA draft of an industry arbitration system which Herman M. Levy, TOA general counsel, has prepared. Reject All Bids for 'Vadis* in Chicago Ciiic.M.o, Jan. 17. — AU bids for the first run showing here of M-G-M's "Quo Vadis" have been rejected. No explanation for the action has been given. It is rumored that there is a possibility of the picture being played in the World Playhouse, local sureseater. Langan to Times Square ])()n Langan has joined Times , Square Productions licre as vicepresident in charge of sales. Langan is a veteran advertising man. the FCC's catch-all hearings, Du Mont told of other proposals his company made to get Paramount to dispose of its Du Mont company holdings in an effort to change the FCC proposed finding that the Du Mont company is controlled by Paramount. The hearings, which are currently going into the question of Paramount's control of the Du Mont company, will take up later the proposed merger between United Paramount Theatres and the American Broadcasting Co., and the question of whether the two Paramount companies or any of their subsidiaries can own television stations in the light of their anti-trust status. The Du Mont phase was originally scheduled to end tomorrow, with the other questions brought up when the hearing re-opens on Feb. 4. Questioning of Du Mont witnesses, however, will probably go well into next week, with a possible postponement of the Feb. 4 date. Under questioning by Paul A. Porter, attorney for Paramount Pictures, Inc., Du Mont described another 1950 arrangement for the disposal of Paramount's 560,000 B stock shares in the Du Mont company. This had been agreed to by both Du Mont and Paul Raibourn, Du Mont said. Raibourn is a vice-president of Paramount Pictures, Inc. and a director of the Du Mont company. "But when Barney Balaban got hold of it he kicked it out and the deal collapsed," Du Mont said. He described additional terms which Balaban wanted to put into the agreement which would still have left Paramount with the same degree of control of the Du Mont company even though Paramount would have disposed of 90 per cent of its Du Mont holdings. At one point Du Mont told FCC hearing examiner Leo Resnick that his company was "willing to bend over backwards" to get Paramount to dispose of its holdings. Later in the session, William A. Roberts, counsel for Du Mont, iritroduced in the record a letter written Jan. 12, 1951 by Du Mont to Balaban suggesting that the number of Paramount directors in the Du Mont company be reduced from three to one. Porter objected to the introduction of the letter into the record, saying that it was drafted on purpose for the hearing. Roberts agreed with Porter, pointing out a portion of the letter which quoted from the Commission's proposed 1948 decision on Paramount's control of Du Mont. The Commission decision said that if several of the Du Mont company's four class A stock directors were absent from a board meeting, Paramount's three class B stock directors could control the meeting. Two New Imports for Mayer and Kingsley The next date at the Trans-Lux 60th here will be the American premiere of "The Magic Garden," a film made in South Africa, with a nonprofessional cast composed entirely of natives. It was produced and directed by Donald Swanson. Another film, a 40-minute British featurette entitled "David," directed by Paul Dickson, will also have its first American showing at the Trans-Lux house. Both films are being released here by the firm of Arthur Mayer-Edward Kingsley, Inc. "It has been suggested," Du Mont wrote to Balaban, "that the chances of a decision by the Commission that Paramount does not control Du Mont would be enhanced if the number of directors voted by the holders of class B stock were reduced to one instead of three." At an earlier hearing, FCC Counsel Frederick Ford asked Allen DuMont what would be the effect of the UPTABC merger on the DuMont Network. DuMont replied that he did not see where the merger "would change the network's position materially so far as competition was concerned" as long as the DuMont Network had five stations. If the DuMont Network had to continue operating with its present three television stations, he continued, it would be "at a disadvantage" if the merger went through. He declared that in the early days Paramount's board members in the DuMont company had carried considerable weight in decisions. This weight lessened with the years, he said, as the DuMont company's financial position became better. In 1950, he told the Commission, DuMont made about as much as Paramount. No Plans for Theatre TV DuMont maintained that his company has no plans for theatre television. In response to questioning from Ford about the use of film on television, DuMont declared that in about five years he thought that from 20 per cent to 40 per cent of the programs on television stations would be on film. DuMont told FCC hearing examiner Leo Resnick that in recent years his company has brought up with Paramount the idea of buying Paramount's Class B stock in the DuMont company for cash. They were never able to conclude any negotiations successfully, however, he continued, "because Paramount is not interested in selling for cash." The television pioneer also said that there had been "verbal discussions" about converting Paramount's Class B stock into Class A stock. These discussions had gone as far as an outline on paper, he said, but "never came through," because it would have done away with Paramount's B stock entirely and would have distributed its A stock in small lots, which the company would not agree to. Proposals were made, DuMont continued, involving the possible sale of Paramount's DuMont holdings to "other interests." These other interests, he said, did not buy because they wanted control of the DuMont company, and "in the estimation of the purchasers the B stock never gave control." Jacobs and Steerman Share Feldman Job Pittsburgh, Jan. 17. — Sidney Jacobs and Benjamin W. Steerman, veteran executives of Warner Brothers local circuit, will share the duties left open by the resignation of assistant general-manager Joseph W. Feldman who left to assume the co-ownership of a local advertising agency. Steerman will continue as comptroller and head of the company's real estate department, while Jacobs will supervise the district theatres in addition to being in charge of West Virginia theatres. TOA Meet (Continued from page 1) lanta for the grievance meeting on his way from Miami to Los Angeles. In that case one member of the TOA grievance panel would be on hand to hear complaints as they are registered against distributors at the Atlanta regional parley. Other members of the panel are Charles P. Skouras, TOA board chairman ; Gael Sullivan, executive director, and Herman M. Levy, general counsel. Skouras is on the Coast awaiting the arrival of Sullivan who is en route there by train, and Levy will leave here today for Los Angeles. The other major TOA grievance meeting took place in New York late last fall. Meanwhile there have been subsidiary grievance gatherings among organization members in Charlotte, Albany and Watertown, N. Y. Invited to attend the Atlanta meeting are: Mack Jackson, Mrs. Walter Griffith, R. M. Kennedy, Max A. Connett, H. F. Kincey, M. A. Lightman, Sr., M. A. Lightman, Jr., R. B. Cox, H. H. Everett, G. D. Carpenter, Bolivar F. Hyde, Luke A. Stein, M. E. Hensler, Fred H. Kent, Kermit C. Stengel, J. H. Thompson, Johii Thompson, Oscar Lam, Nat Williams, Robert B. Wilby, A. Fuller Sams, Jr., J. B. Harvey, Ben L. Strozier, Jay Solomon and Emil Bernstecker. Also, Alfred Starr, Walter T. Morris, Carl Bamford, Paul H. Bennet, W. G. Fussell, P. B. Garner, William R. Griffin, M. M. Grimes, Lloyd Royal, Guy Kenimer, Fred Weis, Elmer Sutterer, Mose Lebovitz, Worth Stewart, Arthur Lehmann, Arthur J. Steel, R. D. McGowan and Louis Rosenbaum. Also, Bob Moscow, Cowan Oldham, C. L. Patrick, James T. Redd, Sam Irvin, Harold Boardman, Robert Bryant, Charles B. Burgin, Harry M. Curl, W. E. Dunn, Mark Chartrand, Milton Edelstein, R. A. Edmondson, Harvey Fleischman, Jack Fuller, J. M. Reynolds and Joseph J. Zaro. TFnity and Harmony' Showmanship Theme at TOA Board Meet Hollywood, Jan. 17. — "Unity and Harmony" has been chosen as the theme to be stressed in elaborate showmanship decorations being installed at National Theatres headquarters in preparation for TOA board meeting on Jan. 28-31. Grant Valley Case Move Chicago, Jan. 17. — The defendant's request for transfer of the Valley case, which asks for a change in the Cincinnati release system, to the Federal Court of the Southern District of Ohio was granted here today by Federal Judge Walter Labuy. The request for transfer was unopposed by the plaintiffs. Services for Gile Steel Hollywood, Jan. 17. — Services will be held tomorrow, at the Culver City Funeral Parlor for Gile Steele, M-G-M costume designer and twotime Academy Award winner, who drowned Tuesday night when a street flood trapped him in his car. His mother and a brother survive. Mrs. Jeffee Services Funeral services for Florence Jeffee, wife of Saul Jeffee, president of Movielab, will be held here today at Riverside Memorial Chapel. Mrs. Jeffee died Wednesday.