Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1952)

Motion Pictui^ Daily Thursday, March 20, 1952 Amusement Division Company Chairmen Set for UJA Drive Compam chairmen for the amusement division of the United Jewish Appeal of 1952 were announced here yesterday at an organizational meeting at the Hotel Astor. They are: Irving Greenfield, Loew's ; William Brenner and George Dembow, National Screen Service ; Arthur Israel, Jr., Paramount; Robert Weitman, United Paramount Theatres; Robert Goldfarb, RKO Pictures ; Harry Mandel, RKO Theatres ; Jack Lang and Ulric Bell, 20th-century Fox ; Samuel Schneider, Warner Brothers ; Adolph Schimel, Universal ; Max Youngstein, United Artists ; Max Seligman, Columbia. Chairmen of other groups are : Legitimate theatres, Richard Rodgers; exhibitors, Sol Strausberg, Mannie Frisch and Fred Schwartz ; purchasing agents, Charles Moss ; Laboratories, William German ; exchanges, Len Gruenberg and Phil Hodes ; music publishers, Julius Collins ; publicity, Youngstein ; publications, Chick Lewis, Red Kann, Jack Alicoate and Martin Quigley. At a recent pre-organizational meeting, Robert Benjamin was chosen to lead the 1952 UJA campaign. Cochairmen of the campaign are Barney Balaban, Jack Cohn, Ned Depinet, Si Fabian, Arthur Krim, Sam Rosen, Abe Schneider, Fred Schwartz and Sypros Skouras. Others at yesterday's meeting were : Benjamin Abner, Fabian, Harry Goldberg, Monroe Goodman, Leo Jacobi, Krim, Nat Lefkowitz, Don Mersereau, Lou Novins, Harold Rinzler, Samuel Rinzler, Edward RugoiT, Leslie Schwartz, Morton Sunshine, Mort Wormser. Mrs. Manheimer to Head Women's Tent Chicago, March 19. — Mrs. Arthur Manheimer was elected president of the Women's Variety Club, an organization of wives of Variety Club of Illinois members, at a meeting held here last night. Other officers elected were : Mrs. Meyer Gold, vice-president ; Mrs. C. J. Waters, secretary ; Mrs. Irwin Joseph, treasurer, and Mrs. Joseph Berenson, hostess. The group has been organized to aid the charitable and social activities of the local Variety Club. MOT Film on Russia March of Time will distribute "If Russia Strikes," produced by MOT, starting in May, it was disclosed here by Phil Williams, theatrical sales manager of the company. The picture was made in this country. Robinson Bout on TV The Sugar Ray Robinson-Rocky Graziano middleweight championship bout in Chicago on April 16 will be broadcast exclusively over the CBSTV and radio networks under the sponsorship of Pabst, it was disclosed here. Personal Mention SPYROS P. SKOURAS, 20th Century-Fox president, plans to leave here for the Coast next week for studio conferences. • Victor Ghidalia of Warner Brothers home office pressbook department, will be married to Roberta Epstein on March 30. • Gael Sullivan, Theatre Owners of America executive director, was confined to his home yesterday with a cold. • James V. O'Gara, Republic district manager, is in St. John on the first stopover of a tour of Canadian branches. • Philip Gerard, Universal assistant publicity manager, was in Washington yesterday from New York. • Dr. Herbert T. Kalmus, president of Technicolor, will arrive here tomorrow from the Coast. • Leon Gordon, M-G-M producer, will leave Hollywood tomorrow for London. BARNEY BALABAN, Paramount Pictures president, and Paul Raibourn, vice-president, left here yesterday for the Coast. • James R. Grainger, Republic executive vice-president in charge of sales and distribution, will leave here for Washington today and will be back in New York on Monday. • David T. Katz, executive director of the Roxy Theatre here, will leave tomorrow for Los Angeles where he will attend the annual National Theatres convention. • Vittorio DeSica, Italian producerdirector, will leave here today for Chicago. He will be in Hollywood on Monday. 9 Herman M. Levy, general counsel of Theatre Owners of America, was in New York yesterday from New Haven. • Charles Schlaifer will leave French Hospital here tomorrow to convalesce from his recent illness at his home. M-G-M Delegation To Rome Tomorrow Arriving in New York today, en route to Rome for M-G-M's "Quo Vadis" sales conference, are the following company territorial managers : Julian Berman, Cuba ; Josef Blair, Puerto Rico ; Myron Karlin, Venezuela ; Carlos Niebla, Mexico ; W. Lewis Simpson, Panama ; Alberto Walker, Colombia. All will leave for Rome tomorrow by KIM Airways, accompanying the home office delegation, which will be headed by Arthur M. Loew, president of Loew's International Corp., and Morton A. Spring, vice-president. MPAA Hosts DeSica At Reception in N, Y. With John G. McCarthy, Motion Picture Association of America international division head, acting as host, Vittorio DeSica, Italian producer-director, was honored at an MPAA reception at the Hampshire House here last evening. Scores of executives of the MPAA member-companies as well as foreign film distributors attended. Clarence Hill's Sister Funeral services will be held today at West Point Pleasant, N. J., for Mrs. Julius Heinbokel, 49, sister of Clarence A. Hill, branch operations manager of 20th Century-Fox. Mrs. Heinbokel, who is survived also by the widower and a daughter, died suddenly on Monday at her home. SAG Cancels Contract Hollywood, March 19. ■ — Screen Actors Guild today announced cancellation of its contract with Jack .Schwarz Productions, Inc., effective May 18, on grounds of non-payment of $3,500 to actors in "Son of Stampede." $300,000 for Films In Yugoslav Program Washington, March 19. — The Mutual Security Agency has announced that Yugoslavia has signed an agreement to come under the Agency's information media guaranty program, and that $300,000 had been earmarked for convertibility of earnings on films distributed in that country. The film guaranty contracts must be signed by June 30, the Agency stipulated. Motion Picture Association president Eric A. Johnston promptly announced that he had been in contact with the Yugoslav Embassy and that Yugoslav officials will arrive here within the next two to three weeks to work out specific details. Committee to Probe Jarrico Dispute Hollywood, March 19. — A six-man conciliation committee, composed of three members each from the Screen Writers Guild and the Association of Motion Picture Producers, will undertake to determine next week whether RKO Pictures acted in accordance with the basic contract agreement between the producers and the Guild in removing Paul Jarrico's name from the screen play credit for "The Las Vegas Story." RKO, in filing suit Monday against Jarrico's claims with regard to his contract, said they had not used any of his contribution to the film. No Ontario 'X' Film Yet Toronto, March 19. — The Ontario Board of Censors has announced that the proposed "Classification 'X' " for adults-only films has not yet been put into effect. "Rasho-mon," the RKO Radio Japanese picture, now playing the Towne Cinema, had been advertised as an "X" feature but the board said it was "a mistake." iwB Brief Albany, N. Y., March 19.— The Stage and Screen Foreign Press Club, Inc. has registered for a certificate under the membership corporation law, to "bring together the correspondents of foreign publications and radio-television stations and to promote the exchange of cultural values between its international membership and the creative forces representing those fields in the United States." The club also proposes to establish a uniform procedure of customs and exchanges within the profession, formulate a higher standard of ethics for members, and provide for settlement and arbitration of differences among members. • David Savage, manager of the WCBS-TV film department here, has been put in charge of feature film buying for all departments of the television division, it was announced by Merle S. Jones, CBS-TV vicepresident in charge of stations and general services. Savage will purchase feature films for CBS television-owned stations and all stations represented by CBS-TV spot sales. Name Tax Agent As 'U' Guest in 1947 Washington, March 19. — Charles D. Prutzman, former vice-president and general counsel of Universal Pictures, admitted to a House Ways and Means investigating subcommittee that his company had paid hotel and plane travel expenses for a Bureau of Internal Revenue agent investigating the company's claim for a $20,000,000 excess profits tax refund. The subcommittee first heard special Treasury Intelligence Agent Rosario Giunta tell how Bureau agent Adrian Ash had been assigned by the Treasury to investigate the company's claim, and had his hotel bill at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles paid by Prutzman. Ash's wife and child also traveled to Los Angeles by plane to join Ash, Giunta said, and their expenses also were paid, by Universal. Later Ash recommended that Universal get almost the full EPT credit it claimed, Giunta said. But this recommendation was reviewed by higher Bureau officials, he added, and approximately 75 per cent of the added credit disallowed. Later, Prutzman himself took the stand and admitted paying Ash's hotel bill and the plane travel expenses. Rep. Kean (R., N. J.) bitterly criticized Prutzman, declaring that "businessmen who attempt to corrupt by travel pay, entertaining or by any other means the comparatively low paid agents of the Bureau are entering into just as reprehensible conduct and perhaps more reprehensible conduct than does the agent himself who accepts the favors. I don't know if there is any law by which you or other officials of Universal Pictures responsible for this attempted influence can be put in jail, but I wish there were." MOTION PICTURE DAILY. Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; Terry Ramsaye, Consulting Editor. 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