Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1953)

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2 Motion Picture Daily Tuesday, January 6, 1953 Personal Mention GEORGE MURPHY, who is director of entertainment for the Presidential inaugural entertainment Tan. 18-20 in Washington, is in New York for a conference with Gen. Eisenhower's staff here, before leaving for the Capital to finalize arrangements. • Robert Wile, executive secretary of the Independent Theatre Owners of Ohio, has prepared an industry public relations article for International News Service. • Ben Goetz, head of M-G-M production in Great Britain, will leave Hollywood today by plane for London. Gabriel Pascal will arrive here today from Hollywood. • S. Barret McCormick has returned to New York from a Coast vacation. California Owners Renew in COMPO Word that the board of directors of the California Theatres Association had voted to renew the association's membership in the Council of Motion Picture Organizations was received here yesterday at COMPO headquarters, it was announced by Robert W. Coyne, COMPO special counsel. The action was taken at a meeting of the board in San Francisco. Ben Hamm was elected to serve as the association's representative on the COMPO board. Deadlock Holds on Films for BBC-TV Krim Returns from 6 Weeks in Europe Arthur Krim, president of United Artists, has returned to New York from a six-week tour of European capitals where he conferred with independent producers on films currently being produced for UA release. Among the producers with whom he met were S. P. Eagle, producer of "Melba" in London ; Anatole Litvak, who is making "The Girl on the Via Flaminia" in France, and J. Barret Mahon and Milton Krims, producer and director, respectively, of "The Master of Don Juan," next Errol Flynn picture, being made in Italy. Record $27,000 for 'Rouge' on the Coast An all-time first-week box-office record at the Fox Wilshire Theatre in Los Angeles has been set by John Huston's "Moulin Rouge," United Artists' release, in the initial period of its pre-release Academy Award premiere engagement, it was disclosed by William J. Heineman, vice-president in charge of distribution, on receipt of a telegram from Charles P. Skouras of Fox West Coast. It is understood the gross reached $27,000. Col. Sales Meet {Continued from page 1) home office executives and domestic branch and division managers, as well as a large number of executives and managers from foreign countries. Montague will open the meeting Friday with a reception and dinner, following which the delegates will attend a screening of "Salome." Saturday morning's meeting will be devoted to a discussion of the advertising and promotional campaign by Columbia executive Paul N. Lazarus, Jr. The campaign will make extensive use of all media in advertising and publicity. On Saturday afternoon, Montague will outline to the delegates the policy plans. London, Jan. 5. — Following the meeting between British Film Producers Association representatives and the heads of BBC's Television Service here the deadlock between the two on the availability of films for British TV appeared as far as ever from being resolved. , , , . George Barnes, head of the 1 V service, told the producers he wanted one feature film a week for afternoon programs, one so-called "classic" type film a month for evening programs, and documentaries and shorts for use on children's programs. The question of how long after theatrical release a feature should be leased to BBC was not discussed. It was learned that the terms Barnes mentioned for the approximately 64 films a year that TV Service wants came nothing near what the producers looked for. Representatives of the Cinematograph Exhibitors Association, who were present at the meeting as observers, took no part in the discussion and hold to their original attitude that any producer is entitled to make pictures for TV but if he does exhibitors won't trade with him. In other words, CEA says, a producer can't have it both ways. McCarthy to Nassau; Guest at Luncheon John J. McCarthy, former head of the international division of the Motion Picture Association of America, and Mrs. McCarthy leave here Friday for a vacation in Nassau and will not announce future plans until they return, about Feb. 1. Foreign managers and their associates of member companies of the MPAA yesterday were hosts to McCarthy at a luncheon in the Harvard Club where he was presented with an inscribed silver tray. Present were Al Crown, RKO Radio ; Richard Altschuler, Republic ; William Piper, Paramount; Wolf Cohen, Warner Brothers ; Bernard Zeeman, Columbia ; Murray Silverstone, 20th-Fox ; Americo Aboaf, Universal ; Norton Ritchey, Monogram : Arnold Picker, U. A., and Morton Spring, M-G-M. Poor Return on U.K. Theatre Investment Cited in Tax Fight London, Jan. 5. — A bleak picture of the earnings prospects of British theatres is painted in the latest proposals for a reduction of the entertainment tax made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer by Cinematograph Exhibitors Association. The proposals, accompanied by a report on the current position of the trade prepared by CEA accountants, rules out increased admission prices as a means by which theatres might break even, and points out that not much can be done in the way of reducing operating costs. The area of relief, CEA says, must be found either in reducing film rentals, payments to the Eady Fund and the entertainment tax. Altogether, these take just short of 60 per cent of the theatres' gross. The report estimates that the original cost of all theatres amounted to £95 millions and that current replacement costs would be not less than £232 millions. After providing for rent at a reasonable percentage of the original costs, the trade is about £12 millions a year short of a reasonable return on the original investments. Showing A Loss It states that the average theatre of 1,500 seats or less is showing a loss on film exhibition alone and that theatres are subsidized out of profits made on sales of refreshments. Without these profits many theatres would be bankrupt, it was stated. Admissions have been dropping at the rate of four to five, per cent a year and if this trend continues, the report asserts, many larger theatres at present in the black also will find themselves in difficulties. Film rentals, the report notes, are a matter for negotiation between individual exhibitors and distributors. It urges that there is a strong case for revision of the existing payments to the Eady Fund and argues, finally, that "there can be little doubt that exhibition cannot obtain a reasonable level of profit for as long as the government expects from it the amount of entertainment tax which it now receives." The report puts forward a newmethod of assessing the tax whereby each theatre is given a tax-free allowance according to the number of seats it contains. The amount to be paid in tax would then be calculated on a percentage of the difference between this tax-free allowance and the theatre's gross takings. N. Y. Variety Club Luncheon Jan. 27 The. Variety Club of New York. Tent No. 35, will hold a luncheon on Jan. 27 opening its new permanent headquarters in the penthouse of the Hotel Piccadilly, chief barker Edward Lachman has informed club members. The. luncheon, which will be held in the Georgian Room of the Piccadilly, will be gratis. The headquarters will be ready on Jan. 15. Chicago Box office Seen Levelling-off Chicago, Jan. 5. — With December city 3 per cent amusement tax collections (on November receipts) from theatres up roughly one per cent from December, 1951 and seven per cent from last month at $95,987, the box-office here is showing signs of levelling off in contrast to the steady downward trend of the past few years. Although business was off considerably in the first few months of 1952 compared to the corresponding period of 1951, the past few months have shown a slight bulge over last year — not enough to overcome the yearly drop, but sufficient to reduce the decline to roughly 7'/2 per cent for the year at $1,044,414.84 against $1,130,137.16 last year. 5 More Field Men To Promote 'Hans' Five additional field men have been added to RKO Radio's exploitation staff to handle pre-release openings of "Hans Christian Andersen" in Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta. The five are John Thompson, Herbert Carlin and Norman Rosemont, who have been assigned to Chicago where "Hans" opens on Feb. 11 at the Oriental Theatre ; Irving Shiff rin, who will work on the campaign in Philadelphia where the pictures bows on Feb. 4 at the Midtown, and Mel Strauss, who will set preliminary plans for the as yet undated opening in Atlanta. Sanford Abrahams' Son Hollywood, Jan. 5. — Funeral services were held this morning at the Church of the Recessional, Forest Lawn, for Alan Abrahams, 15-yearold son of Sanford Abrahams, advertising manager of Allied Artists. The boy failed to recover consciousness after being struck by an automobile last Wednesday while riding a bicycle near his home. NEW YORK THEATRES RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL Rockefeller Center — — — — "MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID" Esther WILLIAMS • Victor MATURE Walter PIDGEON • David BRIAN Color by TECHNICOLOR . An M-G-M Pichire '.; &. The Music Hall's Great Christmas Stage Shew ' Midnight Ftotvrf MOTION PICTURE DAILY Martin Ouigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; Terry Ramsaye, Consulting Editor. Published daily, except Saturdays, Ways and holidays by Ouigley ^ Publishing Company, Inc., 1270 Sixth Avenue. Rockefeller Center. New York 20, N. Y. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address: "Qu.gpubco, NeV York" Martin Outele^ Presided ^ Vice-President; Theo. J. Sullivan. Vice-President and Treasurer; Raymond Levy. Vice-President; Leo J. Brady, £e Jame P &ham £ Efc; H rbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; Gus H. Fausel, Production Manager; Hollywood . Bureau, YuccaVine Bu.ldin* Wmf^R/Weavef; Editor Chkago Zreau 120 South LaSalle Street, Urben Farley. Advertising Representative FI 6-3074; Bruce Trinz, Editorial r^presentat.ve 11 North Clark Street FR 2-2843 Washington T. A. Otten, National Press Club, Washington, D. C. London Bureau, 4 Golden Sq., London WI; Hope Burnup. Manager, Peter Burnup, Editor caWe addres i "QuteP^bS London." Other Quigley Publications: Motion Picture Herald: Better Theatres and Theatre Sales, each published 13 times a year as a section of Potior* Rcfa« ^ HeraldrMot'on ptcture and TdevbiSn Almanac ; Fame. Entered as second-class matter. Sept, 21, 1938. at the post office at New York. N. Y.. under the act pf March 3. 1879. Subscription rates per year. $6 in the Americas and $12 foreign; single copies. 10c.