Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1953)

2 Motion Picture Daily Tuesday, January 13, 1953 Personal Mention JERRY PICKMAN, Paramount advertising-publicity vice-president, will return here today from Hollywood. 0 Dudley Roberts, Jr., president of Cinerama Corp., will be one of three executives to be interviewed by newsman Marshall McNeil today over the WABD-TV show, "Meet the Boss." • Walter Branson, RKO Radio assistant general sales manager, left New York for Hollywood yesterday, the first stop on a tour of Western branches. • B. Bernard Kreisler, president of International Film Associates Corp., returned here yesterday from a Caribbean business-vacation trip. 'Jazz' Opening Here LaunchesNewSeason "The Jazz Singer" premiere tonight at the Paramount Theatre before a host of celebrities will mark the first big film event on Broadway this year. Stars Danny Thomas and Peggy Lee will make a stage appearance for the occasion. Among the celebrities who purchased tickets are Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Mrs. Walter Chrysler, Jr., Mrs. Albert D. Lasker, Mayor Impellitteri, and Basil O'Connor. Personalities from the entertainment world who are scheduled to attend are Robert Taylor, Marlene Dietrich, Harry Hershfield, Robert Q. Lewis, Lily, Pons, Andre Kostelanetz, Jackie Gleason, Johnnie Ray, Salvador Dali, Joey Adams, Milton Berle, Jane Pickens, Dennis James, Maggi McNellis, the Gilbert Millers, Dagmar, Ted Lewis, Gypsy Rose Lee, Candy Jones, Zsa Zsa Gabor, the Meyer Davises, Ted Mack, Sid Caesar, Faye Emerson, Skitch Henderson, Jan Peerce, Joe E. Brown, Rosalind Russell. EiteVs Palace in Chicago Is Closing Chicago, Jan. 12. — Eitel's Palace Theatre, Loop first run house, will close Wednesday after extended but fruitless efforts to arrive at a scale for projectionists for a proposed run of "This Is Cinerama." Decision to close resulted from a combination of inability to settle the wage scale and the fact that the house has no bookings after the present "Stars and Stripes Forever." $500,000 to Promote UA's 'Moulin Rouge' A starting budget for advertising, publicity and exploitation of $500,000 — the largest ever in the history of a film released through United Artists —has been set for John Huston's "Moulin Rouge," according to Max E. Young-stein, vice-president. Gulf Allied Meet To Hear Cole, Myers New Orleans, Jan. 12. — A report on the Federal admission tax by Col. H. A. Cole and an arbitration report by national Allied general counsel Abram F. Myers will highlight the business sessions of the Allied Theatre Owners of the Gulf States annual meeting here tomorrow and Wednesday, according to president Abe Berenson. Allied Board (Continued from page 1) bur Snaper called the meeting to order, Abe Berenson, president of the Gulf States Allied, gave the welcoming address, calling for greater unity of all independent exhibitors to combat whatever trade practices and exorbitant trade rentals that are being forced upon small exhibitors. Abram F. Myers, chairman and general counsel, read his annual report and Jack Kirsch, Illinois Allied head, reported on the 1952 convention. Television developments since the Chicago meeting will be discussed at tomorrow's session. 3 Premieres Climax 'Gambler' Campaign St. Louis, Jan. 12. — Universal-International will climax one of its most extensive territorial promotional campaigns tomorrow when "The Mississippi Gambler" has its world premiere at the Fox Theatre here, to be followed by openings at the Malco Theatre, Memphis, on Wednesday and at the Joy Theatre, New Orleans, on Thursday. The trio of premieres will launch 350 pre-release dates in the Mississippi River Valley. Pix's D.C. Plymouth Files Trust Suit An anti-trust suit seeking $1,248,000 from the majors and District Theatres Corp. was filed here in Federal District Court by Pix Theatres, Inc., owner of the Plymouth Theatre, a Negro house in Washington, D. C. The plaintiff alleged that the Plymouth was discriminated against in first and subsequent runs in favor of District's Langston Theatre. Pix Theatres is owned by Samuel, Max and Faith Cummins, Seymour B. Cohen and Rose Chatkin. Services for Jennings On Coast Tomorrow Hollywood, Jan. 12. — Services will be held here Wednesday morning at the Church of the Recessional, Forest Lawn, for H. Gordon Jennings, 56, distinguished cameraman and special effects director, who succumbed to a heart attack yesterday. NEWS in Brief . . . Chicago, Jan. 12. — Robert L. Lippert will supply his franchise holders with 12 features for release during the first five months of this year, he told the franchise holders at their first annual meeting here. Lippert left for New York to spend the week with general sales manager Arthur Greenblatt before returning to Hollywood. Lippert said all product, headed by "The Tall Texan" and "I'll Get You," is completed or in the final editing stage. • The Atlantic Coast section of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers will meet at the 20th Century-Fox home office this evening. Karl Freund, photography director and president of Photo Research Corp., Hollywood, will speak on three subjects: "Shooting the Live TV Show on Film in Hollywood," "The Spectra Brightness Spot Meter" and "The Spectra Color Temperature Meter." • Morey Getz, treasurer of G-B (Getz-Buck) Productions, flew to Paris and Hamburg to confer with his associates, Jules Buck and David Getz, about final shooting preparations for "The Sea Devil," a screenplay by Joe Eisinger about Count Felix Von Luckner, the German sea raider of World War I. His stay here was extended due to complications in negotiations with Columbia Pictures. Coast attorney Harold Berkowitz and local attorney Lester Gutterman are negotiating final distribution details for the producers. Also, G-B has concluded a deal with the Selznick Releasing Organization to distribute a dozen of David O. Selznick's films in Western Europe. • New Orleans, Jan. 12.— Industry enthusiasm in regard to the "Movietime" 22-car train, planned by the Council of Motion Picture Organizations of Texas, is hitting a peak pace, Col. H. A. Cole, Texas Allied leader, told the Allied board of directors meeting here today. • Chicago, Jan. 12. — An appeal for review of the recent ruling on the Towne case and a stay of mandate on the latest Jackson Park ruling pending a review by the Supreme Court were filed here by attorney Thomas C. McConnell. e A. Montague, president of the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital, reported yesterday the receipt of a check for $27,500 representing over 400 individual donations' for the "Harold Rodner Research Section" to be established at the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital at Saranac Lake, N. Y. • Mrs. Dorothy Seidlitz, wife of Maurice Seidlitz, Loew's Theatres district manager here, died yesterday after a long illness. In addition to her husband, Mrs. Seidlitz is survived by a son, Richard, and one sister. The funeral will take place tomorrow morning from the Riverside Chapel, Amsterdam Ave. and 76th St. Film Men to Assist Murphy at Inaugural Washington, Jan. 12. — George Murphy, director of entertainment for the Eisenhower-Nixon Inaugural Festival, has named a group of Washington film company representatives as a committee to assist him. On the committee are: Orville Crouch, Loew's; George Dorsey, Warner; Robert Denton, Paramount; Tony Muto, 20th Century-Fox; J. B. Brecheen, RKO, and J. Raymond Bell, Columbia. Allan Zee of Loew's and George Crouch and Frank Lafalce of Warner, will also work on the program. Continent Now Tops ForMGM, Says Loew _ Hollywood, Jan. 12. — For the first time Continental Europe has surpassed any other area abroad as a market for M-G-M films at a period when the worldwide outlook is more optimistic than in many years. This was revealed here by Arthur Loew, president of Loew's International, at a luncheon attended by studio executives and producers. Movietone Queries N.Y.C. Negative Tax The question of whether an American film company operating on an international scope is subject to the New York gross receipts tax was the basis of testimony solicited from 20thFox Movietone News here yesterday by the Bureau of Excise Taxes. The testimony was given on behalf of Movietone by William Owens, attorney, and was in connection with the city's efforts to levy a sales tax on film negatives. The firm was among the first to be assessed. 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 Picture Plus Spectacular STAGE PRESENTATION INlHIEf tt.1V fLVUDE axliPIIIN T«1I.>I€XMX>B MOTTOW PICTURE DAILY Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; Terry Ramsaye, Consulting Editor. Published daily, except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, by Ouigley Publishing Company, Inc., 1270 Sixth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, New York 20, N. Y. Telephone Circle 7-3100, Cable address : ''Quigpubco, New York '' Martin 6uigle"y President; Martin Ouigley, Jr., Vice-President; Theo. J. Sullivan, Vice-President and Treasurer; Raymond Levy, Vice-President; Leo J Brady, Secretary Tames P Cunningham, News Editor ; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; Gus H. Fausel, Production Manager; Hollywood Bureau, Yucca-Vine Budding, William R Weaver, Editor. Chicago Bureau, 120 South LaSalle Street, Urben Farley, Advertising Representative, FI 6-3074; Bruce Tr.nz, Editorial Representative, 11 North Hark Street FR 2-2843 Washington T A. 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