Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1954)

VOL. 75. NO. 21 NEW YORK, U.S.A., MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1954 TEN CENTS Busy Week Three Allied Units to Meet In Cincinnati Drive-ins, ITOO and National Board Meet CINCINNATI, Jan. 31.— This city is playing host to three exhibitor meetings this week, all of them projects of Allied States Association. The National Allied Drive-in Theatres Association will open its annual convention here on Tuesday, extending through Thursday. The Independent Theatre Owners of Ohio will conduct a twoday convention starting on Wednesday and both events will be followed by the annual meeting of Allied's board of directors. From present indications, the drivein sessions will take on the stature of a national annual convention which, in effect it is, except that issues are expected to be restricted to those affecting the operators of outdoor theatres. At last reports, the registration list contained almost 900 names, but as yet these have not been broken down as to dealers, exhibitors, equipment manufacturers and observers. In {Continued on page 4) TOA's Board Meets; Shoos D.C. Reporters WASHINGTON, Jan. 31.— Members of Theatre Owners of America board of directors gathered at the Mayflower Hotel here today for three days of meetings. The first act of the officials of the organization was to announce a news blackout on the meeting, insofar as reporters here are concerned. Anything the TOA leaders decide to let the industry in on will be released tomorrow and Tuesday at TOA's {Continued on page 4) Johnston Named U.S. Film Festival Envoy _ WASHINGTON, Jan. 31. — Motion Picture Association of America president Eric Johnston has been named official U.S. representative at the Brazilian International Film Festival, according to an announcement by Theodore C. Streibert, director of the U.S. Information Agency. The festival opens in Sao Paulo on Feb. 12. Streibert said that Alan {Continued on page 4) Proposed 52-Week Tax Plan Would Aid Some Theatres WASHINGTON, Jan. 31.— Many motion picture theatres would be helped in making out their Federal income tax returns under a provision adopted by the House Ways and Means Committee. The committee on Friday wrote into its technical tax revision bill a provision to permit firms to pay their taxes on the basis of a 52-week year or a 53-week year. At present, corporations must compute their taxable income on the basis of a year ending on the last day of a calendar month. Committee officials said that many companies, especially theatre-owning firms, keep books on a weekly basis and so must make a {Continued on page 4) UA Names Blumofe V.P. for West Coast HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 31.— Arthur B. Krim, president of United Artists, has announced that Robert F. Blumofe has been elected vice president in charge of west coast operations for United Artists. Blumofe has held the post of West Coast representative for the company for the past year. Krim is here from New York for conferences with Blumofe and independent producers. Blumofe, an at{Continued on page 4) Robert Blumofe M-G-M Preparing 8 For New Season With all productions for the 1953-54 releasing season to be completed by March 1, M-G-M has launched its 1954-55 producing schedule with preparations for eight pictures to go before the cameras in April and May. At the same time, it was announced by Dore Schary, studio head, that 22 writers are currently assigned to scripts for other productions slated for future filming. Explores Guarding Of Exclusivity of Theatre TV Shows The problems of protecting the exclusivity of theatre television events, especially of fights, was explored here at the weekend at a meeting of the theatre TV committee of Theatre Owners* of America. The TOA unit wrestled with the consequences posed by a New York Supreme Court decision on last September's Marciano-LaStarza bout, a ruling which permitted New York radio station WOV to give a news summary after every round, despite the bid by the International Boxing Club to restrict the news summary to 75 words after every third round. Opinions varied on the need to maintain a radio blackout of a big theatre TV fight event, with some opinion voiced that it was not too harmful if radio stations offered a news summary, while others maintained that the complete blackout of radio heightened the theatre TV interest. Mention was also made of the {Continued on page 4) 'Red Garters [Paramount] Hollywood, Jan. 31 PAT DUGGAN'S highly innovational "Red Garters" could prove to be that rare "something different" everybody's always saying they want, and paying for happily on those infrequent occasions when they decide they've found it. "Different" is its distinguishing word. In its production Duggan satirizes gently but brightly, in song and dance, in color by Technicolor and in precedental presentation, utilizing what may be termed silhouetted or stencil-styled settings, that whole cavalcade of beloved cliches which so long have been and shall be mainstays of "Shanes," "High Noons," Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Bronco Billy and William S. Hart, but it doesn't ridicule them. It is strikingly novel as to mounting and coloration, using flat-color Cycloramas behind phantasmagoric costumings with brilliant effect, and it is good-natured, rather than comic, in tone and manner. It provides high-gloss backing for smartly matched new talent, as {Continued on page 4) New Outlook Large Circuits See Easing of Film Shortage Cite Increased Playing Time for 'Scope, Others The increased playing time of current releases, especially long runs enjoyed by CinemaScope films, has in a large measure eased the so-called "product shortage," according to exhibitors identified with large national circuits. In explaining what they term the changing situation in regard to product, circuit executives say that the number of productions coming out of Hollywood currently in comparison with a year ago is of little significance. They acknowledge that their experience may not hold true for the smaller, subsequent run houses that have not as yet equipped for CinemaScope, and situations that have operated on a marginal level, which always have found it difficult to hold a picture for any length of time. However, in relating the experience of large circuit operations, they pointed to the long runs enjoyed by such CinemaScope films as "The Robe," {Continued on page 2) RKO, Rep. to Talk AFM Contract Here MIAMI, Jan. 31. — Talks on a musicians contract with Republic Pictures and RKO Pictures, the two studios which did not join in the industry agreement negotiated here last week, are expected to be held in New York after Feb. 15, when the board of directors of the American Federation of Musicians reconvenes to work out a radio-television industry contract. This was learned following a preliminary negotiation session held by {Continued on page 4) Havas Seen Heading RKO Foreign Dept. HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 31.— Michael Havas, RKO Radio's Latin American supervisor, is here from Mexico City for conferences with president James R. Grainger reportedly in regard to filling the post of head of the company's foreign department. The vacancy in the berth was caused by the resignation of Alfred Crown, who has {Continued on page 4)