Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1954)

FIRST IN FILM NEWS i MOTION PICTURE DAILY Accurate Concise and Impartial VOL. 75. NO. 35 NEW YORK, U.S.A., TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1954 TEN CENTS Third Try RKO Re-opens Talks on Code Seal for 'Line' Company Officials Meet With P.C.A. Heads Again HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 22.— RKO Pictures officials have resumed negotiations with officials of the Production Code Administration here with a view to obtaining a Code seal for Howard Hughes' "The French Line" after revisions in the picture have been made, it was learned over the weekend. This is the third attempt by the company to obtain P.C.A. approval for the picture. It was submitted and denied a seal prior to its public exhibition last December. Following its opening in St. Louis without a seal, (Continued on page 3) Acetate Film Tests Prove Safety Value To City Officials New York City officials, including ' representatives of the fire, licenses, fire prevention and other departments, are convinced of the true safety factor of acetate film as a result of demonstrations in Rochester, N. Y., conducted by Eastman Kodak Co., according to Emanuel Frisch, president of the Metropolitan Motion Picture Theatres Association. The MMPTA, through D. John Phillips, executive director, sponsored the demonstrations as a "purely educational" project, Frisch said at the , weekend. Nine tests, using both acetate and (Continued on page 6) Call U-I Conference In Latin America Universal International b r a n c h managers from 20 Latin American countries will meet with home office executives at a U-I Latin American sales conference which will open in Buenos Aires on March 15. Universal president Milton Rackmil, executive vice-president Alfred E. Daff, and foreign general manager Americo Aboaf will head the home office group. Also present from the home office will be Al Lowe, Latin American supervisor ; Fortunat Baronat. director of publicity, and Joseph Mazer, in (Continued on page 6) Three Promoted in Realignment of RKO Sales Executives In an executive realignment of the RKO Radio sales organization, three officials have been promoted by Charles Boasberg, general sales manager. Herbert H. Greenblatt, who has been Midwestern district manager, has been named Central division manager, with headquarters remaining in Chicago. J. Herbert Maclntyre, Western district manager, becomes Western division manager, with headquarters remaining in Los Angeles, while Harry Gittleson, sales administrative manager, has been promoted to the post of executive assistant to Boasberg. Nat Levy continues as head of the East and South division, with headquarters at the home office. Boasberg completed the realignment following the promotion last week of Walter E. Branson from assistant sales manager to general manager of foreign operations. Greenblatt, who started with RKO (Continued, on page 3) Set TOA Delegates To Arbitration Meet Theatre Owners of America's delegates to the industry arbitration conference which is being initiated by the Motion Picture Association of America will be S. H. Fabian, Mitchell Wolfson and Herman M. Levy. This was revealed at the weekend by Walter Reade, Jr., TOA president, in his acceptance of MP A A president Eric Johnston's invitation to the parley. In accepting the bid, Reade said that TOA is approaching the meet^ ing "with great optimism and in a (Continued, on page 3) Martin Quigley, Jr., A Festival Speaker SAO PAULO, Brazil, Feb. 22.— Martin Quigley, Jr., editor of "Motion Picture Herald" and of the recently published book, "New Screen Techniques," who is here for Brazil's Film Festival, discussed the industry's newly developed projection and photographic processes at a conference Friday held as part of the Festival. Attending was Abel Gance, French director whose feature, "Napoleon," was filmed in 1927 with three cameras and shown with three projectors. Americans in Brazil See Festival Films By MARTIN QUIGLEY, JR. SAO PAULO, Brazil, Feb. 22.— American delegates at the Brazilian International Film Festival here have seen at the end of its first week a total of 45 feature films and many shorts. The Festival, which began Feb. 13, is scheduled to close Feb. 26. The American delegation, headed by Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, is joined by representatives of 21 other countries for the festival. Arrival of the American delegates was marked by a police escorted 25car procession through the streets of this Brazilian city. About 200 delegates from 22 countries have seen a total of 45 Festival pictures. Among the Festival attractions presented are a series on the history of Brazil, works of Eric Von Stroheim, and scientific and educational pictures for children. 'Executive Suite [M-G-M] Hollywood, Feb. 22 NO exhibitor whose marquee is big enough to list 10 top-drawer talents need concern himself much beyond that point with questions about M-G-M's all-star "Executive Suite" as an attraction for his theatre. These talents are, in M-G-M's order of billing, William Holden, June Allyson, Barbara Stanwyck, Fredric March, Wralter Pidgeon, Shelley Winters, Paul Douglas, Louis Calhern, Dean Jagger and Nina Foch, and it is their combined presence and performance that gives "Executive Suite" its principal assurance of box office success. Any success predicated on that much name-power has to be big. Apart from performances and characterizations supplied by these excellent players, "Executive Suite" is not especially challenging. Its story, based on the novel by Cameron Hawley, and scripted by Ernest Lehman, has to do with five vice-presidents of a huge furniture-manufacturing corporation who compete for the presidency when the president unexpectedly dies. It has to do, also, with their wives, girl friends and families, but it has (Continued on page 3) 'Modernize Decency?' Sen. Schoeppel Lauds MPAA's Code Stand Hopes Public Will Buy Code Seal Films Only WASHINGTON, Feb. 22.— Senator Andrew F. Schoeppel (R., Kans.), head of a Senate small business subcommittee which has been studying industry trade practices, applauded the decision of major producers to stand by the industry's Production Code. "In the best interest of the industry and the public," he told the Senate, "I hope that everyone in and out of the industry will support the Code. I urge every producer to make only Code-approved pictures; I urge every exhibitor to show only Code-approved pictures; and I hope that the public will patronize only Code-approved pictures. "It is the one sure way of making certain that decent entertainment will always be the best entertainment." Schoeppel started off by saying he (Continued, on page 3) Tax Exemption Talk Beclouds Admission Levy Outlook in '54 WASHINGTON, Feb. 22.— Growing Congressional pressure for substantial tax cuts to stimulate business has completely beclouded the outlook for admission tax relief this session. Most of the lawmakers pressing for tax cuts mention excise cuts as one of their goals. But even more of them mention an increase in individual income tax exemptions. The problem the industry faces is (Continued, on page 3) Exhibitors to D. C. For Tax Parleys Exhibitor leaders from the field will start migrating to Washington during the next three weeks for conferences with their respective Senators and Congressmen in regard to the elimination of the Federal admission tax. Purpose of the Washington junkets, (Continued on page 3)