Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1954)

2 Motion Picture daily Monday, April 12, 1954 Personal Mention ADOLPH ZUKOR, Paramount board chairman, returned to New York from the Coast over the weekend and will meet the press today to report on his observations. Leo Samuels, Walt Disney Productions worldwide sales supervision and Ciiari.es Levy, Eastern director of publicity, returned to New York from Toronto at the weekend. • Herman Rifkin, Allied Artists vice-president and owner of the Boston and New Haven franchises, has returned to Boston from Hollywood. • Lynn Farnol and associates celebrated at the weekend the fourth anniversary of the founding of their public relations agency. • Harry Fbllerman, head of the Universal Pictures special film department, will leave here today for Cleveland. • Spyros P. Skouras, president of 20th Century-Fox, and Al Lichtman, director of distribution, returned here from the Coast over the weekend. • Foster M. Blake, Universal Pictures Western sales manager, has returned to New York from Kansas City. • A. A. Ward, executive vice-president of Altec Lansing Corp., has arrived in New York from Beverly Hills. • Richard W. Altschuler, president of Republic Pictures International, lias arrived in New York from Europe. • Dan S. Terrell, M-G-M publicity manager, will return here today from the Coast. Mike Simons, M-G-M exhibitor relations head, returned to New York at the weekend from Milwaukee. • Jack Palance arrived here yesterday from London via B.O.A.C. Monarch. Harry Browning, home office executive of New England Theatres, has returned to Boston from Hartford. Harold Hecht, of the Hecht-Lancaster organization, will arrive here today from Hollywood. Ray Heindorf, Warner Brothers music head, has returned to the studios from New York. Bernard M. Kamber, vice-president of Ivan Tors Productions, has left New York for Hollywood. Arnold Albert, producer, is the father of a boy born to Mrs. Albert in Hollywood last week. • Charlton Heston has arrived here from Indianapolis. 3-D Print Shortage In Minneapolis Area MINNEAPOLIS, April 11.— Minneapolis film exchange officials last week answered complaints by North Central film area exhibitors in subsequent run slots, that they cannot obtain 3-D prints for exhibition although they have the proper equipment. There just aren't any prints available after first run under present distribution practices, they said. Under the old double-print system of 3-D projection which may be replaced by Pola-Lite's single strip system — the double prints have been split up shortly after the first runs. Each print was then used to service a theatre using conventional projection. Rematching Called Unsatisfactory "Once the prints have been separated," one branch manager said, "it is impossible to rematch them for 3-D projection. Where it has been attempted, results have been poor. "Where we tried it, we received complaints from the exhibitors and we have made a firm rule against it in the future. If we have a firm commitment for 3-D in advance of widespread bookings, we have kept 3-D print available." MGM Holding Field Men Sessions Here First of a series of six meetings between Amery Austin, M-G-M exploitation head and his 29 field men, will begin today at the Astor Hotel here, with the following in attendance : Arthur Canton, eastern divisional head with headquarters in New York ; Chester Friedman, with headquarters in Toronto ; Charles Fellerman, New York ; Steve Pirozzi, Buffalo ; Ed Gallner, Philadelphia, and Floyd Fitzsimmons, Boston. Plans for re-releasing "Gone With The Wind" in its original length will highlight the session. Other pictures to be discussed are "The Student Prince" and "Brigadoon," scheduled for summer and fall release. CinemaScope Set for Seville and Finland Twentieth Century-Fox in the latter part of this month will conduct theatre showings of CinemaScope in Seville, Spain, and Tammerfus, Finland. Prominent theatremen and representatives of the press will attend the special preview showings, to be followed shortly thereafter by openings of "The Robe." The Biblical spectacle will also have gala openings in Rio de Janeiro and Oslo, Norway, during the coming weeks. Drive-in to Open HARTFORD, April 11.— The 750car capacity, $150,000 Mansfield (Conn.) Drive-in Theatre, initial outdoor venture of Morris Keppner-Lou Lipman interests, is slated for a Wednesday night opening. It is situated 25 miles east of Hartford. New Film Board Bldg. for Canada OTTAWA, April 11. — Canadian government announces the award of a contract to George Hardy, Ltd., Toronto, for the construction of new National Film Board Building at Ville St. Laurent, Que., costing $5,230,760. Minnesota-Twin City Trial in Third Week ST. PAUL, April 11. — Approximately $180,000 in damages is being asked by the Minnesota Amusement Co. in a counter-claim against the Twin City Theatre Co. in a trial now entering its third week. Twin City theatres, plaintiff in the action which was brought to recover $75,000 paid to MACO for the purchase of the Strand and Tower Theatres in the St. Paul circuit, rested its nse last Tuesday. It reserved the right to present testimony later bearing upon any accounting issues brought in bv the defense. After a day of motions, the defense w^s to be£Hn its case, pushing its counter-claim for approximately $180.000. This sum represents the unpaid balance on purchase notes plus the ~<~ni']ts paid in rentals by MACO to Pfeiffer properties after Twin Citv closed the houses, returning them to MACO. Mandt Torrison, counsel for Minnesota Amusement, said he did not know how Ion? it would take the defense to present its case. Bi-Lingual Bow for 'Carnival' in Munich What is believed to be the world's first bi-lingual premiere of an American film will be held in Munich. Germany, on Sept. 15, when RKO Radio will show King Brothers' "Carnival Story" in two theatres across the street from one another, one nroduction in English, the other in German. "Carnival Story" was made in both English and German, using separate casts. The world premiere of "Carnival Story." which was made for wide screen projection, with print bv Technicolor, is scheduled at the Criterion here with simultaneous openings at the Woods, Chicago, and the Mastbaum, Philadelphia. Golden Asst. V-P Of Bankers Trust Herbert L. Golden, a member of the Amusement Industries Group of Bankers Trust Co. since 1952, has been elected an assistant vice president of the bank, S. Sloan Colt, president, announced over the week end. Golden, who is at the Rockefeller Center office of the bank, handles all matters pertaining to the amusement world, particularly the motion picture and television business. Golden was formerly film editor of "Variety." Chromatic Forecasts $100 24" Color Tube By Mass Production Pilot plant production at Chromatic Laboratories, a Paramount Pictures subsidiary, indicates that it should be possible to mass produce 24-inch Lawrence color television tubes at a cost of less than $100 each. Certain characteristics inherent in the single-gun Chromatron, as the Lawrence color TV tube is known, indicate that costs of receivers may be kept down through mass production. Feels Problem Is Solved Spokesman throughout the television industry have pointed out, it was learned, that the main deterrent to wide-scale use of color television has been the cost and development of a practical TV tube. Chromatic believes that a solution to this problem has been found in the Chromatron and that its general adoption by the industry would bring color television into homes quickly and at a relatively moderate cost. A factor that led Chromatic to state that the 24-inch Lawrence color tube ijould be mass produced at less than $100 each was the reduction in the cost of the grid component of the tube itself. This estimate is based on the relative simplicity of manufacture. Prices, however, can vary with production techniques and individual manufacturer's problems, officials say. 'Commandments9 Dates Seen at 30,000 SANTA BARBARA, April 11.— Cecille B. DeMille expects 30,000 bookings throughout the world for his forthcoming production, "The Ten Commandments." Dr. Charles R. Daily of Paramount's engineering staff said VistaVision will make possible the wide distribution. "VistaVision is the first major step to improve sharpness and detail of pictures on large screens," Daily explained. "It can be exhibited in any theatre in the world without requiring special equipment." "VistaVision has made obsolete all Paramount cameras and lenses," Daily added. "It requires new engineering aesigns for cameras, blimps finders and the like, marking the first complete replacement of studio shooting equipment in 30 years." RKO and FPC Sign For 4 Disney Films RKO Radio has completed an agreement with the Famous Players Canadian circuit whereby four Walt Disney productions will play all the houses of FPC from coast to coast. The deal was signed at the weekend by Charles Boasberg, RKO general sales manager. The pictures are "The Living Desert," Academy-award-winning feature-length True-Life Adventure ; "Ben and Me," two-reel cartoon short ; "Pinocchio," all-cartoon feature-length film, and "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom," Academy-award-winning short, the first cartoon in CinemaScope. MOTION PICTURE DAILY, Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane. Editor; Terry Ramsaye, Consulting Editor. Published daily, except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., 1270 Sixth Avenue. Rockefeller Center. New York 20, N. Y. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address: "Quigpubco, New York." Martin Quigley, President; Martin Quigley. Jr., Vice-President; Theo. J. Sullivan, Vice-President and Treasurer; Raymond Levy. Vice-President; Leo J. Brady, Secretary; Al Steen, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; Gus H. Fausel, Production Manager; Hollywood Bureau, Yucca-Vine Building, William R. Weaver, Editor. Hollywood 7-2145; Martin Starr, Manager. Chicago Bureau, 120 South LaSalle Street. Urben Farley, Advertising Representative, FI 6-3074; Bruce Trinz, Editorial Representative, 11 North Clark Street, FR 2-2843. Washington. J. A. Otten, National Press Club. Washington, D. C. London Bureau. 4 Golden Sq., London WI; Hope Burnup, Manager; Peter Burnup, Editor: cable address. "Quigpubco, London." 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