Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1954)

Monday, October 25, 1954 Motion Picture Daily 3 Hnlly wnDd Bu Samuel D. Berns—— INCIDENTALLY: 20th asked to add "Seven Year Itch" to "Seven Brides . . ." "Seven Little Foys" and Nat Holt's "Seven Bad Men" for a lucky season of titles. . . . Mervyn Leroy is still grinning about the Series. Took 20 to 1 Giants would cop the first four. . . . Bob Kronenberg has De RochemO'Nt's "Martin Luther" ■ for fringe distribution in the L. A. area. . . . Search is on for a Mary Magdalene to play opposite Jeff Chandler in "The Galileans." . . . Bruce "Lucky" Humberstone squeezed in a megging assignment on "Purple Mask" at U-I before taking that participation deal with Marcel Hellman in England. . . . No release set on Kling''s first of 3 films, "Miracle at Santa Anita," but the studio is off to the races with Stanley Kramer's current schedule on "Not As A Stranger." . . . Governor Al Shivers of Texas will probably make Bob O'Donnell his agent after seeing the rushes on his part in "Lucky Gallant." n Producer-Scope : William Goetz got Cath tile femme lead opposite Jimmy Stewart in , "Man From Laramie." The picture is off and rolling on location at Santa Fe, N. M., with Jiiiiiuy's favorite director, Anthony Mann calling the shots. Goets signed Seton I. Miller to script "Captain Gallico" for Clark Gable and Technicolor. . . . The former U-I executive has also borrowed Bob Parrish from Columbia to meg the "Brothers Ricco" zvlien "Man From Laramie" is canned. . . . Joe Pasternak and Miklos Rozsa put their z'oices on tape for Radio Free Europe so Hungarians behind the Iron Curtain can get messages via Municli Radio. y O 'Don NELL for William Goetz n Memo Padder: Japanese film agreement due for renewal in March. . . . New method of projecting Vista Vision gives screen that 20/20 look. . . . New writer's guild has 146 nominees running for 73 offices. Got to be politican to get into the Guild? People Frank O. Pinyons : Fred Schwartz claims TV screens at home are building audiences for theatre's big screens. After catching some of those "old film" programs we don't doubt it. . . . There ought to be a Code of Screening Ethics with penalties for those who enioy talking back to the screen; showing a comedy in the projection room; regular sneak previews at the same theatres; and sneak previews within a 25-mile radius of the studio where production and family personnel come to applaud their favored screen credits and mislead the producers with hoky comment cards. . . . Sterling Hayden is on the crest with the title role in Republic's "Admiral Hoskin's Story." Lantz Says {Continued from page 1) Laiitz stated that in 1941, an animator was earning about $80 per week, but now is scaled at $147 per week. "It now takes 60 people working for four weeks, 40 hours each week, to turn out one six-minute cartoon," the industry veteran said. "Before a cartoon producer can show a profit on the books, he has to wait at least four years before his negative costs are returned from about 15,000 bookings of the cartoon," he said. "We are not getting a fair shake from the theatres," he said. In contrast, Lantz said, "European theatremen, who exploit short subjects more than their U. S. counterparts, turn over a small percentage of their theatre's gross to short subjects." Plans 13 for Universal During the next year, Lantz revealed a production plan of 13 animated cartoons for Universal which will be available in wide-screen and can be projected in CinemaScope as each individual subject will be drawn a little thinner, he explained. "It is also .planned that less dialogue will be used in the future cartoons by the producers," he said. Animated cartoons have the same reaction and appeal to the European public as they have with domestic audiences, Lantz said. The theatreman overseas considers the cartoon more than just a filler, he said. "The U. S. exhibitors should be more aggressive in advertising their shorts," Lantz declared. Ad Code {Continued from page 1) in the Times Square area, which have been brought in on "indecency and immoral" complaints, for further cooperation in self-regulating advertising in lobby displays and theatre marquees. Exhibitors in attendance rejected any sort of exterior advertising code, pointing out that "there is no need for censorship as theatres are self-regulating in use of advertising." McCaffrey, it was reported, stated at the meeting that any statements emerging from his office as to the proposed exterior advertising code were misinterpreted and it was his intention just to suggest some form of self-regulation. Industry representatives in attendance at the conference were Martin Levine, Max A. Cohen, Harold Klein, Herman Schwartz and Morton Sunshine. \ Paris SuperScope {Continued from page 1) Paris at the Rex Theatre last week ! before more than 2,500 exhibitors and 1 leading personalities in the film indus\ try, RKO France accumulated a large backlog of orders for the Superscope lens which will be filled as soon as importation arrangements are concluded. Among the Paris audience were the heads of the three large French cirt cuits, Gaumont, Pathe and Sogec, and exhibitors from as far off as French Equatorial Africa. The general reaction of exhibitors was that the Superscope. lens is the answer to their need for the standardization of wide-screen projection with complete flexibility and compatibility, Branson said. Bosustow to Head UP A Sales Dept. BURBANK, Oct. 24.— Stephen Bosustow, president of UPA, animated cartoon studio, announced that Fred W. Swanson has been appointed director of sales of UPA's Burbank studio. As well as the company's sales representative in the TV spot, educational and industrial film fields, he will be in charge of character merchandising. Swanson was vice president of Russel M. Seeds advertising agency before coming to UPA. Credit Group to Meet The Motion Picture Industry Credit Group, composed of film laboratories, will hold its next monthly meeting here tomorrow at the Park-Sheraton Hotel. RCA Service Pact With B&K Circuit _ CAMDEN, N. J., Oct. 24. — The signing of a service and maintenance pact with the Balaban & Katz Circuit was announced by W. L. Jones, vice president of the technical products department of RCA Service Co., Inc. The contract covers all B&K theatres in Illinois, Ind iana and Ohio and includes service and parts on both optical and stereophonic sound. The negotiations were completed with A. L. Trebow, representing B&K. 'Phffff Nov7l0~ "Phffft," Columbia comedy starring Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, Jack Carson and Kim Novak, will have its world premiere engagement at Loew's State Theatre here on November 10. Ken Hamilton, New York salesman, won first place in the Manley popcorn merchandising contest conducted from the Boston office. Hamilton and his wife will leave Oct. 30 for a week's visit to San Juan, P.R., where they will be the guests of the Manley company at the Caribe Hilton Hotel. Second place went to John Stone, salesman for Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Eastern Massachusetts, and third place went to" Irving Dunn, selling in the Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York City territories. The contest was under the supervision of division manager Lyman O. Seley. n B. D. Benton, president of the Benton Bros. Film Expiess, Atlanta, was injured in a parade when, the horse he was riding fell on him, Benton was a member of the horsepatrol of the Shriners. n Leo Lanz haS' returned to Seattle from Las Vegas with the hope of bringing some of the desert night spot's top talent to Seattle. n Roy Rogers' telephone conversation with Kenneth Arruda, 10, of Fall River, Mass., who was confined to bed by burns suft'ered in his Westport home fire, aided in his recovery. Rogers' deed was the subject of a lengthy article with illustrations in the local press. n Elaine Kretchmar has been appointed office manager of Comics Magazine Association of America, Inc., here. n Robert W. Sarnoff, executive vice president of the National Broadcasting Co., will address the Advertising Club of Greater Buffalo at a luncheon to be held at the Hotel Statler tomorrow. Sarnoff will discuss "What's Happening in Color TV," and the address will mark the observance of "NBC-WGR Week" proclaimed by the mayor of Buffalo. n Stephen Barber has resigned his post with the Florida State Theatres, which he held for 25 years, to take over as manager of the Haines City Theatre, in Haines City, Fla., a unit of the Floyd Theatres. 'HazeV Bogs Roads; Canada Drive-in Shut TORONTO. Oct. 24.— With much of the immediate area laid waste by Hurricane Hazel, the 400 Drive-in, opened last July by 20th Century Theatres, Toronto, on Super-Highway 400, was closed down for the season this week. While the theatre was rot damaged to any extent, portions of the highway were washed out and the authorities halted all traffic in the district except for emergency work. Two other drive-ins here of the Nat Taylor circuit, the North-West and North-East, continued to operate without interruption.