Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1954)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

VOL. 76. NO. 115 NEW YORK, U. S. A., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1954 TEN CENTS Session Today NY Exhibitors To Meet to Map Tax Strategy May Frame Direct Plea To Gov-Elect Harriman By LESTER DINOFF With the second payment of the five per cent amusement tax about due, New York City exhibitor leaders will meet in a closed session this afternoon at the Loew's Theatres home office to discuss further strategic moves in the current battle against the legality of the local levy and the possibility, it was learned, of carrying the issue directly to the governoi of New York State. High on the agenda of the meeting will be a discussion concerning the status of the five per cent tax appeal now pending in the Appellate Division. A decision from the Supreme Court should be forthcoming before the end of the year, according to exhibitor attorneys who argued the issues earlier this month. Exhibitor leaders, following the {Continued on page 5) ^Country Girl' Bows In Sport Atmosphere (Pictures on Page 4) Champions of the sports world — past and present — joined last night with notables of the entertainment field and a packed house at the Criterion Theatre here to welcome Paramount's "The Country Girl" at its world premiere. Proceeds of the affair were donated to the U. S. Olympic Fund to aid in sending the American Olympic team to the 1956 games which will be held (Continued on page 4) RKO Holding Final Sales Meet in N.O. NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 15.— J. R. Grainger, president of RKO Radio Pictures, will arrive here tomorrow for the company's fourth and final regional sales meeting after stopping over in New York to attend a board of directors meeting of RKO Radio Pictures. Grainger also attended the sales sessions held in Chicago, Monday and Tuesday, concurrently with a sales conference in New York. Walter Branson, world-wide sales (Continued on page 5) $1 a Share Earnings Seen for Disney In Fiscal Year Walt Disney Productions is expected to report earnings for the fiscal year ended on Oct. 31 of close to $1 per share, an increase from the 79 cents a share reported for the same 1953 period, a company official was c|uoted by the "Wall Street Journal" yesterday. The contributing factors in the increase include some profits from the hour-long weekly television program, "Disneyland," a better box office and sizeable revenues from the featurelength true life adventure films, "The Living Desert" and "The Vanishing Praire," the Disney official said. Buena Vista Advantage Seen The Disney organization is also reported as expecting a monetary saving by distributing its product through Buena Vista Distribution Co. rather than through RKO Radio Pictures, its former releasing agency. First big pictures which Buena Vista will distribute are "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "Lady and the Tramp," the newspaper said. The Disnev family holds about 355,000 of the' 652,000 common shares of Walt Disney Productions outstanding with the Atlas Corp. holding 100,000 shares and leaving a floating supply of about 200,000 shares, it was reported. Canadian Labor to Act on Sunday Law TORONTO, Dec. 15.— Organized labor in Ontario is preparing to take a stand on the Sunday observance question in view of agitations for easing of blue laws in various communities. Some union leaders are op posed to a change. The controversial subject will comp before the annual meeting of the Ontario Federation of Labor, Jan. 14-16, at Niagara Falls, Ont., with thr (Continued on page 5) Ohio Exhibitors In 'Star' Protest COLUMBUS, O., Dec. 15. — Warner Brothers' plan to release the cut version of "A' Star Is Born" only to small towns and subsequent runs was attacked here by the board of directors of the Independent Theatre Owners of Ohio. The board sent a protest to Ben Kalmenson, Warners' sales chief, advising him that both the full and cut versions should be made available in the Cleveland and Cincinnati territories so that exhibitors could make their own choice. Schine Trial Gets Books and Records BUFFALO, Dec. 15— Books and records of Schine Chain Theatres, Inc., and a Florida corporation, Hildemart. Inc., were presented in the contempt trial in Federal Court in support of the Government's charge that the Schine family controls the defendant corporations. Joseph E. McDowell, Justice Department trial counsel, presented evidence before Judge John Knight to show that the Schine Family members '•■eld the chief posts in both organizations and that stock in Hildemart was issued to members of the Schine family. Testimony concerning the exhibits was given by Florence D. Torrey, assistant secretary-treasurer of Schine Chain Theatres. One exhibit, the 1945 corporation report of Hildemart, filed July S, 1945, in Florida, was signed by J. M. Schine as president : L. W. Schine, vice president, and TA. May as secretary-treasurer. J. M. Schine and Hi'desard F. Schine are lifted on the board of directors. Minutes of the annual meeting of the board of directors of Schine Theatres, Inc.. on Feb. 13, 1950, gave the (Continued on page 5) Status Quo Hughes Lets Deadline on Stock Pass Atlas Informs Board of 'No Redemption' Intent A decision not to extend RKO Pictures stock redemption periods was made here by the company's board of directors as Howard Hughes, owner of 1,262,120 shares, ignored his redemption deadline yesterday. At the same time, president James R. Grainger in a letter to stockholders revealed that the management of Atlas Corp., which claims to own or control between 900,000 and 1,000,000 shares, has advised RKO Pictures that its stock will not be tendered for redemption at any time during the remainder of the redemption period. The redemption period of stockholders other than Hughes is at the close of business on Dec. 31 and will not be extended again, Grainger declared. The upshot of Hughes' failure to act on the ofl^er to redeem his stock at $6 per share and Atlas' declaration that it, too, would not avail itself of (Continued on page 5) Elect Meyers Head Of N.Y. Film Board Fred Meyers of United Artists was elected president of the New York Film Board of Trade at a membership meeting yesterday. Meyers succeeds Lou Hollerhand of M-G-M who was elected sergeant-at-arms. Other officers elected were Joseph Wohl, Republic, first vice-president; Joe Sugar, United Artists, second vice-president; Myron Sattler, Paramount, treasurer, and Saul Gottlieb, M-G-M, secretary. Louis Nizer will continue as attorney and executive secretary. Installation of officers will be held in January. Johnston to Spend Holidays in Spokane WASFIINGTON, Dec. 15. — Motion Picture Association of America president Eric Johnston will leave this week-end for Spokane, where he will spend the Christmas holidays. Johnston is expected back in Washington immediately after the first of the year. He has no present plans to visit Hollywood while in the West. Slate More Cinerama Openings Abroad Indication that the new Cinerama openings will be concentrated next year in the foreign field was offered here yesterday by Lester B. Isaac, head of Stanley Warner's Cinerama theatre operations. Isaac, who is slated to leave today for Montreal, said that besides the scheduled opening there of "This Is Cinerama" at the Imperial Theatre on Dec. 27, Cinerama openings abroad are planned for Tokyo after the first of the year and in the latter part of January in Osaka, Japan. Negotiations, he continued, are going on in Paris for a Cinerama theatre. Cinerama, he added is now playing in London. In the U. S., he explained, the onlv other scheduled opening at present is in Buffalo by the end of February, although no theatre has been selected as yet. Currently, Cinerama is being played in 13 U. S. cities.