Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1955)

6 Motion Picture Daily Friday, March 4, 1955 Toll-TV Tax 'Breakage' Measure {Continued from page 1) Appeal {Continued from page 1) {Continued from page 1) the committee on toll-TV with the FCC, will be retained to prepare the legal steps in the information program. During the Sheraton Astor meeting yesterday, the committee discussed the qualifications of a number of industry Contributions to the Joint Committee on Toll-TV's "war chest" of $150,000 are coming in at a heavy rate, Alfred Starr, co-chairman of the Group, disclosed during a meeting at the Sheraton Astor Hotel here. "Response to our plea for money has been terrific," he said. public relations experts, among them being Bob Taplinger & Associates. The committee's public relations counsel. Harold Wolff Associates, had been retained on a short-term basis and that agreement has expired. Exhibitors and attorneys who attended the JCTTV meeting included Starr, Julius Gordon, Wilbur Snaper, Herman Levy, Marcus Cohn, Phillip Harling, Emanuel Frisch, Sol Strausberg, D. John Phillips, Morton Sunshine, Ralph McClenahan, Martin Leviiie and William Namenson. The committee met yesterday in morning and afternoon sessions. Isaacs Wants Hearing On Anti-Toll TV Move New York City Council minority leader Stanley M. Isaacs has called for public hearings on toll TV before the council takes any position on the question. Isaacs, replying to a telegram from Arthur Levey, president of Skiatron, expressed his doubt at the wisdom of the anti-toll TV resolution introduced by Council president Abe Stark. Isaacs went on to inform Levey that the Stark resolution has been referred to Council's rules committee. Tost' Theatres {Continued from page 1 ) the distributors and be sent to the four services for their consideration. Their approval is the only question still left. The letter would embody the points agreed on at a February meeting. It would specify that none of the military theatres involved would show a film until 14 days after it had played in the local private theatre, providing the local theatre showed it within 30 days after it opened in the key city in the local exchange area. The letter also would specify the relaxation for admission to post theatres, agreed upon in February. Rules would be relaxed to permit retired military personnel to attend post theatres, to permit families of service men to attend without the presence of the service men, and to permit a service man to take a limited number of guests without the permission of his commanding officer. Four Navy installations have been added to the list of some 95 Army and Air Force post theatres, originally submitted to the Defense Department, affecting local theatres. The proposed agreement would affect only those local theatres in the area of the defense installation theatres listed. It was also agreed that additional theatres could be added to the lists, bill was made public yesterday. One exhibitor representative declared that the city's efforts to secure the tax breakage, one way or another, is "a pre-trial admission of defeat." It is an unfair and unsound method of legislation to secure breakage if this bill is approved without some sort of hearings, he said. The main purpose of the bill is to give New York City the right to collect a full cent in all cases where the five per cent amusement tax includes a fraction of more than half a cent. Under a recent decision of the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, of Brooklyn, the city is barred from collecting the full cent in such cases. New York City's appeal of this ruling was argued yesterday afternoon in the Court of Appeals in Albany by Assistant Corporation Counsel Stanley Buchsbaum with exhibitor attornies Edward C. Raftery and Thomas Bress opposing him. New York City has the support of the Conference of Mayors for this type of legislation, it was reported. The same basic law which permits New York City to impose an amuse New York City exhibitor leaders will meet here today to discuss strategy in combating any attempts to have a law enacted assuring the city its full five per cent from the amusement tax. The theatremen are expected to ask state political leaders to hold public hearings on the measure so that the merits of the bill can be argued. ment tax, the State Enabling Act of 1947, also permits upstate cities such as Binghamton and Elmira and a number of counties to levy such amusement taxes, a sales tax and other special imposts. Unless the law, the enabling act, is clarified, a decision adverse to New York City in the five per cent amusement tax suit could impair the rights of other cities to collect "breakage" — the amount needed to bring the tax up to the nearest cent. The breakage from the five per cent if their applications were screened and approved by a committee of exhibitors, a committee of distributors, the four services and the Defense Department. Speaking for the distributors, Maurice Goldstein declared they were unanimously agreed to "do everything possible to have the proposal succeed," but that many problems would undoubtedly have to be straightened out in the field. Brylawski said the exhibitors were "determined that the plan shall succeed," even though they would have to make sacrifices in theatres not affected by the change. Leading Exhibitors Attend In addition to Goldstein and Brylawski, those at the meeting included : E. D. Martin, president of the Theatre Owners of America ; Walter Reade, Jr., chairman of the TOA board; Texas exhibitors Robert O'Donnell and John Adams ; Kenneth Clark of the Motion Pictures Association ; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense D. Walter Swan, Fred Bund, i head of the Army and Air Force Motion Picture Service, and representatives of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. amusement tax collected thus far by local theatremen has been withheld from the City of New York by court order. As a means of security, the city and exhibitor attorneys agreed that the theatremen should retain the breakage by posting bonds as security when the tax was to be turned over the to City Tax Collector. The Brooklyn Supreme Court ruling in the tax case declared that the city was without power to collect the breakage as the local levy exceeded the state statute. When that decision was handed down in early February, exhibitor attorneys felt that another suit might arise with the city over the disposition of the ever increasing tax breakage fund. City Official in Warning In a memorandum submitted to the Republican and Democratic political leaders in the state Victor F. Condello, the city's legislative representative estimated that an adverse decision could reduce New York City revenues from the amusement tax by $1,000,000 a year unless the law is changed. He emphasized that the right to compute taxes to the nearest penny was unchallenged before the enactment of the amusement tax. New York City exhibitors were the first to challenge the legality and constitutionality of such enactment. New York City has long used this method in determining the amount due in sales taxation, but in this instance the power is explicitly stated in the enabling act, Condello said. The agreement among legislative leaders for speedy enactment of corrective legislation on this question may set the stage for further negotiations and agreement on other taxing powers being requested by New York City. Pending legislation New York City wants enacted includes bills making permanent the city's right to levy the sales tax, increasing the amount of real estate taxes it can impose, permitting the issuing of bonds for judgments, claims and certain pension items, and authorizing an increase in the general and financial business taxes, it was reported. Name Edwards Head Of R-N-TV Assn. Roy Edwards of Universal Newsreel has succeeded Arnold Lerner of Warner-Pathe News as president of the Radio-Newsreel-Television Working Press Association. Lerner has moved up from his last office to a seat on the board of governors of the association which is headed by Larry Racies of CBS-TV. The association is made up of the majority of working newsmen in radio, newsreels and television. Others on the official slate are George Jordan of NBC-TV, first vicepresident ; Jack Forn of CBS-TV, second vice-president ; Lou Hutt of Paramount News, sergeant-at-arms ; Ruth Knopf of CBS-TV, secretary; Charles Campbell of WLIB, assistant secretary, and Richard Milbauer of Telenews Productions, treasurer. Others on the board of directors are Nick Archer of M-G-M News of the Day, A. A. Brown of Movietonews, Bernard Buck of WNYC, Chester Burger, a past president, and David Klein of the NBC television network. with respect to the five per cent admission tax. Thus declared Edward C. Raftery, attorney for RKO Theatres, Inc., in arguments before the Court of Appeals this afternoon on the appeal by the city from an Appellate Division ruling that invalidated its retention of "breakage." The three-judge court reserved decision in the case. Court clerk Raymond J. Cannon believed that if the measure were passed "in March," supplementary briefs could be filed in time for a decision in April. The Court of Appeals returns for decisions April 11. Thomas Bress, attorney for Loew's Theatres, told the court that New York City "is now attempting to have this court legislate for it." Assistant corporation counsel Stanley Buchsbaum mentioned at the conclusion of his presentation, that the measure had been introduced as a safety precaution. It came, he explained, not only from New York City but also from the Conference of Mayors, which was "worried" about the effect of an adverse decision by the Court of Appeals on upstate cities with admission and sales taxes. The exhibitor attorneys emphasized they had not yet opportunity to check the bill ; were going on newspaper accounts. It runs five pages, with a long declaration of "legislative intent." Funds in Escrow a Problem One of the questions raised by the judges, was the disposition of breakage money now held in escrow. Would the theatres keep it, queried Judge Charles W. Froessel. Buchsbaum replied that patrons who retained their stubs could apply for refunds. Otherwise, it would be for the courts to decide. The city attorney added that previous decisions usually had been that where a tax was illegally levied and could not be refunded, the money should go to the "taxing authority." 16mm Film to Hold SMPTE Spotlight Sixteen millimeter motion picture film and its many applications will be the special feature of the 77th semiannual convention of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers to be held at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, April 18-22. Ten or more technical sessions are planned dealing with such subjects as: sound recording, non-theatrical film (techniques, costs, problems and equipment), TV newscasting and the many problems associated with accurate coordination between technical staff and field personnel, application of TV to medical education, color TV, high speed photography (including a paper on underwater cameras), and 16mm motion picture projection practices. Du Mont Reports '54 Net of $7,597,000 Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories, Inc., reports gross income of $92,843,000 for 1954, and net earnings of $7,597,000, equivalent to $3.17 per share of common stock. In its annual report to stockholders, the company pointed out that this earnings figure includes profit of $6,727,000 after capital gains tax on the sale of television station WDTV.