Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1955)

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2 Motion Picture Daily Monday, March 14, 1955 Personal Mention FJ. A. McCARTHY, Universal • Pictures Southern and Canadian sales manager, will leave New York today for Charlotte, Atlanta and I acksonville. • Leo F. Samuels, president of Buena Vista, will return to New York today following a cross-country business trip. • Earl I. McClintock, member of the Paramount Pictures board of directors, left New York Friday for London via B.O.A.C. • Abe Goodman, 20th Century-Fox advertising manager, left New York over the weekend for a business trip through the South. • Mark Goldstein, technical adviser to Columbia Pictures, left New York for London late last week via B.O.A.C. Monarch. • E. J. Mannix, M-G-M studio executive, is scheduled to arrive in New York today from the Coast. • Martin Levtne, general manager of Brandt Theatres, has left here for Miami Beach. • Emery Austin, M-G-M exploitation head, returned to New York Friday from Dallas. • Margaret Booth, M-G-M's head cutter, has returned to Hollywood from New York. • Greer; GaRson has arrived in New York from the Coast. Decca Paid $17.20 Per Share for 'l? Decca Records, which has built up its acquisition of : Universal Pictures stock to ownership of 72 per cent of the picture company's outstanding stock, reported that it paid an average of $17.20 per share for its Universal stock. The annual report to Decca stockholders, issued here at the weekend, noted that as of Dec. 31, 1954, the closing price of Universal common on the New York Stock Exchange was $31 per share. Decca president Milton R. Rackmil, who also is president of Universal, reviewed the high earnings of Universal for the 1954 fiscal year. Declared Rackmil : "The course of the entertainment industry generally during the year has confirmed your management's opinion that the motion picture industry has an unshakeable — and important place — in the entertainment world." Competitive entertainment media have only served to stimulate the motion picture industry to more creditable and more profitable endeavors, he declared. "The year 1955 promises to be another good year," he stated, adding that "economic prospects in the entertainment world are, in general, good." Editorial (Continued from page 1) hibitors will know that to maintain their own place in the entertainment world they must be identified with the very finest in entertainment. There will be little room for compromise with quality and little chance of second-guessing public taste. The studios' current concentration on fewer-but-bigger productions one day may prove to be the best apprenticeship Hollywood ever served. Viewpoints AN Illinois exhibitor writes: ^ "Maybe it's just as well nothing came of all that talk last year of a merger of TOA and Allied. With TOA insisting on a fourth year of conversations on arbitration before letting Allied in to sit down at a roundtable with company presidents, it doesn't look like the union, if there'd been one, would have lasted much longer than this." And this from North Carolina: "We have heard that the Allied people are asking exhibitors to get ready to contact their Representatives in Congress to vote for a bill to regulate the film business. Some of us down here who think there's too much government regulation already are thinking of organizing a campaign to get all exhibitors who feel as we do to contact their Congressmen and get them pledged to vote against the Allied bill if it is introduced." And this from a distributor skeptic in New York: "If fewer than half of the new production companies announced in the past few months turn out one picture each, the so-called product shortage will be over before the Fourth of July." Minn. Independents, Projectionists Sign Special to THE DAILY MINNEAPOLIS, March 13.— The Minneapolis Projectionists' Union, acting on advice of William Donnelly, IATSE vice-president, on Friday signed a contract with, indepedent exhibitors averting a strike in the 50 loop and suburban theatres. Ted Mann, chairman of exhibitors' negotiating committee, won insistence that five drive-ins be excluded from the current talk. Settlement was for eight cents per hour for each of the last two years of a three-year contract. The union failed to get the 15 minutes additional preparation time originally asked. 1,700 Documents In 16mm. Case WASHINGTON, March 13.— The Justice Department has submitted to the defendants in the 16mm. anti-trust suit in Los Angeles some 1,700 documents which it may use as evidence in trial of the suit. Justice officials said that based on past experience in anti-trust suits, probably some 1,200 of these documents will actually be introduced as evidence during the course of the trial. They described the total as being "not unusually large for a suit of this importance." Mullen Resigns Post As Vitapix President Frank E. Mullen, West Coast management consultant and veteran broadcast executive, has resigned as president of Vitapix-Guild Programs, Inc. His resignation was accepted "with regret" by John E. Fetzer, chairman of the board of directors of the New York film-program corporation. Vitapix-Guild Programs, Inc., of which Mullen had been chief executive since October, 1954, is one of the corporate entities established as a result of agreements reached last fall between Vitapix Corp. and Guild Films Co., Inc. to produce and distribute programs on film. Mullen, in submitting his resignation, agreed to continue as a consultant to Vitapix-Guild. SW Zone Managers Plan Festival Here A meeting of Stanley Warner zone managers and home office executives was held Friday by Harry M. Kalmine, vice-president and general manager of the circuit to launch the company's "Spring Movie Festival" through April, May and June. Samuel Rosen, executive vice-president, addressed the meeting. Among those present were : Zone managers — Alex Halperin, Chicago; M. A. Silver, Pittsburgh ; Harry Feinstein, New Haven ; Charles A. Smakwitz, Newark; Ted Schlanger, Philadelphia ; George A. Crouch, Washington, and Ben H. Wallerstein, Hollywood. Home office executives : S. Aarons, M. Alben, J. M. Brennan, N. D. Fellman, G. Gagliardi, H. Goldberg, H. M. Maier, W. F. Marshall, L. Isaac, W. S. McDonald, C. Siegel, L. Siegel, D. Triester, B. Wirth, F. J. Kiernan, D. Fogelson, N. Lapkin and A. Rosen. 'Star' Debut Today PHILADELPHIA, March 13.— With Kirk Douglas, star of the film, making an around-the-clock series of television and radio appearances and participating in a series of civic events both tomorrow and Tuesday, Universal-International's "Man Without A Star," in Technicolor, will have its world premiere at the Goldman Theatre here tomorrow, launching one of the most important of the company's spring releases. 'Waterfront/ 'Gate,' 'Genevieve' Cited By Foreign Press The results of the 14th annual poll by the Film Critics' Circle of the Foreign Language Press were made public yesterday at its annual radio broadcast over Radio Station WNYC here. After compiling the votes from reviewers and editors on 23 dailies and 46 weeklies, printed in 19 different languages in the metropolitan area, the Circle announced that the best picture in all categories, and winner of the award for best American film of 1954, was "On the Waterfront," released by Columbia Pictures and starring Marlon Brando. The best, import from England during 1954 was judged to be "Genevieve," a J. Arthur Rank Production, released here by Universal-International. The winner as the best film in a language other than English for 1954 was "Gate of Hell," produced in Japan by Daiei Productions and distributed here by Edward Harrison. Presented by Dr. Swerdlin The Film Critics' Circle president, Dr. Nathan Swerdlin, editor of the Jewish Day-Journal, made the presentation of the awards, and announced the winners in the following categories : Best actor : Marlon Brando, for "On the Waterfront," best actress: Grace Kelly, for "The Country Girl," best producer : Sam Spiegel, for "On the Waterfront," and best director : Elia Kazan, for "On the Waterfront." Kazan accepted the award on behalf of Columbia Pictures, through a recording made in Philadelphia, and played on the broadcast ; Leslie Roberts, of J. Arthur Rank accepted the certificate of award for "Genevieve," and Edward Harrison accepted the certificate on behalf of Daiei Productions for "Gate of Hell." Military Clearance Plan Ready Soon From THE DAILY Bureau WASHINGTON, March 13.— The industry hopes to submit to the Pentagon late this week or early next week a letter outlining details of the proposal for eliminating military theatre competition with private theatres. A meeting at the Pentagon early this month between exhibitor and distributor officials and representatives of the Defense Department agreed to try out the plan for a year. The industry agreed to put the plan on paper and submit it for formal Pentagon approval. Motion Picture Association vicepresident Kenneth Clark and John Adams of the Interstate circuit have drafted a letter embodying the details of the plan, and have submitted it to various distributor and exhibitor officials. They hope to have their comments on it and send the final draft to the Pentagon this week. Then Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Swan must clear it with the individual services before it can go into effect. MOTION PICTURE DAILY, Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher: Sherwin Kane, Editor. Published daily except Saturdays Sundavs and holidays, bv Quigley Publishing Company Inc., 12/0 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; Cus H. Fausel, Production Manager; Hollywood Bureau, YuccaVine Building, Samuel D. Berns, Manager; William R Weaver, Editor, Hollywood 7-2145; Chicago Bureau, 120 South LaSalle Street, Urben Farley, Advertising Representative, FI 6-3074. Washington, J. A. Often, National Press Club, Washington, D. C. London Bureau, 4 Golden Sq^ London W. I; Hope Eurnup, Manager, Peter Burnup, Editor; cable address, "Quigpubco, London." Other Quigley Publications: Motion Picture Herald; Better Theatres and Better Refreshment Merchandising, each published 13 times a year as a section of Motion Picture Herald; Motion Picture and Television Almanac; Fame. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 21, 1938, at the post office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March' 3, 1879. Subscription rates per year, $6 in the Americas and $12 foreign; single copies, 10c. ■ ;-2r ' f '.