Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1955)

Tuesday, March 29, 1955 Motion Picture Daily 5 Damages (Continued from page 1) ceived to punish the guilty party was tax-free. Some years ago, William Goldman Theatres, Inc., won a damage suit against the distributors, and was awarded $125,000 in actual damages, trebled to $375,000. Goldman reported $125,000 as taxable income, and claimed the other $250,000 was punitive damages and not taxable. The Internal Revenue Service challenged this, and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Goldman. Internal Revenue then appealed to the high court. The high court's decision today, which applies not only to Goldman but to all similar cases, was by a 7 to 1 vote, with Justice Douglas dissenting and Justice Harlan taking no part. Delivering the court's opinion, Chief Justice Warren said the court has always taken the view that Congress intended "to tax all gains except those specifically exempted," and that punitive damages were not specifically exempted. Opinion by Warren "Here we have instances of undeniable accessions to wealth, clearly realized, and over which the taxpayers have complete dominion," Warren declared. "The mere fact that the payments were extracted from the wrongdoers as punishment for unlawful conduct cannot detract from their character as taxable income to the recipients. Respondents concede, as they must, that the recoveries are taxable to the extent they compensate for damages actually incurred. It would be an anomaly that could not be justified in the absence of clear Congressional intent to say that a recovery for actual damages is taxable but not the amount extracted as punishment for the same conduct which caused the injury. And we find no such evidence of intent to exempt these payments." WB, RCA and Florida Drive-in Figure in Supreme Court Edicts WASHINGTON, March 28.— The U. S. Supreme Court today refused to review lower court decisions in three cases of interest to the film industry. The court gave no indication of its reasons in any of these cases, merely noting the actions on a list of orders. In one case, the justices turned down the request of Warner Brothers Pictures Co. that the court block the use of Sam Spade and other "Maltese Falcon" characters in radio and television. Warners had argued that when it bought the copyright to the book, "The Maltese Falcon," it had also bought control over any future use in any other entertainment media of the characters in the book. Author Dashiell Hammett, however, later sold the characters to CBS for a radio and TV series, and Warners sued CBS and others involved in the series, charging copyright infringement. Coast Court Upheld The Los Angeles district court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the original sale covered only the "Maltese Falcon" story, and that the characters in the book remained Hammett's to exploit as he pleased in the future. The high court today refuser to upset this ruling. In a second action, the court denied RCA's request that its patent anti Cleveland Anti-Trust Suit (Continued from page 1) the lessee of the Moreland Theatre in Cleveland from 1937 to 1950, brought suit against the competing Regent Theatre Co., various other companies owned by the Regent, four distributors, and Cooperative Theatres of Ohio, a central booking agent that bought for the Regent and others. G. and P. charged Cooperative had used its power to buy for theatres in closed situations as a lever to get the best product from the four distributors for the Regent, and that this was exactly the sort of thing the high court had declared illegal in the Paramount, Crescent, Schine, Griffith and other earlier cases. The Cleveland District Court and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled for the defendants, however, and thrown out the suit. Unlawful Pressure Denied Today the defendants told the high court that these lower courts were exactly right. Negotiations between Cooperative and the distributors were always on a theatre-by-theatre, picture-by-picture basis, the defendants declared, and there is no proof whatsoever that Cooperative ever engaged in any unlawful pressure to get better films for the Regent. The defendants said coooperative is not a combination of theatres but merely an employe of many_ individual exhibitors, with each exhibitor employing Cooperative only to get the best deal for his own theatre and being completely uninterested in helping Cooperative make any sort of deal for any other theatre. Difference Claimed Stating that Cooperative's efforts were vastly different from the master agreements, franchises and other practices which the high court struck down in the earlier anti-trust cases, the defendants declared "there is not one shred of evidence in the record that Cooperative or any of the respondents in this case did any of the things which this court struck down" in those earlier cases. The defendants argued the lower courts' decision in this case was strictly in line with decisions in the Crest, Dipson, Franchon & Marco and other more recent cases. Workshop' Opens Wis. Allied Meet MILWAUKEE, March 28.— Some 300 exhibitors attended M-G-M's Ticket Selling Workshop today which was held in conjunction with the opening of Wisconsin Allied's Spring convention. Speakers at tomorrow's meeting will include Wilbur Snaper, who will discourse on subscription television ; president Sig Goldberg, Angelo Provmzano, Arnold Blum and Robert S. Taplinger, public relations counsel to the Committee Against Pay-As-YouSee TV. Report Heavy 'Eden' Gross in Early Runs Warner Brothers' "East of Eden" was reported yesterday to be setting top grossing marks in its initial engagements, matching those of "Battle Cry." Among the strong openings were those in the Florida Theatre, St. Petersburg, where it was heading for a $15,000 week; a moveover at West Palm Beach where it pulled $7,831 in the first four days ; $9,860 in three days at Fort Lauderdale and similar business in other Florida situations. A $44,000 week is seen for the first four days of its third week at the New York Astor and $30,000 at the Los Angeles Paramount in its second week almost dollar-for-dollar with the opening week. trust suit against Zenith Radio Corp., in Chicago be postponed. RCA argued the Chicago case should be delayed until a similar case in Delaware is concluded. The Delaware case was begun in late 1946 by Zenith, charging RCA with a patent monopoly. Two years later, RCA filed the patent infringement suit against Zenith. In the third action, the court refused to overturn a ruling of two Florida courts that S. E. Britton could go ahead and build a drive-in theatre just outside of Tampa. The drive-in was being fought by a group of neighborhood property owners. M-G-M's Eastern Mgrs. Meet Here M-G-M branch and district managers for the Eastern territory under John P. Byrne's supervision, met yesterday at the Astor Hotel, following Byrne's return from Chicago where he attended a two-day division managers sales meeting conducted by Charles M. Reagan, vice-president and general sales manager. Highlight of the meeting yesterday was discussion of recent production deals made, such as that with Sam Goldwyn for the release of "Guys and Dolls," the forthcoming Desilu picture and the future films to be made by Sol C. Siegel under a contract now being finalized. Other highlights pivoted about the release of "The Prodigal," "Blackboard Jungle," "Interrupted Melody," "Love Me or Leave Me," "The Glass Slipper," and "The Cobweb," among others. Byrne will meet individually today with several of the men and tonight leave for a tour of his branches to meet with the sales staffs locally. His first stop will be Albany, followed by Philadelphia, New York, Boston, New Haven, and Buffalo. Vista Vision Rentals, EFFG Before N.W. TO A SEATTLE, March 28. — Alleged unjust film rentals and the Exhibitor Film Financial Group, Inc., will be the top topics of discussion at a special meeting of the Theatre Owners of Washington, Northern Idaho and Alaska tomorrow at the Olympic Bowl here. Joseph J. Rosenfield of Spokane, who will rotate the chairmanship with M. M. Saffle of Seattle, every three months, is expected to seek more support from the theatremen for EFFG, a plan whereby exhibitors will stimulate independent production through financing. The Northwest TOA group is recovering from the shock of losing both its executive secretary, J. M. Hone, and treasurer, H. B. Sobottka, by death, within a matter of weeks. (Continued from page 1) weekend. The latter picture's aerial photography by Thomas Tutweiler has been hailed in the profession as the best ever made of planes in flight, and Tutweiler is understood to be in line for similar work in the Lindbergh production which, like "SAC" will star James Stewart. Warner would be the third American major studio to adopt VistaVision, as Universal last week announced its adoption for "Away All Boats." Overseas, J. Arthur Rank and Ponti De Laurentiis have purchased Mitchell VistaVision cameras for forthcoming productions. Toronto Production (Continued from page 1) launched a studio project at an estimated cost of $2,000,000 near Toronto for the production of feature length pictures, it was publicly announced today. Canadian-born Coplan joined Gottlieb here last year after spending a decade in England and earlier he was an executive with Columbia and United Artists in the Canadian field. Coplan said Canadian Film Industries has a number of production properties available. Appeals for Damages Over Screen Credits WASHINGTON, March 28. Writer Paul Jarrico asked the Supreme Court today to award him damages from RKO Pictures for the company's refusal to give him screen credit for "The Las Vegas Story." Jarrico was fired by RKO after he refused to answer questions of the House Unamerican Activities Committee. The company also refused to list him on the screen credits for the film, on which he had worked before he was fired. The matter was submitted to arbitration, and the arbitrators held Jarrico entitled to first screen writer's credit on the film. RKO refused and asked the California courts for a declaratory judgment in its favor. At the same time Jarrico sued RKO for damages for releasing the picture without credit for him. Several California courts ruled for RKO, and Jarrico today appealed to the Supreme Court. New Spiegel Post Ted Spiegel, who has been with the Columbia Pictures exploitation staff for seven years, has been transferred to the home office publicity department as general assignment man, it was announced here yesterday. PREVIEW YOUR PICTURE in modern luxury! Cinemascope ★ STEREOPHONIC SOUND ★ WIDE SCREEN ★ CONTINUOUS INTERLOCK PROJECTION ★ 16 and 35 mm MAGNETIC TAPE ★ CUTTING and EDITING ROOMS SERVICE DAY AND NIGHT PREVIEW THEATRE, INC. 1600 Broadwoy, New York, N. Y. • CI 6-0865