Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1955)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY VOL. 77. NO. 93 NEW YORK, U.S.A., THURSDAY, MAY 12, 1955 TEN CENTS EDITORIAL. Theatres' Allies Against Toll TV .By Sherwin Kane WHILE Zenith Radio officials in Chicago sarcastically "thank" Alfred Starr and Trueman Rembusch for aiding the cause of subscription television by putting the subject on the air and into forums across the land, there are others whom the Committee Against Toll TV can thank for assistance with far greater sincerity than is possible for Zenith's men to put into its acknowledgements. That would be, of course, such proponents of toll TV as Walter O'Malley, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers ball club, who by all odds have been of far greater service to exhibition's than to toll TV's cause. O'Malley, you will remember, identified himself as a long-time toll TV enthusiast who can hardly wait until it's possible to try charging 50 cents per television set to all those free-loaders who have been sitting at home looking at Dodger games on their TV sets for free. The Dodgers, of course, have been collecting about $500,000 per season from sponsors, but O'Malley's point is that even if the vastly smaller public than now watches the games for free can be assessed 50 cents per unit, his organization stands to net a few dollars more and his attraction will be switched from free to pay TV. • And O'Malley is not to be blamed. Major league ball clubs are in business, too. The point is that O'Malley typifies the state of mind of anyone now offering a successful sponsored television program to home viewers at no cost to the latter. If such programs can realize a higher price on the subscription TV market than a sponsor is willing to pay, there is no question about where the program will go. That is exactly what Starr and (Continued on page 2) 'Split' Move Vs. Toll TV Special to THE DAILY BANGOR. Me., May 11.— A bid to split the trio of proponents of payto-see TV was launched today by Leon P. Gorman, Jr., chairman of New England Broadcasters for FreeTV, with a telegraphed invitation to Paul MacNamara, vice-president of International Telemeter, to join "Organizations for Free-TV" of which Gorman's group is a unit. Gorman's action followed the report last week that Telemeter is considering a two-city experiment of its coinbox TV system on "closed circuits" utilizing cable transmissions rather than broadcast channels now allocated to free-TV. Zenith and Skiatron, to date, have given no indication they intend to abandon their efforts to take over channels now used by networks (Continued on page 7) GPE Registers 100,000 Preferred Shares With SEC A registration statement covering 100,000 shares of cumulative preferred stock, without par value, was filed yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission by General Precision Equipment Corp. The company proposes to offer 67,176 shares of the new preferred in exchange on a sharefor-share basis for four series of its outstanding non-convertible preferred (Continued on page 6) Develop Plans For Trade Assn. Of TV Industry Distributors of films for television yesterday appointed a committee of eight, headed by Dave Savage of Guild Films, to develop a plan for the organization of a trade association which will have a similar industry function as that of the Motion Picture Association of America. The group was appointed following a meeting of approximately 30 representatives of the major distributors of films for TV at the offices of General Teleradio, Inc., here. The committee was instructed by Dwight Martin of General Teleradio, who presided at the meeting, to determine the tentative qualifications for membership in the industry trade association and to recommend an orderly procedure for implementing a plan for the organization. The representatives of the TV film distributors favored the formation of (Continued on page 7) Circuits Weighing E.F.F.G. Procedure National circuit executives questioned here yesterday said the matter of investment by divorced theatre companies in the Exhibitors Film Finance Group without authorization from the Department of Justice in advance was a matter for legal study. They implied that there was little (Continued on page 7) To Be Issued June 1 Audience Poll Procedure in Compo Exhibitor Brochure Robert W. Coyne, special counsel for COMPO, anounced yesterday that a brochure giving details of COMPO's national audience awards poll will be issued on or about June 1 to exhibitors throughout the country. Distribution will be made ~ exhibitor's preference in each of the following categories : best picture released during the nominating period, best star performance by an actor, best star performance by an actress, most promising new young personality (male) and most promising new young personality (female). Under the rules, each picture nominated must bear the Production Code seal, and all personalities must have appeared in one or more of the eligible pictures. Exhibitors will be asked to make (Continued on page 6) through regional offices of National Screen Service. Distributed with the 12-page booklet will be a ballot on which exhibitors can mark their nominations of pictures and personalities. The nominations will be made from lists supplied by distributors of pictures released between Oct. 1, 1954 and March 31, 1955. Subsequent ballots will be sent out covering pictures released in the April-May-June and the July-AugustSeptember periods. The nominations will express the Customer Talks Only Schenck Says M-G-M Stands On Its Record Reply to Shor Bid Makes General Parley Unlikely M-G-M will stand on its record in its willingness to listen to and discuss problems of exhibitors provided such discussions are held exclusively with its customers, it was stated in a telegram by president Nicholas M. Schenck to Ruben Shor, president of Allied States Association, in response to a request by a joint Theatre Owners of America-Allied request for a reconsideration of an industry roundtable. In effect, Schenck's telegram rejected the bid for a conference with exhibitor leaders if such a conference included executives of other distribution companies. Spyros Skouras, president of 20th Century-Fox, took a similar stand on Tuesday when he told Motion Pic(C on tinned on page 6) Booth Space Sales Moving Fast for Allied Trade Show Rental contracts for booth space for the joint Allied-theatre equipment and popcorn manufacturers associations trade show this year are exceeding expectations, according to Fred Matthews, president of Theatre Equipment Supply Manufacturers Association, and Jack Kirsch, Allied general chairman for the event. The trade show, to be held at the Morrison Hotel, Chicago, Nov. 6-9, is being sponsored by Allied, TESMA, Theatre Equipment Dealers Association and the International Popcorn Association. Contracts for 72 per cent of booth (Continued on page 7) TED A Will Assist S' Eastern Festival The Theatre Equipment Dealers Association has arranged for its executive director, Ray G. Colvin to spend 30 days in Georgia, Alabama and Florida during the "Movie Festival" to be staged by the exhibitors of these Southeastern states. He will speak before some 25 civic groups. J. H, Thompson, president of the (Continued on page 7)