Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1956)

2 Motion Picture Daily Friday, November 23, 1|6 PERSONAL MENTION TV /f AURICE "RED" SILVER1V1 STEIN, liaison between M-G-M and its independent producers, will leave here by plane over the weekend for London, Rome and Paris. • N. J. Blumberg, chairman of the board of Universal Pictures, will return to Hollywood next week from New York. Tack P. Harris, vice-president of Walter Reade Theatres in charge of film buying, has returned to New York with Mrs. Harris following a three-week trip to Europe. • Ira S. Stevens, general manager of National Film Service, is spending several days in Memphis supervising installation of NFS equipment there. • Leon Roth, West Coast publicity coordinator for United Artists, will arrive in New York today from Hollywood. James Mason will return to New York today via B.O.A.C. from Barbados. Richard Karp, radio-tv publicity contact for 20th Century-Fox, has resigned that post to join Donahue & Coe. JLisf Dais Guests tor Annual Pioneer Dinner A group of top industry executives will be on the dais at the 18th annual dinner of the Motion Picture Pioneers next Friday night, Nov. 30, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, according to Sol A. Schwartz, general chairman of the dinner. The dinner is to honor Robert J. O'Donnell, "Pioneer of the Year." Among the industry notables included on the roster will be: Barney Balaban, Harry Brandt, Jack Cohn, George F. Dembow, Ned E. Depinet, Gus Eyssell, William J. German, Leonard H. Goldenson, John J. O'Connor, Judge Ferdinand Pecora, Sam Pinanski, E. V. Richards, Jr., Sam Rinzler, Herman Robbins. Also, Sol A. Schwartz, Spyros P. Skouras, Joseph Vogel, Si Fabian, Leopold Friedman, Nate J. Blumberg, Milton Rachmil, Father Sylvester McCarthy, Karl Hoblitzelle, Charles Freeman, William O'Donnell, Michael Todd, Edward P. Curtis and Eric fohnston. Columbia Now Operating In New Fifth Ave. Quarters The home office staff of Columbia Pictures has completed its transfer to the company's new headquarters at 711 Fifth Avenue. In a series of transfers over the past two months, the personnel of Columbia, Columbia International, and UATC Incon Screen Gems, the television subsidiary, were brought from various locations in the city and consolidated on eight and a half floors of the newly renamed Columbia Pictures Building. This is the third move Columbia has made since its birth as the CBS Film Sales Co. 36 years ago. It began functioning in one room at 1600 Broadway, with a staff of nine, including founders, Harry and Jack Cohn. In its first year, the company sold one film, a two-reel comedy titled "They Did It on $8 Per." Moved in 1926 The company went into production shortly, and by 1926, when its feature schedule had reached the proportions of 16 releases a year, the one office was too small, and the company moved to the 11th floor of 729 Seventh Avenue. By 1936, four floors were occupied by 400 home office employees, a number that was to be almost doubled in 18 years. The post-World War II resurge in domestic and foreign business commenced a seemingly endless increase of staffs, and the advent of telev ision and the creation of Soreen Gems overtaxed the facilities. Additional space in four other buildings was rented and the home office subdivided. Bought Structure in '55 The building on Fifth Avenue was purchased by Columbia in February, 1955. Complete demolition of the interiors of floors from the second into the 14th, exclusive of the fourth, began that summer, including wiring and plumbing. Two screening rooms have been constructed, a 60-seater on the 11th floor and a smaller room for Screen Gems on the sixth. Plans call for a third preview theatre seating 100 in the penthouse sometime in the future. The 12th and 14th floors are yet to be finished. These are intended for outside rental. Oscar Hanson Honored TORONTO, Nov. 22-At the annual dinner and dance of the Canadian Motion Picture Pioneers last night at the King Edward Hotel, Oscar R. Hanson was presented the "Pioneer of the Year" award. Hanson is the only living member of the three founders of the group in 1940. The others were Ray Lewis, late editor of the "Canadian Moving Picture Digest," and Clair Hague, then manager of Universal Films. Lacy W. Kastner Set Col. Sales Drive In Honor ol Kastner A new Columbia Pictures Internation sales drive honoring the international company's president, Lacy W. Kastner, was announced yesterday to run from Nov. 26 to May 25. It is called the "Lacy Kastner Leadership Drive." The new c o m p e t ition will be judged on a newly instituted point system which awards a specific number of points for specific categories. Separate quotas will be set up for each territory as regards billings and number of playdates. Sub-branches which reach their quotas will also participate in the awards, it was announced. Commenting on the forthcoming drive, Columbia Pictures Corp.'s executive vice-president, Jack Cohn, in whose honor the last drive was conducted, urged the international sales organization to top last year's recordsmashing results. Spfegal to Red Lands On New Negotiations Negotiations between the Motion Picture Export Association and East Germany and Roumania for sale of American features there will be launched next week by Marc Spiegal, who will leave his Paris headquarters for a lengthy trip behind the Iron Curtain, according to an official of the MPEA. Spiegal will also visit Czechoslavakia and Poland to conclude negotiations started a number of weeks ago by MPEA president Eric Johnston. The MPEA overseas representative is armed with a list of U.S. film features—20 films from each American company, it was said. The films will be sold behind the Iron Curtain on a cash basis, with asking prices ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 per film. Under the terms of the sales, each Iron Curtain country is limited to buying five features from each company, the official said. (Continued from page 1) company's share of undistrib earnings from associated compa and subsidiaries not wholly owne< the theatre circuit were consolid into the reported income, the pany would have been able to pul a net income of $482,285 for the cal year. Great promise for the future of company lies in the prospects for Todd-AO film process, developec the Magna Theatre Co., of which Theatres owns 71 per cent of the f erred stock and 37 per cent of common, Skouras told stockholdei "As a result of the success of lahoma!', 31 first run theatres in country have installed Todd equipment," Skouras declared, is expected that this number mount rapidly in the next monbhs," he said. Texas Business (Continued from page 1) "establishments" grossed $204,00 that year. The 1954 business survey discLi that there were 1,426 theatres erating in the state during that —1,038 regular theatres and drive-ins. The former took in i 126,000; the drive-ins grossed §: 203,000. Comparable figures for showed grosses of $65,683,000 foi 1,316 theatres of all types opera* then. The 1,222 regular the; grossed $61,698,000; receipts of 88 drive-ins were not disclosed NEW YORK THEATR p RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL Rockefeller Center GARY COOPER 'FRIENDLY PERSUASION" Color by De Luxe An Allied Artists Picture and SPECTACULAR STAGE PRESENTATION I Showpiece of the fas FOR YOUR SCREENING Three Channel interlock projector 16, 171/2 & 35 mm tape interlock 16 mm interlock projection CUTTING & STORAGE ROOMS MOTION PICTURE DAILY, Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; James D. Ivers. Managing Editor; Richard Gertner, News Editor; Floyd E. I Photo Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; Gus H. Fausel, Production Manager; Hollywood Bureau, Yucca-Vine Building, Samuel D. Berns, Manager; William R. Wc Editor, Telephone Hollywood 7-2145; Washington, J. A. Otten, National Press Club, Washington, D. C; London Bureau, 4, Bear St., Leicester Square, W. 2, Hope Williams nup, Manager; Peter Burnup, Editor; William Pay, News Editor. Correspondents in the principal capitals of the world. Motion Picture Daily is published daily except Saturdays, days and holidays, by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., 1270 Sixth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, New York 20, Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address: "Quigpubco, New York." IV Quigley, President; Martin Quigley, Jr., Vice-President; Theo. J. Sullivan, Vice-President and Treasurer; Leo J. Brady, Secretary. Other Quigley Publications: Motion Picture H Better Theatres and Better Refreshment Merchandising, each published 13 times a year as a section of Motion Picture Herald; Television Today, published daily as a paj"' Motion Picture Daily. Motion Picture Almanac, Television Almanac, Fame. Entered as second class matter Sept. 21, 1938, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the a ' *f March 3, 1879. Subscription rates per year, $6 in the Americas and $12 foreign; single copies, 10c. Id.