Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1957)

Motion Picture Daily Thursday, January 10, PERSONAL MENTION Business Up; Studios Happy ( Continued to the question whether the threatened overthrow of the long standing major studio system would be good in the long run for the entertainment motion picture, but the arguments in favor of maintaining the status quo (to use in correct sense a term that's been taking a beating hereabouts for some time) outnumber substantially the arguments against. Emphasize Overhead Charge The attackers of the major-studio system make their most effective point when they mention the overhead charge, running from 40 per cent to 55 per cent in stated instances, assessed against each picture. Their next strongest point is registered when they extoll the advantages of freedom from executive supervision. Defenders of the major studio system are prone to concede the seeming hardship of an overhead charge assessed against each picture it produces, but they are prone, too, to break down the charge into itemsexpert executive administration, costly research from which all in the industry derive benefit, world-wide representation of vast and steady profit to majors and independents collectively — from page 1 ) which add up to total cost hard to shoulder but harder to blow down. To the other complaints against the system raised by its deriders, most major studios usually find it necessary only to point out that artistic freedom has been enjoyed in major studios from their beginning by men whose work warranted it. The state of independent production of theatrical pictures is in healthy condition and faces no visibly imminent dangers more threatening than a possibly pending enactment by the Treasury Department of a rule making the personal corporation subject to same tax as an individual. That appears unlikely enough of enactment. Big-Film Success a Factor By and large, Hollywood feels better at this year's end than 12 months ago. The big success of the big picture has had a steadying effect on the community. The relative constancy of the 1956 box office level has set at rest certain fears that there might be no bottom at all to the falling market for tickets. For these or other reasons less plainly evident, Hollywood feels better about 1957. That is about as far as Hollywood can be reported, ever. ...SEW! WIHIM Schedule Talent for Inaugfi A million dollars worth of indli talent will entertain inauguration j istors at the Presidential inauf. festivals and concert, George Mur; in charge of entertainment for! auguration activities announced] Washington yesterday. Enterta will perform at two festivals onil urday night, Jan. 19, one at ! Uline Arena and one at Loew's 0 tol Theatre; at a concert to be I Sunday night at Constitution ]\ and at the four inaugural balls wl will take place Monday night Jan ] Masters of ceremonies for the i! vals will be Wendell Corey, 0 Raymond, William Gaxton and j liam Lundigan. Dancers will incli Ray Bolger, Tony and Sally DeM' and the Stepp Brothers; comedi Phil Silvers, Abbott and Costello, Cannon and Edgar Bergen; sira Dorothy Shay, Kathryn Graji; Theresa Brewer and Pat Boone. ES. GREGG, president of Westrex • Corp., has returned to New York following a vacation in the South. • Mort Nathanson, United Artists publicity manager, has left New York for a Virgin Islands vacation. Milton Schneederman, United Artists manager in Japan, has left New York en route to Los Angeles on his return to Tokyo. • Mrs. Barhara Warner, wife of Jack M. Warner, Warner Brothers executive, gave birth to a girl this week at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, Los Angeles. Lorraine Sherwood, secretary to John Huston, director, will return to New York from London today via B.O.A.C. Joseph Gould, United Artists advertising manager, will leave here tomorrow for Hollywood. Julie Bass, of Donohue & Coe, has returned to New York from Florida. Lew Grade, British talent agent, will return to London from New York today via B.O.A.C. • Gerald M. Loeb, amusement securities specialist for E. F. Hutton & Co., brokers, will leave here today on a motor trip through the South accompanied by Mrs. Loeb. Cite 6 Para. Managers In Weltner Sales Drive PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 9.-Six Paramount branch managers from the Eastern half of the U. S. were cited today by Hugh Owen, Paramount Film Distributing Corp. vice-president, as winners in the first phase of the recently concluded "Paramount's Salute to George Weltner" sales drive. The first phase extended from July 1 to September 30 last year. Owen named the managers during the opening session of the company's two-day meeting here of home office executives, Eastern U. S. division and branch managers and field merchandising representatives. The managers are: Howard Nicholson, Memphis; Bill Holliday, New Orleans; Ed Chumley, Jacksonville; Gasper Urban, Boston; Myron Sattler, New York, and Foster Hotard, Atlanta. Forthcoming Paramount pictures will be discussed at the meeting tomorrow. Newsreel in Color Produced in France From THE DAILY Bureau PARIS, Jan. 7 (By Air Mail) A full-lengUi newsreel done completely in color has been produced for the first time in French film history by Les Actualities Francaises. The color newsreel was achieved after considerable difficulty, however. Some of the filmed events took place under badly-lighted conditions. Printing of the film presented further difficulties, the process taking as much as five times as long as with blackand-white. Done Experimentally This newsreel was produced experimentally but it is hopeful that more color news films may be produced, the company said. If the initial effort is successful, it is anticipated that color newsreels could sometime soon become weekly events. News films are changed twice weekly in French theatres. Columbia Dividend Columbia Pictures Corp. announced that the board of directors at a meeting held yesterday declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $1.06V4 per share on the $4.25 cumulative preferred stock of the company, payable February 15, 1957 to stockholders of record February 1, 1957. Hartford Papers Reject Ads for 'Wild Party' The "Hartford Times" and "Hartford Courant" have rejected advertising for United Artists' "The Wild Party," which is scheduled to open at Loew's Palace there on Saturday, UA reported here yesterday. The two publications objected to the ad line reading "The new sin that is sweeping America"; to art showing an embrace between stars Anthony Quinn and Carol Ohmart; and to the use and display treatment of the word "shock" in the line, "the shock story behind the rock 'n' roll generation." UA pointed out that the ads were accepted by New York newspapers and in Portland, Ore., where the film opened yesterday. Shirley Yamaguchi Will Welcome Japanese Here Film star Shirley Yamaguchi will be hostess to the delegation of 12 Japanese motion picture executives and actresses who will fly here next week to represent their country during Japanese Film Week, which will be held January 20 through 25. Miss Yamaguchi, who now lives in New York, will introduce the visiting Japanese film personalities to their American colleagues and members of the press at a series of receptions and luncheons. The main event of the week will Burstyn Presentation Tuesi The Independent Motion Pic Distributors Association of Arm will present the annual Joseph Bui Award for the best foreign-lang^ film of 1956 to the Italian film Strada" at a cocktail party next T day, at the Hotel Plaza here. M Winsten, film critic of the New ) Post, will present the award to B ard Basehart, a star of the film. Albany Union Dispute Sett Picketing has been disconuV and a projected strike called ofi Fabian's Palace Theatre, Albany, Y. following settlement of a cont dispute between management Operating Engineers Local 106, AJ Projectionists and stage hands < tinued to work during the con trove ■ Ingrid Bergman Coming Hi; Ingrid Bergman has informed il Century-Fox that she has accepj the New York Film Critics' invita ji to come to New York to accept t! J annual award for her performance "Anastasia." The actress will ail on Jan. 19 and will return to P,i the next day. be six evening screenings to be I in the Museum of Modern Art Tl tre, of the most recent feature : documentary productions of lead Japanese film companies. MOTION PICTURE DAILY, Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; James D. Ivers, Managing Editor; Richard Gertner, News Editor; Floyd E. St Photo Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; Gus H. Fausel, Production Manager; Hollywood Bureau, Yucca-Vine Building, Samuel D. Berns, Manager; William R. Wea 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." Ma Quigley, President; Martin Quigley, Jr., Vice-President; Theo. J. Sullivan, Vice-President and Treasurer; Leo J. Brady, Secretary. Other Quigley Publications: Motion Picture Hei 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 par! 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 aci March 3, 1879. Subscription rates per year, $6 in the Americas and $12 foreign; single copies, 10c.