Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1959)

85, NO. 15 NEW YORK, U.S.A., FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1959 TEN CENTS ction in Doubt TOA's Toll-TV Committee Bulletin Hied Board Urges Members Back Harris Bill PThe Theatre Owners of America's anti-pay-TV committee yesterday carried O H *t:s C£LmP^Sn t0 ban all forms of pay-TV, both cable and over the air, to the grass roots level, with an urgent plea for support of the Harris Bill. In letters to presidents of all TOA state and regional units, and to key TOA members, Philip F. Harling, committee chairman, asked them to contact their congressmen and get local chambers of commerce, PTAs, veterans organizations and labor unions to also contact Congressmen asking them either to support the Harris Bill or introduce identical legislation. The Harris Bill, introduced by Con(Continued on page 2) CE Support Screen Gems L Agenda of Weekend MoUonDenied ting Before Convention Special to THE DAILY TSBURGH, Jan. 22. Allied * relations with the American iress of Exhibitors loom as the topic of interest at the annual fig of Allied's board of directors ? Penn Sheraton Hotel here on day and Sunday, and hence at anual drive-in convention which | starting Monday, since the "s actions on ACE and other matvill be reported to the conven 1 annual meeting of the board S scheduled to elect officers, and lis no reliable pre-meeting indi(Continued on page 4) ne Exhibitor Units Promote 'Oscar' TV jiibitor committees have been orpd in nearly all of the important ijation centers for the promotion I vear's Academy Award telecast, i reported yesterday by Charles ;Carthy, information director of PO, which was given the task of rig exhibitor support for the tele Carthy said exhibitor committees ar helped to enlist the support of 'Continued on page 6) lille Pallbearers to ude Zukor, Goldwyn From THE DAILY Bureau LLYWOOD, Jan. 22. Samuel vyn and Adolph Zukor, chairman J board of Paramount Pictures, e among the pallbearers at fuservices of Cecil B. DeMille, held here here tomorrow at St. sn's Episcopal Church. DeMille in his sleep here yesterday at ?e of 77. VISION TODAY— page 5 A government motion for summary judgment in its anti-trust action against Screen Gems, Columbia and Universal Pictures was denied in Federal District court here yesterday by Judge Sylvester Ryan. At the same time the government's petition for a preliminary injunction (Continued on page 6) Albany Groups Critical Of CBS 'Sex' Program From THE DAILY Burea ALBANY, N. Y., Jan. 22. 'It perfectly expresses my sentiments." This was today's reaction of Dr. Hugh M. Flick, of the State Education Department, to Motion Picture Daily's editorial, "Shame," dealing (Continued on page 5) Skouras, Adler Outline Fox TV-Film Program Special to THE DAILY HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 22. Spyros Skouras, president of 20th CenturyFox, and Buddy Adler, studio executive producer, at an executive meeting held today with Martin Manulis, executive production chief of 20th-Fox Television, announced that the studio plans the "largest and most extensive TV production program" ever undertaken by a motion picture company, (Continued on page 4) EDITORIAL DOUBLE STANDARD: Relationship of Production and Advertising Budgets By Martin Quigley, Jr. FOR SOME TIME the American motion picture industry has been operating under "a double standard" with respect to production costs and advertising expenditures. As to the former— despite headshaking and dire forecasts— the budgets have gone up and up. On the other hand, with only a single notable exception, the budgets for advertising departments have been trimmed and trimmed. This is a form of schizophrenia at its maddest. It is a solid economic fact that the greater a picture costs the more it must gross in order to break even. The industry knows well that "the picture good enough to sell itself has not yet been made"— and never will be. The comprehensive services performed by an advertising department embracing not only advertising but publicity and exploitation in all their many forms are indispensable. It is folly to try to compensate for excessive payments for books and plays— for fantastic salary and participation deals to actors, directors, writers and producers— by curtailing advertising. Instead of greater advertising efforts on account of greater competition, there has been a shocking deterioration in the relative status of the advertising departments of many of the film companies. The situation (Continued on page 3) Avert Duplication Compo, ACE to Confer Here On Activities Meeting Scheduled to Iron Out Overlapping Phases First approach between members of the Compo triumvirate and of the American Congress of Exhibitors executives to avoid duplication of efforts by the two in the pursuit of their new programs is scheduled to take place here next Wednesday. Si H. Fabian, executive head of ACE, possibly accompanied by otiier members of the executive committee, will meet with Abe Montague, distributor member of the Compo triumvirate. Montague may be joined by Ben Marcus, Allied States representa( Continued on page 4 ) ACE Regional Meets Total 13 to Date Regional meetings to discuss the aims and program of the American Congress of Exhibitors have already been held in 13 exchange areas and it is expected that the entire country will have been covered within the next three to four weeks. This was revealed yesterday in a progress report on the ACE meetings from the New York office. Exhibitor approval of ACE at die meetings held has been unanimous, it was stated. The areas in which meetings have already been held include Buffalo, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, (Continued on page 4) Rule Theatre Ticket Can't Overstate Tax From THE DAILY Bureau WASHINGTON, Jan. 22.-The Internal Revenue Service has ruled a dieatre ticket cannot show an admission price of $1.45 and a Federal tax of 5 cents, since that would be overstating the tax by a penny. The Service said the new admission tax law levies a tax of 10 per cent on each 10 cents over $1, or each major (Continued on page 4)