Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1959)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY i— OL. 86, NO. 95 NEW YORK, U.S.A., MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1959 TEN CENTS tDITORIAL OA Convention By Sherwin Kane Florida Drive-in Is Court Victor !lHEATRE OWNERS of America's 12th annual convention in Chicago last week was well planned and ganized and deservedly drew one I the largest registrations of exhibits of any convention in recent ears. This result was due, in part, f course, to the added attraction of le trade show and convention of fational Assn. of Concessionaires. The program offered a wide vaiety of informative addresses on all bases of industry activities and injrest, not overlooking the new seabn production plans of all national istributors; the problems of the prouction community as set forth so learly by Buddy Adler; the technical ide of theatre housekeeping, as emiraced in plans and activities of the Council for the Improvement of Theares and Motion Picture Projection. There was proper attention at the onvention to both the problem of inding and developing new talent and o greeting, in person, many of the new faces" being brought to the ore by the major studios. There were also the significant renarks to the convention of Robert ticks, Acting Assistant Attorney Jeneral in charge of the Anti-Trust )epartment, which revealed the first iwareness in that sensitive area that :onditions in the motion picture inlustry today are at long last, recoglizably different than those which wevailed a decade ago when the ndustry consent decrees were drawn. It was in every sense a construc:ive convention, including as it did valuable forums on film merchandising, on drive-in operations and techjnical assistance. Any exhibitor who went home without an idea that could be translated either into cash at his box office or its equivalent in the improvement of his physical theatre and its operation, has no one but himself to blame. Constrated with the old now fortunately outmoded type of exhibitor [convention that treated captive delejgates to harangues and vituperation lin place of constructive leadership land operational assistance, the wonder is that convention attendance was not even greater than it was. It was an auspicious ending to a dignified, constructive administration under George Kerasotes, and an auspicious beginning for another under the able and popular Al Pickus. Special to THE DAILY MIAMI, Nov. 15.-A Florida supreme court decision handed down last week requires Dade County and the State Road Department to give the Golden Glades Twin Drive-In here a driveway into a limited access Florida Turnpike express feeder road or else compensate it for being closed off by the road. The drive-in is owned by Max A. Cohen of Cinema Circuit, New York, (Continued on page 3) Sees Soviet Film Pact Aid to Understanding By SAMUEL D. BERNS HOLLYWOOD, Nov. 15.-The exchange of films between the United States and Russia under the present cultural agreement will provide the greatest instrument in effecting closer (Continued on page 5) Soviet Film Stars Are Entertained Here The delegation of four leading film stars of the Soviet Union who came to the U.S. last week for the premiere of "The Cranes Are Flying," in Washington, D. C, arrived in New York over the weekend. They came ( Continued on page 5 ) Walla Walla Approves Admission Tax Cut Special to THE DAILY WALLA WALLA, Wash., Nov. 15. —The city commission has approved a 50 per cent cut in admission taxes, relieving somewhat the tax burden of the three theatres here. The full tax has been budgeted to produce $8,500 in 1960. Exhibition Response to Trailer Tribute Large Exhibition has responded in large numbers from virtually every area of the nation to the "Once-in-A-Lifetime Tribute to Trailers" contest, according to Herman Robbins, president and board chairman of National Screen Service. The trailer contest is an integral part of the National Screen 40th an( Continued on page 4 ) Guinness To Appear In 4 Columbia Films Sir Alec Guinness has signed his first American motion picture contract, a four-film deal with Columbia Pictures, to be projected over the next five years, A. Montague, Columbia executive vice-president, announced here Friday at a conference held for ( Continued on page 4 ) Eastman Participation in 'Oscar' Telecast Expected to Include Promotional Tie-Ins While Eastman Kodak's plans for tying-in to the Academy Awards presentation telecast scheduled for next April 4 have not been developed in detail yet, the Motion Picture Assn. of America, in confirming Eastman's financial participation in the sponsorship of the event for the first time, said it is expected that the company will join with the industry in an all-out effort to back the program in its advertising and distribution activities. Also, it was emphasized that Eastman's participation in no way changes the plans for the "Oscar" telecast program which, as in the past two years under industry sponsorship, will carry no interrupting commercials during the scheduled hour and a half. ,It is reported that the Eastman contribution as its share of the cost of the telecast will be a flat sum of $100,000. Eastman decided last week to participate following a presentation made by Charles Simonelli of Universal Pictures, as chairman of the MPAA advertising-publicity directors committee, to Eastman advertising-publicity heads in Rochester. Accompanying him were Robert Ferguson, Taylor Mills and Charles McCarthy. Eastman's tie-in is expected to be primarily in the huge advance promotional campaign which encompasses screen and many other media for selling the telecast to the public. Interim Report Reactions to Conciliation Not All Rosy Many Exhibitors Seriously Voice Valid Complaints While even dissatisfied exhibitors refrain from condemning the operation of industry conciliation too vigorously at this stage, there is far more widely spread skepticism about its value than the favorable publicity the system has received to date would lead the average industry member to believe. This situation is due largely to the fact that up to now only the more spectacular conciliation results have been made public by individual exhibitors, distributors and the American Congress of Exhibitors. These have included film rental and other strategic relief extended to exhibitors as the result of conciliation in a degree which permitted a closed theatre to reopen or a theatre in danger of closing to continue operating. On the other hand, the reactions ( Continued on page 2 ) V.C Officers, TO A Heads At 0'Donnell Services Special to THE DAILY DALLAS, Nov. 15. Officers of Variety Clubs International and directors of Theatre Owners of America acted as honorary pallbearers at the funeral services here yesterday for Robert J. O'Donnell, famed Dallas showman. A requiem mass was cele(Continued on page 4) Big TV Campaign Set For Fox's 'Journey' 20th Century-Fox announced at the weekend it lias devised the most extensive campaign in its history for "Journey to the Center of the Earth," based on the Jules Verne classic. The campaign will he fashioned on three (Continued on page 5) TELEVISION TODAY-page 5