Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1959)

Motion Picture Daily Wednesday, December 23, 195 PERSONAL MENTION William Eldeh, Loew's Theatres division manager, was in Buffalo and Niagara Falls this week from Boston. • Jeff Livingston, Universal-International executive coordinator of sales and advertising, will return to New York today from Hollywood. • James Hill, producer of "The Unforgiven" for United Artists, will return to Hollywood today from London. • Philip A. Waxman, producer of Columbia's "The Gene Krupa Story," Kbupa himself, and Sal Mineo, who portrays the drummer in the film, have arrived in Boston from the Coast to attend today's premiere of the picture. • Thomas P. Tidwell, 20th CenturyFox manager in Jacksonville, has returned there with Mrs. Tidwell from Texas. • Rick Shambroom, merchandising manager of Redbook, will leave here tomorrow for the Mt. Snow Ski School at West Dover, Vt. • Robert Aldrich, director, will return to Hollywood on Monday from Europe. Warren 'Ben-Hur' Guest SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 22.-Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court; Gov. Pat Brown of California, and actor Stephen Boyd headed the list of celebrities attending the opening here tonight of MGM's "Ben-Hur." Roxy Books 'Gazebo' M-G-M's "The Gazebo," starring Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds, will be the next attraction at the Roxy Theatre here, following "Li'l Abner." get your message across with Philip Gerard, V-I eastern advertising and publicity director; Silas Seadler MGM eastern advertising director, and Ted Baldwin, coordinator of the institutional campaign, at the press conference yesterday. P.R. Campaign for '60 Begun ( Continued from page 1 ) ment' for the publicity drive to move into high gear. "Producers and exhibitors are more optimistic than they have been in years," Seadler said. "Business for the first 10 months of 1959 indicates the presence and spirit of 'upbeat' is upon the industry again." Press Cooperation Sought Daily newspapers, business papers and magazines, teen-age and womens' periodicals, it is hoped, will cooperate with MPA in "planting" upbeat industry stories. At least 311 dailies with circulations above 50,000 have been asked to participate in the campaign, and more than 5,000 radio and television stations will also take part, Seadler said. Robert S. Ferguson is chairman of the radio and television publicity staff of the subcommittee. Industry groups aiding the MPA drive include Theatre Owners of America, Compo and several independent film organizations, the chairman added. Locally, according to Ted Baldwin, MPA program coordinator, The Wall Street Journal, The Times, Herald Tribune, JournalAmerican and Daily News have all assisted in the publications' part of the campaign or have expressed their intention to do so. United Press International will use a "pickup" for its end-of-year industry roundup, Baldwin added. Points to Changes in Industry "The national press hasn't really caught on to the changes that have taken place in the industry this year," Gerard said. "Now we think general and special news publications are finally coming around to our way of thinking, and we hope to get them to stop singing the blues, not by paid announcements but through publication of straight facts. "To date," Gerard continued, "year end roundup stories, and stories of the decade now ending, have been optimistic. We've got the product on hand and we don't have to depend on fulfilling promises." Gerard said the present campaign, in relative terms, is "not expensive." The subcommittee intends also to communicate to the film public the fact that 1960 will produce films made all over the world. Special window displays exploiting international filmmaking will be initiated, the first of them next Tuesday at Cook's on Fifth Avenue. 'Filmed on Location' Stressed In its "key product" listing for 1960, the subcommittee is pointing to 27 productions from nine American companies, and is stressing the "filmed on location" element of each production. Schine Limited to Two Theatres in Rochester Special to THE DAILY BUFFALO, Dec. 22.-Schine Theatres, Inc., has been limited to two theatres in Rochester, N. Y., under the latest Federal Court order in the long anti-trust litigation. Federal Judge Harold P. Burke has directed that the circuit limit its Rochester holdings to the Monroe and Riviera Theatres, and that only one of them may be operated as a secondrun theatre at a time. Schine has seven theatres there currently. At the same time Judge Burke has approved the sale of the Liberty Theatre in Rochester to the Genesee Valley Union Trust Co. This is one of two theatres the court has granted permission to be sold for non-theatrical use. The remaining three theatres in Rochester presumably have to be closed or disposed of for some nontheatrical use also. film Ads Censored By Wilmington Papers] Special to THE DAILY WILMINGTON, Dec. 22-Restrii s tions on motion picture advertisir copy and art have been imposed cj local theatres by the Wilmingto Morning News and the Journal Ever Evening, the papers claiming th?| theatre copy of late has been "sexy' and "suggestive." Accompanying a letter of policjt; regarding theatre advertising copy, thj News-Journal Co. has also sent theJ tre managers an excerpt from Printei] Ink magazine of Nov. 27, whicj "points very definitely to a goverrn mental crackdown on movie news1:! paper advertising from the standpoint of over-emphasis on sex." Would 'Heed These Warnings' j "We believe," the News-Journal Co, wrote, "it is better to heed thes warnings now rather than become in!' volved in investigations and havinj our readers and the religious group1 in the community register complaint)1 with our newspapers which could leac to public denouncement." The newspapers have for the firs! time in 25 years been censoring loca theatre advertising. Mats or gloss) prints which show people too sparselj dressed, or in poses termed "sexy," are no longer being accepted for publi cation. Ernest P. Clay Dies; Pioneer Ga. Exhibitor Special to THE DAILY ATLANTA, Dec. 22. Ernest P. Clay, for many years the owner of motion picture theatres in Georgia communities, died here at the age of 67. He was a pioneer in bringing film houses to small Georgia towns. Initially, Clay toured the Georgia rural areas, showing films in tents, and many citizens of rural Georgia got their first look at a motion picture at is one of his shows. In 1934 he settled in McDonough and opened the McDonough theatre there, later establishing theatres in Woodbury and Hampton. Surviving are a daughter, a son and four grandchildren. 11 w wm extends its heartiest Season's Greetings to all its friends Advertisin Managerl : Gus^rS™ rffio/t^^k^^f ib^'S Sanson* Edito"^ ^"T^ *"tor; Richard Gertner, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, •■ • " 1 ■< "■ ,on' Edlt°"al Director; Pinky Herman, Vincent Canby, Eastern Editors. Holly _„ j u = — =-■' " j iiuuuciiun manager, 1 jsLii V 1MU \ DAY Charles Ao,-nv,o„„ uj-. T rC ~r',"" > ubu», news .editor; xierDert V. recK wood Bureau, Yucca-Vine Building, Samuel D Berns, Manager; Telephone HO Uywood 7 -'145 WashirXn n„D,rec1S?rJ Pl,nk£ HeI™an Vi"«nt Canby, Eastern Editors. Holl i n= 'CeSter SiW f7-;2' H°Pe Williams Burnup, Manager; /eter Jilu-nup Editor William P, n£ R^te"VNat,0nalJPreSs. Clnb' Washington, D. C; London Bureau, : CMe =„M?« 'S.<RU^Ishtd ex«*>t Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, by Qu '-ley Publishing C„ml n Vj-SST' e4sPondent|, "} principal capitals of the world. Motion V^ce P^HenV Qu.gpubco. New York" Martin Quigley, President; fc'art&l QA^Jr^u^^^i-T^^I £ ir v'' R°ckeffUer Ce?ter. New York 20, Circle 7-3100. i