Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1960)

lay, February 26. 1960 Motion Picture Daily 3 JA. Sales Meetings in ashington Next Week William J. Heineman, United Artists H-president, and James R. Velde, , \ice-president in charge of domesisales, will hold a series of sales .-tings in Washington, D.C., next sday and Wednesday to develop onai distribution patterns on the panv's forthcoming films, articipating in the two-day sales terences, the latest in a series of ;t-to-coast sales meetings, will be ■id V. Picker, executive assistant to . \ice-president Max E. Youngstein executive vice-president of UA — -ords; Sidney Cooper, Central and them Division manager; James idel, Central District manager; s Chapman, supervisor of branch u^ rations, and Ed Bigley, Washingi branch manager, "he meetings will also map regional is for UA's current sales drive honjg UA board chairman Robert S. jamin. The 23-week "Bob BenjaDrive" is co-captained by Velde Picker. _ 'tome office executives Velde, PickCooper and Chapman depart for shington on Monday. Vice-presit Heineman leaves for Washington Tuesday to launch the meetings open the company's new Washingexchange headquarters there. dak 1959 Sales, Net ow Substantial Gains Special to THE DAILY ^CHESTER, N.Y., Feb. 25. ■\ al sales and earnings of the East•f] i Kodak Company for 1959 were best the company has had— sub_ bally higher than for 1958, the . ipany's best previous year for sales earnings. In issuing this report, mas J. Hargrave, chairman, and ert K. Chapman, president, said "provided there is no major nward change in the level of the . economy, the 1960 outlook for . ,lak appears favorable." j Consolidated sales of the com-^y's establishments in the United es last year amounted to $914,436, about 10 per cent more than [ S828,801,269 for 1958. let earnings were 8124,680,064, ut 26 per cent above the 1958 1 of 898,912,039. The earnings — ; e equal to $3.23 per common e against 82.56 in 1958, based on 38,382,246 shares now outstandXet earnings were 13.6 per cent — Bales in 1959, compared with 11.9 IH cent in 1958. r--tax earnings were 8257,180,064, J tt 24 per cent more than the 1958 I of 8206,912,039. The provision IS. income taxes amounted to $132,: ,000 against 8108,000,000 in 1958. Oscar' Coverage Criticized (Continued son of Columbia, pointed out that every radio and TV station in the area had been notified in advance of the date and time of the nominations announcement. The coordinating group has directed a letter be sent to the program directors of all New York radio and TV stations asking them why the material was not handled as part of the news Monday evening. A return postcard is being enclosed with the letter, requesting that the stations indicate when they first mentioned the nominations on their news programs. As a follow-up to the nominations, the coordinating group is supplying further material for radio promotions. A 15-minute script and recordings of from page 1) the five nominated songs will be sent to 1,000 disc jockeys, as well as to field exploitation men and NBC for planting on their own stations. In addition a list of the "Oscar" winning songs for the past years will be supplied. Lists of nominated scores for musical films, comedies and dramas will also be supplied to the radio stations. M-G-M has agreed to make the score of ''Ben-Hur" available to all exploitation men for use on local stations. For further local planting each company will furnish 50 mat prints of all nominated pictures and stars. These will be put together in kits and supplied to field exploitation men. Brandt Hits (Continued from page 1) going to throw off the shackles of the private pressure groups which have taken unto themselves a special guardianship of the screen, the KramerPreminger position is entitled to support from other motion picture producers, distributors and exhibitors." Stanley Kramer and Otto Preminger were recently rebuked by the American Legion for announcing the employment of two writers suspected of past Communist affiliations or sympathies. Points to Past Violations Referring to the Waldorf Declaration of 1947, under which major studios executives agreed not to employ suspected Communists, Brandt noted that the Legion did not seem to be quite as upset with past violations of this agreement, where blacklisted writers were hired under pseudonyms. He pointed out that Kramer and Preminger did not sign this declaration and had informed the public themselves of the employment of the writers in question. "I am certain, Brandt said, "that there are many members of the Legion, including myself, who disagree with the policy enunciated by the organization's national commander." . — natron Extension : ^WASHINGTON, Feb. 25. The purities and Exchange Commission I' continued through March 6 the *,'3ension of all trading in the comem stock of Skiatron Electronics and 'A evision, Inc. Dismiss Suit Here A 81,500,000 anti-trust action by Eagle Shows, Inc., former owner of the Charles Theatre here, against Azteca Films, Inc., and Puerto Corp., was dismissed yesterday, according to a stipulation filed in Federal court here. The suit charged that the defendant, by refusing to release Spanish films to the Charles Theatre, forced the plaintiff to close his house. O. L. Turner, Sr., 78 HARRISBURG, 111., Feb. 25.Funeral services have been held here for O. L. Turner, Sr., 78, who died following a long illness. He had been head of Tumer-Farrar Theatres, operator of a circuit of houses in southern Illinois. He also was president of WSIL-TV, Harrisburg. Magazine Writers Back Preminger and Kramer The Society of Magazine Writers said here yesterday it has sent letters to Stanley Kramer and Otto Preminger "supporting and commending" the recent statement of the producers "concerning the employment of writers on the so-called 'blacklist'." The letter said in part, "We believe that writers are entitled to their private opinions on social and political questions, that they are entitled to conduct themselves as private citizens within the framework of the law and its constitutional guarantees, and that their private, lawful opinions and activities are considerations not relevant to their employment." Legion Official Cites 'Orbit of Influence' Special to THE DAILY ALBANY, N. Y., Feb. 25. — The American Legion's "orbit of influence is from 16 to 20 million," and this will be felt during the exhibition of motion pictures whose scripts have been written by "unfriendly witnesses" who appeared before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Daniel O'Connor, chairman of the Americanism Committee, Department of New York, stated this today at the conclusion of a committee meeting, in which the engaging of such men to create film stories was among the subjects discussed. No Plans to Picket O'Connor, a Hempstead attorney, said the Legion does not employ the technique of picketing, and there will be none by the organization's units as such, despite a comment to the contrary by a newspaper columnist. However, "individual Legionnaires may join groups like the Catholic War Veterans in picketing in New York City," he said. Speaking particularly of Dalton Trumbo's employment to adapt the book, "Exodus," O'Connor, declared, "it is important that the public should understand that the American Legion's opposition to the hiring of [Trambo] to write the script for the picture 'Bismarck7 Sets All-Time Fox Record in Boston "Sink The Bismarck!" which opened Wednesday at the Paramount Theatre in Boston, a 1500-seat house on a nonholiday weekday, broke any record ever set by any 20th-Fox production in Boston. It took in $5,036 according to the theatre management, the greatest single opening day in its history. The Boston campaign for "Bismarck" was backed by extensive TV publicity coupled with radio spots and opinion-maker screenings. Sunday Paper Ads Will Back 'Snow' Campaign Universal-International is placing special emphasis on Sunday newspaper comic supplements in its national advertising campaign for Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," it was announced yesterday by David A. Lipton, vice-president. Campaign will be aimed at family movie-goers. The campaign will be divided into two waves, with the first wave aimed at initial playdates and the second wave timed for subsequent runs. Both major comic supplement groups, Metro and Hearst, plus three important individual supplements, are being utilized. The 80 Sunday newspapers in which the four-color ads will appear have a combined circulation of more than 32,000,000 and a readership in excess of 120,000,000. With "The Snow Queen" set for Easter release, the first wave of ads will start breaking just ahead of that date in 61 major markets, with each individual ad timed to local playdates and carrying local theatre listings. The second wave, covering 21 major markets, will be aimed at subsequent runs of the picture, with individual ads also timed for sub-run playdates and carrying sub-run listings. Spiegel to Make Tour Sam Spiegel, producer of "Suddenly, Last Summer," will visit three European cities next month in connection with the opening of the Columbia Pictures release on the Continent. Spiegel will be in Milan on March 1, Berlin on March 4 and Paris on March 8. 'Road" Book Tie-In William Goetz' "The Mountain Road," a Columbia release, will be featured in a soft-covered book version on newsstands and in bookstores all over the country starting March 22. should not be confused with what may be generally accepted as a fine picture." "We object strenuously to the employment of Communists in the motion picture industry, in violation of the Waldorf Agreement of 1947," O'Connor continued. He asserted the use of them could be the opening wedge to the breakdown of this agreement.