Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1960)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY XO. 97 NEW YORK, U.S.A., THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1960 TEN CENTS Rise of Independents Affects Merchandising pronto Area for Fight Telemeter, I at an Arena Seeking Deal With 'rompTer for Bout I Special to THE DAILY }.\TO, May 18. If the Teleaeration in suburban Etobicoke 'its to the Johanssen-Patterson ?ight championship fight June ill be unable to charge more for the attraction, that being <imum amount the coin attt can handle for a single pro ontrast, Telemeter's probable •ompetitor with the title fight irsity Stadium— will be chargidmission. iations by both Telemeter and sity Stadium are under way ilePrompTer of New York for Continued on page 3) 1 ' and Ziv-UA Sign; cation Up Today y SAMUEL D. BERNS (lYWOOD, May 18.-The telej ranch of the Writers Guild of a and Ziv-United Artists, Inc., j ay concluded a six-year connective March 31, 1960, which subject to ratification by WGA nnual membership meeting to 1 at the Beverly Hills Hotel Tiorrow night and at the LexHotel in New York. The conves a 3 per cent increase on ms, plus 2 per cent of the ab''Off-the-top") gross from sales Continued on page 3) Program for Today's Herald Merchandising Meetings The program of the Herald Merchandising Conferences for today is as follows: 10:30 A.M. "Portrait in Black," campaign presentation, Universal screening room, 445 Park Ave. 12:00 P.M. Buffet lunch, Universal board room. 2:15 P.M. "Crack in the Mirror," 20thFox screening room, 444 West 56th St., followed by discussion. Dinner at 6:30. 8:30 P.M. "Bells Are Ringing," Loew's Sheridan Theatre, 12th St. and Seventh Ave. The campaign and discussion on Columbia's "Song Without End," screened yesterday afternoon; on Warners' "Hercules Unchained," shown last night; and "Portrait in Black," discussed this morning, will be reported in tomorrow's Motion Picture Daily. Quarter Income rted $1,699,000 lount Pictures yesterday restimated total consolidated in•r the first quarter of 1960 of *00 or $1.02 per share includcial income of $754,000 or c share. special income represents prinnstallments on the sale of the library which is reported Continued on page 2) Warner Bros. Reports $3,422,000 Profit For Six-Month Period Ending Feb. 27 Warner Bros, and its subsidiaries yesterday reported a net profit of $3,422,000 for the six months ending Feb. 27, 1960, after a provision of $3,500,000 for federal income taxes. This compares with $4,626,000 net profit for the same period last year. Film rentals including television, sales, etc. amounted to $45,983,000, dividends from foreign subsidiaries not consolidated were $881,000 and profit on sales of capital assets was $196,000 for the six months ending February 27, 1960 as compared with $40,373,000, $642,000 and $707,000, respectively, for the six months ending Feb. 28, 1959. As authorized by the stockholders at the annual meeting, 638,951 shares of treasury stock were retired during the three months ending Feb. 27, 1960. In the same period the company purchased 6,196 shares of its common stock at a cost of $267,000 and an employee exercised his option to purchase 5,000 shares of the common stock of the company. Subsequent to Feb. 27, 1960, an additional 13,600 shares were acquired at a cost of $565,000 and three employees exercised options to purchase 17.500 shares of the common stock of the company. There are presently 1,507,900 shares of stock outstanding after deducting shares held in treasury. 'Herald' Round Table Session Discusses New Promotion Problems; iSetmpaper Pressure on Film Advertising Content By SIDNEY BECHETNIK (Picture on Page 6) The problems of product merchandising, made more significant because of the changing Hollywood scene involving more independent producers than ever before, and the increasing pressure being exerted by newspapers on motion picture advertising high lighted the discussions which launched the opening session here yesterday of the fourth series of Merchandising Conferences sponsored semi-annually by Motion Picture Herald. Martin Quigley, Jr., editor of the Herald and panel moderator, opened the morning session at the Grand Ballroom of the Gotham Hotel, before the most comprehensive gathering of circuit heads ever assembled in one room for a forum discussion. More than 100 exhibitors, representing 40 circuits in the United States and Canada, turned out to participate in the conference. Distribution advertising publicity executives who made up the panel included Phil Gerard, Universal-International eastern advertising and publicity manager; Edward Solomon, vicepresident of Embassy Pictures; Abe Goodman, 20th-Fox national advertising manager; Jonas Rosenfield, Jr., Columbia executive in charge of advertising, publicity and exploitation; Dave Lipton, Universal vice-president (Continued on page 6) Chicago's Censors Cut 70% of 'French Line' Special to THE DAILY CHICAGO, May 17.-More than 1,000 feet of film was cut from the RKO film "French Line" before it was permitted to be shown here, it was revealed today. The film opened at the Monroe Theatre on May 12. Sergeant Vincent Nolan, head of the Police Censor Board, said when the film, starring Jane Russell, was first rejected in 1954 it had over 10,000 feet of film. Recently submitted with song and dance routine cut out, in (Continued on page 7) Krecke, Export Veteran, Retires from MGM Post The resignation of Henry F. Krecke, treasurer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer International, was announced by the company yesterday. He will retire from active business. One of the veterans of the export film business, Krecke began his film business career in 1917 as accountant and chief auditor for the old Goldwyn Pictures company, for which he made some of the first trips bv an American film executive to the Far East and Europe. In 1923 he became manager (Continued on page 7)