Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1960)

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Motion Picture Daily Thursday, October 20, PERSONAL MENTION CTANTON GRIFFIS, chairman of ^ the executive committee of Paramount Pictures and a member of die board of directors, has arrived in Hollywood from New York, enroute to Japan. • Jud Pauker, of Embassy Pictures' advertising-exploitation staff, is in Toronto from New York on "Where the Hot Wind Blows." Milton Carle, Embassy's record promotion specialist, is in Philadelphia today on behalf of the same film. • Joe Pasternak, producer of "Where the Boys Are," his new Euterpe production for Paramount, will return to the Coast today from New York. • Mrs. Sperie P. Perakos, wife of the general manager of Perakos Theatre Associates, New Britain, Conn., has left there for Detroit. • Henry Hathaway, director of "North to Alaska" for 20th CenturyFox, will return to Hollywood tomorrow from here. • Nicholas Ray, director of M-G-M's "King of Kings," has returned to the company's Coast studios from Madrid, where the production was filmed. • Ted Levy, Cleveland district manager for Buena Vista, is vacationing in California. • Don Dalrymple, head booker for M-G-M in Minneapolis, has returned there from Chippewa Falls, Wise. • Nat C. Green and Alden H. Howe, Los Angeles officials of Bank of America, have arrived in New York for conferences with film and television executives. • Herman Beirsdorf, district sales manager for American International Pictures in Dallas, has returned there from Atlanta. • Warren Green, auditor for M-G-M, was in Minneapolis from New York. Query Action in Censor Suit Minoff to Preminger Lee Minoff has joined the Otto Preminger organization and will work with Nat Rudich on the publicity and advertising campaigns for Preminger's "Exodus." Minoff has worked as a unit publicist and on the production staffs of a number of major films produced in New York. (Continued if Times Film was raising an abstract legal question and whether there was adequate cause for action. The case is to be continued tomorrow. Involved is the legality of a Chicago ordinance which demands viewing of films by censors before public exhibition. The picture which Times Film refused to show was "Don Juan," an adaptation of Mozart's "Don Giovanni." While the Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in the case, it could avoid a ruling if it desired. The U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the city of Chicago and the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld that decision. Bilgrey argued today that censors had no initial right to know what is contained in a movie. He maintained the right of exhibitors to show the film and then be prosecuted under the Illinois penal code if the film deserves prosecution under obscenity statutes. The matter of prior censorship, he asserted, was "censorship in its purest state." Whether the movie was from page 1 ) pornographic or "Pollyanna" was irrelevant, he insisted. The right to show is the essence of the case, although he noted that as a matter of practicality no obscene movie would be submitted for licensing. "We believe," Bilgrey said, "that motion pictures are covered by the constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and of the press; that the existence of boards of film censorship therefore is illegal under the First and Fourteenth Amendments." Bilgrey pointed out there are, in addition to Chicago, "a mere handful of cities and only four states" that have censorship boards. "The alleged danger that the defendant insists is justification for prior censorship of motion pictures must also exist in the vast majority of our states and cities where there is no prior censorship of motion pictures." The attorney declared that censorship "sterilizes the screen, inhibits intelligent thought and leads to social inertia." Ultimately, he added, the public alone must act as its own censor. Film Dividends Hit $3,617,000 in Sept. From THE DAILY Bureau WASHINGTON, Oct. 19.-Motion picture companies paid $3,617,000 in cash dividends during September, according to the Department of Commerce. Dividend disbursements were $3,419,000 in September a year ago. For the year's first 9 months, film companies paid out $18,992,000. This compares with $17,929,000 during the first three quarters of 1959. For the U.S. as a whole, cash dividends of $2 billion were paid in September by corporations issuing public reports, bringing the total for the first 9 months to $10 billion. September disbursements were 2 per cent above last year. A rise of 5 pei cent from 1959 is reflected in total payments during the first three quarters. Sears, 'Spartacus' Tie-In For Selling Tickets A goal for the sale of 100,000 tickets for "Spartacus" by Sears, Roebuck and Company stores in key cities where the picture will play on a reserved seat basis has been set in one of the most extensive tie-ups ever developed by Sears in connection with a motion picture. Special Kit Prepared Seventeen different advertising and promotion pieces have been developed by Universal-International for use in these sales by the Sears outlets as part of a special kit. The theme of the "Spartacus" ticket sales promotion for Sears is "Do It All at Sears" and is part of die company's customer convenience center." 'Hot' Record Mailed Over 1,000 exhibitors across the United States and Canada yesterday received the special promotional package of the Ames Brothers' title song recording from Embassy's "Where the Hot Wind Blows." The M-G-M release debuts in more than 600 theatres next month. The 45 RPM recording is packaged in a specially designed sleeve. Charles Brewer Dies ATLANTA, Oct. 19.-Charles F. Brewer, manager of the Temple Theatre here, is dead. SEG Voting Results HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 19.-A news letter being mailed to members of the Screen Extras Guild tonight reports that a majority of over 94 per cent of the membership approved the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement with the Association of Motion Picture Producers and the Alliance of Television Film Producers. Silver Leaves NSS Tony Silver, copywriter widi National Screen Service advertising department since 1958, has resigned to take a post as advertising promotion copywriter with Redbook Magazine. The move is effeotive October 24. Political Campaign Aid Drive Continues Strong Response to the Motion Pict Industry Nonpartisan Campaign to out the vote and raise funds for citizens committees of both pari continues strong in home offic Hollywood studios and distribut branches throughout the counl drive directors report. The campaign, which opened Monday, will continue through t week, designated Democracy We and will be concluded tomorrow, Day— Democracy Day. TO A Warn, ( Continued from page 1 ) also our hope that, if we get a fav able Supreme Court ruling, our dustry will show restraint and go judgment. "Invariably in the past, whenei a court ruling eased some phase censorship, some producers and soi exhibitors took this as a license operate more freely. There was ofl a rash of new pictures more dari than before, and some exhibits newspaper ads in more questional taste." "Virtually all state legislatures convene this winter," the Bulletin J minds. "Almost all, regardless of h^ the Supreme Court rules, will c< sider bills to censor, classify or ccJ trol motion pictures in some way i other. If the Court rules favoral for us, censorship proponents will seeking alternate means of establi ing control. If we win and winning is companied by a flood of more 'adv pictures and indiscriminate advert ing, we, as an industry, will be jr looking for trouble. "It was the consensus of our a nual convention (in Los Angeles h month) that self-restraint and go< judgment by all branches of our i dustry is necessary to avert serio local trouble. We urge you, as e hibitors, to support this policy your own sphere." 'Midnight' Dates Universal International's "Mi night Lace" is scheduled to open several selected key situations ne week to be followed by extensive k< city openings from Coast to Coa starting Nov. 2. Picture will open the Hippodrome in Cleveland, Oc 27; at the Arcadia in Philadelphi the Towne in Milwaukee, and tl Lansing in Lansing, Mich., Oct. 2 at the Paramount in Syracuse, No 1; the United Artists in Chicago, No 2, and the Ontario in Washington; tl Majestic in Dallas and the Maest in Houston, Nov. 3. MOTION IILTURE DAILY Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; James D. Ivers, Managing Editor; Richard Gertner, News Editor; Herbert V. Feck Advertising Manager; Gus H. Fausel, Production Manager, TELEVISION TODAY, Charles S. Aaronson, Editorial Director; Pinky Herman, Eastern Editor. Hollywood Bureai Yucca-Vine Building, Samuel D. Berns Manager; Telephone Hollywood 7-2145; Washington, E. H. Kahn, 996 National Press Bldg., Washington, 4, D. C.; London Bureau, Bear St. Leicester Square, W. 2. Hope Williams Burnup, Manager; Peter Burnup, Editor; William Pay, News Editor. Correspondents in the principal capitals of the world. Motic Picture Daily is published daily except Saturdays, Sundavs and holidays, by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., 1270 Sixth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, New York 20, Circle 7-310' Cable address: Quigpubco. New York Martin Quigley, President; Martin Quigley, Jr., Vice-President; Theo J. Sullivan, Vice-President and Treasurer; Raymond Gallaghe