Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1960)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

Motion Picture Daily Wednesday, November 30, PEOPLE Benjamin Sherman, chairman of the board, ABC Vending Corp., will receive the 1960 Human Relations Award given by the amusement industry in behalf of the Joint Defense Appeal. Presentation will be made at a dinner to be held at the WaldorfAstoria here on Dec. 12. □ June Faircloth, booker for the Lake Forest Drive-in Theatre, Jacksonville, has been honored by the local chapter of Women of the Motion Picture Industry as Florida's "WOMPI of the Year" for her outstanding work in helping the organization to win a $100 first prize from radio station WMBR for community club efforts exceeding those of 29 other local women's non-profit organizations. □ Mannie A. Brown, formerly manager of the Buffalo exchange of Paramount and more recently a booker and distributor in the area, has taken over distribution of Citation Pictures in the Buffalo and Albany territories under the title of Mannie A. Brown and Associates. Johnston Dinner ( Continued from page 1 ) Al Floersheimer, C. Elmer Nolte, Jr., of Baltimore, Martin Quigley, Jr., D. John Phillips, Kenneth Clark and Charles E. McCarthy, with Downing chairman. Herman Schleier and Charles Hacker were added to the committee. It is expected that high officials of the Federal government, the States of California and New York, and the cities of Los Angeles and New York will be present, in addition to leaders of the motion picture industry from all over the country, Hollywood personalities and representatives of civic groups interested in motion pictures. Bishops Ask Protest Vs. Offensive Film $150,000 Remodelling Set tor Texas House Special to THE DAILY EL PASO, Nov. 29.-Trans-Texas Theatres has announced plans to remodel the Ellanay theatre here at a reported cost of about $150,000. Earl Podolnick, president of the circuit, which has its headquarters in Dallas, said that the theatre will be closed for remodeling in January and be opened about Feb. 1 as the Capri. Plans call for complete modernization of the front and interior, and installation of new projection equipment, seating and furnishings. The new seating plan, in providing more liberal row spacing and better visual relation to the screen, will reduce the capacity from 900 to 800. A larger screen will be installed. The Ellanay was built in 1919 and remodeled about 20 years ago. TransTexas acquired it in 1954. ( Continued from page 1 ) jumped from 14.59 per cent of total Hollywood production in 1959 to 24.33 per cent in 1960. Monsignor Thomas F. Little is executive secretary of the Legion of Decency. Of "deeper concern," the bishops said, was a change in type of objectionable films from "cheap and tawdry teenage social dramas" and "sensational exploitation films" in 1959 to "major Hollywood quality productions" in 1960. Five Prelates Sign The call for action was made in a statement of the Episcopal Committee for Motion Pictures, Kadio and Television. It was signed by Bishops James McNulty of Paterson, N.J.; John King Mussio of Steubenville, Ohio; Lawrence J. Shehan of Bridgeport, Conn.; James V. Casey of Lincoln, Nebr.; and Aldan J. Bell, auxiliary to James Francis Cardinal Mclntyre of Los Angeles. The statement was issued in anticipation of Sunday, December 11, when an opportunity will be given to Catholics in all churches in the United States to take the Legion of Decency pledge. The pledge is a promise to promote "morally and artistically" good motion picture entertainment, and to deny patronage to "indecent, immoral and unwholesome" pictures. 'Re-examination' Urged The bishops called upon motion picture leaders and administrators of the Production Code to "re-examine their responsibility to the American people" and especially to youth, "the principal audience for Hollywood films." "The clamoring shibboleth about 'freedom of expression' will no longer satisfy a public which has lost confidence in the self regulation of a Code which has been compromised and rendered inoperative by the connivance of commercial-minded sycophants," the prelates stated. It was "the explicity stated Catholic preference" the bishops said, recalling the 1957 statement of the U.S. Catholic bishops on Censorship, that regulation be accomplished by the industry itself with mimimal legal controls. "Legislative restrictions either by the municipal or state or federal governments will not be demanded by the public if the industry sets its own house in order," they stated. Four Suggestions Made The bishops set forth four recommendations: That "some system" be devised "to safeguard young and impressionable minds from that subject matter and treatment in films which they are not yet mature enough to assimilate. A system of self-classification of films by the industry cannot be lightly disregarded." That adult oriented production— "a necessary maturation of the motion picture medium"— "conform to the spirit of the production code." That the industry effect "a radical reformation of its excesses in exploiting films. Particularly reprehensible are not only many of the usual MPA Answers Bishops' Views ( Continued moral standards. We do not agree that 'objectionable films' have created a 'national crisis.' We do not agree that the Production Code Administration is 'presently ineffective.' The facts do not support any such conclusions. "We are, of course, concerned over the Legion's annual report, as we are every year. The ratings of such organizations are useful to both the industry and the public. Legion Statement Cited "And we are most gratified that even the stringent standards of the Le gion, which include religious precepts as well as moral considerations, find that three of every four Hollywood films made in the past year were rated acceptable, that two-thirds of the acceptable films were considered suitable for young people, and that not one American film was condemned. . ; "Hollywood film production has for some time been in a process of evolution—a process which the Bishops' statement refers to as 'adult oriented production, a necessary maturation of the motion picture medium.' That evolution has bought a broadening in the subject matter of films, a change from page 1 ) which was dictated by the American audience. "There has not been, however, a change in the moral standards under which the subject matter is treated, and we disagree with the Legion's analysis of a number of films specifically mentioned in the annual report. "The Code Administration has met effectively the increased problems resulting from the change in subject matter, and the spirit of the Code continues to be maintained." 'Gulliver' Here Dec. 16 Charles H. Schneer's "The 3 Worlds of Gulliver," a Columbia Pictures release, will premiere at the Forum Theatre here on Dec. 16. The film has been produced in color and Super Dynamation, previously utilized for Columbia's "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad." posters and ads but also the tr ("coming attractions") shown in i tres." That exhibitors limit program films bearing the seal of approvs the Production Code authority. The bishops asked pastors, pri and educators to instruct their pe on the meaning of the annual pli of the Legion of Decency to pror only morally and artistically « films, and also to convince then the necessity of consulting Le ratings. No Films Identified The bishops did not mention films by name. In its annual re. to the bishops early this month Legion cited the following films: " Adultery," the Legion said, glamorized in 'Beloved Infidel* Strangers When We Meet.' The ceptability of free love is the uni lying philosophy of 'Five Bran Women,' 'Wild River/ and 'Rat Ra " 'Happy Anniversary' makes a did joke of premarital relation; through the eyes and ears of child 'From the Terrace' not only aco divorce and remarriage but in its velopment is one long emotional gument for and rationalization of same. Sees Religion Compromised "The Christian religion is serioi compromised by the sensationalisn 'Elmer Gantry.' Pornographic sad characterizes 'Psycho.' Perversion ters into the thematic development 'Suddenly, Last Summer,' and 'De in the Dust'." The Legion noted a rising influe of independent American film j ductions, made outside the Prod tion Code's authority, and also foreign films. "If the Production Code fails take hold of this type of exhibitio the Legion report said, "then the ganized industry must honestly form the American public that its gan of self-regulation is not adequ to the situation." Col. Buys Original HOLLYWOOD, Nov. 29.-Columbia Pictures announced today the purchase of "Maid in U.S.A.," an original story by Robert Kaufman and Peter Barry. Catholic Paper's Editorial Calls for Personal Action ALBANY, Nov. 29. "Perso Responsibility," the theme of statement issued by the Cath( Bishops of the United States at th recent annual meeting in Washh ton, D.C.-applies in the field of n tion pictures, their moral tone a their advertising in newspapers. Tl commented The Evangelist, offic weekly of the Albany Catholic D cese, in a leading editorial. "The alarming increase in the nu ber of morally offensive motion p tures and the outrageous disrega for decency in most of the advertisi of movies that appears in the da newspapers should rightfully aroi the concern and ire of decent indivi uals and parents," declared the ec torial. "Instead the tendency is look on these abuses as somethi the Legion of Decency should t busy about or the Catholic nev papers should protest."