Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1960)

Motion Picture Daily Friday, December 2 PERSONAL AMPA Yule Party TEST TALK Industry Head MENTION Elated forDec. 20 To Be on V.C. Dai TTENRY H. "HI" MARTIN, Universal Pictures vice-president and general sales manager, left New York yesterday for Dallas. • Burton Robbins, president of National Screen Service, will leave Los Angeles on Sunday for Minneapolis, where he will attend the Variety Club dinner honoring Jay MacFarland, retiring Minneapolis N. S. S. branch manager. • Joseph E. Levine, president of Embassy Pictures, will return to New York today from Rome, where he conferred on production plans for "Sodom and Gomorrah." • Leon Roth, vice-president of the Mirisch Co., has arrived in New York from Hollywood for talks with officials of United Artists. Manny Pearson, publicist for 20th Century-Fox in Cleveland, has returned to his duties there following hospitalization. • Harold Hecht, producer, will leave Hollywood today for New York. • Jack Diamond, Universale studio publicity director and co-chairman of the public relations coordinating committee for the forthcoming Academy Awards program, returned to Hollywood yesterday from New York. • Cary Grant will arrive in New York on Sunday from Hollywood. • Mrs. Robert Pik has given birth at Le Roy Hospital here to a boy, Robert Roger. Father is president of Robert Pik Organization, distributors. Lewis, Margulies Will Tour for 'Spariacus' Edward Lewis, producer of Bryna Productions' "Spartacus," and Stanley Margulies, advertising and publicity director of Bryna, have been set for advance promotional tours on behalf of 12 Christmas openings of the Universal picture. Lewis will start his tour in Houston and then go to Miami, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati. Margulies will start his tour in Toronto and then go to Montreal, Cleveland, St. Louis and Seattle. They will both participate in television and radio promotional appearances and do press interviews. Associated Motion Picture Advertisers will have its 44th annual Christmas luncheon party on Tuesday, Dec. 20, at the Hotel Piccadilly here. Guests of honor will be stars of stage, screen, radio and television. Door prizes will be distributed as a feature of the festivities. U.K. Opposition (Continued from page 1) of competition ever encountered by exhibition." In particular it would hurt subsequent-run theatres, he declares. Davis says there is little doubt that pay-tv would have made progress in the U.S. a great deal faster but for the "long-standing opposition of American exhibitors." Commenting on the Telemeter experiment in Toronto, he disputes the claim of the pay-tv company that there has been no effect on theatre attendance there. "With the present number of installations in Etobicoke," he notes, "it is almost impossible to acquire a clear view of the effect on cinema-going." If the economic future of Telemeter is to be improved, he adds, either the cost of the installations must be made cheaper and /or programs must be made more attractive. Calls 3 Channels 'Luxury' Additionally, he believes the three channels in Etobicoke are an "unnecessary luxury." Regarding Phonevision, he calls it a "possibly greater threat to exhibitors with the companies concerned prepared to accept considerable losses during the experimental period." However, he says, it is "very questionable" whether these promoters can secure a regular flow of outstanding pictures. Davis concludes that producers and distributors are "sitting on the fence," thinking that toll-tv is a possible means of a 25 per cent increase in their market which will enable them to raise the number of films they make available to exhibitors. At the same time, he adds, they "appreciate the necessity of protecting their exhibitor customers, which form the bulk of their revenue." Sees Top Attractions Limited Likelihood of a toll-tv station operating in this country "whole-time" is viewed as remote by Davis. Instead he sees it as functioning with the present system of tv as a portion of the program at limited peak hours. He feels outstanding attractions will be very limited and it therefore will be a long-term operation needing country wide coverage. MINNEAPOLIS— Jay W. MacFarland, who retired recently as branch manager for National Screen Service here, will be guest of honor on Monday at a dinner tendered him by Variety Club, Tent No. 12. Charles Winchell, head of Minnesota Amusement Co., will serve as chairman and toastm aster. The club also has announced that its Toyland Party, sponsored by the Ladies Auxiliary for the purpose of collecting toys for the organization's Heart Hospital, children's department, will be held on Dec. 17 at the Hotel Pick-Nicollet. FCC Unit Favors ( Continued from page 1 ) standing with FCC than the views of any other counsel— asserts that the record of the week-long hearings held by the commission "discloses no substantial reason why the public interest would not be served by a grant of the pending application." It says, however, that this should be conditioned upon an undertaking by Zenith Radio (developer and patentee of the Phonevision system) and Teco, Inc. (the operating licensee) to abide by both the spirit and the letter of FCC's ground rules for the pay-tv experiment. They would also have to clear all advertising and publicity with RKO in advance. RKO would review it so as to "safeguard against misleading representations to the public." Would Require Detailed Data All of the companies would have to furnish FCC detailed information concerning their operations and copies of all their contracts for programming. RKO General would be required to make surveys of the impact of pay-tv on free-tv in Hartford. Though the Broadcast Bureau finds it is not an insuperable obstacle to recommending that the application be granted, it notes that the only respect in which information supplied by Hartford Phonevision "is less complete than might be desired is the basis for the applicant's programming proposals." It notes that as of Oct. 28, "not a single commitment had been obtained from the producers of or the holders of proprietary rights in the 'box-office' type of programs" considered suitable for pay-tv. The Bureau adds, however, that Phonevision "has persuasively shown that it is impracticable, in advance of an actual authorization to conduct trial operations, to bring negotiations with any potential program suppliers to the point of commitment as to program availability, price, release dates Leading figures from all bran; of the entertainment industry wili on the dais at the annual installs! luncheon of the Variety Club of I York Tent No. 35 on Dec. 9 at Astor Hotel. Large attendance is i cated for the luncheon to ho Charles A. Alicoate, incoming c barker, and Harry Brandt, reti chief barker. Among those who have accei invitations to the dais are Max Col Russell Downing, Jay Emanuel 1 Fitzgibbons, Jr., Ed Fabian, Six Fabian, Emanuel Frisch, William 0 man, Maurice Goldstein, Will Heineman, Edward Hyman. Also Rube Jackter, Saul JeJ Harold Klein, Arthur Krim, Edw| Lehman, Abe Montague, Charlesi Moss, Henry Martin, Eugene Pic Samuel Rinzler, Burton Robbins, Iman Robbins, Sam Rosen, Solor Strausberg, Joseph Vogel and Norr. Wasser. 'Hur9 Into Subsequent BUFFALO, Dec. l.-The Grana north Buffalo deluxe Sohine commv ty operation, will show "Song With End" through Dec. 8, when the ho will close for two weeks to prep for the subsequent run of "Ben Hi which recently closed a nine-moi engagement at Shea's Teck. Manager Joe Garvey says M-G-M production will open D 23 at the Granada. and other factors pertinent to si scription programming." The Bure states that Phonevision's applicati "coincides in all important respec with the basic FCC criteria for < thorizing a test. In a supplementary note, t Bureau asserts that there is no found tion to Marcus Cohn's efforts to sht FCC that the Paramount anti-tn case should apply to the pay-tv app cation. Cohn's brief, in conclusion, requej FCC to grant additional time for oi arguments. Some observers think FCC may a upon the pay-tv application with the next two weeks. NEW YORK THEATRE I— RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL — i Rockefeller Center • Ci 6-4600 WILLIAM HOLDEN THE WORLD OF SUM WONG co-starrini NANCY KWAN SYLVIA SYMS • MICHAEL WILDING A Paramount Release in TECHNICOLOR® ON THE GREAT STAGE "TOWN ANO COUNTRY" MOTION PICTURE DAILY, Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Pi,MUW — : — v 777 Z ■ . Advertising Manager; Gus H. Fausel, Productior .Manager TELEVISION' TODAY Charle^^A^ D" IT8' Managing Editor; Richard Gertner News Editor Herbert V V l Yucca-Vine Bu Iding, Samuel D Berns Manager; Telephone Hollywood 17 vVa^hfngton E H°Thn E '^N '?,r; P,n,ky Herman Eastern Editor H?l!™o^d BuSS Bear St. Leicester Square, W. 2. Hope Wi ams Burnup, Manager Peter R.irn.in Mw 7 w-ir' t> ??6 Nat>onal Press Bldg., Washington 4 D P uSIb -Bureai Picture pail* is published daily except Saturdays, Sundays *nc ^holidays, bf Q^^dS^C^T^ ^ Tk^^^i fn the Prindpal ckpLs of A^worfd Mo'tio' Cable address: ''Qu.gpubco New York" Martin Quigley, President; Martin ^gS; Ji^i^S^^Ti^ t^ii^1^^Center' N™ York 20, Circle "31 00 Cass matter Sep, 21, 1938, at the Post Office at New /^TR nlK or Math^^T Sfe^^ *JZ prion rates per year, $6 in the Americas and $12 foreign. Single copies, 10c