Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1960)

PERSONAL MENTION D OBERT MOCHRIE, general sales A^ manager of M-G-M, and Dan S. Terrell, Eastern publicity director, have returned to New York from Oklahoma City. • James H. Nicholson, president of American International Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, executive vicepresident, are in New York from Hollywood. • William O'Hare, director of advertising and publicity for Continental Distributing, Inc., will leave here today for Toronto to discuss promotion plans for "Hippodrome." • Harold Mirisch, president of the Mirisoh Co., and Marvin Mirisch, vice-president, have arrived in New York from the Coast for conferences with officials of United Artists. • Charles Simpson, vice-president of Capital Releasing Corp., Atlanta, has returned there from Chattanooga, Tenn. • Harry Goldstone, general sales manager of Astor Pictures and Atlantic Television, has left here for Chicago, St. Louis, Jacksonville and Atlanta. • Ernie Shapiro, of Southern Poster and Printing Co., Atlanta, has returned there with Mrs. Shapiro from Chicago. Motion Picture Daily 'life' Editorial Suggests Private Censorship Of 'Adult' Films Opposes the Public Method "Private" censorship of motion pictures as opposed to "public" censorship is advocated m an editorial in the current issue of "Life" magazine commentting on rising complaints against "adult" films. "If movies are bluer than ever" the editorial says, "there is little doubt about the | reason. The Supreme Court, the Hollywood Production Code, and general ^ITh (inJ^dinS *at of *e Legi°n of Decency) have combined to relax the old Hays Office taboos in favor of more 'mature' and lifelike screen standards. In law and in fact we are a less puritancial country than we were five or 10 years ago. The chief result has been a number of more venturesome and generally better movies-but also a wave of smut." As to what should be done, the editorial finds "public" censorship a "poor answer to tiks problem. Instead, it suggests citizens do their own censoringaspecially parents. The latter are advised to read ads, reviews, and guidance lists, such as that of the Legion of Decency. 8 ^!%\egi°nu the1editorial ^ > lis* ^ not coercive and its methods since 1957 have been less censorious than promotional of 'what is morally and artistically good, as the new pledge puts it. . . . The 1960 rise in its 'objec tionable category reflects a change in Hollywood, not a relapse by the Legion^ 'Denver Post' Says Public Will Get What It Wants, Even Censors DENVER, Dec 4-The public will get what it wants, even if the end is censorship, says Denver Post" drama editor, Larry Tajiri, in a column of comment on current adult film developments. "Some film producers have mistaken license for liberty," he asserts. "Now the reaction is setting ,n and a new age of Victorian prudery threatens "The point is that the movies, an amalgam of various art forms-writing, acting and photography-need freedom to survive. The history of repression is that the arts wither Basically, the problem is one of responsibility Ld taste There is hardly a dramatic situation . . . which could not be handled with Monday, December 5, Gross Is Recoil For Dot Recoit Dot Records, Inc., a subsidiary Paramount Pictures, will gross in! cess of $11 million for the cale -I year 1960, Randy Wood, presi* of the phonograph record comply has reported to Barney Balaban r ident of the parent company. With six weeks remaining in year, Dot had already passed the million mark in sales, according Wood, putting the I960 busi nearly 30 per cent ahead of 19 gross sales of $8,600,000. The all-time peak sales volume 1 mostly attributed to three succes! sales drives during the year: Ste Month in January, which accour for almost $2 million; a six u, heavily advertised summer sale consumers in June and July, wll grossed over a million dollarsthe 1960 fall program from Sept1 to Oct. 15, which accounted for n« ly $3 million in sales. If sex and violence can be translated into big profits, the fast-buck boys and Hollywood has its share of them, will be ready to supply these ingredS while worthier films with nobler themes will die of apathy .^etTfa^i The public wdl get what it wants even if the end is censorship " ZanucktoFilm 'Longest Day Reopenings in Florida JACKSONVILLE, Dec. 4.-Three of Florida's shuttered theatres were reopened under new names on Thanksgiving Day. They are: Cecil Cohen's local Roxy, formerly the Dixie; M-G-M's Theatres' Tropic, which was previously known as the Fain, and William B. Cornell's B. and B. Drive-in, Kissimee-the old name was the Kissimee Drive-in. HAVE YOU ORDERED the 20th-Fox home office, as did the book, will go behind the major historical facts of the massive invasion of Europe and tell the story of D-Day from the point of view of everyone concerned from generals to privates and in all the forces involved, German as well as American, British and French. "The story in essence," Zanuck said, "is of the astonishing mistakes on both sides. We made every possible military error but the Germans made the biggest of all in refusing to believe that this was the invasion. We couldn't have won unless God had been on our side." To keep the purpose of the book in exploring all events of that day from every possible viewpoint, Zanuck said he planned to use four directors German, French, English and American-to handle the sequences involving their own nationals. Similarly the cast will be drawn, insofar as possible from these four countries. There are 27 major roles in the advance treatment he has prepared, the producer said, ranging from Generals Theodore Roosevelt, (Continued from page 1) The picture, Jr., who won a Congressional Medal of Honor on Omaha Beach, and Erwin Rommel, who had left his headquarters to visit his wife in Berlin that fateful day, to Dutch Schultz American paratrooper who won $1,000 in a crap game while waiting to board his ship but deliberately lost it when he learned through scuttlebutt of their destination. Zanuck refused to estimate the cost of the picture other than that it would cost "millions." He will not use stock footage he said, but will re-create every moment of the day, mostly on actual location. One big problem, he said, is the collection of equipment ranging from outdated bombers to landing ships and amphibious tanks. He has been promised, he said, the cooperation of NATO and of all the Governments concerned, including West Germany, provided the script is approved. He would like to keep the length of the picture under three hours, he declared, but he repeated a principle which he said he first enunciated 25 years ago, "A picture should last as long as it is good." Theatre Total Down ( Continued from page 1 ) creased from 392 in 1948 to 307 1958, and in the same period the nual volume of business per thea rose from $138,400 to $153,300 to gam of 10.8 per cent. The figures are regarded as sign cant in that they are believed to fleet developments which are more less typical of theatre operat.J throughout the country during t period. In the same decade, drive-in th tres in this area increased from j doing an annual business of $182,5" per theatre, to 48, with an annual U ume of $344,500 per theatre, an 88 per cent increase. On gross annual business, indo] theatres, of course, showed a declii during the 1948 to 1958 period. Hov ever, this decline was more than o set by the sharp increase in drive theatre business during the san period. Indoor theatres in the Los Angel, and Orange county area grossed $54 247,000 in 1948, whereas in 1958 th had declined 13.2 per cent to $47 075,000. On the other hand, drive in theatres in the area grosse $2,190,000 in 1948, compared wit $16,534,000 in 1958, a 655 per cer gain. These standard and drive-in theatr|. grosses compare with a total of $128, 988,000 spent for all amusements an J recreation in the area in 1948 $292,635,000 in 1948. The survey noted that 93.5 per cen of the entire morion picture produc tion and distribution services are lo cated in the two-county area, whicl contains 43 per cent of the state's pop ulation. I W^' P^^^^^^l^ fSKS KaSSSiF:AJameS ^ Certner, NewsEditor. Herbert V Fecfce mmmmimmmmmmmmm