The Exhibitor (1954)

24 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR Rackmil Goins Control Of Dacca Records New York — Milton R. Rackmil last week became the controlling factor in Decca Records, which he heads, and through Decca, its subsidiary. Universal Pictures, which he also serves as president. With his associates, Rackmil has now obtained control of over 500,000 shares of Decca common. A block of 103,000 shares was acquired recently from Lansall Corpora¬ tion, investment company. Another siz¬ able block of 75,000 shares passed to Rackmil as voting trustee. Consolidated net earnings of Decca Records for the nine months ended on Sept. 30, including the company’s share of undistributed earnings of the subsid¬ iary, Universal Pictures, amounted to $2,272,602, equal to $1.42 per share on 1,602,501 outstanding shares of capital stock. In the corresponding period of 1053 Decca reported earnings of $471,593, equal to 35 cents per share on 1,354,158 shares of capital stock outstanding on Sept. 30, 1053. The 1953 earnings did not include Decca’s then proportional share of Uni¬ versal’s undistributed earnings. Stars To Salute Fabian New York — A star-studded cast of stage, screen, and TV personalities will be presented at the 16th Annual Showman¬ ship Dinner of the Motion Picture Pio¬ neers, honoring Si Fabian as “Pioneer of the Year,” tonight (Nov. 17) at the Hotel Sheraton Astor, it was announced by Morton Sunshine, entertainment chairman. Among the celebrities announced as taking part in the “Si Fabian Story,” a cavalcade of the industry from the nickel¬ odeon era to Cinerama, are film stars George Murphy and Van Johnson; Lucia Albanese, Metropolitan opera star; Lowell Thomas, famed commentator; John Daly, newscaster; Sherry Britton, dancing star; Dorothy Sarnoff, of “King And I” fame; The Deep River Boys, recording stars; Dore Brooks, society’s chanteuse; and Bill Hayes, star of “Me And Juliet.” Assisting Sunshine on staging and lighting is Dave Bines, who stages the Palace shows. N. J. Theatre Asks $1 ,050,000 Union City, N. J. — Marlies Theatre Cor¬ poration’s Park last fortnight filed in U. S. District Court a $1,050,000 anti-trust suit against the eight major film companies. Republic, Skouras Theatres, subsidiaries of Loew’s, Stanley Warner, and RKO Theatres. The suit claims that the Park was de¬ prived of first and subsequent run product because of an alleged conspiracy amcng the defendants. Damage Rule Stymies Arbitration New York — A1 Lichtman, chairman, distributors’ arbitration committee, di¬ vulged last week to Herman Levy, The¬ atre Owners of America general counsel, and Adolph Schimel, counsel for the dis¬ tributors’ arbitration committee, that rules for determining the extent of damages is the one point dividing exhibition and distribution from reaching agreement on an arbitration draft at this time. Republic president Herbert J. Yates was greeted recently, upon his return to the studio, by Jack E. Baker, left, vice-president in charge of studio operations, and Richard W. Altschuler, vicepresident and director of world-wide sales. Yates has just completed a month-long convalescence. MPAA's Cahill Asks End To Censorship Baltimore — At a hearing on Maryland’s censorship statute by a sub-committee of the State Legislative Council last week, Gerard M. Cahill, Motion Picture Asso¬ ciation of America legal department, termed it “a part of the nibbling at our fundamental freedoms that is all too preva¬ lent today — an insult to the intelligence of the movie-goer.” Arguing that Maryland’s people are hobbled by an archaic system of previous restraint under the present law, Cahill said, “The effectiveness of the assignment that the motion picture has taken on to win friends for America abroad and to influence people for democracy all around the world is imperiled by the sniper’s fire of censorship at home. Freedom of information is not selective; we cannot grant it to one medium and exclude an¬ other. How can we convince people in other countries of the world of our belief in freedom of expression — in all areas — when we fall short in practicing what we preach? The way to stop it is to root out censorship in free America.” Cahill cited U. S. Supreme Court rul¬ ings in film censorship cases, as well as decisions of other courts in Baltimore and Philadelphia. He also called attention to the fact that the Production Code pro¬ tected the public from indecent or obscene films. Paramount Bookers, Salesmen To Honor District Managers NEW YORK — Paramount’s division managers next month will be honored by the company’s bookers and sales¬ men in the final sales drive of the calendar year, “Booker-Salesmen’s Month.” A. W. Schwalberg, president. Paramount Film Distributing Cor¬ poration, announced that the bookers and salesmen themselves elected to dedicate their “month” to the division managers. To be honored in the December drive are Howard G. Minsky, mid¬ east; Bryan D. Stoner, central; A. M. Kane, south central; George A. Smith, western; and assistant division man¬ agers Gordon Bradley, southern; John G. Moore, eastern; and H. Neal Ea.st, western. Columbia Toppers Hold Sales Meeting Chicago — One of the most important sales conventions in Columbia history began at the Blackstone Hotel this week, it was announced by general sales man¬ ager A. Montague. The meetings are to run for five days. Eighteen key sales and promotion ex¬ ecutives from the home office were sched¬ uled to meet with 38 domestic division and branch managers and the top seven sales executives from the Canadian or¬ ganization. This is the first time that all the Canadian field sales executives are convening with their United States coun¬ terparts. High on the agenda for the meetings are sales and distribution plans for the many outstanding features on the upcoming Columbia schedule, including the com¬ pany’s first five CinemaScope productions, the Technicolor films “Three For The Show,” “My Sister Eileen,” “The Violent Men,” “The Long Gray Line,” and “The Man From Laramie.” Also to be discussed are sales and promotion plans for the remainder of the program and the prod¬ uct to be forthcoming from the studio and independent producers in the coming year. In addition, the sales executives will concern themselves with the continuing liquidation of some of the Columbia suc¬ cesses of the past year, including “The Caine Mutiny” and “On The Waterfront.” Attending from the home office, in addition to Montague, are Rube Jackter, Paul N. Lazarus, Jr., Louis Astor, George Josephs, Maurice Grad, Vincent Bcrrelli, H. C. Kaufman, Joseph Freiberg, Howard LeSieur, Milton Goodman, Daniel Rothenberg, Seth Raisler, William Brennan, A1 Schwartz, Sydney Singerman, George Ber¬ man, and Nat Goldblatt. TOA Board To Meet Chicago — The directors of Theatre Owners of America decided last week that the mid-winter board meeting of the association will be held in Washington early in February. No selection has been made of a convention city for 1955, although Los Angeles seems favored, since this would bring the group close to pro¬ duction, which is in line with TOA’s more product issue. SW, Fabian To Move New York — It was learned last week that Stanley Warner Corporation and Fabian Theatres, now occupying separate quarters, the former at 321 West 44th Street, and the latter in the Paramount Building, will move their respective home offices to the Stand Theatre Building, 1535 Broadway, early in 1955. TNT Opera Debut Is Success New York — Nathan L. Halpern, presi¬ dent, Theatre Network Television, claimed that the closed circuit telecast of the opening of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 32 theatres throughout the country was “very good.” Ticket prices in these houses ranged from $2 to a high of $5, with many houses having sell outs. Except for a few moments, it was re¬ ported that the program came in excel¬ lently with only occasional fuzziness November 17, 1954