The Exhibitor (1955)

G MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR Initial Nominations Are Revealed For COMPO Aadieme A wards Poll Hollywood — The initial exhibitor nomi¬ nations for the COMPO Audience Awards Poll to be conducted in November were revealed last fortnight at a luncheon in the Beverly Hills Hotel attended by sev¬ eral hundred Hollywood celebrities, spon¬ sored by the Poll Committee of COMPO. Dick Powell served as toastmaster, with Walter Pidgeon, Screen Actors Guild president, presenting nominations certi¬ ficates to the actresses. June Allyson made the presentations to actors voted the most promising new male personali¬ ties. Elmer Rhoden, national chairman of the Audience Awards, addressed the assemblage, as did A1 Lichtman, COMPO co-chairman, and B. B. Kahane, Colum¬ bia vice-president. COMPO officers and special counsel Robert W. Coyne met with the press afterwards. In the best pictures category, nominated were, “The Bridges Of Toko-Ri,” Para¬ mount; “Battle Cry,” Warners; “The Blackboard Jungle,” MGM; “The Country Girl,” Paramount; “The Long Grey Line,” Columbia; “Rear Window,” Paramount; “Sabrina,” Paramount; “A Star Is Born,” Warners; “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” 20th-Fox; and “White Christ¬ mas,” Paramount. Best male performances nominated were Willifin Holden in “The Bridges Of Toko-Ri,” Paramount; Spencer Tracy in RICH! FROM THE MOUTHS OF THE MEN WHO BUY . . .FOR 50% OF ALL U. S. THEATRES Scientifically Accurate Readership Survey in Over 50 Years! FACT CAPSULE No. 4 Out of 3264 Executives only 532 subscribed exclusively to only one of the 1 2 Trade Papers. BUT . . . 528 (or 99%) of these exclu¬ sives specified one of the 4 A.B.C. audited v/eeklies. Another THEATRE INDUSTRY SERVICE honestly performed by MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR 246-48 N. clarion St., Philadelphia 7, Pa. Buena Vista Schedules hirst Sales Convention _ NEW YORK — ^The first sales con¬ vention of Buena Vista Film Distribu¬ tion Company will be held in Cali¬ fornia starting Oct. 24, it was an¬ nounced last week by Leo F. Samuels, president and general sales manager. 'Ihe conferences will continue for a week, and the principal business ses¬ sions will be held at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. The organization has established 22 branch offices covering the country, with plans under way at present to open nine more. The entire national .sales and exploitation personnel of Buena Vista will attend the conven¬ tion, with a contingent of executives from the New York home office lead¬ ing the trek. “A Bad Day At Black Rock,” MGM; Glenn Ford in “The Blackboard Jungle,” MGM; Bing Crosoy in “Tne Country Girl,” Paramount; Marlon Brando in "Desiree,” 20th-l'ox; Tyrone Power in “The Long Grey Line,” Columbia; James Stewart in “Rear Window,” Paramount; James Mason in “A Star Is Born,” War¬ ners; Gary Cooper in “Vera Cruz,” United Artists, and Burt Lancaster in “Vera Cruz, ’ United Artists. For the best female performances, those nominated were Ava Gardner in “The Barefoot Contessa,” United Artists; Dor¬ othy Dandridge in “Carmen Jones,” 20thFox; Grace Kelly in “The Country Girl,” Paramount; Maureen O’Hara in “The Long Grey Line,” Columbia; Elizabeth Taylor in “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” MGM; Audrey Hepburn in “Sabrina,” Paramount; Judy Garland in “A Star Is Born,” Warners; Susan Hayward in “Un¬ tamed,” 20th-Fox; June Allyson in “A Woman’s World,” 20th-Fox, and Doris Day in “Young At Heart,” Warners. The most promising new male person¬ alities, according to the selection by the exhibitors, were Tab Hunter, John Ericson, Harry Belafonte, Russ Tamblyn, Jack Lemmon, Jack Balance, George Nader, Richard Egan, Brian Keith, and Gig Young; the most promising female per¬ sonalities were Dorothy Malone, Dorothy Dandridge, Barbara Rush, Ann Bancroft, Kim Novak, Anne Francis, Rita Moreno, Lori Nelson, May Wynn, and Cleo Moore. TV Boosts AB-PT Net New York — The common shares of American Broadcasting-Paramount The¬ atres are expected to earn $2 each this year, with TV operations contributing 25 per cent of the figure, according to a bulletin issued last fortnight by J. R. Williston and Company, members of the New York Stock Exchange. The Williston estimate points out that in TV operations, with a relatively high proportion of fixed charges, after the break-even point a large amount of addi¬ tional revenue is carried through as net. AB-PT reached the break-even point last year. Margolies To Direct B V Ad-Publicity Dept. New York — Albert Margolies has been named director of advertising, publicity, and exploitation of Buena Vista Film Distribution Company, the Walt Disney releasing subsidiary, it was announced last week by Leo F. Sam¬ uels, president. For the past two years, Margolies was active with the Disney organization as special consultant on publicity and advertising. As an independent pub¬ licist, he had been called in specifically for the campaigns on “The Living Desert” and “The Vanishing Prairie,” Disney’s first two True-Life Adventure features. Following these, his services were called upon for all Buena Vista feature releases. Prior to launching his own publicity organization 14 years ago, Margolies held important posts with United Artists, Gaumont-British, and Fox. RKO Theatres Income Down New York — Consolidated net income of RKO Theatres Corporation for the second quarter of 1955 was $269,521 as compared with $418,666 for the second quarter of 1954 before deduction of special items. After deduction of special non-recurring loss items, the net income was $64,521 for the 1955 period. There were no special non-recurring loss items in the 1954 period. Net income before deduction of special non-recurring loss items for the first six months of 1955 was $804,757 as com¬ pared with $955,118 for the first six months of 1954. After deduction of special non-recurring loss items the net income was $599,757 for the 1955 period as com¬ pared with a net income of $904,025 in 1954. The special non-recurring loss items included a loss of $500,000 in connection with the cancellation of a lease in 1955, and a loss of $86,093 from the disposal of a theatre property in 1954, resulting in reductions of federal income taxes of $295,000 in 1955 and of $35,000 in 1954, which otherwise would have been pay¬ able on net income. Distribution Costs Soar New York — -An increase upward of 30 per cent in domestic distribution costs since 1950 was reported last week in a study made by a leading industry econ¬ omist, placing cost for the period at v.round $30 million, bringing the total ,'istribution cost to above $155 million. Higher salaries and wages, advances in film carrier rates, increases in the cost of supplies used by distribution, and higher taxes and insurance, are among the causes for the skyrocketing figures. According to the study, distribution over¬ head has increased at a rate well ahead of that of the cost of production. Foreign distribution costs, although they have moved upward, too, in the five-year period, have increased more slowly than the domestic ones. Margolies August 10, 1955