The Exhibitor (1956)

NT A Quarterly Income Reaches Record High 10 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR COMPO Asks Complete Tax Repeal In Statement To House Committee New York — As the opening gun of a new campaign, COMPO asked Congress last fortnight for complete repeal of the iO per cent federal admission tax. The request was made in a statement filed with a sub-committee on excise taxes of the House Ways and Means Committee by Robert W. Coyne, COMPO special counsel. The statement said that the cur¬ rent 10 per cent tax applies to 1,363 theatres, “located for the most part in large centers of population.” The statement said these houses “have an importance out of all proportion to their number. For these theatres not only gross approximately 200 million dollars yearly, which is a fifth of the industry’s total theatre gross of one billion dollars, but they also, because of their location . . . exert an enormous influence in estab¬ lishing the attraction value of the pictures they play. “These are the key run theatres of all the nation’s 19,000 active movie houses. The advertising which they give to the pictures they play provides the principal stimulant to public attendance at all of the other theatres that play the pictures subsequently. It is obvious, therefore, that it is upon the profitable operation of these theatres that the motion picture industry must depend for its continuance as a healthy business.” The statement points out that both Houses of Congress recognized the need for complete repeal of the tax as long ago as 1953, when they passed the Mason Bill that was later vetoed by the President. In two subsequent actions, the statement asserts, Congress “has inched forward to the attainment of that goal” by reducing the 20 per cent tax by half and by estab¬ lishing complete exemption from the tax first, in 1954, for theatres charging 50 cents or less and later, in 1956, for the¬ atres charging admission prices of 90 cents and under. “What we are seeking now,” the state¬ ment says, “and what we hope your com¬ mittee will recommend, is that Congress will complete the job it set for itself in 1953. Such action by your committee and by Congress, we might point out, would only be consistent with recommendations made by the Senate Select Committee on Small Business, which, following hearings during the life of the 83rd and 84th Con¬ gresses, made strong recommendations that the entire admission tax be repealed.” Coyne pointed out that television con¬ tinued to be a formidable competitor of movie theatres. He also stated that the motion picture industry is not relying on further tax relief alone, but is introduc¬ ing new production techniques and new marketing methods to the end that it “may once again assume its place as a growing and expanding medium of entertainment. “It is respectfully urged,” the statement concludes, “that the continuing grave problem of the motion picture as a busi¬ ness and as a part of American life be kept in mind by this sub-committee and by the Congress as it approaches its new studies of excise taxes and their effect on the commodities and businesses to which they apply. Picker Sees Foreign Income At Peak For UA Quarter NEW YORK— Arnold Picker, United Artists vice-president in charge of foreign distribution, who recently re¬ turned from a trip abroad, stated last fortnight that the company’s foreign earnings in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, which began on Dec. 1, 1956, will be “the highest ever in UA history.” He said he still “has confidence in the future of the motion picture in the foreign market despite economic and political problems in a number of countries. “The world is still going to see films, as they are the best entertainment medium presented,” Picker said. Kogod, Circuit Owner, Dies In Washington Washington — Fred S. Kogod, 57, presi¬ dent, K-B Theatres, and an active civic and welfare leader, died last week after several months’ illness. Kogod, vice-chairman, District Board of Public Welfare, took an active part in many charitable drives, including the Variety Club fund for the new wing for Children’s Hospital and the Glaucoma Clinic of Episcopal Hospital, to which he was the main contributor. Kogod went into the theatre business in 1924. From his first theatre, the Princess, Kogod and Max Burka, his partner, spread the theatres throughout the Washington area. He was a pioneer in the development of shopping centers and parking facilities around his theatres and installed in each one a children’s room where youngsters or parties would watch movies in privacy without disturbing the rest of the audi¬ ence. Theatres in his circuit include the Apex, Langley, Naylor, Flower, MacArthur, Ontario, and the Rockville DriveIn. An active leader of the Adas Israel Congregation and past worker for the United Jewish Appeal, Kogod contributed his theatres as meeting places for congre¬ gations of all denominations until they could build their own churches. “It is believed to be basic as a premise to the justification for any tax that ‘ability to pay’ must be established. The continu¬ ing struggle for existence of the motion picture industry is public knowledge. “This organization requests the privi¬ lege of continuing to work with this sub¬ committee, the Ways and Means Commit¬ tee, and with the respective staffs in docu¬ menting further its prior reports and this present general statement. “It is confidently believed that any re¬ view of the economic facts pertaining to the industry will induce this sub-commit¬ tee and the full committee to revert to its position of 1953 and to recommend the full repeal of the admission tax.” New York — A record net income of $225,619 for the three month period ended Oct. 31, 1956, was reported last week at the annual stockholders meeting of National Telefilm Associates, Inc. Address¬ ing the stockholders, Ely A. Landau, president of the major distributor of feature films and film series for tele¬ vision, declared that the gross sales in¬ come from the recently acquired 20th-Fox motion pictures is estimated “somewhere between $50 and $60-million.” The record income reported by NTA was equal to 35 cents per share for the first quarter of the current fiscal year. This was a 273 per cent increase over the $60,531 or nine cents per share re¬ ported in the corresponding period of last year. First quarter earnings were equiva¬ lent to 51 per cent of the 1956 fiscal year’s entire net income of $441,877. In the October quarter, exhibition con¬ tracts written were 189 per cent ahead of the comparable months of last year, amounting to $3,040,783, as against $1,050,832. In all of the 1956 fiscal year, a total of $5,793,975 in exhibition contracts were written. Film rentals showed a gain of 177 per cent, aggregating $1,832,897 as against $660,995 in the first fiscal quarter of last year. Bole Gets TCF-TV Post New York — In anticipation of increased activity by TCF Television productions, Irving Asher, executive in charge of pro¬ duction for the 20th-Fox subsidiary, has established a new department of business affairs. Charles Bole, 20th-Fox legal staff, has been named by Asher to head the new department as business affairs manager. Among Bole’s duties will be supervision of contracts, handling of negotiations and administration of business details. In moving from the major studio to TCF-TV, Bole takes over most of the business affairs functions now performed by Michael Kraike who in the future will devote most of his time to creative effort in development and supervision of new series for TCF-TV. Holiday Bookings Launch "King" New York — The biggest holiday dating program in United Artists history will launch Russ-Field-Gabco’s “The King And Four Queens,” with 425 key Christmas and New Year’s bookings in the United States and Canada, it was announced last week by William Heineman, UA vicepresident in charge of distribution. The area saturations combine 262 Christmas premieres and 163 New Year’s openings, covering every domestic ex¬ change area. Rotary Names Two Exhibs Evanston, III. — Two theatre owners are serving as officers of Rotary International, world-wide service club organization, for the 1956-57 fiscal year. They are George A. Dowdle, Deming, N. M., a partner in Frontier Theatres, Inc., who is district governor of Rotary International; and J. Rodger Mendenhall, Mendenhall Theatre Company, Boise, Idaho, who is a Rotary information counselor. December 19, 1956