The Exhibitor (1957)

MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR 9 Vogel Heralds MGM's Raintree County' ' Epic New York — “Raintree County,” the costliest production ever made in this country by MGM, and possessing five major selling points which “should cata¬ pult the family out of the living room into the theatre,” will be launched with two-a-day, reserved-seat performances in major cities in the early fall, Joseph R. Vogel, president of Loew’s, Inc., revealed last week. Indicating the importance attached by the company to this first picture pro¬ duced in the new Camera 65 was Vogel’s personal announcement of the manner in which it will be released. It was made at a luncheon at the Plaza Hotel, at the first conference of trade press representatives called by him since he assumed the dut¬ ies of the presidency of Loew’s, Inc., seven months ago. Also present were vice-president and general sales manager Charles M. Reagan; assistant general sales managers John P. Byrne and Robert Mochrie; Edward M. Saunders; Mike Simons, director of cus¬ tomer relations; Silas F. Seadler, adver¬ tising manager; and Dan S. Terrell, pub¬ licity manager. The five elements of greatness in “Rain¬ tree County,” according to Vogel, are the cast, the story, the background, MGM’s new Camera 65, and the production val¬ ues. Casting had to await the availability . of exactly the right people, “but with Elizabeth Taylor, Montogomery Clift and Eva Marie Saint, we were finally able to cast the leading roles to our satisfaction,” he said. Camera 65 film is adaptable to any the¬ atre, but “Raintree County ’’will be is¬ sued in either 65mm. to be shown with Phillips Projectors or in 35mm. CinemaScope, with a minimum of four track sound. It can play in theatres presently equipped with Todd-AO equipment. By the first of the year, Reagan hoped it would be playing in most exchange areas. Theatres will show it at advanced admis¬ sion on a reserved seat two-per-day policy. The medium would be perfect for showing on the large screens of drive-ins, but the drive-in market will have to wait for some time before the film will be available to them. Qualified theatres will get a chance to bid on the film when made available. There will be no pres¬ sure to run the film any specific way, leaving it up to the individual exhibitor to decide the method of presentation. UA Sets "Pride" Policy New York — United Artists will accept special engagements for Stanley Kramer’s $4, COO, 000 VistaVision production of “The Pride And The Passion,” beginning on or about July 18, it is announced by Wil¬ liam J. Heineman, UA vice-president in charge of distribution. These bookings will be restricted to selected cities with a population of ap¬ proximately 100,000 or more. They will follow the simultaneous world premieres of “The Pride And The Passion” at the Capitol, New York; the State Lake, Chi¬ cago; and the Fox Wilshire, Los Angeles, the first special extended-run engage¬ ments. Paramount Future Business Seen From Theatres, TV, And Toll TV Morgan Heads New Par. Reissue Program NEW YORK — Oscar A. Morgan, veteran Paramount sales executive, has been named by George Weltner, president. Paramount Film Distribut¬ ing Corporation, to supervise the com¬ pany’s sales of important boxoffice rereleases. In conjunction with the regular sales management, Morgan will sup¬ ervise all phases of the new re-release program. He will also spend consider¬ able time in the field conferring with Paramount branch executives and exhibitors. Prior to taking over his new post, Morgan was in charge of group sales of Cecil B. DeMille’s production of “The Ten Commandments.” Previously he was short subjects sales manager. Ricketson Advocates End To Screen Ads Hollywood — Advocating all out effort to reestablish the “importance” of the industry to the public, Frank H. Ricket¬ son, Jr., vice-president National The¬ atres, last fortnight urged immediate elimination of all paid advertising from theatre screens and discontinuance of over-plugging concessions in theatres. He suggested that public opinion be swayed in the industry’s favor by in¬ stitutionalized “glamorization”; several annual national events; more quality pic¬ tures regularly released; and the creation of “subconscious thought” that “motion pictures are good for you.” Ricketson said he thought “our methods of researching have been unsuccessful; and that many of the suggestions we have received have been cliche part-truths.” “Motion picture exhibition,” he said, “should abandon superficial public opin¬ ion polls and try motivation research.” “Many people do not give true answers to poll questions,” he said. Alex Harrison, 20th-Fox general sales manager, recently discussed his company's plans on 16 summer releases with division and district man¬ agers at a special meeting at the New York home office. New York — Production of motion pic¬ tures for theatrical distribution will con¬ tinue to be the principal source of revenue for Paramount, although its fu¬ ture business is expected to consist of servicing three types of customers: the¬ atre operators, sponsored television, and home boxoffice provided by pay tele¬ vision. Barney Balaban, Paramount presi¬ dent, explained this to the company’s stockholders at their annual meeting last week in the home office. Approximately 74 per cent of the outstanding stock of the company was represented at the meeting. Admonishing that the theatre market should not be “sold short” by anyone, Balaban pointed out that “traditional the¬ atre outlets have demonstrated their abil¬ ity to continue as our basic source of revenue, although at reduced levels.” Balaban revealed that Paramount in¬ tends to become an important supplier of motion pictures for television. He pointed out that the company has been careful not to make “any premature deals involving our pre-1948 film library,” the temptation to do so nothwithstanding. Paramount is “coming closer” to de¬ cisions with respect to sale of its pre1948 film backlog to TV, and the com¬ pany’s position is stronger for its delay “because there are only a few unreleased pre-1948 libraries left in the industry.” Balaban added that the post1948 Para¬ mount product, too, is equally valuable as future TV product because of the high percentage of color films and the more advanced production techniques. Balaban reported that excellent the¬ atre business is being recorded not only by “The Ten Commandments,” but also by “War And Peace” abroad. He included “Funny Face” and “Gunfight At The O.K. Corral” among big or potentially big grossers. Balaban noted that the company’s for¬ eign operations continue to hold to a satisfactory level. He said that at the end of 1956, blocked cash abroad amount¬ ed to $5,500,000. Paramount is planning production overseas, he reported. The developing pattern of television economics now confirms the view that pay TV is inevitable, Balaban indicated. He said production costs have risen “as¬ tronomically” in TV, set saturation is being approached, and the problem of reconciling TV ratings with higher costs to the sponsor is becoming more dis¬ couraging to advertisers. Pay TV is the answer, he declared. “There are many persuasive reasons for believing that the cable approach will be most effective in getting pay TV ‘off the ground’ quickly,” Balaban held. In describing the Telemeter system, he em¬ phasized the advantages of its cash-pay system. Paramount Officers Reelected New York — Barney Balaban, president, Adolph Zukor, chairman of the board; and all other officers of Paramount were unanimously reelected last week. June 12, 19 57