The Exhibitor (1959)

6 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR Allied Hits Special Meeting On April 18 To Consider Current Problems; Legality Questioned In Concerted Producer Action WASHINGTON — Allied States Associa¬ tion of Motion Picture Exhibitors board of directors will hold a special meeting in the Washington Hotel on April 18, it was an¬ nounced last fortnight by Horace Adams, president, and Abram F. Myers, board chair¬ man. The meeting was said to have been called due to the Allied claim that there is urgent need for putting the Association back into operation after being “stalled on dead cen¬ ter” and not functioning in the interest of its members; and due to the position of the theatres in the industry steadily deteriorating. Allied has been waiting for effective action from ACE, it was pointed out. The film companies, encountering no de¬ termined resistance from exhibitors, are Tun¬ ing amuck, the report stated. Virtually all pictures above run-of-mill are being specially handled in one way or another, and as a result, the product is burned up before reach¬ ing the theatres that must play on general release. Moreover, in some areas, theatres are being arbitrarily zoned and bidding is being forced where it never existed before, it was reported. According to Allied States, the Board is going to concern itself with: “How better can an exhibitor’s ability to pay be deter¬ mined than by an analysis of a picture’s performance in his theatre after close of the engagement; in view of past experiences and current attitudes, does anyone seriously believe that, after an exhibitor has dug into capital to pay the contract terms for an oversold picture, he is going to get a refund from the film company?” Allied continues that United Artists’ re¬ cently announced sales policy, featuring no “look-see,” would be bad enough if taken by a single company in regard to its own output. But George J. Schaefer, Seymour Poe, Mor¬ ris Lefko, and David E. Weshner, the sales representatives of independent producers re¬ leasing through UA, endorsed the UA policy. The question now arises — just how much of the normal competitive effort that should be exerted by these producers as regards con¬ ditions and terms of license can be restrained or eliminated by agreement without running afoul of the law? A joint distributing agency for several producers is one thing, but when that agency prescribes uniform conditions and terms of sale for those pictures, and they agree thereto, a different question is present¬ ed, Allied said. S.C. Seeks Sunday Movies SPARTANBURG, S.C. — A bill was intro¬ duced in the House last fortnight to legalize Sunday movies and sports. The bill would make Sunday movies legal in areas “serviced by television stations on Sunday with hours not to conflict with Sunday morning and evening church services.” Under present law, some cities under spe¬ cial circumstances are allowed to show Sun¬ day movies if situated near a military in¬ stallation or if a county referendum shows that voters approve. April 8 , 1959 New UA Sales Policies Adams Leaves ITOO Post For Health; Fine Succeeds CLEVELAND — H or ace Adams an¬ nounced last fortnight that due to his health and with the acquiescence of the board of the ITO of Ohio, he had desig¬ nated vice-president Marshall Fine, Cleve¬ land. to act in his stead for the balance of his presidential term. In connection with National Allied, of which he is also president, Adams said he had “no comment” other than that he would attend the board meeting in Wash¬ ington later this month, and might have an announcement to make at that time. 20th-Fox Promotes Moskowitz, Norris NEW YORK — Alex Harrison, general sales manager of 20th Century-Fox, last week an¬ nounced the promotion of Martin Moskowitz and Glenn Norris to the posts of assistant general sales managers. Previously eastern and central-Canadian division managers respectively, Moskowitz and Norris will continue to aid Harrison in national sales planning as well as assuming additional specialized distribution duties. First special assignment will be the respon¬ sibility for the sales handling of two of 20thFox’s most important releases of the year, “South Pacific” and “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Norris will be in charge of “South Pa¬ cific” plans in its general release to all thea¬ tres following a highly successful series of Todd -AO engagements during the past year in key cities of the nation. Moskowitz will supervise the distribution of George Stevens’ “The Diary of Anne Frank” which recently had gala premieres in New York and Los Angeles. Both sales chiefs will devote a major por¬ tion of their efforts to launching these top attractions during the next few months. Be¬ cause of the recently instituted policy of autonomy within the company’s sales or¬ ganization, Moskowitz and Norris will find themselves free to function on a higher na¬ tional level and devote maximum effort and time to the company’s important pictures. Court Nixes Censor Fee Refund HARRISBURG — Two motion picture firms have lost their appeal to have the state Board of Finance and Revenue repay to them $11,506 as their proportionate share in maintaining the former State Board of Motion Picture Censors. The appeals were dismissed by Judge Homer L. Kreider in Commonwealth Court here. Screen Guild Productions of Philadel¬ phia had sought the return of $2,942.25 for the period between 1948 and 1951, and Box Office Pictures, Inc., also of Philadelphia, tried to collect $8,564 for 1947 through 1951. The Board of Motion Picture Censors was maintained in Pennsylvania at the expense of motion picture producers. It was declared unconstitutional in 1956 by the State Su¬ preme Court. Judge Kreider upheld a Board of Finance and Revenue contention that the claim for refund came too late because it was not filed within five years of the payment. NTA Officers Elected As NT Directors LOS ANGELES— B. Gerald Cantor, chair¬ man of National Theatres, Inc., and John B. Bertero, president, announced the election of Ely A. Landau and Oliver A. Unger, respec¬ tively chairman and president of National Telefilm Associates, Inc., a recently acquired National Theatres subsidary, to the board of directors of the parent company. William H. Hudson and Burt Kleiner also were elected to the National Theatres board at the same time. The board declared a dividend on its com¬ mon stock of 12^ cents per share, payable April 30 to stockholders of record on April 16. The election of the four new directors fol¬ lowed formal announcement last week that the exchange offer by which National Thea¬ tres acquired NTA had become effective. The offer, an exchange of National Theatres war¬ rants and debentures for NTA shares and warrants, has been accepted as of April 1 by holders of more than 76 per cent of the NTA shares outstanding, and holders of more than 57 per cent of the outstanding NTA warrants. The exchange offer expired April 6. Landau was president of NTA from the beginning of its operations in 1952, until Oc¬ tober, 1957, when he became chairman of its board of directors. He was also elected to the executive committee and the operations committee of National Theatres. Unger was executive vice-president of the company from 1954 until October, 1957, when he was elected NTA president. He will serve on the opera¬ tions committee of National Theatres. National Theatres and its subsidiaries cur¬ rently operate about 290 motion picture thea¬ tres in 19 states, and own and operate tele¬ vision and radio stations WDAF-TV and WDAF in Kansas City, KMSP-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul, WNTA-TV, of Newark, N.J., and WNTA (AM and FM) radio stations. Through the acquisition of NTA, one of the country’s largest distributors of films for tele¬ vision, National Theatres now has a library of approximately 565 feature length motion pictures originally produced for cinema dis¬ tribution. The company also distributes film series and short subjects. $3,615,000 Sought In Suit NEW YORK — Eight operators of film the¬ atres here, A. and R. Theatre Corporation, Artistic Theatre Corporation, Central Park Theatre Operating Corporation, Brook Ave¬ nue Theatre Operating Corporation, Madi¬ son Avenue Theatre Operating Corporation, P. & A. Theatre Corporation, Tiffany Thea¬ tre Corporation, and Westchester Theatre Operating Corporation, filed an anti-trust suit in Federal District Court last fortnight. A conspiracy between distributors of Spanish language films made in Mexico and a group of local exhibitors which forced them out of business is charged, and dam¬ ages of $3,615,000 are asked. Named in the alleged conspiracy are Azteca Films, Clasa-Mohme, and Mex-films, Inc., and 24 theatre firms and individuals including Harry Harris, Max A. Cohen, Irv¬ ing Breimar, the late Morris Goldman, and others. It is charged that Harris now operates a number of the theatres formerly belong¬ ing to the plaintiffs.