The Exhibitor (1960)

Rackmil Sees Continued U-l Profit, Sidesteps MR! Request For Uore Pix NEW YORK — Milton Rackmil, president of Universal Pictures Company, last week an¬ nounced at the annual stockholder meeting that the first quarter of company operations that ended this past January showed a profit of $1,850,000 after taxes. He expected the second quarter which ends this coming April to show a profit of $1,500,000. Expecta¬ tions for the third and fourth quarters were also favorable, although he would make no dollar estimates. Walter Reade, Jr., president of Motion Pic¬ ture Investors, Inc., made a brief appear¬ ance, and after ascertaining that Universal intended to place 15 pictures into produc¬ tion in the next six months, he asked Rackmil to consider increasing that number by at least 10 more. He and MPI offered to put up guarantees as to money and playing time to make sure that they would be profitable. Rackmil appreciated the offer, but he re¬ fused to agree to the increase in production simply to make more pictures. He opined that the company didn’t need inducements, financial or otherwise, to make more pictures, but rather they will be made if they can be marketed and if they will be accepted by the public. Incidentally, the company has some 15 million dollars lying around just waiting to be put into pictures. When a stockholder questioned him about the sale of post-48 films to TV, he replied that the company has no intention of selling at the present time. Another stockholder praised the management for abandoning the low budget pictures and turning its atten¬ tion to the blockbusters which have put the company back in the profit column. Rackmil was praised for selling the studio and getting rid of unnecesary overhead, as well as for settling with the Guilds and avoiding being strikebound. The stockholder thought that the comply executives should be rewarded with a stock option plan similar to those in effect in other film companies. Rackmil minimized the legEil hurdles facing Universal in the form of litigation, stating that the only major suit was being pressed by the government on an anti -trust basis involving the sale of some features to Screen Gems. Should Universal lose, Rackmil opined the films will be returned and the company stands to make more money than ever. Over 839,000 comn^h shares were repre¬ sented at the meeting as were 20,454 pre¬ ferred shares. Elected to the board of direc¬ tors were N. J. Blumberg, Preston Davie, Albert A. Garthwaite, John J. O’Connor, Milton R. Rackmil, Budd Rogers, Harold I. Thorp cind Samuel H. Vallance. The board met later to declare the first quarterly dividend since Dec. 23, 1957, when a regular dividend of 25 cents was declared, as was an extra 25 cents. Rackmil told the press later that “Spartacus” will open in New York on Sept. 22, after which 18 theatres will open with the film between the end of September and Christmas in the United States, with another 11 due to bow overseas during that period. All dates will be on a roadshow basis with admissions advanced and seats reserved, and the sales policy will include provisions for guarantees as to money and playing time. Universal signed contracts with the striking guilds recently and will continue production undisturbed. Snaper, Dollinger, Liggett Merge N.Y. Service Firms NEW YORK — Jules E. Liggett, Irving Dollinger, and Wilbur Snaper announce the merger of the Liggett Booking Service and the Triangle Theatre-Service into one enterprise to be known as the Triangle Liggett Theatre Service. The three buyers state that this merger will provide greater facilities, manpower, and experience to serve exhibitor custom¬ ers of both organizations. The organiza¬ tion is now serving theatres in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. N.Y. License Fee Cut Clears One Hurdle ALBANY — The Assembly ways and means committee voted to report favorably the Savarese bill amending section 122 of the education law, to reduce the fees charged by State Education Department’s Motion Pictui'e Division. A companion measure pended before the Senate finance committee, but its sponsor. Senator John J. Marchi, expected no difficulty in obtaining committee ap¬ proval. The Senate unanimously passed somewhat similar legislation last year. The Assembly defeated it, in the closing hours, after a lengthy debate. Filing a letter advocating passage of the bill was the Independent Film Distributors Association, via executive director Michael F. Mayer. The ITOA and the MMPTA had previously sent letters or memos to the spon¬ sors, and to other legislators, supporting it. Casino Film Exchange, Inc., of New York, epistled endorsement, but requested that the increaise on original film prints be dropped, if possible. That company, like a number of others handling foreign films, operates with only one print of each pic¬ ture because of the limited number of theatres showing this type of release. The upping of the tap on originals would produce less than $5,000 additional revenue for motion picture division, according to the letter, written by Cjisino’s Nathan Podhorzer. Arjay Buys Brandt House NEW YORK — Brandt’s Yorktown, 850 seater, has just been purchased by Arjay Enter¬ prises, Inc. The theatre, at 88th Street and Broadway, will be renamed 'The New Yorker, and on March 17 will begin a new program¬ ming policy. The opening program will con¬ sist of “HENRY V” and “THE RED BAL¬ LOON,” to be followed by “SHOESHINE,” “CARNIVAL IN FLANDERS,” “DAY OF WRATH,” and “IKURU,” among others. It is the intention of the theatre to try at some point first-run American and foreign pic¬ tures. Gottlieb Joins Fox NEW YORK — Steven Gottlieb has joined the staff of the publicity department of 20th Century-Fox, effective immediately. A Har¬ vard graduate, and son of Alex Gottlieb, veteran Hollywood producer and industry publicist, young Gottlieb will be a writer in the pressbook department. Inefficient Film Use Hit In Allied Bulletin | WASHINGTON — The Emergency Defense i Committee of National Allied in a Bulletin ‘ issued last fortnight hit at what it termed t “an attitude in the distribution branch of l the industry that will defeat any merchan u dising method whether based on showcases, national advertising, or area saturation.” Said to be based on a “number of letters” a from Allied members, the EDC said the I complaints were concerned mainly with | bookers, attitudes on availability of prints, ij The exhibitors claim this relegates many a theatres to a second-class service to their i communities with inevitable loss of revenue to distributor and exhibitor alike. They hold that “this kind of waste the industry can not afford” and “sales heads should take a hard look to discover the reasons for the wastage and put an end to it.” “Inefficient use of films should not be tol¬ erated,” the EDC said. “A print lying idle ' in a vault when an exhibitor desperately needs it is the kind of waste that all execu¬ tives should be quick to detect and eager ' to remedy.” The EDC further reported that the com ; plaints further disclose that “distributors ; continue their demands for rmrealistic terms” with the local sales representatives appearing “indifferent whether they make a sale or not”; that in rental demands a film’s ' age is ignored; that they are “abused, ridi¬ culed, and told to close their theatres when they point out that they can not break even, ' much less make a profit on the terms de¬ manded.” The EDC contends that “breaking these small exhibitor’s backs by vituperation, by discriminating against them, by refusing them cooperation on prints and by jamming unrealistic terms down their throats is very bad business; and that unless these condi¬ tions are rectified, the goal of industry unity sought by Allied leaders and all right-think¬ ing industry members will never be , achieved.” "Jimmy Fund" Team Set BOSTON — The same team that lead last year’s Jimmy Fund Drive so successfully will again spearhead the 1960 campaign. William S. Koster, executive director of the Children’s Cancer Research Foundation, an¬ nounced that American League President i Joseph Cronin will be general chairman of ' the 1960 Jimmy Fund Drive; Red Sox slugger Ted Williams, honorary chairman; Inter¬ state Theatres’ general manager James Ma¬ honey, chairman of the theatre industry; Curt Gowdy, national sportscaster, chair¬ man for sports; “Big Brother” Bob Emery, chairman for the “small fry”; Massachu¬ setts Chief of Police Association’s secretarytreasurer Hector Pelletier, chairman for the law enforcement agencies; and Michael Red¬ stone, treasurer. Co-chairmen for Massachusetts will be Walter A. Brown and Sumner Redstone; , Connecticut co-chairmen, Douglass Amos i and Harry Fienstein; Maine, Ralph Tully; I Rhode Island, Ed Fay; Vermont, Ray Kin¬ ary; and New Hampshire, Ernest Fitzgerald. Key West Honors Wolfson MIAMI, FLA. — Mitchell Wolfson, local the¬ atre and television station operator, will be honored at “Old Island Day” at Key West on March 18 with a banquet at the Casa ! Marina Hotel. Wolfson is a native of Key West and a former mayor of Miami Beach. ! 14 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR March 16, I960 ]