The Exhibitor (1960)

CANADIAN Highlights By Harry Allen, Jr. A SUBCOMMITTEE of the Canadian Bar Association said that cen¬ sorship of motion pictures in Canada by provincial agencies opens the doorway to the dangers of thought control and should be discontinued. The report on legislation banning works of art and entertainment on grounds of obscenity said the subject bears directly on the freedom of the individual. Changes were needed to throw light on, rather than obscure, the dividing line between public, punishable wrongs and private tastes that should be corrected in the home, the school, and the church. “Censorship of films by provincial agencies ought to be discontinued,” the report said, “and, if boards of review are to continue, their function should be confined to the classification of films with the object of considering their moral effect upon young persons alone.” The report was presented during the annual meeting of lawyers. No vote was taken on the report since there is an appeal now before the courts concerning condemnation of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.” Discussion by the lawyers was put off until next year when a decision will be rendered. JAPAN’S “Ikiru” was voted best picture in the Stratford Film Festival. Trevor Howard was named best actor for his performance in “Sons and Lovers” and Emmanuella Riva best actress for her work in “Hiroshima Mon Amour.” The Festival is non-competitive, but a group of critics who had covered all 23 of the matinee and evening showings held during the Festival’s two-week duration decided among themselves that some sort of recognition for merit should be made. A spokesman for the critics said that because of the large number of excellent pictures shown at the Festival, decisions were extremely difficult to reach. Rather than dismiss all pictures but the winner, they voted to accord special commendation to four other pictures — “Hiroshima Mon Amour” (France); “Serge” (USSR); “Wild Strawberries” (Sweden); and “The World of Apu” (India). FAMOUS PLAYERS Canadian Corp. held its second coast-to-coast convention in its history Sept. 12-15 in the Park Plaza Hotel, Toronto. The first one took place just over 20 years ago in Niagara Falls. Every phase of the company’s interests was thoroughly discussed. The first two days were given over to reports on product by representatives of the different distributors, some of whom were accompanied by their publicity directors. Among these participating were from Columbia, Abe Montague, executive vice president; Rube Jackter, general sales man¬ ager; and Bob Ferguson, ad-pub chief, as well as Louis Rosenfeld, vice-president and manag¬ ing director of the Canadian company, and Harvey Hamick, its general sales manager. Others attending included Sidney G. Deneau, Paramount executive from New York, and Gordon Lightstone, general manager in Canada’s Paramount company; also Robert Mochrie, MGM’s world sales chief, and Hillis Cass, Canadian general manager; and Frank McCarthy, as¬ sistant general sales manager of Universal. Jury Finds For Distribs ATLANTA — A jury required only 10 min¬ utes to return a verdict in favor of the major distributors and Wilby-Kincey Theatres. The jury threw out a $3,000,000 claim filed in 1955 by the plaintiff, B. & B. Theatres (Ellis Blumenthal), for antitrust violations against its Peachtree Art Theatre. Plaintiff was represented by George F. Ryan, the distributors by Robert S. Sams, and Wilby-Kincey by Colquitt Carter. A feature of the case was the payment by the plaintiff a few days before trial of $16,000 on distributors’ counterclaims for fraudulent reporting of box-office receipts. Para. Names Krassner NEW YORK — Ted Krassner has been ap¬ pointed to the newly-created post of national drive-in contract analyst, it was announced by George Weltner, president, Paramount Film Distributing Corp. Overall drive-in sales will continue under the direction of vice-presidents Hugh Owen, for the east, and Sidney Deneau, for the west, with Krassner handling the home office administration. MGM Ups Capps BOSTON — Robert Capps has been pro¬ moted to assistant branch manager here, Robert Mochrie, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s general sales manager, announced. Capps has been a salesman in Jacksonville since 1951. Molitch Appointed Clark Wash. Head WASHINGTON, D.C. — Appointment of Matthew T. Molitch as manager of the Wash¬ ington division of Clark Transfer, Inc., na¬ tional theatrical trans¬ portation company, has been announced by James P. Clark, Phila¬ delphia, president. The Washington of¬ fice supervises opera¬ tions in Maryland, Dela¬ ware, Virginia, and east¬ ern West Virginia. Motitch has been as¬ sociated with Clark Transfer, Inc., since his graduation from New York University in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Transportation. He is executive secretary of the Film Car¬ riers Conference of the American Trucking Association and a member of the board of directors of Air Dispatch, Inc., a domestic airfreight forwarder. He succeeds Ralph Binns, who has retired, after 23 years as division manager. Molitch is married, has two children, and lives in Hyattsville, Md. Clark Transfer and Clark Film Service handle much industry work in the eastern exchange areas. Affiliated (Col. & Para.) Launched In Canada TORONTO — The first national sales meet¬ ing of the new Affiliated Pictures Corp., Ltd., formed by Columbia Pictures and Paramount Pictures to handle Canadian distribution of their product, took place here last week. The new organization will officially begin its history-making operations on Oct. 1. In a joint statement here, executives of the par¬ ent companies said that Affiliated Pictures “will offer to Canadian exhibition greater efficiency, top quality service and the strong¬ est lineup of product in industry history so that all concerned will profit greatly from this unprecedented move in film distribu¬ tion.” Here from New York for the first meeting of the new company were Columbia execu¬ tive vice-president A. Montague and vicepresident and general sales manager Rube Jackter and Paramount Film Distributing Co. vice-president Sidney Deneau. Also present were Columbia home office executive Bernard Birnbaum and director of advertising and publicity Robert S. Ferguson, and the re¬ spective branch operations managers, H. C. Kaufman for Columbia and Martin Shank for Paramount. Heading the Canadian delegation were Gor¬ don Lightstone, who will be managing di¬ rector of Affiliated; Harvey Hamick, general sales manager of the new company; and Mickey Stevenson, who will assume the duties of assistant to the general sales man¬ ager. U-l Earnings Soar NEW YORK — Universal Pictures Company, Inc., reports for the 39 weeks ended July 30 consolidated net earnings of $5,204,224, after a provision of $5,280,000 for Federal taxes on income. After dividends on preferred stock, such consolidated net earnings amounted to $5.71 per share on 889,390 shares of common stock outstanding. For the similar period last year, the com¬ pany reported consolidated net earnings of $104,647 after provision of $450,000 for Fed¬ eral taxes on income, which, after providing for dividends on preferred stock, resulted in a loss of three cents per share on 899,802 shares of common stock outstanding. This profit is exclusive of a profit of $3,667,387 net of taxes, resulting from the sale of the studio. Bea Ross Joins Murray NEW YORK — The appointment of Beatrice Ross as director of advertising and publicity of K. Gordon Murray Productions was an¬ nounced by the company president. Murray, who is launching “Santa Claus” as the first feature on his schedule of regular releases, plans a concentrated promotion cam¬ paign to augment newspaper, radio, television, and trailer saturation now being scheduled for the initial multiple-run engagements. Miss Ross was formerly director of ad¬ vertising and publicity of Republic Pictures Corporation, following 11 years with the com¬ pany as its exploitation manager. Decca Sets Dividend NEW YORK — Directors of Decca Records Inc. declared a regular quarterly dividend of 30 cents per share on the company’s capital stock, payable Sept. 30 to stockholders of record Sept. 19. 20 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR September 21, I960