The Exhibitor (1965)

Answer To "Twilight Girls" Appeal Cites Changing View Of Obscenity REA-Seven Arts Formed For Travel Entertainment NEW YORK — REA Express and Seven Arts Productions have announced the formation of REA-Seven Arts, trade name of a new joint corporate venture in varied passenger “Travel Time” entertainment services. Under development since last summer, and established as REA Express-Seven Arts Transvision, Inc., the new business will pro¬ vide the installation, programming, and serv¬ icing of advanced multiple sound and visual presentations, including tape and film cart¬ ridge systems, for airline, bus, railroad, and other intercity passenger carriers domestically and throughout the world. REA Express, coordinating air, highway, railroad and water transportation, provides domestic surface and Air Express, interna¬ tional express and air cargo, foreign freight forwarding, customs brokerage, and related services. Seven Arts is engaged in motion picture production, the world-wide distribution of feature motion pictures and other product to television, and in the production of Broadway and other stage plays. In a joint statement, REA’s president Wil¬ liam B. Johnson, Seven Arts’ president Eliot Hyman, and Robert C. Hendon, president of REA-Seven Arts, said that “as otherwise improbable partners, we believe that our wholly new service concepts and revolution¬ ary advanced equipment combinations, soon to be announced in more detail, have a bright future. They will create unprecedented travel entertainment equipment and service flexibilities and opportunities.” “REA-Seven Arts’ operations,” the state¬ ment said, “will combine the use of REA’s extensive management services and its farflung nationwide and world-wide transporta¬ tion complex and the entertainment produc¬ tion, library, and distribution services of Seven Arts. They will supplement the new company’s own sales and equipment development and maintenance operations. It is expected that contracting carriers and the traveling public will benefit immeasurably from the new entertainment applications now possible dur¬ ing intercity and intercontinental passenger ‘travel time.’ ” Among the officers of REA-Seven Arts are Johnson, chaiman; president Hendon, who also is president of REA Leasing Corp. and vice-president, industry affairs, of REA; and as vice-presidents, Leonard Key, president, and Richard G. Zimmerman, vice-president, of Travel Theatres, Inc., New York. Directors, in addition to the above officers, are Hyman; Alan J. Hirschfield, partner of Allen & Co., New York, and director of Seven Arts; and William J. Taylor, general counsel of REA. Others elected as officers are Jeremy Hy¬ man, vice-president of Seven Arts, as vicepresident; C. D. Vannoy, vice-president and treasurer; Alan F. Doniger, general counsel and assistant secretary; Robert A. Sauer, controller; Lawrence Berman, secretary; and A. R. Taintor, Jr., assistant secretary. Col. Hunts New ”007” NEW YORK — Columbia Pictures will enter the James Bond sweepstakes with Charles K. Feldman’s production of “Casino Royale,” one of Ian Fleming’s internationally-cele¬ brated spy series. Feldman is currently en¬ gaged in final tests for a new personality to play Secret Agent James Bond. Stefanie Powers, one of the stars of Columbia's "Love Has Many Faces," is seen with Robert S. Ferguson, Columbia vice-president in charge of advertising and publicity, during her recent visit to New York. TOA Expands Insurance Benefits For Members NEW YORK — The response to Theatre Owners of America’s expanded insurance coverage has been so great that the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co., under¬ writer of the plan, has made available the use of an IBM computer to handle the vol¬ ume and prepare the semi-annual premium statements, according to TOA president Sum¬ ner M. Redstone. TOA’s Group Insurance Plan has been in operation for seven years, but additional benefits, at no additional cost to TOA mem¬ bers, were provided under an arrangement with the John Hancock company. The new benefits provide for triple indemnity in the case of accidental death and also include a liberal disability provision. Under the plan, all dues-paying members and their salaried personnel are eligible to participate, with the member paying the en¬ tire cost for his employees. He may select one of two options governing eligibility. Option 1 covers all salaried workers, while option 2 is for key management and supervisory per¬ sonnel only. Limits are up to $20,000 per insured. Buffalo Paramount Goes Dark BUFFALO — The Paramount, in the heart of the downtown theatre district, will close today (Feb. 17) with demolishment of the building scheduled for the next day. The Paramount has been an American Broadcasting-Para¬ mount Theatres operation since 1949. The lobby of the theatre will remain intact in hope of renting it as a store, but the theatre proper will go. Edward Miller, manager, Para¬ mount, since 1952, will become an assistant to Arthur Krolick, district manager, AB-PT, Buffalo and Rochester. This company will continue to operate the Center, downtown Buffalo, as well as the Paramount, Rochester, and the new Starlite Drive-In, Rochester. Francis Anderson is city manager in Roches¬ ter. The Paramount, Buffalo, was built in 1928 as the Great Lakes. It was the Shea’s Great Lakes from 1930 to 1949, when it became the Paramount. ALBANY — Arguments on and questions about “The Twilight Girls” before Court of Appeals followed certain familiar patterns, but also took on new turns, as Charles A. Brind, Jr., Council for appellants, Board of Regents, and Edmund C. Grainger, attorney for Radley A. Metzger, respondent, argued their respective cases. Grainger had prevailed before Appallate Division, Third Department, which unani¬ mously ruled the scenes which the Regents ordered to be removed' from the Frenchproduced film do not constitute “obscenity, in violation of the statutes.” That court, citing two previous decisions on the point, directed issuance of a license forthwith. Board of Regents, believing their responsi¬ bilities as “head of the education system in New York State” and to “protect youth,” re¬ quired the refusal of a license for an “obscene” film appealed to state’s highest tribunal. Seven-member court viewed a screening of “Twilight Girls” at Stanley Warner Madison before listening to the arguments — just as Appellate Division justices had done. The “fresh” path which Dr. Brind developed, in an exchange with Chief Judge Charles A. Sedmond, was the importance of “advertising” emphasis on a picture like “Twilight Girls.” Judge Desmond inquired whether “the regu¬ lation” of film advertising had been attempted. Brind replied, cautiously, “It has got to be pretty bad before we could do anything about it.” Chief Judge Desmond then commented: “If this picture was presented without lurid advertising, and somebody walked in (to a theatre), it would be about as innocent a picture as you ever saw in your life.” The “interested and knowing” would grasp the implications about lesbianism from the advertising, Dr. Brind opined. Judge Desmond continued, “If this were not advertised as depicting some kind of lesbian¬ ism, it would be perfectly innocuous.” Brind added, “I think this would be true.” The Regents “have no objection to 98 percent of the film,” the counsel said. Chief Judge Des¬ mond saw “only1 one objectionable sequence.” Countering that “advertising” was not the matter at issue, Grainger said the crux was whether “Twilight Girls” could be ruled “obscene,” under U.S. Supreme Court deci¬ sions. “This is the Supreme Court decision in Jacobellis: obscenity must be a changing con¬ cept,” asserted Grainger. Obscenity must be judged “by the contemporary community or national standards. “There is a more relaxed, a less prudish attitude, if you will, today,” said Grainger. The New York attorney then cited pictures recently licensed in this state. He began with “Goldfinger” and “From Russia With Love” — both “James Bond.” Grainger observed that “From Russia” contains “lesbianism,” yet it was “licensed.” He next enumerated “The Carpetbaggers” and “several recent Brigitte Bardot pictures.” “Most miniscule” were the portions which the Regents registered dissent, Audobon Films’ legal spokesmen argued. “They occupy per¬ haps two minutes of running time.” U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, “A work must be judged as a whole, not on isolated passages,” he stressed. February 17, 1965 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR 7