The Exhibitor (1966)

Industry , World Mourn Disney ; Muster 01 Family Entertainment HOLLYWOOD — Walt Disney, who built a fabulous entertainment empire by pleasing family audiences, died here last week at the age of 65. The famed producer, who earned more than 900 awards from organizations and governments around the world, including 31 “Oscars,” is survived by his wife and two mar¬ ried daughters. Looking back over his colorful career, Dis¬ ney recently said, “By nature, I am an experi¬ menter. To this day, I don’t believe in sequels. I can’t follow popular cycles. I have to move on to new things.” Thus, few producers, if any, deserve to be called innovators as much as he. When his “Mickey Mouse” character became a hit, the public clamored for more Disney mice. Instead, he went on to develop the popu¬ lar “Silly Symphonies.” When his “Three Little Pigs” found widespread acceptance, he bowed to public demand and featured them in another cartoon, but was disappointed at the result. His feature-length cartoon, “Snow White,” the hint industry’s first such cartoon, was an instant hit and brought forth a demand for “more dwarfs.” Instead, he experimented with “Pinocchio,” “Fantasia,” “Dumbo,” and “Bambi.” Then, the war intervened, and his studio, with all its skill and determination, went into the war effort. Thousands of insignias were produced for as many different fighting units, and hundreds of thousands of feet of film were produced for military briefing and training purposes. Disney said that his studio had ac¬ quired from the war “a wonderful education and a determination to diversify our entertain¬ ment product.” The years immediately after the war saw the Disney Studios experimenting with living na¬ ture subjects and live action features. There occurred about this time the television panic in the movie industry, but Disney, after study¬ ing the medium, decided that although it was here to stay, it could never in the foreseeable future replace motion pictures. He further figured that it could be used to aid motion pictures. “If television could sell soap, why couldn’t it sell movies?” With this in mind, he went into television. When his feature of Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea” was about to be released, he tried another experi¬ ment. He built an hour-long television show around the making of the movie, for pure ex¬ ploitation, according to him. That show won an Emmy as the best televised single feature of the year, and was, he said, the greatest single factor in the feature film’s success. An even greater stroke of daring showman¬ ship was displayed in using television to pro¬ mote movies. Famed Texas exhibitor, the late Bob O'Donnell, suggested that Disney release his three-part ultra-successful television Davy Crockett series as a single, full-length movie. Disney’s release was exhibited in O’Donnell’s theatres and broke house records in over half of Texas. After long and rewarding development of live-action and animated cartoon films, he de¬ cided to combine the two, and employ every trick known to him in film making, for “Mary •’oppins.” His friend, Samuel Goldwyn, pre¬ dicted that the film would gross 35 million dollars. Said Disney, “35 million seemed to outfantasy the picture itself,” but when it came true, Goldwyn raised his estimate to 85 million dollars. When Walt Disney spoke of the work done at his studios or at Disneyland, its progress DISNEY Pacific Names Upham LOS ANGELES — Veteran theatre operator and concessionaire William Upham was named Pacific’s walk-in field supervisor by Art Gordon, division manager. Upham has been in the field tor the past year, familiarizing himself with Pacific’s operat¬ ing methods, since departing an executive post with National General Corporation. Upham served as NGC’s assistant director of merchandising, supervisor of certain of that circuit’s San Diego operations, and as Nation¬ al's director of drive-in theatres. and success, the pronoun “we” was noticeably dominant. Of the Disney organization, with its three thousand employees, he said, “Only through the talent, the labor, and the dedica¬ tion of this staff could any Disney project get off the ground.'5 He also expressed profound appreciation to many exhibitors and theatremen to whom he felt his success was owed. A few months ago, the National Association of Theatre Owners named Walt Disney Show¬ man of the World. In a speech before them, recorded in the last Laurel Awards issue of MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR, he said, “I want to make you a promise. I promise we won’t let this great honor you have paid us tonight go to our head — we have too many projects for the future to take time out for such a thing. On top of that, after 40 some odd years of ups and downs in this crazy business of ours, we know too well — you are only as good as your next picture.” His death was untimely, because he was de¬ termined to remain the active producer he had been in the past. Because of this, we must not only express sadness for the passing of a great and successful man, but must express regret at the loss of a great promise to our industry— a promise which his truly untimely death kept him from keeping. His enthusiam, however, was contagi¬ ous, and the projects he started will be carried forward by the company which bears his name. Disney will lie known to a generation which may not know the man, but which will be well acquainted with his work. This is his remarka¬ ble legacy. Writers' Strike Averted As New Pact Is Ratified HOLLYWOOD — A writers’ threatened strike against the motion picture industry was averted at the zero hour last week when members of the Writers Guild of America unanimously approved the terms of a new 3/2 -year contract. Some 500 writers ratified the new pact less than three hours before a midnight strike deadline. More than 600 pickets had been assigned to march outside Hollywood studios the next morning if an agreement was not reached at the midnight deadline. One provision of the new contract estab¬ lishes a uniform date for labor contracts for both tv and screen writers. Both will be up for renewal in June, 1970. The agreement also broke another industry pattern by bringing writers into the motion picture health and welfare program while still giving them a five per cent hike in pensions. Early guesses were that the new arrangement may cost as much as eight per cent. Traditionally, producers have insisted that such fringe benefits be kept within the five per cent range. Another major gain for the writers was 100 per cent increase in two steps on mini¬ mum payment for movies budgeted at $1 million or more — which means most film pro¬ ductions. The present $4,500 minimum will go to $8,000 and to $9,000 in 21 months. How¬ ever, by and large, screen writers make their own deals in excess of the minimums. Among the fringe gains that writers hold dear is a provision giving them far more prominence than ever before in screen credits and in advertising of pictures. Bargainers for WGA and the Association of Motion Picture and TV Producers negotiated the contract after one 20-hour marathon ses¬ sion and an additional meeting as the strike deadline approached. Writers of screen plays also will get the full 1.2 per cent share of gross sales of films for re-use on tv. Television writers will have to ratify the one-year extension of their contract, but no difficulty was expected since they will be trading the extension for three years’ coverage under the industry’s health and welfare pro¬ gram. Third Wave For “Paris” NEW YORK — The third wave of roadshow openings in the United States for “Is Paris Burning?” rolls Dec. 21—22 when the Para¬ mount-Seven Arts-Ray Stark presentation be¬ gins its Christmas holiday engagements in eight cities. The reserved-seat attraction will debut Dec. 21 at the Cinema 21 in San Diego. The re¬ maining seven new engagements will open the following day, Dec. 22, in the following situations: International 70, Cincinnati; Palace, Cleve¬ land; Beach, Miami Beach; Broadway, Port¬ land; Cinema I, Louisville; and Cinema I, Toledo. Sutton To New NCC Post DENVER— James R. Sutton has been ap¬ pointed manager of the new $750,000 Cen¬ tury 21, Denver, it is announced by Jack McGee, division manager of Fox MountainMidwest Theatres, a division of National General Corporation, Los Angeles. Sutton’s appointment to the key post at the deluxe, 1048-seat motion picture showcase, follows a 20 year career with Fox Tnter-Mountain Theatres. 12 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR December 21, 1966