The Exhibitor (1966)

Hollywood Starts Kiting Its Nails As Oscar foce titters Final Phase Gulf & Western Plans Expansion For Telemeter NEW YORK — A major expansion program is being planned for International Telemeter Corporation, which will henceforth be oper¬ ated as a subsidiary of Gulf & Western Indus¬ tries, Inc., Paramount Pictures Corporation’s parent organization. As the first move in the broadening of Tele¬ meter’s activities in pay television, closed-cir¬ cuit tv and community antenna systems, Wil¬ liam C. Rubenstein, has been elected president of the company, replacing Leslie Winik. Ruben¬ stein will work under the direction of David N. Judelson, executive vice-president and chairman of the executive committee of Gulf & Western, who is in charge of the corpora¬ tion’s manufacturing operations. In the new blueprint of future operations, Telemeter will increase its research and de¬ velopment activities, and will continue to com¬ pletion its program in pay television, both for over-the-air and cable transmission. In addi¬ tion, the manufacturing and technical resources of Gulf & Western will enable Telemeter for the first time to produce its own devices for CATV and pay tv. Rubenstein was formerly vice-president in charge of research and development for Tele¬ meter. He has been with the company for 15 years. MGM Pacts Production Team HOLLYWOOD — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has signed a four picture deal w ith the respec¬ tive production companies of director John Frankenheimer and producer Edward Lewis. The four properties are “The Fixer,” based on the novel by Bernard Malmud, with Dalton Trumbo writing the screenplay, which Frank¬ enheimer will direct and Lewis produce; “The Lady Gay,” an original western musical, being written by William Inge, also to be produced by Lewis; “The Gypsy Moths,” a modern ad¬ venture drama adapted from the novel by James Drought, being scripted by William Hanley, which will be produced by Hal Lan¬ ders and Bobby Roberts, directed by Franken¬ heimer, with Lewis as executive producer; and “The Extraordinary Seaman,” starring David Niven, with a screenplay by Philip Rock from his novel. Frankenheimer will direct and Lewis wall produce. Picture wall be co-pro¬ duced by Jack Cushingham. Frankenheimer and Lewis were previously associated on such films as “Seconds” and “Seven Days In May.” Court Hears Merger Protests WILMINGTON, DEL.— Delaware’s Chan¬ cery Court has granted the petition of one Uni¬ versal Pictures Company stockholder for ap¬ praisal of his shares and denied another owner’s similar petition, both resulting from Univer¬ sal’s merger into Universal City Studios, Inc., last March. Chancellor William Duffy, Jr., ruled that the Delaware legal requirement of a “demand” for payment had not been met by the declara¬ tion of Carl Marks & Co., New York City, that Universal Pictures’ offer of $75 a share was “most unrealistic” and that the Marks firm would do everything in its power to prevent “confiscation” of its property. The Chancellor held, on the other hand, that stockholder Joseph Keane, Jersey City, N.J., did comply with requirements of demand and 20-day time limit for objecting to a merger. Gabe Sumner (right), United Artists national direc¬ tor of advertising and publicity, and James C. Katz, UA director of publicity, display advertising mate¬ rial on "The Persecution and Assassination of JeanPaul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade" at a recent meeting at the New York home office. Film Exchange Workers Agree To New Contract NEW YOR.K — A wage increase of 10 dollars per week, in two annual steps, has been nego¬ tiated by the I.A.T.S.E. for film exchange workers throughout the United States. The agreement, announced by Richard F. Walsh, president of the union, provides weekly raises of six dollars, retroactive to Dec. 1, 1966, to be followed by another four-dollar raise on Dec. 1 of this year. Also increased in two steps were employer payments into the I.A.T.S.E. National Pen¬ sion Fund, which went from $4.50 to $5.25 per week on Jan. 1 and will rise to $5.62/2 on July 1 of this year. It is anticipated that these increases will enable the maximum retirement benefit to be raised well above the present $80 per month. Other gains made under the new contract include: Three weeks of annual vacation after 10 years of employment, instead of 11. Three weeks of severance pay after three years of service, instead of after four years, with the severance schedule then graduating up to 15 weeks after 26 years, instead of 28. Two hours off for voting on state and na¬ tional election days, and up to five days off with pay in the event of a death in the imme¬ diate family. Increase in Blue Cross-Blue Shield coverage from 21 to 120 days. The agreement is for two years. Companies coming under it are M-G-M, Paramount, 20th Century-Fox, United Artists, Universal, Co¬ lumbia, Buena Vista, National Film Service, Bonded Film Service, and National Screen Ser¬ vice. ABC Declares Dividend NEW YORK — The board of directors of ABC Consolidated Corporation declared a regular quarterly dividend of 20 cents a share, payable Feb. 24 to shareholders of record Feb. 9. In 1966, dividends totaled 80 cents a share. By MARK GIBBONS HOLLYWOOD — It’s Oscar Derby time again, and they’ll soon be off and running in filmdom’s greatest sweepstakes — the annual Academy Awards. This Friday (Feb. 10), all of the nominating ballots must be in by 5 pm at the headquarters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Next follows the second greatest period of anxiety that afflicts Lotusland year after year. For nine fingernail-biting days, the question wall be: Who are the five nominees in each category? That question will be answered on Feb. 20 when the official candidates are posted. Then the fun begins with excitement mount¬ ing and the tension getting tenser clear up to the evening of April 10 — Oscar Night — in the civic auditorium at Santa Monica. In the in¬ terim, the campaign to garner votes for the best picture, best actor, best director, actress, sce¬ narist, music score, supporting players, ad in¬ finitum will rage full throttle. This year, the final ballots go in the mail March 22, and the polls close on March 31. In that date, the campaigning ends for obvious reasons, and then for nine more days the sec¬ ond and greatest period of anxiety and tension will smother Hollywood like smog. There is just one category where a healthy hint will be given as to who might cop the Oscar — best director. However, it is not neces¬ sarily a best bet as past years have shown. The Directors Guild of America already has an¬ nounced the 10 preliminary nominees for Best Motion Picture Director of the Year. An¬ nouncement of the five final nominees includ¬ ing the winner will be made at the DGA’s annual awards dinners Saturday (Feb. 11) at the New York Hilton Hotel and the Beverly Hilton here. But to repeat, it does not neces¬ sarily follow that the DGA champ will be the same gent who embraces an Oscar on April 10. Still, the five finalists provide a reasonable omen. The 10 preliminary nominees for the DGA award: Richard Brooks, “The Professionals” (Co¬ lumbia); John Frankenheimer, “Grand Prix” (MGM); Lewis Gilbert, “Alfie” (Paramount); James Hill, “Born Free” (Columbia); Norman Jewison, “The Russians Are Coming the Rus¬ sians Are Coming” (Mirisch-LIA) ; Claude Lelouch, “A Man and A Woman” (Allied Ar¬ tists); Silvio Narizzano, “Georgy Girl” (Co¬ lumbia); Mike Nichols, “Who’s Afraid of Vir¬ ginia Woolf?” (Warners); Robert Wise, “The Sand Pebbles” (20th Century-Fox) ; Fred Zinnemann, “A Man For All Seasons” (Co¬ lumbia). While the denizens of movieland are sweat¬ ing out the final results, that sophisticated coterie of newspaper columnists and wise¬ cracking tv and radio commentators have a field day with jibes and jabs at the Academy Awards, dubbing the Oscar race a “popularity contest, not a true evaluation of cultural merit.” Perhaps it is true that the voting in past years has occasionally resulted in unex¬ pected, perhaps even questionable decisions, but in years of covering the cinema beat, this reporter has yet to meet an exhibitor who does not place strong boxoffice value on a film with one or more Oscar credits, From Feb. 20' until the night of the awards, theatre marquees across the nation will be flashing the titles of pictures in the running for that little gold statuette. February 8, 1967 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR 9