Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1940)

8 MOTION PICTURE HERALD April 6, I 940 This Week in the News No Neely Bill? ADJOURNMENT of Congress by June 1st was foreseen Monday by Senate and House leaders as pointing to the strong possibility that progress of the Neely anti-block booking bill, now pending in the House, may be halted by lack of time rather than by industry opposition. The measure passed the Senate at an earlier session. With less than two months of the session remaining, it was pointed out at the Capital this week that there is a real possibility that adjournment will come with the measure still in the hands of the House Interstate Commerce Committee, where it is now awaiting hearings which probably will not start before May. Its sponsors had first predicted a hearing for some time in March, then April. It is estimated that the taking of testimony could not be concluded before well into May and that, thereafter, considerable time would be required for the committee to come to a decisison and write a comprehensive report. In informed Washington circles, the success or failure of the current negotiations for out-of-court settlement of the Department of Justice "key" New York anti-trust suit was seen as having a decided influence upon the future of the Neely legislation, any "consent" decree probably precluding any necessity for anti-block selling legislation. Failure of the negotiations, it was said, in Washington, will result in the Justice and "ESCAPIST MARKET" [Continued from preceding page] that his definition of entertainment is not "that which amuses", but "that which interests". Mr. Nugent's formula, propounded before he had made a Hollywood writer's contract, would be far from guidance to an entertainment art. Your editor can remember a great deal that was of special and extraordinary interest to him that would not in his opinion be entertainment. For instance, once as a reporter, he observed the stirring performance of a whole town of fifteen thousand persons go mad and burn a man — the wrong man — at the stake. That would make quite a sequence in a picture. Interest is not necessarily entertainment. The formula offered would authorize a marquee line:"Come in and suffer — always something to worry about." — Terry Ramsaye Commerce Departments sending to the House Committee a strong recommendation that the Neely measure be enacted. Should the development of a "consent" decree seem possible, however, they are expected to suggest that the Neely bill be laid aside, at least until experience has shown how new circuit-distributor policies adopted by the companies work out. It was disclosed this week at the Capital that the two departments were asked for their views on the Neely bill some time ago, but both have withheld presentation of their opinions because of the "consent" decree negotiations. "Washington Talks About the Consent Decree" on pages 12 to 14. 'Pulp9 Horror & Sex TWO WEEKS AGO it was the filmnews commentator of the air who set out to clean house and raise standards (Motion Picture Herald, March 16, page 8) : last week it was the songwriter, aiming at "hot blues" stag-and-smoker numbers (MPH, March 30, Page 9) ; this week it's the newsstand "pulp" magazine publisher who would bring back a business that admittedly has "gone to the dogs" because of fallen standards. Taking its cue from "the setup worked successfully in the movie industry," the Frank A. Munsey Company, publishers of "pulp" for 58 years, on April 20th will take the lead, in the editorial columns of some of its 16 magazines, for the establishment of a Bureau of Censorship, "where the deceny and cleanliness of the magazines can be adjudged beforehand." Bearing a relationship of reasons similar to those which caused Hollywood to adhere to its Production Code, the Munsey Company feels that such self-regulation would regain lost readers, publishers of stability would regain the confidence of their readers, and readers would have good stories that they need not be ashamed of reading. The editorial challenge to magazine publishers will lay the blame for the present predicament to "the horror and sensational magazines, on whose covers you see halfclad women being tortured or attacked by deformed caricatures of men — or the enactment of some perverted crime depicted in terrifying detail" ; it's these magazines "that have tarred all with the same brush." Pictorial presentations of Hollywood pictures and personalities are today used extensively in most of the "pulp" newsstand magazines of the "horror and sex" type, the subject matter, for the most part, coming from the dusty files of the industry's past history. Zanucks9 Taxes PETITION for the recovery of $730,575 of additional U. S. income taxes assessed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue at Washington against Darryl Francis Zanuck, head of production of Twentieth Century-Fox, and against Virginia Zanuck, his wife, on their 1935 income tax returns, was carried, Tuesday, by the Zanucks, to the United States Board of Tax Appeals for review. The additional taxes— $438,450 levied against Mr. Zanuck and $292,125 against Mrs. Zanuck — were imposed by the Internal Revenue Bureau as a result of its computing the Zanucks' acquisition of Twentieth Century-Fox stock as income, after Mr. Zanuck and Joseph M. Schenck had merged Twentieth Century with Fox Films, in 1935, whereas the Zanucks contend that the Twentieth Century-Fox stock was issued to replace Fox Film stock held prior to the merger. Rather than a deficiency of $730,575 the Zanucks claim they overpaid on their 1935 returns by some $900. Harry Kadis, former "ace" U. S. Internal Revenue agent, was arrested in Los Angeles, Monday, on a writ of attachment, following his alleged refusal to appear before the federal grand jury in New York and testify on his activities in investigating the 1935 merger of Twentieth Century Productions and Fox Films Corporation. Mr. Kadis on Wednesday waived a removal hearing before United States Commissioner David Head in Los Angeles and said he would leave Saturday for New York. His attorneys, Greg Bautzer and Bentley Ryan, had intended to contest removal be , cause of the former United States agent's poor health and because of a technical defect in the writ of attachment which had been served on him. Mr. Kadis was with the Department of Internal Revenue for 17 years, but was recently discharged. Having reputedly collected more tax money for the Government than any other agent, Mr. Kadis had been assigned to investigate the union of Twentieth Century Productions and Fox Films, the Government believing that additional taxes should have been paid. The U. S. Bureau of Internal Revenue, Tuesday, ruling that the Charles Chaplin Film Corporation had failed in its 1937 income tax return to take an adequate deduction for depreciation and had included too much in gross income, announced that it had credited the company with a total of $22,989.