Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1942)

20 MOTION PICTURE HERALD January 10, 1942 United Artists Sets Up Three Sales Divisions As an important step in the realignment of the United Artists sales setup, Carl Leserman, general sales manager of the company, announced Monday in New York, the creation of three divisions in place of the two now in operation. To the eastern division, headed by Harry L. Gold, and the western division, headed by Bert M. Stearn, has been added the Canadian division with David Coplan as division manager. The Canadian exchanges heretofore included in the western division will now operate as a separate entity in the United Artists sales organization. Mr. Leserman also announced the transfer of the exchanges in the southern district, including New Orleans, Dallas, Atlanta, and Charlotte — to the western division under Mr. Stearn. District Realigned At the same time a realignment of the exchanges in the district under the supervision of Jack Goldhar was announced. These wll now include Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, and will be under the eastern division's supervision. A realignment of the far western district under W. E. Callaway now includes the territories of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Denver. Mr. Leserman left New York Monday night for a meeting which was held in Cleveland on Tuesday with Mr. Goldhar and the following branch managers: M. Dudelson, Harris Dudelson, Nat Beier, G. R. Frank and James Hendel. In Cleveland, Mr. Leserman also attended a testimonial dinner to Bert M. Stearn, recently appointed western division sales manager. On Wednesday, Mr. Leserman met in Chicago with Mr. Stearn; Charles Stearn, district manager of the Chicago territory, and the following branch managers : Ralph Cramblatt, J. S. Abrose, Ben J. Robins, D. V. McLucas and William E. Truog. At the meetings, Mr. Leserman discussed the completion of the current season's selling, dating and liquidation, and presented the set-up for new productions to be released by United Artists during the remainder of the season. Film Collection Presented King Vidor, motion picture director and native of Texas, and E. B. Coleman, MGM publicist, presented the first collection of film material to be used for research to the University of Texas in Austin, Tex. The donation included model sets, costume designs, film scripts and production stills. Universal Borrows George Raft Universal has borrowed George Raft from Warner Brothers for the starring role in a modernized version of "Broadway," which was made by the company 12 years ago. Bruce Manning will produce and do the script with Felix Jackson. Terry Donoghue With Loew Terry Donoghue, formerly of the editorial staff of the Newark Ledger, New York J ournalAmerican and other newspapers, has joined the Loews circuit's publicity department, assigned to Loew's State theatre on Broadway, New York. British War Theme Films Continue More feature films about the war are coming from Great Britain. The first of the current product to be completed will be "Life Line," a story of German intrigues in the Near East, while another due for early filming is "Revolt," a story of the growing sabotage movement in Nazi-occupied Europe. A new Will Hay comedy is "The Goose Steps Out" in which the comedian finds himself masquerading as a Nazi professor in a German university. Tommy Trinder, who gained recognition for his performance in "Sailors Three," will appear in a sequel to this film, in which he plays the part of a Cockney soldier in the real life story of a British factory foremen who journeyed across France at the time of the Nazi invasion, bringing to safety some valuable British machinery. United Artists will distribute these films which will be made at the Ealing studios. Consumer Co-op Film Debuts Premiere of "Here Is Tomorrow," a dramatized documentary produced for the Cooperative League of America by Documentary Film Productions, Inc., was held Friday night at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Willard Van Dyke and Herbert Kerkow directed the picture which tells the story of how 2,000,000 people in the U. S. organized consumer cooperatives for such purchases as groceries, fuel, farm equipment, clothing and other commodities. "Here Is Tomorrow" is a three-reel 35 mm. sound picture which the League plans to distribute both theatrically and non-theatrically. Phil Brown, actor in the cast of "H. M. Pulham Esq." and Jabez Gray, actor in summer stock theatres, are in the picture. Preceding the opening of the picture, Francis Hackett, author of "I Chose Denmark" and "What Mein Kampf Means to America" was scheduled to speak. Barthelmess, Stewart In War Richard Barthelmess, former motion picture star, has passed his examination for a commission in the Naval Reserve and is awaiting his final papers of approval in California where he applied six months ago. Following promotion from a corporal to lieutenant, James Stewart has been stationed to the West Coast Air Corps training station. Captain James L. Caddigan, for the past 14 years supervisor of the film department of Paramount in the Boston exchange, has been promoted to Major and will be in charge of public relations on the staff of Brigadier General Edgar C. Erickson of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. > Fox Promotes Mintz Samuel Gross, Twentieth Century-Fox branch manager in Philadelphia, announced the promotion of J. Leonard Mintz to city salesman. In addition, Eddie Solomon moves from the shipping department to become chief poster clerk. Wesley Angle Reelected Wesley M. Angle, president of StrombergCarlson Manufacturing Company, Rochester, N. Y., has been reelected a director of the National Association of Manufacturers. New Trust Suits Facing Networks The U. S. Government struck again at alleged radio network monopolies, this time through the courts, when on New Year's Eve at Chicago the Department of Justice acting under the Sherman anti-trust law filed complaints in U. S. District court against the two leading networks. The two civil suits were filed by Daniel Britt, head of the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice in Chicago, against the Radio Corporation of America, the National Broadcasting Company and the Columbia Broadcasting System to break up, what are charged to be, monopolistic holdings and to enjoin network owners from practices through which it is averred they control the industry. Mr. Britt said his action was independent of the FCC network dissolution order, an appeal from which is now pending in the New York federal court. The Chicago case is a legal proceeding as distinguished from FCC administrative regulation. At New York this week it was considered probable that network attorneys would seek a consolidation of the Chicago case, and the action which they filed at New York to test the legality of the FCC order. Restraint Charged The midwest suits charge that the defendants "unreasonably restrained commerece in radio broadcasting and electrical transcriptions" and prevented "unknown thousands of listeners" from hearing programs of a quality expected in a competitive industry. One of the complaints basically seeks to restrain all of the defendants from entering into an exclusive contract with any radio station, from signing any radio station contract for more than two years, and from barring transcription manufacturers from "reasonable access" to their studios for the placement of recordings. The suits, Mr. Britt said, seek to dislodge the system of ownership and licenses through which the chains are alleged to dominate present-day broadcasting. They charge further that the chains made contracts with affiliated stations forbidding the latter to use programs from other networks even at times when the stations were not engaged by the chains. It was asserted also that the "competitive advantage enjoyed by the defendants in the talent field" discriminated against thousands of entertainers and was reducing the number of talent-management services. In a statement issued in New York, William S. Paley, CBS president, said the Chicago proceeding "is evidently an outgrowth of the persistent attempts by the FCC to tear apart the present system of network broadcasting in favor of its own impractical theories." "The commission has issued a series of regulations which it describes as the promotion of competition and which we described as the promotion of chaos. We argue this chaos will be at our expense and, more importantly, at the expense of the listening public, and that freedom of the air will be destroyed if the commission is able to seize power which will make all broadcasters completely subservient to it." Niles Trammell, president of NBC, said: "Substantially, these same matters are already in suit in a case brought by the National Broadcasting Company against the FCC in the federal court in New York, which is already set for hearing during the next two weeks. Why another suit was brought in Chicago on the same matters prior to the determination in New York of the powers of the FCC, we are at a loss to understand."