Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1943)

26 MOTION PICTURE HERALD August 2 1. I 943 PCCITO AND ALLIED QUERY EXHIBITORS ON DECREE Plan Questionnaire, with Result To Be Submitted to Justice Department National Allied States Association will aid the Department of Justice in its quest for up-to-date information about exhibitor sentiments on the Consent Decree, selling methods, clearance and trade practices. Directors of the association, meeting at Baltimore on Thursday and Friday, voted to send a questionnaire to all members. They will be asked to register their sentiments on the ^Consent Decree and related practices, and the results will be turned over to Tom C. Clark, assistant attorney general in charge of anti-trust cases. This week the Pacific Coast Conference of Independent Theatre Owners sent its own questionnaire to members. May Include "Little Three" in Discussions In Washington there were reports that the Government would seek to include the "Little Three", Columbia, Universal and United Artists, in any discussion of the decree. Mr. Clark is reported studying such action. All companies were named in the original anti-trust complaint. The "Little Three" did not sign the decree and the government failed to obtain either a conviction or similar decree against them. The suit is in abeyance. Mr. Clark will visit Chicago next week to attend a meeting of U. S. attorneys to be held there from August 23rd to 26th. Allied directors also voted to call the attention of the Department of Justice to what they described as a concerted effort by distributors to force the extension of percentage selling. The questionnaire was in preparation at Washington this week by Abram F. Myers, general counsel of Allied. Mr. Clark was consulted on the phrasing of questions and topics to be covered. Copies were expected to go out to regional Allied associations this week. Members will be polled in person at regional offices where possible and others covered by mail. Mr. Myers was hopeful the survey could be completed within a few weeks. PCCITO Leaders Confer With Allied and U. S. Leaders in regional and national exhibitor organizations registered their position on the Consent Decree two weeks ago in a special Motion Picture Herald poll. All were agreed on the need for change, 60 per cent voting to discard and 40 per cent to revise the decree. They were in favor also of divorcing distribution and exhibition, full season sales, renewal of the Government anti-trust suit and a thorough re-examination of trade practices. Hugh Bruen and H. V. Harvey, PCCITO leaders, were in Washington last week at the conferences between Allied and Mr. Clark, OIL RULING PROTECTS DECREE INTERVENORS Exhibitors are guaranteed a say in the revision of the Consent Decree, according to Allied leaders, by a Supreme Court ruling last year involving oil pipe line rights and operating companies. The high court at that time held that anyone affected by a consent decree had the right to enter court discussion, and to appeal to the Supreme Court, if necessary. "We have a weapon this time," Abram F. Myers, Allied general counsel, commented. The precedent, he said, guaranteed that Judge Goddard's ruling, which excluded exhibitors from decree discussions, would not be repeated. and their questionnaire was understood to be very similar to that prepared by Mr. Myers. PCCITO members were asked whether shorts or features were being forced, what effect five block sales had on run, their views on full season sales and cancellation rights, or what other sales method they wanted. The questionnaire asked if distributors had refused "some run" or rejected cancellations on religious, moral or racial grounds. Clearance, print availability, and expansion or other changes in competing affiliated circuits were surveyed. Exhibitors were asked whether arbitration had been helpful, and why, if theatre men felt they had justified complaints, they had not used the system more extensively. It asked if rentals had been raised unduly in the past three years, whether moveover and new first run situations had affected subsequent business, and whether trade shows and a commercial preview system would be effective. Designation of playdates, rental allocation after licensing, and the reduction in the number of releases were covered. It sought data on double features in competing circuit and independent houses and asked if there were price discriminations in favor of circuits. "In what manner, if any, have distributors sought to compel you to license any type of picture by intimations that your American loyalty or patriotism would be questioned or publicized in event of your failure to do so?" another question asked. Officers of the organization said that they hoped to have the PCCITO replies tabulated and ready for submission to Mr. Clarkearly in September when he is expected to visit Los Angeles again. The Allied directors passed a resolution on percentage selling which agreed to make the findings of the Allied Caravan and other studies of the problem by Allied groups available to the Government. They condemned percentage sales on the ground that they enabled distributors to set admission prices, playing time and otherwise regulate theatres. M. A. Rosenberg, president, heads a special percentage committee. The board also demanded that Columbia deliver eight pictures listed in its 1942-43 product announcement. Now set for release in 1943-44, the pictures should be delivered under terms of last year's contracts, Allied argued. Titles include "Somewhere in Sahara", "My Client Curley", "Cover Girl", "Ten Percent Woman", "Road to Yesterday", "Knight Without Armor" and two Rita Hayworth vehicles. Reaffirmed Support of Theatre Divorcement Allied reaffirmed its support of theatre divorcement but beyond discussing the Kilgore bill, which would make this mandatory, took no action in favor of legislative divorcement It was pointed out that disposition of Consent Decree problems may solve this question. Colonel H. A. Cole invited the board to meet in Dallas, probably in November. Omaha circuit and independent operators carried a competitive dispute which had been smoldering for several years to the courts | last week when an anti-trust complaint was filed against the distributors and major cir , cuits in Federal District Court. The suit, filed by R. D. Goldberg Theatres, charges operators of downtown houses and distributors have formed a combination and conspiracy to monopolize Omaha business. It asks that the defendants be prohibited from doing this and from future operation in the state. Mr. Goldberg operates the Town and a group of neighborhood houses. The suit r charges that the Town can not obtain the better pictures until they have been shown elsewhere in the city and that competing theatres dictate what pictures the Town may show and when they may be played. Crescent Record Transfer Seen After August 25th Defendants named by Goldberg Theatres are: Tri-States Theatres Corporation, oper j ators of the Orpheum, Paramount and Omaha; Omaha Singer Corporation, operators 1 of the Brandeis; Abraham H. Blank and G. j] Ralph Branton, Tri-States executives ; Joseph |l Kinsky, Tri-States manager in Omaha; Ted Emerson and William Miskell, managers of the Paramount and Orpheum, respectively; Loew's, Inc. ; Paramount ; RKO Radio ; Vitagraph, Inc. ; Twentieth Century-Fox ; Universal ; Columbia and United Artists. There appeared little likelihood that records in the Crescent anti-trust case would be transferred to Washington for hearing of the Government appeal by the Supreme Court before August 25th, the date set by Judge Elmer Davies. Inasmuch as the high court does not convene until October, Judge Davies, at Nashville, is expected to extend the time for transfer of records and preparation of arguments.