Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1944)

Cafe Operators LATE REVIEW Actors Examine Pay Situation For Television Protest Federal Levy of 30% Cafe and night club entertainers and operators have launched a nationwide protest against the 30 per cent entertainment tax which became effective April 1. Asserting that the increase in the Federal levy from five to 30 per cent had resulted in widespread closings and unemployment, the night club, cafe, hotel and dance hall workers and proprietors are agitating for Congressional reduction of the rates. More than half of the eating and drinking establishments which offered dancing, floor shows or other entertainment, will be forced, to close before May 1 by the new tax, according to some estimates published this week. In New York cafe business was estimated to have dropped by 60 per cent, according to Robert Christenberry, president of the Broadway Association. Claim Entertainers Lost Jobs The American Guild of Variety Artists, through Matt Shelvy, national administrative director, estimated that 5,000 entertainers lost their jobs through the new tax. Citing closings in New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia and other cities' of medium-price night clubs and cocktail lounges, he predicted that 15,000 entertainers would be out of work by May 1. Taking official notice of the protests, Representative Harold Knutson of Minnesota last week ' itroduced a resolution in the House Ways and Means Committee calling for reduction of the cafe tax from 30 to 10 per cent. He was supported by Representative Walter Lynch of New York who called the present tax "too high" and predicted it would reduce the over-all amusement revenues collected by the Government. In New York the Bureau of Internal Revenue was reported checking night club and cafe business to determine the reliability of reports that total collections in April would be substantially less., despite the increased rate. Noah L. Braunstein, counsel for the Cafe Owners Guild in New York, described the tax as discriminatory. Citing numerous instances of clubs and restaurants in New York and elsewhere which had dropped entertainment, he said the 30 per cent tax rate was "killing the goose that laid the golden egg." He described the ten per cent rate as fair and predicted that it would provide • substantially more revenue to the Government than the 30 per cent assessment. Checking Tax Effects Theatre operators meanwhile reported that preliminary checks of the effect of the new 20 per cent admissions tax had had no appreciable effect on large first run and circuit operations. Some apprehension was heard from small towns, however, and regional exhibitor associations were preparing questionnaires to establish the effect of the tax on April attendance at member theatres. The joint industry tax committee is expected to make an extensive survey of the effect of the tax on April business in all classes of theatres as soon as figures are available. Members of the committee before enactment of the tax expressed fear that while it would not affect large operations it might drastically cut the business in small town and subsequent run theatres. Levey Awarded Certificate Jules Levey, producer of "The Hairy Ape," forthcoming United Artists release, has been awarded the certificate of honor for rendering meritorious service to the Masquers Service Men's Morale Corps. Mr. Levey has also been made an honorary citizen of Boy's Town (Nebraska), for services donated to Father Flanagan's Boy's Town. This Is the Life ( U niversal ) Life and Love at 18 The stage play by Sinclair Lewis and Fay Wray, called "Angela Is 22" has been cut down to size for Susanna Foster and Donald O'Connor. Angela is now 18, still thinking herself in love with a man about twice her age, and ready to give up a singing career for woman's rightful place in the home. Donald, alias "Jimmy," is also 18, but quite willing to take the future in daily doses, so long as it includes Angela. The story is allowed to take precedence over the attendant jitter and jive provided by Peggy Ryan — as pert and agile as ever — Eddie Quillan, Frank Jenks, Ray Eberle and the Bobby Brooks Quartette. But it is to the credit of Bernard Burton and Felix Feist, producer and director, that musical relief is rushed in whenever the plot begins to lag. There are several top comedy routines, notably Donald's struggle with a double lemonade, and Frank Jenk's "Chestnut Street" number, which raise laughs to a climax. O'Connor and Peggy Ryan do a Wild West song and dance with more than their usual exuberance. And, of course, Miss Foster shows the unusual range and power of her voice in several selections, from opera to an old favorite, "With a Song in My Heart." Patric Knowles and Louise Allbritton engage in a very secondary romance, which provides the "old" major, who has been the understanding object of Angela's youthful affections, with a suitable reward. The large O'Connor following may feel that he could have been spotted more often to better advantage, but they may be assured that what they get is in his best style. Wanda Tuchock wrote the screenplay. Seen in the home office projection room. Reviewer's Rating : Fair. — E. A. Cunningham. Release date, June 2, 1944. Running time, 87 min. PCA No. 9506. General audience classification. Jimmy Plum Donald O'Connor Angela Susanna Foster Patric Knowles, Louise Allbritton, Dorothy Peterson, Peggy Ryan, Jonathan Hale, Frank Puglia, Eddie Quillan, Maurice Marsac, Otto Hoffman, Frank Jenks, Ray Ebeiie, Virginia Brissac, Bobby Brooks Quartette. Loew's and Universal Sue Exhibitor for Infringement Two separate suits were filed against Sanfrebob Theatre Corporation, owner and operator of the 86th Street theatre, New York, also known as the Grande theatre, and Nathan Steinberg, manager, Monday in New York Federal Court by Loew's Inc., and Universal Pictures, charging the defendants with playing three films for more days than the license called for. The complaint alleges that defendants exhibited "You're A Sweetheart," produced by Universal and distributed by Big U Film Exchange, Inc., also a party plaintiff, without permission on August 25, 1943, on one or more occasions infringing on plaintiff's copyright. Loew's charges that on August 25 and 26, 1943, the theatre infringed by exhibiting two films without permission, "Tortilla Flat," and "San Francisco." Both actions seek injunctions restraining defendants from infringing on their copyrights, damages of not less than $250, for alleged infringements and an accounting of profits derive^ from the alleged infringements. WLB Restores Wages to Operators The War Labor Board in Boston this week announced that it had directed Allied Amusements, Inc., Boston to restore an $83 weekly salary to operators at the Majestic theatre, operated by E. M. Loew. It thus affirmed the findings of a regional board. • Linet to Head Coverage on "Follow the Boys" Openings Hank Linet, executive assistant to Maurice Bergman, eastern advertising and publicity director of Universal Pictures, was to leave this weekend on a special tour in connection with the openings of the Charles KV Feldman production, "Follow the Boys." He will head a special field force which has been organized to cover the openings in New Haven, Bridgeport and Boston in the New England territory, followed by Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Harrisburg and Reading in the Pennsylvania territory, and Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus in the Ohio territorv. Screen, radio and stage actors received instructions from their unions this week to make full reports on all performances' for television. They were told to file with their union secretaries in New York, Hollywood and Chicago details of pay. working conditions and hours. The order followed a meeting in New York la>t week of the joint television committee which was first set up in 1940 by Actors Equity Association, the American P'ederation of Radio Artists, and thf Screen Actors Guild. It met to discuss the recent revival of experimental television and its effect on actors. "The committee is examining the existing conditions and practices in television and will correct such abuses as it may find," it announced. "Tin committee will determine working conditions anc minimum pay scales for television during this experimental period and will decide when and to whai extent these will be put into practice." The actors were told that no outside organiza tion could speak for or negotiate in behalf of the organized actors who appear in television. The joint committee consists of Paul Dullzell Walter N. Greaza, Paul Turner, Rebecca Brownstein and Alfred Harding of Equity ; Walter Abel Murray Kinnell and Florence Marston, SAG ; am Emily Holt and George Heller of AFRA. The Columbia Broadcasting System announce in New York this week that it would resume Kv< talent pickups over WCBW from its televisioi stations in the Grand Central Terminal. The sta tion has transmitted only film material since De cember, 1942. Lee Hurwitz, formerly with tin Office of War Information film unit, has joineo CBS as a television writer and director. Television networks for Canada within tw< years of the war's end were forecast this week b; Dr. Augustin Frigon, acting general manager o the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Warners-SAG in Agreement, Studio To Shoot Picture "Hollywood Canteen," which Warner Brot called off as result of a disagreement with Screen Actors Guild over an interpretation guild rules, will go back into production. In a joint statement issued by the studio am the guild, it was announced that an agreement hai been reached, and the studio would immediately re sume production of the film. The statement revealed that the guild had re ceived assurances from Warners that no pressur would be exerted to force actors into the picture the company adding that it never was their inten tion to use pressure. Warners has dropped it suit against SAG, and conferences are being heli to solve what the statement referred to as a prob lem of "industry wide concern." Quebec Groups Talk Merger Of Operator Unions The proposed merger of the two Quebec pro jectionist organizations, the IATSE and t!i<| Quebec M. P. Projectionists Association, is be ing discussed by both groups. The QMPPA ba 60 members and the IATSE has three locals largest of which is in Quebec with a membershiij of 100. The QMPPA has no labor charter bu has a permit from the Provincial Government. I has been in existence for 12 years. State Labor Board Hears IA Jurisdiction Claim The State Labor Relations Board of New Yor last week heard the claim of IATSE jurisdiction over cashiers, members of the newly formed Mo tion Picture Theatre Operating Managers, Assist ants and Cashiers Guild embracing employees ij RKO theatres in Greater New York. IATS1' had previously claimed jurisdiction over doorme ushers and matrons in RKO and other theatres. 32 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, APRIL 29, 19+