Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1944)

.,Vo Welcome J^jv'HEN German films were shown on Paris ireens box office receipts plunged downward h per cent, and the fare frequently was booed loudly managers were obliged to turn on auditorium lights. These facts were brought New York last Tuesday by Jan J. Letsch, epresentative of French motion picture inrs'ts. Mr. Letsch, who is a citizen of the iherlands and a resident of France for the a?t five years, is owner of Films Orange, a ' roducing company, and the Vedis Distribu|ion Company. He is in America to arrange for ""listribution of American films in France and ^ther European countries. He said there was J L great demand for American pictures in J^l^rance. The British people now refer to the robot K)mbs as "Bob Hope," the name deriving from Ihe Britisher's custom of bobbing (ducking) Lnd hoping when the robot flies over his home 'io^r office building, Thomas Baird of the British ivlinistry of Information said in New York ■.^'ednesday. rCanadian Code \DOPTIOX of the conciliation code which las been the subject of much discussion for the t;)ast several months among Canadian exhibitors md distributors appeared at mid-week nearer J .consummation than at any time since the plan lad been proposed. Several exhibitor units and :;ilm exchange officials were to take action on Ihe code this week. Organized independent ex" %ibitors of Ontario and Quebec already have ' 'approved the code. The conciliation plan would ■jrovide six regional boards to be established ■ in the Dominion to deal with several groups ■ i)f trade disputes, not including film rentals and • oriority runs. A filing fee of $10 would accompany each complaint. Ten Cents a Seat ■ \T 10 cents per seat per annum any exhibitor ■ (in the area can join the newly organized South ■ ern California Theatre Owners Association ^ and avail himself of services from legal advice ■ on all matters to arbitration of his differences ' With distributors, according to a bulletin mailed ' to exhibitors by that organization last week in i solicitation of memberships. j The legal advice is that of Albert J. Law, ■ executive secretary and general counsel of the jrganization, who is named in the literature but jis not therein identified as a former assistant ' bttorney general and a principal representative ipf the Department of Justice in the preparation oi the anti-trust action which eventuated in issuance of the Consent Decree, therefore a ' man equipped by experience to know where oodies are buried and who buried them and aow. I The standout among the services extended -'Association members in the bulletin is a threepoint plan for settling exhibitor-distributor jdisputes without referring them to an external board of arbitration. As a first step in the plan, an exhibitor would present his complaint to Counselor Law, who would undertake to settle it for him by direct negotiations. If this failed, both parties to the dispute sit down at the table with Mr. Law and attempt to thresh it out. If this failed, Mr. Law would ( 1 ) recommend a method for selection of arbitrators, (2) select an arbitrator, (3) conduct the proceedings as arbitrator or (4) "do anything desired by the parties to see that it is done properly." The Association now has a membership representing 300 theatres, according to the bulletin, and is open to circuit theatres, circuitpartnership theatres and independent exhibitors. Boom in Brazil FILM theatre attendance in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has increased tremendously, despite the fact that admissions have increased approximately 50 per cent in the past two years, it was reported this week by Foreign Commerce Weekly. During the first six months of 1944 the 87 houses operating in the city were attended by 14,254,891 persons, an increase of 2,371,814 above the total of 11,883,077 reported in the first half of 1943. Three theatres recorded attendance of more than 500,000 during the first half of 1944 and 55 others topped the 100,000 mark. Paris Editions AMERICAN soldiers in France may soon get home news and Hollywood-Broadway gossip straight from Parisian news vendors. According to reports, the New York Times' Reader's Digest, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune and New York Herald Tribune are seeking permission to print editions in Paris, for American troops. Before the war, for many years, the Paris editions of both the Chicago Tribune and Herald Tribune kept expatriated Americans, including the small army on the left bank, well informed with regard to the news from the old home town in the United States. Visitor LILLIAN HELLMAN, playright and scenarist whose last Hollywood film was "North Star," arrived in Moscow last Sunday. She will address the Soviet cultural committee during her stay in Russia and presumably will get first hand information of the people she wrote about for the Samuel Goldwyn production which RKO released. Before returning to the U. S., Miss Hellman will stop in London, to write a script for a documentary film to be made by the British Ministry of Information's motion picture division. Landslide FOR the third consecutive month Chicago's censor board gave a landslide approval of pictures reviewed. Of the 87 pictures screened in October all were approved. "Bedroom for Two" and "Bluebeard" were classified for adults. • To the Front TROOPS of the ThirtySeventh Division, Clevelanders now on Bougainville, are going to see their home town shortly — on the screen. The Cleveland Press and the Army Pictorial Service are making arrangements to show the picture, "Here's Your Home Town," filmed in color and produced by the Cleveland Press, on Bougainville. The film, running 45 minutes, contains shots of the families of Clevelanders on the island, with the remaining footage recording general views of Cleveland, the "home front." Civic leaders attended a premiere of the film in Cleveland October 11 and started the move to send a print to Bougainville. It will be the first "home town" film produced for men overseas. Lots of Corn Exhibitors in the Omaha, Nebraska, section of the midwest are viewing the immediate future with a broad optimism. The reason is an estimated 1944 corn crop of 328,000.000 bushels for Nebraska, about 34,000,000 bushels more than the 1928 record. In Iowa the corn crop is estimated at 601,338,000 bushels. For the third straight year Nebraska farm revenue total promises to be well above the previous seven years; the estimated figure for the year being $625,000,000. Frank Fogarty, general manager of the Omaha Chamber of Commerce, has reported an unprecedented reservoir of buying power in the state, making it second among the major mid-continent markets* in spendable per capita income, with an average of $1,907 per capita. Total spendable income is $464,800,000 according to estimates. Melodrama DRUE LEYTON as a Hollywood actress was very familiar with melodrama, playing the feminine lead opposite the late Warner Oland in eight Charlie Chan who-done-it thrillers. She departed the screen to become the wife of a French actor whose stage name was Jacques Terrance. Miss Leyton became Mrs. Dorothy Blackman Tartiere. In 1941 her husband was killed while with the Free French forces attempting to wrest control of Syria from the Vichy forces, and Miss Leyton was caught by the invading Germans in France. After three months and three weeks in an internment camp at Vittel she was released. She immediately got in touch with friends in the French resistance, and there followed melodrama straight without a scenario for a chaser. But life and the Allied forces snatched her from the clutches of the villains, one of whom, the chief of the Gestapo in her district lived but three doors away from her home. One of her jobs was to round up arms and ammunition dropped by the underground from the air. The Germans were cracking down on the slightest suspicion. "It was wonderful," she is reported as having said, "when we saw the first streams of retreating Germans pouring back with tails between their legs." /MOTION PICTURE HERALD, published every Saturday by Quigley Publishing Company, Rockefeller Center, New York City, 20. Telephone Circle 7-3100; Cable address "Quigpubco, New York." Martin Quigley, President; Colvin Brown, Vice-President; Red Konn, Vice-President; T. J. Sullivan, Secretary; Terry Ramsaye, Editor; James D. Ivers, News Editor; Ray Gallagher, Advertising Manager; Chicago Bureau, 624 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, 5; Hollywood Bureau, Postal Union Life Building, Hollywood, 28. William R. Weaver, editor; Toronto Bureau, 242 Millwood Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, W. M. Gladish, correspondent; _ Montreal Bureau, 265 Vitre St., West, Montreal, Canada, Pat Donovan, correspondent; London Bureau, ■4 Golden Square, London W I, Hope Williams Burnup, manager; Peter Burnup, editor; cable Quigpubco London; Melbourne Bureau, The Regent Theatre, 191 Collins St., Melbourne, Australia, j 'Cliff Holt, correspondent; Sydney Bureau, 17 Archbold Rd., Roseville, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia, Lin Endean, correspondent; Mexico City Bureau, Dr. Carmona y Valle 6, Mexico City, il.uis Becerra Cells, correspondent; Buenos Aires Bureau, J. E. Uriburi 126, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Natolio Bruski, correspondent; Rio de Janeiro Bureau, R. Sao Jose, 61, C. Postal 834, Rio ide Janeiro, Brazil, Alfredo C. Machodo, correspondent; Montevideo Bureau, P. O. Box 664, Montevideo, Uruguay, Paul Bodo, correspondent; cable Argus Montevideo. Member Audit Bureau |of Circulations. All contents copyright 1944 by Quigley Publishing Company, Address all correspondence to the New York Office, Other Quigley Publications: Better Theatres, Motion Picture iDaily, International Motion Picture Almanac, and Fame. iMOTlON PICTURE HERALD, NOVEMBER II, 1944