Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1945)

ON THE MARCH New Foundation by RED KANN THE anticipated abandonment by the WPB of its considered print ceiling of 285 per release makes good sense. This is how it was in the beginning. Originally, distributors fell under WPB's raw stock directives only to the extent that their quotas were fixed, but not their operations under those, quotas. If a distributor with X allotment in any given quarter decided it was to his best purpose to burn up a huge slice of it on prints for one release, it became his business and no one else's. Not even a competitor's. The reasons, moreover, could have been several. In fact, they were. An attraction might have been timely in content. It might have been earmarked for fast liquidation to meet an internal corporate reason. Or it might have been sales strategy to smash such an attraction day-and-date in hundreds of first runs for national impact — never ignoring fast rentals — or to hypo the rank-and-file theatreman running the subsequents. Whatever the reasons, whether good or bad and whether the competition agreed or not, the inescapable fact was the distributor was arranging his own business with his own merchandise within the limitations of his raw stock allowance. If it meant stripping a secondary release to cushion what he held to be a major attraction, it was strictly his own affair. This seems entirely reasonable and it also seems proper for this to continue his affair. It is being said WPB has revised its outlook on a ceiling for prints because no saving in film would have resulted. And also — this is of extreme importance — because such a directive would have sent the Government agency off on a regulatory phase of the industry which is none of its concern. Its concern is regulation of raw stock among the established companies, not regulation of company practices after the film has been assigned. The opposition to ceilings, which can be telescoped as William F. Rodgers, of Metro, is believed to have registered formal concern over the limitation proposal on several approaches. One was a restraining halter which thereby would have been thrown around what that company held to be the internal conduct of its own enterprise. Two was uncertainty over what sort of new avenue might be opened up, leading to destinations not known and not related to raw stock consumption at all. While the protest was made for, and on behalf of, Metro, it reached into a broader area. This was the area objected to by exhibitors who have been consistent in their insistence that a roof over prints meant unnecessary hardship and needless interruption in the flow of product. Nobody's Happy IT'S good or it's bad. Which is to prevail ties to time and the breaks, and neither is predictable. Traced down as to source, the probability is Ginger Rogers is responsible more than any other single personality. Like this: In her earlier days, she played them like Clara Bow. Their material was similar, anyway. Then came a long series of successful dance-and-music affairs with Fred Astaire. Thereafter, Miss Rogers got fed up on the sort of picture which propelled her into such prominence ; she turned to more serious matters. On her, it was generally becoming. But ideas spread in Hollywood. Not that they always deserve to, but they do. "Ginger did it and so can I," say some others. The usual bird whispers this is how and why Judy Garland turned dramatic in "The Clock." Having seen that one, the conclusion is the changeover worked. Judy is good and the picture is ditto. Public approval, if widespread, undoubtedly will be giving Louis B. a problem or two with Judy G. in the future. Furthermore, no studio and no producing head can escape. Paramount, by the same bird in another whisper, is having its difficulties with Betty Hutton. Having played the usual Hutton and an emotional Hutton in "Incendiary Blonde," she is currently interested in dramatic roles. The powers at Twentieth Century-Fox have been having a time of their own with Alice Faye. Now, after two years off the screen, she is to return. But in the type of part that gave her wide audience acceptability ? Not at all. In "The Fallen Angel" she'll go in for the heavy emotions. We once observed in print, and this is a time to double back, that these are days when directors want to produce. Producers want to direct and some, like Jules Levey and W. R. Frank, even want to act. Stars want to produce some pictures and perform in others and writers are no longer content to write. Nobody seems to be happy in Hollywood. Hollywood Style PUBLIC relations, Gold Coast style : Mitchell Leisen to Irene Thirer^ who was interviewing him for the New York Evening Post, said, "The censors ruined me on "Frenchman's Creek'. I think, however, that we've put one over on them in 'Kitty'. . . . Based on Rosamond Marshall's novel of 18th Century London, it out-Ambers 'Forever Amber' and we're timing the release date with one eye on Twentieth Century-Fox." While the competent director did not define "censors," normal application of the term in Hollywood almost without variance refers to Production Code Administration. But whether it's PCA or censors sprung into being by legislation, Leisen surely does himself little good, and Paramount as little or less, by invading the record with a crack both inopportune and pointless. "Frenchman's Creek" is out and around. "Kitty" is not. Yet those who do the censoring have been placed on a notice-to-watch by the man who produced and directed the picture. Probably needlessly, too. If the forthcoming Goddard vehicle "out Ambers 'Forever Amber' " it is only in Leisen's interview, not up there on the screen. Want odds ? ■ ■ ■ When Grad Sears and his heart attack collided, it meant the hospital in New York. When Ned E. Depinet met up with his, it meant the hospital in Los Angeles. Of the many telegrams reaching Depinet that from Sears was choicest. It read : "Copy cat." I K Will Support DeMille Stand A nationwide organization to champion the principles enunciated by Cecil B. DeMille in his recent refusal to pay a one-dollar political assess-^ ment imposed by the American Federation of Radio Artists, which refusal resulted in his suspension was launched Monday in Hollywood. Frank P. Doherty, former president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, announced thel Je establishment of the DeMille Political Freedom ^ Foundation with offices on the ninth floor of the k: Merritt Building, 307 West Eighth Street, Los i s Angeles. Mr. Doherty said the Foundation was the result of countless communications from doctors, law pv, yers, war veterans, ministers, service men, union ie pi and non-union individuals and groups, received by Mr. DeMille during his court controversy with AFRA. Mr. DeMille last week filed notice oflij his intention to appeal the decision against him toxin the California Supreme Court, and has said he, would carry it to the United States Supreme Court if necessary. The Foundation will have branches throughout the country and will be supported entirely by voluntary contributions, Mr. Doherty said. "The Foundation was organized to insure the right to everyone to be politically free," the announcement said. "It favors unions and the right of men to bargain collectively. Mr. DeMille's union assessed him a dollar to oppose a political measure to be voted upon by the voters of California. He refused to pay the assessment because' he denied the right of his union to assess him to support or oppose any political candidate or measure. The union, in suspending him, denied him the right to work. The DeMille Foundation denies the right to any majority to force upon an unwilling minority its political views. We oppose coercion by any business, industrty or union which compels anyone to support or oppose any political party, candidate or measure." In the announcement Mr. DeMille said, "Appeals:' of countless numbers of Americans, at home and" overseas, who are seeking leadership in the fight against political oppression compel me to accept this responsibility. I am not obligated to any individual organization or group, other than the American people. It is unimportant that I, as one American, was denied the right to work because I refused to pay a dollar political assessment, but it is important that other Americans have realized the threat to liberty and the necessity for organization to defend it. I am sure the dollar I refused to pay will return priceless dividends to the American people." Mr. Doherty told the Herald, "The Foundation is in the process of being incorporated as a non-c profit organization, after which officers will be5 named. We have received over three thousand' applications for membership. We expect to operate'' with a small staff here and branches in every state and large city in the country. This is not an antiunion movement." Western Electric Stockholders Add Lack to Directorate Frederick R. Lack, vice-president of Western Electric, and manager of its radio division, on Tuesday was elected to the company's board, at the annual meeting of stockholders, in New York. The board, meeting the same day, reelected all officers. Mr. Lack has been with WE 33 years. He began as an assembler in the manufacturing department. During his career he participated in development of radio telephony, and as a consequence the installation of a radio telephone link between Peking and Tsientsin, China. Mr. Lack, with the company's research affiliate, Bell Telephone Laboratories, pursued a research program on use of piezo-electric crystals in radio frequency generators, this work being a prelude to use of quartz crystal oscillators in radio. Mr. Lack later was in charge of vacuum tube development. He transferred from Bell to WE in December, 1938. 20 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, APRIL 14, 1945