Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1945)

JSSTA SEMANA ■ A CINEMATOGRAFIA, valien+e en la guerra, se prepara para ayudar a la paz. La industria juega importante papel en la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas de San Francisco. Pagina 35 •ELICULA VIRGEN— La demanda excede a la capacidad productlva, pero la Junta de Production de Guerra vislumbra un rayo de esperanza en el future Pagina 31 .OS DISTRIBUIDORES aumentan este ano el uso del anuncio radiografico en un 400%, inclinandose fuertemente hacia la promocion comercial por radio. Pagina 25 A INDUSTRIA aporta su ayuda para la victoria final; comites de distribuidores y exhibidores formulan planes para romper todos los records de ventas de Bonos de Guerra, entre el 14 Mayo y el 30 Junio, de la 7a. Emision. Paginas 12-24 :L GOBIERNO BRITANICO tiene listo sus planes de television. Los dirigentes cinematograficos no creen, sin embargo, que su realizacion afectara a los negocios de inmediato. Pagina 38 L ANGULO SEXUAL, en los avisos del film, "Colonel Blimp", atraen la ira del Cuarto Poder sobre la industria en general Pagina 34 Rockefeller Help COLLEGE and community theatres will be tided by the Rockefellers, whose other theatre nterests are in the ownership and promotion »f Radio City, New York, and in the • motion lictures, privately and in Governmental direcions. The Rockefeller Foundation last week 'ranted to the National Theatre Conference il 55,000. The organization represents direcors of community and college theatres. The noney, at no more than $40,000 per year, for ive years, is to be used for fellowships, gen:ral administration, publications, and rehabiliation. Report from Germany /VHAT the Germans have been doing to their irisoners, military and political, behind the >rief security of prison walls deep in Germany, s being shown to the American and British lublic, through motion pictures. In New York this week, the newsreels procssed and released some 850 feet supplied by he War Department. The footage depicted hree camps, of which the most significant vas said to be that at Ohrdruf. Three hunIred fifty feet are on this subject. Members of the Fourth Armored Division are seen conducting Allied and German civilians, and German officers and soldiers through the camp, where are seen the remains of prisoners slain en masse. Another subject is Hadamar "Murder Hill," an insane asylum, where the Germans are said to have killed 35,000, mostly Poles and Russians. Seen are the bodies, partly decomposed ; and the investigators, wearing gas masks. Two hundred feet deal with a concentration camp at Holzen, where emaciated prisoners of many nationalities are shown. In London, similar showings are said to have caused people to flee theatres, and to have caused service men to attempt to retain them so that they might undergo some of the combat soldier's experience. Jobs for G. I. 's MOST OF THE G. I.'s formerly employed in theatres and many hundreds of G. I.'s never before in this industry are seeking post-war employment in film houses, records maintained by Elmer Immerman, head of personnel for Balaban and Katz, Chicago, indicate. Mr. Immerman says that the mail from G. I.'s inquiring about employment is heavy, and it is unsolicited. Some 50 discharged veterans already are on the B&K payroll. Skouras Call to Arms TWENTY-SIX of the "Honored Hundred" showmen of the Fifth War Loan campaign, were urged this week by Charles Skouras to give their fullest support to the forthcoming "Showmen's Seventh" War Loan. Mr. Skouras is national honorary chairman and western regional chairman in the drive. The showmen are in the 11 states under his direction. Stressing the $1,000,000,000 goal of these states, and that leaders of the United Nations will be at San Francisco during the campaign, Mr. Skouras wrote : "Let us show them what we can do during this campaign, by leading our nation in the sale of bonds, for our country and our service men and women who are giving their all that we may live and enjoy the peace which all of us so earnestly pray will soon be realized." Invitational Premieres THE underground movements during Nazi occupation of European countries sometimes had a sardonic sense of humor. Lily Pons, recently returned from a USO-Camp Show tour of France tells one about Paris. German officers in the city loved the fanfare and glamour of an opening night and whenever a new motion picture, play or opera was to make its debut top ranking officials would buy out the tickets. The underground would then print and sell thousands of additional tickets. When the time for the premiere arrived 10,000 Germans would be milling around the lobby of a theatre which could seat 1,500. An underground leader, understating the case, said, "This would cause much bitterness and bad feeling among the Nazis." For the Distributors MAJOR distributors, suing in New York Supreme Court an independent circuit which allegedly "fraudulently altered and falsified" books on percentage pictures and bribed checkers, this week won the case, the first such in the state. The distributors are Twentieth Century-Fox and Paramount, each of whom sued for $25,000 ; Warner Brothers, which asked $30,000; and Loew's, asking $100,000. The circuit is the Endicott, principals of which are Irving Renner and Louis Nelson, and the accountant for which was William Namenson, all together with corporations operating the circuit, named as defendants. Judge Ernest L. Hammer denied the defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint, and then ruled in the distributors' favor. He said, in part : "The allegations are sufficient in each instance to constitute a cause of action. ... In 1943, defendants conspired to defraud plaintiff to deprive it of proper payment, and in furtherance thereof in 1943 and 1944 falsified the books and records of gross receipts, bribed plaintiff's agents entrusted to check same, and furnished plaintiff with false reports of such receipts with intent to deprive plaintiff of portion of the payments due and inducing plaintiff to accept and rely on the false records in computing and accepting 'flat rentals'." The defendants' motion to dismiss charged the breach of contract causes of action could not be joined with the fraud actions. Louis Nizer was attorney for the distributors. BRITISH BOUQUET To the Editor, MOTION PICTURE HERALD I desire to say how much I appreciate the happy ascendency of your London coverage in the last year which the very able and authoritative writing of Mr. Peter Burnup has achieved — for the first time London and the Empire has its case presented with an insight which is sound and realistic. The arrival of the Herald is eagerly awaited in most quarters these days, and its news reports and articles affecting us have taken on the complexion of urgency, surely a tribute to your dynamic representation here. As one who has followed your paper almost since its inception in the U. S. A., South Africa, Canada, and now from England, I wish to congratulate you on the powerful influence of your great paper, more particularly as the matter is so eminently fair and unbiased. ROGER BRAY 23 Birdcroft Road, Welwyn Garden City, Herts. [Mr. Bray is in production with Associated British Pictures.] 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 Kann, Vice-President; Theo. J. Sullivan, Secretary; Terry Ramsaye, Editor; James D. Ivers, News Editor; William G. Formby, Field 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 MiNwood 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, Cliff Holt, correspondent; Sydney Bureau, 17 Archbold Rd., Roseville, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia, Lin Endean, correspondent; Mexico City Bureau, Br. Carmona y Voile 6, Mexico City, Luis Becerra Celis, correspondent; Buenos Aires Bureau, J. E. Uriburi 126, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Natalio Bruski, correspondent; Rio de Janeiro Bureau, R. Sao Jose, 61 C. Postal 834, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Alfredo C. Machado, correspondent; Montevideo Bureau, P. O. Box 664, Montevideo, Uruguay, Paul Bodo, correspondent; cable Argus Montevideo. Member Audit Bureau of Circulations. All contents copyright 1945 by Quigley Publishing Company. Address all correspondence to the New York Office. Other Quigley Publications: Better Theatres, Motion Picture Daily, International Motion Picture Almanac, and Fame. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, APRIL 28, 1945 9