Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1945)

SCREEN GOES TO FRISCO ON JOB FOR WORLD PEACE Industry Collaborates with State Department on Selected Film Programs From San Francisco That Yankee Doodle, very dandy, the movies, came to town this week on errands of state, with the feather of new world-around recognition in his hat. After working so valiantly and so long in the causes of war the motion picture has come to the United Nations Conference for the peace-that-is-to-be. Under auspices, gingerly, not quite officially avowed as official, the Department of State and the American motion picture industry are in collaboration in behalf of the world screen in rhe world cause of the Allies. They are serving the most cosmopolitan audience that storied San Francisco has seen in all its days, from the landing of Col. Juan Bautista de Anza to that Gold Rush of '49, or since. It is an audience of all nations, except the foes. The solemn hall of conference at the Opera House is listening to many tongues and as many interpretations. The motion picture, international art and medium, is speaking for itself, with the fluency of the camera. Exhibition Takes Over With Two Theatres While half a hundred newsreel men speed on the errands of recording for the screens of the world the personalities and affairs of the Conference, as a function of production, here Exhibition takes over. Motion picture affairs of the conference center at : THE ALCAZAR, Fox West Coast theatre, devoted for the period to the showing of entertainment pictures, including those of the nations in the Conference, and a sprinkling of documentaries. THE CONFERENCE THEATRE, a parlour at the Hotel St. Francis, equipped for sixteen millimeter presentation, where ofcial documentary films of the Governments are being presented, with somewhat more official stamp. The Alcazar is a 1,400 seat house, in busy Geary street and its theatre row. It rose, rebuilt in 1908 from the ashes of the '06 Fire, as a stage house playing stock under the owner management of Fred Belasco, brother of the great David, until his death five years ago. Then Fox West Coast took over, running pictures until a year ago when the policy changed to high priced vaudeville. Its facade is in white marble elegance with four dignified columns. The lobby is appropriately big and impressive for the current function. For the conference days it has been renamed "The United Nations." The opening bill for Wednesday night was announced as including "The Silver Fleet," a Powell-Pressburger (J. Arthur Rank) production, a committee gesture at hands-across-thesea. Up at the St. Francis, on historic and landscaped Union Square, the guests on their way to the Conference Theatre showings passed through a lobby of 1910 grandeurs and by the Playing San Francisco This Week GOLDEN GATE— "Pan-Americana" ST. FRANCIS — "Practically Yours" WARFIELD — "Molly and Me" and "Royal Scandal" FOX— "God Is My Co-Pilot" PARAMOUNT— "Roughly Speaking" ORPHEUM— "Counter-Attack" UNITED ARTISTS— "Brewster's Millions" way of the famed Orchid Bar, bedecked with glowing, growing cattelyas. There in shops that out-rival the la la and frou frou of the Rue de la Paix at its best, the bomber-bourne ladies of the Conference delegates from the far lands filled their eyes with splendors of bijoutrie, and in the Mural Room rubbed elbows with the socially elect of California and the grand dame city of San Francisco. Few or none of these interested in the motion picture manifestations of the week in San Francisco were aware that they were in this fifty-first anniversary month of the films in the city where Distribution was born. It was in the summer of 1902, when Harry Miles, back from Alaska, had the golden thought of buying film and renting it to exhibitors, who previously bought prints outright and wondered what to do with them next. David Grauman, father of Sid, had paid $100 a reel for film, and was glad to rent for $50 a week. So were Peter Biagaciluppi and Tony Lubelski, and there was a profit for that film exchange, started in a boarding house at 116 Church street. The cinema at the Conference of 1945 has come a long way since then, in San Franciso. The peep-show and nickelodeon have come to world estate. State Department and Industry Cooperate Motion picture affairs of the Conference showings, including selection of programs, are under the collaborative and unobtrusive guidance of the Department of State and a motion picture industry committee. The committee is headed by Howard Dietz, of Loew's, Inc., Claude F. Lee of Paramount, official representative of the industry, Claude Collins, in charge of newsreel coverage relations and the special newsreel for the Alcazar showings, Glendon Allvine, executive secretary of the Motion Picture Industry's Public Information Committee in New York, and Fay Reeder, chairman of the operating committee for the United Nations Theatre, the Alcazar. Although motion pictures are not expected to be a direct issue at the Conference, the United States Government is committed to the establishment of freedom of speech, radio, press and screen, and is expected to work for worldwide agreement covering these media. There is hope that out of the Conference will come some approach to the elimination of national discriminatory barriers against the interchange of films throughout the world; that there will be no renewal of the political and economic restrictions that hampered trade before the outbreak of the war, and that the elimination of restrictions on monetary exchange proposed by the Bretton Woods Conference will prevail without substantial change. At the same time, the industry leaders realize that foreign regulations against American films are not always a matter of economics. They know that foreign governments recognize the power of the screen to convey ideas and to publicize the American way of life and of doing business. The hope is expressed that some sort of accord may prevent undue interference with worldwide distribution after the war is over. But there is no indication of this awareness in the method of presenting American motion pictures to this world audience. The programs are diversified and are being selected with a view to presenting a cross-section of American thought and life. Weeded out are the controversial subjects, those with emphatic flag waving, and those likely to offend any particular nationality. Many Feature Selections Already Announced Selections for showing include "Going My Way," Paramount; "Gaslight," MGM; "The Silver Fleet," a British production released by PRC; "Harvest," French Film Center; "The Baker's Wife," French production; a Spanish version of "The Song of Bernadette," 20thCentury-Fox; "Wilson," 20th Century-Fox, and "Blood on the Sun," Cagney-United Artists. At the Conference Theatre in the St. Francis any of the delegates may arrange for the showing of their pictures. Here, a large selection of pictures relating to the war effort, or historically or otherwise pertinent to the purposes of the Conference has been provided by the State Department division of public liaison under the direction of Archibald MacLeish, and the Office of War Information has sent out a number of Army and Navy pictures, and some of the better information subjects made by the industry. The newsreel coverage represents perhaps the most complete ever accorded any event. The five newsreel companies, the OWI, the Army, the Navy, and other Government agencies are filming the story of the Conference. The newsreel companies assigned a total of 35 men to cover, all of whom were accredited by the State Department. All Newsreels Assign Staffs to Cover Present are the following from the home offices of the newsreels in New York: Twentieth Century-Fox: Charles E. Lehman, Irby Koverman, Eric Mayell, Chalmer Sinkey, Al Berk, Fernando Delgado, Eduardo Fernandez, Jim Foreman, Paul Heise, and Anthony Muto from Washington; Paramount: E. P. Genock, Cyril Brown, Joseph Rucker, Lou Hutt, Fred Felbinger, Albert Mingalore, Ray Paulfen, George Westbrook, Wayman Robertson and Clifton Skinner; MGM: Joe Hubbell, Sanford Greenwald, Carl Bjerre, Charles Mack, George Jordan and Roy Kluver ; Universal; John McHenry, Joseph Johnson, Earl Nelson, James Lyons and Willard Starr; Pathe : Frank Vail, Willard Van de Veer, Anthony Caputo and Ralph Saunders. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, APRIL 28, 1945 3E