Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1945)

THEATRES FACE SHORT RATION! (Continued from preceding page) of three brackets where bedrock already is undergoing a thorough scraping — feature prints, number of releases, and newsreel footage. Remaining are production and short subjects. Current distributor headaches are spawned by the question of how much to take from where. Something has to be sliced somewhere. There is unanimity on one point — wherever it comes from, it will hurt. And this time it will hurt the theatre showmen more seriously than heretofore. Tighter Labor Situation To Affect Industry It is scarcely conceivable that the industry will escape without scars in the movement for a tightening of the labor situation. War Manpower officials, professing surprise at the President's renewed request for national service legislation, are concentrating on proposals embodying* the White House ideas for the service law and for a more immediate act to use the 4,000,000 men now classified as 4-F. Transportation already is a problem. Informed sources, however, declare that this is only the beginning. They predict that the situation will become much worse before its gets better. Railroads are overloaded, express shipments of civilian goods must give way to war material, and entire trains must yield to the transportation of the wounded. Showmen who have been traveling to exchange centers by rail are faced with delays and the always-present threat of a travel ban. Film salesmen are wondering how they can continue to make their territories on gasoline and tire allotments. Perhaps more serious, however, is the condition of the film carriers, who have for many months carried the major burden. Whatever hope the carriers might have had for early relief was dashed at midweek in the announcement from the War Production Board of a cutback in 1945 commercial truck production. Admitting the quota represents a "bare minimum" sufficient to keep in operation the domestic transportation system, the Board disclosed the revised program calls for 120,278 commercial trucks of all kinds in the first half of the year, compared with 133,410 in the original program. Of the 246,000 trucks now scheduled for this year, only 188,883 will be for domestic use. This compares with 235,000 for domestic use in the original program. Meanwhile, amny exhibitors are burning precious gasoline and patching tires and tubes to pick up their own film at the exchanged. Those fortunate enough to be accessible to exchanges may be able to keep it up a while longer, but even that activity has its limits. Hold Hope for Raw Stock Despite Uncertainties ADMITTING that the industry this year would have less film than at any time since the entry of the nation into the war, WPB officials nevertheless held out hope in Washington this week that the supply situation might ease somewhat and permit the allocation of more film for periods following the first quarter. Although discussing the possibility of a cut of as much as 27,000,000 feet for the current quarter, officials assured the industry that it would get at least 296,000,000 feet, with a faint chance of boosting the total to 300,000,000 feet. At the same time, officials said they saw no way of averting a reduction in the number of features produced, which reduction may run as high as 30 if the cut continues through the year. , At the meeting of the industry's advisory committee, motion picture representatives were urged by the WPB to reduce further the wastage of film. The representatives contended that they have already done about as much as possible. To Conduct Survey on Inventory of Prints To obtain a more definite picture of the situation, the WPB plans to conduct a survey to determine the inventories of unexposed positive and negative film and unexhibited prints. The committee was assured that Army and Navy requirements for film were substantially pared, as were those of the Foreign Economic Administration and the allocation for exports to most countries, and efi^orts will be made to reduce these requirements still further. Attending the meeting were Barney Balaban, Samuel Broidy, Tom Connors, John J. O'Connor, William F. Rodgers, Walter L. Titus, Jr., Jack Cohn, Gradwell L. Sears, John R. Wood, Jr., Neil F. Agnew and N. Peter Rathvon. The actual extent and application of the cut was still up in the air as experts in the WPB photo graphic section worked on formulae for spreading the reduction among the several companies in accordance with their ability to absorb it. Members of the Committee, after a five-hour conference with Lincoln V. Burrows, chief of the section, finally decided they could not solve the problem immediately and agreed that the best course would be for the photographic section to develop one or more workable methods and report them to the Committee by mail. The Committee in turn will mail its recommendations back. Will Not Apply Cut on Flat Percentage Basis The decision to defer action ruled out application of the cut to all companies on a flat percentage basis and demonstrated the concurrence of members in Mr. Burrows' desire to protect the smaller companies which might be crippled by such a course. Distribution executives declared that application of the new cut offered the most serious problem the Committee has yet encountered. When consumption was cut in late 1942 to 75 per cent of the 1941 supply, it was pointed out, the companies had ways of absorbing its impact by eliminating waste and streamlining operations. In anticipation of delays in determining the exact extent of the cut which would be required for the first quarter of this year, Mr. Burrows late last month sent letters of authorization to the individual companies permitting them, during the first half of the quarter, to consume up to 50 per cent of the raw stock they used in the last quarter of 1944. The industry, accordingly, will be able to continue its operations until the details of the new order have been worked out. Although there is some hope that raw stock supplies will increase toward -the end of the quarter, the Committee was told that this prospect would not obviate the necessity of making the curtailment now, in view of the war situation at the moment. WMC Promises M Houses Will Clos\ In Revised Plans Theatres will not be put out of business by controls designed to channel male workers military age either into essential industry or t Army, they were assured this week by War Me power Commission officials in Washington. While the question of imposing labor ceilings night clubs and other places of amusement is untj consideration, they said, no decisions had bej reached and any action taken would have to \ designed to limit employment only to an ext«i which would not necessitate a suspension of opd ations. 1 WMC officials pointed out that while theati* had never been placed on the essential list, thi are considered highly necessary because of tl "invaluable" service they rendered the war effo through their support of Government programs. Cut Night Club Staff It was suggested that if it were found nece sary to limit theatre employment, projectionis would not be touched, but exhibitors would asked to limit the employment of men of draft a; in the front of the house. The only action taken so far to limit amusi ment employment was in Philadelphia, where loc; officials found a night club with what they coi sidered an excessive number of men workers. Tl night club was asked to cut down, did so, and tl matter was closed. The suggestion was made that exhibitors an other operators of amusement establishmeni might solve their labor problems in part by tl^ employment of discharged service men. Th WMC pointed out that veterans were exempt fror! many of the restrictions on other workers, an[ were free to take any jobs they choose without re! ferral to the U. S. Employment Service. Whill ceilings might be imposed on the number of worki ers an establishment might employ, the permitt&l jobs could be filled with veterans, over-age mei or women without fear of losing them througl Government action. A special War Manpower Committee of tin li War Activities Committee, — Theatres Divisioi^!|| which will deal directly with Washington official? ' on the critical labor shortage, was appointed Tues day by S. H. Fabian, chairman. The committee headed by Harry Brandt, will provide assistance and information to local committees whose problems are related to the national situation. Member^ are Harry Kalmine, Edward Rugoff and Williair Crockett. > Meanwhile, the War Department will utilize the screen to distribute its message regarding the manpower shortage to the American people, according to an announcement from the War tivities Committee. 1 Want War Subject Shown Robert F. Patterson, Under Secretary of War] and Lt. Gen. Brehon Somervell, have joined in an appeal to the Committee to provide showings of the new War Department short subject titled "What's Your Name?" This nine-minute reel, produced by the Army Pictorial Service of the Signal Corps, highlights the present labor situation by comparing the doughboy doing his fighting in the infantry with the factory worker doing his fighting on the production line. ' "The message carried by the film is of the greatest national importance," Mr. Patterson's letter declared. "American lives at the battlefrontS] depend on the output of American factories. ThCj* urgency of that task cannot be stressed too strongly." 14 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, JANUARY 13, 1945