Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1946)

Substitute IF YOU CAN'T get Paris, France, take Paris, Texas. That's what the producers of "The Private Life of Bel Ami" are doing. They priced the cost of a world premiere in Paris, France, found it would be $200,000, and then chose Paris, Texas, where the premiere will be held shortly after the first of the year. Big Money THAT Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has very sound reasons for the continued showing of its reissue, "Rage in Heaven," starring Ingrid Bergman and Robert Montgomery, is evident in some comparative gross receipt figures just released. When the picture played the Poli theatre in Worcester, Mass., in 1941, the week's receipts were $5,449. When it returned to the same theatre last week it grossed $13,762. At the Orpheum in Washington, in 1941, it grossed $14,004 for a week. As a re-issue at the Palace in Washington its take for the week was $23,207. In Executives of production, distribution, exhibition, the trade press and the Motion Picture Association received invitations this week to meet President Truman in the White House November 19 to discuss, again, cooperation by the industry with the Government's film program. The invitations were sent by John R. Steelman, director of the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion, in the hope, his office said, of formulating an industry "public service" program covering the production, distribution and exhibition of Government film messages. The meeting is the latest step in the Government's effort to continue the information and administration indoctrination program on the screen which was begun during the war through the War Activities Committee. Last July 8, in a letter to S. H. Fabian, president of the American Theatres Association, Mr. Truman designated the OWMR the sole agency responsible for maintaining liaison with the film industry "in the various problems incident to presenting Government messages on the screen". Mr. Fabian, as president of the organiza Altoona, Pa., the film grossed $3,323 this year as compared with $988 in 1941. Said an amazed MGM spokesman: "It is even outgrossing the new 'The Green Years' in places like Rochester and Dayton." The picture moved into New York's Capitol Thursday— the first time the 27-year-old house has ever played a reissue. Japanese Stunt THE PUBLICIZING of American product in Japan reached a new high recently when Charles Mayer, the Motion Picture Export Association's managing director in Japan, placed an exhibit of ISO portraits of American stars in the biggest department store in Nagoya. The exhibit was mobbed by crowds for eight days. The stunt was designed as a buildup device not only for Japan's established favorites but for the many new Hollywood stars who have become box office favorites during the war and who, consequently, are unknown to Japanese audiences. The exhibit was sponsored by native periodicals and will move from city to city. tion which grew out of the Exhibitors' Division of the War Activities Committee, had written the President pledging continued cooperation by the industry and requesting the establishment of a clearing house for all Federal departments in a position to recommend films for public showing. Spokesmen for the OWMR this week pointed out that in spite of this and other offers of cooperation from the industry, no picture has yet reached the screens of the country. The nearest attempt was "Seeds of Destiny", a food short produced by the Department of Agriculture and the Army Signal Corps, which was approved by the ATA and the reviewing boards of other exhibitor organizations but which was never distributed. A list of those invited to the November 19 meeting was not made public, but was said to include the presidents of all major and independent companies, the president and general counsel of each national exhibitor organization, trade press publishers, Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association, and Donald Nelson, president of the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers. PEOPLE Harry M. Warner, president of Warner Brothers, was the principal speaker at the Eagle Scout Dinner* last Friday night at the Hotel Biltmore in Los Angeles. Walter Gould, United Artists foreign manager, and William M. Levy, division manager for Europe and the Near East, left New York last weekend for a tour of the company's offices in London, Paris and other European capitals. Mark A. Raymon, recently with RKO as sales manager in Puerto Rico, Monday was appointed special sales representative of Eagle-Lion Films with headquarters in Kansas City, Mo. Lt. Col. Herford Tynes Cowling, chief of the Division of Photography, Technical Intelligence of Air Material Command at Wright Field, Ohio, has been promoted to full colonel in the United States Army Air Forces. Samuel Goldwyn, film producer, arrived in New York Monday to attend the premiere of his "The Best Years of Our Lives." While in New York Mr. Goldwyn will discuss world wide distribution of the picture with RKO executives. William J. McCraw, assistant to Robert J. O'Donnell, head of the Variety Clubs of America, will be guest of honor at an Albany, N. Y., Variety Club banquet at the Ten Eyck Hotel on November 18. Loyal Haight has been appointed assistant manager of the candy sales department of the Paramount Theatres Service Corp., succeeding Raymond Schosberg, who resigned last week to go into private business, it was announced in New York, Monday. B. F. Jackson, manager of the Delta theatre at Releville, Miss., and C. H. Collier, owner of the Globe at Drew, Miss., were injured in an airplane crash near Drew, Miss., last Thursday. Both were hospitalized. Harald Astrom, manager of the United Artists office in Sweden, Monday headed the company employees in celebrating that office's 25th anniversary. Robert Pirosh, screen writer, returned to New York by plane last Friday after nine weeks in Paris working on the screenplay of "Golden Silence," the RKO-Pathe Cinema picture now being filmed there under Rene Clair's direction. « Phil Williams has resigned as advertising-publicity director of March of Time and has joined Fortune magazine. OWMR CALLS FILM INDUSTRY TO MAP INFORMATION PROGRAM ON SCREEN 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; Red Kann, Vice-President; Martin Quigley, Jr., Vice-President; Iheo. J. Sullivan, Treasurer; Leo J. Brady, Secretary; Terry Ramsaye, Editor; Martin Quigley, Jr., Associate Editor; James D. Ivers, News Editor; Charles S. Aaronson, Production Editor; Ray Gallagher, Advertising Manager; David Harris, Circulation Director; Bureaus: Hollywood, William R. Weaver, editor, Postal Union Life Building; Chicago, 624 South Michigan Avenue; Washington, Jim H. Brady, 215 Atlantic Bldg., 930 F Street, N.W.; London, Hope Williams Burnup, manager, Peter Burnup, editor, 4 Golden Square, W. I; Montreal, Stan Cornthwaite, 265 Vitre St., West; Toronto, W. M. Gladish. 242 Millwood Road; Paris, Maurice Bessy, 2 Avenue Matignon; Dublin, T. J. M. Sheehy, 36 Upper Ormond Quay; Rome, Argeo Santucci, 10 Via Versilia; Lisbon, Jooo De Moraes Palmeiro, Avenida Conde Valbom 116; Brussels, Louis Quievreux, 121 Rue Beeckman; Amsterdam, Philip de Schaap, 82 Jekerstraat; Copenhagen, Kris Winther, Bogehoi 25; Stockholm, Sosta Erkell, 15 Brantingsgaten; Basel, Carlo Fedier, Brunnmattstr. 21; Prague, Joseph B. Kanturek, U. Grebovsky No. f; Sydney, Cliff Holt, Box 2608 — G.P.O., Derwent House; Johannesburg, R. N. Barrett, I0i Blyth Road, Talboton; Mexico City, Luis Becerra Celis, Dr. Carmona y Valle 6; Havana, Charles B. Garrett, Refugio 168; Buenos Aires, Natalio Bruski, J. E. Uriburi 126; San Juan, Puerto Rico, Reuben D. Sanchez, San Sebastian Street No. 3; Montevideo, Paul Bodo, P.O. Box 664. Member Audit Bureau of Circulations. Other Quigley Publications, Better Theatres, published every fourth week as a section of Motion Picture Herald, Motion Picture Daily, International Motion Picture Almanac and Fame. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, NOVEMBER 9, 1946 9