Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1946)

Predict Record Admission Tax Total for 1946 Washington Bureau Admission tax collections will hit an alltime high this year, it is predicted here, with the Bureau of Internal Revenue's announcement that tax collections from amusement places for the first 10 months of 1946 have reached more than $368,000,000, just a little short of 1945's total of $375,306,000. Bureau experts predict that the 1946 12month tax collections will climb more than $60,000,000 above last year. September collections were the highest single month in history, amounting to $48,597,428, more than $6,000,000 above the previous high of $42,389,371 collected in September of last year. September collections were made in October and are called the "October Revenue Report." Approximately 90 per cent of the admission tax collection is made from motion picture theatres. While Treasury spokesmen decline to give a reason for the film industry's increase in business, it is believed here that the increase can be attributed to the fact that with the war over people work less overtime and have more time for evening entertainment. Also, approximately 12,000,000 men and women have ended their wartime service and are again patronizing their local theatres. Compared with August of this year, the September collections, collected in October, were higher by more than $10,000,000. August, 1946, collections amounted to $38,559,000. Soviet Again Attacks UN • Film and Radio Budgets At a meeting of Committee Five of the United Nations at Lake Success, N. Y., Monday, the Soviet Union again attacked the proposed budget for 1947 and motion picture and radio expense. Committee Five is concerned with the matter of administration and budget. At a committee meeting early in October, Fedor T. Gusev, a Soviet representative on Committee Five, fought for the elimination of the UN's world information program and said: "We should draw world attention to ourselves by solving problems. The people expect achievements, not propaganda." Monday's objections to film and radio expenditures were voiced by A. D. Voina of the Ukraine, and Vladimor S. Geraschenko of the Soviet Union. Mr. Geraschenko singled out items dealing with film services. Observing that $330,000 already was allotted to films and that the report told of seven more documentary films that were to be produced at a cost of $35,000 each, he said he could not understand the aim. The UN film and radio project was defended by Benjamin V. Cohen, chief of the pulic information division. Four Reprints from MGM Will Not Include "Wind" The number of reprints to be released by MGM during the coming year has been reduced to four, and it is now certain that David O. Selznick's "Gone with the Wind" will not be reissued in 1947, according to William Zoellner, head of Metro's reprint and foreign importation department. The first of the reissues, "Rage in Heaven," starring Ingrid Bergman and Robert Montgomery, has just finished a successful three-week run at the Capitol theatre in New York and has been released nationally. The other films to be offered are "Boom Town," "The Great Waltz" and "Captains Courageous." Before it opened in New York, "Rage" had test runs in specially selected Loew's theatres. "Gone with the Wind" had been included in the original 12 reprints slated for release. However, Mr. Zoellner explained that because of the very tight Technicolor situation it would be impossible to obtain the necessary prints. MGM is treating all of its reprints like new features. Campaigns and' new advertising material and accessories have been prepared. All will be pre-tested at Loew's houses, as was done in the case of "Rage." They will be released from two to three months apart. Pennsylvania AMPTO To Meet January 22, 23 The Allied Motion Picture Theatre Owners of Western Pennsylvania will hold their annual convention at the William P'enn Hotel in Pittsburgh, January 22 and 23. William Finkel and William Blatt are co-chairmen. The annual banquet will be held on Thursday evening, January 23. September's Film Dividends Triple Last Year's Figure Film stock dividends reached an all-time high in September, amounting to $9,003,000, almost three times the sum paid by motion picture companies in September, 1945, it was reported this week from Washington. This figure forecasts one of the biggest years in history in this field, for industry dividend payments during the third quarter of 1946 have reached $12,008,000. Third quarter payments in 1945 amounted to only $5,002,000. September, 1945, payments were onlv $3,009,000. RKO Votes Dividend At a meeting of the board of directors of Radio-Keith-Orpheum November 29, a quarterly dividend of 30 cents per share was declared on the common stock payable January 2, 1947, to holders of record at the close of business on December 16, 1946. GPE Sets Dividend General Precision Equipment Corporation November 26 declared a dividend of 25 cents a share on the company's capital stock, payable December 24, 1946, to stockholders of record December 9, 1946. ATA Is Planning To Appeal Denial Of Intervention There was a brief and rather nervous scuffle in the New York District Court last week over the matter of the anti-trust suit and when and how to intervene in it. Thurman Arnold, counsel for American Theatres Association, smarting under the decision of the three judges that ATA could not actively intervene in the case, last week announced that ATA intended to appeal this intervention decision to the Supreme Court since ATA is desirous of being party to the action when the court's decree decision is appealed — as it has been predicted it will be appealed — to the Supreme Court of the United States. Conditional Appeal However, said Mr. Arnold, the appeal for intervention was conditioned upon a couple of ifs: If the court insisted upon retaining its auction selling order and if the court's notation that intervention was denied could be interpreted as a formal order of denial. You can appeal from an order but not from a notation. Last week the court explained one of those ifs. In a letter to ATA and the Conference of Southern Associations (whose appeal for intervention was also denied) the court informed the organizations that it did not intend to file any formal order until the decree was decided upon and filed. If the court does not insist upon auction selling, or if, as Mr. Arnold put it, "we have persuaded the court to abandon its plan on auction selling we will have accomplished our aim and the denial of our right to intervene will be of no consequence." As the matter stands now, according to ATA, that organization, and presumably CSA, will wait until the final decree is handed down before any decision is made on pressing for intervention. The Department of Justice, which has consistently opposed exhibitor intervention, made known in Washington Tuesday it would object strenuously to ATA's appeal from the intervention denial. Attorneys at • the Department asserted there was a "definite legal question as to whether such a court order can be appealed to the high court." To Hold Auction Sales Meanwhile, with auction selling still a matter of conjecture, a number of companies are planning to hold auction sales as outlined in the June 11 provisionary decree handed clown by the District Court. MGM, which began auction selling last summer in Philadelphia, has used the practice in "15 or 20 instances," according to William F. Rodgers, vice-president and general sales manager. Last week RKO Radio held auction sales in Cicero, 111., it was reported. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, DECEMBER 7, 1946 47