Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1946)

Tells Paramount To Cut Holdings POST CONTINUING DOPE FILM DRIVE Continuing its campaign against the amendment to the Production Code which permits the making of pictures dealing with narcotics, the influential Washington Post, in its issue of December 18, sampled the opinions of prominent women jurists and civic leaders directly concerned with delinquency. Prominent among those queried on the amendment were Frances Perkins, former Secretary of Labor; Judge Pay L. Bentley, of Juvenile Court; Judge Ellen K. Raedy, of Municipal Court; Dr. M. Virginia (yNeil, chairman of the committee on youth problems for the Federation of Citizens Associations, and Mrs. Robert Leonard, president of the District League of Women Voters. Their views, as quoted by the Post, are reprinted below because of their pertinence to the problem of the effect of "dope" films on children and some adults. These are from the second of the Post's scheduled series of news articles on the dangers of the Code amendment: FRANCES PERKINS Former Secretary of Labor, now a member of the Civil Service Commission I am sure it will give impetus to increased drug addiction. ... I consider it an insult to the human soul to show the world its people in their misfortune, to expose their misery and give impressionable people, which include even our educated persons, such ideas. Whether it is presented in a romantic or unromantic light, the motion pictures put the pattern of behavior in their minds and it enters into their total mental equipment. I think these films dealing with drugs are very bad. It doesn't deter people, it merely places it in their thoughts. JUDGE FAY L. BENTLEY Washington Juvenile Court We have had too much glamorizing of crime and irregular living. Immature youth cannot evaluate what they see on the screen. They have fertile imaginations. I cannot see any good from presenting drug films because the motion pictures are a decided factor in the pattern of children's behavior. JUDGE ELLEN K. RAEDY Washington Municipal Court Ultimately we'll have to clean up the movies again if they continue on their present course. There are already signs of an ever-increasing addiction to drugs, particularly sleeping pills. I think drug pictures will have a terrible effect. Hollywood owes a great duty to the public to give them the right kind of entertainment — not these films that are so harmful when so many people are still emotionally unstable because of the war. I believe the uneducated will be espe cially influenced by drug addiction cisemas. Many may seek to escape in it. DR. M. VIRGINIA O'NEIL Chairman, Committee on Youth Problems, Federation of Citizens Associations; member, advisory committee to Juvenile Court It will be very demoralizing to have sinister forces, such as drug addiction, brought before children when so many are suffering from emotional disturbances because of the war years. MRS. ROBERT LEONARD President, District League of Women Voters Psychologists say that social tension is increasing as a result of the war. Anything that will in any way take people for relief to drugs is serious. Unless these films are directed by psychologists, the results will probably have a tragic effect and be very detrimental, especially to those people and children who have netirotic tendencies. Argentina Plans Admission Rule by NATALIO BRUSKI in Buenos Aires The Chamber of Deputies of Argentina has approved a plan for the supervision of admission prices at cinemas. A request has been passed to the Secretary of Industry and Commerce to investigate the average admissions charged throughout the country during the first half of August, 1939. These prices presumably will be used as a basis for maximum admissions to be set by the Secretary. The office also will investigate the reasons given for increased admissions, the exploitation methods used by the distributors and exhibitors, and other matters related to the cinema. Once the investigation has been made, violators of municipal rulings and other legal dispositions regarding the industry will be punished. 395,475 Attend Weekly European Survey Shows Approximately 395,475 soldiers attended film shows in the European theatre for the week ending November 9, according to a tabulation of Theatre Special Services. Of this number, 214,453 saw 16mm films and 181,022 saw 35mm films. The total number of showings was 3,057, divided into 1,898 for 16mm films and 1,159 for 35mm productions. For the week of the report there were 112 film theatres in operation showing 35mm films with a total of 518 prints in circulation throughout the European theatre in the previous week. Either Paramount pares its holdings in the Allen B. DuMont Laboratories and the Interstate Circuit of Dallas or it must forfeit some of its pending television station applications, the FCC told the company late last week. Paramount owns 50 per cent of Interstate Circuit and all of DuMont's Class B stock. DuMont already is operating two video stations in New York and Washington and has applications pending for Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Boston. Under an FCC ruling no company can own or control more than five television stations. The ParamountDuMont-Interstate Circuit tieup his been under investigation by the FCC for the past six months. The FCC takes the position that Paramount's 50 per cent interest in Interstate amounts to control since the company can veto any director vote. The commission took the same position regarding Paramount's. ownership of the DuMont Class B stock. The company has never voted this stock, but maintains the right of exercising the veto clause. The commission granted building permits to six applicants in the Los Angeles area, including a permit for Paramount. Action on a seventh applicant, the Don Lee Network, was deferred. Show CBS Color Television To FCC Commissioners In a series of color television demonstrations, climaxed by reception of a color broadcast in Tarrytown, N. Y., 25 miles from the transmitter in New York City, the Columbia Broadcasting System last Monday demonstrated to the Federal Communications Commission the capabilities of the ultra-high frequency standards CBS has proposed as a basis of commercial television operation. The demonstrations covered much of the data on which CBS witnesses testified at the FCC hearings in Washington. Announce Staff Changes at Philadelphia Exchanges Ely J. Epstein, RKO salesman for the Philadelphia and suburban territory, has been named to the newly-created post of sales manager at the Philadelphia branch, it has been announced by Charles Zagrans, branch manager. Jack McFadden, formerly president of Motion Picture Associates, and salesman in Allentown, Pa., territory, assumes the city salesmanship, with Marvin Wolfish assigned to Allentown and William Adler to Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The New Jersey territory is temporarily open. Staff changes were also announced at other exchanges in Philadelphia. They included the resignation of Don Pasin as salesman at Columbia, and the resignation of Leon J. Behal, salesman at the independent Hollywood exchange. 24 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, DECEMBER 28, 1946