Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1948)

PlV \4o,i HpJ ■ THIS WEEK IN THE NEWS Watch the Light YOU'RE NOT going to get into the Karolyn theatre in New London, Ohio, for free. Not if owner J. O. Guthrie can help it. He's invented a gadget to catch the person who enters his theatre just after the box office closes at the start of the last show. It's a connection to the auditorium door which flashes a tiny light over the screen notifying the manager that a non-paying guest has arrived. Show Stopper London Bureau DANNY KAYE stopped the show at the Palladium Monday night at the Command Performance for the Variety Artistes Benevolent Fund. Flying from Hollywood to play his one-night stand before the King and Queen, Kaye had the Royal Family joining in with him on a double-talk chorus of "Minnie the Moocher." He held the stage for 30 minutes, twice as long as any of the other 300 performers in the variety show. There were over 100,000 applicants for the tickets to the Palladium, but only 2,800 were able to buy them at prices running up to $84 for an orchestra seat. Mr. Kaye recently played a fabulously successful series of engagements at the Palladium and those earlier performances, too, were attended by members of the Royal Family. It's reported here that as the King and Queen left the theatres, Mrs. Kaye (Sylvia Fine) was presented to the Queen who said: "Tell your husband how much we enjoyed seeing him again." Re-Elected J. PARNELL THOMAS, chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee and the man who has long threatened a resumption of those communism-in-Hollywood hearings, was re-elected to the House Tuesday. It was the closest battle of his political career, but he's in. His re-election, however, does not necessarily mean that he will again be named chairman of the committee. Go West Washington Bureau WE DON'T KNOW what Horace Greeley would say about it, but it looks like we should start going west again. It's a Department of Commerce report that's started us thinking about it. The Department says that from 1929 to 1947 there was a pronounced shift in income from New England and the middle eastern regions to the south and west. The share of the nation's total income payments to individuals received by MOTION PICTURE HERALD for November 6, 1948 CENTRAL clearance agency is Ascap solution of Mills Page 12 RKO and U. S. agree on theatre separation; to form new circuit Page 13 FOUR major companies face court Monday on divorcement issue Pag® 13 TOA to give conciliation plan a 60-day trial Page 14 TOTAL of 743 drive-in theatres operating, MPAA reports in survey Page 15 "THE SNAKE PIT," 20th Century-Fox film, is reviewed Page 1 8 SOUTHERN showman urges effort to repair industry goodwill Page 20 AP tells facts about Martin Quigley's authorship of Code Page 22 BOX OFFICE Champions for the month of October Page 23 FRENCH quota interpreted as applying only to recent films Page 26 NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT— Notes on industry personnel across country Page 27 SERVICE DEPARTMENTS Foreign Reviews Page 24 Hollywood Scene Page 25 In the Newsreels Page 32 Managers' Round Table Page 35 Picture Grosses Page 41 Short Product at First Runs Page 34 What trie Picture Did for Me Page 33 THEATRE SALES Pages 43-52 IN PRODUCT DIGEST SECTION Showmen's Reviews Page 4373 Release Chart by Companies Page 4374 Advance Synopses Page 4375 The Release Chart Page 4376 the first two areas dropped from 42 per cent in 1929 to 35 per cent in 1947, while the proportion received by the southeast, southwest, northwest and far west increased from 29 to 37 per cent. The central . region remained practically unchanged — 29 per cent in 1929 and 28 per cent in 1947. Wilcox to U, S. London Bureau HERBERT WILCOX sailed for New York Saturday aboard the Queen Elizabeth, carrying with him prints of his three latest films, "Courtneys of Curzon Street," "Spring in Park Lane" and "Elizabeth of Ladymead." These have been seen and approved by London representatives of important American interests. The purpose of the trip is the finalization of a deal which, Mr. Wilcox believes, will ensure their distribution throughout the Western Hemisphere on mutually profitable terms. Anna Neagle, star of the three features, and wife of Mr. Wilcox, accompanied the producer. Mr. Wilcox is expected to be in New York for eight days only. He is scheduled to start shooting on his next picture, "Maytime in Mayfair" November 15. Surprise 1 t Mexico City Bureau MEXICAN EXHIBITORS, worried over decreasing business, took to the polling method recently to find out what classes of people attended their theatres. They found that 60 per cent of their regular patrons were feminine and that about 85 per cent of the 40 per cent male audiences were in the theatres because their women folk took them there. One aspect of the poll surprised the exhibitors. They found that they were missing out on an important public — children, particularly 'teen-agers. That prompted several exhibitors to screen special children's programs at special prices and they've found their business improving in proportion to the effort. Lions & Tigers THOSE MOTION picture battles between wild animals which the Du Mont television network has been broadcasting are "gruesome" and "disgusting" and illegal. That's the legal opinion of William W. Walsh, attorney for the Yonkers N. Y. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who has asked the Federal Communications Commission and the District Attorneys of New York and Westchester counties to stop the shows. Last Sunday's show was a screen version of a fight between a lion and tiger. Says Mr. Walsh : Watching animal fights is a violation of Section 182 of the New York State Penal Code. Says James Cadogan, Du Mont program director : "The shows are extracts from films generally available for home use. They are intended as an instructive exhibit of the struggle for survival in nature." 8 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, NOVEMBER 6, 1948