Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1948)

THIS WEEK IN THE NEWS Air Party TWENTY industry executives in the east who will attend the Robert J. O'Donnell testimonial dinner in Texas have fixed up some preliminary partying for themselves. The whole bunch of them will board a chartered plane in New York December 3 and fly out to Dallas for the December 4 dinner. The plane will be equipped with a bar, and appetizers will be furnished by New York's 21 Club. American Airlines will serve a six-course steak dinner en route. Upon arrival in Dallas, the executives will be guests of honor of the Dallas Variety Club at a reception and party at the Adolphus Hotel. If they're still hungry, there's that O'Donnell dinner to attend. Advt. A HUNDRED Fox West Coast houses in the Los Angeles area will exhibit the 10minute commercial short subject, "Biggest Inch," sponsored by the Southern California Gas Co., at the rate of $10 per thousand admissions, a circuit spokesman announced last week. The outlying houses commenced showing of the film Thursday. The short was produced in 16mm by Polaris Pictures and enlarged for commercial distribution. Horror-able Helsinki Bureau YOU CAN'T SCARE the Finns. Their Valtion Elokuvatarkastamo won't let you. That's the Finns' State Board of Censorship which, during one recent week, banned five so-called "horror films": "Temptation," "The Pearl of Death," "The Mummy's Curse," "The Ghost of Frankenstein" and "The Frozen Ghost." Sweden is the only Scandinavian country where horror films can be shown generally. In Denmark, Norway and Finland the censors usually say no. TV Taxes LOOKS LIKE television in Pennsylvania is in for a bad time of it, tax-wise. Last week, the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court ruled that television pictures are essentially the same as motion pictures and that rule means that taprooms presenting television shows must obtain amusement licences costing $120 a year, as originally ordered by the State Liquor Control Board. Now Abraham Wernick, assistant City Solicitor for Philadelphia, is studying the ruling to determine if the city can levy its own 10 per cent amusement tax on those same television-showing bars. The city al MOTION PICTURE HERALD for November 27, 1948 MYERS ch arges pressure by court in Government trust suit Page 13 ALLIED meeting agenda to cover trust suit to television Page 13 TOA offers seven-point program to regain public good will Page 14 INDUSTRY finds its way along the trail of conciliation Page 19 PARAMOUNT trust suit hearing postponed now to December 20 Page 23 COMPANY heads to continue meetings on industry affairs on coast Page 23 EASTMAN shift to safety stock exclusively expected by 1952 Page 27 TWO new suits by Keller-Dorian send color into court Page 28 NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT— Notes on industry personnel across country Page 31 FRENCH Government now sets new quota on domestic films Page 36 SERVICE DEPARTMENTS Hollywood Scene In the Newsreels Managers' Round Table Short Product at First Runs What the Picture Did for Me Galluping Page 29 Page 35 Page 41 Page 40 Page 38 IN PRODUCT DIGEST SECTION Showmen's Reviews Reissue Reviews Advance Synopses Short Subjects Short Subjects Chart The Release Chart Page 4397 Page 4398 Page 4398 Page 4398 Page 4399 Page 4400 ready imposes a 10 per cent levy on theatre admissions. Taprooms don't charge admission, so any tax levied would have to be on receipts from the sale of beverages and food. In ruling on the similarity of television and motion pictures, the court stated : "Plaintiffs lay stress upon the mechanics of production, but in our opinion, the stress must be placed upon what the observers see, rather than how the thing seen is produced." EVERY MAN his own Gallup. That's the gist of a recent release from the American Institute of Public Opinion, headed "New Method of Reporting Elections Proposed for the Gallup Poll. Undecided Voters to Be Subject of Intensive Probes ; Last-Minute Shift Seen to Be Important." In future elections, to avoid the mistakes of the last election, the Gallup Poll will concentrate on questioning those undecided voters concerning their probable voting behavior. The poll will ask how the undecided voters voted in the last election, etc., and etc. Then, when that material is at hand, the Gallup Poll will call in one Democratic and one Republican analyst to examine the data and to interpret it. Their analysis will be in the papers in parallel columns. "The newspaper reader," the release informs us, "thus will have an opportunity to analyze for himself the simultaneous claims of the two parties as to what the poll findings mean." Towards Mecca THE SITUATION at the Mecca Building, 1600 Broadway, New York City, filled with motion picture companies, has eased somewhat. National Screen Service recently purchased the building and would like to move in. But fne tenants don't particularly want to mov<-' out, what with housing what it is today. So a committee of tenants has concluded an agreement with NSS to retain their present office space until June. M. J. Kandel, head of Ideal Pictures and Bonded Film Storage, a Mecca Buildingtenant, recently purchased the Film Center Building at 630 Ninth Ave., which currently houses NSS. So. Mr. Kandel has agreed to let NSS stay in his building until he gets out of NSS' building. Suspi cious Washington Bureau SENATOR Styles Bridges, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, wants to know why the Bureau of Internal Revenue approved the purchase of Amos 'n' Andy and Jack Benny by CBS and NBC, respectively. He's asked the Bureau to explain itself. He charges that the two deals, which have highlighted a tug-of-war for talent between the two major networks, were tax dodges. The performers sold their businesses to the networks so they could profit by the capital gains tax setup, he says. By buying Mr. Benny, NBC gets into the film production business via Mr. Benny's Amusement Enterprises. This producing company has completed its first picture, "The Lucky Stiff," a Jack Benny film for U.A. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, NOVEMBER 27, 1948