Motion Picture Herald (1953)

nr I ewwy ART AND TAXES — The tax-burdened motion picture industry can consider with a special sort of interest a plea for "a Marshall Plan" subsidy for the Metropolitan Opera Company. Rudolph Bing, general manager, returns from Europe observing that while the Metropolitan's deficits in the order of $300,000 or $400,000 are a worry, the opera in "Berlin receives a subsidy of a million dollars and the Milan Opera ... a subsidy of two million, but the Metropolitan is broke." Mr. Bing observes that those subsidies are made possible, directly or indirectly through economic aid from the United States. He expands on the ambitious programs abroad and large plant improvements. So he says this country is in "the curious position" of subsidizing opera abroad but not at home. "Curious" is too limited a term for it. The motion picture, as we have observed before, has made its adventuresome and successful way these fifty years by its service to an appreciative paying public. Also for more than a decade it has been paying taxes, or their equivalent, in lands overseas for varying sorts of subsidies to their film production. Uncle Sam presents would be an appropriate line on European opera programs. Because he surely does. There is that about all this which reminds of those days at the end of World War I, when tired doughboys chalked on walls over there: 'We've paid our debt to Lafayette — who the hell do we owe now?" W'C' -Y.W HERE S A NEW ONE — Just 'tother day we were quoting a Hollywood oracle-actor on his view of the death of the star system.' Now all of a sudden up from a relative obscurity comes the rocket-rise of a brightly twinkling new star, Miss Audrey Hepburn. One night in the fall of 1951 she flashed to fame on the stage of "Gigi" on Broadway. Whereupon Paramount made her a screen star in "Roman Holiday." Of course she's been around a few years with minor stage and screen appearances behind her. However, she is swiftly, brightly new in starland — in a curiously unpromising period of the art. DOLLAR COMPETITION — Frequently this observer has remarked to the effect that general gadget installment selling and luxury merchandise competition have been most probably quite as important as Tele vision in pursuit of what could have been the box office dollar. Interesting relevancy appears incidentally in figures given out in connection with financing by the important Beneficial Loan Corporation, specializing in small accounts. Of the 1,532,069 loans made in 1952, 75 per cent were to skilled and unskilled workers. The observation is made that "most small loan borrowers borrow from Peter to pay Paul."_ It appears that 40.8 per cent of the borrowers required the money to refinance debt for current bills. Also significant is the finding that 7.5 per cent of the loans were for vacations and travel. Other statistics have indicated that the private debt of the people is now at an all time high. Mainly that represents indulgence in impulse buyingfor a payment down and the rest postponed to some tomorrow. Motion picture admissions are sold to impulse buyers, too, but it is strictly cash on the line out of pocket on the spot, a pocket depleted by the seductions of the sellers of ornate tangibles, like cars unneeded and deep freezers of no real utility. It is of small avail to appeal to judgment with such phrases as "movies are your best entertainment." Probably they are, dollar for dollar, but that is not a matter the commonality will be deliberating upon. If the units of the masses thought things oul a lot of aspects of civilization would be different, maybe not better, much, but different. The customers. . are not inclined to buy just movies institutionally. They are buying a picture at a time. The best picture is the one they want for their own reasons, which are likely to be simple. Production skill consists in thinking with them, never for them. Meanwhile it is loose money in pocket, at the moment of impulse that supports "the art." Admission price is important — and local. A BOOK merch andiser is being quoted as attributing a sharp upturn on sales of "From Here to Eternity" to the book customers' interest stirred by motion picture reviews indicating material did not get through to the screen. That squares with this observer's frequent comment that while public decency tends to control the screen, a continuing literary trend indicates that reading oft partakes of the nature of private vice. Schary Sees 30 Metro i^iiwns in ’54 Dore Schary, MGM production vice-president, forecast 30 releases from the company in 1954 on his visit to New York this week for conferences with Nicholas M. Schenck, Loew’s president. The number of MGM releases next year will top the company’s 1954 production schedule, which calls for the filming of 21, three of which will be made abroad, Mr. Schary said. The difference will be made up by the company’s backlog, which Mr. Schary termed “pretty good.” Commenting on the company’s policy of making “fewer but bigger pictures,” the production executive said “we’ll probably stick to that policy for quite a while.” He added, however, that the policy is not inflexible, explaining that the studio would be guided by Mr. Schenck’s observations on how the market is going. MGM in the current year will release a total of 45 pictures Goldberg Resigning U-l Executive Post Leon Goldberg has tendered his resignation as vice-president, treasurer and a member of the board of directors of Universal-International, it was learned this week. The resignation will become effective October 16. The company stated that no successor to Mr. Goldberg has been designated yet and that it is expected a meeting of the board will be called shortly after the return of Milton R. Rachmil, president, and A1 Daff, executive vice-president, from their current global trip. Anti-Trust Legislation Hailed by Johnston JACKSON , MICH.: The United States competitive economy, with “all its benefits to producer and consumer alike,” was attributed to the nation’s anti-trust legislation here Tuesday by Eric Johnston, president of Motion Picture Association of America. Speaking at the Community Lecture Series he stated that it was' competition more than anything else “that we in America owe our unparalleled standard of living and our unmatched proficiency in production and distribution.” Admit Communist Links WASHINGTON : Lee J. Cobb, actor, and three other Hollywood or one-time Hollywood workers have admitted former Communist Party membership to the House Un-American Activities Committee. The others were Babbette Lang, former secretary to Dore Schary ; writer Roland William Kibbee, and Charlotte Darling Adams, once the secretary of the Screen Cartoonists Guild in Hollywood. 24 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, OCTOBER 3, 1953