Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1952)

Universal Eiliting 14 Universal-International editing activity is at the year’s peak, -with 14 pictures currently in the cutting rooms. Half of these are in color by Technicolor. Virgil Vogel is working on three pictures: “Untamed Frontier’’ in Technicolor, and starring Joseph Gotten, Shelley Winters, and Scott Brady; “Just Across The Street,’’ starring Ann Sheridan and John Lund; and “Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki,’’ with Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride. Others are “Scarlet Angel,’’ starring Yvonne De Carlo and Rock Hudson; “The Texas Man,’’ with Robert Ryan, Julia Adams, Hudson, in Technicolor ; “The Duel At Angel Creek,’’ Technicolor, Andie Murphy, Faith Domergue, and Stephen McNally; “The Black Castle,” with McNally, Richard Greene, Boris Karloff, Paula Corday, and Lon Chaney; “Francis Goes To W’est Point,” with Donald O’Connor ; “It Grows On Trees,” with Irene Dunne, Dean Jagger, and Joan Evans; “Against All Flags,” in Technicolor, with Errol Flynn and Maureen O’Hara; “Yankee Buccaneer,” in Technicolor, with Jeff Chandler, Scott Brady, and Susan Ball; “Sally And Saint Anne,” with Ann Blyth and Edmund Gwenn; “The Raiders,” in Technicolor, with Richard Conte, and Viveca Lindfors ; and “Lost In Alaska,” with Abbott and Costello. More U-l Stock For Decca WASHINGTON : Decca Records last week informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that it acquired 5,000 additional warrants for purchase of Universal Pictures common stock during March. The purchase brings Decca’s holdings of Universal Warrants to 37,500. HERALD EDITOR CITES TOP-CROSSINC FILMS The one and only "message'' people like to get in motion pictures is that "pretty girls, sex, glamour and adventure — are fun." That's what Terry Ramsaye, consulting editor of Motion Picture Herald, has to say in the May issue of Films in Review in which he cites the top moneymaking pictures in the years from 1948 to 1951. His information is based on the Herald chart published at year's end since 1948. "The truth was, and is, that people do not go to the movies for political indoctrination, psychological education, or identifiable propaganda, regardless of its intent," Mr. Ramsaye wrote. "The public goes to the movies to be entertained, and the gross revenues of pictures shows what the public thinks the pictures were worth." Skiatron Appeals +o the Department of Justice The alleged reluctance of the majority of film companies to supply product to the Skiatron subscriber-television system has resulted in representatives of the company conferring in Washington with the Department of Justice, Arthur Levey, Skiatron president, disclosed at the annual meeting of stockholders, in New York last week. Mr. Levey told the stockholders he believed that eventually the companies would “go along” with the system’s proposed test in the New York area. Skiatron will apply to the Federal Communications Commission for authorization to make its test in August or September over station WOR-TV, he added. M-G-M TRADE SHOW -MAY 15th "GLORY ALLE r ALBANY • 20thFox Screen Room 1 052 Broadway 5/15 2 P.M. ATLANTA 20th-Fox Screen Room 197 Walton St., N. W. 5/15 2 P.M. BOSTON M-G-M Screen Room 46 Church Street 5/15 2 P.M. BUFFALO 20thFox Screen Room 290 Franklin Street 5/15 2 P.M. CHARLOTTE 20th-Fox Screen Room 308 S. Church Street 5/15 1:30 P.M. CHICAGO H. C. Igel’s Screen Room 1301 S. Wabash Ave. 5/15 1:30 P.M. CINCINNATI RKO Palace Bldg., Sc. Rm. 1638 Central Parkway 5/15 8 P.M. CLEVELAND 20th-Fox Screen Room 2219 Payne Ave. 5/15 1 P.M. DALLAS 20th-Fox Screen Room 1803 Wood Street 5/15 10:30 A.M. DENVER Paramount Screen Room 2100 Stout Street 5/15 2 P.M. DES MOINES 20th-Fox Screen Room 1300 High Street 5/15 1 P.M. DETROIT MaxBlumenthal's Sc. Rm. 2311 Cass Avenue 5/15 1:30 P.M. INDIANAPOLIS 20th-Fox Screen Room 326 No. Illinois St. 5/15 1 P.M. JACKSONVILLE Florida State Screen Room 128 East Forsyth Street 5/15 2 P.M. KANSAS CITY 20th-Fox Screen Room 1720 Wyandotte St. 5/15 1 :30 P.M. LOS ANGELES United Artists’ Scr. Room 1851 S. Westmoreland 5/15 2 P.M. MEMPHIS 20th-Fox Screen Room 151 Vance Avenue 5/15 12 Noon MILWAUKEE Warner Screen Room 212 W. Wisconsin Ave. 5/15 1 :30 P.M. MINNEAPOLIS 20th-Fox Screen Room 1015 Currie Avenue 5/15 2 P.M. NEW HAVEN 20th-Fox Screen Room 40 Whiting Street 5/15 2 P.M. NEW ORLEANS 20thFox Screen Room SOO S. Liberty St. 5/15 1:30 P.M. NEW YORK M-G-M Screen Room 630 Ninth Avenue 5/15 2:30 P.M. OKLAHOMA CITY 20th-Fox Screen Room 10 North Lee Street 5/15 1 P.M. OMAHA 20th-Fox Screen Room 1502 Davenport St. 5/15 1 P.M. PHILADELPHIA M-G-M Screen Room 1233 Summer Street 5/15 11 A.M. PITTSBURGH M-G-M Screen Room 1623 Blvd. of Allies 5/15 2 P.M. PORTLAND B. F. Shearer Screen Rm. 1947 N. W. Kearney St. 5/15 2 P.M. ST. LOUIS S’Renco Art Theatre 3143 Olive Street 5/15 1 P.M. SALT LAKE CITY 20thFox Screen Room 216 E. First St., So. 5/15 1 P.M. SAN FRANCISCO 20thFox Screen Room 245 Hyde Stree’t 5/15 1:30 P.M. SEATTLE Jewel Box Preview Thea. 2318 Second Ave. 5/15 1 P.M. WASHINGTON RKO Screen Room 932 New Jersey Ave., N.W. 5/15 2 P.M. M-G-M presents “ GLORY ALLEY” • Starring Ralph Meeker • Leslie Caron ♦ with Kurt Kasznar 1 Gilbert Roland • John Mclntire • and Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong and His Trumpet « Story 1 and Screen Play by Art Cohn « Directed by Raoul Walsh . Produced by Nicholas Nayfack | TU Feature Cost Given WASHINGTON ■. The CBS, ABC and DuMont television networks spent almost $1,800,000 on the purchase of feature motion pictures in 1951, the Federal Communications Commission was told here last week. Figures were provided by the networks in the course of the Paramount hearings. The National Broadcasting Co., which is not a party to the hearings, was not asked to supply the data. The combined expenditure for all type films by the three networks in 1951 amounted to $3,599,478. Donald A. Stewart, film buyer for the DuMont network, told the Commission that, should the proposed merger between United Paramount Theatres and the American Broadcasting Company go through, it would place other buyers of films for television in “a substantially inferior position.” Early this week, Arthur Levey, president .of Skiatron Electronics and Television Corp., began what will be long and detailed testimony on Scophony Corporation of America. Mr. Levey, formerly president of Scophony, is expected to be on the stand until well into next week, discussing the six-year tie-in between Scophony and Paramount Pictures. The breakdown of network expenditures on film showed ABC had spent $1,339,479 for all types of film during 1951. The figure given by DuMont was $553,000 and CBS reported a total of $613,000 for feature-length films and $27,000 for nonfeature length material. Meanwhile, the FCC said this week that six independent theatre owners will testify at the United Paramount hearings on how they are affected by the circuit’s activities. They are : Mrs. J. M. Anderson, Boone, la.; Carl Knudsen, Seward, Neb.; Fred F. Curdts, Greenville, S. Car. ; Charles Walder, Miami, Fla. ; Arthur F. Saas, Chicago ; and Sam C. Myers, Chicago, identified as a brother-in-law of Barney Balaban, Paramount Pictures president. Loew's Loses Plea On Chicago Bidding Loew’s, Inc., in the Federal Court in Chicago last week lost its plea for a decree ordering competitive bidding in the Jackson Park zone. The court dismissed the Jeffery theatre from the hearing. The Jackson Park theatre now has free access to product, without bidding for it. In the same district. Government attorneys last week also asked Federal Judge Barnes for clarification of his order quashing the anti-trust suit against drive-in theatres for alleged price fixing. In Buffalo, Charles A. Smakwitz, Albany zone manager for Warner Theatres, a first defense witness in the conspiracy suit by Bordonaro Brothers, denied conspiracy to withhold product from the Palace theatre, Olean. Named in the suit are Warners, RKO, and Paramount. 44 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, MAY 10, 1952