Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Mar 1956)

THE LITTLE GUY FROM MARS WRIGGLES ANTENNA AT 1955 by VINCENT CANBY "I am one week la+e to the day," said the little man from Mars, "but you can blame it on last week's crowds pushing into Radio City Music Hall." The speaker, of course, was Etaoin Shrdiu, Herald correspondent from outer space who dropped by early this week with his annual report. "Just look at me," he said irritably. His ordinarily lavender complexion was a deathly flesh color; his antenna, usually straight and in-tune, looked like an old bedspring. "Every time I tried to get through the mob," he explained, "I was whisked into the theatre by a nearsighted mother. It was my kismet to see 'Kismet' a total of 36 times." He shrugged, threw his crumpled space suit over the back of a chair and settled down for the serious business at hand. "First off," he said thoughtfully, "I'd say we have a rather exciting 12-month upcoming, leading off with the start February 2 of those Senate Small Business Subcommittee hearings on motion picture industry trade practices. Heaven only knows what the effect of election year propaganda will have on them! If the campaign becomes bitter, those Senators will be making a lot of promises to a lot of people, including irate exhibitors. "THE coming months should also see some clarification in the toll TV picture," he continued, and added: "Politics may very well play a role here too, should the Federal Communications Commission decide it hasn't the authority to decide the issue. "Also from Washington, and to be awaited with what you fellows call 'keen interest,' will be a Justice Department decision on that arbitration system, espoused most prominently by distribution and Theatres Owners of America, and rejected most articulately by Allied States Association. The question is whether or not the draft will receive Justice's 'green light.' " As an after-thought, he said that during one of the showings of "Kismet," an anxious dowager unfortunately had sat on his crystal ball: "I'd like to give you some idea about what to expect, but all I get now are weather reports from Moline." On the year just completed, however, Etaoin was on a firmer footing. "My choice of Man of the Year," he said, "is Judge Leon R. Yankwich ('Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute'). Oops!" Adjusting a dial on his stomach, Etaoin explained that his Time Mechanism needed a new washer. What he had meant to quote was the judge's famous "There are no illegitimate children, only illegitimate parents." JUDGE YANKWICH'S 80-page decision absolving the film companies of any guilt of "unreasonable restraint of trade" in the 16mm suit, said the little Martian, provided the top and certainly the most welcome news story of the year. "At the very core, it was a ridiculous suit," he commented. "I'd say the next most important single event," he continued, "was the purchase, in July and for $25,000,000 in cash, of RKO Radio Pictures, lock, stock, studios and film library, from Howard Hughes by Thomas F. O'Neil and his General Tire and Rubber Company. At this point, now that the film library has finally been disposed of (to Matthew Fox), it seems the company is going to make a conscientious effort to regain a position among the major product suppliers. "This being the era of teams. I'd say that RKO has one of the most promising, headed by Daniel T. O'Shea, as president, and William Dozier, as executive vice-president in charge of production, to say nothing of a roster of producers to be sparked by such as David Seiznick." Etaoin then touched on the resignation of Nicholas Schenck as president of Loew's after a tenure in office of 28 years, followed by the election of Arthur Loew as his successor. "Mr. Schenck will continue to be a dominant force in the industry" is the way Etaoin put it, and he added that there was "something inherently right" in the succession of Mr. Loew. "And while we're on the subject of things corporate," he continued, "don't overlook the resignation, in March, of A. W. Schwalberg as president of Paramount Film Distributing Company, and the appointment of George Weltner as head of Paramount's new, single, worldwide sales and distributing organization. Nor that fairly tumultuous Republic Pictures annual meeting in April, where Herbert Yates was reported to have threatened to quit movies for TV. Nor the peripatetic Spyros Skouras' purchase in July for his 20th Century-Fox of the Sclilesinger theatre interests in South Africa." • SPEAKING of Mr. Skouras naturally led Etaoin to the subject of new screen techniques. "As I predicted — or, at least, as I should have predicted — last year," he said, "1955 was the year of the increased area negative, led off (actually in late 1954) by Paramount's first commercial demonstrations of its double-frame, horizontally projected VistaVision. This was followed by the first engagement in October of "Oklahoma!" in the 65mm Todd-AO process; the announced intentions of MGM to shoot in its own 65mm process, and by 20th-Fox's actual shooting in its own 55mm CinemaScope of the forthcoming "Carousel." Elsewhere in his discussion of the techniques, Etaoin made mention of the Cine-Miracle process — the reportedly inexpensive Cinerama-like process being backed by National Theatres; of the continued popularity of Cinerama itself in its second, travelogue type of release, "Cinerama Holiday," and of the "omnibus" type of prints now being supplied by several companies and which contain both optical and magnetic sound tracks. "I remain apprehensive about the quality of these," he added. He also spoke briefly of Walt Disney's 360-degree Circarama, which made its debut this summer at Disneyland: "great for Martians." • ASKED what he thought about the intra-industry trade practice picture, Etaoin said something to the effect that please, he had just eaten. Then, seriously: "At the beginning of 1955 I was really quite hopeful. I remained optimistic through those series of joint exhibitors talks with the major companies in May, June and July. Then whammo! One night I went to bed hearing various Allied and TOA people talking about merger, and I wake up with each organization promising 'white papers' on the other's misconduct. To top it off, there's a ruckus about COMPO dues. "So where are we? At its convention in October TOA backed up arbitration, reaffirmed its faith in COMPO and its antagonism to Government regulation. Two weeks later Allied ridiculed arbitration, pulled out of COMPO and promised a drive for Federal control. How naive can I be?" Etaoin remarked that in spite of all this the COMPO audience awards campaign in November was a success even though his favorite, the Creature, didn't place in either of the male categories. ("One man's Creature is another man's William Holden.") Night was falling when Etaoin suddenly remembered he had a date in Washington, to give Kefauver a run-down on delinquency on Mars. "I’m also going to ask him if he ever got to see Warners' 'Rebel Without a Cause,' the film he was criticizing at those Hollywood hearings and which hadn't even been made yet." Time was running out as the little Martian began to fade away, mumbling something about production costs and new lATSE wage contracts. 12 MOTION PICTURE HERALD. JANUARY 7. 1956