Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Mar 1956)

Paramount Has Studio For TV Use HOLLYWOOD : Barney Balaban, president of Paramount Pictures, has announced increased activity by the company in the television and electronic fields. Paramount’s Sunset Boulevard studios, he said, will open June 1. making available for T\’ producers a ^tudio completely equipped for production in that medium. The stages, technical equipment. office space, cutting and dubbing rooms, he said, would he available to TV producers on a daily rental basis. He also announced that .Stanton M. Osgood, formerly manager of Television Film Productions. has been named general manager of the new studios. The property was acquired by Paramount .'Sunset Corporation in 1954 and since then $2.tMX),(X)0 has been spent in remodeling, rebuilding and modernizing the plant and equipment. Officers of the corporation are Barney Balaban, president; Y. Frank Freeman. vice-president ; Paul Raihourn, vicepresident; James H. Richardson, treasurer, Arthur Israel, secretary, and Stanton AI. Osgood, general manager. According to Mr. Balaban, there are at present five complete modern stages, three of which contain 8,000 square feet each ; one 16,000 square feet and one 24,000 square feet. This makes it possible, he added, to accommodate any type of television production. These additional studio facilities for T\’ production are in addition to Paramount's holdings in the Dumont Broadcasting Corporation, rhe Allan B. Dumont Laboratories, Inc.. Chromatic Television, Inc., and also in the International Telemeter Corporation. "Rains of Ranchipur" Debuts in Singapore SIXGAPORE: The Far Eastern premiere of 20th Century-Fox’s "Rains of Ranchipur” was hehl here recently, highlight of which was a reception given by the Cathay Organization and 20th-Fox. The reception, held in the Hollywood Room of the Odeon Cinema, drew some 70 guests including R. K. Tanflon, commissioner for the Oovernment of India, and Mrs. Tandon, and M. H. E. A. Baig, Pakastan trade commissioner, and Mrs. Baig. Plan Nev/-type Sound Stage HOLLVll’OOD : A new-type sound stage will lx; constructed shortly by Academy Films here, James Larsen, president, has announced. The 60-b -100-foot structure will include such innovations as concrete floor slabs with built-in grids. Academy Films says it will rent the sound stage to otlicr producers. lATSE Denies Emblem To "Daniel Boone" HOLLYWOOD : The lATSE emblem, which appears on the main credit title of .■\merican-made pictures, has been denied to the producers of "Daniel Boone,” which was produced in Mexico, the lATSE has announced. Ganaway-\"er Halen Productions. Inc., produced the film under conditions objected to by both the lATSE and by the Hollywood AFL Film Council. The council also announced the initiation of a national consumer boycott campaign against the picture, calling on all national, state and local bodies in the AFL-CIO to warn their members against the film. George Flaherty, council president and international representative of lATSE, alleged the picture was made in Mexico "to escape paying American standard-of-living wages, which make possible attendance at our theatres.” Canadian Film Pioneers Elect Stein President TORONTO : Morris Stein has been elected president of the Canadian Picture Pioneers at the first meeting of the 1956 board of directors, the group has announced. Others elected were ; R. W. Bolstad, vice-president ; Tom Daley, secretary-treasurer ; board of directors; Frank Fisher, Frank Vaughan, Archie Laurie, Rube Bolstad, Claire Appel, Charles Dentlebeck, Harold Pfaff, George Oullahan, Dan Krendel, I\Ir. -Stein and Tom Daley. Novakf Auerbach in Columbia Sales Posts PARIS: Appointment of Harry Novak as continental sales manager with headquarters in I’aris, has been announced by Lacy W. Kastner, president of Columbia Pictures International. At the same time Mr. Kastner announced the appointment of Norbert Auerbach as assistant continental sales manager. Until recently Mr. Novak had been continental manager for Universal. Before that he was divisional manager for WMrner Bros, in Latin America. Mr. Auerbach was formerly personal assistant to the Columbia continental manager. Prior to this, he had been branch manager for Columbia in Portugal. Sidney Harmon, U,A, Sign 10-Film Deal HOLLYWOOD: Producer Sidney Harmon has concluded an agreement with United Artists for the latter to finance and distribute 10 pictures to be produced by Mr. Harmon’s .Security Pictures, Inc. The new agreement supersedes a previous deal involving the financing and distribution of two films, “Step Down to Terror” and “Men at War.” the latter to be made from a screenplay by Mr. Harmon. Museum to Show Cycle Of Goldwyn A 24-film program cycle covering the films of Samuel Goldwyn from 1915 to 1946 got underway February 13 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Richard Griffith, curator, announced. The series will continue weekly until Juh' 22. The cycle includes representative examples of ]\Ir. Goldwyn’s work from his entrance into motion pictures with the Jesse L. Lasky company through his years with the Goldwyn company, the period of release of his independent productions through First National, United Artists and RKO down to the emergence of "The Best Years of Our Lives,” in 1946. A study of Mr. Goldwyn’s work, “Samuel Goldwyn ; The Producer and his Films,” by IMr. Griffith, will be published In the IMuseum in conjunction with the cycle. Some of the films included are the first "Stella Dallas’’ (1925); "Arrowsmith” ( 1931 ) ; "These Three” ( 1936) ; “Dodsworth” ( 1936) ;"\VutheringHeights”(1939). In announcing the series, Mr. Griffith paid tribute to Mr. Goldwyn’s "tireless exploration of the frontiers of a popular art, probing tbeir growing points and trying to expand their actual limits. Perhaps his greatest achievement is the introduction to the screen of subject matter thought to be beyond the capacity of large audiences, and proving, at first only to his own satisfaction but later to that of the motion picture world at large, that virtually any kind of story can be brought to the screen with success, so long as it is a good story well told.’’ Eagle Lion Classics Claims $750,000 Loss Representatives of Eagle Lion Classics and its parent company. Chesapeake Industries, claimed that ELC product would have grossed $750,000 more than it did in the Metropolitan New York market if the pictures had been given the same opportunities as were accorded to product of the major companies. The claim was made in the course of the ELC $15,000,000 suit against Loew’s and RKO Theatres before New York Federal Judge Arcbie Dawson. The plaintiff also charged that it was induced to sell its distribution contracts and product to United Artists at a loss because of the alleged discrimination against the films hy the two circuits. M'illiam C. McMillen. Jr., is president of Chesapeake Industries. Drive-in to Reopen LAKE GEORGE, N. F.. The Beach Drivein here, closed for the past three years, will reopen in May, it is announced by Joseph Mirasola, who operates the Warren, a conventional closed theatre, in Warrensburg. 22 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, FEBRUARY 18, 195^