Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1941)

February 1, 1941 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW Page 11 20th Plans 48 Features 5-Pic Blocks Needn't Be Uniform, It Is Held With the company's budget for next season increased over the total spent this year, 20th Century-Fox will start operations under the consent decree with a program of 48 pictures, 44 of which will be produced domestically and four made in Britain, it was announced this week by Herman Wobber, general sales manager, on his return from the Coast. No decision has been reached on any program of changes in the sales organization and set-up due to the consent decree, Wobber said, asserting that "we will have to see just what the effects are and what is needed before any changes can be made or planned." He added that no decision had been made as to whether or not 20th-Fox would hold a sales convention this year. Meanwhile, according to an interpretation set forth in a handbook prepared by 20th-Fox for its salesmen, the five-picture blocks as prescribed by the consent decree do not have to be uniform in any one territory. According to the handbook, combinations of features in groups can be changed so that if more than five trade shown features are available for license, features from one group can be substituted and placed in another. The handbook advises the salesmen that, insofar as selling less than five pictures in a single group is concerned, they can insist the exhibitor take all or none of that particular block or reduce the number which were originally offered in a block. It is also pointed out that features need not be separately priced, but that a flat price may be fixed for the group as a whole. Industry Tax Measures Introduced in Nebraska Omaha — Two bills with a bearing on the film industry were introduced in the state Legislature last week by Senator E. M. Neubauer of Orleans. The first would tax distributors $1,000 per year occupational tax, plus $1 per reel of film imported into the state. Distributors are prohibited from stocking up ahead of time by the terms of the measure. The second would tax all tickets to amusement centers 10 per cent. As stated by the measure, it is "one per cent of each ten cents," which means a two-cent tax on a 15-cent admission ticket. Senator Neubauer expects the two bills, if passed, to produce "over half a million dollars a vear." Jack L. Warner, Warner Bros.' vice-president in charge of production, played host to Martin Pose, Argentine National Open Champion and Eduardo Blasi, runner-up at his country club, the Hillcrest. He was joined in honoring the distinguished Latin Americans by S. Charles Einfeld, vice-president in charge of advertising and exploitation. Shown here, I. to r.: Einfeld, Blasi, Pose and Warner. Finds Weaknesses in Decree Allied Board of Directors Declares Block-Booking Still Remains; Cole Re-elected Prexy for 3rd Term Washington — Although it ends blind-selling, the consent decree does not abolish block-booking, according to a declaration in an official statement of policy issued this week at the closing session of the annual Allied directors' * Grosses Seen On Upgrade "GWTW," "Phila. Story" Figures Cited as Evidence A significant indication of mounting national prosperity is provided in week-end theatre reports announced this week by Wm. F. Rodgers, Metro Goldwyn Mayer's General Sales Manager. Motion picture attendance, long accepted by financial authorities as a barometer of any upward trend in general business, would seem to be rising throughout the country in the light of returns from "Gone With the Wind" anniversary engagements in New York and representative cities, and the new all-time records established by "The Philadelphia Story" at Radio City Music Hall, where it has begun the sixth week of its run. meeting at Carlton Hotel here. Branded as "the weakest and most disappointing feature of the decree" was the consent decree section deferring the issue of theatre divorcement for three vears unless the distributors are "scrupulously fair in selling under the new system, the hardships will out Col. H. A. Cole weigh the benefits." Allied objectives heretofore, it was stated, were declared to be: 1 — The identification of pictures in the contracts and the right of exhibitors to choose the pictures they wish, and to reject the rest. 2 — The right of independent exhibitors freely to contract for pictures on appropriate runs and on fair and non-discriminatory terms, summed up in the slogan, "The right to buy." The board of directors re-elected Col. H. A. Cole president for a third term, and the entire slate of officers were also re-elected. With Al Steffes having retired from active Allied duties because of ill health, one change on the executive commitThe' statement j tee was found necessary. Roy Haralso asserts that | r°ld °f Indiana was named a member to replace Steffes. Other officers are Martin Smith, treasurer; H. A. Blum, financial secretary ; Charles Olive, secretary, and Arthur Howard, recording secretary. Besides Harrold, the executive committee includes Nathan Yamins, Sidney Samuelson, Jack Kirsch, M, A. Rosenberg, Smith, Cole and Myers. The directors also voted to have the Allied Information Department enlarged and financed by the individual units instead of by the national treasury, because of its reported value to independent exhibitors. Loew Theatres Change Schedules Main Feature To Go On At 9:00 for Single Film Addicts Thirty-one Loew Theatres in the New York Metropolitan area will alter their programs so that they will now show the principal feature at 9 o'clock in the evening rather than at 10:30. Months of surveys and tests have convinced C. C. Moskowitz and other Loew executives that this policy will be favored by the greatest number of people. RKO has already instituted this policy in a number of its theatres in the Metropolitan area. Both circuits found that the advocates of single feature programs and those who wanted to see only one feature objected to waiting until 10:30 at night to go to the show thus necessitating their remaining until after 12. The new schedule enables them to have a leisurely dinner, see the feature they want to see plus the newsreel and then either leave to get home early or remain to see the other feature, as they choose. Called in Army Draft Sidney Edelstein and Roger Lewis, Ginger Rogers, currently starring in RKO-Radio's "Kitty Foyle," was guest of honor at a cocktail reception held at the Starlight both of Warners' home office pub i Roof of the Waldorf-Astoria last Friday evening. In the photo at the left she is shown with (I. to r.) George Schaefer, presilicity department, left for Fort Dix ! dent of RKO; N. Peter Rathvon, member of the Board of Directors of RKO, and John J. O'Connor, head of the RKO Theatre over the weekend for a year's selec Dept. In the informal scene at the right are shown S. Barret McCormick, director of advertising and publicity; Guy Eyssell, tive service training in the Army. assistant managing director of the Radio City Music Hall; Miss Rogers, and W. G. Van Schmus, managing director.