Showmen's Trade Review (Jul-Sep 1942)

6 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW July 4, 1942 54,000 Units Clear Thru Dunphy Office UMPI Plan Presented for Approval of Government A committee of six, representing the United Motion Picture Industry, will present the UMPI plan to Thurman W. Arnold, Assistant Attorney General, and Robert L. Wright, special assistant to the Attorney General, Friday morning (July 3) in Washington. The committee will be comprised of William F. Rodgers, Austin Keough, Ed Kuykendall, William Crockett, Harry Brandt, Abram F. Myers, Robert T. Barton, Jr., who will urge that the Department of Justice consent to application to the courts for approval of the plan as a substitute for consent decree selling, on the grounds that the new plan has been endorsed by the overwhelming majority of exhibitor groups and distributor companies. If such consent is obtained, UMPI will then apply to New York Federal Court Judge Henry W. Goddard, who signed the consent decree, for approval of the plan in substitution of the blocks-of-5 method provided by the decree. Details of the plan may not be published before approval has been obtained, but it has been widely reported that the selling program is substantially as outlined by UMPI in a formal statement published some time ago. According to the report the maximum number of pictures to be sold at any one time has been raised to 13 from the original proposals of 12 pictures to the block ; with 5 of each block to be trade shown and the remaining 8 to be designated by title, cast and synopsis. Cancellation provisions call for the right to cancel 1 or 2 of the 8 designated pictures — 2 cancellations allowed to accounts whose average rental for the 1940-41 season did not exceed $100, and 1 cancellatioo allowed accounts whose average for the same period exceeded $100 per picture. It has also been reported that provisions were made in the final draft for special situations, such as Radio City Music Hall, to buy singly or in blocks of fewer than the maximum of 13. N. Y. Exhibitors Organize An association of upstate New York independent exhibitors has received a charter under the name of Upstate Theatres, Inc. Leonard L. Rosenthal, Troy, is attorney for the new unit, with the following named directors to serve until the first annual meeting : A. Stone, Albany ; Charles F. Wilson, and Robert J. Rosenthal, Troy; John Gardner, David J. Willig, Sid Dwore, and Martin Dwore, Schenectady. Allied Meet Set for Mid-July Allied States Association directors' meeting will be held in mid-July, the exact date to be named this week by the organization's executive committee. It is reported that Pittsburgh or Columbus lead as the sites under consideration for the conclave. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS Advance Dope 22 Advertising Clinic .' 18 Box-Office Slants 9 Feature Booking Guide 34 Hollywood 28 Monthly Product Checkup 30 Newsreel Synopses 26 On the Patriotic Front 12 Program Exchange 16 Selling the Picture 13 Short Booking Guide ". . 37 Shorts Product Checkup 27 Short Subject Revievi/ 27 Showmanalysis 20 The Show Builder 23 Variety Club Notes 21 D. of J. Attitude The Department of Justice is not committed to approve any selling plan which the majority of exhibitors endorse, but in considering any plan, "the Department must take notice of its effect upon other members of the industry and the general public," Thurman Arnold, Assistant Attorney General, stated in a letter to John C. Flinn of the Society of independent Motion Picture Producers. The statement by Arnold was in reply to a letter addressed to him by Flinn as to the accuracy of a published report that the Department of Justice had said that "whatever the majority of exhibitors want will be OK with the Department of Justice." Stockholders* Suit Dismissed by Court In a decision rendered Friday (26th) dismissing the Paramount minority stockholders' suit in New York Supreme Court, Justice Carroll G. Walters cleared all officials of the company of every charge of misconduct, finding "that Paramount, or, more specifically Keough (Austin J. Keough, vice president and legal department head of Paramount) was not the giver of a bribe but a submitter to extortion," in paying $100,000 to George E. Browne and William Bioflf. The Court's decision reviewed claims of the plaintiffs in charging that the payment of $100,000 of the company's funds to ex-labor racketeers Browne and Bioff illegally diverted funds, and found that "here the giving of money was not voluntary and it was not given to influence the performance of official duty. There is not the slightest evidence that this duly appointed representative of a labor organization (Bioff) was or even pretended ,to be under legal duty to cause a strike." Massachusetts and Maine Tax Committees Completed Two more UMPI state tax committees have been organized under the direction of Leon J. Bamberger, executive secretary of the association. The two new bodies formed are the Maine Committee, comprising Otis S. Page, Lincoln Theatre, Damariscotta ; Louis M. Gordon, Lockwood and Gordon, Boston ; Edward Bradley, Paramount representative for Maine; and the Massachusetts Committee, made up of Stanley Sumner, University theatre, Cambridge ; Chas. E. Kurtzman, Loew's Theatres, Boston ; A. M. Kane, Paramount branch manager, Boston. Warner Checking Organization Complete; 1,100 in Personnel With a personnel of 1,100 field men, Warner Bros, checking organization, reinstated recently by General Sales Manager Ben Kalmenson, is functioning with complete satisfaction in covering all engagements ordered checked by the sales department of the company, Rudy Hagen, head of the department, said on his return to New York from a recent trip to the midwest. Thomas With Jackson Theatres Jonas F. Thomas has been appointed film, booker and manager of the Mt. Lookout and Jackson theatres in Cincinnati. The amusement industry over which WPB Amusements Section, headed by C. J. Dunphy, has supervision covers 56 different fields of business enterprise, and there are 54,000 separate units which clear through Dunphy's office in connection with priorities, applications for critical materials for repair, etc. Some facts concerning the wide scope and, complex ramifications of the Dunphy office were learned this week from sources close to this liaison office between the Government and the Amusement Industry. Amusement projects involving expenditures of more than $5,000; projects requiring critical materials, regardless of cost; critical materials or items for repair, replacement and maintenance, all clear through the Amusements Section. The various enternrises include : Amusement parks ; amusement services ; aquariums ; archery ranges ; auditoriums ; bands ; baseball ; baseball parks ; bathing beaches ; billiard parlors ; bowling alleys ; canteen equipment; carnivals; circuses; football and hockey (professional and amateur); dance halls; studios and academies ; exhibitions and expositions ; fairs ; golf driving ranges; gymnasiums; race tracks (automobile, dog and horse); ice arenas; museums (commercially operated) ; opera and opera houses; orchestras; rodeos; shooting galleries ; slot-machine establishments ; sports organizations (wrestling, boxing, etc) ; sports and athletic fields; sports promoters; swimming pools; table tennis establishments; tennis courts; theatres (legitimate, motion picture and vaudeville) ; traveling picture shows; traveling tent shows; US(3 amusement and recreation centers. WPB Instructs on Methods for Dealers to Obtain Supplies Theatre equipment dealers may apply for preference ratings for stipulated quantities of maintenance and repair materials necessary to the continued operation of theatres, on form PD-IX, it was announced this week by the Distributors Branch of the Division of Industry Operations of the WPB. A dealer who does not customarily purchase directly from a manufacturer may place his order through his usual wholesale channels, it was said. Under this plan theatre owners will be able to obtain necessary materials through their usual sources. Studio Saving Gas, Rubber Hollywood studios have effected a general mileage reduction of about 35 per cent, according to a report by the studio transportation managers' meeting at the AMPP oflSces to discuss wartime conservation measures. Brown Moves to Woonsocket Bill Brown, formerly manager of the Metropolitan and Playhouse theatres in Providence, is now managing the New Park Theatre, Woonsocket, R. I. SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW Vol. 36, No. 24 July 4, 1942 Title and Trade Mark Registered U. S. Patent Office Published every Friday by Showmen's Trade Review, Inc., 1501 Broadway, New York City. Telephone BRyant 9-5606. Charles E. "Chick" Lewis, Editor and Publisher; Tom Kennedy, Associate Editor; Joseph H. Gallagher, Film Advertising Manager; Harold Rendall, Equipment Advertising Manager; West Coast Ofifice, 10424 Bloomfield St., North Hollywood, Calif., Telephone SUnset 1-6292. Ann Lewis, manager; London Representative, Milton Deane, 185 Fleet St., London E.C. 4; Australian Representative, Gordon V. Curie, 1 Elliott St., Homebush, Sydney, Australia. Subscription rates per year $2.00 in the United States and Canada; Foreign, $5.00. Single copies, ten cents. Subscribers should remit with order. Entered as second class matter February 20, 1940, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Contents copyrighted 1942 by Showmen's Trade Review. Inc. 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