Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1945)

8 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW January 20, 1945 Studios Contributed 45 Subjects to OWI Forty-five special motion picture subjects involving 12 studios, 24 producers, 13 directors, 30 writers and 57 actors and actresses were produced by Hollywood as its contribution to the War Activities Committee-Ofifice of War Information film program for 1944, it was revealed in the annual report of the WAC's Hollywood Division issued by John C. Flinn, co-ordinator, for Mary C. McCall, Jr., chairman, and officially presented to Francis S. Harmon, WAC executive vice-chairman, at the annual luncheon held in Hollywood this week. The films, produced as a voluntary war efYort and requested by various government agencies, varied in length from SO to 2000 feet and were made for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Treasury Department, the Red Cross, the National War Fund, the Women's Army Corps and other bureaus and groups, and ran the gamut from the "zip your lip" campaign to recruitment for Nurses' Aides. Makers of the productions were Columbia, Lester Cowan, Walt Disney, MGM, Paramount, RKO Radio, Republic, David O. Selznick, 20th Century-Fox, Universal, Walter Wanger and Warner Bros. The subjects were released through the distributor division of the WAC to the 16,000 meniibers of the theatre division, and are separate and apart from the contributions made by the newsreels. In his report, Flinn paid tribute to "the invaluable and ever-enthusiastic assistance" of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Artists' Managers Guild, Association of Motion Picture Producers, California Theatre Council, Independent Motion Picture Producers Association, Hollywood Victory Committee, Hollywood Writers Mobilization, Public Information Committee, Screen Actors Guild, Screen Directors Guild, Screen Writers Guild and the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers, and to Stanton Griffis, former chief of the OWI Bureau of Motion Pictures, his successor, Taylor M. Mills ; George J. Schaefer, chairman, Herman Gluckman, treasurer, and Francis Harmon. Urges Draft of St. Louis Operators, Stagehands The 11-day operators' and film exchange workers' strike in St. Louis last December was projected into the national scene this week when the St. Louis Motion Picture Exhibitors' Committee headed by Louis K. Ansell, of the Ansell Bros. Circuit, ofYered the services of 167 union stagehands and projectionists in the St. Louis area for use in the nation's war industries. Transmitted in a letter by Ansell to Congressman May, Sen. Josiah W. Bailey and John K. Collins, chief of the WMC Replacement Bureau in Washington, and made public by May, the offer urged the officials to consider the use of "these skilled workers in industries where their services are badly needed instead of permitting them to waste their time on jobs where they are not needed." The letter also disclosed that the motion picture theatre owners would agree to take back the released stagehands and projectionists after the war emergency has passed and pay any difference in salaries they might experience. Lewis G. Hines, Washington legislative agent for the American Federation of Labor, discussing Ansell's letter, said: "The employers are seeking to use the House Military Affairs Committee to unload a contract with the union." Brownout After Feb. 1 Effective Feb. 1, all outdoor advertising and promotional lighting, including theatre marquee lighting In excess of 60 watts for each marquee, is out, the War Production Board announced this week. Also ordered discontinued: outdoor decorative and ornamental lighting for outdoor display lighting, except for the conduct of business of outdoor establishments. ODT to Control, Not Ban Industry Meets If less than 50 exhibitors are invited and travel to tradeshows for the purpose of viewing product as required under the terms of the Government's consent decree, or if less than that number of delegates attend regional film industry meetings as a normal business procedure, no application need be made for such travel to the Office of Defense Transportation, it was explained by officials in charge of that agency's New York offices. Exhibitor transportation for tradeshows, it was pointed out, would come, under the heading of "suburban and interurban" services, and these are not affected by the ODT directives issued last week. The ODT directives provide that organizations planning to hold conventions, conferences, tradeshows or group meetings after Feb. 1 "will have to show how the war effort would suffer if the meetings were not held." The War Committee on Conventions, headed by Col. J. Monroe Johnson, approved an application form to be required of organizations planning group meetings to be attended by more than 50 persons. Information required includes : Whether the planned meeting is a convention, conference, tradeshow or government meeting; the date and location of the proposed meeting and name of hotel or other facilities that will be used; attendance planned; previous frequency of meetings; location and attendance of last previous meeting; average attendance at similar meetings before the war and during the war; from what area those attending are drawn; why the objectives of the meeting cannot be attained through "Conventions by Mail" ; why a group of 50 or less to whom powers are delegated^ cannot transact the necessary affairs of the organization and in what way and to what extent the war effort would sufTer if meeting were not held. It was declared by the agency's offices that the directives do not per se rule conventions and other meetings out of the travel picture, but seek to tighten existing controls. For example, if a convention is planned for a purpose adjudged helpful to the war effort, ODT will contmue to furnish application blanks and then act upon the request. Purpose of the directives is not to dislocate essential meetings, but rather to eliminate those not absolutely necessary. Meakin Feted at Testimonial A testimonial dinner to Hardie Meakin, for 15 years manager of RKO Keith's and now RKO divisional head, operating from Cincinnati, drew over 200 Washington, D. C, industry figures to the Hotel Willard Monday night. Rosenberg Elected Chairman of Industry's PIC Eastern Division Frank P. Rosenberg, director of advertising and publicity for Columbia Pictures, has been elected chairman of the eastern division of the Public Information Committee of the Motion Picture Industry. Glen Allvine, MPPDA, is secretary. Rosenberg succeeds Hal Horne, advertising and publicity chief of 20 th Century-Fox, who has occupied the post for the past six months. The new chairman will serve for a similar period. The western division of the Public Information Committee is headed by Harry Brand, chairman. Arch Reeve serves as secretary. Film Industry Jobs Continue ^Essential' Under the terms of new manpower priorities announced this week by the War Manpower Commission in a revision of its year-old list of critical and essential industry activities, the motion picture industry was placed in the "essential" category, or secondary grouping, along with broadcasting, press and magazines. Continued on the critical list are those jobs in the production of communication equipment, including radio and radio equipment, television and electrical sound equipment. Included among the various film occupations continued as essential but not critical are motion picture production of technical and vocational training films for the Army, Navy and production industries ; newsreels ; film processing and the development of sensitized film. Men between 26 and 29 engaged at one of these activities will hold priorities 1, 2, 4 or 5. Men in activities not on the list, or not declared locally essential, will comprise the first group to be called by Selective Service. Men in relatively unimportant jobs on the essential list who can be readily replaced are next to go, followed by the third group of men whose activities on the critical list include relatively unimportant jobs that can be filled fairly easy. The "relatively more important" men engaged in activities on the essential but not the critical list comprise the fourth group, while men performing key jobs ("technical, scientific or research workers") on either of the two lists form the fifth, or last group to be called. Because young actors under 30 will not be considered irreplaceable and will prtJbably be placed in the second group, a number of their loss is feared by the Hollywood studios, it was learned. With men being taken , out of war plants, it was also feared that studios could not expect to hold on to other workers under 30 unless they hold technical posts of extreme importance. Local Ruling to Determine Theatre Technicians' Status Theatre technicians will not receive preferred status but are likely to be subject to local rather than national jurisdiction in the present manpower shortage, it was learned following a conference in Washington this week between Harry Brandt and S. H. Fabian, representing the WAC Theatre Manpower Commission, and Collis Stocking of the WMC Essential Activities Committee. A previous attempt by the WAC to have projectionists and managers placed in some category of essential status in relation to the Selective Service Act and the United States Employment Service met with little success. Leonard Goldenson, William F. Crockett and representatives of the Treasury, Army, Navy and OCR were present at the conference and heard Stocking declare that the final classification was up to Selective Service rather than to the WMC. Frank Rosenberg Mother Learns Through Newsreel That Son Is Prisoner of Germans A newsreel film showing American prisoners of the Germans sitting in a field at Aachen provided the first link Mrs. Niels Christian 'Nielsen of Rochester, N. Y., had bad with her son since a letter from him dated Dec. 18. Mrs. Nielsen, attending a performance at Loew's, cried out "That's Irving" when the newsreel pictures flashed on the screen. Later, Manager Lester Pollock permitted the projectionist to cut off a piece of the film picturing her son. Until the newsreel scenes, Mrs. Nielsen had no knowledge her son was a prisoner of war.