Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1945)

8 \ SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW April 14, 1945 Local 1421 Protests NLRB Strike Hearing Telegrams directed early this week, to the Screen Set Designers, the Warner and Paramount units of the Screen Office Employes Guild, lATSE and three attorneys representing the producers contained , an invitation to the principals in the Hollywood studio strike situation to present their cases to the National War Labor Board in a hearing scheduled for April 26 in Washington. Protest against a new hearing on oral arguments in the dispute as requested by the lATSE was wired to the NLRB by Attorney Frank Petsano, counsel for Screen Set Designers, Local 1421, who declared LA.TSE had not given 1421 any notice of its petition to the NLRB and contended that lATSE had had ample opportunity to submit evidence during the recent two weeks' hearing conducted in Los Angeles. He asserted that "such dilatory tactics by lATSE and the producers have been the major factors in causing the present strike." Representatives of the Conference of Studio Unions declared that the strikers would not return to work until members of Local 1421 had been given a contract by the producers. It was also announced that a list of all pictures being made under strike conditions will be sent to every labor organization in the country, with union members to use their own judgment regarding patronizing them. Herbert K. Sorrell, CSU president, charged at a conference mass meeting Sunday night that Richard F. Walsh, lATSE president, had received a portion of the $2 million lATSE two per cent assessment levied a few years ago. Replying to the charge, Walsh said : "So far as my personal record is concerned, I can assure Mr. Sorrell that every cent I have ever received from the lATSE, with the exception of my salary, has been spent in the interest of the alliance." A movement to have international presidents of the studio unions on strike appeal to the executive council of the American Federation of Labor to have Walsh disciplined and ousted for instituting a vertical union in the strike was led by Joe Cambiano, coast representative of the carpenters union. Rank Due in Canada May 1 Simultaneous with the arrival of J. Arthur Rank in Canada anticipated around May 1, the Odeon Circuit will start a sustained drive featuring kiddie shows throughout the Dominion with the exception of Quebec, where children are legally forbidden in movie houses irrespective of whether or not they are accompanied by their parents or guardians. Fred Joyce Wifh Cowan Fred Joyce has been appointed Midwest exploitation representative of Lester Cowan Productions. Joyce will work out of Chicago under the direction of Albert Margolies, Eastern director of publicity and advertising. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS Advance Dope 51 Box-Office Slants 20 Current Product Summary 48 Feature Booking Guide 44 Feature Guide Title Index 47 Hollywood 38 Newsreel Synopses 43 Regional Newsreel 22 Selling the Picture 15 Shorts Booking Guide 49 Short Subject Reviews 42 One Out of The part that movies play in entertaining soldiers, sailors and marines in New York is revealed in tabulations made public this week by H. J. Cleary, head of Loew's theatres statistical department. From Sept. 1, 1943, to Jan. 18, 1945— the period covered by Cleary's report — Loew's theatres alone in the New York area issued 4,800,359 cut-price tickets to men and women in uniform, representing five per cent of the total attendance. In the Times Square area, the five Loew theatres issued 2,723,218 cut-price tickets from the above total, representing 18^ per cent of all admissions — or an average of one out of every six moviegoers in uniform. No Change Indicated in WB Withdrawal From MPPDA Despite Harry M. Warner's reelection to the board of directors of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association at its annual meeting last month, he will serve until May 1, at which time the resignation of Warner Bros, from the MPPDA becomes effective. Up 'to the weekend no indication pointed to the likelihood that WB will seek reinstatement with the association ; and Harry M. Warner, unless reinstatement is effected, will serve out the unexpired term. Warner Bros, submitted its resignation Dec. 1, 1944, but under the constitution by-laws of the association the withdrawal is not ofificial until six months after formal notice has been given. O'Connell Loses Court Petition, Loop Now Closes at Midnight With Common Pleas Judge Harvey G. Straub turning down Manager Jack O'Connell's application for continuance of a temporary injunction to restrain Local 228, operators, from interfering with operation of the house after midnight, Toledo's curfew-defying Loop Theatre now closes at midnight. When the regular night shift operator, Norman Stokes, left the booth one night last week. O'Connell's wife, Virginia, took over operations until S a.m. With the court action against him, and following a conference with John B. Fitzgerald of Cleveland, lATSE international representative, and local officials of the operators union, O'Connell reached the decision to suspend daily operations at midnight. Schusel, Herman Join Classics Seymour Schusel, long associated with Columbia in the greater New York area, has been appointed manager of the New York branch of Film Classics, and Leon Herman, for many years a salesman for United Artists in the upstate New York territory was named manager of the Film Classics branch in Buffalo. Both appointments, to become effective April 16, were announced this week by Irving Wormser. Eastern sales manager of Film Classics. 5 WB Field Men in Town Five Warner Bros, field representatives arrived in New York Monday for conferences with Mort Blumenstock on future assignments. Group includes Ted Tod, who is assuming a new post with headquarters in Washington ; George Fishman, Philadelphia ; Art Moger, Boston ; Herb Pickman, Atlanta, and Richard Stephens, Central District. . Industry Plans Films For Security Conference Daily motion picture showings for the exclusive attendance of official delegates, the press, the secretariat and others holding credentials to the San Francisco Security Conference starting April 25 will be provided by the United States motion picture industry in a balanced program representing selections from the studios of participating countries. The Alcazar Theatre, donated by Charles Skouras, will be renamed the United Nations Theatre for the duration of the conference. The 1100 seats will be held available for those possessing credentials. Scheduling of programs will be in charge of an industry committee composed of Claude Lee and Fay Reeder, who will be in San Francisco during the conference ; Col. Jason Joy and Charles Einfeld in Hollywood, and Howard Dietz, Arthur DeBra and Glendon Allvine in New York. In addition there will be a Conference Theatre for the presentation of films of a documentary nature. Barney Balaban, president of Paramount Pictures, is the executive chairman of the committee cooperating with the government, while Howard Dietz, MGM vice-president, is chairman of the planning committee. Motiograph Sales Volume Six Times 1941 Levels Motiograph's manufacturing activities continue at capacity at all three of the company's Chicago factories with the increase in volume of production over pre-war levels indicated by the fact that 1944 sales were more than six times those of 1941, it was said in Chicago last week by Fred C. Matthews, head of the company. Matthews said that the company holds a backlog of orders in excess of $4,500,000 which figure does not include substantial orders for sound and projection equipment for postwar delivery. Regarding the postwar projector model, Matthews announced that the machines are undergoing rigid tests and that the new model is so different from the present Model K Projector that only two parts of the new machine are interchangeable with the present model. First-Run issue to Be Aired In Ball Anti-Trust Trial The issue whether a run stays with the theatre and not with the former operators who open another theatre, is among others, the cardinal point which will be aired in the U. S. District Court in Pittsburgh, Pa., April 19, when the trial is scheduled to begin in the anti-trust action brought by James Norman Ball, operating the Penn Theatre, Ambridge, Pa. The Penn was leased by the NotopoulosParamount interests from Ball as a first-run house until the circuit built the State Theatre and the Penn went back to Ball, with the State becoming the first-run house. Ball seeks the restoration of first-run at the Penn. SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW Title and Trade Mark Registered U. S. Patent Office Published every Friday by Showmen's Trade Review Inc., 1501 Broadway, New York 18, N. Y. Telephone BRyant 9-5606. Charles E. "Chick" Lewis, Editor and Publisher; Tom Kennedy, Associate Editor; James A. Cron, General Manager; Ralph Cokain, Managing Editor; David Harris, Business and Circulation Manager; Harold Rendall, Equipment Advertising Manager; West Coast Office, 6777 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood 28, California; Telephone Hollywood 2055. Ann Lewis, manager. London Representative, Milton Deane, 185 Fleet St., London E.C. 4; Austrahan Representative, Gordon V. Curie, 1 Elliott St., Homebush, Sydney, Australia. Member Audit Bureau of Circulations. All contents copyright 1945 by Showmen's Trade Review, Inc. Address all correspondence to the New York office. Subscription rates : $2.00 per year in the United States and Canada; Foreign, $5.00. Single copies, ten cents.