Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1946)

6 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, February 16, 1946 Periect Film Poll INDUSTRY NEWS Justices Stone, Frankfurter, Murphy Raise Voices for ^Brotherhood Week^ For the first time in the history of the country's highest tribunal three Supreme Court Justices this week temporarily doffed their robes to lend support to an outside activity— "American Brotherhood Week" — when Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone, and Justices Felix Frankfurter and Frank Murphy made public statements in Washington asking the nation to back the campaign for better racial understanding. The personal appeal of the Justices, who were photographed and recorded by newsreels, came just before the start of the drive sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, which begins this Sunday. The Justices themselves represented the three chief religious groups — Protestants, Catholics and Jews. Time of Confusion In his statement Chief Justice Stone remarked : "These are times of shifting standards and moral confusion. That this is true is due, more than all else, to the fact that mankind, despite its long and painful struggle up from barbarism, is not yet ready to accept in its fullness the ultimate truth that there can be no civilized society, there can be no peace or happiness among men, without freedom of the spirit and the mind for all men — and may I say also, unless we preserve intact the capacity for righteous indignation at every form of cruelty and injustice, and the urge to give vigorous expression to it. "Freedom of the mind and the spirit has its practical aspects in every-day life. It includes the right of every man to live and work in peace, to earn, to save, and to enjoy the fruits of his labor, so long as their enjoyment does no harm to his neighbor. It embraces the freedom of all men to seek the truth wherever it may lead, to think and speak freely, and to worship God according to the dictates of conscience." Faith in Common Man Justice Frankfurter said : "If one faith can be said to unite a whole nation surely the ideal that holds us together beyond any other is our belief in the moral worth of common man, whatever his race or religion. In this faith America was founded. This is the faith her poets and prophets have preached. To this faith unknown millions, generations after generation, have devoted their lives. "The unfolding of our .Republic is the story of the greatest racial admixture in history. Of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence eighteen were of non-English stock. Foreign-born citizens from almost every land fought in the War for Independence, helped to save the Union and are found on the honor rolls of the two World Wars. Full scope to the human spirit, whatever its racial or religious origin, is the distinctive hallmark of Americanism. This was the conviction expressed by President Roosevelt on the occasion of the Fifti It Was Inevitable When a resident of Vancouver, British Columbia, was brought before a magistrate on a charge of intoxication he received a fine and a long lecture on temperance. The climax of the harangue was an impassioned demand that the miscreant attend a showing of "The Lost Weekend" and learn from Ray Milland what the future held for him if he did not mend his ways. eth Anniversary of the Statue of Liberty. "I like to think of the men and women who, with the break of dawn off Sandy Hook, have strained their eyes to the West for the first glimpse of the New World. They came to us speaking many tongues— but a single language, the universal language of human aspiration. How well their hopes were justified is proved by the record of what they achieved. They not only found freedom in the New World, but by their effort and devotion, they made the New World's freedom safer, richer, more far-reaching, more capable of growth." Greatest Free GovernmentJustice Murphy declared : "Our nation has been built upon democratic principles. One of these principles is that each among us is to be treated as a human being without regard to the land from which his forefathers came, his racial background, his creed. We should not think of ourselves as Jews or Gentiles. We are American. If any community in our nation betrays the tenets of civil and religious liberty a damaging blow will be inflicted on the greatest system of free government known to man. "Too few Americans know American history. Men unrelated in racial origin, drawn from every corner of the earth, and professing various religious creeds, combined their efforts and their talents to create a 'New World' of free men. From the first until this hour it has been our duty, if we really believe in democracy, to secure each man against injustice by his fellows, prevent discrimination and preserve for him his right to hold the religious views that best meet his own soul needs." Phone Timefcible Service Ineeugurcsted This Week The recently announced timetable service for New York theatres was scheduled to be inaugurated this week by Movietime, Inc., with offices in Brooklyn. The system revolves around a battery of 45 telephone operators who furnish name of picture, cast and time of each performance when the number Main 5-6171 is called. MGM Southern Sales Head Rudolph Berger, southern sales manager of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, presided at a divisional meeting of his organization at the Biltmore Hotel, Atlanta, February 11-12. Attending the session were : Burtus Bishop, district manager, and Leroy Bickel, branch manager, Dallas, Tex. ; Charles E. Kessnich, district manager, and William B. Zoellner, branch manager, Atlanta; Louis C. Ingram, branch manager, Memphis ; Jack ReVille, branch manager, Oklahoma City; Frank Hensler, branch manager, Kansas City; C. J. Briant, branch manager, New Orleans, and Benn H. Rosenwald, branch manager, Charlotte, N. C. UA Accessories Through NSS United Artists has completed arrangements whereby National Screen Service will handle the distribution of all the company's advertising accessories, effective March 1. Stoltz Handles Premiere Arnold Stoltz, director of advertising and publicity for PRC, left Tuesday for Detroit for the Michigan premiere of PRC's "The Enchanted Forest." Voting for the year's ten best pictures has now reached a group of men who were not polluted by outside influences nor interests — men whose opinions could not be swayed by expensive dinners from the producers, whose minds were iii a position to think completely freely. They chose RKO's "The Bells of St. Mary's" as the leader of the first ten films. The poll took place ar San Quentin prison. Rank Plans ^Immediate^ Start on 20 New Houses With the arrival in Toronto this week of John Davis, trade ambassador for J. Arthur Rank, it was learned that Odeon Theatres of Canada expects to start an immediate building program that calls for 15 to 20 theatres in the Dominion during the next eighteen months. Davis himself said in an interview that the first houses built will be show cases in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, where properties have already been acquired. Rank is partner with Paul L. Nathanson in the operation of Odeon Theatres of Canada. Asked how Odeon was able to go into such extensive construction in view of the labor and materials situation, Davis added the proviso "if strikes in the States and elsewhere do not interfere." Scarcity of materials, equipment and skilled labor had delayed various earlier projects, including the Nathanson-Rank studio at Toronto. This is also expected to get under way soon, Davis said. In connection with recent alliances signed by Rank with American film interests, Davis declared that the quota of Hollywood pictures would ibe released in Canada through the EagleLion office in Toronto, in addition to the full list of British pictures produced by Rank. Kerr Succeeds Glenn Cook as Monogram Production Manager Charles Kerr, liaison between the Signal Corps and studios in the production of training films for the past 2% years, has been appointed production manager at Monogram, succeeding Glenn Cook, who has been elevated to the position of supervisor of production. Kerr has made one picture since leaving government service, acting as production manager on recently completed Lum and Abner film at RKO. Set to Manufacture 'Seeing Eye' Device Invented by Cameraman Cameraman Joseph Walker has authorized the Gray Manufacturing Co., Hartford, Conn., to turn out his "seeing eye" range finder for the blind. First range finders manufactured will go to a government institution where blind war veterans are undergoing a retraining program. Walker is now filming "The Story of Jolson" at Columbia. Lipton, Serkowich Feted More than eighty-five members of Columbia's advertising, publicity, special events and exploitation departments were present at the Hotel Astor last Friday at a luncheon in honor of David A. Lipton and Benjamin H. Serkowich, retiring and incoming directors. Those on the dais, in addition to Lipton and Serkowich, were: N. B. Spingold, Hortense Schorr, Sidney Alexander, Sylvia Kossack,^ Al_ Rylander, Jack Meyer and Lawrence Lipsldn.