Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1947)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, January 11, 1947 WHAT'S NEWS In the Film Industry This Week SOMETHING NEW— From factory to location and up in eight weeks. This was the prediction in Hollywood as Fox West Coast announced that the Crest, first of its pre-fashioned theatres which are built, even to the plumbing, entirely in a factory and then set up on concrete foundations, would be ready to open Jan. 23. The house built by Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser as an experiment is expected to herald an era in which factory-built theatres can be set up in as little as eight weeks. Seating 1,164 it is an all-steel job with gypsum panels and fibreglass ceilings. Possible snag for use in the U. S. — antipathy of the building trades unions. INDUSTRY IN THE COURTHOUSE— Exhibitor Louis B. Philon of Michigan City, Ind., wants competitive bidding. He wants it so badly that he went to court about it in another anti-trust suit which states that after he took over the closed Liberty Theatre of that city, which had been released by a circuit after a rent row with the owner, he found he couldn't get either first or second run pictures. Philon's suit is unusual in that it names almost all the picture distributors in the industry instead of the usual familiar names and that it seeks to set up the principles of the recent decree by separate suit. (See p. 11). Incidentally the New York statutory court decree was a little over a week old Thursday and already had proved a troublesome youngster to the people who have to be governed by it. Indications were that the distributordefendants would go into court shortly for clarification over moot points, notably flat rentals and percentage bids, advance notice on product availability and confusion around the use of certain words. An attempt to get modification of the decree was also in the offing. (See p. 9; for full text of the decree turn to page 15.) * * * EXHIBITION— Dishes are back again— and not in the kitchen sink. Filmack trailers this week announced that the percentage of orders for trailers announcing giveaways in theatres had risen markedly during January. Also Schine City Manager James C. Platte of Mt. Vernon, O., outbid his employer company on the 1947 lease for the Memorial Theatre there by $1,000 a year, indicating that he plans to become an active exhibitor shortly and Walter Reade bought some 16 theatres in New York and New Jersey which he had been formerly operating under lease from the estate of the late Frank V. Storrs. The loan negotiated in connection with the sale and remodeling of the houses was said to be $4,000,000. Nineteen Dallas subsequent-run houses are going first-run temporarily so that "The Outlaw," which has been shy on Texas circuit playing time, may get a booking day-anddate in that city. Openings are to be between Jan. 10 and Jan. 19. The Virginia Motion Picture Theatre Association has set its mid-winter convention for the Shoreham Hotel in Washington on Feb. 1-13. * * * TAXES— What looked like a break for exhibitors last week when President Truman announced the official end of the war with an accompanying end of special taxes six months later, seemed destined to be just another wrong steer this week as the President appealed to Congress to keep taxes just as they are. Accompanying the President's appeal was a noticed trend in congressional circles not to go through with anticipated tax cuts which probably means that the 20 per cent admission amusement tax, which otherwise would have droppd to 10 per cent on July 1, will be kept at 20 per cent by legislation. Just what this will do to plans in some states to slap a state admission tax on when the federal tax went off is another question. Something like a dozen states, in addition to money-needing municipalities, were planning an amusement tax. Whether they will lay off if the Government doesn't cut is anybody's guess, with the odds being that if they need the money badly enough they won't, GENERAL— The Film Daily 1946 poll picked "The Lost Week End" to head it's 10 best (others — "The Green Years," "Anna and the King of Siam," "The Bells of St. Mary's," "Spellbound," "Saratoga Trunk," "Henry V," "Notorious," "Leave Her to Heaven," "Night and Day,") and Photoplay Magazine announced its Gold Medal Awards would be made to "The Bells of St. Mary's" and to Actress Ingrid Bergman and Actor Bing Crosby. In Washington the State Department declared itself against retaliatory measures orf product from countries which were restricting American product, while France invoked an old law requiring permission from three ministries before a film could be dubbed, and said this was done to protect the country from old pictures. In New York Producer Emil Bourcart from France pleaded for a greater market for French pictures in America to assist the French industry which he said was in a bad state because French finance considered it a bad risk and would advance no loans. * * * LABOR — The west coast strike situation lumbered on with IATSE West Coast Representative Roy M. Brewer, stating that Joseph Keenan, secretary of the Chicago Federation of Labor had denied to him that he was coming to Hollywood again to settle differences. New York projectionists signed a 15 per cent wage increase contract with home offices for screening room projectionists and March of Time and the Screen Actors Guild composed their differences whereby the firm agrees to hire SAG members for some of its work. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS Advance Data 56 Audience Classifications 57 Box-Office Slants 43 Feature Booking Guide 50 Feature Guide Title Index 50 Hollywood 44 Newsreel Synopses 43 National Newsreel 9 Regional Newsreel 36 Selling the Picture 23 Shorts Booking Guide 58 Theatre Management 29 Adverting Manager ; West Coast Office, 6777 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood 28 California ; telephone Hollywood 2055; Ann Lewis, manager. London Representative, Jock MacGregor 16 Leinster Mews London W. 2 ; Autralian Representative, Gordon V. Curie, 1 Elliott St., Homebush Sydney Australia. Member Audit Bureau of Circulations. All contents copyright ( 1947 by Showmen's Trade Review, Inc. Address all correspondence to the New York office. Subscriptions rates : per year in the United States and Canada; Foreign, $5.00. Single copies, ten cents The N ews Spotli ght $2.00 MYRON BLANK who this week took over direction of the Central States Theatres of the Tri-States Group, one of the country's important theatre operations. JOHN P. ADLER who started show business when they cranked them by hand and who now celebrates 20 years of it in Waupaca, Wis., with plans to build new houses. MARK H. SILVER who this week became district manager for United Artists in the Pennsylvania-Washington territory. DORE SCHARY (The Man on the Cover) Actor, writer, producer, director, who wrote another important chapter in a successful 14year motion picture career last week when it was announced that he would succeed the late Charles Koerner as vice-president in charge of production for RKO Radio. Born in Newark, N. J. on Aug. 31, 1905 and after apprenticeship in stock companies and little theatres, Dore Schary began his movie career as a writer. In 1938 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded him an Oscar for the writing job on "Boys Town." Four years later MGM made him an executive producer, in which spot he turned out "Journey for Margaret" among other hits. Later he joined Vanguard to chalk up "I'll Be Seeing You and "Till the End of Time."