Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1947)

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SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, February 1, 1947 WHAT'S NEWS hi . the Film Industry Tills Week INDUSTRY IN THE COURTHOUSE — The Decree front was quiet this week with most bets being that if an appeal is filed it will be by March 1 and that lawyers will not seek to take advantage of the delay which filing of motions to amend the decree would assumably grant them. Meanwhile the judges had not ruled on the defendants' motions. The courthouse, however, was active on the damage front. In Boston the majors who are defendants in a suit A. B. Momand originally filed years ago in Oklahoma City and lost on a technicality which did not prevent him from refiling the case, protested to the court that a jury verdict in Momand's favor of $996,000 damages was "unreasonable" and asked the court to throw it out. And traveling to Buffalo on behalf of some new clients, Attorney Thomas McConnell of Chicago's Jackson Park case filed suit against the majors and Buffalo Theatres. Suit charges monopoly on first-run against the plaintiff Rivoli Theatre and asks for an injunction giving the Rivoli run immediately after first-run without clearance, the right to buy on a competitive basis as well as — $1,250,000 in punitive damages. * * * LABOR— The Conference of Studio Unions, failing by a march on the Los Angeles City Hall to compel producers to begin negotiations to end the strike, sought the aid of the Interfaith Council, while producers insisted that the conditions they lay down for such a meeting (abolition of violence and mass picketing, acceptance of the AFL jurisdictional definitions and no further work stoppages) be adopted before any talk started. Producers estimated the CSU replacements to date have cost $5,000,000. Looking askance at reissues as depriving writers of work the Screen Writers Guild asserted that book and play reissues at least paid royalties. * * * TAXES — The House of Representatives voted to extend luxury taxes (including admission levies) at present rates for an indefinite period. Amusement taxes for December incidentally climbed up again, reaching a total of $1,182,756.30. Minneapolis faced a possible 30 per cent total tax on amusements since Rep. George A. French plans to introduce a measure which would allow the city to tax amusements 10 per cent even if the federal 20 per cent tax remains, and Maryland has before it a state tax bill predicated on the assumption that the federal tax will be reduced. EXHIBITION— Worried over the increasing criticism of films during the past month (latest attacks: Mrs. Eugene Meyer in Washington before a women's gathering attacking the industry for its code change which, she said, permits "dope" pictures; Hearst newspapers on morals, etc.) and thought something should be done by the industry about it. No new suggestions were advanced, however. (See p. 9). Motion Picture Theatre Owners President Fred Wehrenberg issued an invitation to all exhibitor groups to meet in New York on March 10-11 to discuss and plan his suggested Industry Forum, and Allied Counsel Abram F. Myers, in his annual report, favored industry conferences and cooperation but insisted that the independent exhibitor be treated as a separate group of the industry. The Theatre Owners of North and South Carolina passed resolutions denouncing audience collections, high rentals for reissues and reelected Ben Strozier president, while the Associated Motion Picture Theatre Owners of Western Pennsylvania reelected Morris Finkel president, and the Pacific Coast Conference of Independent Theatre Owners, meeting in Portland, recommended that its units set up machinery to police decree regulations. Subsequent-run exhibitors in Indianapolis seemed worried about product shortage due to long first-runs; Sam Goldwyn formed Sam Goldwyn Pictures to roadshow "The Best Years of Our Lives" by renting houses (general release will not be till Jan. 1, 1948), a practice which United Artists is said to be also contemplating; Ontario, Canada, exhibitors believe that 16-mm. exhibition is muscling in on their territories and are prepared to act about it; a check of seven American cities in view of longer first-run shows few if any policy changes; Balaban and Katz have eliminated weekday matinees in their subsequent-runs where attendance had dropped off, and Eagle-Lion premiered "Bedelia" Wednesday in Harrisburg and Reading, Pa. * * * DISTRIBUTION— Fourteen distribution companies showed a reserve of 200 pictures as February opened; Universal claimed its biggest profits in 10 years of increasing profitable operation; Astor Pictures started to roadshow its 16-mm. Negro features — part of a plan to get in communities where they were not booked or rentals were unsatisfactory; and from London Jack Warner announced that his company would distribute pictures made by the Associated British Picture Corporation as part of their regular distribution program and not just as extra pictures. Almost immediately on the heels of the Warner announcement which brought a statement from Sir Stafford Cripps that socialization of the industry would not be feasible, the Film Industry Employes Council again demanded that films be made under conditions amounting to partial socialization and that four-fifths of the labor costs on any British picture be paid to British subjects. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS Advance Data 52 Audience Classifications 53 Box-Office Slants 38 Feature Booking Guide 46 Feature Guide Title Index 46 Hollywood 42 Regional Newsreel 23 Selling the Picture 17 Shorts Booking Guide 54 Short Subject Reviews 41 Theatre Equipment and Maintenance Begins Opposite 38 Theatre Management 36 The Show Builder 39 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, Title and Trade Mark Registered U. S. Patent Office. Published every Friday by Showmen's Trade Review, Inc., 1501 Broadwav, New York 18, N. Y Telephone LOngacre 3-0121. Charles E. 'Chick' Lewis, Editor and Publisher; Tom Kennedy, Associate EditorJames A. Cron, General Manager; Ralph Cokain, Managing Editor; Harold Rendall, Equipment Advertising Manager; West Coast Office, 6777 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood 28, California; Telephone Hollywood 2055 ; Ann Lewis, manager. London Representative, Jock MacGregor 16 Lemster Mews, London, W.2; Autralian Representative, Gordon V. Curie, 1 Elliott St Homeb'ush 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 ■ $2 00 per year m the United States and Canada; Foreign, $5.00. Single copies, ten cents The News Spotlight WILLIAM A. SCULLY, Universal general sales manager, who is expected to announce the company's new sales policy as soon as conferences now in ses^ sion are ended (P. 12). LOREN L. RYDER, Society of Motion Picture Engineers president, who predicts theatre television soon. JACK L. WARNER who promised that all Associated British Pictures would be distributed by the Warner distributing outlets. (P. 12). Benedict Bogeerus (The Man on the Cover) President of Benedict Bogeaus Productions and owner of the General Service Studio, Hollywood, who, in the relatively short span of four years has risen from obscurity to prominence as one of the industry's most successful independent producers. The producer's latest picture for United Artists distribution is "The Macomber Affair," in which Gregory Peck is starred and which is set for early release. Bogeaus has another picture, "A Miracle Can Happen" ready for release and still another, "Christmas Eve," is in the editing stage.