Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1947)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW. February 1. 1947 13 NATIONAL NEWSREEL CSU Seeks Strike Talks Members of the striking Conference of Studio Unions met with the Interfaith Council of Los Angeles Wednesday in an effort to bring about a meeting with producers in the current strike situation. The meeting took place after a march on the Los Angeles City Council of 300 CSU representatives demanding that the producers reopen negotiations, had failed. A spokesman for the producers, who claimed that CSU replacements to date had cost the studios $5,000,000, said that before any negotiations would be opened the CSU must agree: 1) That acts of violence and mass picketing be eliminated; 2) to abide by AFL decisions of 1945 and July 2, 1946 (defining jurisdiction); 3) not to cause further work stoppages. Kansas City, Kan., Ready for First-Run War A battle to bring first-run pictures to theatres of Kansas City, Kan., is developing through a committee organized by the city's Chamber of Commerce. Committee has been formed within a smaller Chamber group composed of theatre managers on the Kansas side. Heading the group is Jack Truitt, operator of the Electric Theatre. Other committee members include Managers : W. E. Fulton, Avenue ; R. R. Biechele, Osage; John Meyn, Park, and Woody YVodward, manager of the Chamber of Commerce. Truitt is also president of the managers' club. Kansas theatres are now operating under clearance regulations which have been in effect without a change for more than a decade. The Electric and Granada, the Fox-Midwest Kansas first-run. now play 28 days after the close of a picture's run on the Missouri side. The subsequents following along at two-week intervals, depending on the price scale. The situation is cited by the committee as a particular source of grievance since theatres in surrounding towns, such as Leavenworth and Lawrence, Kan., and Independence, Mo., play pictures before they are seen in the Kansas City, Kan. houses. This is thought to be a case unique for a city of 125,000 population. Another source of grievance is the long runs which top films are getting in the Missouri first-runs, many of them staying for three and four weeks, setting the Kansas dates back that much farther. The committee has just gone through the organizational stages, and the next step will be a meeting to determine a course of action. Karsch Sells 8 Theatres Sales of eight theatres of the George H. Karsch Lead Belt Amusement Company to the Edwards and Harris Theatre Company was announced this week in St. Louis. The houses are all located in Missouri. J. Harold Harris of Edwards and Harris is a former general manager for the H. J. Griffith Circuit. Eagle-Lion Release Dates Eagle-Lion this week announced release dates set for the following pictures : Jan. 25, "It's a Joke, Son!"; Feb. 1, "Bedelia"; March 17, "The Adventuress"; March 29, 'Lost Honeymoon." 'Bedelia' Premieres Dual premiere of Eagle-Lion's Britishmade "Bedelia" took place Wednesday night at both the Harrisburg, Pa., Senate Theatre and Reading, Pa., Astor following extensive exploitation which included department store tie-ins and proclamations issued by Gov. James H. Duff as well as by Harrisburg Mayor Howard Milliken and Reading Mayor J. Henry Stump. Isadore Goldsmith, producer of "Bedelia" attended both premieres. This is the second Eagle-Lion premiere within eight days, the first being the American-made "It's a Joke, Son!" last week in Austin. Special Goldwyn Company For Roadshowing 'Lives' Samuel Goldwyn this week set up a special organization to handle roadshowing of "The Best Years of Our Lives." Incorporated in Delaware as Samuel Goldwyn Pictures, Inc., the new firm, according to a spokesman in the headquarters of Samuel Goldwyn Productions, Inc., will present "de luxe, pre-release engagements in selected theatres throughout the United States." The spokesman said it would apparently handle only "The Best Years of Our Lives" and no other productions, though the new corporation is also licensed as a distributor as well as an exhibitor. He denied that it would handle non-Goldwyn product for roadshowing and said he thought the corporation would be dissolved after "The Best Years" has completed its roadshow schedule. RKO is to assist the new organization in getting theatres and in the physical handling of the film. Goldwyn offices also said that "The Best Years" would not be released generally before Jan. 1, 1948. Meanwhile St. Louis reported that the new Goldwyn organization had been authorized to do business in Missouri and that the United States Corporation Company .would be its principal agent there. Screen Writers May Ask Share of Reissue Profits Hint that the Screen Writers Guild may seek in the future to provide for contracts which will allow writers to profit on reissues of their screenplays was seen in Hollywood this week as the February issue of their publication, The Screen Writer, touched upon the subject of reissues. The article says that reissues mean money out of the writer's pocket and estimated that one studio with its program of 22 reissues means that at least 88 writers are "deprived of jobs." ". . . We are not proposing a ban on reissues," the article reads. "Fine plays are revived, fine books are republished and fine pictures certainly should be reissued. The difference is that fine plays and books pay royalties each time they appear. . . ." Alexander Sales Agent Alexander Films Company, producers of screen advertising films, this week announced that World Sc reen Advertising, a sales organization with offices in New York which was formed in September, 1946, had been appointed its sales agents in all countries but the United States and Canada. Gamble Warns Against Lowering of Admissions Theatre business in the northwest is still good though it has fallen off somewhat in line with the rest of the country, Ted Gamble, exhibitor chief of the Gamble circuit in Portland, Oregon, and board chairman of the American Theatres Association, said in New Y&rk Tuesday. Gamble declared there was no public resentment over increased admissions and warned that exhibitors who thought they might increase the diminishing volume of attendance in the past few months by cutting prices were decidedly on the wrong track, since it would be impossible to decrease costs. Both film ^revenue and labor's salaries, he declared, would have to remain sufficient to meet present conditions. "If we don't give the films revenue, we won't get the quality of pictures we need," he declared,.adding that under present costs of living the American workingman could not be expected to accept any decrease in salary. Northwestern exhibitors are excited and confused over competitive bidding, he reported, and almost to a man against it. Grace Moore Services Plans for a memorial funeral service for Grace Moore, 45-year-old concert and opera singer killed in a plane crash in Denmark last Sunday to be held in her birth city of Chattanooga, were being formulated Wednesday. Other memorial services were held Thursday at the Riverside Church in New York. Miss Moore started a cycle of films based on operatic sequences with the success of her "One Night of Love." Fear Film Shortage Subsequent-run exhibitors of Indianapolis seemed about to be faced with a critical shortage of product this week as downtown first-runs continued a policy of holdovers and move-overs to an unprecedented degree. Only one new picture has opened in this city since Jan. 26; six of the seven major first-runs are holding over. One picture was in its sixth downtown week, one in a fourth, another in a third. All the first-runs, except Keith's, which has been acquired by Universal, are operated by RKO.