Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1946)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, December 7, 19^6 13 NATIONAL NEWSREEL F^vor Hollywood Red Hunt Representatives of the House Committee on un-American activities met in Hollywood Monday and after a closed hearing said that Communist activities in the motion picture industry should be investigated by the full committee next spring. After the hearing, Committee Counsel Ernie Adamson said that sifting of documents and other information established it as a fact "not open to debate" that the Communist party was boring into the motion picture industry as part of a prepared plan. Summoned to appear at the hearing were Conference of Studio Unions President Herbert K. Sorrell, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes' Roy Brewer and Radio Commentator Averill Herman. Representative John S. Wood (D., Ga.) held the hearing with Adamson. Brownout Business Off, Showmen Compliance 100% {Continued from Page 9) ington theatres to see what savings there were in brownout regulations. The check made on two downtown theatres and four large neighborhood theatres showed that theatres used up about 8 watts per person attending, whereas the power company's records on home consumption showed, from a survey of 40,000 families in the District of Columbia, that the average consumption of watts was about 71 per person in the home. The point is made that the person attending the theatre is actually consuming less current than if he were at home. Claim Lew Pswer Use The letter further claims that the power consumed by 60 theatres in the District of Columbia is around 12,000 kilowatt hours per day, whereas the total output of the Potomac Electric Power Company at this season of the year in Washington is 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 kilowatt hours, thereby indicating that the savings gained by closing theatres would be one-fifth of one per cent. Columbus, Ohio, which did not put the brownout into effect until after Thanksgiving because the city felt that a brownout would not save a large amount of electricity, found theatres enjoying a brisk holiday trade. At present all theatres are cooperating with the dimout as theatres are using their 60-watt marquee allowance in various ways. One theatre had a single bulb above the box-office. Others uses six 10-watters and a few have recently purchased fluorescent tubes. Harrisburg, Pa., which thought that ample coal supplies, obtainable right from the Susquehanna River which passes through the city, would allow it to escape a brownout, found out differently and obeying orders, went dim. No Demand for Diesels In Milwaukee, where coal supplies are said to be in excellent shape, exhibitors appeared unworried and were cool to offers to buy Diesel driven generators, regarding them at present as too big an expense. From Indianapolis came word that the Associated Theatre Owners of Indiana was advising its members that government surplus portable generating plants could be had through several companies. Reports from across the country indicate that no houses have been compelled to close to date. In the Rocky Mountain area where the weather went viciously cold, theatres, burning fuel oil or gas, were open while schools closed. In Denver Fox Tntermountain offered six of its houses for an hour an a half daily as classrooms. The Public Service Company, which heats some houses with steam, estimated it had a 45-day supply of coal on hand. Taxes Taxes continued to hold an important place in exhibitor circles this week, with with the latest spurt to discussion being caused by Sen. Glen Taylor, (D. Idaho), who disagrees with the Republican program for tax reduction and would take off amusement taxes on admissions. Second cause for discussion was remote, coming from Havana where Cuban authorities were said to be considering a 50 per cent increase in amusement taxes. Product InventorY Big Hs Season Nears Finish (Continued from Page 10) Lamb," "Vendetta," "Who Killed Doc Robin," "Arch of Triumph," "The Other Love," "Ramrod." Universal-International: (21) "A Lady Surrenders," "Brief Encounter," "Buck Private Comes Home," "The Egg and I," "I'll be Yours," "The Magic Bow," "My Heart Goes Crazy," "Oh Say Can You Sing," "Pirates of Monterey," "Slave Girl," "Smash-Up," "Stairway to Heaven," "This Happy Breed," "Time Out of Mind," "The Vigilantes Return," "The Wicked Lady," "Odd Man Out," "Johnny Frenchman," "The Captive Heart," "I Know Where I'm Going," "The Years Between." Warner Bros.: (19) "Beast With Five Fingers," "Cheyenne," "Cry Wolf," "Dark Passage," "Deep Valley," "Escape Me Never," "Humoresque," "Life with Father," "Love and Learn," "My Wild Irish Rose," "Night Unto Night," "Nora Prentiss," "Possessed," "Pursued," "Stallion Road," "That Way With Women," "The Two Mrs. Carrols," "The Unfaithful," "The Woman in White." 'Seeds' on 16-nini. Nation-wide distribution of the Army-made starvation film, "Seeds of Destiny," began this week on a 16-mm. basis, with the distribution being handled by the Films of the Nations, Inc., and Ideal Pictures Corporation. The film was submitted to the American Theatres Association for viewing in an effort to get it outlets through national theatres but was rejected as gruesome. Heavy Snow, Rain, Low B.O. Heavy snows in Washington State, along with excessive rains in Oregon, lowered boxoffice receipts in that area from 10 to 20 per cent during the past week, reports from Portland said. Film deliveries from Oregon Film Services however got through. Clofine Named Michael Clofine, an editor of News of the Day, this week was selected by the newsreels to represent it on the proposed 12-man industry committee which is intended to act as liaison between government, charitable films and exhibition. Frisch Services Held Funeral services for Louis Kriscli, 58-year old treasurer of the Randforce Amusement Corporation and one-time partner of Sam RinzIcr, were held Sunday in (Brooklyn at Garfeld Temple. Friscii had been associated with Fox .Metropolitan Playhouses, Inc., and later with Randforce. He is survived by his widow, Rose, and two daughters. Studi® Shutdown Likely As Producers Take Stand {Continued from Page 11) tion decision had awarded the carpenters construction of all outdoor sets and the lATSE construction of sets within studios. When other CSU unions refused to touch lATSE-built sets, discharges resulted and the CSU strike call followed. The lATSE unions crossed CSU picket lines and began furnishing lATSE replacements for CSU strikers. Later, the lATSE processing technicians union Local 683, revolted, apparently due to a contract difficulty and, defying the lATSE, refused to cross CSU picket lines. Deprived of the vitally important film processors, studio operations slowed down and practically stopped in color film laboratories. The lATSE attempted to seize the rebelling union but was prevented by guards, whereupon the lATSE organized another processing union and ordered all members loyal to it not to pay dues into the other local. Eventually, the AFL committee (which had written the original jurisdictional allotments) reported that the lATSE claim to construction of sets within the studios was correct and that it had never written a "clarification." All parties were said to be in agreement, and the CSU was reported to have accepted the AFL committee ruling. Hope for labor peace, however, foundered, on the rocks of by-products of the original strike — demands for re-opening wage discussions, signing contracts which reportedly had not been signed, and insistance by the lATSE that the replacements it had brought in for striking CSU workers, be provided lor. It is in this welter of confusion that what originally started out as a jurisdictional matter ■ — ^on the fact of the reasons ascribed for the strike anyway — now stands. Gross Tax Back St. Louis' bill to impose a gross tax weekly on amusement admissions was back in the lap of the municipal Legislative Committee this week in a rewritten form which reduced the proposed tax from the original five per cent to three per cent. The original bill, with its five per cent tax, was in the Legislative Committee for several months but was finally brought out, amended and ordered back to the Legislative Committee, presumably to give the affected industries an opportunity to be heard on the tax in its reduced form. The amended measure would require each theatre to post a $2,000 bond or $1,000 cash deposit to guarantee payment of the tax. The measure is an outgrowth of the city's financial difficulties.