Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1947)

WHArS NEWS In the Film Industry This Week EXHIBITION— Several years ago the Justice Department proceeded against Ascap on monopoly charges. The suit never was decided since both parties entered a consent decree under which Ascap now operates. The consent decree, denounced by exhibitor leaders as giving Ascap government sanction on some alleged abuses, such as raising rates, this week stood as apparently another road-block in exhibitor anti-Ascap effort. From Washington informed sources said that there was little likelihood of the Justice Department proceeding at exhibitor request against Ascap as a monopoly until all remedies provided for in the decree had been exhausted. What this boils down to, among other things, is that an alternate royalty plan, provided for under the decree, must first be tried. This alternate plan bases public performance royalties on a piece-by-piece basis instead of under a blanket collection as at present. In Chicago where the city wants to put on a municipal tax and in St. Louis where if the city does carry out its announced plan box-offices face an overall 27 per cent tax, exhibitors were taking the argument to the public via press and their screens. In St. Paul the city council there found its efforts to impose a five per cent city tax stymied by the Minnesota Amusement Company, RKO and North Central Allied. In Detroit, Michigan Allied asked the attorney general to take criminal action against advanced admission price demands, moved to try to swing the public against the rises, condemned Ascap and asked criminal proceedings against it and vinll seek to get competitive rates on film delivery. Directors elected are E. L. Jacobs, Bernard L. Kilbride, Irving Belinsky, A. Krikerian, Herbert R. Fox. National advertising by distributors does have an effect on box-office attendance when it penetrates an area, Texas Exhibitor Julius Gordon declared, a statement which the returns on the special benefit Variety Clubs International premiere on "Variety Girl" (P. 10). bear cut. In Harrisburg, Pa., showmen won their fight to get a vote on Sunday shows and are carrying their fight now to the people through trailers and newspaper ads telling the public not what the fight is about but how to use a voting machine. In Plymouth, Ohio, Ed Ramsey, who closed his 220-seat Plymouth in protest over a tax which would compel him to reveal his business, reopened when the city council made it a finable offense for any city official to make such revelation. In Washington it appeared as if the Motion Picture Association might still be studying the Sir Alexander King plan for an alternate to the 75 per cent British ad valorem tax which it had rejected last week. Sir Alexander wants Americans to get one-third of their earnings out of Britain without any hindrance, to invest another third in British production and to spend the third third guaranteeing British pictures from $12,000,000 to $16,000,000 playing time on American screens. In Hollywood the Independent Motion Picture Producers refused to join the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers in its fight on the British ad valorem tax. But when Congress meets the IMPP will appeal for support. DISTRIBUTION— MGM reportedly was expenmentmg with efforts to sell films by letter and by phone in the St. Louis and Cleveland areas, where it had pulled its salesmen off the road. Columbia would not ask any exhibitor to play pictures at advanced prices or run a picture longer than it could profitably be run, General Sales Manager A. Montague said this week. Further it would not cut its national advertising, but would expect exhibitor cooperation in getting more out of a film due to the loss of foreign markets, which Montague said might go as high as 75 per cent of the foreign revenues. United Artists was starting out with a $32,000,000 production and purchase plan, $5,000,000 of which went to buy RKO's "Out of the Past," "Station West," "Return of the Badmen," "Indian Summer." And RKO's Bob Mochrie was expressing enthusiasm that RKO had 12 top-budget pictures scheduled for release between now and the end of the year. Cinecolor, which this week founded Cinecolor Finance to make loans to producers wishing to process negative and release prints, also announced it would build a new iilOO,OuO addition to its Burbank plant and . . . right ahead of this came the report that it had acquired full ownership of Film Classics through a stock swap deal which puts FC President Joe Bernhard in the Cinecolor outfit as a stockholder and director while leaving him still at the helm of FC. FC will start to distribute for independent producers in addition to its reissue plans and will take over as many of its branches as it can buy from the franchise holders. Twentieth Century-Fox is claiming an alltime record of sales for any screen production for "Forever Amber," 2,837 of whose 3,102 roadshow dates were made before the negative got to New York. To handle this 455 Technicolor prints are needed. In Virginia Screen Guild carried its fight against the censor ban on "The Burning Cross," a fictionized Ku Klux Klan expose, with a suit in the Richmond Circuit Court wherein it seek to reverse the censor ban. SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, October 18, 1947 | Form Theatre Company ; To Build 28 Drive-ins \ Three Charlotte, N. C, prominent theatre , men united this week to form a new corporation ( to build and operate a minimum of 28 modern j Drive-In Theatres which will provide playgrounds for children and other special recreational facilities. The three are : H. H. Everett, head of the 47-house Everett Enterprises Theatre circuit, \ in both Carolinas ; Worth Stewart, an associate j of Everett's, and Hank D. Head, head of .! Exhibitors' Service, a buying and booking or ! ganization which handles 57 Carolina theatres. ( The firm will be known as Everett Drive-In , Theatres Corporation. Head, who is to be general manager of the i new firm, announced that arrangements for construction had already been completed at the following locations and that additional locations J were under consideration : Charleston, S. C. ; Concord-Kannapolis, N. C. ; Winston-Salem, N. C. ; Asheville-Hendersonville, N. ; C. ; Burlington. N. C. ; Gastonia, N. C; Hickory, N. C. ; Newbern, N. C. ; Salisbury-Lexington, N. C; WilsonGoldsboro, N. C. ; Reidsville, N. C. ; Florence-Darling ■ ton, S. C; Rock Hill, S. C; Anderson, S. C. ; Raleigh. N. C; Durham, N. C. ; Elizabeth City, N. C. : i Fayetteville, N. C. : Greenville. N. C; Morganton ,( Valdese, N. C: Rocky-Mount-Tarboro, N. C. ; Wil 'j mington. N. C. ; Kinston, N. C. ; Chester S. C: ! Greenville-Greer, S. C; Greenvfood, S. C. ; ClintonLaurens, S. C. ; Sumter, S. C. j The Kannapolis-Concord, Winston-Salem, Ra j leigh and Charleston projects will cost $100,000 each. i Tri-State Convention Votes to Join the TOA Tri-State Theatre Owners of Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee, meeting in Memphis Tuesday and Wednesday elected Orris Collins of Paragould. Ark., president to succeed R. X. Williams and decided to affiliate with the Theatre Owners of America. Other officers are : Vice-Presidents — ^liss Louise Mask, W. E. Alalin, W. A. Rush; , Secretary-Treasurer, W. F. Ruffin. Ruffin is also board chairman with the following directors : E. W. Savage, Claude Mundo, Miss i Emma Co.x, B. F. Busy, W. S. Taylor, W. E. Elkin, R. X. Williams, M. A. Lightman, J. H. West, J. H. Golf. ■ TOA Representatives are Mundo, Ruffin and Max Connett. The convention heard TOA President Ted Gamble tell it the industry had a public duty which it must perform and listened to speeches by 20th-Fox Public Relations Head Sam i Shain, Southeast Theatre Owners President 1 A'lack Jackson, Connett, Mundo, and MGM's i Rudy Berger. , Selznick Defends High Salaries for Top Stars Defense of high salaries paid to top motion picture stars was undertaken by Producer David O. Selznick at Coronado, California, in an address before 300 bankers at the Hotel Coronado this week. In reply to question from the floor, Selznick said that only 15 to 20 stars could regularly draw millions of people to the motion picture and added : "A star like Gable represents an insurance policy on negative costs." The return on Gable in any picture, would be counted in the millions of dollars." To Fight Ban Banning of Eagle-Lion's "Railroaded" by Chicago censors because it showed "police prosecuting an innocent man for murder and . . . (has) excessive killings" will be fought by legal means. Director of Advertising, Publicity and Exploitation Max Youngstein said. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS Advance Data 36 National Newsreel 6 Audience Classifications 37 Newsreel Synopses 24 Box-Office Slants 26 Regional Newsreel 17 Feature Booking Guide 30 Selling the Picture 10 Feature Guide Title Index 30 Shorts Booking Guide..... 38 Hollywood 28 Theatre Management 14 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, Title and Trade Mark Registered U. S. Patent Office. Published every Friday by Showmen's Trade Review, Inc., 1501 Broadway, New York 18, N. Y. Telephone LOngacre 3-0121. Charles E. 'Chick' Lewis, Editor and Publisher; Tom Kennedy, Executive Editor; James 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 Leinster Mews, London, W.2; Telephone AMBassador 3601; Australian 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. Subscription rates; $2.00 per year in the United States and Canada; Foreign, $5.00; Single copies, ten cents.