Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, October 15, 1949 5 Yes, Snow Salt Lake City reports word received there indicates that the recent snowfall in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming is the worst in the early fall season on record, and that hundreds of cars and trucks are marooned in those areas. Deer hunters out for their season's bag are among those cut off by the big snow. To Ask Fight On Bidding North Central Allied is preparing an attack on competitive bidding to present to the national Allied convention which meets in Minneapolis on Oct. 24-26, it was revealed this week. The principal attack will be aimed at the legality of the practice under consent decrees already reached in the Government anti-trust suit and it was indicated that NCA General Counsel Stanley D. Kane stood ready to prepare court cases for individual exhibitors. Apparently an effort will be made to swing national Allied into a stand on the matter. Other practices to be brought up by NCA at the national Allied meet include the alleged wide use of percentage deals for all but deluxe stands and so-called "forced buying" of one picture to get another. The latter is distinctly forbidden by decree in the Government anti-trust suit and details on such practices were not available from NCA. Outsiders expected to attend the convention include sales heads of MGM, Paramount and RKO, with stars such as June Haver, Jane Powell, Chill Wills, and George Murphy, president of the Screen Actors Guild. U.S.Supreme Court Knocks Out HoUingshead Drive-in Patent Refusal to Review Decision In E. M. Loew Suit Upholds Invalidation by Lower Court The U. S. Supreme Court meeting in Washington Monday for the first decision day of its fall term, upheld a ruling by the first U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals which nullifies the HoUingshead patents on ramp systems for drive-ins. Refused The court also refused to review two other appeals based on the Paramount consent decree. They were : 1) Efforts by Partmar, a Fanchon and Marco subsidiary which operates the Los Angeles Paramount under lease, to intervene in the consent decree. The decree would nullify Partmar's lease on the house and the F&M subsidiary sought to avoid this. 2) Efforts on the part of Harry Norman Ball, Ambridge, Pa., exhibitor to intervene on the ground that the consent decree would not relieve him from the damaging effects of Paramount's monopolistic practices. Ball had sued the neighboring State, half-owned by Paramount, and several distributors, including Paramount, alleging a monopoly which prevented his Peon at Ambridge from getting first-runs. He won in a Pennsylvania federal court, but appealed the decree as inadequate. His intervention plea was based on the claim that Paramount had three years to dispose of its jointly-held theatres Golden Sees Film Industry Benefits Inj.Foreign^Concessions on Tariffs The American motion picture industry will "benefit tremendously" from the tariff concessions granted by nine nations at the recent trade agreements conference at Annecy, France, Nathan C Golden, Commerce Department motion picture chief and delegate to the meeting, said this week, following the announcement of the new rates iby the State 'Department. Motion pictures were considered as a major commodity in intemational trade for the first time, Golden declared. The new rates, which became effective this week when formally signed at the United Nations meeting at Lake Success, N. Y., iby 33 countries, were made possible when Congress last month passed legislation extending the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act. Concessions Principal tariff concessions granted the United States on film imports were these, said Golden : 1) Italy eliminated a proposed 4 lire per meter duty on sound tracks. This would have been added to the film duty, amounting to approximately double the normal film inxport levy. American studios normally export sound tracks separately for processing at foreign laboratories, and it was pointed out that this practice would be abolished and film and sound track shipped in a single package if the proposed duty were enacted. Italy backed down, and, under the new agreement, sound tracks will come in duty free if imported with the corresponding motion picture. Raw film will enter at rates ranging between 20 and 28 per cent ad valorem, a level substantially below the proposed rate, as compared to 30 to 40 per cent under present regulations. Film negatives will enter at rates between 4 and 40 lire per meter, as against 8 to 60 formerly; positives will vary between 2 and 40 lire per meter, as compared with 3 to 60 lire per meter. Duty on newsreels has been reduced from 5 lire per meter to 3 lire per meter. 2) Denmark has switched its rates from 10 per cent ad valorem to a specific duty of 30 crowns per kilo (about 2 cents per foot). This, said Golden, is particularly significant because the establishment of a flat rate removes the danger of changing values under an ad valorem tax. 3) Although rates on film imports into Finland were raised to 170 marks per kilo (less than y2 cent per foot) from 34 marks, rates were maintained on a specific duty basis, while those on most U. (S. products were changed to an ad valorem basis. Golden pointed out. He said Finnish duties were expected to rise because of extremely low prewar rates. Raw motion picture film will continue to be admitted dutyfree. Minor concessions were granted to American distributors by the Dominican Republic, Greece, Haiti, Nicaragua, Sweden and Uruguay. The Economic Cooperation Administration is planning the establishment of a three-man "advisory committee on motion pictures" to advise ECA on application by film companies for guarantees under the informational media provisions for out-of-pocket expenses. and could, under the decree, acquire complete ownership of the State. But the high court's refusal to review the HoUingshead Park-in suit, a decision for which it gave no reason, aroused the greatest amount of interest among exhibitors. Not Valid HoUingshead's Park-In Theatres had procured patents on a ramp system and other features of drive-in construction in 1933 which it allowed exhibitors to use on a royalty payment basis. During the early part of 1937, E. M. Loew's circuit took out a license for the system to cover a drive-in at Providence, R. I., but later discontinued royalty payments after its attorney had advised it that in his opinion the patent was not valid. Whereupon HoUingshead sued for royalties and damages and won his case in a Boston federal court. E. M. Loew thereupon appealed and the first U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court, on the ground that the patent was invalid for "want of invention." Myers Hails High Court Stand National Allied General Counsel Abram F. Myers Tuesday referred to the Supreme Court's refusal to review the HoUingshead patent case as "tremendously important." He assumed other courts would take the same stand which the First Circuit Court of Appeals did in declaring a "want of invention"' in the system and invalidating the patent. However, he pointed out, if another Circuit Court should consider the case and disagree with the First Circuit Court, the matter might then come once more before the Supreme Court. Myers added that he could not agree with the Justice Department in its six months' extension of the time in which RKO must divorce its theatres from distribution and production. Claim Conspiracy, Want $18S,000 Suit for triple damages amounting to $184,800 was filed in federal court at Los Angeles this week against National Theatres and eight major distributors by Mr. and Mrs. Clare Allison and Mr. and Mrs. William Kaye, former owners of the Wilshire at Fullerton, Calif. The complaint charges that the defendants entered into a conspiracy which had as a result the giving of all first-run pictures to Fox West Coast Theatres in Santa Ana, Anaheim and {Continued on Page 10) Blue Law Vote Toronto taxpayers will cast their ballots at the forthcoming civic elections to decide the issue of Sunday sports and amusements for which there has been a steady demand for many weeks. The executives of theatre chains and other exhibitors have refrained from participating in the argument which has led to the granting of a plebiscite by the city council. Theatremen are not anxious to operate on Sundays, it is said.