Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, December 24, 1949 13 NEWSREEL CLIPS British Censors Ban Brutality Great Britain's motion picture censors this week ruled that they would ban showings of any pictures which were basically brutal. The British move, announced in London, was taken in the United States to be the result of certain films which appeare " in the United Kingdom recently as well as probably a matter of policy which would have some effect in barring American product. The announcement, which followed recent showings there of Warner Bros.' "White Heat," bars shootings or killings that play up brutality, or agon}' — such as repeatedly shooting a man ; prolonged fight scenes with foul blows; torture scenes or those carrying brutality unneeded to the story ; flogging closeups ; men striking women in the face. Brotherhood Dates Set; Workers Named Dates for National Brotherhood Week were fixed for the week of Feb. 17-25, national chairman of the amusement division's Brotherhood Committee of the National Conference of Christians and Jews announced this week, in revealing a list of 27 national vice-chairmen who will work with him on the annual movement to knock out racial and religious prejudice. The vice-chairmen are : Barney Balaban, Robert Benjamin, Nate J. Blumberg, Harry Brandt, Leo Brecher, Steve Broidy, Max A. Cohen, Jack Cohn, Simon Fabian, Y. Frank Freeman, Emil Friedlander, Leonard H. Goldenson, Will H. Hays, Eric Johnston, Harry M. Kalmine, Malcolm Kingsberg, Herman Robbins, Nicholas M. Schenck, Fred J. Schwartz, Gradwell Sears. The Skouras brothers — Charles, Spyros, George — Andy W. Smith, Jr., Richard E. Walsh, Albert Warner, Herbert J. Yates. Committee chiefs are : Executive vice-chairman Robert W. Coyne; Treasurer and Corporate Gifts Chairman Ned E. Depinet; National Exhibitor Co-Chairman William Ainsworth, Gael Sullivan; H. V. (Rotus) Harvey, heading the Pacific Coast Conference committee; Oscar A. Doob, Metropolitan New; York committee; Alfred W. Schwalberg, distribution committee, assisted by C. J. ScoUard; Edmund Reek, new'sreels; Max Youngstein, advertising and publicity. ^Curley Status^ Thought Doubtful {Continued from Page 5) violated under the First and Fourteenth amendments were violated by the high court's ruling and take the case to the U. S. Supreme Court. If this were possible, it would open the way for a decisive ruling which would affect all censorsh'^ . On the other hand, if the theory that because a producer or distributor is not the exhibitor of a picture, refusal of a censor seal does not violate his right of free speech, is read into the law, the similar case against the Atlanta censor would be knocked out. In Atlanta, Producer Louis deRochemont and Film Classics are attacking the city censor directly in federal court over constitutional issues involved in the ban on "Lost Boundaries." Loey^'s Seeks to Build Theatres in Israel Loew's International will build three theatres in Israel as soon as sites can be found, according to Sales Manager Samuel N. Burger. The towns contemplated are Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. Nice Job On the whole New York newsreels, especially Paramount, Movietone and News of the Uay did a nice job reporting the waterless Friday "observed" by the city of New York because of a water shortage. Most of reporting was factual, with a few staged scenes to illusstrate points on how to save water, and the clips used only in the reel for New York houses. One reel, used on television, however, went to a lot of trouble to stage a bar room, restaurant scene which was strictly fiction, indicating that the restaurant used paper plates and its bar refused anything but beer as whiskey chasers. Film Row Salesmen of Salt Lake City's Warner Bros., exchanges are combining the no sales Christmas season with their holidays, Booker Phil Pizza said this week. . . . Harry Greenberg, formerly with the film business in China, is now selling for Paramount. . . . Minneapolis 20thFox's salesman Harry Levy is vacationing in Omaha. . . . The Screen Office and Professional Workers' Guild, by a 151-53 vote won the right to represent Pafamount's home office employes as well as those of Paramount Music and Famous Music. The election included maintenance employes. . . . Irving Good, formerly of Des Moine.s, is taking over the Omaha territory for 20thFox from Hymie Novitsky. . . . Al Campbell is succeeding James Sparks as Omaha Film Classics booker. Sparks has a similar job at Paramount. . . . Georgia Astor President William (Snake) Richardson gave his employes two weeks' extr pay for Christmas. . . . H. P. (Dusty) Rhodes, general manager of Dixie Drive-In Theatres, threw a film row party at the Atlanta Variety Club which still has the boys talking. . . . W. G. Driver, oldest employe of' the Screen Guild exchange, has resigned. . . . Warner Bros., at New Haven held their annual Christmas Party this year at the Racebrook Country Club, Orange. Incorporations Cumberland View, Inc., Richmond, Ky., to operate a drive-in, the Lake View, at Madison, Incorporators : Dr. O. F. Hume, Shelton Saufley, Forrest Hume and A. C. Craig. K Theatre Corp., Harrisburg, Pa, to operate an outdoor theatre in Lower Paxton Township. Incorporators : Thomas and Paul F. Kerrigan. Favorite Outdoor Theatre Inc., Spokane, Wash., to operate the East Sprague Drive-In opened last fall. Incorporators : Joseph Rosenfield and Joseph N. Arick. Hadden Films, Louisville. Incorporators : Carl M. Hadden, Frank Yoakum and Jack C. Watts. Abbott-Perry, ^Midway, Ky., to conduct the Film Events Calendar 1950 JANUARY 21, annual convention. Screen Directors Guild, Hotel Shelburne, New York. FEBRUARY 9, 10, convention of United Theatre Owners of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln Hotel, Springfield, 111. atrcs, pool halls, restaurants, etc. Incorporators : D. J. and Gladys Abbott and W. B. and Helen Perry. Theatre Openings Interstate Theatre's Revere, Boston . . . Fox Intermountain's Fox, Missoula, Mont. . . . Charles Imhof's 3S0-seat Highland, Highland, Wis. . . . Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Roshong's Cheyenne, St. Francis, Kan. . . . Arend Arens' Murdock, Murdock, Minn. . . . Engler Bros.' Star, Hopkins, Minn. . . . E. L. Goodwin's 350-car Hi-Way at DeFuniak Springs, Fla. Engaged Judy Lehman, biller at 20th-Fox, Minneapolis, and Daniel Savage. Jean Maxwell, daughter of 0. E. Maxwell, Altec sales head in Minneapolis, and Byrori Johnson, operator of the Tri-Town, Lindstrom, Minn. Wedding is set for Jan. 21. Edmond Metzger, auditor for the Kerasotes Bros. Theatres, Springfield, Mass., and Mary Knotts, Chicago model. Marriage is set for Dec. 28. Wedded Clark Gable and Lady Ashley, the widow of Douglas Fairbanks, Dec. 21, on a ranch near Santa Barbara, Calif. Dorene Schine, daughter of Schine Theatres Louis Schine, and Ross Harold Higier, both of Gloversville, N. Y., Dec. 15 on the Starlight Roof of Hotel Astor, New York City. J. W. Keiler, Jr., son of Columbia Amusement President and General Manager Leo Keiler, Paducah, Ky., and Jeanie Hughes, in Darien, Conn. Born to Herbert A. Philbrick, recently with the American Theatres, Boston, a fifth daughter. Mrs. Nixon Griffis, daughter of Paramount's Stanton Griffis, a daughter, Hethea, in New York. Donald Schine, president of Darnell Theatres and son of Louis W. Schine, a son, on Dec. 19, Littauer Hospital, Gloversville, N. Y. Dead SIDNEY OLCOTT, 76, veteran motion picture director (real name John S. Alcott), Dec. 16, in Hollywood. He started in pictures in 1905 with the Mutoscope Company of New York, directed many stars and is credited with having directed the first five-reel feature, "From the r\langer to the Cross," in Holy Land locations. CHARLES WILLINGHURST, one-time head of the Keith vaudeville circuit, in Louisville. CHARLES CHAPMAN, 58, former manager of the Pathe and Paramount Chicago newsreel studios, in Evanston, 111., Hospital last week, after a long illness. Burial in Rockville, Md. GEORGE MERRIAM. 79. former Miami theatre operator — the Glory B and Grand — at the home of a sister in Tulsa, Okla. He was at one time associated with the Grifiith interests.