Variety (Mar 1941)

Wednesday* March 12, 1941 PICTURES T HoUywoad, March 11. , .. Studio Ipcals representing io.oob 01m technicians hay«; paged George E. BroWhe, prexy of the Ihternational AUlahce: of: Theatrlcar S^^^ Em- ployees, for hielp in negotiating new contracts with the major' companies. The locals .ar<» opposed to turning over their negotiations 16 Browne for fear of losing their autonomy and having their demands ioc . conditions shelved,. but. want the Allitahce to pifessure the producers Into making deals, ;.■ . In. the meantimei . Browne and other International ofdeers of the lATSE are cooling their heels In Miami. Apparently waiting tor the political heat to cool oiS in Chicago beforie heading nbrth, Browne has given no Indication ea to what action he. plans. Pleas for aid from the locals have so far gone unanswered. The locals have agreed to^ proceed %% individual-unions, but have given up hope of reaching any agreement with the producers unless the Inter- national turris . on the heat. And graipieyihe reports are that the Inter- nationarhas no intention of turning on thie heat, sin(?e it is the desire of Internatibnal officers to set the local deals themselves. The meeting at which it was decided . each local would appeal to Browne for aid was called by James Brlgham; president of Motion Picture Studio Projection- ists Local 165. It was announced. that the local unions are appealing to Browne for aid under the following clause in the lATSE constitution: 'In the event of a serious disagreie- ment between a local union and an employer, the affected union shall first try to obtain an equitable settle- ment by conversation with the em- ployer or his representative. If such • siettlement cannot be obtained the local union shall promptly advise the president of the Alliance of the cir- cumstances, which he .shall cause to be thoroughly investigated in ah en- deavor to consummate an amicable .adjustment, 'The International president or his representative shall endeavor to ad- just any controversy with an em- ployer referred to the International presideiit by an affiliated local union, but the International president or his representative shall not have the power to consummate ah adjustment of the controversy 'unliss . such ad- justment meets Ayith thie approval of the affected local union.' That'Raise'Still Rankles Several of the local unions are in favor of taking drastic action unless Browne and his Alliance stieps into the picture and aids them in negbti- ; ating contract revisions; Thie work- ers are still sore over , the 10% pay tut negotiated for them by Willie Bioff. TTicy claim they, are not In- (Continiied bri page 20) AAA Stalemate An iihusual case, on which ho action caii be, taken, has been referred.td the American Arbi- tration }Assn. by exhibitors in a small town served out of th* New York-New Jersey ex- changes, EiFhibs have been told ,there is nothing under the con- sent jiecree: that applieis to- their complaint " aihd consequehtly nothing can be done about it. It. appears that there are four' •xhibs in the particular town, two on one side of the xailroad tracks arid two on the - othisr. They recently made ah agrees ment among themselves to elim- inate dual bills arid bank liiishts. One of the exhibs broke the-, pact, going back to duals-bank-: ies. suddenly. If It's Only nOtb Run\ Indies Want a Designated Book- ing of ■ plaints So Far K ie y h o t e ~This As jlie: Major BeeiF /■N€«t'^to^'^Glearance'--';:'y 23 CASES SO FAR FRED KOHLMAR JOINS BOD DESYLVA AT PAR Hollywood,. March 11. Pred .Kohhnar Is leaving 20th-Fox for a production berth at Piaramount. Producer made two pidtures at 2bth and is. wbrkirig on a tliird. iTrider- stopd he'll be an associate producer jjnder B. : de Sylya , and vvlli be assigned to onie .of the lot's musicals. 4 Majors Pop Up To Oppose MiniL Anti-Decree Bill Minneapolis, March U. With four of the major film cOmr pahles, Metro, 2pth-Fox, RKO and Warner: Bros., opposhig Northwest AUied's anti-consent decree bill in the Minnesota state legislature, the Independent exhibitors' organization finds itself with ian unexpected fight on its hands and the measure's fate hangs in the balance. After a pub- lic hearing, during which arguments pro and. con were presented, the State Senate judiciary cominittee laid the' bill over until this week when it will decide whether to rec- ommend the measure for passage or kill it. Pending study of the ques- tion of constitutionality, the judici- ary committee of the lower house today (Tues.) deferred hearing on it until tomorrow (Wed.). Northwest Allied did not antici- pate that any of the film companies would oppose this proposed law to. knock out the concent decree's groups-bfrfive sales plan and compel Minnesota distributors to offer for sale to exhibitors their entirie sea- son prbduct, the sarnie as at present^ with. a minimum 20% cancellation privilege and forced selling of shorts, newsreels, trailers, westerns and for- eigns tabdbi Their leaders had been assured by one . leading company that it . had no objection, to the bill, which simply would put into effect fair trade prac- tices offered by the distributors to thie ; independents • twc - years, ' ago, Consequently, the present efforts .to defeat the- measure came as a cohi- plete surprise. Uavid Shearisr, local iEittorney, apr peared before- the committee, repre- senting the four film 'cbmpaihies, to argue against the bill's passage. He pointed. Out that the consent decree rejpresfents a .U. $, governmental de-. .partment's declaration of policy and ■cohstitutes a bona fide attempt oh the film industry's part at self-regu lationV. Acciprdirigly, he declared, jt should be given every chance to siic ceed. ■ .'^ Botsford's Stdit Biiys Hollywood, March 11. A. M, Bbtsford, former assistant to William LeBaroh at Paramount, has lined up another story for his inde- pendent prbduction program. New ehtry is 'IJIeither Man Nor Beast.' the Steven Delehanty yarn' in the Sat- evepost. First ptitchiase was 'Grounded for . Life,'.an aviation tale by Lieut. Gie- drlc Rhapp; Maughain^s Selznicker • Hollywood,- -March .11, Somersiet .'- Maugham ' has been signed by David O. Selzhick to, vsrrite a screen original. It will bie the inirst. tirn0' he. has written directly for films, although h^ has had many previous offers. ^ . Many of, the English rioveli$ts books and plays have bieen adapted for plctuj-es in the past, includihg .'Of .Human Bondage,' >The Letter' and 'Rain.' - - Not given much thought up to how," the demand of exhibitors for" 'sbme run' threateris. to develop as a major problem for the distributors. untder arbitration provisions of the cbhseht decree, with 'early indications cr^at^ Ing suggestion that this grievance will run second to that which coh- -cerns clearance.' Because Of the complaints .filed to date with Ameri- can Arbitration Assn. it would, ap- pear ' that perhaps maiiy theatres have been, completely refused, prod- uct, whereias under . the consent it is clearly understood that, a theatre is entitled to 'some run.' In sales cir- cles, it Is pointed out that this must be granted, even if it may be a lOth run, arid that-because of. this nibre- of a cbmpetltive condition is going to be created. The question of overbuying and shelving of product to keep a com- petitor from getting his hands on it will no doubt be importantly in- volved In disputes surrounding the demands of exhibs for some run and also under the stipulation (restricted to some extent ) where the exhib has a right to file a complaint where a distributor has arbitarily refused to license its features on the run re- quested.. In the case ef the latter only independent exhibitors having ho more than; five tlieatresi may bring Such a complaint. 35% of 23 Cases Filed Of the 23 cases filed with arbitra- tion tribunals to date, nearly 35% demand some run, the balance, being clearance. l^There are 16 individual cases cbncerning clearance but as many as seven have come through declaring for some run. During the past week four cases were brought and three of them were for some riin, creating somewhat. a'~surprise but serving to Imply that disputes oh this angle may ultimately run in- to hundreds throughout the country. In New Orleans an exhib operat- ing drive-iii theatries but. npt speci- fying them, brought a complaint on some run. against Warners. He fol- lowed it up several days- ago hy bringing a similar case against Piara- mount. In bther words, theory Is that it he loses against one. distri- butor he may win against the other. Under the decree thie provision concerning soniie run is very definite. It stipulates, in part, as follows: . .'No distributor .dejEendant shall re- fuse to license its pictures/for: ex- hibition in an exhibitor's theatre on some' run (to be designated by thie distributor) upon terms and condi- tions fixed by the distributor which are calculated to defeat the jpiirpose of " this section, if the' i^ithibilbr can satisfy, reasonable minimiim .stand- ards bf theatre'operation and is re- putable and respionsible, unless the granting of a run on any terms to such, exhibitor for: said theatre:,-'w'ill have the effect of reducing the dis-. tributor's total film,revenue in.the competitive iarea: in which such exi hibitor's thisatt'e is located.'; . .. ^More■■Clearance". ;..'' TWo .; hew clearance^ complaints were brought during the past :;week, one in .'the New York board, "rhis concerns the; River Theatre Corp, operating the Central, Pearl River, N.Y. It. asks for film day-ahd-date or at least seven days after the Pas- cak, Westwbbd; N;J., which now has 49 .days protection. Other was filed by. the ..Carlson, Mayville, N.Y. at Buffalo,'. claiming the Palace . and Winter Garden, at Jamestown, N.Y, had too much clearance. Prospects of k settlement of the first complaint 'brought to . arbitra- tion, filed in Washington by the Wal- . (CTpntiriued on page 20) ';- HoUywobd, March li,. '- .Producers longer have to wbrry abbut what nationality to make villains in pictures. Teutonic types are popular, although Italian, Russian apd citizens of Axis-part- ner nations are getting their due. . in the past studios had to be ultra careful to make, villains hot identi- fiable as any particular nationality on. fear of reprisal by the country indicated. Program of U.S. newsreels In de- veloping closer relations with the Latin-Americas Is swinging into ac- tion, virtually every reel planning added coverage or wholesale revamp of their neivsreel setup in South America: One of earliest Important assignments. is that of John Dored, Paramount newsreel's .yet war cameraman, who leaves this week to place Latin-American coverage for Par on a more entierprising basis. Par will revamp its whole South American service In developing the good-neighbor policy for the com- pany. Both Mbyietonews and Pathe have sent special representatives to the Latin-Amei-lcan territory, former concentrating, just now On/shorts: News of Day shortly will assign a cameraman tb the principal key cities while Universal is mulling, a special setup of bureau men " thie more iniportant countries, ' Paramount has been considering more elaborate coverage of South America for some time but the as- signing of Dored places one of its ace cameramen and war correspon- dents on duty. Man who scored a beat oh the invasion of Poland and mb.st recently anticipated the Nazi drive through the Balkans by sev- eral months goes to Rio de Janiero . first. . The newsreels h^e proceeded cautiously in treatment of the Latin- American setup because realizing there aire only a limited number of large cities and that the develop- ment of newsworthy items may be a slpw. process. Several newsreel companies will try doing butstatiding original hews yiarns, covering! about 500 to 1,000 feet, .and then building actual weekly coverage subse- quently. Dietrich-Morosco's 7tii Philadelphia, March 12. • .The Stanl^y'^^^'^^r P'rpui^^ spot where it's 'damhed !if It do«« and damned If it doesn't.' : The chain has been blasted in re- cent weeks by indie exhibs for creating a 'bottleneck' of product because of extended runs in several of its first-run spots. Because War- ners controls all Initial-runners, the long stay of pictures like 'Philadel- phia Story,' 'Kitty Foyle' and' Others had caused a log-jam of fihiis; in-order to brealc it up and speed ■up the fiow of prbduct down the line, Warners began pullihg-pictures from key spots after only short runs. Im- mediately there «ame a squawk from exchange managers. The chain was accused of 'dissipating product' and not getting: sufficient revenue fi-om liigh'-class .films. ■ Last week, 'Virginia,' which en- joyed long funs in, other, cities, was ■ yanked from the Boyd after only one week. At the same time 'Cheers for Miss Bishop' also, was iTuIled- after; only seven days. The .:Same °thing happened to 'Western IJnioh.' Offi- cials of Pafanipunt and 20th Centiiry- Fox were reported to have raised a fass y/iih Warners, threatening to hold up desirable product unless guarantees for longer runs were forthcoming. : These pictures didn't even get sub- sequent runs at the Karltbn and Keith's, usual procedure after play- ing the Boyd, Stanley or Fox, War- ners' three deluxersi. The exchanges claim that not only is revenue lost by lack of playing timis downtown, but that exhibs in the nabes refuse, to. pay 'reasonable prices' for the product because they haven't received enough exploitation in downtown runs for the proper nabe buildup. Another factor that's complicating the situash is the fact that Warners* Aldine, another first-run deluxer, is withdrawn from active participatioh from showing pictures because it has . been leased to Walt Disney for 'Fan-' tasia.' : :William Goldniari, indie exhib, who has a lease on the central-city Err lahger, " has seized, upon Wamfii"'* quandary to build up a case for get- ting first-run films for the house. . Hollywood, March 11. Ray McCarey, who recently fin- ished 'Murder .AHiong EVierids,' gets the director, job; oh '"Thb Maii With the Shovel' at 20th-Fox, under guid- ance of the >?arhe associate producers, Ralph Dietrich and Walter Morosco; Filming starts March 24. Picture is the seventh on the 19.40-41 program for Dieti'rch and Moroscb,. who were originally slated to prbduce ^ix. .. ■ Greek Short Via Par . Paramount will. distribute a- spe- cially-produced short,. 'Cireiece Fights Back.' on a.rental basis to theatres, all proceeds to the Greek War Relief. it was turned out by the Mai'ch of Time. ' COL INTO SALES SWING EARUER FOR 1941-42 Number of (Columbia execs, cur^; rently vacationing in the lull be- tween selling seasons,, will begin tb, converge on the home 6/Tlce within the vpext 10. days, Company will then, immediately begin putting oh steam for 1941-42 contract signing; • planning to go after exhibs consider* ably earlier this year than in the past as Col is not .subject to consent decree blocks-of-flve selling. • . "rhose now away are Abe Mon- tague, saleis manager; Rube Jacketc^ his assistant, and Nate Spingold. They went to Florida after attending a 'regional sales meet in Atlanta 'a. couple weeks ago. ■[, ',':■ y,'' Miriam HowcII Expanding Selzhick*s Y. Agency Gradual expansion of personnel to make the New York office of the Myron Selznick agency - fully opera- tive Is planned by Miriam HowelV wlio moved In. as chief, last week; Miss Howell was formerly in charge ot the literary department of: th» A. 8t S, Lyons office, biit will handle all aspects of talent, properties, radio, etc., for Selznick.. Although occupying a large suits, of offices in New York, • Selznick agency has had virtually no staff in the east and handled its business through other agencies.