Variety (Jun 1943)

W«JaegJ«y, June t, 1941 ncvinii T Press Stom Over IMission Slows Plans on Other I Pictures Film Industry leadew were last'f week aplit into opposing camps as controveray over "Mission to Mos- cow' continued in the public prints. Projected anew amonR company toppers was quesllon whether screen •hould be employed for other than atrlctly entertainment purposes. More cautious production and diSf tt-lbution execs were eyeing press reaction to 'Mo.--cow' warily and fear* were expressed that further tnlry Into the joiirniilistic field by {lollywood mighl lead' to political euds tor the industry. 'Mission' last week also looked as 1( it might become the subject of • political storm iho Republican National Cominitioe indicated it would use the picture as ammuni- tion in the prosideTilial campaign next year. Republicans were asking whether the New Deal was 'impli- cated' in having tl^c lllm produced •nd intimated thai it was made with the" consent and ap;)roval of Presi- dent Roosevelt. The committee is- sued a release branding the dim as 'phoney propaganda' and also at- tacking Lowell Mcllclt. William Philip Simms, N. Y. World-Telegvani writer, also flammed the Aim and predicted, This most amazing of American Alms may yet play a diplomt^tlc role—even if it gives rise to no of- Acial protest at this time.' Th« New Leader issued a complla- tlo« of criticism* by various writers ■nd aducators under a 'N. Y. Times' masthead. N. Y. City Board of transportation la.<t week ordered all placards advertising 'Mission' as 'the {notion picture of the month' re- moved from the subway and elevated cars. As ■ re.sult. all pix rnmpany top' pars who have bet-n mulling plans for other Alms with national polit- ical Implications, are going slow. Reported that Kome slory proper' ties along these liiie.<. previously re celving consideraliuii. are being passed up. VFW Topper Drfendu Pic Wa.shington, June 1, Victor E. Devorcaux, national chairman of Aniericuni.sm for the Veterans uf Foreign Wars, has Jumped to the defense of 'Mission,' (Continued on page 12) MONTAGUE SAYS COL IS KEEN FOR COMEDIES Other Politico* Several yarns with Inter- national or political'signiAcance have been under con.<!ideration by the majors in recent months. One Is a Aim blog of Woodrow Wilson which Lamar Trotti has written and will produce for 20th-Fox. Another 1.4 Wendell Willkie'x 'One World.' in which 20th-Fox. Metro and Samuel Goldty.yn have been interested. Propose Femme Cops In Cinemas, Cafes to Curb Juvenile Delinquency San Francisco. June 1. San Francisco Motion Picture Council is considering asking Police Chief Charles Dullea to order that women, sworn in as special olTicers. b: placed in Aim hou.ses here, as a curb to juvenile delinquency. The council got the idea from Police- woman Kathlyn Sullivan, director <>t the police Big Sister Bureau, who told members .of the council at a meeting: If you place these special officers in the motion picture theatres, as is now done in local night clubs, we'll control the current situation of per- sons molesting young girls in the theatres faster than in any other way.' Mrs. Sullivan said that 30 women, sworn in as special AlTicer.s. npw operate In local night clubs and are paid by the proprietors of the niteries to keep minors out. This system is working very well." she declared, 'and I think it would work equally well in the theatres. These women wear civilian clothes, and in the theatre.'!—especially those open all night—they would be able to control many o( the things which g.i on and which niu.st be stopped if we are to keep juvenile delinquency within bounds.' , mm. IE. FOR 1943 Special Squads In A. C. Atlantic City. June 1. A special squad of plain rlulhcs officers has been formed in Allan)ic City to help amu.sement men com- bat a rising tide of youlliful van- dalism in this re.sort's enlcrtainnipnt piers Gradual bMMtIng at adoilssleii prleet daring the last flva months has became la prevalent In key city delaxe theatres that prellmliiary es- timates are that the present year may witnesa the natlanal average admisslan level hllUng ar passlbly exceeding ZSc, the highest point since the pre-depresslon pfrlad. The way admish price tills have been coining In during recent months makes the current national. admlH- sion average Uc, but this may be pared or further hiked during the remaining seven months of the year. The 28c average compares with 2S.5e ill 1942 and 23'ic in 1941. ac- cording to industry estimates. Neither the 1942 Agure nor that In the preceding year include taxes. Checkup of theatres that have rai.sed the admittance fee in the last two years or mOre reveals thai the blgii-u.sh to get on the increased admission bandwagon came after Jan. 1 this year. During January. February, March and April, virtu- ally every key city generally went rnr admish tilts of 5 to 10c. In some ca.<es. it was higher. During the month jiLst concluded, there also was .vome price raising but the bulk of it has been done in larger, l>ig-scale theatres. As a rule, the higher admission deluxers in principal cities started the admli^ion-price raising. This was followed in most Instances by subsequent and lesser-run theatres making comparable price tilts to keep pace with the larger houses. Admittance tariff raises in the big- ger key houses, of course, made it much easier fur the subsequents to follow suit. No More Bargains . All-round admission price struc- ture al.-ib has been raised by the fact ihal many houses in key down- town spoUs have eliminated their early-bird matinee scale.s. Instead of charging 23c or 35c from 11 a.m. 10 2 p.m. for such matinee, they start dally operations with the regular matinee scale of 40c or thereaboui.i. Unofficially estimated that whi'.e recent increases may have repre- sented 10c to 20c tiltji. on the av- erage the admission hikes w-ill run only 6-10'' as compared with a year ago. Reason for ihis is that many thea Delivery of Fin 11 Be MaintaiiK^ Under Priority; War Effort a Factor H'wood Now Legit Hollywood, June 1. Hollywood becomes a legiti- mate child of Uncle Sam under a ruling by Postmaster Mary Briggs. New U. S. Postal decree turned Filmtown into 'Los An- geles 28.' but there were so many protests from the studios tnd merchants and Chamber of Com- merce that the Government re- classihed its mailing zones. From now on. one can write 'Hollywood. Cal.. on the envel- ope instead of 'Los Angeles. 28.' Fewer Shoro Leayes To Navy Men in Frisco Expected to Hurt B. 0. San Francisco. June 1. A new Navy order cutting down on the leaves of personnel- of naval shore establi.shmenis in this area is expected by exhibs to have a shaip effect on the'b.o. Under the order, which limits the number of enlisied men granted liberty on any day to a maximum of one-third of the personnel of a sta- tion, thousands of bliie jackets will visit the Market street theatre dis- trict less frequently. As a good part of the biz of exhibs in this war actfvity center is, naturally, supplied by soldiers and sailors, the b.o. is bound to suffer. The Navy said the order for fewer leaves was Issued because the heavy inAux of service men into Frisco, es- pecially on' weekends, aggravated transportation problems, and was thus a hindrance to war production. and Boardwalk and mid-city | i''es in smaller communities have theatres 1 admi.s- The "squad was formed from the . "'on. li is estimated that some 9.000 city police and detective bureaus , >o 10.000 houses m country citie.s. following increasing com >laints from e''P*'-"'*">' '^ere ai'e make more than tour or Avt war pictures In ' 1943-44. as currently outlined, and is keen tor comedy ve- hioles. was the outline of next sea' son's product as detailed by A. Mon tague on the second day ot the cenv pany's N. Y. regional .sales meet Reiterating what he h:id said about the general product lineup at the Chicago regional. Mnnlaxue said that Columbia is. out Tor t'vcry story property thai indicairs it would be successful on the screen. He cited 'The More the Merrier as typical of strong bnxulTlce pic tures in Ihc li^shlcr vcui. cl.iiniing that it likply wiiulct be the biggest grosser Columbia evi>r hiid. inrlud ing even the inp Capra productions. Montague said there \vi>uld be 44 features on Columbia's next sca.son lineup, but did not omiino just what stories arc takinc -thape for 1943-44. Montague left for l.os Angeles after the concluding sosMon in N. Y. last Friday 128 ■. lie plans to go on to San Francisco irnm there to preside at the third regional there June 3-6. The New York mceliiiK was told by Montague -that Columbia had Just Anished its greatest year In dollars grossed..accounts served and number of Alms sold per account. He said the company had 630 more accounts on its books than last year, now serving the major part of Its product to 11.430 theatres. Besides division managers and homeoffice of- flclals. branch nianagcrs and sales staffs from 10 eastern exchanges and Canada attended the meeting. iig com that n re.sponsiole youuis were crt- (Continued on page 491 Tex. Theatre Spearheads Salvage Hunt for Kids San Aoluiiio. June I. A city-wide treasure hum is beina i organized by W. C. O llare. maiiaufi of the Uptown (Interslalc nabc. in which all school children are to par- ticipale. The treasure hunt got under j way with the close of sohool on Kri- da.v. ."Way 28. Tlie children wii; be given eight days in which to gather metal for vital war in(iiistrie.> a; ils cash value and then tlje cash «i:l be uirned over to the Red Cro.-.-. Eacii kid brinuing in n.oic tiian a half pound will bi; arti'.iilted liev to a special show to be gi\ en at the. L'plown on June 5. San Aiilomo Transit Co. has {mnoiiiirpd tlial all kids having liirec pounds or iimrc will be perinilled to rid. free ;o and from the theatre from any pa;! of town. Call has been in'dde for copper. bi Bf*. broiixe and aluininuiii. Special awards will be made ti. llMse hiir.g- ing in the largest ainoun; of iiietal (iieir old scules becau.se of ariiial declining business. Popula- tion .shrinkage and other wartime faeiors has kept the business of tlic^e exhibitors status quo or ac'.'.ially resulted in substantial dips ir. attendance. Result is that few of the.-^e localion.s have raised their .-ca'.e.-. CHI HEREX'S SALUTE TO FILMS' WAR EFFORTS Chicago, 'June 1. Wide comment was made on the Chicago Herald-Aincrican'.s full-page ad la.'ft week dedicated to the war efforts of Chicago motion picture theatres. Full-page ad broke the same day the racketeer hearings were ended at the Federal court- hou.se. Headed Theatres of War.' the copy, taken from the records of the Amusement tc Recreation Division, > But for foreslghtedne.ss In making advance deliveries at Aim to theatre* in the area served by the N. Y. City exchanges, to tide Ihem over tha weekend and also Monday (Decora* tion Day), plus rapid action on the part of a committee of three which went to Wa.shington Friday (28) to appeal for Immediate relief, many houses may have been forced arbi- trarily to hold over shows or close down. There were no mi.s.<iouts. so far at can be learn-ed. Over the three-da.v holiday weekend Metro served 300 theatres without iffl.shap. but. this, as with other exchanges, was largely dije to the fact that all branches were noliAed to get weekend shows for playing through Monday (311 to ac- counts on Saturday i29i. The dead- line on normal delivery had been set by the Government for Saturday - midnight, at which time, according to the OfAce of Defense Transporta- tion order of the past week, several restrictions were to be imposed on the .shipment of Aim by car or pickup of pictures after played. Order would have restricted deliveries to Iwo-a- week, with none to be permitted on Sundays. Recognizing that such soVere re- strictions would seriously cripplie op- erations, a commitee of three hur- riedly rushed to Washington Friday • 28) and romained there through Saturday after Anally convincing ODT and War Production Board ofA- cials that the Aim business was en- titled to priorities so. far as trans- portion of pictures to and from thea- tres are concerned. Commlitee which huddled with Lowell Mcllett. Aim coordinator of the OfAce of War In- formation, and others, comprised H. M. Richey, director of exhibitor relations for Metro, representing William F. Rodgers. v.p. for that com- pany; Ira Meinhardt of the Tacme and Rockwell Aim delivery compa- nies, repre.senting the carriers: and Irving Dollinger. v.p. of Allied Thea- tre Owners of New Jersey and presi- dent of the A.s.sociated Theatres of N. Y.. Aim-buying combination. Un- der the priority rating received. Aim carriers are classiAed as 1-A. Films' War Effort a Factor ' Meinhardt declared on returning from Washington thai, while Ihe Government has agreed to make ex- emptions for trucks of delivery com- panies, realizing the imr>ortant con- (Continued on pu;;e 26> •BELL' PiALS CPE FOR Paramount plans holdiiu; a sales nioeliiig ill New York, to be attended LOOKS LIKE DISTRIBS EXPEQ A BULL MARKET FOR SHORTS IN 1943-44 ACCORDING TO FLANS inents ot local Aim hoii.ves including their donations to the Hollywood Victory Caravan drive, the United Nations Relief fund and ijie Red Cro.<s: pniiitrd out that tlieatro here ; by all the company's ili.-lrii l man- gave 300.000 Bdmi.s>ions to school j acer.s. to di.scii.^s general matters as students who collected 90.000 pounds j well as a puliey on 'For Whom the of brass, bionze end enppei. and I Bell ' Toll.^.' Par'.s hiah-biiHgeter, prai.sed other efforts of local llicatrcs.' which is ."l.-iied to open a road-.liow \ run 31 the Rivoli. N.Y.. Ihe middle of July. Thought is to hoUl I'-ie sales se--ioiis iMiineideni will" the N. Y. premiere of 'Bell.' tentative dales for wliii'h is July M. Over the weekend, ai'.reeinont w.is and Although a bit early to t.,1 just; in color., other t.o being -1-;;^^ --.jed ^u.-l^^fj..^^^ iiiuler which Par .voiild lake entire C'-iii-.piiny again'<'"">i'"l <•' I'"' "''•' propiL-e-l will have SIX Cer.rac Pal Pup- l«i<.e-da,ly run of Bell' ai a $2'20 „ ,.„|,j, ' liip. l.a.sl fall, when the Riv rcop- Bolh War-; Wamei's .slu.i's liiu-jp al-o ex- ened after a summer shu'dov.n. Par ami Paramounl have iiuli-! peeled lo lean l.cav.ly on <■.,:,„■ and to.ik a 50'. ii,leie,l in ihe theatre iC'iit i:-ied on pa-ic .'):!> ' wilh the l. A rnealre ( ireuit. at _ |w!iii;h time a policy coinmiMee of \:.\ and Par rciireVntatives was set hip-.v much more is going to be spent Lulu' and a noveltonn sene«- on shoris in 1943-44 than in the al.so will tiiin out .Is PoiK-ve Sailo ciii icni sea.'-on. indications are that I cartoons in color ;:)e oM'.lay for short features in com .Mil ...elli.ig .sca.ton may be the great-; peind.i: es! in 10 yours or more. Bi caied Kieally upped expenditure.* fur sl-.o'. is while L'liivcr.sal and RKO, wiiicii have expended increasingly! um„, amtiiiiKiM , ■ ■ _ ^ ■"-i ARMY FILMS' EDITING z !;;;;:;:'::? si::;:;;::;" ' .Vliki- Cavanaiigh. veteran road-how '.ni l-.- Ill rettiil years, expeci lo out-1 l.:ie eiiiially iiv.poMiig setups in the . nest few weeks. ^ Paiaiiiouni. which will have 84 ...hurts next heasuii. is coiicentraiing ; fill nuisicals and carloons in color. . , . lhav.iig added a group of .six two-'io Sew York -Ailhin the next twOrH'v so far as Ihe Ijoxoflice is con- ' reel mu-ical .ihorls on which real | „r three weeks. .Major Ralph JcHer | cerned. while the present ^"'^»<«r^l will be in chai ge. Move is in line i .service ■'-"■ with the Army's policy to decentral- ize out of D. ('. bccau.se of crowded condilion.s here^ Arrangement.^ for • Ihe tran.-fer were completed in ."^ew York last week by Col. William Keigliley. head of Aim activities for Ihe Air Force-. H.Q. SHIFTED TO N.Y. man. who hanuled run." 4ir Walt Dii ley at the Broad'.vay and dates back Kditmg .section of ihe liln. divi-i "> 'B>a ParaiV at the .V<itor in.silent ... - • - ..• 'days. i.. slated to rcpie.^c •! Par at the Wa>hiii!{lon. June 1 lion of Ihe sion of the Army Air Forces iiioies ] start at Univer.ial. Scheduled t»r another top spot Is Pal O'Brien, with Frank Borzage directing. Deanna and Franchot Hollywood. Jirie 1. com is bfiiig laid out. First ot these Franchot Tone draws the romantic j'Mardi Gras.' already is in produc- role opposite Deanna Durbiii 'n 'My | tion on the Coast with Belly Rl>'^es. Girl Friday.' slated for a late Junp . - . Johnny Johnston and Cecil Kel- loway in the leads. Second in this group. 'Caribbean Cruise,' \s about .set to go before the cameras. The musicals are one of three new .<ierles laff remains. Bob Wcit- maii. inaiia'.iing director of the N. Y. Paramounl. will be in charge of tha Bell' run for Par on the side. Y. Frank Freeman, v.p. in charea of prodiictim for Par. i.N expected easi some lime next week, bringing will- him a finished print of Bell.'