Variety (May 1946)

Wednesday, May 29, 1946 PICTURES 10 NEW B'WAY HIGHS SINCE JAN. 1 Kirsch Stresses Allied s Close Kinship Among Members at Chi Inaugural Chicago, May 28. -t- Long-range plans to aplply re- gional Allied "Get together" tactics to the Allied States Assn. of Motion picture exhibitors were announced by Jack Kirsch, newly elected prexy of the group, at the inaugural din- ner thrown for him Saturday (23) ■ at the Palmer House, climaxing a two- day - pre-convention meeting. Affair was attended by 1,500 dis- tributor and exhibitor representa- tives, including a number of indus- try toppers. . Stressing point that "we in Chi- cago bave not been wholly unsuc- cessful in our organization efforts," Kirsch said that the big advantage which a well-conducted regional has over a national body is that it can keep in much closer touch with its members and because>• of this he in- tends to "apply to National Allied ' some of the principles that have served us well in Chicago," bringing NA and its work home to independ- ent exhibitors throughout the coun- try who haven't as yet jumped on the bandwagon. "In order that its work may be better appreciated," Kirsch stated, "I intend that Allied leaders have no embarrassing alliances to prevent them from speaking out for their members on issues affecting other branches of the industry. There are no hampering restrictions on the scope of Allied activity and interest -when the welfare of the exhibitors is at stake." Wants No Spokesmen No organization should presume to speak for independent exhibitors on film prices or any other industry matters, he continued. To do so would be to put its leaders in (Continued on page 22) Price's Spiel at Harvard Hollywood, May 2B. Phi Beta Kappa address at Har- vard, June 3, will be delivered by Byron Price, veepee of the Motion Picture Assn. of America. • While in the east, Price will confer With Eric A. Johnston, prexy, and inspect. the association's offices in New York and Washington. CPA Reverses N.Y. Ruling And Okays Pathe Laos' Giant $1,350,000 Plant The Civilian Production Admin- istration last week reversed a ruling of the New York district adminis- trator and granted authority to Pathe Industries to erect a $1,350,000 film processing plant at 100 E. 107th street, New York. The Washington decision followed an application of Pathe which claimed extreme hard- ship would- be suffered should the concrete, brick and steel structure be banned. The building will be the' last of three units added to an 11 story structure which Pathe pur- chased in June, 1945, with the first two units already over 90% com pleted. Petition had pointed out that com mitments for the unit had been made and excavation work started Added points were made that the third building was essential to the operation of the other two and that the company's Boundbrook . plant now obsolete, was operating at capacity with its structure incapable, of housing additional processing ma chinery. The plant, when in opera- tion, will employ 300 additional lab workers. Foreign Pix Outlook Brightens As Italy, Czecho, France Ease Trade Bans Skouras Frank Talk to Allied The film industry was surprised when Spyros Skouras, 20th-Fox prexy, in his speech at the dinner tendered in Chicago in honor of Jack Kirsch. newly inaugurated head of Allied States Exhibitors Saturday night (25), laid his cards on the table, face up. Usual ameni- ties customary at such affairs were dropped by Skouras who frankly aired his views on current disputes which are nagging exhibitor-dis- tributor relations and blocking har- mony moves. Free-swinging opin- ions of the head of a major company, took the industry audience aback. After referring to the soaring pro- duction costs, Skouras said: "The only source of payment for the pro- duction of motion pictures is the dollar paid in by the public at the boxoffice. Out of that dollar, every expense of the whole industry must be paid. "Since, however, that boxoffice dollar is collected by the exhibitor's cashier, there has grown up in the minds of some exhibitors the mis- taken belief that it was all theirs. As a result, they felt it was their privilege to share as little of it as possible with the producer of the film; "And some distributors, I am sorry to say, fell into the same way of thinking. In their opinion, the boxoffice dollar was their exclusive property to do with , as they would because they had made the original (Continued on page.24) CPA OKAYS LOT WORK; DENIES FILM HOUSES Hollywood/ May 28. Civilian Production Administration granted permission for construction of Improvements on two film lots, but turned down bids for the erection of two picture houses in this area. Approved were sound stages by Consolidated Studios and Hal Roach. Vetoes were registered on a $350,000 house by Southside Theatres, Inc., and a $75,000 drive-in by Simon Lazarus. EXPECT FANCY DIVVY FROM PAR THIS YEAR While Paramount's plan for split' ting common shares two-for-one would mean an immediate boost of the dividend rate to 40c each quarter per common share, Wall Street Is looking for the management to in crease cash distribution considerably via year-end divvys. This is de- pendent, of course, on Par being able to maintain present earning rate. The 40c quarterly distribution immediately places the common on a $3.20 annual basis when effect is given to the splitup. Another bullish note as viewed in financial circles is the fact that if earnings continue near the first- quarter rate this year, Par should show nearly $6 on the new common or equal to around $12 on the present or old shares. Corporation showed $3.09 per share in this initial quarter or nearly three times that of cor. responding quarter of 1945. . Paramount now has no funded debt and has only $15,000,000 cur rent liabilities as compared with $68,000,000 current assets. This leaves $53,000,000 net working capital. This net working capital figure includes $26,000,000 cash and cash items, but it does not include big additional amounts in the hands of partially owned subsidiaries. With another Broadway house rec- ord beinit established this week at the Gotham, the total of new highs set since the first of this year among the 15 downtown first-run theatres will reach a total of 10. All these records spread over only a period of five months and very probably are indicative of similar trends in other parts of the, country. An old record which falls this week is accounted for by the antic- ipated $35,000 which the Gotham will do with Paramount's "O.S.S." which opened there Saturday (25). Taking this new high and adding it to the top. alltime grosses scored by nine - other. Broadway first-runs in the past flye months, the amount of money the public has poured into the 10 houses in order to run up the new records amounts to $733,600. Increased admission prices and juggling has contributed toward the establishing of alltime highs in some cases but the upped scales have not seemed to be a deterrent so far as the public was concerned. That goes for any strong picture on any week. Former house records which have been broken since Jan. 1, together with pictures, their distributors and dates, are as follows: Music Hall, $160,000, "Bells of St. Mary's" (RKO), January. Capitol, $110,100, "Harvey Girls" (M-G) and Glenn Miller orch, Jan- uary. Strand, $82,100, "San Antonio' (WB) and Lionel Hampton orch, January. Astor, $68,200, "Kid From Brook- lyn" (RKO), April. Criterion, $56,000, "Bandit of Sher wood Forest" (Col), March. Globe, $65,200, "Make Mine Music' (RKO), April. Palace, $50,000, "Cornered" (RKO), January. *- Hollywood, $56,000, "A Stolen Life (WB), May. . Winter Garden, $51,000, Tomor- row Is Forever" (RKO), February JOAN LESLIE FREED FROM WARNERS PACT Hollywood, May 28.' Joan Leslie was granted freedom from a Warners pact in. decision made by Superior Judge Alfred Pa- onessa over the weekend on • a de- murrer filed against the injunction granted the studio, preventing ac- tress from leaving its employ. Judge Paonessa decided Miss Les- lie's contract, signed while she was a minor, was duly approved by Su perior court, but such approval was not obtained on succeeding options at time of lifting. Therefore, no contract existed between 'Warners and Miss Leslie. Warners announced it would appeal decision. VeL Film Liaison Setup Hollywood, May 28. Newly created post of liaison be- tween the Veterans Administration and the film industry will be filled by Douglas F. George, former thea- tre exhibitor recently discharged from the Navy. Object of the job is to provide fac- tual information and technical as- sistance concerning war veterans to the film industry. Field Joins Korda Arthur Field, former -foreign rep and producer for Metro, has been named exec v.p. of London Film Pro- ductions, Inc., American subsid of Alexander Korda's British setup. Field is a brother-in-law of Laudy Lawrence, who heads Korda's gen- eral sales operations. ATA Cliills Wooing Co-Op With Allied American Theatres Assn. has dropped its efforts for cooperation of Allied States Exhibitors for a broad theatremen front in attacking industry taxation and public rela- tions problems. Following open declaration of war in Chicago last week by the Conference of Inder pendent Exhibitors Assns., top ATA execs declared they were reorient- ing their policies, previously formu- lated, to act as a lone hand in push- ing improvement of the exhibitor's lot on the national level. In local campaigns ATA would continue its quest for the aid of all exhibs, in- cluding individual Allied. members, it was said. Meanwhile, in the growing battle for membership, ATA has added 300 theatres to its roster via the South- ern California Theatres Owners Assn., which last week balloted in favor of joining the newest group. Action, long forecast, was taken at a general meet of SCTOA. ATA now claims over 5,000 theatres under its banner, Ted Gamble, board chair- man, said. Organiaztion has netted over 800 houses since its April con vention in St, Louis, he declared. ATA officials refused to comment generally on the CIEA stand. It was pointed out, however, that, since Al lied and other members of the CIEA refused to recognize ATA, the latter would not canvass Allied views on collections, taxation or other matters. Planned invitation to Allied to name a representative to sit on a commit- tee which passes on Government films will also be dropped. There would be no public tilting with Allied, nor will ATA get itself drawn into public controversies, ATA officials said. Organization, however, is currently mulling a pro- posed drive, via the trade press, to get across ATA aims. Following announcement yesterday (Tuesday) of the Franco-American film agreement, general easing of other foreign trade restrictions on American films appeared imminent this week. Italian govt, reportedly has signed agreement allowing eight majors to distribute 16 films each Italy. Czechoslovak government also was reported ready, to admit the 40 features selected by OWI that were shown throughout most of Europe during the war. Films would be the first U. S. product to be distrib- uted in that country since 1941. Italian' agreement includes the provision that all U. S. companies, including Metro, Paramount, RKO, Universal, 20th-Fox, Columbia, War- ners and United Artists, invest all profits back in the Italian market. " o. foreign reps said this would probably mean using the funds for everything necessary to running their; business in Italy, such as build- ing of new offices or theatres, dub- bing,'etc. With the lack of pro- duction facilities, most companies have decided that, rather than at- tempt their own production in Italy, they would directly finance Italian pix. . As far as the majors are con- cerned, one foreign rep said, none wants to flood the Italian market ith American product but will %eek to export only, as many films as the market will absorb. Since the. companies realize that Italy has no foreign exchange, the question of getting any money out of the country was never discussed (Continued on page 20) Despite Film Labor Bugaboo, Wall St. Undisturbed on Amusement Stocks U.S. Signs Teresa Wright Hollywood, May 28. Milton Sperling signed Teresa Wright as ferhme star in "The Pur- sued," to be filmed in Technicoor by United States Pictures. Picture, based on a yarn by Niven Busch, goes before the cameras in July. ' i While certain followers of mo- tion picture stocks are a bit dis- turbed over the labor outlook and others believe many of the film shares have discounted upwards the current high earnings expected this year, more conservative statisticians in Wall Street claim neither factors should disturb current strength of the amusement group. Although Paramount, Warner Bros, and possibly RKO common shares have advanced so rapidly and so high that some financial observ- ers claim the stocks now thoroughly reflect present and expected high earnings, other issues hardly fit into this category. Also it's pointed out that if all picture companies are able to double their 1945 neti profit, via elimination of excess profit tax, film shares can hardly be rated ahead of rest of the market. The labor 'Setup perhaps is the most disturbing one to stock buyers, yet in some industry quarters-it is I pointed out that outlay for labor | production.. constitutes a lesser portion of a pic ture's final cost. Negotiations still are in progress with studio unions for new 1946 and 1947 wage scales. When these are set, they likely will be retroactive to the first of this year. And actually, even if they should be boosted materially, they would not cut into. earnings of most major film companies In 1946. This is because most produclng-distrlbut- lng companies already have estab lished reserves against current earn- ings to amply care for a hike in labor outlay. Also it is pointed but in financial quarters: that as long as theatre grosses/continue at the current high level a boost in labor costs won' mean a big worry to film companies, Only catch here .is that steadily dwindling attendance would force down admission prices, and show up quickly in lost revenue per pro duction. It would also mean a longei period of time would be needed to obtain the bulk of film rentals per dur- ates Sees No B.0. Distractions For Folly Another Year The coming 12 months will mark the greatest prosperity for/ the pic- ture business since before the war, Herbert J. Yates, president of Re- public, predicted yesterday (Tues.) on second day of Rep's eastern sales regional in New York. He added that opposition to pic- ture entertainment in the form of such diversions as new cars, and other luxury items calculated to de- tract from theatre attendance will not be available until the. fall of 1947. Yates stressed the importance of greater merchandising meantime in order to further Increase and retain patronage. MEALAND LEAVING PAR FOR OWN WRITING Hollywood, May 28. Richard Mealand arranged for the termination of his contract as chief of the Paramount story and writing department, but agreed to stay oh the job until his successor takes over. When his replacement is named, Mealand will return to his Connec- ticut home to write novels and short stories. LeMaire's N.Y. Scouting This Tune for Intern'! Rufus LeMaire, who was named exec aide to William Goetz at Inter- national, arrived in New York over the weekend to take up his initial chore—a search for talent that Will keep him east a week, or so. LeMaire's new spot with Interna- tional will have no effect on Jack Merton, who will continue as casting director. LeMaire resigned as tal? ent chief of 20th-Fox' to take the new job. TOT EASTS ON BIZ Bryan Foy shoved off to New. York for huddles with Robert R. Young, Pathe Industries prexy; about pro- duction budgets for Pathe-Eagle- Lion. If time allows, Foy will plane to London for conferences wilh J. Ar-. thur Rank.