Variety (Jul 1946)

22 INTERNATIONAL •TARIBTTH' LONDON OFFICE $ St. MattoV PUc*. Trafalgar gqwN Columbia Sets European Longhair Web for U S. Artists; 25 Date Guarantee A concert network in nine Euro- + pi-iin countries, in a loose amalga- . mation of leading managers in Talis. Zurich; Hague and Amster- dam. Brussels. London. Stockholm, j Rome and-Milan. Prague, and Vien-, na. as well as including the military govts, ill Vienna aiid Berlin, has just been set up by Columbia Con- : certs. Setup was arranged by Andre Mortens, .head of Columbia's foreign : dept.. who returned last week from ' a three-month survey of conditions , abroad. Trip was to open a new rhar- kel tor U. S. talent, especially the '. younger group that has never been abroad, to give them a chance to absorb European culture and be- come really international, as well as to let European audiences get ac- . quainted with U. S. product. . < Network of managers will coor-.: dinate plans, so that U. S. artists' will be guaranteed a minimum of . 25 concerts over a period, of two to . three months, following consecutive- I Jy in various cities for a : European ■ loop. Circuit will get under way ac- ; lively next spring. j Europe will be a tremendous mar- i kcl in the future for U. S. musical | talent, according to Mertens. There Mex. Oscars Revamp Mexico City, July 20. Tlic Mexican version of the Cine- matographic Arts and Sciences Academy, main function of which was to award annual Oscars for busts of various kinds of pic accom- plishments, has been revamped and makes its headquarters'at Roma, No. 37 here. Academy is made up of. .'govt, reps, the Ministries of the Interior and National Economy; the National Univ., Feminine Univ:, Science and Arts Athehum, and the Picture Pro- duction Workers Union, which Can- tinflas (Mario Moreno) and Jorge Negrcte head. Anglo-Danish Pact Cues U S. Pix Entry Arg. Govt Sets Priority On Raw Film Imports Washington, July 23! Argentine government has ordered its importers of raw motion picture film to give priority on as much as 10% of their imports to orders from government agencies there, Depart- ment of Commerce' reports, In aUdition, these importers must notify the Bureau of Public Per- formances periodically as to their total imports, buyers, quantities .sold and prices obtained. The same de- cree removed imported raw motion picture ,film from rationing and price control. '<■"* 50-Year Film Cavalcade, at 25c A Head, Is London's Newest Hit Copenhagen, July 23. , Among the speculative 1 points is a dearth of European lop talent, raised , n England re g 9 rding the especially among instrumentalists: - , _ . . .. „. , _ . U. S. talent is so outstanding, that i". S. loan and its ultimate effect on Europe can't compete with us. And film business, has been a question they want to hear our artists. i concerning the projected Anglo- Mertens, who two years ago de- Danish trade agreement which calls veloped a South American market for bu nt purchases of Danish butter for Columbia artists, says that the . w ■ , ___. . „ . . ; U. S. has become an inl'l. rii,trib i and bacon En 8 land - Feared here center for talent, with lines mov- • that it will conflict with conditions ing out from America to all points iof the American loan and involve of the world. He found people in lhe Bl . itisn m discrimination, occupied countries so interested in „ ... l h » j ' -it t» ■ ■ U. S. news, that he was forced to i ^ r,1,sh . 1 ?, ,m TT trade *' th Denmar 4 k give lectures in Prague, Vienna and jf nd -' A £' CtUre i m ?°- rtS Rome on artistic conditions and de- j ner V n11 be affected by any decision vclopments in the U. S. during the !° n , the . ^^i^J^^l^ war years. """ Europe, which finds music as much a part of life as clothing or bread, will pay artists good fees, says Mertens, enough anyway to pay all living and"travel expenses while abroad, with a little to bring back. Countries like Sweden, Switzerland. England, etc., are so eager for.U. S. talent that they will permit money to go out. . In Italy, says'Mertens, there is no tax; all fees are net. Other countries have taxes commen- surate with ours, but artists can de- duct these from U. S. taxes. lent no U. S. pictures are allowed in Denmark except for 40 OWI re- leases, because of Danish govern- mental fear of creating obligations in scarce dollar exchange. At same time, British pix can .play here since there is a trade reciprocity and favorable sterling balance created by English bulk purchases of Danish foodstuffs. If the Anglo-Danish pact is ap- proved, it would not only assure 'England of a continued market for its films, but could very well open the country for American product Travel-and living conditions are since the. food purchases under dis- still a problem, Mertens. admits, but by next spring, when the circuit starts, conditions should be easier. cussion would probably be made with dollar exchange. When and if this occurs a decided sore point in Columbia, he says, doesn't consider the Scandinavian'territory of U. S the venture a commercial enter- ; exhibitors would be eliminated. On prise as yet, the expenses involved j the other hand, if the pact is not ap in setting up an organization being proved, England's film market here much more than they can recoup. I will likely be removed by govern- In five years, thinks Mertens. if a ment restrictions and the possibility real market has been created, it will of Denmark opening to American Order of Brit. Empire Honor to George Wood A Minor London To-Do London, July 18. British entertainment circles have been experiencing a minor sensation because of recent awards of the an- nual king's honors. In some' quar- ters it was felt that other performers also deserved the award 1 of Order, of the British Empire which was pre- sented to Wee Georgie Wood, the comedian. Fuel was added to the discontent by the erroneous listing of Wood as chairman of the Variety Artists Fed- eration. Performers felt that the VAF-...should, have been consulted before honors were dispensed. At any rate, since receiving the award, it's agreed Wood has done his share in the war effort. Some of the sting in connection with the annual honors was elim- inated when such noted British show people Were invited to the King's Garden party last July 9. Among those at the gathering were George Formby, Elsie and Doris Walters, Will Hay. Bud Flanagan, Bobby Howes, Jack Hulbert, Ches- ney Allen, Val Parnell, C. B. Coch- ran and several others. - Sweden's French Pix Stockholm, July 10. ; France, which, before the war competed strongly with U. S. for the Swedish film market, with about 50 French pix shown yearly, seems back in its stride again. Twelve new French pix are already show- ing here. First Belgian pic seen here, "For- cals d'Honneur," was shown in Stockholm recently. Also a Mexican film,: VSeda Sangre V Sol," which the crix didn't like. An Australian film. "40,000 Horsemen," produced by Charles Chauvels and distributed in other European countries by Uni- versal, has also been shown. Oscar Rosenberg Filmbureau distributes jn Sweden. pay off in dividends. Franco-German Civilian Group Takes Over Fdm Distrihs in Germany films would be indefinitely post- poned. Meanwhile, Russia and Denmark have concluded a food agreement similar to that being considered in England. This means that the ex MEX. PRODUCERS GAG MEMBERS ON FILM GAB Mexico City, July 23. Die to admitted tension in the producing end of pix, the Assn. of Producers and Distributors of Mexi- can Motion Pictures has circularized its members to abstain from "ex- pressing for publication opinions, criticisms or comments upon the general situation in the film indus- try." Warning added that state- ments regarding the situation and those, the assn. desires to issue will be made by its public relations com- mittee, chairman of which is Rene Capistran Garza, who, said the cir- cular, "has charge of giving con- crete information so that a genera! opinion can be formed that will re- dound to the collective benefit." Shutting off of credits by the pri- vate banks, which has snagged pro- duction, has prompted a group of panding market for Russian films producers to start organizing a pro- has found a new customer, QUEENSBERRY CLUB SLATED FOR THEATRE Paris, July 18., Distribution of French product in German occupied territories, hither- to under military control, will now be done through Internationa) Film Alliance,' a Franco-German civilian organization with head office in i _ , London, July 23. Baden-Baden, later to be transferred! M^psberry club, purchased last to Mayence. | week bv P"nce Littler and Tom Apart from a 16% interest held by ' ^nve^Intfa TEtZ"% "i" est is held , by French producers i,, w hwn •!»»« ~,™,L .. i V through a French holding company. \%Z$? S™JZ? VaWn *° mak6 The balance is held by the German Rex Films,. Berlin. Capt. Marcel Colin-Reval, who organized French military distribution, is running the company. Though only a' limited number of French producers are stockholders, distribution facilities are available to all French producers. The company is currently servicing 425 theatres in occupied territory with 70 pictures. Dubbing is done in Berlin, Munich and Remagen. Besides French dub- bing, Rex Film through its subsid- iary REVA is also doing dubbing for Russian product. They'll spend $160,000 on the renovations. Queensbury club .was formerly known as the London Casino, housing Clifford C, Fischer's "Folies Ber geres" revue. Tiajuana; Studios Started Mexico City. July 23. Work has been started on pix stu- dios at Tiajuana, south of San Diego, by William Rowland and Santiago Martinez, latter prominent Mexican film man. Cost is said to be $300,- J tr00 • (U. : 'S.-) arid plant' will cover 1,000 acres. •'" ' PRC's Seidehnan Abroad On London-Paris Survey Sam L. Seidelman, PRC's foreign sales head, emplaned yesterday (23)' for London on a four-to-six week tour of the company's continental offices. Seidelman is expected to size'up the possibilities of PRC tak- ing over a. number of its European franchises. Company has been weighing the feasibility of the move along with a similar course of action in South America. While-in London, Seidelman will confab with British sales manager Lou Kalker. First leg of his Con- ' tinental survey will be Paris. duction financing company, the Gen- eral Financlera, which, it is re- ported, will have government coin aid. Company, reported capital of which will be $40,000,000 (Mex.), is scheduled to get going soon. Current London Shows London, July 23. "Arsenic & Old Lace," Strand. "Better Late." Garrick. "Ballet Theatre," Covent Garden. "Crime & Punishment," New "Exercise Bowler," Scala. "Flfty-Flfly," Strand, "First Gentleman,'* Savoy. "Follow the Girls," Majesty's. "Frieda," Westminster. "Gang Show," Stoll. "Grand National Night," Apollo. "Guinea Fig," Criterion. "Hasty Heart," Aldwych, "Here Come the Boys," Saville. "High Time," Palladium. "Honeymoon," York's. "Lady Edinburgh," Playhouse. . "Night and Music," Coliseum. "No Room at Inn," Winter Garden. "Perchance to Dream," Hipp. "Portrait In Black," Piccadilly. "Red Hoses for Me," Wyndhams. "Shop Sly Corner," St. Martins. "Song of Norway," Palace. "Sweetest and Lowest," Ambass. "The Kingmaker," St. James. i "Under the Counter." Phoenix, "While Sun Shines." Globe. "Windermere'* Fan," Haymarket, "Winslow Boy/' Lyric. ■ "Worm's View," Whitehall. Loew's Int'l Host To Employees Loew's International will honor its 20-year employees, scattered all over the. globe, this week. Seventy-five men and women are slated to re- ceive diamond-studded rings and en- graved certificates attesting to mem- bership in Loew's "Twenty-Year Club," according, to prexy Arthur M. Loew. At same time, more, than 400 employees who have been with the company for 10 years will receive gold llapel pins and certificates. Fourteen h.o. members of the "20- Year Club" and 23 h.o. employees with the company for 10 years-will, receive their awards from Loew personally. Remainder will go out by' air mail to Loew's territorial of- fices throughout the world. H.o. employees slated to receive the 20- year award include Dave Blum, Richard J. Brenner, Sam N. Burger, Paul H. Crane. Morris Franlz, Mar- garet Hill, H. C. Kleindienst, Henry F. Krecke, David Lewis, Arthur M. Loew, Annette M. Miller, Lillian Reiss. Kate Seidman and Morton A. Spring. Due for the 10-year awards are.L. Algrant, Sylvia Coiiey. Mary Wright, Alfred do Oro. Joseph de Santo. Pearl Fox, Sylvia Goldfluss, Harold Goldgraben. Charles Goldsmith, Wade Hulings, Sylvia Hyde, Rose B. Isaacs, Helen Jones. Rosa Lewis, Louis Lober. Seymour R. Mayer. William Melinker, Norman Ogilvie, Joseph Seely and M. Silverstein. UA'S 7 RANK PIX IN SO. AM. WITH TITLES United Artists, with full distribu- tion rights in Latin America for all J. Arthur Rank films it's releasing in the U. S., has started the So. American program off with a list of seven of the British-made films. These include "Colonel Blimp," "Blithe Spirit." "Caesar and Cleo- patra." "The Man in Grey,"' "Fanny by Gaslight." "2,000 Women" and "Adventure for Two." With the U. S. indie producers who release through UA still at odds over whether their pix should be dubbed or have super-imposed titles for the Latin American market, the company has decided to forego dub- bing on the British productions and will release the entire slate, conse- quently, with titles. Aussie U'itesm U. S. Dan Casey, Universale sales man- ager for Australia, arrives here today (24) for a series of huddles with foreign execs on forthcoming company product. Casey, who will stay for about a month, will seek a first-hand report on U's new dis- tribution tieup with Enterprise Pic- tures, the Charles Einfcld-David Loew combo. The sales official was accompanied by Ray Groves, branch manager for western Australia, who' won the current junket as top man in "the 1945 Joseph H. Seidelman sales drive." Viennese Actress Back Vienna, July 10. Anna Hartmann, former member of the Burg theatre, returned to Vienna after almost eight years' ab- sence. She had,to leave the Aus- trian capital in March 1938 and went to N. Y. London!. July 14. In midst of London showbiz, old films have started trading again at a "Fifty Years of Films" exhibition opened at Dorland Hall, Piccadilly Circus. Charles Chaplin and Char- lie Peace masterpieces dating back to the gas-lamp age threaten Alan Ladd at the-Plaza, 10 yards away, and are exhibited daily-at an old- time Electric Palace rigged up in the main hall with piano and hard benches. Threat from the past is one of lhe main exhibits in a serious historical pageant describing what films have done from their birth in 1806 to the present day. Show opened infor- mally to a score of film stars and 700 guests from the film trade and was followed by gratis publicity, when the Gish sisters turned, up a day or two. later during their London visit. Exhibition, is a cunning admixture "'of period research and modern showmanship aimed to hit a double target of longhair patrons and film fans. It opens with the plonrcr work of Muybridge' and Lumiere, the former represented by his clas- sic study of horses in movement, basis for all subsequent experimen- tation, the latter by the original pro- jection apparatus used at the Lon- don Polytechnic in 1896. first cinema to venture into the field. Models and gadgets from the wax museums of the past, most of them working, cover every process in the creation of pictures from the. old penny-a-foot newsreel to the $2.- 000,000 production from Denham. In half an hour you travel half a cen- tury from the windy sets of Fatty Arbuckle's day, past a D. W. Griffith "iris," to the study of optics and the Technicolor. The femmes glue -their eyes lo make-up secrets or the spacious model of "Great Expectations" from the film just completed by Cine- guild.. Hit of the show, which is spoil-, sored by the London Daily Express, is the series of shorts in the old- time theatre, an infallible wow. Ex- hibition is set for a limited .season at 25c admission, with a ceiling of roughly 6,000 customers per diem. 'London Town' Marks New High in Co-op Of Anglo-Yank Pic Talents By BOB MUSEL London. July 23. A team of Anglo-Yank talents has just completed the musical "London ' Town," thus marking what may well be a new high in British-U. S. coop- eration in film-making. It's being considered by J. Arthur Rank as an important prestige showcase in the world markets. The Americans In this interna- tional team are producer Wesley Ruggles, associate producer Buster Collier, Tootie Camarata, who did the scoring, and songwriting duo. of Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke. For England there are comedian Sid Fields, Greta Gynt and a find named Kay Kendall who is only 18, plus some singing-dancing beauts from over here. This first British Technicolor mu- sical has run into'difficulties never dreamed of these days in Hollywood. Power cables, worn out because, of inability to replace them during the war, used to pop or short-circuit daily. Even under extreme effort there were times when the cables couldn't carry enough juice to light a scene. One day the scene-painters had to be called in to paint sunlight on furniture. • An effort to screen exteriors at Windsor ran into three solid weeks of impossible weather. Ruggles recalled that one time some- one left a set' door open, and so much fog poured in shooting had to be suspended for the day. Camarata found to his astonish- ment that there wasn't even a soiuhI- mixing board in the country, and that the studio used for recording had more echoes than a haunted castle. Camarata's visit here has had some intriguing Influences on British band-arranging because, he is the best-known American ar- ranger to reach here since the war, Ruggles and Collier have ambi- tious plans for future work in this country but Ruggles hasn't been too well lately, partly, due to the strain of filming. 'He will rest for a time before making any -new decisions.