Variety (Jul 1946)

Wednesday, July 31, 1946 PICTURES 21 U-lnt'l Merge Prod. Continued from page 3 former v.p. of U, returns to the latter company as executive v.p. and a di- rec'or. Other UWB officials and staffers will likewise be absorbed into U. Decree Did It A principal reason for the radical switch in the U-Rank setup was the recent Federal court decision in the industry anti-trust suit. With strong prohibition by the court against the sale of any picture being contingent on the .purchase by an exhib of an- other picture, one of the prime rea- sons of UWP vanished; Idea in or- ganizing the company had been that strong product from International would be used as a lever to sell exliibs the English-made product which would be coupled with it in contracts. With the court's decree that each picture must be sold singly and bid for separately, there is little doubt that English product is going to suffer, since at the present stage most exhibs will accept it only under duress or necessity. That would have left UWP, with half its product from British sources, in a weak position. Yesterday's announcement stated that a special department will be set up within U to give "specialized and concentrated attention" to the Rank product. Part of the personnel hired during the past six months to oper- ate UWP, it is understood, will be . absorbed into this activity. New type selling under the anti- ' trust decision, it was felt by U top- pers, would also make more difficult sale of B product, which accounted • in part for the decision to drop the cheapies. U-Kank to Carry Through U and Rank, announcement said, will follow through with the plan announced by UWP of acquiring theatres in the United States, as well as adding to the more than 1,000 houses Rank already owns throughout the world. ' Aim in the U.'S., it is understood, is to acquire major showcases in a number of key cities. Distribution outside of thjs coun- try won't be affected-by the changes. UIP and Enterprise Pictures (Loew- Einfeld) will be handled by Rank's General Film Distributors, Ltd., in the United Kingdom. In the rest of the world distribution will be via the present U and Rank setups. (Universal International Pictures and the new Universal International Productions should not-be - confused. Former is U's foreign sales organiza- tion, headed by Joe Seidelman, MOTION PICTURE STUDIO SPACE AVAILABLE Main Stag* 75' x 60* x 30' Facilities Personnel • The Te/escene Company J 00 Mamarpneck Avenue Mamproneck, New York Tel. Mamaroneck 3678 ARE YOU WITH IT? Horo't a IS-yoar-eld vol, 4 yean In AAF, wants a ipst in legit, movie pub- licity, promotion. Working for net- work ai newt ed. Anxloui for twitch. Four yean in movie publicity, new*- papen. Grad Columbia 0. Sc. of Journajitm. Travelled extentlvely at h*me, abroad. Can produce rave reference! from patt employert (and pretent bolt), and from blackboard brigade at tchool. Thete crhict toy: "A good bet." Are you with It? Then write: Box 847, Variety 154 Wott 46th St., Now York 19, N.Y. which will continue to operate as heretofore.) Deal between Rank and the (American) Eagle-Lion Co. for dis- tribution of certain Rank product in the U. S. and Latin America will be continued. Likewise, Rank will continue to handle American-made Eagle-Lion pictures in the United Kingdom and throughout the world. Arrangement, was that UWP would get its choice of top Rank pix and E-L would get the lower-budgeted British product. Plans are being made, it was stated yesterday, for a regular in- terchange of players, directors and writers between UIP and the vari- ous Rank production affiliates. Trend of the' changes that have resulted from the talks in England were apparently a well-guarded secret, even from top personnel of the companies involved, until Daily Variety published details last Fri- day (26). William C. Heineman, UWP salesmanager, had been hiring division, district and branch person- nel to man his offices right up to the weekend. He likewise signed a lease for office space in a key city only last week. Heineman said that all the help he had hired would be absorbed into the expanded U set- up. Company will probably cancel leases on exchange space, however. Intention was to get the initial pic- ture, "Bella Donna," into release around Christmas. At the studio. Cliff Work, U v.p. in charge of production, will remain as a "senior executive." Fox left London for New York by plane Monday (29), following com- pletion of, the confabs with Rank in London, and is due in today (Wednesday). Nate Blumberg, U prexy, and Seidelman, will leave London Friday (2). Others who sat in on the huddles were J. Cheever Cowdin and Charles D. Prutzman, of U; Leo Spitz and Bob Goldstein, of International; Robert Benjamin, of- ficer and counsel for UWP and the Rank Organization in America, and a rep of Eagle-Lion. Dietrich in Paris To Wind Up French Film Hollywood, July 30. Paramount cabled Marlene Diet- rich permission to remain in Paris until she finishes her current film with Jean Cabin. Actress was origi- nally slated to leave for Hollywood last week. -Meanwhile "Golden Ear- rings" goes into work; on the Par- amount lot without the star, Harry Tugend is producer. Ray Milland draws top male role in "The Big Clock" at Par, following "Earrings," in which he will co-star with Miss Dietrich. Richard Mai- baum will produce "Clock," based on Kenneth Fearing's novel, to be pub- lished as a mag serial this fall. 5 Ex-GI Flacks, Fired For Incompetency, Can Return to M-G Payroll t Hollywood, July 30. Metro yesterday (Mon.) expressed willingness to reemploy a quintet of press- agents who were given notice last week. All five are former GI's and a beef was stirred up when the American Veterans Committee and Legion demanded a probe into rea- sons for firing. Metro stated it would give answer to Screen Publicists Guild demands later this week, but that the flacks could go back on pay- roll as apprentices, a status they held prio.- to entering service. SPG, how- ever, demands junior rating for these members. Discharges by studio were on the basis that the flacks work was hot satisfactory. SPG stated it /would wait for Metro's answer on the matter before taking action in Fed- eral court on asserted violation of the GI Bill of Rights. U Gates 9 Producers Of Serials and Low Cost Pictures in Sbakeup Hollywood, July 30. Universal announced the abandon- ment of "B" productions and serials, together with the release of four executives and Ave associate pro- ducers. Checking off the lot in the big upheaval are Morgan B. Cox, Marshall Grant, Ben Pivar and How- ard Welsch, executive producers; and Charles Schneer, Charles F. Haas, Stanley Rubin, Leon Ba'rsha and Joseph O'Donnell, associates. Several cliffhanger writers have also moved out of the studio. Understood Eagle-Lion and PRC will turn out low budget product abandoned by Universal while that studio will confine its future opera- tions to "A" pictures. PRC recently announced plans to produce serials for release through a new company. U'S 6-POINT RISE MON. ON INSIDERS* INFO Foreshadowing official announce- ment of the Universal-International Pictures merger of the absorption of United World Pictures into the new company, Unlversal's common stock Monday (29) climbed six points precipitously in the wake of heayy trading. Solid rise scored .during a day in which other amuse- ment stocks and the general market only Inched forward slightly was due to insider activity with 5,000 shares, a comparatively large slice of U's free stock, changing hands during the day. Common which opened at 40¥i closed at 46 as those in the know bid for the stock at the ground-floor price. Closeout price of 46 is close to the year's high of 49 T /s. Profit- taking following the climb held U down yesterday (30) to 45V4. Trading of U's 4% cumulative preferred stock was also heavy Mon- day as 18,000 shares crossed the boards after the board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $1.06 per share. Preferred dipped a slight % point to close at 96\4. Dividend is payable Sept. 3 to stockholders of record Aug. IS. MJ\ SALESMEN'S ORG, TRYING TO ALIGN N.Y. Having quietly lined up members in various exchange centers through- out the country, an organization known as Colosseum of Motion Pic ture Salesmen of America, .is under- taking a campaign in New York to swing-this No. 1 branch key of the country into its fold. In a letter to prospective' members among the sell ing fraternity in N. Y., the organi- zation, over the signature* of W. G. Carmichael, executive secretary; is ready.to shift from a formative to an active stage, it is stated. According to Carmichael, ex- changes now represented include those in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Ore., Kansas City, Minne- apolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Cincin- nati, Detroit, Atlanta', New Orleans, Washington and Memphis, "with sev- eral other groups in the midst of dis- cussion at this time, most of which we are told will_be favorable." Two years ago an independent move was made to form a salesmen's union in N. Y., but failed. E.M. Loew Sells House; Settles Lots 0' Things Anti-trust suit instituted by Cross Bay Amusement Co., lessee of the Cross Bay theatre, Queens, N. Y against the eight major film compa- nies plus Monogram, Republic and PRC, United Artists Theatre Circuit, Inc., Skouras Theatres Corp., Land force Amus. Co., Inc., Metropolitan Playhouses, Inc., and other individual exhibs, was dropped yesterday (30) following deal to purchase the thea tre and transfer its lease. Complaint, which charged unfair competition in run and clearance, was denied plaintiff Elias M. Loew and subsequent final settlement came as a result of deal' hatched in the office of William Gold, Loew's at torney, in which Ranpru Operating Corp. purchased the house from its original owners, Rockwood Theatre Enterprises, Inc. Loew originally turned down a similar deal in 1945 offered by certain distribs who were willing to split first-run product with him. Ranpru is owned by the Pru dential Playhouse Co., which has a 50% ownership in the Garden Casino and Jerome theatres. Gold said that, coincidental with dropping of the complaint by Loew, a- suit against him by Loew's, Inc., was also dropped. Loew's, Inc., suit was instituted in an effort to enjoin Elias Loew from using his name on the theatre mnrquee, claiming it was misrepresentation. So. CaL Indies Move to Get the ATA To Intercede in Anti-Trust Case ALL MAJORS BUT COL. SUE INDIE ON % PIX Cleveland, July 30. Charging chiseling on percentage pix, the Scoville, Essick & Reif cir- cuit, ' James E. Scoville, Perclval E. Essick and Howard Reif were named defendants last week in separate Federal court suits filed by all ma- jors but Columbia. Action is the third to be brought here by the film companies against exhibitors on the claim of falsified reports. Complaints allege a conspiracy on the part of the defendants to de- fraud the distributors in turning in false boxoffice reports of nine houses, all in Ohio. Judgment for both ordinary and exemplary dam- ages plus an injunction to restrain the defendants from disposing of the records is asked. As part of the charges, complaint asserts that the defendants sub- mitted both incomplete and inac- curate records to distribs' auditors. Added plaint is that the exhibitors proposed to read alleged entries from the records to the auditors in- stead of permitting them to see the originals. *■ American Theatres Assn. which voted down a proposed moveto in- tercede in the anti-trust case re- mains widely split on that moot point with a strong faction current- ly waging a campaign for reconsid- eration. Paul Williams, general counsel for the Southern California Theatre Owners Assn. and one of the prime movers in the group which seeks to push the ATA into action, will head east this week for huddles with ATA leaders in an attempt to win a change in stand. Williams, whose SCTOA last week at an executive meet inveighed against auction-selling, will also confab with Dept. of Justice attor- neys in Washington. Argument of Williams and other faction spokesmen is that the chaos threatened to the industry by the court decision transcends trade prac- tices and that ATA is, therefore, not restricted by its constitution from stepping into the mixup. With every other exhibitor group pitching into top muddle now agitating the in- dustry, feeling is fairly strong \n ATA that the organization cannot afford to stand idle. ATA is a nat- ural to swing its weight towards some sort of harmony move between indie exhibs and the distribs since it includes both indies and affiliates among its members, Williams' fac- tion argues. mi 6633 SUNSET BLVD. HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA TCLEPHONI HILLSIDE MM