Variety (Aug 1946)

26 PICTURES Wednesday, August 28, 1946 Majors Hypo Lip Sync Dubbing On Exports to Crimp Local Competish Memphis Indies Continued from page 4 Aiming to head off tUe rapidlyt expanding competition from native ,! product in scattered countries tfiroughout the world which threat- ens to lop ofl sizable portion of its international take, major film com- panies are turning to improved technical standards of dubbing and narration to beat the local pro- ducer at his own game. Long step in that direction jn which Metro cuif- rently leads is in the widening use of the expensive process of lip syn- chronization dubbing of. films in most important languages. Metro with ,the. avowed purpose of luring heretofore unreached audiences has swung into lip dubbing in Spanish, French and Italian, with Arabic as the next tongue on its agenda. ■ Idea which has taken fast root since V-J Day is to combine Holly wood's slick' and expensive produe-; tion valiics, which local film indus- tries cannot rival, with dubbing so clever as to be a perfect simulatioh of .a. perforwier. speaking : in the na- tive' tongue. Translation into foreign, script for a particular country's consumption, in each instance, seeks SEG, Prods, in Pay Standoff Hollywood, Aug. 27. Retroactive pay is the. last re- maining problem ' in , : the contjiact negotiations . between the Screen Extras Quild and the film studios. Producers offered, pay back to Jan. 1, 1946, while the u'rtion is holding out for Jan. 1) 1945i- Producers' protjo.sal will be sub- mitted to a general meeting of ex- tras in the Hollywood I*egion Stad- ium Sept. 8. CAssembly Line Continued from page IS a„.^ . product so that they were forced to give up their lease and that Light- man then bought in the $1,000,000 house for $75,000 from the original bondholders, jvas given top product for the house, and turned it into a winner. ■ ' Bill was filed by attorneys R. G. Draper, Walter P. Arrn.strong, Sr., who is a former president of ,the American Bar Association; John Shea and Walter P. Armstrong, Jr, Lights man, who is represented by William W. Goodman, replied within 10 hours with a statement of blanket denial to the press, but has not filed sin answer in court as yet. He has been ill at his home here the past several weeks, I 000 000 leads the field, while Warner I : The complainants charge that .tin-i 3j.pg ,:i5. jn thij-(j spot with $,14,800,000 | fair clearance preference's for the! Q^ted for nine months, Metro is Fox's $4 '46 Divvy Twentieth-Fox directors plan an extra dividend of 75o per common share in the last tjuarter this year, bHnging tot^l divvy distributions to $4 per share in 1946. 'Company paid $2.50 on the common last year. ' it .was revealed at the company's ; special . meeting last week that con- j solidated earnings : of 20lh.-Fox are expected to be near $24,000,000 for the current'year ending next Decem- ber. Also, that National Theatres, i a subsidiary, looks to show earnings j of about $13,000;000'for 1946. Metro's New Dirigible Ads Ready to Flicker Over Northeast Sky 20th's Earnings — Continued ftom page J sss night for next day's work. A stage can be completely emptied arid re- flUe'd \yith\riew sets in less than one hour. Ths would eliminate night work, : When the rigging arjd . lining are currently done for the next day's work. Plan calls. for cbnstruo^ tion operatioh to, take place enUirely in the daytime.. . . Peltori claims his system and new studio .design will be a stabiiizer to employ words which will simu- j of employment, because whole pic- late the lip moveinerits of the per- tures will be built in advance at former rather thah: the usual dub- normal pace without interfering bins of a literal transcription of the with shooting activities. Sets, can be. English words. With the ■ flexibility built well in advance without tying of languages permitting this with out too' great deviation from the English text, technicians in testing the method have found that the illusion is created that the performer is speaking in local lingo. Metro Teed Off 18 Months Ago Metro launched into Spani.sh lip dubbing for both 35m and 16m films about 18 months ago for Latin American screens. With the method proving a big -success despite its resultant substantial hike in the cost of prints, company has decided to jump in with both feet. Added to the advantage of conveying the impression that Metro stars were speaking in the native language is the fact that the pix draw patrons whd are tinable to read the usual subtitles. Since the end .qf the war Metro is lip dubbing in France under the direction of M. Vocher. Plans call for the building of new studios in Paris to expand the process, foreign dept. officials disclose. And in its latest" move, M-G has just begun dubbing with the same process in Italian, with its new h.q. located in Eome under Augusto Galli. While Metro has been the fore- runner in initiating lip dubbing, other companies are employing the method on a narrower scale and for a fewer number of pix. Main ob- jection is to the high cost of the new lip dubbing, but foreign execs are predicting steady expansion in all markets where fat grosses are possible. RKO recently closed a deal with Metro whereby the latter is to . dub RKO's "Notorious" and "Sister Kenny? in Spanish. Its injportant, foreign dept. offi- cials say« to use the same voice for a featured player in every film in which the player appears. Moreover, it's equally important that the voice resemble that of the performer. Consequently, in each locality, na- tive actors are hired oh a dontrac- tual basis - to act as permanent vocal stand-ins lor leading American players. In those instances where a close substitute is Unavailable, studio supervisor has started local train- ♦ ing units. Lightman houses have reduced their weekly .'.gro-sses.. a total of $970,200, the figure also. including the alleged Orphe.um cjamage throiigli inability to get prodlict. Under the Glayton Act provision for .treble damages,, they . seek S2i910,600. plus Colirt costs, atorneys'. fees, etc., the amount to be! divided. , thusly:- Idlewild, .$312,000; Air ways,' $'210,600; Luciann and Hol- lywood, $280,800 apiece; Bristol, $374,400; Rosemary, $702,000; and .CuUins - Evans Orpheum. combine, $750,000. . , The indies cTiarge Light.man in- terests with • using their buying power, including that of the large string of theatres • outside Meinphis. to obtain "many concessions and fourth with $12,000,000 for 40 weeks and RKO is fifth with $7,000,000 for Six:'months.; ■ Spyros Skouras,. 20th. prexy, e.';ti- mated at the stockholders" meeting last week that the earnings, of the theatre company (National Theatres dorp.) would be $13,000,000 for the year. That would give 20th Cen- tury ^Fox Film Corp., , the , picture company, $11,000,000,; Since'National Theatres earnings .3Uii3ped',fO'.the $13,- 000,000 figure from $5,250,000 last year (iticrease" of $7,750,000),, .while the film company achieved: the $11,- OOOiOOO this year against $7,500,000 last year .(increase of $3,500,000), it would-appear that the theatre com- up stage space, thereby enabling di- rectors to plan their action from actual sets rather than models. The sets are built in position on. the mo- bile platforms and are transferred by a power unit frorii shop t'S shop and then to designated stages. (Power unit is an enlarged version of baggage carriers used at train and plane depots today:) ■Sets remain standing on the plat- forms as complete units and are struck only when additional plat- form area is required. Hence, a complete series of sets for any pic- ture can be held intact until after editing and preview. In case of re- takes, platforms, which contain the sets involved, in the picture, are rolled onto the stage for shooting; Since stage can be cleared of any platform in short time, no longer is there any requirement to "hold and fold" any set. The set, as a complete unit, may be held in storage indefi- nitely. Majors' Sympathetic Eye ■Various major studios have evinced deep interest in the new studio design and operation, chiefly RKO and Columbia. Understood the system figures prominently in new studio construction plans currently being reaclied by the two studios. When CommerciaV building restric- tions are lifted it is expected that some of the rental studio projects presently being considered wiU be constructed along lines of the Pel- ton system. In addition, it was learned that Alexander Korda may utilize the revolutionary system in new construction program for his Sound City studios in London. Pelton has filed applications for patents on his studio design and plan of operation in the United States ; and all the fllm-producing countries in the world. He intends to grant licenses to studios to use his design and system on a royalty basis. The inventor received his Bach^ elor of Arts at the U. S. Na-val Acad- emy and studied naval architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1922-24 ■ he was general manager of United Studios. He was studio manager of First Na ig ojjiaiii i many .. uuutcKHiuiis aiiu ■ -r..--- - , - competitive ,advantages which have .Pa"y accounted^ for the heaviest permitted them to monopolize and P.^^t of the added income. | control first neighborhood run ex hibltion" for the L.-& L. Theatres, the Lamar, Linden Circle, Memphian, Capitol, Joy and Rialto. It is further charijed that Lightman has -an agreement with the Ritz operated by :Haborfeld and Flexer, and with Tom Ballas' Madison to do. their, buying., thus giving them an advantage! ..t)Ver the complaining operators. FILM FLACKS DRAW UP NOMINEES FOR BALLOT ■ Hollywood, Aug. 27. Screen Publicists Guild completed its selection of a slate of candidates for the annual election to be held Sept. 17. Nominees are: President, John Baker, Chip Cleary, Paul Harrison; veepee, Jerry Breckenridge, John Campbell, Lesley Mason;, recording secretary, Barbara Best, Stella Eoach; financial secretary, Earl Donovan, Nat James, Bill Lyon; treasurer, Jack Adams, Frank Daugherty, Bill Speyers; business representative, Milton Gottlieb; trustees. Jack Atlas, Tom MacLeod, Bob Sill( John Boylan, Ray Dannen- baUitf, darlyle Jones, Jack Cooper, Bill McGratb, Harry Friedman. 2 Plaintiffs in Suit Are £x-Lightman Aides Memphis, Aug.. 27. Two of the plaintiffs in the $3,000,- 000 monopoly suit against M. A. Lightman are former employees of the defendant. In fact, one wa.s still working for him technically at the time the suit was filed. Nate Evans and Chalmers CuUins had worked at the Mal(;o (formerly Orpheum) for Lightman, the former: as orchestra leader .and the latter as stage manager, prior to and even after building their own Idlewild theatre in a thickly ^populated neigh- borhood. (They also own the Savoy, a Negro theatre, and are building another Negro house to be known as the W. C. Handy.) Cullins was .stage manager of the old Orpheum for many years, tried jointly with Evans to operate it in- dependently from 1937 to 1940 after RKO . had. pulled out of the local setup, and had continued as stage manager after L'ightiiian turned it into the Malco. He gave notice two weeks ago, over Lightman's vigorous protest. In fact) the night of the day on which the suit was filed, it still fell to Cullins as stage manager to go Huge Tax Saving That's the catch, however. All but $750,000: of the tilt in NT net:.is ac- counted for by the elimination by Congress this year of the excess profits tax. In other word.s, NT gained $7,000,000 from the tax change. On the other hand, the picture company w^ never in ' po- sition to pay excess' profits taxes, so its increase of $3,500,000 net is virtually all the result-of improved earning power. That $7,000,000 gained by NT via elimination of the excess profits levy also accounts, of course, for a large part of the $11,500,000 upturn in combined picture-theatre net that 20th will show for the year. The tremendous tax-saving results; from the fact that NT incorne was com- paratively low during the years 1936- 39, which were used as a base against which income in later years was contrasted in figuring excess profits. Paramount similarly gained, which is accounting in part for its high net this. year. As against the low 1936-39 income of NT, which resulted in the big tax saving, the picture producing com- pany did relatively well in those years (averaging around $7,000,000) so that, in contrast, it didn't show any "excess" profits for 1945. Metro's new advertising dirigible, labeled the Metro Goldwyn. Malrship by veepee Howard Dietz, will be launched at Lakehurst, N. J., tomor- row (Thursday) v/ith'M-G star Eliza- beth Taylor doing, the bottle-break- ing honors. Immediately following, the' ship, reputedly the largest ever-: used for sky advertising, .will 16*,. ceive'its first night test flight, carry,,.-, irig into the air a running; electric sign visible for five miles. .; . Ship,, which is sUited to, cruise the; Atlantic seaboard from Washington to Bridgeport, Conn., daily from 4:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., was supposed to have 'gene into .operation by July < 4, plugging: Metro's *'Green Years," Launching was delayed .for several reasons, however, and the first film , to be advertised from on high will now be "The Yearling." M-G will still be able to take advantage of. the large crowds expected on the Beaches' for tbe , forthcoming Labor Day weekend. ,,."'; ■ ';■ .?, One of the largest of th*! Navy: dirigibles used during the war, the' ship is reportedly four times the' size of those formerly ' used for sky advertising, with 20 times as rnuch space for electrical display. ,Run^. iiing sign, largest in world and simi- lar to the sign, on N. Y. Times build- ing in Times Square, contains 10,000 bulbs. Sign, in addition to plugging Metro pix, will also carry weather reports and occasionaj important news flashes.. Painted daylight sign,' will' plug Metro on one side of the: .ship, with the words "This is the Year of "The Yearling'" on the ether side. Radio Routs Continued from page l Meredith Willson's musical show. "Information, jpiease," dropped by Socony, looks all set to sell Parker Pens neit season, even though the SRO sign dangling at NBC and CBS down and lock ui) the Malco for^a i POS«s a-problem that even the "In SOPEG SQUAWK BECAUSE PAR HIRED AN OUTSIDER Squawk is understood to have been registered with Paramount this week by the Screen Office & Professional Employes Guild on an alleged vio- lation of the spirit of the seniority clause in the organization's pact v*rith .the company. Beef is reported' to have arisen as result of appointment of an Outsider to the vacancy caused by the resignation last week of Frances Kanes as an aide to eastern story editor Alan Jack.son, Named to the Par job as boss of outside readers was John Rearick, v:ho had been employed in the Metro story department. SOPEG is und-v- stood to maintain that the post .should have gone to Maeve Southgatc, who has been in the Par story department as a reader for more than eight years.' ■ - ■ ,■ Second choice Xcr the job, if the Par management felt Miss Southgate unsuitable, SOPEG is said te main- tain, should have been Herman Liveright, a member of the staff for about six years. Liveright is Guild chairman, but no claim what.soever is made that anti-unionism wa.s an influence in the skipping of Liveright in favor of an outsider. Miss Kanesi whose departure pre- cipitated the dispute, is the wife of Henry Hazlitt, N. Y. Times editorial writer. .. boss whom he had just nailed wjth a three-million-buck jolt! Another interesting angle of the $3i000,000 monopoly suit against the Lightman interests is the fact that one of the plaintiff.i; J. A. West, now holds the post of Tri-State MPTO president, which was held by the defendant at the time when he first began to expand his holdings in the MidSouth territory Lightman was ti*onarVicturei;"durrng 1925"28"' and i ."f .^°A'°" P''^'"'"'-' served as studio and executive manager at Metro in 1929-36. He was production executive at Metiro British Studios in 1937-39. Since 1939, Pelton has served in present capacity as producers' labor admin- istrator with headquarters ,in the Hollywood office of the Motion Pic- ■ture-'Asso, 'Cleo'—How She Danced UA's "Cleopatra . Dance" stunt landed in 20 key cities anu fiacks expect similar results in smaller towns, Tieup with. Arthur Murray dance studio won plenty of free space for "Caes'ar and Cleopatra" in such sheets 'as the Seattle Post-In tell patch illustrating so-call ed Egyptian varia- .tions of the rumba. In Detroit it became the "Cleo Calypso.7 Theatre Owners of America for sev era! terms and is still active within it's inner circle o£ higher officers. He is w.k, in Memphis for his lead- ership in civic and charitable cam- paigns .:of every sort, tie has just finished serving four years ar' presi- dent of the Memphis Little, theatre. He was founder and for many years president of the Memphis Tent ' of "Variety Clubs. i ■■ He has' two sons, both of whom v/ere in service, and a daughter. One son, M. A., Jr., is a.'sociated with his father's Malco Circuit in an executive capacity. fo" experts find difficult to solve. Bing Crosby rides the disk circuit in a $30,000 weekly 600-station deal with Philco. Dinah Shore, dropped by General Foods during the mad exodus of the top bankroUers from radiOj has been grabbed by Ford Motors. Bob Burns, who got the "no soap' edict from Lever Bros., has been inked in for American Home Products, Dick Powell, who.se "Rogue's Gallery" was cancelled by Fitch, may climb aboard the 'Texaco wagon on CBS, etc. Whicii only leaves John Charles Thomas, dropped by WeStinghoupe; Nelson Eddy, whos been replaced by Spitalny, and "Theatre of Romance," the CBS house-built show vacated by Colgate. But .the-clients, noW that production snafues have once mbre clarified themselves: and ceil- ing price uncertainties ha ve at', least been partially lifted, are still ih the bidding. ' The . ad agencies, which: only a short time, back were bemoaning the fiict , that -they - were .shoved up against the "wailing wall" and shut the doors tp the package sho:w boys with properties to peddle, appear B. A. and Paris Flacks To Be Set for Goldwyn James Mulvey, prez of Samuel Goldwyn Productions, is expected to name flacks during the next few weeks to represent the studio in iBuenoa Aires and Paris, rounding out the producer's international pub-' licity organization. David Golding I was named last week as London p.a. ' I Move in naming a piess staff to work with RKO, which distrib.s- Goldwyn product, is in line with parallel, action in setting, up an in- ternational sales staff. It's believed to be part of the plan by Goldwyn to set up his own distributing or-; ganization within the next year. Golding, former New York trade- paper reporter, was managing edi- tor of the Mediterranean edition of Stars and Stripes during the war.. His first task will be to handle ;B.ri,t-.;. ish tour of the Goldwyn Girls, .who, depart for London Sept. 24. They're slated to Ijead for Latin America in January, following return to this- coijhtry. .1:' - ■; :'■■'■": -■''■'■" -' RKO'S 30c DIVVY _ RKO directors voted a quarterly igencer and the 6rfiiAibur'I)te- (dividend .pf .30c .at the meeting ,held j,once more to-li'e ^rtcIiiii^irigh"^*lJIde ch. Latter carried .six-column cut I yesterday (Tues.). This is payable ] and handsome. \ . :; "The'"come on in" sign is agajn in evidence—and the networks are heading vtoward all-time, highs, . in. billings,..- ':.'■ ..",-.-'.:':° :. ..•'.- ., Oct. 1 to Stock of record Sept. 13. Company had paid or declared payable 60e on the common prior to this action. Talcon' Trio Gets ladre : Hollywood, Aug. 27,. Same old trio that clicked in "The Maltese Falcon" at Warner.s i.s lined - up again for "The Treasure of S.ierj'a Madre" on the same lot. Humphrey Bogart is slated as star, John Huston is writer-director and Henry Blanke as producer. '