Variety (Jul 1947)

NCTIJltES Wednesday; July 2, 1947 Ikalt's New UA, E-L Deals Gve Him 4 Distrib Oudets; Col PRC tiie Others With completion of the United-f i^i-tists and Esgle-Lion deals, now .Jsoth in the malting, Edward Small will become probably the first pro- ducer in industry history to have distribution contracts with four dif- ferent companies simultaneously. In Bddition to E-L and UA, he has pacts with Columbia and PRC; E-L deal now being negotiated is similar to Small's arrangement with Columbia, under which he made ''Return of Monte" Cristo" last year and is now preparing to make .'•Lorna Doon«." Setup calls for Small to provide a pacltage which includes partial financing by Motion Picture Investors, in which he is a partner. He does not actually, produce the picture, but supervises production. Shooting is on the lot of the com? pfiny which distribs the film. Small naturally holds a percen- tage interest in pix so produced. Xlecision has not yet been made on the story for the E-L film, but is expected to come out of current Coast conferences. Harry Kosiner, Bmall's distribution chief, is now in Jlollywood for huddles on this sub- ject, as well as a number of others. 35% vs. 27»4% Plus ' Small holds a tentative deal with UA for two fllms^ but after months ef off-and^on negotiation, papers haven't been inked yet. Holding it up is a dispute over terms, with UA attempting to up Small's 25% disr tribution fee to 27%%, in line with' the company's new policy. Equally, if not more so, a stumbling block is tjA's effort to have the producer pay . for all of the- pictures' advertising, ^ven to pressbooks. If and when the deal is concluded, the producer is slated to release via UA "Cagliostero," which he is mak- ing in Mexico, and "Valentino," on ■which he is almost ready to start shooting. IMPI, incidentally, also holds an interest in Howard Hawks' production, "Red River," which -will be released by UA,] PRC is currently releasing Small reissues on a percentage deal. Out' lit has about a dozen of the oldies, •which it is releasing in pairs as double-bills. Initial duo, now in dis. tribuiaion, is "Kit Carson" and "Last «f "the Mohicans." Small's First Set ■ Edward Small's first via E-L will . 'be "T-Men," based on a story for merly owned by E-L. Aubrey Schenck will be associate producer on "T-Men," with-Dennis O'Keefe starring. Named for 'Lady' Hollywood, July 1, Yvonno DeCarlo, Dan Duryea, Rod Cameron and Helena Carter draw top spots in "River Lady," screen version of Houston Branch's novel at Universal-Internationali Technicolor film goes into work in three weeks, with Leonard ' Goldr stein producing and George Sher-. man directing. 0avid Loew Sees Need For More Important Pix To Nip Other Challenges Hollywood, July 1. Film industry has to turn out faoje. important -product to meet i^hallenge of other forms of enter' tainment bidding for favor from a i-^bre chosey public, David L.,Loew, Enterprise board chairman, declared at company's annual planning meet. U. S. workers are enjoying a shorter average work week and are shop- ping about to gain maximum enter- tainment for these extra hours, he pointed out. Biggest competition to the film industry'now comes from bigger and more expensive radio programs, television, increased road tom-s of Icgit ' shows and expanded auto travel. . Loew warned, however, against ' lioing in for the suggestive and sen- sational in films to lure customers as it did'during the early '30's. Such « policy, he said, would be tempt- ing government control. "Past experience of the industry has proved," lie said, "that it has , brought on itself every restriction under , which-it labors." CanadianExhibs Appeal for Repeal Of Wfo B.O. Tax Winnipeg, July 1. The Manitoba Motion Picture Ex- hibitors Association^ representing all theatres in the city, all large the- atres outside of Winnipeg and many of the smaller provincial houses, has written to D. C. Abbott, Dominion Minister of Finance, urging repeal of the 20% federal excise tax. on the ground that retention of the tax, in- troduced as a war measure, was un- fair in view of rising operation costs and falling theatre attendances. The Association's letter pointed out that .so long as the war brought a ready flow of money, neither the- atre owners hor the public thought much about it. One of the main reasons for the drbp in attendance is the 20%- in- crease in admissions, according to the Association. It urges the Min- ister of Finance to keep in mind that the tax particularly affects peo- ple in lower income brackets, a point borne out by the tact that the drop in attendance has been espe- cially noticeable at the neighbor- hood houses. Through a change in the Manitoba Amusement Act, theatres in the province are now able to bring their prices up to the even 5c or dime without incurring any added pro^ vincial tax. The amendment to the act which has made this possible is as follows:—"The purpose of this amendment is to enable proprietors of places of amusement to adjust their gross price of admission to a multiple- of 5e by increasing the; same by an amount not exceeding Ic without thereby incurring addi- tional, tax through the fact that the resulting net price of admission is thereby increased by a fraction of Ic over the maximum price in any price range set forth in the sched- ule." GEORGE GIVOT About George Givot in "Riff- raff," K.K:0.-Kadio Piciures' latest release, Brog In Variety said : "Sup- port is strong . . . George Givot is good aa police , chief." - Thanki to t»«t O'Brien, Nat Holt, Marty Rackrn and Teddy Tetzlaff PRC May Distrib SO U Reissues; aOOO,(l(IOEamuukedforUWFsl(im Defore Gets Taid' * Hollywood, July 1. Don Defore has been set for the male lead in "Paid in Full" at Para- mount. Picture is adapted from three-page Reader's Digest story by Dr. Frederick Loomis, and script la, by Robert Sherwood Blees. Hall. Wallis will produce the pic- ture at Paramount in thfe fall, fol- lowing his return: from England. - ACAD BOARD VOTES IN 56 NEW MEMBERS Hollywood, July 1. Board of governors of the Acad- emy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted in 56 new names!, bringing the total member.<!hip to l,756i Largqst group was 17 pro- posed by art directors' branch. Others include jight publicists. WB's First General Sales Meets Since'41 in N.Y, Chi In the first assemblage of Warner Bros, salesmen since 1941, Ben Kal- menson, WB vice-prexy and general sales manager, has set two divisional general conventions in Ne-w York and Chicago which the full field staff of 250 men will-attetid. N, Y. conclave is scheduled for July 31- Aug. 2 for the eastern, central, mid- Atlantic and Canadian sales forces, while the Chi meet will be held Aug. 4-6 for the midwest, southeast, south- west and west coast salesmen, Chief points on the agenda will include discussion of sales policies in light of the new anti-trust decree and distribution of the new Wsc- ner newsreel which is scheduled for November release. Warner's roster of productions for the 1947-48 season will also be outlined for the sales- men, together with general promo- tional plans. Home office execs attending both sessions .will include; Samuel Schneider, v.p.; Mort Blumenstock, ad-publicity v.p.; Norman H. Moray, stiort subjects sales manager; Ber- nard R. Goodman, exchange super- visor; Howard Levinson of the legal .staff, and Bill Brumber, manager of the field public relations staS: ^ ' SAG-Producers Agree to Extend Confract to 31st Hollywood, July 1. Screen Actors Guild has agreed to extend the existing contract with producers to midnight July 31. Ex- tension comes as- a result of prog- ress made on negotiations during the past two weeks, although com- plete agreement on all specified basic issues has -not yet been reached. Last extension granted by SAG was for two weeks, expiring Mon- day (30). The extension carries an agreement that new minimum Wage scales be retroactive to May 15 of this year. Producers are still holding firm against what they term "portal-to- portal" pay asked for all classifica- tions of screen players, the 15-hour rest period between work calls. The (dontihued on page 22) 'Hucksters' Tees Off New Selling for M-G July 17; See 22 During 1947-48 Twenty-two picture.s slated for re- lease by Metro during the 1947-48 ■season represent" ;^ibout the same number of pictures turned out by the company during the current year. New features, along with four or five reissues, will come out to about two or three releases a month. Figure bears out the fact that, despite Metro's studios mw operating at nearipeak capacity, there's to be no stepup in the re- lease schedule. . ' New season's program tees off July 17 with "The Huclcsters," for which Metro is currently seeking at least 350 key runs of one week each during the opening week and about 1,000 engagements for the entire last two weeks of July. Following through on its day-and-date open- ing plan, the company will not ac- cept bookings of less than .seven days for the opening week, with the 1,000 bookings representing the greatest (Continued on page 16) ^Wk.LiInitationOn B&KandRKO,Clii, May Cut B.0.40% Chicago, July 1. Major company distribs, studying the effect of the drastic Jackson Park decision handed down by the U. S. circuit court last week, now fi.?ure pix revenues in the important Chi area are due for a 40% drop if the decree stands as written.. Greatest blow to b.o, chances, they say, is the restriction against playing films longer than two weeks in first-run Balaban & Katz and RKO situations. Limit of one week- on B-& K sub- sequent runs is going 1o hurt plenty too. •■. ■ ■ '■ Standard good pix have been play- ing first-runs three week."! and longer in some cases. Smash hits such as "Best Years'' have been good for runs many times longer. Problem is made really difficult because dis- tribs have practically nowhere else to turn for extended runs. Besides B &! K and RKO, there are only two other houses which play first-runs. That duo are the Wood.s, a 1,500- seater, and the Oriental, double that size. Decision is a real break for these indie-operated theatres and It's expected they'll be able to call the tune on terms. "Best Years" has been playing the Woods for 36 weeks and any other top pic would monopolize it for a long Stretch. The decision, which seeks to break a monopoly practically hands these two houses the same power. Consequently, appeal is certain if the lawyers can see the way clear to the U. S. Supreme Court. Mean- while, a 30-day stay operates to hold up the decree, LAZABUS' HilGIRAS Paul Lazarus, Jr. leaves this week- end for a two-week stopoff on the Coast; United ArtistSi' ad-pub head then goes to Banff, Lake Louise, for j(e\-on musieums, six film editors, five I a two-week vacation, reaching the sound engineers, lour studio execs resort July 21, and producers and directors, writers, He retiu'ns to the homeoffice in lind"members at large" three each. I August* GENE AUTRY, REPUBLIC HNALLY BREAK CLEAN • Hollywood, July 1. Gene Autry and Republic have made a clean break, with Autry giv- ing up percentage rights in "Robin Hood of Texas,'' recently completed. Autry is also released from obliga- tion to do one more film for Repub- lic. Original deal was a two-picture •pact made while Autry was in a court fight to free himself from a long-term Republic contract. It was to stand whether Or not the singing cowpokc won his freedom through the court. It was also agreed that Autry was to get percentage of the profits on the two films if the suit decision went to him. Autry is understand -to have been dissatisfied over la.st two films he made for the valley studio and wants to devote his full time to his cight- pictur.e contract with Columbia. N. Y. to L. A. Paul W. Benson Harry '^Li- Ettinger Ava Gardner Sid Garfield Maxwell M. Geffen : Henry Ginsberg " Arnold Grant Patricia Harris Radie Harris Jack Linder Mary Pickford Don Medford Justine Ranson Nancy Ranson Marvin Schenck Samuel Vorzimer Earl Wilson # L. A. to N. Y. Carloton Alsop Ali Apar Greg Bauster Edgar Bergen Irving Briskin Virginia Bruce Vera Budnik Judy Canova Gladys Cooper Ricardo Cortez Edward Dmytryk Louis EUiman Harry M. Goetz - ' Walter Hampden Mark Hellinger Col, Nathan Levinson Stephen Longstreet Moyna MacGill " Sam Marx Lauritz Melchior Jim Moran Ed Morey David Niven N. Peter Rathvon William Saal George J. Schaefer- - Guy Sohroeder Silvia Sidney Herbert Ti Silverberg Michael Sloane Patricia White Herbert J. Yates PRC may distribute 50 Univer.sal reissues 4inder negotiations now in the works between PRC and Harris. Brodep Pictures Corp. Deal, if pushed through, would give prc the best of U's oldies from sales arid exploitation angles. PiS would be- released over a 10-year period on a straight percentage basis. Harris- Broder last week closed with IJ for almost all of U's product relea.sed between the 1933-3^ and -1942-43 seasons at a price declared m excess of . $3,000,000, plus a percentage. According to reports, U will groove its take from the rels.sues to United World PlctureSi company's 16m subsid. That cash is to be used in financing UWP's expansion in the • narrow-gauge field where the com- pany has an ambitious program to meet; Serge Semenenko, veepee of the First National Bank of Boston, figured in the H-B deal *ith U, it's reported, with his bank putting up part of the cash-which H-B paid to U. He's been active in a number of film deals within the past few years. PRC has been approached by H*B because of its strong, showing in handling Edward Small oldies. Com- pany snared clicko returns on its first package of Small Teissues,' "Kit Carson" and "Last of Mohicans," and is now setting release of the next dualer from the nine or 10 that it will handle. Discussion between- PRC and H-B hinges, in part, on what pix would be made available. ' It's understood that Universal withheld a number of its top pix including the Deanna Durbins • and some films wnich starred Marlene Dietrich. PRC wants those tossed into the invenlory before taking over. Understood that H-B is contem- plating an approach to Film Classics to handle the pix if the PRC pro- posal falls through. No move' In that direction has yet been made, an FC spokesman said. Par's Mitchell, Washer HittheRoadtoPre-Test Number of New Films Paramount has pushed into high in its new policy of pre-testing and special exploitation of top pix now crowding the lineup. Company this week added William E. Danziger as the third of a trio of explojteers who'll concentrate on one pic each and follow through until milking is complete. Danziger will handle special work on "Unconquered," Cecil B. DeMille production starring Gary (Jooper and Paulette Goddard., Mort Nathanson takes on "Golden Earrings," Ray Milland - Marlene Dietrich opus, while .Bill Johnston has drawn "Desert Fury.'' Curtis Mitchell, Par's pub-ad chief, and Ben Washer, publicity director, took some rough going la-st week when thdy were stranded in the midwest by record floods. The duo were held up for two 12-hour stretches, once somewhere in the Iowa sticks and the second time in Dcs Moines. At one point, they walked (lie tracks toting their baggaue with them. Climax was capped when the two were attacked by chiggers, spe- cies of midwest insect that digs into the skin and has to foe pried ofTr. Mitchell and Washer made their swing to build up exploitation on "Welcome Stranger," latest Bing Crosby-Barry Fitzgerald pic. Idea is to take advantage of the "Going My Way" team's popularity in pre- testing runs which will fix rentals- on the pic. TurfibuU for U.S. Huddles Sydney, June 24. Ernest Turnbull, chief of the Hoyts, cinema loop, operating 150 houses Down Under, is due to visit U. S, soon to huddle with the Skouras; brothers on major points covering the postwar setup. National Theatres holds a key in- tere st in: .goyts via ..stock deal. N. Y. to Europe John Abbott Jack Durant Sir Ernest Pisk Jack Kapp William J. Kupper Laudy Lawrence William B. Levy George Raft Tony'Reddin J. J. Shubert Murray Silverstone Mrs. Hal WaUis