Variety (Oct 1947)

Wednesday, October 8, 1947 PICTURES 5 MAJORS' $80,000,000 CREDITS Metro Clearing Releasing Sked Of Minors for Upcoming Biggies -Strategy of Metro's high com- mand, it is reported, is to get oft the company's shelves as quickly as possible a group of Alms which have been piling up because execs are dissatisfied with them. Aim now is to get them out this fall and early winter, roll with the critical hay- makers anticipated, realize what- ever income is possible—and then forget the whole thing. Release schedule reveals that the plan is al- ready in effect. Reasoning behind the strategy is that a flock of films in the old Metro tradition of quality will start pour- ing forth after the first of the year and the best thing to do is clear the slate in preparation forstepping out on the new foot. It is expected that the product coming after Jan. 1 will reflect production chief Louis B. Mayer's return to detailed operation of the studio earlier this year. He had been giving only generalized at- tention to activities on the lot for a time, with resultant opinion in the trade that he was being sorely missed. Studio is now getting his undivided attention, with every as- pect of every film getting his care- ful o.o. As well as paying careful mind to the artistic quality of each film, Mayer has been giving special gan- der to the budgets and shooting schedules, in keeping with efforts of all the studios at economy. It was (Continued on page 14) COL/S'SWORDSMAN'IN LOEWS N.Y. CAP., OCT. 16 Metro films have been playing off so fast at the Broadway Capitol, the company's most important showcase house, that an outside picture will play the theatre next week for the first time in months. Film is Co- lumbia's "Swordsman," co-starring Larry Parks and Ellen Drew, which goes in Oct. 16 following the current "Desire Me." Capitol film bookings have been marked by disappointing runs re- cently. After "Hucksters" chalked up a neat six weeks, "Songs of the Thin Man" lasted only two weeks, and "Romance of Rosy Ridge" also stayed a disappointing two weeks before being pulled in favor of "De- sire Me." Latter film winds up its second frame tonight (Wed.) and it, too, is scheduled lor only one more session. Metro spokesmen ara quick to point out that the situation is not unique and the Capitol's two-week dates only follow the general trend. While this may be true outside New York, very few films have j>layed less than three weeks in other Broadway houses recently and the street has been marked by such mar- athon runners during the last few months as "Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer" with seven weeks at Radio City Music Hall; "Welcome Stranger," seven weeks at the Para- mount, and the low-budgeted "Cross- fire," now finishing its 11th and final week at the Rivoli. Metro Still. Hedges On Upping 'Dolphin' Scale With exhibitor organizations re- sisting upped admission scales on Pictures, Metro has not yet decided on the price policy for its forth- coming "Green Dolphin Street." Since "Dolphin" is the most costly nlm on M-G's. current release ros- ter, however, it's probable exhibs will be asked to boost their admis- sion scale, according to a Metro sales official. ., Metro's upper sales echelon be- lieves an upping of prices is the only way to recoup costs of high-budget- ers. the spokesman said. "Dolphin" was started two years ago, when the entile industry was operating at peak profit conditions. When biz began to slump..it was too late to re Inflationary Billing San Francisco, Oct. 7. Miracles, apparently, can still happen anywhere. Manager Edwin Scheeline, of the Balboa theatre here, found himself short of "4s" when he started to set up his marquee on "Miracle on 34th Street." So he merely extended the miracle a block to make it read "Miracle on 35th Street.'' Forced stunt, even though it showed , that miracles have hit an inflationary trend along with everything else, aided Schee- line's gross by drawing consid- erable attention to the marquee and feature. 475 'Amber Prints Primed for 3,000 Dates Before '48 Twentieth-Fox,, shooting for a goal of 3;000 bookings on "Forever Am- ber" between Oct. 19 and Dec. 31, has gone more than two-thirds of the way, with 2,211 dates set as of last week. According to 20th sales chief Andy Smith, Jr., the picture will open in every key city in U. S. and Canada during the first three weeks of its availability. It's slated to preem at the Roxy, N. Y., Oct. 22. Twentieth has ordered 475 prints on "Amber," believed to be the most ever turned out on one film. All of them, according to Smith, will' be in use continuously at the same time. Each Technicolor ^rint costs about $1,200. "Anroer" is being sold on a straight 50-50 deal in all situations, with price scales upped everywhere to $1.20 evenings, 76c matinees and 55c for children. Four other films, meanwhile, are (Continued on page 49) Oklahomaand N. H. Territories Have 700 Houses, 417,776 Seats Following up its recently launched statistical survey of the number and type of theatres in the U. S., Motion Picture Assn. has issued two addi- tional reports this week covering operations in the New Haven and Oklahoma City exchange areas. Complete survey will cover the nation's 31 exchange centers with installments on each territory to be issued weekly. New Haven report discloses 191 theatres in operation with total seat- ing capacity of 178,948, these figures excluding two drive-ins with an automobile capacity of 1,100. Seven theatres in the area with 6,109 seats, are closed. Of all houses in section, 85 theatres with 104,940 seats are circuit operated with indie-owned theatres represented by 113 houses with 80,117 seats. Oklahoma City directory reveals 509 theatres in operation with a 238.828 seating capacity not counting three drive-ins with auto capacity of 2.250. Area also contains 16 shuttered theatres with 7,231 seats. Of all theatres, 206 are .circuit-operated with 128,944 seats and 319 are non- circuit houses with capacity of 117,115'. ~! '— : — RK0 Ends Talent Unit Hollywood, Oct. 7. New talent .will have to shift for itself at RKO, with the abolition of duce the budget, which Metro claims I the department organized five years has run over $4,000,000. With the ago to handle young thesps. .Studio British market cut off, consequently,' can't afford it at this time, a boost in admission scales appears i Donald Dillway, head of the de- the only way to get back production j partmcnt for five years, checked off j costs on the film. ' I the lot along with his staff. , METRO AMD WB IN E Five major companies have beat the overseas crisis to the punch by arranging total bank credits of $80.- 000,000, to grease future production activities. The current foreign dim- out which has hit the chances of film profits and weakened the ma- jors' borrowing powers came too late to snarl bankrolling maneuvers of Paramount. 20th-Fox, RKO, Uhi" versal and Columbia. Of.-the. other three- companies, Metro and Warner Bros, had already rigged financing some years--backr Only United Artists has been caught since TJA is seeking $5,000,000 bank- rolling in the present bearish mar- ket. Companies latched on to loans when plenty of unattached coin meant record low interest, rates. No company is paying more than % of 1% for funds committed but yet un- borrowed. Interest rates on money actually loaned in no instance ex- ceeds 3%. Universal has borrowed $8,000,000 from available credits of $10,000,000, it's been learned. U's deal with The First National Bank of Boston, the Bank of Manhattan and the Guar- anty Trust Co. of New York scales down N the figure to $9,000,000 in 1948 and $8,000,000 in '49. Company re- (Continued on page 14) Anti-Theatres' Tabu in U Loan Universal is barred from investing more than $3,000,000 in theatres for the period running through 1951 under a unique provision of its loan from the First National Bank of Boston, the Bank of Manhattan and the Guaranty Trust. Further limit- ing its entry into the exhibition end of the business, U is also restricted from assuming liabilities for theatre rentals, directly or indirectly, in ex- cess of $750,000 annually. Specifically exempted from these restrictions are funds frozen in foreign countries. U has agreed to a number of other unusual provisions which regulate its production and distribution op- erations. Company must at all times have an inventory of features with unamortized negative costs of not less than 150% of the face amount of outstanding notes. With $8,000,- 000 now loaned to it, U must have $12,000,000 in inventory to meet this provision. Loan agreement specifies that cer- tain pix will not be included in esti- mated inventory. Those are all films which haven't been edited and cut within 10 months after going before the camera. Also excluded from the figuring are black-and-white which aren't released within 12 months "of completion or within 18 months if in color. BREAK ON TAXES UPS COL/S NET PROFITS Columbia cashed in this week on the lifting of the excess profits tax in 1946 by reporting an upped net of $3,707,000 for the year, ended June 30, despite declining revenues. Profits went a shade ahead of 1946 when Columbia had $3,450,000 to show after payment of taxes. By scoring a gain, Columbia pairs off with Warner Bros, as the 1 'only, two companies which will report' ad- vances over peak 1946 profits. Gross take before taxg.s_amounted , tri $5^8Ti?iUBD; a fair-sized dip" from"! the $7,000,000 garnered in fiscal 1946. j Difference, however, was more than > made up by payment ot taxes of! $2,100,000 during the last stanza , against $3,550,000 doled to the Gov- ! ernment in the year before. Equivalent earnings per share of outstanding common also hit an all-time high with $5.33 netted for the 637,352 shares in stockholders' hands. Earnings in '46 were $5 per share on the 610,349 shares out- standing, j UA Decides to Buy Only Four RKO Films; Kelly Setting $5,000,000 B.R. B.O. Boff in Bombay? Hollywood, Oct. 7. Bombay Talkies, Ltd., is dis- cussing a deal with Monty Shaft and Frank P. Rosenberg for a Hindustani version of "Man Eat- ers of Kumaon" which Univer- sal-International will release. Plan is to turn English script over to BT which will reshoot . all sequences requiring actors while retaining the animal foot- -age from. the—original-version. AFL Intent On Settling H wood Labor Row in SF San Francisco, Oct. 7. Whether Hollywood will be granted immediate labor peace or have its long jurisdictional fight dragged out even further is the im- portant decision facing American Federation of Labor leaders today (Tuesday) meeting here at their annual convention. [No final de- cision by Variety's presstime.] A settlement today would give the AFL the nod for cleaning its own house of internal troubles. If it is delayed, the credit is likely to go to Congress through Rep. Carroll Kearns, head of the House Labor subcommittee, who recently wound up his probe of the Hollywood labor situation. Kearns has an Oct. 20 ses- sion slated in Los Angeles for final review of the dispute. AFL exec council thinks the film labor wrangle is so important that it has . adjourned the convention for (Continued on page 14) -+- Instead of the seven films which it originally expected to purchase from RKO, United Artists has settled on four, for which it was expected to close a deal on the Coast last night. The other three pictures, more or less, may be purchased later on. Instead of the $7,50,000 which UA tentatively anticipated paying for the seven films, it will give RKO about $5,000,000 for the four. Arthur W. Kelly, exec, v.p., who returned to New York from the Coast over the weekend, after sitting in on selection of the films, is now arranging the banking. Irving Trust Co., N. Y., is one of the banks with which he is negotiat- ing and is: understood principally in- terested in advancing the coin. It's believed to be between 25% and 50% of the purchase price, the rest to go to RKO out of income from the films. Deal is a flat sale, however, with RKO retaining no profit par- ticipation. Decision to reduce the number of films in the initial.deal was reached at a meeting in Hollywood, Monday (6) of Mary Pickford, co-owner of UA; Gradwell L. Sears, prexy, and George Bagnall, v.p. in charge of production. Sears was slated to plane from the Coast to New York last night. Three of the pictures being pur- chased, it has been learned, are "Station West," "Out of the Past" and "Indian Summer." "West," just now being completed, has Dick (Continued on page 14) Selznick Org. Priming 'Paradine' and 'Jenny' To Follow Intermezzo' Daniel T. O'Shea and" Ernest L. Scanlon, top execs of David O. Selz- nick's Vanguard Films, have been in New York the past week confab- bing with Selznick distribution topper Neil Agnew and eastern pub-ad chief Bob Gillham. They are laying plans for release of "Paradine Case" and "Portrait of Jenny," next two on the Selznick Releasing Organization slate after "Intermezzo" reissue. It is currently planned to release "Paradine" about January and "Jenny" in March or April. How- ever, DOS still has to do a final editing job on "Paradine," but is now so completely absorbed in fin- ishing up "Jenny" there's a possi- bility that he will go right ahead on the latter. That could put "Jenny" ahead of "Paradine." Actual dates of release depend on swiftness of play- off of "Duel in the Sun," on which SRO is now concentrating. "Mr. Blandings' Dreamhouse," which Dore Schary is making at RKO for SRO distribution, is to be released next summer. First of the six films Mark Hellinger is to make for SRO will be., worked in some time next spring. 20th's 3-Day Sales Meet Three-day meet of 20th-Fox di- vision sales managers has been called for Nov. 10-12 at the home- office by sales chief Andy W. Smith, Jr. Sales execs will huddle on plans for merchandising 20th's 1948 roster of features. , Prexy Spyros Skouras will out- line the upcoming films, including Sir Alexander Korda productions to be released by 20th in the U. S. Ad- publicity chief Charles Schlaifer is slated to present ad-pub plans and Clarence Hill, manager of branch operations, will discuss exchange policies. Shorts sales manager Peter Levalhes will outline plans for shorts. NO RFC COIN SLATED FOR INDIE FINANCING Washington, Oct. 7. There is little chance that the Re- construction Finance Corp. would lend coin for independent film pro- duction but, despite reports, Donald M. Nelson has not asked for such loans, an RFC spokesman said last week. • RFC has lent money to Hollywood on one or two occasions in the past, none recently. However, as a result of congressional action last June, the agency must sharply whittle down its lending and it will take a real selling job to interest it in any film venture now. "I talked with most of the RFC directors, including John Goodloe, the chairman, who did speak with Donald Nelson," said one agency spokesman. "None of these people could understand reports that a re- quest had been made to them for film loans and that the independents and Nelson were waiting to hear from them on the subject. The fact is we have nothing pending on that matter." Andy Smith Going Out Into the Field Next Week Andy Smith, Jr.. 20th-Fox sales topper, goes out into the field next week to wind up his tour of the ex- changes that began last May. He's slated to visit Dallas, Charlotte, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Pitts- burgh, Detroit, Boston. Albany and Buffalo and then goes to the Coast for huddles with 20th salesmen in the Los Angeles exchange. Smith will probably return to the homeoffice from time to time during the trip, as he has been doing in the past. Chief purpose of the trips are to establish closer relationship with the field men in his new post as chief of 20th's distribution depart- ment. Dawson Resigns as RKO — VP-Director, O'Connor Up A. W. Dawson has stepped down from the triple post of veepee, treasurer and director of RKO the- atres. His resignation was accepted last week by the RKO board, which immediately named Thomas F, O'Connor to take over the job of treasurer. Harold E. Newscomb was upp*>d from ass't treasurer to a supervisory spot under O'Connor. Edward W. Avery was named as ass't treas. in place of Newscomb.