Variety (Mar 1948)

Gamble Offers Naify Continued trom page 3 buying into the circuit are George and Charles Skouras, Robert Han- negan, forijier Democratic national chairman and Postmaster General, and Ed Pauley, wealthy oil man who until recently held-several sub-Cabinet posts in Washington, Hannegan and Pauley Interest of Hannegan and Pauley Is strongly denied by insiders. Charles Skouras is in the same position as Schenck because of his association with a major company, but is definitely interested in the event the U. S. Supseme Court de- crees divorcement. Should 20th-Fox be forced to dispose of its National Theatres holdings, Schenck and Skouras are reported ready to pull out and join . with Gamble and some of the pres- ent NT subsid circuits to form a large chain of their own. Included, if possible, "would be Golden State, Gamble's holdings in Indianapolis and Oregon, Skouras houses in St. Louis, Fox Metropolitan New York circuit. United Artists fiircult, Fox- Midwest, Fox-Wisconsin, Fox-Inter- mountain and Fox-West Coast. , Despite the multiplicity - of po- tential buyers for Naify's interest, he shows no great desire to sell. He has listened to the oilers of both Gamble and Levy, but told Variety this week that he "doubts if anything will develop " Hfe said he and 'his family "like Golden State and want to hold OA." Has No Partners Gamble inaintained to Nalfy that he has no partners or associates in the deal and that the source of the coin he'd invest is entirely a New York bank. He is willing to make a deal by which he and Naify would be even partners and pay off Schenck or a jthree-way deal in- cluding Schenck. Gamble offered Nai^y exactly the same price per share for the United California stock as Naify paid when he bought out McNeil and Emmick. The $6;750,000 offer for the shares is based on a total value of United California i^A all its holdings and subslds of about lj!2S,000,000. Corporate setup of UC and sub- sids Is highly complicated. It owns and operates 140 theatres directly, but also holds about 75% of the stock of Golden State li^oatre ft Realty Co. (39 bouses) and the major part of T. & D., Jr., thater- prises, Inc. (58 houses). T, & D., in turn, holds a 50% interest in San Francisco Thfeatres, Inc. (6 houses). ' . United Cal also owns some non- theatre x«al estate directlj', plus 98 pieces Ihrougli Golden State, Most valuable of the latter is a whole block in downtown Oakland, Cal. This parcel, incidentally, is a very sore point with McNeil aud Sm- mick. When Reynolds was origlnaUy trying to make.a deal to purchase Golden State from Naify, McNeil and Emmick (before the latter two sold to Naify), the parcel was left out. When Naify made his deal with McNeil and EmmioJc he in- cluded it in, getting it for Us book value of $800,000. McNeil and Emmick now claim that .was un- fair, since its actual value is aibout $1,700,000. Hudson's Safesmen Fitch ago two exblbs dally, the rank-and-filers can blanket the country in short order and help sell TOA's new program. Hudson, himself, will devote 50% of his time in New Yorlt until the cam- paign is well under Wfty. TOA, according fo Hudson, will ask the National Screen Service for cooperation by ineorporating the slogan—this is the fiOlnis' best year—in bill posters and trailers. Committee will also prep raatearlal for exblbs who'll be asked, in turn, to speak before civic groups, parent-teacher associations and like groups. ' Hudson • wants the exhibs to be i-eady to answer tick- lish questions on so-called red activities in Hollywood and whether films further juvenile de- linquency. On the subject of trailerizing big up-and-coming product, Hudson doesnt expect too much difficulty, from exhibs. "We want to get across the ideii to them," he said. Continued from ptic« 4 He thinks 1=f^^'^^P H committee astheJbest eomini; from Hollywood should be play«d up. xegardS of What theatre^ in town * books anv particular fflm. Exhibs may Z touting a competitor's product, in part, but the converse is akn worlcing. His competitor, by the same token, is playing up compet- ing product also." No set budget is planned for the sPfatioft according to Hudson Well spend a& much as we need without any limitations. That's our understanding ivith the TOA board." * . Besides Hudson, committee in- cludes Bob Weitman, Charles Winchell, David Jones. Senn Law- ler and Harry Browning. Ted Gamble, TOA proxy, is overall chief of the publicity drive. ^lelf-Reguiation SSS Continued from pagre 3 liard-bitten, uncompromising view of practically any transaction. Suggested idea, it is understood would be for reps of all companies' which figure to share in-the dollar pool from England'to get together and elect a board of perhaps live men. This body- would pass on any move to get coin out of the pool before the-idea was put into effect or broached to the British Board <rf Trade. Whether any agreement on such a self-regulatory commission could be reached is uncertain now, since there's much competition among th2 companies to find ways to ex- tract their frozen balances.' Anjr company which has a really clever idea,- naturally, has no desire to impart it to anyone else who might make use of it .first. A number of ratlier in.£;enious ' ideas have already been ovolved, .£oni0 of them quite simple, others remarkably complex. One of the simple ones Which appears to be legal under the pact is for an American company to obtain rights from an English author or play- wright to receive all his U. S. roy- alties. Then the equivalent, plus a liberal bonus, is paid to the au- thor in England out of the blocked ooui^s. Mors ConUnncd from page 9 ; went to Palestine for the British Ministry of Information durfaig the war and decided to stay there to help buUd up the countey for the Jews., ■■. No Ifcensing agreement has been s^t yet for China. There's no coin coming out of most of the terri- tory, which is coveKd frflm Shang- hai, although dollars are being re- ceived fcora^ the Hong Kong area. Since UA's contract with its pro- ducers provides it must have its o wn usages abroad, the filmmakers' assent bad to be xeceiissd before the change to Itcensing could be made. Producers iStiU are under no obligation to go alonS if they don't want to» but are guaranteed that in no event will they receive less than S0% of remittable coin Col- lected by the local distrib. Producers had been paying UA 35% for distribution ,in Egypt. Now they'll pay the local distrib 32^^ (wbich may come down to 2"7?f4% tsL « siUMi; time), plus 10% to ICIA. S(Blae«rhat similar arrange- ment wHt prevail in Palestine. Cmt&axteA taaa page 3, bility of a knockdown Anglo- American battle threatened here- tofore. It's understood Rank has sanc- tioned American participation in the games on the advice that ex- ercising exclusivity would likely have future repercussions. Yank newsree-ls might have combined to shut out Rank's cameramen from events occurring in the U. S, Brit- isher, besides, is primarily inter- ested in the feature pic which he, intends to piece togetlier Irom clips of the sports events. Rank had promised that G. i- Woodham - Smith, his attorney, would take up the matter on nis recent return to England from a visit to the U. S. Previously, Amerleari reels had threatened a boycott of the games.