Variety (May 1948)

MCVOHBS Par $$18,(95,000 Stock Buys Ar of April 20,' ^Paramount ha$ planked out $18,695,000, or. an Mfpraee of $l,000,OiOO monthly, in buys ot its own stock on the tow York Exchange. Of the 741,600 shares acquired to date by it, KiUl633 still rest in the treasury, while 191,667 were reissued in ' Moment Oi Liberty Films and Rainbow Productions. Eliminating Vhe stock used In Liberty-Rahibow deals, Par has paid a total of *11863 810 for its reacquired holdings. Averafje price of $25.21 per share was paid by the. company, •nniial statement discloses. Since the stock is quoted only frac- flnMllv below that figure and Par saved $022,833 in dividends, whieb It would have distributed on the stock if still outstanding, mmSffiiy has about broken even on the transaction. ,,. " DUffeirentlal, of course, will conttaue to vary as the market shifts, and' treasury holdings change in volume. Company intends buying fitdck •^consistent with the well being of the corporation and its ceneral tash needs," Barney Balaban, Par's prexy^ stated in his report. "All such shares to be available for any rearrangements of our investments which the final decision in the pending anti- trust "i^'y require and for the addition of any other Interests Wl^ch would strengthen our operations," company topper added. lOSING ^ANG ELS^ TO VIDEO ' Coast ^oib I^pnse (ySts l^ewllove^ Dulnously UA Has $125,000 (Share OD Coast llieatre Sales) for bdn Finaiidi^ jSMtiA 'Artists ^is understood-f {timg to toss into indie produo ton Jhiancing the $125,000 it re- mived two weeks ago for half of Its headings in the United Artists uieatre in San Francisco and the four Music Halls in Los Angeles. Poitt has gone into a pot out of vrldch.end money will be provided n»r 6ne or mote indieswho will thus be enabled to get hank jtnattcing and otherwise go ahead with production. Grad Sears, UA prexy, who re- turned to New York this week frojn a vacation at Sea Island, Ga., neads for the Coast over the week- end to huddle pitt several prodnct feals. Among Indies with whom £'s slated to talk are Stanley Kramer and^George Glass, whose Screen Plays, Inc., unit has just twned out the Henry Morgan star- gr, "So This Is New York,'^ for iterprise release via UA. Sears, is understood interested In inking the pair to a five- or ieven-film deal for direct distribu- tion via UA. They have their own .financing all set for continuous Srodiiction and won't call on the istvib ijlor help on the end money. UA owned a B0% interest in the California theatres, Sam Blumen- feltl.liblding the other half inter- itt • Sol Lesser and Sherrill Cor- (Continued on page 24) Cal. Supreme Court Over-Rules Verdict For Leslie Vs. WB Hollywood, May 4^ California Supreme Court has overruled decisions of two lower courts which sustained Joan Les- lie's fight to breach her Warner contract. Court ruled in favor of the studio by a divided opinion. Miss Leslie's attorney, Oscar Cum- jnins, was notified of the reversal by telephone from Frisco, whfere court is. in session, Cummins an- Jiounced no Immediate plans pend- mg receipts of-the full text of the decision. . "If need be, we'll fight the case oedared*" Supreme court," he Miss Leslie disaffirmed pact When she reached 21. When stu- dio attempted to enjoin her from gettmg work in pictures. Judge raeonessa sustained demurrer with Vo right for Warners to amend suit, totudio then appealed to district Pourt of appeals, which sustained P^o'iessa, whereupon it took a *"'*®'^„appeal to the State Su- preme Court. RKOLose$nracyM iiQS Angeles, May 4. Judgment of $25,000, awarded by L. A. superior court to Samuel R. Golding and Norbert Faulkner, playwrights, in their piracy suit against RKO was upheld in dis- trict court of appeals. Authors charged the RKO pic- ture, "The Ghost Ship," was lifted from their legit play, "The Man and His Shadow." Par s aiili8,709 Net Profit in'47 Only 2nd to 1 Second largest single profit to be turned in by a film company was disclosed this week when. Para- mount became the last major to release its earnings for 1947. The enormous net of $31,668,709 fell below only the top marker which Par, itself, piled up in '46 when the company scored a $44,042,106 profit. A detailed report by Barney Balaban, company prexy, which blanketed Piir's activities and pros- pects, emphasized a number of factors important to the company and the industry in general. They were as follows: 1. Gross revenues stayed within 3% of the year before, totalling $189,025,600 in '47 against $194,- 701,099 in '46. 2. Paramount has the problem of cutting its expensive film inventory pretty well licked. Exclusive of recent acquisitions from Liberty Films and Rainbow Productions, . (Continued on page 69) Indie film producers, already all but out of business by their in- ability to obtain financing, lost an- other major source of coin last week wlth'the disclosure by Martin Hersh that his Ideal Factoring Corp., N. Y., had pulled out of Hollywood angeling altogether, in favor of investments in films for television. Hersh revealed he has earmarked $500^000 as available in the next four months for video pix production. That-sum represents by far the largest yet to come from an inde^ pendent source for the new field of .television films. Fact that one of the biggest lenders in the past of "risk money" for Hollywood production has switched its inter- est to video is seen as a highly significant commentary on show business' new No. 1 item. Ide*"!, of which Hersh is proxy, ha.; put up second money and com- pletion guaranteles, or otherwise participated in the financing, of more than 100. films, with a total estimated production cost of better than $25,000,000, in the past six or seven years. It got into the film business as a sideline to its major activity of financing New York gar- ment district manufacturers be- tween the time they have to pay for their raw materials and the time they collect bills for their finished product. Multiple Markets Hersh got the video bug via pro- duction of an experimental film, "Life and Songs of Stephen Fos- ter," which he financed and owns through his Admiral Pictures, Inc. It was originally designed-with an ingenious angle to cash in oh both the 16m field and regular commer- cial exhibition. With the growth of TV from the time "Foster" was planned until it was completed, it also proved, in Hersh's opinion, that it might be»the answer to (Continued on page 20) Korda Back to N. Y. Sir Alexander Korda is expected back in New York tomorrow (Thursday) from the Coast, where he went last week. British pro- ducer was west for confabs with Gary Grant, on the pic he's to make in Britain for Korda, and with 20th-Fox toppers on produc- tion by that company in England with frozen coin. Korda arrived in the U< S. from Britain early last week and is ex- pected to spend about another week in New York before heading home. He has further talte sched- uled with h.o. execs at 20th, which handles his American distribution. Over% Sonnett Quit* Govt. A*»i.<. ^ Washington, May 4. Assistant Attorney General John Lpi'm " ^f'^^ ®* tlie Justice De- partment anti-trust division, turned ??o^ ff'^^^^Snation last Thursday fn n^-^?*'^? 15- He returns York practice in New wlfA??^** ,-.''^*"^ed the division V^hen the b,g New York film case K«f,, .argued before the Supreme Aientl the argu ments for the Government. SUPREME COURT NIPS CARPENTERS' lA SAP Washington, May 4. Efforts of the APL carpenters union to unseat (he International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Em- ployees from its dominant position in the Hollywood studios were snagged Monday (3) by a Supreme Court refusal to consider the ^ase. High court thereby upheld rulings of the district court and appeals court in refusing to intervene in a test case brought by 16 car- penters against the lATSE and the Hollywood studios on grounds that the courts lacked jurisdiction. Carpenters claimed they had been frozen out of studio employ- ment as a result of a "conspiracy" between the lA and the major producers since the jurisdictional dispute broke out in September, 1946. They asked the courts to rule that set construction work belonged to Uie carpenters. With lA now firmly entrenched in Hol- lywood, failure of the Supreme Court to consider the case dimmed hopes of the carpenters to return to the studios. Par and Walfis-Hazen Continue Talks on New Distribution Deal Week of New York talks between Barney Balaban, Paramount's prexy, and Hal Wallis and Joseph H.- Hazen, partners in the Wallis pro'duction unit, failed to iron a number of important wrinkles standing in the way of a new dis- tribution deal with the major. Wallis planed to the Coast Sun- day (2) where he'll pick up with Henry Ginsberg, Par's exec veepee in charge of production, while Hazen pushes confabs at this end with Balaban. ' Understood both sides are op- timistic that a ticket can finally be worked out. Nonetheless, suc- cessful windup is out of the ques- tion unless the basic questions are answered satisfactorily to both sides. Neither would comment on what dif ficulties are holdhig up the parade. , Wallis unit, it's said, is not presently seeking a deal outside of Par. There's no particular urgency in inking a new pact, it's imder- StOOd. . • : Par-Skouras Row 0 Costs'Em Over 250G Apiece Paramount's battle with the Skouras chain in the New York area is estimated to have cost the distrib about $250,000 so far and the chain perhaps even more than that. No Par film has played Skou- ras theatres for more than a year.. Neither side has so far shown any' inclination to budge in the fight over terms. Battle started over Par's demand that all top pix must play the circuit on straight per- centage. Circuit topper • George Skouras insisted on continuing with his previous terms, Whicfi pro- vided for a fiat sum with a split over a certain figure. Par. has suffered heavy financial losses, since it has been able to. sell few of its films away from Skouras and so has had no playing time'for them when they come off the Loew's circuit. On the other hand, every time Loew's plays a Para- mount film—which in the ordinary course of events would then go to Skouras—Skouras is short a film. As a result he has had to buy re- issues or use other makeshifts. Circuit ordinarily b^jTS about 15 top Par pix yearly, plus a number of its smaller films. EASTERN SDG EYES TELEVISION FIELD In a move to nurse along the in- fant video industry, eastern divi- sion of the Screen Directors Guild has offered to cut minimum wage scales for directors of television films up to 20%. SDG, which is af- filiated to the Hollywood directors guild, opened negotiations last week for a new basic contract with eastern producers operating be- tween Chicago and New York. Following the master contract drawn up by the Coast SDG, east- ern directors have set up new scales for non-theatrical produc- tions. They are also asking for credit billing on all films and con- trol over cutting and editing. New contract will go into effect June 15, JOHNSTON OFnCE MAPS NEW FILM AD CODE Violations of the Motion Picture Assn. of America's advertising code will now hit member companies up to $25,000 in fines. New regulation has been included in the first com- plete codification of MPAA's ad code administration since its adop- tion in 1930. Job of. stringing to- gether the assorted resolutions was handled by MPAA's advertising ad- visory committee, Iieaded by 20th- Fox pub-ad chief Charles Schlaifer, and a group of lawyers. Under the new setup, companies may appeal from a decision of the ad code administration to Eric Johnston, MPAA prexy, or to a board consisting of three members of the association's board of direc-* tors. Latter provision was added to consider appeals while Johnston is out of the country. Besides the coin penalty, mem- ber- companies breaking the code can still have the MPAA's certifi- cate of approval and the Produc- tion Code seal removed from all prints of films involved in the in- fractions. This measure was brought to bear last year against Howard Hughes for his ad practices on "The Outlaw." Gordon White heads the ad code administration. Los Angeles, May 4. In an unprecedented moved de» signed to discredit "unfair and un- founded" reports that banks have so tightened up on picture loaiis to indie ^producers that they are squeezing all but the most success* ful ones out of business,.three lead- ing Coast banks today (Tuesday) gave the independents a vote of con- fidence. 'They assured ample credit'. to all indies with good properties and recognized production ability. The assurances were given to the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers at confabs with the Bank of America, Security-: First National and the California Bank—the three local institutions which in the past have'been fore- most in loans to the industry. Although leading New York banks which have financed indie films in the past were not invited to the huddles called by SIMPP to check rumors on the tough finan- cing situation. Society spokesmen were advised that Bankers Trust, Manufacturers Trust, Irving Trust, Bank of Manhattan and Conti- nental Bank & Trust (now Chemi- cal) are all continuing to make loans as usual. (Bankers in New York yesterday [Tuesday] had nothing'but an im- polite horse laugh for the Coast expressions of confidence in indie producers. They pointed out that the Coast institutions had become extremely tough in the past few months on conditions and terms of loans and that no New York bank, with one or two infrequent excep- tions, hacf made a loan to an indie in more than a year.) SIMPP told the banks that the indies' future is bright. Thanks to settlement of the British tax in a manner favorable to the independ- ents, defeat .of the Communists in Italy and the apparent Government victory in the monopoly case againl^t the majors. SIMPP told banks sOme of the best 1948-49 pix will be indies, cit- (Continued on page 20) Bank Merger May Mean More Film Financing Activity Via Van Pelt Edwin Van Pelt, v.p. in- charge of film loans for the Continental Bank & Trust Co., N. Y., was named a v.p. of the (Chemical Bank & Trust Co., N. Y., Monday (3), following absolution by the latter of the Continental, Van Pelt wilt continue to head up the branch at 7th avenue and 38th street. He'll likewise continue handling film loans, serving in that capacity for the combined institutions. Continental has been particularly active .in the past on loans to smaller companies, such as Repuj^ lie .and Film Classics. Possibility of increased activity along this line with the greater capital of the Chemical available is foreseen. Ink Jolson Deal Hollywood,. May 4. Contract for Al Jolson's second film biography was signed by Har- ry Cohn at Columbia, with Sidney Buchman assigned as producer. Thus far the actor who will por- tray Jolie is stiU a mystery. Leo Carrillo to Star In 'Cisco M Series •Hollywood, May 4. Philip N. Krasne signed Leo Carrillo to play the lead in a series of 24 "Cisco Kid" adventures to be produced over a period of three years for United Artists re- lease. Title roler is still to be named. First of the Series, starting next month, is "Robin Hood of Sin City," an Arthur Caesar story, screenplayed by Milton Raison. UA Sets'Red River* United Artists has set Howard Hawks' "Red River" for Aug. 15 release. Long delay before the preem was decided on to permit maximum national publicity and advertising. Print was delivered to UA last week after months of bickering with the producer, in which dis- trib won an arbitration proceeding and had started legal action.