Variety (Jul 1948)

Wwhiesday, July 14, 1948- PICTIJBES—TV B.O. EBB LOGJAMS NEW FILMS Petrillo's New Demands Where Are Those Telepix? Los Angeles, July 13: Los Angeles' two television stations, KTLA and KTSL, would like to know where all the tele pictures are that they've been read- ing ahout, Both stations are yet to sign up tor a single series of the pix announced for telecasting only. KTSL's programming coordinator, Carleton Winckler, sent ,out a memo to staffers over the weekend advising that he'd like to see some of the films—"but how about a sample instead of a lecture?" Note continued, "It seems to us tliat every third person in Greater L.A. is making them, but so far we have had only one sample sub- ■ mitted;"...:> . ■ KTLA film director Jerry Muller advised that he has seen a sJimple or two also, but no complete, or near-completej series. Sta- tion is signed up for some Telefilm product, and uses International News Photo's Telenews, but that's all. "It seems to be one of those tilings where everybody wants in, and yet very lew are doing anything," MuUer said Saturday (10). KTLA's sole deal to date is with Sir Alexander Korda for a series of 24 British pix originally made for theatres. . Muller said it's possible production is going ahead with several of. the outfits that have announced plans, aiid the reason stations haven't seen any product is because the producers are waiting until they get a lineup of 13 or 26 Of thew, whep they'll make their deals with agencies for sponsors. . ' Among those actually in production here are Bonded Television Productions, Jerry Fairbanks, Jack tihertok, Carleton Morse,. Stuart Ludlum, Carl Dudley, Telefilm, Gray-Richards, Vallee Video, Bell International, T0lepak, IMPPRO, Century, Emerson, Bob Clampett and Atwood Television Productions. 20th-UP in Fieup for Daily News Pictorial Service to TV Subscribers Twentieth - Fox, already pacing 4 the major film companies in the new television film production business, pulled far out in the lead this week with the inking of ^ new pact with United Press to service tele stations with pictorial docu- mentation, of UP's daily news dis- patches. Under the plan, in which 20th and OP will share in the profits on a 50-50 basis, 20th is to furnish each TV station subscribing to the service with a basic film library Compiled from 20th's own stock library, claimed by the company to be the largest in existence. This will be implemented by 20th each month with new film clips, in keeping with developments in the world news situation. Each clip is to bear a catalog number, which will be the same for each, station. UP news editor will then write a daily TV news commentary, which will be wired to stations on standard teletype printers. Com- mentary will also carry a list of the catalog numbers referring to the Clips in the station's library. All the station operator has to do, con- sequently, is pull the clips out in the correct sequence, splice them together and put them on the air as an announcer i^eads the, com- menlary. Result is a finished news- i reel at only a fraction of the cost of the newsreels now on the air produced especially for TV. New service will be available to any station that wants to buy it, (Continued on page 47) Cagney, RKO Dicker Hollywood, July 13. William Cagney is reported ne- gotiating with RKO on an indie deal to go into eft'ect on comple- tion of l)is current commitment with United Artists, which calls for one more picture. ' • Cagney has three stories, "Only the Valiant," "The Stray Lamb" and "A Lion Is in the Streets," lined up for future production. 20th Bows Out On Dem-TV Coverage Twentieth-Fox, which*" shared theatre television exploitation of the recent Louis-Walcott fight along with Paramount, plans to sit out the Democratic national con- vention, which teed off in Phila- delphia Monday (12). Par, conse- quently, as the only theatre inter- est to receive permission from the tele pool committee to pick up the Demo conclave for theatre TV, will have the field all to itself this ■ week, Acording to a 20th spokesman, the company considers theatre tele to be still in the stunt class. Twen- tieth believes it learned the tech- nical answers it wanted to know during its telecast of the fight on the Fox (Phflly) theatre screen, and now plans to lie low until it's ■ determined how best to put thea- tre TV on a commercial basis. Company hasn't abandoned its am- bitious plans for a nationwide thea- tre tele network but has delayed them for further kicking around of llie problem. Wall Street Backs BalabanVPIan To Shrink Par Capital Proposal of ■ Barney Balaban, Paramount's prexy, to meet any court-decreed divestiture of thea- tres by a partial shrinkage of capi- tal is viewed by Wall Street as a highly favorable factor for Par's investors. The Street's friendly reaction was evidenced last week when two brokerage outfits—East- man, Dillon & Co., and Carl M. Lpeb, Rhoades & Co.—urged their customers in special letters to hold their Par stock as a sound invest- ment. Noting that Balaban's annual re- port to stockholders several weeks ago in which he proposed a reduc- tion in.capital had caused the stock to suffer market'reverses; Eastman concern declares: "A study of the facts brought out at tlie annual meeting, however, suggests that an (Continued on page 20) . - Current dip in the: nation's film boxoffice has resulted in a glut of new releases on the market, some- thing which is almost unprece- dented in the industry. Formerly, in periods of offish biz, pictures played off so rapidly that'distributors had all they could do to keep the market supplied with new product.; Today, how- ever, with studio and distribution operating costs at an abnormal high, most companies must liquidate their product as rapidly as possible in order to keep up with the times. As a result, they're plowing many of their new films into the market almost as soon as they come off the sound stages. Result has been a mad scramble for playdates. vvith pictures being backed up all down the line, from key city first runs to the subse- quent run and smalltown situa- tions. Sales chiefs of several major, companies, in fact, report anxious communications from their field personnel', who have discovered that most exhibitors, usually ready at this time to start booking for the new season, still have so much unplayed product at hand that dates on the newer pix are -ex- tremely difficult to obtain. It's only those studios with enough .financial backing to carry them through the dog 0ays that cau (Continued on page 47) Romantic Merger Industryites are wondering what the reaction of the Dept. of Justice's anti-trust division will be to the big circuit merger announced on the Coast last week. Joan Wobber, daughter of 20th-Fox exec Herman Wob' ber, became engaged to Mar- shall Naify, son of Mike Naify. Twentieth's !-'ox-West Coast chain and Naify's Golden State circuit compete in the Coast territory. 1 'I Ballantine Gets Par Theatre Plug, Too, On Pickup of Philly Fight Broadway Paramount theatre paid a nominal fee for rights to pick Up the Beau Jack-Ike Williams lightweight championship fight for its theatre television Monday (12) night, thereby avoiding any dif- ficulties that might otherwise have arisen with either the broadcasters involved or the fight promoters. Par tele officials declined to re- I veal the exact price paid but em- phasized they had been given full cooperation of all concerned. In i'cturn, the opening title card on the screen credited the ABC tele network; station WFIL-TV, Phila- delphia, which originated the tele- cast, and Ballantine Beer, which sponsored the TV show. Par edited out some of tlie Ballantine com- (Continued on page 18) UADistribEdge ■i ■ . For Its Producers In order to make financing of indie producers more attractive to the- ba.nks. United Artists has in- troduced a new facet into its dis- tribution contracts. It is agreeing to defer 2'/a% of its 271/2% domes- tic distribution fee in a number of new releasing contracts now being written. The device gives the banks added opportunity to get paid off quickly, since, in the ordinary course of events, distribution charges come out before the return of invested coin. Under the new plan, only 25% is taken out for distribution until the bank loan is recouped. After that, the deferred 2V4% is held out, plus the normal 21Vz% fee. Actually, the deferment idea is not new. It was contained in some contracts in the old days when the regular distribution charge was 25%. Scheme was dropped during the lush years when financing was easy to obtain. In addition to the 27V5% being demanded for di.stribution now, new pacts provide that the pro- ducer pay for all advertising, ex- cept for a' limited amount of local cooperative copy. ■ New series of contracts now go« ing through the legal mill are on deals that have been made in the past twD or three months. Tliey include those with Hunt Strom* berg, Stanley Kramer's Screen Plays, Sam Bischoff, Phil Krasne, Jack: Benny's Amusement Enter- prises unit, W. Lee Wilder, Btister Collier and others. Wall Streeters' Olf-the-Record Powwow at 20tk In an„ annual event engineered by Standard & Poor, financial pub- lications outfit, 20th-Fox officials gave the lowdown on the state of the film industry to 25 leading Wall street brokers last Thursday night (8) at the company's home- office. S&P innovated ' the proce- dure last year as a public relations measure, with Paramount execs be- ing quizzed then by the -financial experts and stock handlers. Talk at these conclaves proceed on an oft'-the-record basis. , Approximately 10 20th-Fox ex- ecs, representing various phases of the company's operations such as Coast production, foreign distribu- tion, theatres, etc., were at hand. Spyros P. Skouras, prez, handled most of ,the queries, assisted by Otto Koegel, company's legal braintruster, and Murray Silver- stone, prez of 20th-Fox Interna- tional. • Skouras informed the conclave the motion picture business during the first six months in 1948 was off by 11% from the previous year. He reported, however, that there was no general weakening in box office prices despite scattered re- ductions in admission tabs that have taken place recently. The average ticket price, he said, is now 50c., compared to 25c. in pre- war years. Business was reported to have dipped most badly in the war boom areas, such as Califor- nia, but resurgence of armaments (Continued on page 18)' Irving Brecher hamsroiiily diicouriai on "Hoiv to Get Rich in Television, Part /" ,**,,*'■ 3d Annual Spwctal RADIO-TELEVISION NUMBER OuHbhMoaih Par Seeks to Pressure FCC on Decision. In DuMont Control Snarl Washington. .July 13. Paramount Pictures and subsidi- aries, United Detroit Theatres Corp., New England Theatres and Paramount Television Productions, are. still attempting to force from the FCC an early decision on al- leged Par control of OuMont Lab- oratories. FCC questions that if Par owns controlling interest in DuMont Laboratoi-ies, should it be allowed any more channels under the five-station limitation. Last week Par petitioned in pro- test to the indefinite postponement of a desicion. FCC ordered hear- ing examiner Jack Paul Blume to hear five cases, Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati and San Francisco, and ^decide the controll- ing-interest question along with the -|4ele-channel requests.. ; _ Before 'redbnVening' iif fFie San Francisco hearings in Washington on May 27, Par asked FCC to in- struct the examiner to consider the two questions separately from the hearing, or asked that the Com- mission decide the case in en banc proceedings. Petitioning again. Par said if the earlier two procedures did not sat- isfy the Commission, perhaps a declaratory ruling could be handed down.: ■ . •■ Next labor shadow looming over the Hollywood production scene is that of James C. Peti-Ulo, pjez of the American Federation of Musi- cians. With the present AFM con- tract with the major studios run- ning out Aug. 31, preparations ar* : cureently imdet way on both sides to meet the long siege of haggling . over terms which will set in when new pact negotiations open in Chi- cago the first week in August. As in recent talks with Pelrlllo, top-level N; Y. execs of companies belonging to the Motion Picture Assn. of America will carry its ball for the lots. It's expected the MPAA Will send labor contact Chffrles Boren East for the huddles. Sitting on PetrlUo's side of the table will be AFM studio Bep. J. w; Gillette,. just back from pre- parley planning In N. Y. It's not clear why PetrlUo wants the talks in Chicago rather than N. Y. PetrlUo's demands on the film industry are being shaped this time under the restrictive condi- tions of the Taft-Hartley law which eft'ectively tied his hands duHng negotiations with the broadcast in-' dustry early this year. However,; the T,-H law will prove no barrier to AFM demands for steep wage tilts and Increased ^niuimum em- ployment figures at each of the studios. -Two years .ago, PetrlUo initially demanded a 100% wage increase for studio musicians And finally won a healthy hike of about 30% for his members. Fancy Music BiU Currently there are 339 musi- cians empioye4^ in the eight major studios, adding up'to an annual music bill of between $7,000,000 to jp9,000,000. Studio musicians ara now paid $13.33 per hour, with an annual minimum guarantee of 920 hours annually to be used at the studio's discretion. Petrillo Js ex- pected to repeat his demand of two years ago that musicians'be paid (Continued on page 16) Schencks Naify BiddiiigStiUHot San Francisco, July 13. Far from being dead, the nego- tiations which Joseph M. Schenck, 20th-Fox studio exec, has been ipufihing with Mike Naify, head of I United California theatres and its Isubsid, Golden State circuit, are I hotter than ever. Schenck, it has I now been learned, has first call on I any deal which would involve the , transfer of 50% of Naify's holdings iin the giant theatre Chain. All I other deals, including those of Ted [ Gamble, prexy of Theatre Owners I of America, and Milton Reynolds, [Chicago pen manufacturer, are : cold. ,' i Schenck has been marking time pending clarification of its attitude [ by the Dept. of Justice which is concerned with the anti-trust as- ! pects of any large switch in thea- ■ tre interests. However, Schenck re- j portedly is convinced that if he ' resigns his spot with 20th and I severs all Interests with that com- [ pany, the-D of J won't have a toe- ihold in any anti-trust proceeding, j There is an ultimate possibility , that Gamble may wind up with some interest in a Naify-Schenck : tieup, according to reports here, but it would be only on invitation ' of Schenck. lEV EASSPS TV POST Irving B Kahn, tintil now radio publicity manager' of 20th-Fox homeofflce ' staff, was confirmed this wieek as television pi-ogram- raing manager for the company by prexy Spyros P. Skouras. Successor to Kahn as radio head is to be named in the near future by 20th ad-publicity director Charles Schlaifer. OtI\er telemsion news on pages 26-27.