Variety (Jan 1949)

26 PICTURES WedneBday, January 26, 1949 Variety Club Continued from page 7 { barker and other officers. It is like" ly tliat Cotien, who also plunked for the change, will be tagged as the first barker. Over 400 attended the Astor meeting and luncheon that fol- lowed. Fred Schwartz, retiring prez, introduced €ohen.- New Variety Club will be opened Immediately to all branches of the amusement .. industry: Including stage, screen, music, radio and television. MPA officials believe an ultimate membership: of ,2,500 will be reached, making it the largest Variety club in the world. Scott Lett Charlotte Chief Greensboro, N. 0. Scott Lett elected chief barker of Charlotte Variety Club. Gene Dyer was named first asistant bark- er; J. E. Holston, second assistant barker; Balph lannuzzl, property master; and Earl Mulwee, dough- guy. Variety Clubs to Spend :$3,00ft,000 Detroit. Variety Clubs International will will spend more than $3,000,000 in charitable work this year. Col. Wil- liam McCraw of Dallas, executive director of the clubs, announced here. .He was the chief speaker at a Variety Club of Detroit meeting. His appearance here was one of the 43 he is making on a cross- country tour in connection with "Bad Boy," Paul Short picture Monogram is releasing. 200 building pledge; 12,500 to Metropolitan police Boys Club; $1,000 to Home for Incurables; $1,000 to Merrick Boys Cainp to complete payment on « VaWcty Cabin; and $1,000 to Boys Club of WasH!ftig^i*;;/k^rV-\:,.,.'':':/;;vy''-'. ^ : '<Conn. .Tent.i^tistallS;,, New Haven. \ New slate of officers for Tent 31, ^ J HI u n...irA. Variety Club of Connecticut, com- Fred Nahas Houston Barker prises Lou Brown, chief barker; T. J AT u y t^A «i7iof w"i;*.r George H. Wilkinson, Jr., first as- Fred Nahas elected chief baiker ^j^^^^^ ^^^^^j.. ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ assistant barker; Hugh Miaguirei property master; Harrjr Jtoseiiblatt, doughguy. of*[ouston Tent 34, newest unit of Variety International. Other ofiH- cers named include Al Lever, first Assistant; William E. Bremer, sec- ond assistant, Bay M. Hay, dough- guy, and Fred Cannata, property master. The local tent operated as a branch of Variety Club of Texas until it was issued a separate charter this fall. Memphis Re'elects Williamson Memphis. Ed Williamson reelected chief barker of Memphis Tent No. 20 of Variety Clubs. Remaining slate includes Buster Hammopd, first assistant chief . barker; Bailey Prichard, property master, . and Herman Chrissman, doughguy^ D. C. Tent's $15,900 to Charity . Washington. Local Variety. Tent presented five checks totaling $lp,900 to lo- cal charities recently^ making a total of more than $55-,000' given by showmen's organization here to charitable work in 1948. Latest beneficiaries; $10,400 to Children's hospital as last payment on a $31,- Barcroft Heads Columbus Tent Columbus^ O. John L. Barcroft named new chief barker for Tent No. 2, Colum- bus Variety Club. He's publicity manager for : BKO Palace and Grand. Others named include Ralph L Shiflet, first assistant barker; Ben Cowell, second; as- sistant barker; Arthur Robinson, property master, and Milton Staub, doughguy. Tom Canavan Heads St. Loo Tent St. Louis. Tom Canavan, midwest represenr tative for Altec, elected chief barker of Tent No. 4 of Variety Clubs here. He succeeds Tom James, owner of three indie houses. Other officers elected are Lester Grand, first assistant barker; Sam Levin, second assistant barker; James Tapella, Dough Guy; and Richard Fitzmaurice P r o p e r t y Master. Laurence Olivier's presentation of comes to life on a WESTERN ELECTRIC Sound Track Laurence OUviet's magnificent version of Shakespeare's tragedy was recorded on Western Elecuic sound equipment; The new D« luxe V400" Recording System and the ncw.RA-1251 Re-recorders have demonstrated once more their relia:bility and outstanding performance^ Such|advantages as automatic operation, highest sound quality and versatility make the 'MOO'! the outsunding recording sys- tem available to the industry. Pine-Thomas Continue^ from pact 7 "looks to gross $2,000,000 domes- tically," P&T sai^. Team, there- fore, plunked for the three-quar- ters of a million bracket on. a per^ manent basis. Both "El Paso'^l|tld "Manhandled," first two films un- der their new deal with Par, fit into that negative-cost groove. "Power Dive" Cost $86,000 Explaining further their exit from the B field, both Pine and Thomas cited book and chapter. Their first film, made eight years ago, was "Power Dive," which cost $86,000. Their last, "Dynamite," hit $200,000 because of the rising cost of production. Meanwhile, the margin of profit was being squeezed closer because "there is a ceiling on what distribution can give you on the average B film.'V In this respect, P&T note , that their average film leveled off' at $450,000 worldwide take and $350,- 000 domestically. Rentals, they said, are up a bit, but not in proporr tion to the production-nut boost. One saving feature, .they noted, was that at least one film yearly hit the jackpot because of its "hot exploitability" and went consider- ably over the normal ceiling in revenues. An-'added reason for their switch was the personal factor. "How long could we have kept it up, making six to eight films yearly, and knocking our brains out," Thomas said. "These B's are Just TINKY' MESSAGE PIC, ZANUCn'49 FILM Hollywood, Jan. 25. Darryr Zanuck's personal pro- duction for 1949 will be "Pinky," a film with a message, depicting social conditions in the south. Pic- ture is, dated for a spring start, withJIohn Ford as director. Ford's deal calls for one picture and will not conflict with his activities as Merian C. Cooper's partner in Ar^ gosy Productions. ■'Pinky" is based on a story by Dudley Nichols. Valentine Davies is doing the screenplay. No Aussie Rita Pix Nix, Tho Resentment Strong Sydney, Jan, 18. Few if any Aussie exhibs will nix playing of Rita Hay worth pix, following star's gadabout with Ali Khan, though resentment is pow-* erful against star within. industry ranks. Next Hayworth pic set for release is ''Loves of Carmen." It .will play the Grreater Union loop on contract with Columbia. . Key church authorities have de- cided not to ask for any boycott of Hayworth -pix. Catholic spokesmen said that the church film censor- ship was only concerned in actual ■ films, adding that Miss Hayworth: could not be condemned unless half of Hollywood was condemned with her. Protestant ministers like- wise do not favor banning Hay- as hard to make as A's, particular- ' worth pix. ly since you can't afford to buy books or plays for them." Pine added that "pride of accomplish- ment" also needled the shift as well as the need "to maintain en- thusiasm." Uniform Rules "Unfair" Pine termed the laying down, of uniform rules by banks on financ- ing indie production as both "very unfair and ridiculous." "Why should a seasoned producer such as Eddie Small pay the same bank terms as some guy who always loses?" Pine declared. Both P&T blasted novices from the "soap or shoe business" who come to Holly- wood and expect to produce suc- cessful pix. These tyros, they said, had invaded Hollywood during the war, "when money was cheap," and drove up the cost of making films, including salaries of stars. "We're going back to normal and, one by one, these producers are dropping out," Pine said. "The stars are going back to the si^udios and, generally, things are coming down to earth. Actually, these stars are doing just as well— they're getting hard cash now in- stead of promises of profits in films which never made out." Banks Lau4 ^ Continued from page 3 as like mad and causing seriou.s chaos that would be bound to still further weaken their financial position. "As it is, we feel that the cutting that has taken place and the re- sultant injury to morale is being felt in the reduced quality of prod- uct recently released. The industry Is like any patient after an opera- tion. It will take time to recuperate. However, it is a healthy thing in the long run to have the swollen parts reduced and \ye feel that it will make for a strong future.'' Banks haven't the slightest qualms ' concerning the status of any of their loans to the major companies. Virtually all the firms have far more cash on hand, gov- ernment bonds and other liquid assets than the amount of their . borrowing. Even Universal,' which is probably 1p the weakest financial position of any of the majorsi eould go on for three <years with losses as heavy as those of 1948 before it was in real trouble, one of the ThiiiM .'i>»..^n«„« bankers pointed out. He added that 7^h\^l»Z^^T^^^^^J^I^^^A " would probably be impossible, 1 this business is still very solid i,nn,o™„ tt it u and tnis Dusmess Is still very and safe," they said. "A decent film in the right bracket ($750,000- $1,000,000) can do $2,000,000 and make money." The two Paramounters stay in New York for the balance of the current week before heading Coast- ward: m ^ ^ Th* "400"SytteM Racanlor mwt AwtamaKc RMonlor Conlrol, uud In Mcordina "Hdmlot" M Donhom Studtot, Undono Majors Deny Plot S5S Continued .from page t^is Preduud ond Diractad by . . Laurence Olivier Sound $up.rvlMr Cyril Otowhurst Western Electric "proven Communists," answer de- clares, but did not take action on the point, which was second in a proposed three-point pro gram. Meeting concededly discussed all itngles on possible injury to the film Industry, by reason of the hubbub then caused by the House investigation. Otherwise, answer Interposes a general denial to the pending ac- tion, which demands an injunction to restrain the defendants from an alleged -combination aimed at blacklisting screen scripters. SWG suit, brought last year, does not seek money damages. Disney's 'Heart' Ballyhoo Walt Disney arrived in New York yesterday (Tuesday) for press and radio interviews in connection with opening of his "So Dear to My Heart" at the Palace. He expects to be in Manhattan the rest of the week. ■ Cartoon exec came in from Cin- cinnati and Indianapolis, where he had attended preems of the pic with a quartet of his players. They are Beulah Bondi, Bobby Driscoll, Luana Patten and Clarence Nash. They returned to the Coast from Cincy. however, for U, "even if it wanted to," to lose as much again during the next three years as it did last year (a reported $4,000,000) be- cause it had written off so much of its worthless assets. Banks have not been faced with drawing up terms for new loans, since none of the companies is in the market for more capital. They all arranged financing two or three years ago, when money was at its cheapest, and have plenty of bank funds available If they want to call on them. Usual procedure is for the Companies to pay a fractional percentage in Interest to keep this money open to them, but to draw upon it only If they need it. Most have drawn only a relatively small part of what Is available. Pathe Continued frpm page T absorbed in the form of a loss dur- ing 1048 is still a moot question. Margin for discretion on the point is available because EL is a com- paratively new outfit without a, fixed amortization cate as yet. While plans are being formu^ lated for issuance of a new block of stock, company has bankrolled Its next three pix, slated to start in February, by an advance of monies out of credits available from the First National Bank of Boston and other banks. Mean- while, EL has been reducing an initial loan of $11,000,000 out of weekly revenues. That sum' has been brought down to approxir mately $6,000,000. Reportedly, EL obtained d > credit of $750,000 for the trio of films, with which it will reopen its Hollywood studios.