Variety (Mar 1949)

w^n ^ay, M>i>ch 23, 1949 ncimiis s DISW SET FOR SALES BATHE Udibnans Sales Idesg Two more or less revolutionary s; ' ';ies, which he said he . would attempt to evolve (into workab. , were outlined by new 20th-Fox veepee Al tichtman Mond;.. ..1). Lichtman is credited with developing the sliding-scale system on which a number of Companies now sell pix. New formulas on which Lichtman and 20th's sales chief, Andy Smith, will talk to exhibs during a two- month tour that started Monday are: 1 The cost of each film made by the company would be appor- tioned pro rata against each potential theatre situation. Exhib Would pay this amount as a guarantee. His operating costs would -then come out of the receipts and the remainder would be evenly divided between exhib and distrib. (Lichtn»an said that when he was at United Artists he successfully operated on such a plan with the Publix Circuit for 10 years.) 2 Exhibs would be charged by the distrib a flat sum^ such as 25c, for'each patron who comes, into his theatre. This amount would vary according to the quality of the film, just as percentage terms now differ. Exhib could charge whatever admission he desired. Plan would make it possible to completely ignore house operating charges al^d Would provide greater incentive for the theatre owner to drumbeat bis pix, since he could clewly see the profit on each - patrbii who Stepped up^ t to Lichtman. Foy Stpied (m E Pact Ent; Wants to Accept Warner Offer [ »Bryan Foy's drive to win a re--*- lease from his contract with Eagle Lion was stalled -this week when the producer failed to win ap- proval on a personal appeal to Robert R. Young, controlling stock- holder of Pa'the Industries, EL's parent company. Foy, currently in New York, trekked to Palm Beach, Young's winter home, for a four- cornered huddle last week with the railroad magnate; Arthur Krim, EL prez, and Robert Benjamin, YouQg's attorney. Foy made his pitch because he The; cards are sfacked for the outbreak oif ah.intens e s&leS s trug-: gle amoijg major compahies as a direct aftei^niath of the hfliw fading antitrust litigatiohi T?he iig, ; disi; tribs are liniiig. up their' Sates forces for a strong drive on ^xWb ac(;()uhts and i^oice playing! litti^ At the sanie: time, the battle Iboks to be hotter because both Colum- bia and UhiversaL plan a real bid to push abreast the Big F^ . Theatre divorcement, certain, for Paramount srid RKb ahd/^: ppssi'^ bility for the other ihtegr'ated coih- pahies^ is having, a dOublerbarrelled impact on distr^ Sighting the. day^ . wh6h the theatre wing can no longer be counted for bal- last, both PaE; and RKO are now priniihg for a sharp boost in their distrib profits. Indicating : the stress oh sales in the'eyes of Paia- mount toppers, Bariiey Balaban, company preizv has been^^^ s ph a sejies ' iSC sales:^^to^^ at the homepflice. FPr the first time. Par's chief has been taking aft: ac- tive part in mapping the j)icture"', by-pictUre strategy pf futur#/sattes Washington, March 22. ^ ^ House Judiciary Committee will, Distrib toppers believe that dl- make a study of the anti-trust laws vorcement is gomg to scramble the Study Trust Laws Lichtman Spearheads 20th-Fox Move To Get More Qut of Its Fihn Rentals has a lucrative offer from Warner ■Bros, to produce on a semi-indie basis and release through the com- paqy. He was told that cancella- tion of his pact would not be con- sidered until he fulfilled commit- ments on two films, "Trapped" and "Port of New York," which he is currently' preparing for EL. Foy, it is understood, alterna- tively wanted an answer on wheth- er he could make the switch to Warners after the two pix were wrapped up but the triumvirate : withheld the say on the query. Pro- ducer is tied by his original con^ tract, which has two years to run. ;. That: pact made him veepee in charge, of-production, a post he : surrendered last year. No new tick-1 !- with a view toward strengthening them, although there is no indi- cation Vhether any changes will Come-in -matters affecting motion pictures or' any other branch, of show "biz. Committee is able to act be- cause the House last week voted the committee the power to in- vestigate. Judiciary Committee asked the authority in connection with the anti-trust laws. Lichtman's Pact Al Lichtman disclosed Mon- day (21) that the contract un- der which he joined 20th-Fox JVIarch 1 is for five years, but calls for his active services bnly. during the iirst year. He is -bound for the following four years to function only as a consultant unless Jie and 20th agree that he'll continue active, he said. New v.p. stated that he may want to retire "or do some- thing else" at the end of the year. Possibility is seen that he'll go into theatre operation. He admitted that he had been in negotiation some months ago for the Schoenstadt circuit of 17 houses in Chicago, 20th Expected To Exceed '48 On All Fronts Despite fheiwldely-held imagtiofc the picture industry currently he- autAciiucicu m»i year. x\u iicw.iitjv- i . ^ * ^, ^i^i^u ««j «^u^^ omu et was Signed, and Foy continued under his old deal in the capacity theatre market m an unprecC' dented fashion. The thousand' or so Paramount partner theatres, for instance, will be loosened imme- diately following approval of the consent decree in April. From then on, there will be a rush to cop choice playing time heretofore re- served for Par. Vpped Releases : Pressure for theatre dates is ex- pected to rise sharply because of the boost in the number of releases which most companies are now sig*^ nailing. With more pix to; peddle, sales execs expect harder scramb- ling to sign exhibs for the abund- ance of product. : The brunt of these drives is likely to reach a fever pitch by' the. end of the current year. Indicating the: direction of the wind are the elaborate releasing plans of Columbia; which hereto- fore confined itself to five-to-six (Continued; on page 18) RKO Pushes Drive On Stockholders For Decree Okay RKO Intensified its drive this i every situation. ■f Twentieth-Fox, in a revolution- I ary tactic aimed at increasing its Jto_rentals.tj»ameil_jLJJ^ committee ' of homeoifice sales I execs: this week to scrutinize and approve or reject all exhibitioh contracts sold in the field. :.This is part of an all-out effort, spear- headed by Al Lichtman, to' obtain for the producing company 'what 20th. execs feel should be; a more equitable share of the boxoffice dollar. ' . "Lichtman. joined the company March 1; after 14: years at. Metro. His election to vice-president was announced by:: prexy Spyros Skouras Monday (21). : He will spend the first year of his associa- tion with 20th surveying the com- pany's distribution setup, he dis;?; closed. To 'this end he started out . Monday with Andy Smith, v.p. in charge of distributioni on two? : month tour of the company's ■ ex-:, changes. A major aim of the trip will b«. to 0.0. 20th's executive pef^sonnel in' the field—division managers, district managers, branch n^an-< agers and.. assistant branch niau'* agers. Skouras reportedly feela that in light of current conditions in the industry it is necessary to; get top coin on every pic and th^t the only way to do it is to hav6 the best possible manpower in of producer. Chi Loop Wins Cutrate Deals Schoenstadt circuit in Chicago won the right to buy pix from ma- jor companies at half price for its Piccadilly theatre as a part of the settlement of its anti-trust action last year. That was disclosed this week in explanation of why the i net results from economies in op house was able to double biil two crating costs made during 1948. In the foreign field, sales are up about 5% over the Initial 10 weeks (Continued oh page 22) Fox this year will undoubtedly far exceed 1948 income in all aspects of its business. Company has had a sensational rise, during the first 10 weeks of '49, of slightly better than 25% in domestic film rentals as compared with the same period last year. While the two other sources of the firms' income—theatre receipts and foreign rentalSr-don't measure up to the pace of the upswing in domestic sales, prexy Spyros Skou- ras and other top execs are doing no weeping. Boxoffice grosses p^ the company's vast National The- atres chain are equal to last year, but profits are up. The improved and top A^features, "Snake Pit Paleface." ,-Pjsclosure was made Monday Ul) by Andy Smith, v.p. in charge ot distribution for 20th, which made "Snake Pit." Smith asserted, «n investigation showed that' achoenstadt was paying a com- luned rental for the two films of only 30%. He said the half-price ■rrangement was scheduled to con- tinue for several more years. ,„.*"y«stigation resulted from the widely.publlcized dispute a couple weeks ago between United Artists (Continued on page 22) Ped?8 '12 O'clock* Hollywood, March 22. Irregory Peck reports to 20th- J,°\April 18 for "Twelve O'clock oflril' ^^^^ commitment at the, „™H "^'s nearing the end of' *?".™at had him tied to various studios and producers. He still has one to do for Metro Plus one for which Selznick loaned mm to Warners. Peck still owes selznick two, but there's no indi- cation from latter as to what will MASON WITH GARBO IN GEORGE SAND BIOG Hollywood, March 22. Greta Garbo is coming back, after numerous false starts, this time with James Mason as her male opponent. They, will co-star in a film based on the career of novel- ist George Sand. Picture will be co-prpduced by Walter Wanger and Eugene Frenke. It will be Garbo's first screen job since 1941, when she played "Two-Faced Woman" for Metro. Texas Exhib Eyes Mayoralty Grand Prairie, Texas, March 22. A. M. Morgan,^ local theatie owner, has filed tor mayor here with elections slated for April 5. Electee will be the first iullterm mayor under « ttew h0r(i6 rule charter. SUPREME CT. ASKED TO HEAR MOMAND PLEA Washington, March 22. The Supreme Court was asked last week to hear an appeal from the 1st Circuit Court's decision in the suit of the Momand Theatres of Oklahoma against the majors. A. B. Momand called on the High Court to reverse a verdict which blocked him from monpy damages in a treble damage anti'trust suit against Universal Exchanges, MGM Dist;ibuUng Corp,, 20th-Fox, Vita- graph, BKO Distributing Corp., United Artists and Columbia. The case has been under way since 1937, and the statute of limi- tations has snarjed several phases of It. Momand won a $287il61 verdict from a trial jury. However, the trial judge ordered a verdict for the defendants, and subsequejrtly the court of appeals affirmed this judgment. Bogart Borrows Reagan for Indie Hollywood, March,22. Santana Productions, Humphrey Bogart's indie, has borrowed Ron- ald Reagan from Warner Bros, for the male lead opposite Barbara Hale in "You Made Me Love You, slated for late April start. Miss Hale is under contract to Colum- bia, which will release the film. Henry Levin will direct, with Bogart and Robert Lord produc- ing. ■.,■:. „ ■,■ Bogart's next starrer for San- tana will be "In a Lonely Place,' a yarn about Hollywood which rolls in the fall. Edmund North has been inked to do a rewrite on the script. week to win the necessary proxies from stockholders for an approval of its consent: decree iq the anti- trust suit and resultant' plan of re- organization. With less than one week to go, company has yet to obtain the requisite two-thirds ap- proval in the form of signed prox- ies. However, RKO officials are still eonfideht that the necessary proxies!; yi?iU be received before the annual stockholders' meeting, Monday (28), in Wilmington. Del. Appeal to stockholders in the form of a follow-up letter by Ned E. Depinet, RKO prez, was senjl out yesterday (Tues ). In making his pitch for approval, Depinet de- clared: "The action to, be taken at. the meeting involve^^ your inter- ests, and it may be that you have merely overlooked forwarding the authority to record your vote." Start of letter reads: "As I have heretofore advised the stockhold- ers, the consent decree with the Government will become of no ef- fect unless the proposed plan of The three'-man committee which will gander contracts at the home- (Continued on page 18) MiiM?!^^ Get Going-Over Washington, March 22i Details are being worked. out' on paper for Schine consent decree. with one important point already ' settled between Justice Depart- ment officials and counsef for the country's biggest indie ' theatre chain. ,'.i .^''-'.; ■ :::-;•:; ?■:'' ■;; DJ and Schine reps have agreed on which theatres Schine must divest himself of but no agreement has" been reached on the trade practices against vvhich th6re wUl be an injunction. There is no in- dication of when a final decision will be made on this phase. The decree must be pr^ented to reorganization shall be adopted by [ the trial court'in Buffalo for ap- our stockholders on or before proval as soon as it is ready. It is March 30, 1949. The corporation has not yet received proxies rep- resenting the vote required for adoption ot the plan at the special meeting of stockholders to "be held March 28, 1949. "Since we have not yet received your proxy, and it is so important that you vote on the proposed plan, I am taking the liberty of sending you herewith another proxy and return envelope." Company is counting consider- ably on proxies from investment brokers, bulk of which have yet to be turned in. GOLDMAN SUIT DELAYED BY JUDGE'S ILLNESS Philadelphia, March 22. Trial of William Goldman's $8,400,000 anti-trust suit against some 10 major film companies, originally calendared in federal court here for an airing next Mon- day (28), has been postponed to May 9. Illness of Federal Judge William Patrick is understood to have been the principal factor in the moveback. The jurist has pre- sided over much of the case's earlier proceedings. Goldman's action is based upon the alleged failure of the majors and numerous other defendants to supply his Erlanger theatre with adequate product. Pressing a simi- lar suit to cover the period from 1940 to 1942, the circuit operator has already won an award of $375,- 000 in damages. Current litigation embraces: the four-year from 1942. understood that the settlement in- cludes some divestiture in oi4fer to open up what have heretofore been closed Schine towns. Big nut to crack in this case was which ; houses Schine had - tp relinquish. It is also possible that there may be some breakup of the chain into several separate regional units, such as was done in- the case of (Continued on page 20) METRO WALKS OUT ON HIGH 'STREETCAR' FARE Hollywood, March .22. Metro decided to walk when the motorman and conductor demand- ed approximately $1,000,000 for a cinema ride on "A Streetcar Named Desire." Tennessee Williams is the: motorman and Irene Selznick ; the conductor. Exact figures are not available, but it is understood ; their demands ^or a down payment and a percentage would set the stu-. dio back more than a million. In addition, the terms includ* the right to hold back the release of the picture while the play is still running, Williams owns 60% of the property and Mrs. Selznick the other 40%. .■ Schary's P.A. Huddle Hollywood, March 22. Dore Schary called a special con- ference of Metro's publicity de- partment to set up merchandising plans for forthcoming $4,000,000 "Battleground." Schary indicated such get-to- stretch I gethers would become a regular part of the production routine.