Variety (April 1950)

Apiril S, 19S0 IPiCtURCS Major distribs are neglecting^ their best bet for improved indus- try public relationsrra broad cam- paign to $et the widest possible bookings on top entertainment pix> That belief is expressed by Wilbur Snkper, prex of New Jersey Allied, who is convinced that distribs are not doing enough to See that their •►good films are booked in every town and hamlet in the country. ' “Eveiw good picture helps the industry to win back customers frdrii television and other Competi- tion that has weaned them away," Sttaper declared. ‘-The distributors know that fact as well as We do, but they^ are not doing anything about it. Instead of boosting their terms bn a good film past the point where many independent exhibitors can afford to buy, they should be concentrating on playing films as widely as possible." Shaper contends that distribs are; frequently ignoring the little thea- tres that can do much to improve the public’s regard for filmSr More often than not^ he asserts, distribs have been standing on a "take-itror- leave-it” policy bn their best‘films. "That sort of policy, especially now when things are ,tough, overlooks the fact that many thatres are just on the edge of going under." Jersey Allied topper believes that "murderous terms" on many big films have restricted their bookings and thereby Injured the industry’s case with the public; Distribs have formed a habit, .he said, of being content if they can book their product in the big cir- cuits, Once they do so, they are, no longer concerned with whether the big films get into indie houses, (Continued bn page 20) 'Snow White* Reissue; Latter's $8,000,000 Gross Business being racked up by "Cinderella" has Disneyites and. RKO prepping to reissue "Snow White" next Christmas. Vic has been re-released only once, in 1944, which will mean the passage of seven years before it makes the rounds again. Disney sales chief William B. Levy figures the birth rate since that time has averaged about 3,- 000,000 annually, which would pro- vide a brand new audience of about 20,000,Oho kids for the film. ‘‘-Snow White," the highest- grossing cartoon to date, took in $4,000,000 domestically on its first time out. In a reprise immediately after the original release it garr nered about $200,000 moi«. The 1914 reissue added another $1.- 600,000, to provide a total of al- most $6,000,000. Foreign revenue has accounted for another $2,- 000,000. While it is actually too early to make any wide comparison between "Cinderella" and "Snow White," former Is running somewhat ahead of its predecessor on the first found. That’s partially due to the difference in admission prices be- tween 1937 and the present. Sec- ond highest Disney grosser, “Song of the South,"'? took in $3,600,000 domestically. No Blacicstoho Blues Here That antl-trus;> litigation against the major companies in behalf of exhibs can pay off in spades to the lawyer clan was demonstrated again last week when Thomas McConnell, Chi-; * cago attorney for the Towne theatre, Minneapolis,^^^W^ handed a $235,000 fee by the Federal district court. Sum is probably the top amount yet aiwarded to an exhib attorney by a court in an anti-trust Case. It must be paid by the majors unless the decision is upset in ah appeal. Largest a m o ti n t awarded previously was $100,000 to ; George Kyah m Boston follow- ing his successful prosecution of a series of anti-trusters in theHub. WilliamGrayjlaw- ;yer for William Goldman, was given $75,000 in the first Gbldr man action against the majors. ON;; CHISELING SUITS : Ft. Dodge, la., April 4. Federal judge Henry N. Graven has granted four distribs a sweep- ing lO-y ear inspection pfivilege oh theatre records of R. M; Bernau, operating the Iowa theatre, Lake City^ la. Four maiorsT-r-Warner Bros., Uhiversa!, RKO and Metro -^ai'e plaintiffs in separate per- centage-chiselling actions against Bernau. Frevious decision several weeks back denied an application of Ber- nau to dismiss the suits for lack of juriscliction. Bernau also lost a plea to strike out parts of the cOih- Plaints. Philadelphia, April 4. ^iillam Goldman, Philadelphia circuit operator, has won what is probably the biggest anti-trust set- tlement in the history of the filih industry as the price for dropping his $8,400,000 treblerdamage action against the eight majors. Gold- man is to be paid $1,050,000 in cash by the defendants. In addition, he now bids to become the largest cir- cuit operator in the Philly area since Warner Bros, has agreed to sell him a number of theatres as part of tile settlement. Number of houses involved has not been disclosed as yet but it is believed to be a half-dozen includ- ing several . Warner first runs. Goldman now operates 10 Philly theatres plus three in the suburbs. Several of the houses are first- runs, Repoftedlyi Goldman is getting the Warner theatres at an advan- tageous price to induce him to drop his suit, Warners, for its part, is thereby opening competi- tion still further In Philly and can probably forestall divestiture in the area uncler the Government anti-trust decree. Goldman at one time was a top exec in the Warner chain before he went out on his own. Exhib previously hit the majors hard in a suit which resulted in $375,000 triple-damages covering (Continued oh page 20) START 7TH FOR PAR Hal Wallis, partner, with Joseph H. Hazert, indie producing unit that releases through Paramount, planes to the Coast Monday (10) following a week’s vacation in New York. Wallis immediately gets going on the unit’s seventh pic for Par un-. der a fenev.'ed' distribution pact inked December, ’48. New produc- tion will be "Dark City," starring Lizabeth Scott, Viveca, Lindfors, Wendell Corey and Charlton Hes- ton, latter a new personality. Wallis completed “My Friend Irma Gofes West" last week /before piahing east. Par tieiip calls fOr completipn of 12 films for delivery to the major; TECHNrS 50c Divr^^ Technicolor’s board of directors has declared a regular fipc. per share dividend to all holders Of common xStock, ' Melon is payable April 24 to stockholders of record April 10. Drive-in season about to get un- der way throughout, the natiom giyes eVery indication of, triggering the heaviest; battling over film terms in the history Of the biz. / Opeii-air ops who’ve made over- tures to distribs for product haVe walked ' away shocked and bitter, With biz In standard hOuSes off, and drive-ins now out of the novelty olass, distributing com- panies apparently have made up their minds to gCt from the ozoners more neaiiy what the traffic .will bear. Terms being asked, the fresh air eXhibs state, are in many cases double what they were last season. Obviously, the theatre operators have no intention Of making such concessions Without battle Equally significant in making the drive-ins a focal; point for bitter intra-industry feuding this year are the demands, for moving up runs. These requests Started on a gradual scale several seasons back and haVe inevitably become a bone of Irir creasing contention as the ozoners gained importance In the overall exhibition scene. The outdoorers began strictly as a novelty item that accepted last- liuns as nOrmalr Their owners re- quested or desired little better, be- ing satisfied with the biz they did at the meager prices they were pay- ing for product. As Competition developed be- tween drive-ins and between drive- ins and standard theatres, h,owever, the dtiver’s-delights naturally be- gan seeking better runs to improve their competitive position. With hundreds of new ramp-houses hav- ing been built during the past year, 1950 is certain to mark the battle (Continued pn page 20) Brandt-2Qth May Set Pattern for Arbitration Pending Divorcement Indie exhibitors and circuit operators. Unwilling to wait for di- vorcement to solve some Of their most pressing film-buying prob- lems, are turning to arbitration as the best alternate method of achieving their aims. Circuit chief Harry Brandt declared this week that the Independent Theatre Own- ers of America, which he heads up as prexy, is already working on a format for arbitration with 20th- FOX and expressed the hope that the system would receive nation- wide acceptance. Disclosure of the ITOA-20th talks follows news that the The- atre Owners of America has set in motion plans for an all-industry system. TO A last week wrote all major company presidents to as- certain whether the industry de- sires an arbitration system and whether a Sufficient area of agree- ment can be reached on what points the systcnri should cover. Arbitration on a voluntary basis has been authorized by the Federal district court in the anti-trust de- •fee-'--' . To illustrate the problems that can be solved by arbitration, Brandt cited 20th’s current pi^actice of forcing subsequent nabe houses In New York to book the same double bills that RKO and Loew’s, (Continued bn page 26) ^Vigorous^ Status Qua ' / ^ Washihgtdn, April 4* /; Lack of progress in the ef- forts to work out k decibe be-: twedn ;20th-FOx and the anti- trust division of the. Dept, of Justice wks described this way. last week by pnC discpufaged J ustice pepar tment spokes- ■ man: ' /"^ ‘‘The status quo is being maintained vigorously by both .sides."" Meanwhile, some headway is . being made witlv Waimer Bros., although nobody here expects a sudden^ break. HaiTy Kal- mine led one comp^^y delega*- tion into Washington for hud- dles last Week, Paramount has mended its dis- tribution fences on three mOre fronts in its drive to win friends among balky exhibs. Celebrated feud with Bennie Berger, head of North Central Allied and bigtime booking-buying combo chief in Minneapolis, has been ended in a deal struck last week. After two years; Berger will again buy Par product following an agreement made with J. J. Dohohue, Par’s midwest divisional chief, after pro- tracted powwows. TweritiethrFox took its first step towards reviving group sellii;ig pf films this Weiek when it offered ex- hibitors throughout . the country a chance to buy eight films at the same time, Move Was described by company sales execs as an experi- ment, with 20th attempting to as- certain how feasible group sellirig is. They emphasized there will be; nip conditioning of one picture oh another.;;; • Twentieth was urged; by exhibs at its recent Chicago showmanship meet and the. regional conclaves to open up more than one picture; at a time/ Exhibs complained that under the system of single selling followed by most Of the major com- panies for the last several years, they are forced to spend almost all their time arranging bookings at the exchanges. Group selling, they pointed out, would permit that time to be spent better in fiallyhoo ef- forts. In addition, they said, under group selling they could line up their .bookings far enough in ad^ vance to map out more all-embrac-i ing exploitatibn campaigns. Despite, exhibs’ insistence that the GOyerriment has laid down no law against group selling, the dis- tribs contend the Government is still the big problem in the move. Even though they toe the line as far as respectihg the Government’s ban against conditioning the book'* ing of one picture on that of an- other, they pointed put that the basic power inherent in selling a number of top features at the same time would lead the Government to question their intentions. But, according to 20th, Sales veepee Andy W. Smith, Jr«» promised ex- hibs ait the showmanship meets to work out the problem and the com- pany is keeping that promise with the current test. Another problem cited by 20th Par is also smoking the peace- Arthur, head of i ej^^ecs, which was not raised at the the big St. Louis Amusement Co. Major has closed with Arthur to book its pix down-the-iine after several years in which ■ the duo failed to agfee on nabe rental terms. Arthur had also allied him- self with Elmer C. Rhoden, head of Fox Midwest chain, who de- manded that Par disclose competi- tive bids. \ Major has also ironed out an- other squabble via the opening of competitive negotiations for its product in Memphis. *M. A. Light- man, erstwhile Paramount theatre partner, was, tiffing in that sector with United Paramount over Par product. Lightman as topper in the Malco circuit had been buying away from Par f6r a number of months because he contended he was not getting an even break against UP. ends the gripe . In the past three mpnihs since divorcement Was finalized, Par has been adding a number of .competi- (Continued pn page 24) exhib Conclaves, lies in competitive (Continued on page 26) Includes a Ripley: Also on Robbins May Recreate ‘Look Ma’ at Paramount Paramouht is talking a deal in ' New York with jerome Robbins to j wbik on.. its filmizatiorv of .‘‘Look [ ;Ma, I'm Dahcing." : He . Was re- sponsible for the Broadway legit- er's choreography and was also [ given program credit as haying ‘‘Conceived’’ the show, . [ Pai‘: deal Would likewise call for r his devising of the dance routines and for doing work on the screen-; play with Ian Hunter, who is writ- ing it. Betty Hutton will stari Twentieth-Fox scored a big gain for the final quarter of 1949 to ring up a net of $12,415,146 during the year. By coming through with a fast fourth quarter In which 20th earned $4,215,133, company came Within a hair of equalling •the 1948 take of $12,509,265. Fourth-quar- ter net in’48 was $3,389,652. Big improvement was shown in gross: revehue$ / during the ‘12 Competitive selling ! months of ’49. Fllni rentals and theatre receipts totalled $169,518,- 727 for the past year against $163,- 395,878 in the semester before. While the report does not disclose it, understood that the major gain stenimed from distribution where 20th has succeeded in pushing up worldwide rentals by some $7;- oOo.ooo. Although the major portion of gross gains came from distribution, 2dth's big net ^ was again derived from exhibition, , No figures are avaiiable but reliable reports piit the theatre net at about $l(),Gp(),- 000 with the balance coming, from the. sale of pix.^ Under present Conditions, earning of any' net in distribution is regarded as an , achievement. This fact was fur- j tiler highlighted last week when; 4 J/; Robert Rubin, Metro’s genera 1 / j couhsel, disclosed that M-G lost .$1,000,Q()0 on distribution last year. •rx ^ i ft Y ! After deduction of dividends on Department of Justice is investi-.| preferred stock, equivalent earn- gating the Lathrop Co., owner of a j ings for common amounted to $4.28 chain of six film .housed in Alaska, 1 pei’ share on the 2,760,137 shares for alleged violations Of tJ.e Sher-1 This compares with toi alleged vioiaiion^ ot uie^^^^ 1 $L29 per share for the year previ- man. anti-trust IMv, Company deals j Qjjg preferred dividends amount in shipping, fishery; wholesale grp- J to $559,258 against $608,592 in ’48. cedes and coal in addition to its , ’Action is due to 20th’s pblicy theatre interests - of retiring preferred stock after th^tre^^nt s . ^ ^ ^ i purchase bn the open market. Gareth Neville, of the Washings: - Provision for Federal taxes ton antirtru^t dwision, is studying i amounted to ; $7,225,000 against records of purcha.se Or; rental of '1948’s figure of $7,800,000, Minor- films shown in the circuit’s houses: ity interests get $1,067,563 out of in Arichbrage, Fairbanks, Cordova : the company’s gross net compared and Seward. i to $1,274,888 last year. KRAMER’S 3 A YEAR, ALL UNDER 1750,000 Hollywood, Apdl 4. Stanley Kramer is speeding pro- duction with the; idea of turning out three pictures a year; at the rate of biie film every fbiir months, aU to he budgeted under $750,000. With a steady flow of piroduction, Kramer explainedl, it will be posr sible to maintain a permanent key i staff at top efficiency. PROBE ALASKA EXHIBS Anchofage, Alaska, April 4,