Variety (November 1950)

8 PICTURES H’wood Caravan Set for Xmas Washington, Nov. 28. The Air Force will send a Holly- wood ehristmas Caravan, compris- ing 13 entertainers, overseas about pec. 18 to entertain U. S. troops in Europe. Caravan is being spon- sored by tfcfe Los Angeles Herald- Express, and will be riianaged by Jimmy Starr. Performers in the unit are: Victor Young, Virginia Field, Willard Parker, Rpscoe Ates, Shelly Winters, Robert Nash, J. Carroll Naish, Katherine Craig, Russ Hayden, Bill Lankin, Billy pe Wolfe, June Havoc and Wanda Hendrix^ Can. Syndicate Continued from page 3 exec v.p. and general manager, and RKO prexy E* Depinet, (Schwartz is due to become prez of RKO Theatres on Jan. 1). Hughes has notified the Federal statutory court in New York of his intention to give up control of the chain by Jan. 1, under terms of the antitrust, decree into which he has entered. Canadian deal would reportedly be cash, with financing provided by the Prudential Insurance Co. of Canada. Since Hughes couldn-t deliver the stock until the Jan, 1 breakup, pact called for both parr ties to put cash or securities in es- crow with the Mellon Bank of Pittsburgh, with which Hughes regularly does business, to . con-, cretize the deal. There has been no hint of who I the potential buyers actually are; Mentioned in trade, speculatidn in Tropp entertainment setup is j l^ow York as^ possibly being asso- proceeding at a slow pace, how- ^^th the^ group was Nath^ ever. The Armed Services in the Nathanson, f<^mer prez of Fa- Pentagon are particularly embip tered over the fact that there are currently no entertainers in Korea, and none in prospect. The wash- out of the scheduled Jack Benny toiir added to their disappoint- ment. Despite offers by entertain- ers to tour in Europe, Korea, where the toiirs are most needed, remains neglected. Pentagon offi- cials have contacted Abe Lastfpgel SmUUN GOING AHEAD Despite the uncertain situation at United Artists, which has other producers distributing through that company inactive, Robert Stillman is going ahead with his third pic In eight months* It will be “Island in the Sky.” Stillman has already started in release his first for uA, *■ Sound of Fury,” and has just completed his second, “Queen For a Day.” New one is set to start shooting in Feb- ruary. Irving Rubine, v.p. of the Stillman outfit, was in Washington last week on the possibility of lehsing the pic at the Presque Isle Air Base in Maine. Rubine confabbed with Gen. Sory Smith, chief of Air Force public relations. Yarn deals with rescue during the war of an Air Transport Gommand plane in Can- ada. It is based ph a novel by ‘Ernest K. Gann, who has collabbed pn the screenplay with Seton L Miller. mous Players-Cariadian, Para- mount’s north-of-the-border sub- sid.:■ Meantime, there was activity con- cerning RKO on a number of other fronts. Harry Brandt, who has for months been in negotiations with Hughes that most trade observera believe by this time are dead, was tenaciously continuing to try and make a deal for the theatre stock. He, his chief negotiator, Sam Dem and the Hollywood Coordinating Committee, stressing the urgency l oil of the situation and pleading that i Weisman, are still m contact something be done. Meanwhile, the Army Is setting up a tour for singer Ella Logan for the near future. Miss Logan is definitely booked, but it’s hot yet decided where she will be sent. The Air Force will send the Georgia Tech Glee Club bn a tour of the Northeast Command, com- prising Labrador, Newfoundland and Greenland, starting Dec, 18.. Burl Ives Is currently touring the Northeast Gommand as a single. The armed services offer singles transportation, a billet and food. No salary is generally attached to tours by singles. In the case of groups, the services make an attempt to pay scale, and when they don’t have the available funds, try to round up sponsors for the tour. The Hollywood Christ- mas Caravan, the RKO Palace trOiipe and a tour sponsored re- cently by the Pittsburgh Lodge of the Moose are examples Of these sponsored tours. Couple of other tours for the European area have been set. Andy Anderson, humorist and lecturer on fishing and other sports, return- ed from Alaska this week and is Bet" to tour Europe starting Jan. 20. And Horace Heidt, who toured Europe last spring with his Youth Opportunity show, wdll go on a second tour of the European com- mand starting April 15. British B.O. Off Continued from page 3 RCA’s TV Prices Continued from page 3 In all districts except the South- west, where a slight rise was re- corded and in the Midlands where It remained static. The decline in average admission price was 0.3 of one penhy over the entire country. Net takings dipped $4,975,600 from the first quarter while the ex- hibitors share declined $3,150,000. Sunday Shows a Big Deal Sunday opening is permitted in 2,577 cinemas. On the 13 Sundays in the quarter, there were 33,870,- 000 paid admissions, with the gross representing 9.9% of all admis-l sions and 11.2% of takings in the quarter. In a survey of the production situation, the BOT report says about 35% of-studio space was idle su the end of June, and 37% at the end of September, compared with 54% in March. The marked im- provemept in the use of indie studios at the end of June proved to be only temporary and was re- versed by September. The number of technicians in work at the end of September was 951, almost 800 less than in June last year. The tiumber of aifists in employment iri British production is shown at 216 in .September as against 752 In June, 1949. The total of full-time employees In British cinemas has dropped by 5,500 from April and was recorded or July 1 as being 53,612. Half of the workers are women. There are also 32,000 part-time cinema •mployeesi 23,000. being femald* with Dietrich. \ C., J. Tevlin, another Hughes aide, said In Hollywood yesterday (TUes.) that Hughes “will Welcome a customer for the theatre chain with open arms.” WaR On Wall street, a group of hold- efs of large blocks of RKO stock Were plotting moves In another di- rection, with definite action ex- pected next week. They claim to be able to get together enough stock to outvote Hughes, but no buyer has turned up who is willing to get into a proxy fight with the company’s present controlling stockholder. No one has ever sue** ceeded in besting Hughes in such a duel. Leaders of the group last week claimed to control 1,200,000 shares. They said Monday (27) that as a result of a story in Variety last week revealing their intent, hold- ers of three,additional large blocks of stock thit they didn’t know of have appeared, and expressed a de- sire to join forces. Zeckendorf Denies Interest William Zeckendorf, prez of Webb & Knapp, big New York realty firm, who was reported last week desirous of possibly getting into the RKO theatres picture, de dared this week that he had ho such Interest. He said a number of people had talked with him about a deal, but. he didn’t see it. Charles Allen, Jr., of Allen & Go., Wall street firm which was re- ported possibly acting for Zecken- dorf In attempting to get the large non-Hughes blocks of stock to- gether, asserted: “It is the policy of this firm to at no time act as a stand-in for anyone, as we merely purchase control of stock or cor- porations intact for our own ac- count. Allen added that the firm does not now “contemplate the pur- chase or control of RKO, nor. Would- it oppose Mr. Howard Hughes or any other holder of this security.” Coast reports, which were con- siderahly more optimistic than those in New York, were that the Canadian group might finalize its arrangement to take over the pro- duction-distribution setup by the end of this Week. If Hughes made a deal to sell this portion of his stock at $6,500,000, he’d have a handsome profit on the RKO opera- tion j in which he entered by buying his controlling interest from Atlas Corp. in May, 1948. The agreement he has been talk- ing with Brandt calls for the lat- ter’s Trahs-Lux COrp. to buy Hughes’ 929,000 shares of theatre stock at $7 per share. That would total about $6,500,000. With the same amount being received for the productibn-distributioh hold- ings, he’d be getting $13,000,000 for stock which cost him about $ 9 , 000 , 000 * Meantime, the RKO executive hierarchy in New York was moving rapidly to effectuate the breakup required by the court by Jan, 1. New officers and boards were elect- ed, last week for the separate pro- duction-distribution and theatre corporations that will come with divorcement enough money to outbid the broad- casting networks for exclusive rights to big sports and special events. And, just as important, only through the efforts of a num- ber of theatres working together wiU it be possible to acquaint the public with theatre TV. Next, the Talent Problem Those exhibs currently carrying the torch for theatre TV admit they’ll still be confronted with the problem of programming such a large number of theatres on a con- tinuous basis. In addition, once sufficient theatres buy the equip- ment to make possible an exclusive sports pickup, a method must be found to interconnect them. But, it’s pointed out, the Federal Com- munications Commission has al- ready consented to hearings on the advisability of reserving micro- wave channels for the exclusive use of theatres. Once the FCC is convinced that enough theatres are ready to go ahead, it should be more amenable to a favorable de- cision. Even without thO exclusive chan- nels, however, exhibs have the possibility of leasing telephone lines from American Telephone & Telegraph to carry the shows from one theatre to another, same as the networks use AT&T’s coaxial cable to transmit from city to city. In line with that, It’s been disclosed that National Theatres prexy Charles P. Skouras has huddled several times during the last few months with FCC chairman Wayne Coy on the prospects of getting<.ex- clusive channels. Skouras, together with his brother, 20th-Fox prez Spyfos P., has long nurtured plans to link 22 of its houses on the Coast in a theatre TV circuit. As for programming, the theatre TVdtes realize that there will not be enough sports and special events, even if It were possible to buy them on am exclusive basis, to sustain a continuous program- ming operation for the theatres. But, they contend, the linking of several hundred houses intp a single Circuit, all receiving'' and screening programs simultaneous- ly, will finally make possible the big super variety .shows, concerts, pickups of Broadway openings, etc,, that they have long talked about. Thus, they maintain, the other problems, while weighty ones, will very probably be solved once the IlGA plan goes into effect. Ihey’re now concentrating, as a result, on epnviheing exhibs of the benefits to be derived from theatre TV in order to make possible the RCA price scale. Wednesday, November 29, 1950 bi^e Stutf-hetnres Film men throughout the country are watching the series of suits that have been hurled at National Screen Service in U. S. District Court, Philadelphia, the latest and most severe outbreak In the rash of litU gation currently afflicting the film industry along with its other troubles. NSS has been a squawking point for years among certam exhibs and exhibitor groups. The first legal assault on the $20,000,000-a-year cor- poration was begun last year by Lawlor & Pantzer, operating the Inde^ pendent Poster Exchange of Philadelphia, which claimed damages of $450,000 under the anti-trust laws. Since then six small indie outfits from all qver the country have filed similar suits charging NSS with monopolizkion of trailers, specialty accessories and standard acces- sories. Motions for summary judgment have been entered by four of these plaintiffs, Lawlbr & Pantzer; Morris J. Lipp, of Chicago; Jay Schraeder, of Charlotte, N. C , and Benjamin Siegel, of Washington^ D. C. All these cases are to be argued before the court Dec. 11. Of even wider Interest has been the Exhibitor suit entered against NSS by Rip Haven, Inc.y and Max M. Korr, of Allentown, Pa;, charging not only violations of the anti-trust laws, but alleging a wholesale kickback arrangement between NSS and various distributors. Early returns from a worldwide poll of film fans by the Foreign Press Assn, show that Hollywood Stars will “definitely be on top,” according to Henry Gris, foreign editor of the United Press* Log Angeles bureau and prez of the FPA. Canvass, which began last June, asks “who Is your favorite actor and actress?’- Gris, who originated the poll, arrived in New York last week to facilitate the“intricate checking operation” which some 2,000 overseas newspapers and radio stations are conducting in association with the FPA, First reports, he said, have resulted in a number of local stars placing among the first 10 names in such countries as Egypt, among others. Results of the voting will be made known at a banquet to be held at the Beverly Hills hotel, Beverly Hills, in January; Samuel I. Hartman, attorney for Mrs, Erie (Al) Jolson, has been forced to publicly state in hPr behalf that rumors of contesting the star’s will are “a monstrous Injustice”. . .that she is “more than satis- fied with every part of the will—moreover, she was proud of his phil- anthropic nature, which the will revealed—^and that the $1,000,000 trust fund left her for her lifetime was generous and ample. The $4,000,000 estate eventually goes to charity, dominantly to the Jewish, Protestant and Catholic faiths, equally divided. It is assumed that some lawyer had been trying to “steam up” the widow who, besides the $1,000,000 trust fund, has two $500,000 trust funds left to their two adopted children^ for life. Principal reverts to the charities only upon their death, Metro, Is running Into a unique problem With ^‘Teresa,** produced by Loew’s International chief Arthur Loew. Although the majority of cast members are American, entire production crew American, and two- thirds of the film was shot in N. Y., the major is finding it difficult to convince one and all that the picture is not “an Italian import.” Leading to the mistaken identity is the fact the pic’s femme star is Italian-bom Pier Angell. Kate Cameron did a lengthy feature on the film in last Sunday’s (26) N. Y. News. M-G was delighted imtil the caption was spotted under an accompanying two-column cut. “Teresa” was again Identified as “an Italian import;.” As part of the U. S. State Dept.’s program for German recovery, four documentary film producers from the Reich are currently studying American filmmaking techniques on a nationwide tour. Group includes Dr. Walter Hartmann, producer of pix on scientific subjects; Johannes Luedke, who made several features on the Berlin blockade; Willi Prager, a producer of cultural films, and Hubert Schonger. I*atter has turned out a number of children’s films, puppet cartoons and educa- tional shorts, etc. Quartet recently surveyed Kodak Park and the Eastman Kodak Co.’s camera works in Rochester, N. Y., during a three- day visit. Scant criticism of the film industry Is voiced over radio or television, according to a national survey just completed by the Council of Mo- tion Picture Organizations. Arthur L, Mayer, COMPO exec veepee, disclosed that a two-week check of radio and TV programs in nine major cities showed that what little adverse comment there was on the Industry was more than offset by praise. Sampling, confined to ref- erences to the picture industry as an Industry, and to the quality of films in general, is the first of similar radio and TV checkups that COMPO plans to make from time to time. MPAA WEXY Eric Johnston detriat fhe IncengruifUt of the holltr-thofi-thoui III on exposition on the Vagaries of Film Censorship _ O.'- O' on Interesting odltorlol footuro In the forthcoming 45th Anniversary ?iiimber of PSsRiSff Erich Von Stroheim, who has been jousting with the U. S. State Dept, over the validity of his U. S. passport, reportedly withheld certain vital information which unquestionably would have permitted him to retain his American citizenship. The actor, it became known last week, has now won a one-year extension of his passport on the basis of new evi- dence he furnished the State Dept. Latter isn’t permitted to disclose the nature of the new material, but it’s understood that the Government agency is annoyed that the thesper, who had the info all the time, failed to produce it sooner. ^ Group of State Dept, officials arrived in New York last week to cull executive personnel for the expanded U. S. Information Program. Se- lection panel is headed by C. O. Rowe, acting director of pei:sohnel for the State Dept. Among personnel required to carry out . the program, Row6 stated, are top level press, radio, motion picture, public affairs and cultural affairs officers for foreign service and domestic posts. Sal- aries range from $4,600-$10,000 annually. Interested persons should mail a brief summary of experience and background to Rowe at P. O.. Box 1,585, Grand Central Station, New York 17, N. Y. Affairs of United Artists are taking a new twist With a production deal Which links the name Fairbanks directly with the distrib again. One of UA's founders was the late Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. ^ New deal, said to have been set up by Mary Pickfoyd, provides for two films to be produced! in England by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., who will use the company’s frozen funds in that country. Pact calls for the latter to start rolling with, the first production in February or March, with the Second slated for the spring. Braves‘Play Bair With TV Continued from page 1 1951, consequently, indicates Bal- lantine’s figures the Braves to cop the National League pennant next •year. Brewery, meanwhile, through J. Walter Thompson, its agency, is now re-negotiating deals for the Yanks and Phils for next year, which will probably make it the top-spending radio-TV advertiser in baseball. Jim Britt has been set to handle the play-by-play on the Braves, with two other announcers yet to be selected. I While the majority e£ anti^TV publicity in sports recently has re- volved about football, the baseball magnates had also been reported to be delving into exactly What part video played in the dip in attendance last season. Team owners were also said to be ex- tremely worried about the effect on minor league gates of the major league ballcasts. Now that the Braves haye okayed TV for an- other year, howeverj It’s expected the other teams will follow through.