Variety (December 1950)

PICTURES p^sseff Wed'n«i3«y, A«ceihlier 1^, l$3(||r N. Y. Circuits; 4 Omaha Nabes Close • ■ [j Nathan D. Golden Chimf of th« MoHoii Picturo DivUlon of rhe Dcportmehr of Commerce efoborotei on why Trade Agreements Help IJ,S». Companies to Overedrne Many Foreign Pic Curbs on intereftting editorial feature in the forthcoming 45th Anniversary Number ■ of • PSniEfr ThedtreiHen’-fi fears over the reads of television on the dwin- dling boxoffice haven’t reached the point where the exhihs are ready to toss in the tb\vel, a survey of the. situation in the New York metropolitan areas shows. Larger circuits, i n c l u ding Loew’s and RKO. have ho intentions of folding any houses, nor are .they contem- plating any changes in admission scales.- Only a, few theatres have closed in the past couple Avecks and these houses were mainiy last-run situ- ations operated by independents in marginal neighborhood sections. Ritz, 842-seater in the Bronx, shutr tered last Week. Late last month the Nassau, Brooklyn, and the Crown, same borough, also folded. Other recent ciosures are the Aydn, in inidtown Manhattan, and Rayborid's lBroad, Newark. Sma 11 indies were loath to pin the shutdowns on any specific cause. They held that the situa- tion arose from a variety of cir- ciimstances. Chief of these is the •‘pre-Christmas’’ slump. The 1.400- seat Broad, according to Raybbnd prCz David Weinstock, was closed when bad .business set in but it will be reopened around the first of the year with a “new policy.” Previously it was a last-run house. I Between 20 and 25 leading ex- : Weinstock a 1 s o disclosed that hibs, repping virtually every the- his loop has increased admis-sion j atre in the New York area, will prices slightly but only in a few meet, tomorrow (Thursday) in isolated situations. Other' circuit ' search of a cure for current b.o. ehieftains, however, emphasized ; ills. They hope to come up with that they have made ho adjust-; some specific plans for hypoing ments whatever in their price biz. structures and don't expect to I ^ Y., has make .my. Some the.ttres along‘been called by Fred Schwartz, Cen- the Jer.sey shore laised the I o. t^p „ parallels on bite slightl.vvvhen they assumed a g local level the series of confabs giveaway dish policy ® of top circuit owners from various coui-se, w as done to offset the cost parts of the country that Si Fabian 5 Ui). Cos. $^100,000 From France James j. Geller hot dutherfd in 'Inftrditing *Hollytvoocl Story^ *■*■’.* u byline fcofurt in thd forfheoming 45th Anniversary ISnmber of . . Y. That 0.0. Dip DANNY O’DAY “The Mahogany Kid’* ' Dynamioally . .as.^isled by Jimmy • Nelson with, his new pal, Humphrey I llif;sby. j Opening j Poo. 20, .ITotel El Rancho Vegas, ' Lii.s X'ega.s, Xoy. i Jan. ilv. JUyor.sicle Casino, Reno, '. Nev.- r-'.(‘h. 1, Ciro’s Hollywoodi! Ivpxy; New York, in ^laroH. . Mgt. LOUIS W. COHAIsi 203 N. Wabash, Chicago PSniETY Seen No Bar To of the dinncrware. Genera] consensus was that (Continued on page 30) On Goldwp Grill San Francisco, Dec. 12, The Sam Goldwyn-Fox West Coast $6,750,000 legal tangl-e com- pleted the first three days of its deposition marathon last week at- has been sponsoring recently. with Goldwyn attorney Joseph L. Walter Reade, Jr., Maps 5c Matinees However, the Schwartz stanza .will be considerably more specific in that a number of cooperative plans for exploitation and selling I of the industry within the'New lYork area will be presented—and, :it is hoped, adopted. • I f f ‘ “Some of us just got tired of As Lure tor tVlOS novv we’re planning ac- Convinced that kid biz is the kev ‘ declared this week. to adult trade Walter Reade j7 i •important circuits in the to adult traae, uaiLei Keacie,^ji„ j,j^ affiliated and uh- Is planning a pitch to other New, affiliated, are expected to be prel Jersey exhibs to institute 5c^ Sum,-e„t Most of them are members of 1 He^has Ithe Metropolitan Motion Future already been promised cooperation-xheatres Assn. Other exhibs will by several important ^chains and ; be repped by their trade organiza- '”'®' primarily the Indepfndent liminaij talks. . Theatre Owners Assn, of New The young circuit chief, prior to I York. making a .full bid'to other chains ' to institute the plan, is having a study rnade of his own theatres’ ex- periences with the undeT-12 trade. Indications so far are that the jiin-: ior biz has held ulp well in com- parison with full-price admissions. Reade. is convinced, however, that it is important to bui^,d it far- ther. He reflects the ideas of Mai- SEARS SUIT FOR PAY VS. UA GOING TO TRIAI Breach-of-contract suit brought by United Artists general sales manager Grad Sears will go to colm Kingsberg, former RKO The-' p*®*; i”?®* Sylvester J. atres chief, in Variety recently,! piee k’seeWnJ'tV 1''®*^' that childrcn-in addition to being j fn*®"®, back pay the adult customers of the future I ^I'ek nirinrJh™ ® -direct much adult trade into a i summer. The complnrclalm^it theatre; Likewise it is felt that children are the prime devotees of video, and special efforts must be rhade to continue their interest in films. isn’t liable. Court’s .decision came after Sears moved for summary judgment against UA, Judge Ryan held that aVr. Planned by Lesser Thus Roade is ihitent on putting ■ issues presentcjd by the case his new plan, into effect. The nickel' points raised by the admission price would apply from I Judgment the opening on Sundays at about f be. settled by a trial. 1 p.m, to .4 p.ra. H[e feels, that hyT ^ stopping the special at 4 he can i 9 avoid parental criticism for keep-1 ^ ing kids out through the dinner hour. The nickel offers no tax prOb-, o 1 t lem, since Federal; levies do not ' LesSer.: who closed a deal ^Pply oh admissions under 9c ; "uth RKO recently for distributiori —^ . - ' ! Of Kon Tiki” and “Jungle Head A,,. , . Hunters,” is planning to make or AJhed States Meet To acquire two such adventure pix A naltr^/k -D n n 1 1 . each year. These would be in ad- Analyze B.O. Doldrums diti^^^^^ regular “Tarzan ” Washington, Dec. 12. . series, the .’‘Jungle Girl” series With the annual board meeting '^'hich he is planning and various oLthe Allied States Assn; of Motion I projects; Picture Exhibitors coming up next Feb; 15-16 at the Statler, hotel hevc, ..its expected that the session will fw u® a number of plans to cure j uow being made for an expedition the b;0. doldrums in addition to f topped by Lewis Cotlow to go to Alioto. conducting the querying. There’s at least a week niore of grilling in the offing. . Five interests in Northern Cali- fornia theatres were sifted in the three-day examination of John Bertaro, key circuit figure, in which detailed questioning of Ber- taro included the checking of how each of over 100 houses was oper- ated and the interest of the chain in each house. The Goldwyn at- torney pressed his efforts to estab- lish that the interests of Charles P. Skouras, FWC prexy, were inter- woven with all phases of the film industry, and constituted a gen- eral Conspiracy to deny indepen- dent producers a fair market for their product. The grilling of Bertaro is sched- uled to continue for another day^ to be followed by that of chief film buyer Ed Zabel, who in turn is be- ing followed by Skouras, who'is j expected to be queried for ^pprox- ! imately a week of Sessions. 1 The que.stioning of Bertaro hit I one hot point when, on advice of j FWC counsel Arthur B. Dunne, he refused to answer a question re- garding possible Skouras interest in a candy and confectionery busi- ness supplying the chain. In a later session Dunne withdrew his ob- jections and Bertaro answered the question negatively. Bertaro on close questioning by Alioto vigorously denied that there was. any arrangement to .split product in the acquisition of the- atres by the chain. The current drawn-out legal I Ji^ssle, consisting of depositions by FWC executives and setting the stage for thb case now on the Fed- eral Court: calendar, was recently ordered by Federal Judge Michael J. Roche. . While distribs are engaging in some behind-the-scenes activity in their efforts to lui'e Allied States Assn, into an industry arbitration setup, many film company and the- atre execs are sharing the thought ; that a system could be developed regardless of whether Allied de- cides to remain aloof. Obviously, the hope is that the outfit will Join in a plan to establish arbitration panels but Allied’s remaining on the outside is now not likely to kill the whole idea, I • . Abram F. Myers, Allied board chairman, is on record as saying . that his group will not consider • arbitration until its board meeting, Feb. 15, in Washington. ‘i .• . i Political aspects of the entire ' situation are being cited in trade ' circles as cutting down the possi- ; bilities of making arbitration an ' all-industry operation. Fact that Theatre Owners of America got the ball rolling with the first formal meeting with distribs on arbitra- tion appears a primary reason why Allied officials are not too enthusi- astic about coming into the fold. However, non-members of Allied, despite" this initial reluctance, be- (Continiied on page 29) ^ Paris, Dec. 12. Five American film companies will received a $2,100,000 wind- fall from France as the result of an unexpectedly quick settlement of a frozen coin account dating back to June, 1947. The sum was accepted in a lump in lieu of ap- proximately $2,600,000 divided over the next two years by Colum- bia, Metro, 20thrFox, United Art- ists and Paramount. Arrahgemerit was made by John G. McCarthy, director of the inter- national division of the Motion Picture Assn, of America, during his recent visit to Paris. It fol- lowed complete stoppage of pay- ment on the debt to five com- panies by unilateral action of the French government. McCarthy restricted his nbgo- tiatidhs mostly to this problem, but will return to Paris early next year with MPAA prez Eric John- ston for broader talks, "rtiey hope to open the entire' Franco-U. S. films agreement, seeking to elimi- nate all restrictions of quotas, licensing and cuiTency conversion. Coin, which McCarthy succeeded in clearing was due under the old Blum-Byrnes agreement of 1947. as consolidated in a later 1948 ac- cord. That provided for remittance of $3,600,000 yearly from France, of which $1,200,000 was to come out of Current earnings and $2,400,000 was to represent payment of funds earned and ffozen prior to June, 1947. A total of $11,700,000 was (Contiriued on page 6) Julian Lesser, producer’s son, heads the Thalia Production unit I which handles the films. Plans are .M 'a. mapping, policies for the coming year. ® Agenda calls for reports on the outcome of negotiations relating to competitive bidding as well dis- cussions on incentive selling as op- posed to penalty selling. OfliCeTs will also be elected and th^ annual rcpoit read. the South Seas, Cotlow made the “Head Hunters” pic in Africa. Kon Tiki ’ is a b 1 0 w u p from 16m of the film which Thor Heyer- dahl shot during his 101-day trip by raft across the Pacific. Book based oh his adventure.s this week topped the bestseller list for the fifth straight stanza. ' ^ w m if-w ^ r Sheaffer oh U Sales Bender Daniel M. Sheaffer, Universal ard mernber, in the past month has sold 800 shares of the firm’s stock, leaving him with a balance of 107. In the previous month, from Oct, 11 to Noy. 10, Sheaffer sold 1,800 common , in a series of six transac- tions, N« Y* to L, A. Jack Li Gertz Virginia Kellogg A1 Lewin Dave Liptoh Ray Morgan Thelma Ritter Bet.ta St. John Jules C. Stein Richard Thorpe Fran Warren SISK QUITS METRO FOR WB PROD. POST Hollywood, Dec, 12. Robert Sisk moves over to War- ners as a contract producers in February, on completion of his current Metro pact, which has been extended to cover the com- pletion of his last two productions on the Culver City lot. They are “Across the Wide Missouri” and “It’s a Big Country.” Understood Sisk is shifting be- cause of a shortage of properties on his Metro program. His depar- ture is the third in recent months, following those of Sam Marx and Voldemar Vetluguin. Johnston in Pic Pitch As Senate Committee Polishes Excess Tax Bill Washington, Dec. 12. Senate Finance Contmittee is ex- pected to spend all this week pol- ishing up its version of the cor- porate excess profits tax which will be unveiled early next week. Mean- time, Eric Johnston, prez of Motion Picture Assn, of America, hoped that the measure will include two points he made in testimony before the committee on Friday (8). Johnston urged the Senate Comr mittee to rectify situations in the House-approved measure to take care of the industry’s frozen coin and theatre interests, which must be divorced. He said the House Ways and Means Committee agreed that the film industry position was just, and want^ to help, but that the bill as written fails to cover the two situations. “In the motion picture industry,’* explained the MPA president, “many companies have been, or are being compelled, to separate their exhibition business from produc- tion ahd. distribution. This condi- tion was brought to the attention of the House Ways and Means Committee. The report of that com- mittee, in dealing with, the recom- putations of the earnings credit in the case of corporate reorganiza- tions, clearly intended to provide that in all such reorganizations, in- cluding those in which the acquir- (Gontinued on page 6) L; A. to N. Y. Steve Allen Lloyd Bacbri . Ray BqJger . Jack Garsoii ■ Ludwig Dbriath Dick Dorso Kirk Douglas Sally FoH^est Jack Gage Jules Green John Guedel Irene Hervey Miriam Hopkins Arthur. Kennedy Andrea King ‘ Wally Kline . Kenneth Later : .Art Linkletter Arthur M. .Loew James Mason Joel Preston Gwen Rickard Jerry Rosenthal Olga San Juan Spyros Skouras Walter Slezak ^ Harry Tyler Ned Washington Lew Wassermah W. B. Zoellner N, Y. to Europe Eric Goodhead Anna Neagle Rupert G. Someryell Herbert Wilcox Europe to N, Yi Alicia Alonso Marfy '^^Arrouge Bob Bromley Roy Bpultihg Martine Carol Edward Caton Lucia Chase Noel Coward Steve Crane Paul Godkin Leland Hayward Nora Kaye Jan Kiepura John Kriza Harry Lartigue Yvette Lebon Joseph Levihe Sana Marx Allyn McLerie James Mitchell Edward Molyneux Mary Ellen Moylan Dimitri Romanoff Norma Shearer Mrs. Sol C. Siegel Alexaiider Smallens Norma Vance Igor Youskfevitch