Variety (January 1951)

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PICTmES U^SUETY Wednesday, January 17, 1951 Pickets Hypo ‘Miracle’ Biz Continued from page 4 20th Acquires 2,800 Shares in Plan To Retire All Preferred Road Legit’s Starvation Continued from page 1 j stroy the continuity of local sea Following through on its plan to i _ ‘ reciuest that the size of the line be nei*, Howard Lindsay, Russel limited, as is frequently done in Crouse, Sigmund STpaeth and Howj of^r.ir onth rrnv ' the case of labor disputes. , Their ard Barnes. Organizations sup; retire all prefei red stock. ^ Although Broadway producers complaint was that the demonstra porting the petition included the . I’as acquucd . . leaving a ‘ talking for years about tions were disorderly and annoy anti-censorship committee of th$ , P}gft^^orcharP« lifted hn the ing. American Book Publishers Coun ; total of 126 135 shares^ listed on tne Lines of patrons waiting to get cil. the Soci^jr of ^tlmrs R^pre; N, X shares of action ^ remedy the si^ation has into the theatre have frequently sentatives and the Theatre Library : been confined to head contributed to the noise of the Assn. . . uof/»ri t/s fio ft.^7 chnrps (Shaking. Meanwhile, with the re contributed to the noise 01 tne ^ssn. . . ^ licted to 60 857 shares ivicdiiwniic, witu tuc pickets’ shouting by entering into ' Text of the statement to the company’s policy ’ is to redeem ! cent cancellation of the “Consul' not-so-polite repartee with t^im Board rfad as Jol ,„eans of shrink-^^| ^ Picketing reached its height Sun fully urge you and simplifying the capital day afternoon when 200 of the ap decision of yonr j structure prior to corporate reor proximately 1,000 persons who have tion Picture mLvIp ’ ganization and divorcement of the^ participated in the. denionstrations cense to the film, , i.ne ^ ■ft’rvrti r» vnH I 1 AH-H 1 ct PI Vil if"! nn ' • . ‘ X i_ ■ 1 • ^ j. ^ *■ ml ^ ^ , • L • I' e atr'os from production-distribution were in the line at once. They which is In other stock exchange, activity, were members of the New \ork ^ Theatres has Archdiocesan Union of the Holy as best . foreign film ^of 1950. While | Qp^jojjg 12,500 shares of Name Society. ; f stock to Walter W. Cardinal Spellman has called . P _ _ Gross, vice-president and counsel, upon Catholics throughout the ^thAir^viPwc „nnh fhe ' This was in line with the UPT plan. U. S. to boycott the pic. Indicat in^nlpfinn of the state I’ecently approved by stockholders ing that the issue has gone beyond v ^n<;t;inop of under which 'firm issues the options the usual . bounds of such battles i to key execs and employees. . over alleged censorship was the P^^'^ what othpri Columbia ha's picked up 900 statement of a Brooklyn clergy nr mav not cpp or shares of its own $4.25 cumulative man Sunday ( 14 1 reported in the ^ ' preferred, bringing the total held New York papers. Unitarian min ister, the Rev. Karl Chworowsky, . i., o n urged liis parishioners to see the Rossellini Cables Spellnian_ pic and judge for themselves; He , _ , • • ’Tan. 16. said that at no time did he Roberto Ros^Umi, producer and find in it “the slightest urge to of The Miracle, _^}ast think unkindly of Italian woman pjrdinal hood or of the Catholic religion. ’V New York that he was : “sorrowed” over the prelate’s ac^ *' . ** ,. , V I tion in urging his flock to boycott More than 25 prominent individ : the picture. Filmmaker, who made , uals in the arts, professions and ! the text of his message public, emi ,,, clergy joined with the American ! phasized that he had attempted to ; .£ (19^ Civil Liberties Union and Authors demonstrate in the picture how' League of America on Monday (15) the lack of charity made way for to Urge the New York State Board “immense sorrow.” of Regents not to revoke the li “Men are still without pity in cense of “The Miracle.” Board is -The Miracle,”’ Rossellini said in scheduled to meet in Albany to; ^ahie, “because they still have morrow (Thurs.) . and has been ^ot gone back to God. But God asked to reconsider the Italian jg already present in the faith, in treasury to 5,070. Warners bought an additional 27,900 shares of its common, giving the major 522,900 shares in treasury. Purchase of 251,000 shares of its own common stock was announced Monday (15) by Paramount Pictures; Acquisition followed company’s announcement in December that it would buy 500,000 shares at $21.50 a share. Bid is to be withdrawn at close several towns and the fold last fall of “Lost in. the Stars,” key-city' operators figure the matter has reached the crisis stage. auditorium bookings in several instances have been arranged through the regular theatre management. But it’s argued that such deals have nevertheless been less profitable for the operator than playing the show at his own house, And, it’s . pointed out, the local theatre depends on revenue from high grossers to offset the losses on weak shows and dark periods. The fact that these hits can make ai profit when they do play regular legit houses indicates that it isn’t necessary to book the larger audi For example, for the first 33 j weeks of the season, through last Saturday night (13), the key cities in the east and midwest (and the number of available theatres in each) had the following number of weeks’ bookings: Baltimore, one Critical Status To the indie road managers the situation is not a theoretical one of figures on a chart, but of shrinking turnover and disappear-' ing income, while interest pay theatre, eight weeks; Boston, six ,■ ^®hts, operating costs, taxes and NEW EK POSTS Rochester, Jan: 16. Several veteran Eastman Kodak employees were named to new posts last week. made film in light of its blasphem , however confused, of the poor, i been with the company since 1934, ous na^re as charged by the Na persecuted woman and since. God j became superintendent of color tional Legion of Decency and other jg forever, a human being suffers church and civic officials. , and is . misunderstood. ‘The Mir Among the 28 persons signing a acle’ occurs when, with the birth wire sent to the Board are the of the child, the poor demented Rev. Donald Harrington, Rev. John woman regains sanity in her maHaynes Holmes, Bennett Cerf, temal love. TheyweremyintenQuincy Howe, Marquis James, Rex ; tions and I hope that Your EmiStout, Deems Taylor, M. Lincoln | nence will deign himself to conSchuster, William L. White, Therj sider them with paternal benevoesa Helbum, 'Cornelia Otis Skin lence.” photography department of the Kodak Research Laboratory. Charles M. Brelsford, associated with the laboratory in various papacities since 1940, was appointed assistant superintendent and as sistant business manager of the lab. C. Earl Robertson was assigned to ! they cite “South Pacific” and “Kiss theatres, 71 weeks; Chicago, seVjen theatres, 112 weeks; Cleveland, one theatre, seven weeks; Detroit, two theatres, 27 weeks; Philadelphia, five theatres, 56 weeks; Pittsburgh, one theatre, nine Weeks; St. Louis, one theatre, eight weeks; Toronto, one theatre, 10 weeks, and Washington, one theatre, 16 weeks. 38% Average In other words, 26 houses in the 10 cities were lighted only 324 weeks out of a possible 858. That’s less than 38%, or an average of about 19Vi weeks a year apiece. Moi^eoyer, With the exception of the pow'erhouse “South Pacific” and the still potent “Kiss Me, Kate,” business has been generally below the level of former seasons. Thus, both in number of playing weeks and boxoffice volume, the road has reached the lowest in modem legit history (as confirmed by Variety’s weekly tabulation of total grosses). To make matters worse/^ road theatre men claim, the growing policy of Broadway managements is to book the biggest gross-getters into auditoriums instead of the regular legit houses. As examples, other fixed charges accumulate. In at least a few instances conditions have passed from serious to critical. Unless prospect for radical improvement is forthcoming almost Immediately, operators of some Of the key stands say , they can’t hold out beyond the current season. Ideas such as the booking of tours for N. Y. City Center, ANTA Playhouse and ELT productions are merely suggestions, the execution of which adinittedly would involve numerous and complex difficulties. Several CTP proposals, including the pool to support wavering road shows, would also be tough to work out. But the in^* die theatre men insist that _ action is urgent. According to bne Veteran road operator, the current public relations campaign of the League of N. Y. Theatres may have some intangible effect a few years hence. But unless he gets a lot more legit bookings soon, he won’t be in business by that time. duties as assistant superintendent Me Kate,” the two top touring of® the film-testing department. draws of the current season. The ir~ My Lux< Soap beauty facials leave my skin softer^ smoother/^ says RUTH ROMAN Pi radiant hedMiy of the old southwest is Ruth Roman in her new picture, ^Dallas.” Her creamy Lux complexion adds glamour to the close-ups. "Daily facials with Lux Toilet Soap do wonders for the skin,” says Ruth. "I really depend on this gentle beauty care.” Try her Lux Soap facials: Smooth the rich lather well in, rinse, pat with a soft towel to dry. Lux Soap’s active lather gives skin such quick new loveliness I 9 out of 10 Screen Stars use Lux Toilet Soap » e ;• >. ^ , 4 A J 0 9 P ^ ^ Mayer’s Pact Continued from page 3 ment, doubtless would have to agree to separation of its theatres in order to effect a compromise/ As this materializes, it would leave Mayer, in addition to president Nicholas M. Schenck aiid vice-president J. Robert Rubin, with contracts running to 1956, but with no apparent reason why they couldn’t be cut short long before that. Mayer’s deal with the major gives him close to $300,000 per year in salary, bonuses and other benefits. Meanwhile, apart from the other exec pacts is the stock option arrangement being worked out for Dore' Schary which will go before the company’s stockholders for 'approval. It is understood that details will be included in the proxy statement now being prepared for distribution to shareholders in Februaiy as a prelude to the annual meeting in mid-March. Metro production topper, now vacationing at Boca Raton, Fla., has been seeking the option warrants as a means of profiting on appreciation of Metro’s shares which may result in part, at least, through his efforts. -^Under recent changes in the tax law, increment achieved through such option is computed as capital gains, rather than normal income. Since mamagemeht via the proxy procedure habitually c o n t r 0 I s enough shares at the annual stockholders’ conclave to. Swamp any opr position, there appears to be no dpubt that the plan will win approval. Final details are still to be, worked, out, however. Par-Interstate Continued from page 3 dent Karl Hoblitzelle and general manager Robert J. O’Donnell. Both Hoblitzelle and O’Donnell would continue in their present posts under 10-year employment contracts with UPT, if the transaction goes through. If the Justice Department is successful in. arguments in the N. Y, court hearing in upsetting the plan, an entirely new arrangement would have to be worked out. Persons close to the situation reported that this could even lead to a completely reversed purchase, With Hoblitzelle and O’Donnell buying but the UPT holdings. ^ p * Y t jt A ^ m M 1 A -A ^ ^