Variety (December 1951)

We dnc i dT i 36*. MSI DOWN TO 175 FILMS The Big Three ihiisic publishing combine (Robbins, Feist and Miller) in which Metro ha* a controlling interest, overhauled iter corporative' ownership, Structure last week with a buyout, of three of the four remaining private stockholders. Over $500,000 was involved in the capital gains transaction covering 17% of Big Three's total holdings. Coin was divided among Domenico Savlno, •who received g250,000; Bernie Prager and Steve Levitz, who re- ceived $127iOOQ each. Sole remaining private stock owner. Jack Bregman, ofBregman, yocco Sc Conn Music Co., has declined to sell his 4% share; Deal was f understood to be motivated by Metro's, aim to simplify the corporative‘setup of Its subside in light of the impending di-r vorcement operation. Such simplification is seen easing the stock split once Metro divorces its theatre holdings. Further details in Music Section. '-' Although, value Of tremendous* advertising coin outlay for Broad- way preems of pix has been ques- tioned by some execs recently, company pUb-ad toppers, in general have defended the practice. Possi-. bility of the establishment of a reported “gentleman's agreement" to set a ceiling on advertising ex- penditures for N. Y. kickoffs was vehemently denied by all ad chiefs who could be reached for comment on Monday (24). Ad budgets for the pre-opening and first week campaigns are said to be getting higher and higher. Metro reportedly spent $150,000 for newspaper-ads and $20,000 for posters and radio for the opening > of “Quo Vadis" While 20th-Fox ■ dished out about $50,000 for “De- cision Before Dawn.”, One. company ad exec admitted that the huge expenditures were economically un- sound for a single engagement, but he felt it was a legitimate gamble. “It pays us to make sure," he de- clared* Ad chiefs agreed that it was difficult to earn back ad costs from Broadway film rentals, but pointed out that a profit, had been made on many occasions. In addition, they noted that the N. Y. kickoffs had tremendous national value, dth resultant publicity breaks, advertising, newspaper comments, etc. being used to sell the pictures to exhibs throughout the country. Promotional chiefs explained that huge outlays were not set aside for every pic, but were saved for the companies* two or three outstanding products. In many in- stances, one exec pointed out, preem costs are obtained by di- verting coin from other promo- tional media such as* cutting down on trade or national magazine ex- penditu Ad toppers indicated that they were not ushering in a period of “wild spending," nor were they laying out the coin simply to im- press studio heads or indie pro- ducers. Promotional value of each pic, they stressed, is weighed care- fully at homeoffice and studio con- fabs before a decision is reached to .throw the works into a N. Y. campaign. -r. Goldwyn Paying Fares Of Shearer in Bowout Hollywood, Dec. 25. _ Moira Shearers bowout from Samuel Goldwyn’s “Hans Christian Andersen" due to impending motherhood will cost both the" ballerina and the producer a .chunk, of coin. Goldwyn is footing the bill for Miss Shearer’s trip from Lon- fp. n as well as.the return fare. JJiss Shearer, meanwhile, is paying 4 the rent for the home she rented in Santa Monica with the expecta- tion that she and her husband WjJ* be here several months. Miss Shearer, to he replaced by .g e bee Jeanmalre, star of Roland Petit_s Ballet de Paris, is married to Ludovic - Kennedy; British Writer, Start of the production, starring Kaye, originally slated for .*2:3 will be delayed about a month. t Bill Halligan hoi Mi awn conception ef a Hollywood Baedeker another byline place In the 46th Anniversary Number OUT NEXT WEEK Spanish government reportedly is showing willingness to compro- mise on one disputed point in the proposed agreement with the U, S. film industry, but has balked on a second! Negotiations are being handled in Madrid by M. A. J. Healy, rep of the Motion Picture Assn, of America, on instructions from New York. ^ Signs of acquiescence have been given by the Spanish to demands that companies which have already paid for import permits get them in addition to. the allotment to be forthcoming under the new deal. Nix so far has been given by, Ma- drid, however, to the second point. That is that Monogram, Republic, United Artists and indie producers (Continued on page 22*. SWG DEFERS HEARING AGAINST LEO TOWNSEND Hollywood, Dec. 25. Screen Writers Guild postponed the hearing of Lee Townsend, Who had been ordered to appear before a grievance committee to explain why his name was placed on stories written by Dalton Trumbo and Les- ter Cole. 4 Indefinite postponement was an- nounced after Townsend’s attor- ney, Martin Gang, informed the SWG board that the scripter’s tes- timony before the House Un-Amer- ican Activities Committee last Sep- tember was of a privileged nature and could not be used in a Guild hearing. Local 80 OK’i New Pact Hollywood, Dec. 25. First IATSE local to formalize the new basic labor contract with the major film companies is studio grips, Local 80. Pact calls for a 10% wage hike retroactive to Oct. 25. Other IATSE locals are ready to sign as soon as contract details are straightened out. Increased release schedules dur- ing 1051, plus an uncertainty as r to future marketing conditions,-has trimmed Hollywood product in the backlog, editing or shoot- ing stages by 31%, a survey re- vealed this week. The eight major studios have a total of 175 features now on hand compared with a rec- ord number of 25.6 at the same time last year. Breakdown shows- that .the eight companies currently have around 113 films completed and ready for release, another 39 are being edited or scored while 23 are be- fore, the cameras. End of 1950 saw the backlog of completed pix add up to about 175 features' Some 48 wore editing and 33 shooting. Factors behind the sharp reduc- tion, it’s felt, embrace a variety of other reasons. Studio toppers are unwilling to build up a large iiiven* tory in face of a further falling market. They’re trying to avoid a repetition of 1945-46 when they were forced to unload a big backlog of high-budget product during the postwar attendance , slump. While grosses climbed perceptibly this fall after the summer b.o. dip industry analysts are loath to step out with an assumption that the panled by a satisfactory method of upward trend will continue. Film- going traditionally is off during the Christmas shopping season, but generally picks up again following the holidays. But the attitude of the majors seems to be—“we were burned once and it won’t happen again." Thus, although hopeful that busi- ness will be brisk in 1952, overall policy appears to shape inventories at sensible levels in case the mar- ket should take a sudden dive. '51 Releases Stepped Up Releases were stepped up during 1951, but production^ was not boosted commensurate With the Upped distribution. This is par- tially borne out in the tally of 23 pix shooting this week compared with ;the 33 rolling during the (Continued on page 17) Col in Special Ad Pitch At ‘Highbrow’ Patrons For ‘Death of Salesman’ Special pitch is being made by Columbia Pictures to woo the highbrow audience for the filni version of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman," in which Fredric March is starred. Magazines sel- dom used for a generel-release pic are being employed to plug the Stanley Kramer production. Full- page ads have been skedded for such publications as The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, The New Yorker, Saturday Review of Literature, and the Sunday maga- zine section of the N. Y. Times. Theory of Columbia’s ad depart- ment is that you can’t take the higher-education audiences for granted, that when you have a pic- ture that’s certain to interest this group, you’ve got to tell them' about it.. Of course, Col feels that “Saleisman’’ also has a mass ap- peal, and has not neglected the (Continued on page 17) 14 Releases for WB To July in ‘Flexible’ Plan Without announcing the number of pix It will make during 1952, Warner Bros, disclosed last week 1 that it has a pool of : 47 active story properties from which future pro- ductions would be made. Studio has set 14 pix for release up to July; 1952. However, in an- nouncement of the 47 story prop- erties, Jack L* Wiarner, studio’s exec producer, stressed the fact that the company’s production policy will continue to be a flexi- ble one as to the number of films made annually. During 1951, War- ners released 29 . pictures. Eric Johnston Hovlnf returned from tke Govern- mental Beanracratlc wars reappraise* some Notes From My Bureau Drawer an Interesting byline feature In the 46th Anniversary Number •f OUT NEXT WEEK Hollywood, Dec. 25. After maintaining a fairly steady level of production for the last 12 months, Hollywood is slackening off with the year-end, and will close out 1951 with only about 20 films before the cameras. Figure repre- sents a low* mark for the last -18 months. Of the 24 films, before the Cam- eras as of yesterday (Mon.), nine will have finished before the cal- endar's changed. Only five new onesjare slated to roll In the dying dff^pf this year. Greatest activity Is concentrated at 20th-Fox and -Universal-Interna- tional. Former has seven films now before the cameras,; and will start “Les Miserables" later this week. U-I lists five shooting. Currently shooting are two each •at Metro, Paramount and Warners and one apiece ; at Columbia, Re- public and Monogram. Indies Charles Chaplin, Arch Oboler arid Paul F. Heard also are making one film each. Pix starting this week are Wald- Krasna’s “This Man Is Mine” at RKO; Paramount’s “Military Po- liceman”; Republic’s “Song of Youth” and indie Alex Gottlieb’s “The Fighter.” PAR LAUNCHES BALLY FOR AUDREY HEPBURN Paramount has launched a star buildup campaign for Audrey Hep- bum long before the 22-year-old Belgian-born actress makes her first appearance in a U. S. film. Actress, currently starring, on Broadway in “Gigi," is slated for Paramount’s “Rosalind” as soon as she completes her stage engage- ment. Par kicked off the buildup drive with a special bulletin to division, district and branch managers, and special reps. Actress was discovered and sighed in England by Richard Mealand, Par’s former N. Y. and Hollywood story chief and now its British studio rep. Her pact with Paramount calls for two pix a year for seven years, with a limit on the number of weeks she can be re- quired for each assignment She also is permitted to make outside films and legit appearances. Miss Hepburn’s contract with Gilbert Milleiv producer of “Gigi ” expires May 31, 1953. She is, how- ever, permitted to take off from June 1, 1952, tp Oct 1, 1952, Should the play run until the sum- mer, It is expected that she will go to Hollywood at that time to appear, in “Rosalind.” 4 National Board of Review, th industry"s buffer agalrist censor- ship since 1909, may pass out of ex- istence next year unless a substi- tute source is found for the total financing provided by the majors during the past 43 years. Three companies have with- drawn their support during „ 1951 and others are wavering* Tbtal'’ budget Of the NBR is qnly $25,000; but it appears unlikely that even that can, be raise^yif any more of the distribs. bow out, tire board's topper; hopeA possibly to make it self-sus- taining via subscriptions to its monthly magazine and the weekly guide to better films that It pro- vides to film councils throughout the country. Getting coiri\ from those sources, however; is such a long way off that the board may never survive to sec it. NBR came, into existence when nickelodeons were threatened with extinction by censorship in the first decade of the century, and it has served the industry as a shield against blucnoses ever since, It operates via the local groups known as Film Councils through- out the country. Councils are or- ganizations of community organiza- tions, such as parent-teachers soclations, women's clubs and churches. They accept the board’s seal on a pic as evidence of its moral arid aesthetic quality and thus ward off demands for munic- ipal or state censorship. Organization’s original label was National Board of Censorship. Its founders agreed in 1916, however, (Continued on page 16) 3-Year Pact for IATSE With 90 St. Loo Theatres St. Louis, I)cc. 25. Members of IATSE Local No. 143 last week signed a three-year wage increase contract with approxi- mately 90 theatres in St. Louis and. St. Louis County. New pact pro- vides for a 2Vz% increase at the beginning of each of the three years.. Increase is retroactive to the expiring date of the old con- tract. All of the provisions in the old contract are included in the new ones. The St. Louis Am us. Co., op- erated by Fanchon & Marco arid the largest single circuit in St. Louis; the Wehrenberg circuit arid the Ansell Bros. Chain are signa- tories to the pact. Meantime, members of Local No, 143-A, Negro projectionists, are still huddling with owners of 13 houses catering to Negro trade over a wage increase. In the event an agreement is not reached they threaten to strike. Author Wins Decree On Laurel Lease Failure of Laurel Films to pro- duce his script, “The Criminal,” as a Broadway play and as a picture won playwright Martin Stern an interlocutory decree in .N. Y. Su- preme Court last week cancelling a Dec; 7, 1949, agreement with the firm. Deal was a lease arrange- ment Which was to be terminated iri the event the, company did not put the yarn on the stage or before the cameras. Stern also sought $25,000 dam- ages from Laurel. However, the question to whether damages should be assessed against the de- fendant film firm that will*be de- termined by Referefe David Well. He’s to hear arguments and later report his findings to the court. NLRB Cancels Vote Hollywood, Dec. 25. National Labor Relations Board cancelled the recent election for studio set designers and will order a new ballot after a meeting to establish eligibility requirements. In the election held Nov* IS, IATSE led with 67 votes, with 63 designers Voting against any union and 17 ballots challenged.