Variety (February 1952)

Wedneaday, Fdbtiny 6, 1952 FICTUHES 7 Recent moves by the film Indus-♦ try for closer ties with educational' institutions were hailed this week by educators, although they point- ed out that the effort was lpng overdue and that the proposed plans were only Scratching the sur- face. They feel that the industry has missed the boat for a long time. They said the industry; While presenting itself as an educational force, rarely backed up its claim in the past with concrete action, arid they hoped that the present trend would be the -beginning of closer relations that could benefit both groups; Last week the Theatre Owners of America, in convention at Los Angeles, weighed a proposal by exec director Gael Sullivan that the TO A approve a program spon- sored by the dean of Western Re- serve U. for installing film lecture courses in colleges throughout the country. In New York movement was launched to introduce film study in junior high and high, schools by the Organization of the Motion Picture industry of New York City. With Lynn Farnol office acting as liaison with the Board of Education, group has succeeded in instituting a 15-lecture course for regular' academic and vocational teachers. Lectures, to be given either by a leader in the education field or an authority on motion pic- tures, will stress the influence of films in relation to the education of the young citizen and the edu- cational, vocational and cultural values of films as used in the class- room. Although cognizant that the re- cent moves are contemplated as b.o. stimulants, educators appear willing to accept the overtures of the industry since many regard pictures as a major cultural influ- ence. Closer cooperatiop with edu- cational bodies, educators indicat- ed, would.help the industry’s pub- lic relations, would provide a con- tinuous interest in pictures and (Continued on page 24) Loew’s, IntT Unit Reach Union Pact On Pub-Ad Staff Agreement on a new pact for homeoffice pub-ad staffers at Loew’s and Loew’s International has been reached by the company and Local 230, Sign, Pictorial and Display Union; AFL. Although agreement calls for a $10 across- the-board increase, staffers in reality will receive only«a $3 to ~$4-per week hike since Loew’s had granted a voluntary cost-of-living increase several months ago averag- ing between $6 and $7. In negotiations, the company stressed its voluntary increase and* would agree only to raise the level to $10. Staffers agreed yes- terday (Tues.) to accept the terms after weighing the pact for about a week. Official signing of the con- tract is expected to take place this week. In addition to the wage hike, Local 230 pact with Loew’s. is similar to one negotiated by the union with RKO Pictures last No- vember. It sets, the following mini- mums: senior publicists, $134.50; publicists, $94;,associate publicists, $67, apprentices, $43. Other provisions call for double, severance pay if employee is let go for economic reasons, all dis- putes subject to arbitration, pro- motions where possible from with- in the ranks and a complete uhion shop. Union security clause, how- ever, says that staffers not mem- bers of the union when .pact is signed shall.not be forced to join. ail future members.: of the depart- ment must join within 30 days or face end of, employment. Agreement says company has the right at all times to curtail, dis- continue or transfer its pub-ad de- partment 'provided no speedup or overloading results. WB Realigning Its Coast; Operation Los Angeles, Feb. 5. In preparation for the divorce- ment of studios from theatres, War- ners has devised a new lineup for operation of its Pacific Coast houses similar to those. adopted in other sectors. From now on, L. ^ Halper will confine his attention to real estate, building , arid properties on the West Coast. Ben H. Wallersteiri will have direct supervision of the- atre operation. J. R. Rodgers, dis- trict manager, will direct first-run operations, succeeding John C. Mc- Manus, who. has been transferred to studio publicity, Although the Feb. 1 deadline Set for a demonstration has passed, Screen Publicists Guild, affiliated 1 With New York's District 65, Dis- tributive, Processing arid Office Workers of America, has withheld taking action against any of the five homeoffice film, companies with- which they are negotiating ; for a new contract. Reason for the postponement is reportedly 'due to an expected break in the negotia- tion deadlock, resulting in the sign- ing of a new pact with one of the ! companies involved in the talks. - Unionites apparently feel that if an agreement is reached with one film outfit, the other companies may be inclined to speed up on the talks. Each management, on the other hand, , has been reluctant to ! take the first step, and if the union succeeds in coming to terms with one company, a pattern may be es- tablished and the others may fol- low suit. District. 65' pub-ad staffers haye been holding talks with Warner Bros,, Columbia, Universal, 20th- Fox and United Artists for a new pact to replace the one which ex- pired Oct. 31, 1951. As far as could be. determined, talks at UA have made the greatest progress,; and if there is any break in the deadlock, it conceivably could take' place at UA. In past years the union has regarded its pact with UA superior to the ones it has had with the other companies. It’s believed, as a result, that in negotiations at UA there were less bones of contention. Some advancement in the talks have also been made at Warners and Columbia. Greatest difficulty is being encountered at Universal and 20th-Fox. Companies and the union are believed to have reached an agreement on a wage hike, with the union apparently willing to ac- cept a 10% across-the-board in- crease.. Serious snags, however, are being encountered in agreeing on security proposals. Hughes’ California Pix Los Angeles, Feb. 5. Suit for $69,000 was filed by United Artists in Superior Court against Howard Hughes’ California Pictures, asking that amount to cover the costs of prints v and adver- tising on two" features, “Mad Wednesday” arid Vendetta.”. These pictures were produced by CP when the company, was owned jointly by Hughes and Preston Sturges. Later Hughes bought Sturges’ interests in CP, withdrew from United Artists arid took the pictures over to RKO. Plaintiff declares CP agreed to pay back the $69,00Q but; has not done so to.date. Indie producers, seemingly for- ever in squeeze or another, face a new one on financing, it was disclosed this week by Harry Wat- kins, v.p. in charge of film loans for Bankers Trust Co., N. Y. High -interest rates prevailing on loans to other businesses is the neW development making it tough for indies to find an angel among the banks. ; “The spread between the 5% , or 6% interest paid on film loans and the basic 3% rate on money is so slim,” Watkins explained, “that we can afford to be interested only in independent deals Which are abso- lutely tops. Frankly, with the risks in film financing and the headaches arid details involved, the spread is too barrow to make many such deals attractive.” Watkins emphasized, however, that Bankers, which has been one of the most active New York insti- tutions in film* financing, is riot leaving that field. It is. merely be- ing forced to be highly selective;! he pointed out. Explaining; interest rates as they affect coin available for indies, Watkins said that the “basic money rate" now has moved up to 3%. That means that a bank gets that for 90-day loans to first-class cor- porations. Any interest above 3% represents extra profit, for extra risks involved. Since there’s a legal 6% limita- tion on rates, the greatest spread a bank can get over the minimum rate is 3%.. For. that 3% additional (Continued on page 16) COMPO Sets 1st Spring ’Movietime’ Tours For Okla. City, Atlanta Areas The Oklahoma City and Atlanta exchange areas have been se- lected for persoriality visits When the “Movietime, U.S.A.” tours re- sume in the spring. Delegation of seven Hollywood personalities will tour Oklahoma, area starting March 16 while the Atlanta tour starts April 13. “Unlike the tours last October,” Arthur L. Mayer, exec v.p. of the Council of Motion Picture Organi- sations, sponsor of the tours, re- ported, ‘‘these new tours will not be held In one week but will be staggered over several weeks, or even months. This, spring it will be our aim to cover, those, territories that were either completely ne- glected last October or received personality delegations inadequate to their needs.” At Mayer’s request, prexies of I the majors recently appropriated $150,Q00 as their share of the. ex- penses for a renewal of the tours, this being the sum expended on the tours last fall from the $650,- 000 fund set up by the companies for the Movietime campaign. It’s estimated that for the tours last fall exhibs spent considerably more than $300,000 in addition to what they may have spent individually in special publicity and advertis- ing at their theatres. " Expenses for the new tours will be shared on the same basis as last fall, Mayer said. COMPO will pay the trarisportation of the person- alities from Hollywood to and from the areas they visit, will pay the personalities $16-*a day for in- cidental travel expenses and will reimburse exhibs at the rate of. $16 pel* diem for each personality; while the troupe is in an assigned area. Sol Lesser’* Sales Meet Palm Springs, Feb. 5. Sol Lesser launched his annual sales meeting of his American and European reps at his Palm Springs home. Session, running five days, will discuss in detail the producer’s 1952-53 distribution program of 14 pix. : Bernhard May Take Over Bonds Former Duties WM departure of Anson Bond from Joseph Bernhard Productions to strike out on his.own, it’s Under- stood that Bernhard himself may take over much of Bond’s former duties. Latter was co-producer with Bernhard on BP’s “Journey Into Light" and "Japanese War Bride.” Bond is reviving Emerald Pro- ductions, ah outfit which he set up several years ago. Meantime, Bernhard is still huddling with King Vidor on a stoi'y for BP’s third venture. Vidor directed “BridC;” Both that pic. and “Light” were released through 20th-Fox. Indie Import OKs Continue to Snag U.S.-Spanish Pact Issue of import permits for indie producers, which proved a stum- bling block all along in working out the new U. S.-Spahish film agreement, continues to be a point of contention although the. pact has now been inked by both parties. Yank industry and the Madrid gov- ernment are differing on interpre- tation of the indie permit provi- sion. United Artists, Monogram, Re- public and the Society of Inde- pendent .Motiori Picture Producers, Which are involved in the issue, want physical possession of. the permits earmarked for their use under the riew pact. Spanish gov- ernment wants to give the licenses to domestic distribs, although they’d be tagged specifically for use by the indies. Matter is not believed to be of sufficiently serious. Consequence, to delay the-March 1 effective date of the new contract, which was signed recently for the U. S. side by ..former Ambassador to Spain Stanton Griffis and M, A. J. Healy, rep of the Motiori Picture Assn, of America, Healy is now in Madrid attempting to convince the Spanish that the Yank interpretation of the disputed clause is the correct one. French Seek Agreement Barcelona, Jan. 29. French producer- Andre Paulve. has been in Madrid in the hope of making an agreement with the Spanish government, which would enter in the commercial agreement already signed, to bririg over 21 French pix. Spain in return would send seven to France. Paulve also spoke of the celebration of a Week of French pix in Madrid, with French stars coming to cooperate. Par’s Coast Huddles On Product Bally Jerry Pickman, Paramount’s ad- pub v.p., continued on to the Coast following the distrib outfit’s 1 Chi-, cago sales palaver to personally take a hand in the buildup for the dual-preem of “Greatest Show on Earth.” Film bows Feb. 21» at .the Orpheum, L.A., and the War- ners Theatre,; Beverly Hills. Pickman, studio publicity chief Teet Carle and other members of the department also will huddle on Par’s newly-stressed policy of giv- ing each film, individual handling in sales and promotion. Flackery plans for numerous: upcoming pix also will be taken up. Washington, Feb. 5. Howard Hughes yesterday (Mon.) won a Supreme Court victory in his fight to remove a deadline on sale of his stock in either RKO Theatres or RKO Pictures. Th film exec carried his claims to the high bench . after a three-judge Federal Court in New York or- dered him to part with either of the two issues by Feb. 23, 1953. x In a 7-0 majority decision, Jus- tice Hugo Black reversed the lower court’s rilling, at the same time is- suing a stern warning against, mo- nopolistic practices. On the first of two counts of exception, the trial court was found to be in error in changing the ; consent decree after' it had been entered into by Hughes and the Department of Justice. Original decree carried no tim limitation. Black ruled that th language of the disputed section of the decree “imposes no such re- quirement.” He added, “a reading of the ’ wording would make most persons believe that Hughes Was to have a choice of two different alternatives. Hughes would haye no choice if the first ’alternative’ was to sell the stock and the sec- ond ‘alternative’ was to sell the stock.” Hughes Given Right Court ruled, moreover, that Hughes, not the court, was given the right to decide whether his stock would be sold. Language of the decree, it said, ’‘cannot support an inference that the court was empowered to deprive Hughes of either of his expressly granted al- ternatives.” Indicating t h a t circumstances could require the sale of stock at some later date, Black stated, “whatever justification there may be now or hereafter for new terms, there is no fail* support” in the de- cree for forcing a sale now. He conceded,, too, the government’s contention . that “Hughes’ large (Continued on page 21) Kazan Asking for No Safeguards on WB Pic Despite ’Streetcar’ Elia Kazan, despite his burn at Warner Bros, on "Streetcar Named Desire,” which he directed, said: in New York yesterday (Tues.) that he had asked for no specific con- tractual safeguards against a simi- lar experience on.; “Mississippi Woman,” which he’s committed to produce-direct for WB. He ex- plained that there was nothing in the material of “Woman" that would make likely a repetition of WB’s cutting of “Streetcar” with- out consulting him. Tennessee Williams, who wrote “Streetcar,” is also doing the screenplay on “Woman.” Kazari got in a hassle with the studio on “Streetcar” after It sent, a cutter to New York, unbeknownst to : him, to make changes desired by the Legion of Decency. He at t .one point reportedly said in anger • that he’d never, work for WB again. Williams is currently in Key West adapting “Woman” from a group of his stories. They’ll be shot in their* Mississippi Delta locale. Kazan ex- pects to go ttf the. Coast about March 15, when he winds up his present directorial hitch on “Flight Into Egypt/’ legiter, for Irene Mayer Selznick. Kazan is also , under 10-year? pact with 20th-Fox for one pic a year. Shiite’s ’Legacy’ Bought By Rank for Brit. Prod. Nevil Shute’s novel, “A Town Like Alice,” has been acquired by the J. Arthur Rank Organization for; production at the Ealing Stu- dios later this year. W. P. Liscomb has been Set to write the screen- play. . Shute’s book, published in the U. S. by William Morrow as “The 1 Legacy,” was a 1950-51 bestseller.