Variety (April 1953)

PICTCBES 14 PStSEfr WedneMky, April 22, 1953 Tacelift Era Facing Houses L’lHtfc* Ckarii N.J. $1,800,000 Antitrust Suit Into Fourth Day Trial of * $1,800,000 antitrust suit brought against the eight ma- jors in N. Y. Federal Court by the forced to leave America because Leonia (N. J.) Amusement Corp. 1 0 f a campaign of ^persecution goes into its fourth day today Jleveled against him by^ powerful - - - ’ — Sylvester Continued from pat* 2 An important adjunct to current (Wed.) before Judge Aiiirapor j c to lByan. Plaintiff formerly operated techmcal changes, aixording ^ closed Leonia Theatre, tradesters, will be a wholesale re- j operators of the house from furbishing of theatres, no matter | ig3 2 through 1035, Leonia Amuse-1 what system of«film projection be- ment charges that the theatre was .. . -> j t**«- !i ««( hiieinp« as a result comes the standard method. It's j forced out of business as , *, c —*—, felt that once a theatreowner be-J of a conspiracy among der ™" object of lies and v gins the job of installing new ants to deprive it of suitable prod- ganda by powerful Seens and new sound systems, he uct Indie exhib also asserts that - - might give some thought to other J the only films made abradable were physical aspects of his house. 1 of a last-r an nature. A factor said to be contributing | reactionary groups.” This drive, he added, compelled >im to aban- don his film work. Chaplin outlined his views to newsmen here in a truculent state- ment. Since the end of World War I, he asserted, "I have been the Inside Stuff—Pictures Shakespearian acting contest among New York high schools, spon- sored by Metro to plug its filmization of "Julius Caesar,” winds up tomorrow (Thurs.), anniversary of the Bard's birth. Finals will be held at Carl Fischer Concert Hall, 165 W. 57 St, at 11 a. m. Judges include Marlin Brando, Vanessa Brown, Lawrence Langner, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, director of the film, and Dr. William Jansen, super- „ ihtendent of schools. They'll select the championship high school act- iing team.from eight finalists, representing three Manhattan, three ; Brooklyn/ one Bronx* and one Queens schooL Original field of com- I petitors comprised 45 metropolitan N. Y. schools, all doing 10-minute “scenes from various plays by Shakespeare, under sponsorship of the N. Y. Board of Education. A plaque will be awarded the winning school, with silver trophies going to members of the three top teams. to the declining b.o. has been the | rundown condition of many thea- tres, especially nabe houses. It's pointed out that many theatres need paint jobs, reconditioned rest- rooms, new seats and more pre- sentable lobb’es. The install ation of new equipment, particularly sterophonic sound, requires major changes in the physical plant, it’s noted. As long as an exhib has de- cided to go along with the new pro- Section methods, it's felt he might j go whole bog during the change- ovcr period and make his house more attractive for patrons. Detroit's Muse Hall, for vicious propa- reactionary ] m-g nub-ad topper Howard Dietz will act as host. groups who, by their influence and by aid of America's yellow press. NEPOTISM PAYS OFF WITH TWIN-CnY NABES Minneapolis, April 21. Taking' a leaf from smalltown ex- hibition, hard-pressed Minneapolis J and St. Paul theatreowners are } starting family operation of their i] showhouses and results have been | gratifying. It long has been an established policy for exhibitors in the less ponulous communities to utilize jj only members of their immediate as cashier, ticket-taker. ba ve created an unhealthy atmos- phere, in which liberal-minded in- dividuals can be singled out and persecuted. Under these conditions I find RKO's release of Independent Artists* "Never Wave at a WAC,” starring Rosalind Bussell, is getting hefty plugs as the Winter Garden Theatre, N. Y., where Miss Russell is appearing in the legituner, "Wonderful Town." Film opens tomorrow (Thurs.) at the Astor, N. Y. WG’s lobby is featuring a giant cutout of Miss Bussell, which calls „„„„ attention to the picture. In addition. 50.000 “WAC” inserts have been it virtually impossible to continue j placed in the theatre’s playbills. "WAC” was produced by Miss Bus- sell’s husband, Frederick Brisson. my motion picture work, and I 'have therefore given up my resi- dence in the United States.” Chap- lin noted that it isn’t easy "to up- root myself and my family from a country where I have lived for 40 years without a feeling of sad- ness.” w. i families Detroit’s atirac “ U£ her and even booth operator, in ample, received . P,. ,, , j the interest oi economy. But in the | T-in Cities, htis is a new TV out- as the Todd-AO group planning to ,1 growm. GinemaScope Tests Continued from pace 5 operate deluxe showcases, it's fig-! „ Smb a policy teteegM theiU- t also will hambra, local neighborhood house, lm £, i ^ e £ f . "%cnrr solidly on its leet under Its recent ^hiS^U: ne^peration. The currmtt ie^ee refurbish to some extent during the had taken it over when its own Installation of the new devices. Absi» Sees Boom ’53 Biz, Sked Five 3-D Inters Despite difficulty in obtaining certain, raw materials, the Ansco division of General Aniline & Film Corp. will rack up more business this year than in 1952. That's the duction of Cinemascope lenses has considerably brightened the out- look for Cinemascope installations, with 20th now hoping to have as many as 1,500 theatres equipped by Nov. 1. At his press confab last | week (16), 20th prexy~*Spyros P. j Skouras announced that he already > had 1,547 firm orders for Cinema- « Scope units, with applications flow- taXpaul, the neighborhood^, a ‘ ^ e J at i° f 30 ? a Hobo News, to no one’s surprise, is riled anent "The Hitch-Hiker ” and via a front-page editorial Monday (20) calls upon all free-nders to "stop RKO from releasing the picture.” Because of the pic's influ- ence, unless it’s surpressed, "a bunch of nice guys are going to find themselves stranded all over the country,” the paper states. N. Y, Journal-American (Hearst) also had editorial comment on the film Monday but plays it straight Daily believes hitch-hikers are a menace. The Zeiss Ikon Co. of Stuttgart, Germany, has not licensed its 3-D process to any other company either in the U. S. or Germany and doesn’t intend to restrict the system to any one producer, ac- cording to a Zeiss exec. Plans call for the stereo method to be made available to all in the industry at the right time. The Zeiss method uses one single strip of film, a single projector and glasses. Several American companies also are at work on single-projector systems. unsuccessfully trying to operate it | with outside employees, gave up ‘Green Plans to Liquidate’ the ghost. In St. Paul, the neighborhood J ~ ™ “ /pivoting. The regular annual stock- New State is capitalizing on such a j Sa™ 1 holders meet is set. for N. Y. May policy. Its newspaper ads declare: | he demonstrated at the Mastbaum "Under new management. The j in PfaBadelphia; Fox, m Detroit; vjrreeu SUU1US a only St Paul theatre operated by Uptown, Chicago, and Keith Me- j electing at least one director to a family for families." All of its ™° nal » Boston. Houses were picked board. If it’s stricken from the employees are members of the fam- because they are well suited for! me Doara * ««-**«->. . ily that owns it - the large screen and because they \ are installing stereophonic sound Continued from page 5 Engineers Hard Pot To Meet Stereo Sound Boom General adoption of stereophonic sound by producing companies, as well as exhibitors, is seen placing a heavy burden on all suppliers of prediction of* GAF prexy-board chair man Jack Frye in the com- pany’s annual report last week. In the Hollywood professional film market, Frye pointed out six feature pix using Ansco color are scheduled for the first half of the year. Five of these, he added, are planned as 3-D entries. Others are j * 4 being considered for production me et the fie- later in the year. I mand were discussed last week in Further light on Ansco s Holly- j ^ y. at a conclave of division man- wood activities was thrown on the | headquarters personnel situation by Robert P. Young, head » c £ Service Corp., largest oi> of* Ansco professional motion pic- ganization of its ^ th e indus- ture sales. He disclosed that Meteo j ■p ieX y q. l. Carrington pre- has pencilled in six films in his company's tint process. Among j AR ec organization will therefore these are the recently completed j expa nd its production facilities "You Take the High Ground, a ( b oth in the east and on the Coast. 5 irrespective of Cinemascope. Skou- jras is expected to attend as many of the demonstrations as possible. Program at all of the Cinema- scope showings will be essentially the same as the one used on the Coast, with a reel from "The Robe" highlighting proceedings. Majors Assure Continued from page 5 Richard Widmark starrer. Total GAF sales for 1952, the re- port revealed, were $99,780,000, or a slight increase over 1951 sales of $99,538,000. Net earnings after taxes were $3,758,000, compared with S4,557,00Q in 1951, Earnings per common A share were $5.13 last year, as against $6.22 for 1951. Schwartz Revise Continued from page 5 about 3.89c of the issued and out- standing stock. The administra- tion committee members and em- ployees over 60 years of age will be ineligible for the option rights. Options may be exercised after one year following grants of the op- tions and at the rate of 209£ of the full amount of options given to each individual. All six incumbents are nominees j for reelection to the board. They are Schwartz, David J. Greene, A. Louis Oresman, Edward C. Raftery, Ben-Fleming Sessel and William J. Wardall. Sessel is a v.p. and Ward all a director of Irving Trust Co., which is trustee for the 929,020 shares of the circuit’s stock owned by Howard Hughes. Latter, be- cause of his control of RKO Pic tures, is denied voting privileges. Oresman and Greene were named to the board last year via a proxy' battle with management, hut the relationship now is said to be harmonious, with no reprise of any wrangling in view. Oresman owns 36,000 shares holds 16,450 shares direct. The Wall St. firm of which he is a partner owns 10,000. Also, 40,700 shares are held by Chemical Bank & Trust Co. as trustee for Greene’s wife, and his wife and children own 6,000 shares direct. At the same time, it was decided to boost the firm’s engineering per- sonnel in the field. Meanwhile, the company’s installation of stereo- phonic equipment reportedly is progressing satisfactorily. Four installations were complet- ed for simultaneous openings for Warner’s "House of'Wax” Friday (17) at L.A. Paramount Theatre; Paramount, Hollywood; West Coast Theatre, Long Beach, and Fox The- atre, Phoenix. Work on similar in- stallations is underway at the Roxy, N. Y.; Fox, Detroit; Fox, Philadel- phia; Michigan, Detroit; Mastbaum, Philadelphia; Stanley, Pittsburgh, and Fox, St. Louis. bylaws, he isn’t likely to elect even one director. ‘Disharmony* Threat Skouras admitted that, personal- ly, he had hoped to retain cumu- lative voting, but added that, in view of the prevailing situation, it would be better to abandon it. "Directors should be represented by all the stockholders and not by any special group," he said. The management proxy makes the point that "cumulative voting threatens to divide the board into a number of representatives of tures of 2-D in 1953. Only pic- tures not available in 2-D are Cine- mascope because of double produc- tion costs. However, one 3-D pic- ture would probably be 2-D also. Metro’s Charles Reagan in a phone conversation with the Allied Illinois head assured him that M-G has a sufficient backlog of flat prod- uct to supply exhibs for at least a year, and that, for the present, fea- tures produced in 3-D will also be. available in 2-D too. Ben Kalmen- son of Warner Bros., in another phone message, virtually gave the same assurances as ‘Reagan. As yet. Universal, Paramount and RKO have not replied. Kirsch flies to New York this week to special interests which may conflict with each other and with the over- all interests of the stockholders.” It goes on to say that the Green group threatens "to inject dishar- mony" among board members and that this is no time to have a board "of divergent interests and incon- sistent objectives.” . Two resolutions, both introduced \ by Green, are up for the annual meet. One would amend the Cer- tificate of Incorporation to elimi- with beirfg “unfair" to the corpora- tion currently in the throes of switching over to Cinemascope. "I feel Cinemascope is the mediufti that will successfully combat the television competition,” he de- clared, adding that Cinemascope would "bring back the customers.” He recalled having told Green that, with its new widescreen sys- tem, 20th had "a chance to surpass all prior profits.” When, in this connection, Skou- ras asked for a one year’s respite, Green told him he wanted to close the big studio and make cheap productions at the Western 1 £\ve. studio, sell to TV and liquidate the company. "I am not interested in the theatres," Skouras quoted Green as saying. Skouras said he eventually turned Green down on the three board members demanded by the latter, telling him that he could not do this in justice to the stock- holders "and particularly since you have made these charges against me.” Mission Board Film To Make Bow in Denver Chicago, April 21. . "They, Too, Need Christ,” a 40- minute film produced by Family Films for the home mission boards of the American Baptist Conven- tion and the Methodist Church, will be preemed next month at a Baptist conclave in Denver. Picture concerns an immigration problem. William F. Claxton di- rected from an original story writ- ten jointly by Edmund C. Shaw and Rev. Harry C. Spencer. Lat- ter is executive director of the radio and film commission of the Methodist Church. nate a provision that, according to Green, permits the board, without | the consent of the stockholders, to 5 authorize contracts between the ! corporation and individual direc- tors of companies controlled by it Management, in opposing the huddle with other officials of Al-j jty,” Buddy Adler production, which lied States as to what possible ac- * s “\ awiU be the customary "flat” but tion might he taken to prevent j which ma y be adapted for large- 20th-Fox from releasing 900 pix to j f h fscreen projection in addition, virion * the corporation and to vote on the { _ approval of any contract in which w°S“ g „ . n .^" gla T nd .‘ s , HeU B £ he has an interest. < low Zer0 ' MaD Ladd starrer - m Col’s Production Continued from page 3 pany has started 19 new films so far this year, compared with 13 as of this time in 1952. Current rate of lensing also is well ahead of all other studios, it’s pointed out. Among the films now before the cameras are "From Here to Eterni- Hendricks Continued from page 4 CinemaScope Thriller Hollywood, April 21. With Warners cashing in on its 3-D "House of Wax,” 20th-Fox is coming out with" another horror film, "Night People,” in Cinema- Scope. Philip Dunne will produce and Russell Hughes/ borrowed from Warners, will write the script. The second resolution, also op- posed by management, would amend the bylaws to prevent any officer from receiving more than $100,000 a year without specific Louis Hayward closed a deal to star in two films a year for Allied Artists, starting with "The Royal African Rifles," to be produced by Richard Hccrmance. Discussing the new board, Skouras said he didn’t think it was necessary for the moment to have a board chairman but that there might be one eventually. He held Green had spoken of him "vicious- ly” and had pictured him dishon- estly in charging that he (Skouras) had made a $3,000,000 profit in the calling in of the preferred stock and that he had a 409o interest in the Eidophor color TV sytem. None of these accusations was true, Skouras stated, adding that between $500,000 and $600,000 had been spent on Eidophor develop- ment He recounted his conversations with Green who, Skouras said, had told him that he controlled 600,000 shares. Later Green raised the fig- ure to 900,000. "I asked him why, if he controlled that much stock, he bothered with a proxy fight," Skouras recalled. The 20th prexy charged Green ners subsidiary music publishing S authorization from the stockhold- firms m N. Y., then shifted to the ers _ WB homeoffice pub-ad department ’ and transferred to the Coast short- ly afterwards. He has no definite plans for a future affiliation. Evelove’s exit follows by less than a week the departure from the WB lot of director Michael Curtiz, who after 26 years with the company resigned rather than take a pay cut. Hendricks started with Warners theatre department in Memphis. He was subsequently appointed to the. post of pub-ad director for the WB West Coast Theatre Division. He joined the studio organization several years ago as chief of the exploitation unit. More recently he served as assistant studio pub- licity director. |2-D. "Miss Sadie Thompson,” Rita Hayworth starrer, also now rolling, will be in 2-D and 3-D, as will be "I Ride Alone,” with Randolph Scott in the lead. Col has a total of six pix now before the cameras and five to be added within the next month. 20th Protects Continued from page 5 to television." It added that such sales could run "into millions of dollars.” Skouras repeated what he had told a press conference in N. Y. last week (16) that it would be three to four years before any of the 20th oldies would go to TV. He added then that the move might be made "a little sooner** than that The trade in general, whiles in- terested, sees the 20th gesture as tied directly to the management's proxy fight against minority stock- holder Charles Green. Latter has indicated that, if he is victorious, it’s one of his aims to let the 20th library go to TV immediately.