Variety (May 1955)

Wednesday, May 11, 1955 P%!RIETY PICTURES 25 {N*Y* Stock Exchange) For Weejc Ending Tuesday (10) Net Over-the-counter Securities ELECTRONIC HONEYMOON DOMINATES ISSUES By MIKE WEAR Friday’s (6) stock market took on the shape of an electronic honeymoon as radio and tv shares forged ahead with great to sensa- tional gains. Last week's market as a whole followed a rather mean- ingless pattern, winding up about where it started. But not so the radio-tv stocks which were “all over the tape” on both the N. Y. Stock Exchange ticker and the American Stock Exchange machine. They all retreated as the market fell back yesterday (Tues.), The most sensational, advance was made by Zenith Radio, which soared more than 8 points Friday alone to wind up the day at the new high of 129%. This price rep- resented a gain of 16% points on the week. Interest in the company’s pay-tv setup spurred the 'advance but there was the added factor of a chance the stock might be split up. Radio Corp. of America common also climbed to a new peak of 46%, being up 2 points on the week. The shares had been below 42 at one time early in the week, but started forging ahead after the annual stockholders meeting when official optimism stirred fresh interest in the issue. "•Actual volume, 1 Quotations furnished by Dreyfus A Co.) Motion picture advertising, at least as seen through the critical eyes of Hal Stebbins, who heads the Hal Stebbins Ihe. ad agency on the Coast, is given a thoroughgoing roasting in the' current <April) issue of the Screen Producers Guild journal. “The sad truth is,” he writes, “that motion picture ad- vertising is far behind the motion, picture parade. • To survive and thrive, Rims have had to adjust to an ever-changing pattern; but their advertising is still cut from the same musty mould. What showbusiness today needs—add this is no ivory tower paradox—is showmanship in ad- vertising. It has everything but.” Stebbins piece has some N.Y. ad- pub execs doing a burn. Theme of Studio Worker*’ Wage* Sacramento, May 10. Workers on the film lots during the month of March averaged $126.95 a week. Av- erage ' wage was $121.89 in February and $119.17 on March, 1954, according to the California. Labor Statistics Bulletin. Employees put in an aver- age of 42.6 hours per w6ek during March at $2.98 an hour, compared with 41 .9 hours at $2.93 an hour in the preceding month. their comment, “It’s easy to criti- cize.” There is a good deal of sensi- tivity in the East anyway' on the topic of film ads. Homeoffice per- sonnel feel they are too often blamed and too rarely given credit. “If the picture is a hit, the stu- dio immediately pats itself on the back, and the way the film was advertised becomes a minor con- sideration. If it flops though, im- mediately it was the ad campaign that was at fault—never the pic- ture.” * Stebbins’ piece, "“Motion Picture Advertising—Is It?,” takes the copy writers to task for saying very little lii a lot of words. “Motion picture advertising Is loaded to the gunwales with pat phrases; with copy that starts out to be double- meaning and winds up as double- talk; with layouts hackneyed and hard as nails; with illustrations that would win Oscars at any show for Adult Infantilism. Isn't it time that motion picture advertising went in for a little more explana- tion and a little less exclamation?,” he writes. Rowley Confirmed United Artists Theatres’ board of directors, at a N. Y. meeting Friday (6), formally approved president George P. Skouras’ ap- pointment of Edward H, Rowley Sr. as exec v.p. Rowley is president of Rowley United Theatres, which operates 145 houses in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. UAT has a stock interest 4n the Rowley chain. It-climbed again early this week, making a new high of 48% yester- day (Tue$.)., “ 0 Great earnings prospects and an- ticipated gains in the tele depart- ment spurred ABC-Paramount The- atres stock. The shares bettered the old high by more than 3 points, fresh peak being 31%. Stock was up 3% points on the week, and showed a gain of around 6 points from the spot where it retreated after issuance of the annual report. The fact that the company now is doing so well with its television section meshes nicely with the the- atre end of the company, which always has been a real money- maker. DuMont Whirled Upwards , DuMont A stock, on the ASE, also was taken in hand Thursday and Friday and whirled upwards. With a big stake in tv, the fact that there appeared to be a fight oh for control of the corporation spurred bidding. The shares equalled the old high for the year of 17% in Friday’s trading and was up more tlian 3 points on the week. The company’s unfavorable earnings earlier in the week had pushed the shares below 14. Loew’s was another high-flyer, heading for the old peak- and hit- ting 21 at the close. This represent- ed a gain of about three points over the past five weeks. The great volume in these shares ’ which went into new high ground for the year and longer is. shown by ,the fact that DuMont A was the most actively traded stock on the ASE last Friday. Loew’s was second most heavily traded issue on the Big Board the same day. ABC-Paramount Theatres was the fourth most active stock and RCA the fifth in volume also on Friday. The Current interest in pay-tv also gave Skiatron a further rise to 7% bid quotation at the qlose Fri- day. A new 1955 peak, this is an advance of 50c over the previous week. Skiatron now is on Over-the- Counter but is expected to be listed on the American Stock Exchange shortly. National Theatres, which was such a spirited mover in the pre- vious week, rested last week, wind- ing up with a 75c loss at 11%. The stock had to digest the annual earnings statement issued during the past week. The group reported to be interested in the stock have in mind the corporation’s big equity in theatre properties. Paramount Pictures, ostensibly on its stake in pay-tv via a subsidiary, but actually on its huge earnings, pushed to a new high of 43 at the close where it was up nearly 2 points for the week. Columbia Pic- New York Theatre .RADIO CITY MUSIC HU. Rockefeller Center "INTERRUPTED MELODY"! iff CINEMASCOPE in* COLOR sUniof QLEHN FORD • ELEANOR PARKER An M-G-M Picture pnd gtCUCnW SIME PttttttATMl Georg* Dembow In Europe George F. Dembow, newly- elected prez of National Screen Service, has arrived in London for two weeks of huddles with Arnold Williams, managing director of Na- tional Screen Service Ltd., and his staff. "Dembow, who plans to return to his New York homeoffice-May 30, will also visit Italy and France in the course of his European junket. tures also scored an advance of nearly a point to 32%, after back- sliding for several weeks. Eastman Kodak," which also hit a fresh 1955 peak at 82, sported an advance of 2%. Technicolor was extremely active Friday (6) but was down fractionally on the week. Universal gained, to finish at 28%, only about 2 points from the year’s best price. Electric, Winner of Antitrust Action, First on Kansa* Side of River—Starts With ‘Bedeviled’ 1 Missing Actors Hollywood, May 10. Residual checks are being held by the Screen Actors Guild from Allied Artists (for- merly Monogram) for players whom it cannot locate: Betty. Allan, Don Castle, An- gel Cruz, Jim Drum, Bobby Guthrie, Robert Hughes, Herb Jeffries, Milton. Kibbee, Char- lie King, Rena Lenart, George Lewis, Andres Lucas, Elizabeth Marshall, Michael Miller, Rob- ert Parks, William Potter, Jane Richey, Elsie Rogers, Jerome Root, ITaT Scott, David Sharpe, Lanny Simpson, Doreen Try- den, Kippee Valez and Wendy Waldron. A Par Subsidiary By JACK HELLMAN Hollywood, May 16. Think you’re a whiz at figures? Try this for size: “Memorize 4.096 forty-digit numbers at one time and read -them back in eight-mil- lionths of a second.” But it can be done and was dem- onstrated yesterday by Internation- al Telemeter Corp.'s Mnemotron (from the Greek meaning memory device) and the Rand plant in Santa Monica. The world’s larg- est speed magnetic memory, claimed to be faster and more re- liable. that UNIVAC and other “memory” machines, was com- pleted after three years at a cost of nearly $1,000,000. It will sell for “well into six figures.” Among other functions it can perform. To give an idea of the speed in which it Operates, the trigger brain of the computer could “memorize and recite” a complete novel in one second. It’s strictly a “numbers” racket (meaning noise) and the terminplogy used is merely for pur- poses of indicating the blinding speed in which it works. Despite its fantastic accomplishments with digits, one of the engineers asso- ciated . with the project called it “stupid” because “it 'can’t think.” Business machine cards are loaded into the electronic computer, fed to the Mnemotron where it is “memorized” and the results a mat- ter of second. At the demonstra- tion 3,500 rows of numbers were added up in two seconds and re- quired a tape 40 feet long to list all the digits. International Telemeter is a sub- sidiary of Paramount Pictures. Briefs From the Lots Hollywood, May 10. Vincent Sherman will direct “The Story of the Black Cap,” to be filmed in Italy by Titanus Films . . . Centujry Films, Inc., bought the late Lloyd C. Douglas novel, “The Big Fisherman,” for produc- tion in Autumn . . . Albert Band will direct “The Young Guns” un- der a participation deal with Allied Artists , . . Columbia purchased “Roan Stallion” and “Thurso’s Landing,” two poems by Robinson Jeffers Paramount is importing the Fujinon lens from Japan for shooting street scenes in “The Kiss Off.” Warwick Productions signed Vic- tor Mature to star in “Zarak Khan” and a second picture, still untitled, to be filmed abroad for Columbia release . . . Warners signed Ned Washington to write the lyrics for “Miracle in the Rain” . . . Philip A. Waxmftn bought the Richard JesSup novel, “The Cunning and the Haunted,” for indie produc- tion , . . Vincent Price and Sally Forrest join Dana Andrews, Ida Lupino, Rhonda Fleming and George Sanders in Bert E. Fried- lob’s “News is Made at Night,” for United Artists release .. . Copa Productions postponed filming of “Lorenzo the Magnificent” to per- mit Tyrone Power to star in “Music by Duchin,” for Columbia release. . . . Same company will produce “Two Against Tomorrow,” starting in July with Ted Richmond produc- ing. Kansas City, May 10. New first run situation is estab- lished in Kansas City, * Kansas, with the opening of Metro’s “Be- deviled” at the Electric Theatre last week. Move has been expected there following the suit of last year in which the Electric was given a judgment by a jury against six major film distribs. Actually the film is playing day and date with the Roxy Theatre, Kansas City, Mo., operated by the Durwood circuit. Electric is op- erated by W. D. Fulton. House scats 1,850, the largest and the oldest theatre on the Kansas side. Manager Bill Scott handles the theatre which is booked by the Golden Theatre Service. Electric marks the second first- run situation on the Kansas side, with a third, the Avenue, owned and operated by Fulton, to begin first run policy within a fortnight or less. First house with first runs on the Kansas side of the metro- politan area was the Fox Midwest Granada, which plays in a day-, and-date hook-up with the Tower and Uptown theatres in Kansas City, Mo., and the Fairway The- atre in suburban Johnson County Kansas. With the Avenue there will be 11 first-run situations here, and ^eight second run, situations, making a tight scramble for product <4111 around unless there is seme doub- ling up. - ALLIED BOARD SPRING MEET MAY 24 IN N. Y. Allied States Assn, will hold its spring board meeting in New .York at the Waldorf-Astoria May 24-25. Date selected coincides with the industry conference called by Allied and Theatre Owners of America. The industry session is scheduled for May 24, thus giving Allied’s board an opportunity to take action stemming from the conclave of exhibitors and dis- tributors. Sam Engel Heads SPG Hollywood, May 10. Samuel G. Engel, 20th-Fox pro- ducer, has been elected to succeed Arthur Freed as president of the Screen Producers Guild. Engel moved up 'from the post of first vice-president. ‘ 1 •Other new officers are Buddy Adler, first veepee; Walter Mirisch, second veepee; Louis Edelman, third veepee; Julian Blaustein, sec- retary; Jerry Bresler, treasurer, and Robert Arthur, assistant treas- urer. New directors are William H. Wright, Adler, William Thomas, William Goetz, Bresler, Frank Ros- enberg, and Robert Bassler. 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