Variety (December 1956)

! Wednesday, JDegem^er 5» 1956 PtiferEfr PICTURES T X + • +■ i ' Bob Hope was the No. 2 headliner next to g. of h. Bob O'Donnell at the Picture Pioneers' annual dinner and among the nifties: “In Texas among all those, millionaires they'd pick up Howard Hughes for vagrancy" . . . “He (O’Donnell) started in the picture business when Conrad. Nagel. Bessie Love and Nita Naldi didn’t know they •were making pictures for Channel 9 ... I saw a picture on tv that was so old that Conrad Veldt was on our side" . . . saluting Mike Todd and his “80 Days Around the World” . . . “and he hasn't done : . bad with, his nights either!" . . . “when Uncle Sam told Mike how ' much he owes he exclaimed. ‘What do they want me to do—give up cigars?'," j __ . Texan’s Night at Waldorf Lively With Trade Quips —Schwartz Banishes Stage Wait Stuff Robert J. O'Donnell, v.p.-general manager of Interstate Theatres. Dallas, was the industry's No. One man at the Waldorf Friday (30) night as the top brass from exhibi¬ tion and various .film companies turned out to salute him as the “pioneer of the year." With Sol A. Schwartz, president of RKO Thea¬ tres, as* a dinner chairman bent on barring boredom, and Bob Hope as emcee, this 18th annual spotlight¬ ing of an industry figure was high on pace and humor. ,New members of the Motion Pic¬ ture * Pioneers were inducted by Judge Ferdinand Pecora and Jack Cohn, and Schwartz intro’d the dais toppers, which sounded like a film exec “Who’s Who." Hope came on to quip that Schwartz, “in addition to his other duties, is vicepresident in charge of Sid Luft. in reference to Mrs. (Judy Garland) Luft’s stand at the RKO/f Palace. (J Eric A. Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Assn, of Amer¬ ica, read a telegram from Presh- dent Eisenhower which cited O’Donnell’s efforts in behalf of “enlightenment and understand¬ ing." ' Hope again: “This is a wonderful group. I see at least two men who (Continued on page 22) Praise Be-Deferred Hollywood, Dec. 4. Paramount has cut its pub¬ licity department to the bone as a result of the current pro¬ duction slowdown. Six prais- ers — Michael Scotti, Frank Friedrichsen, John Del Valle, Irwyn Franklyn, Jack Hirsh- berg and Jack Nicholas—have either departed the lot in the last f£w weeks or will go with¬ in the next few days when they finish current assignments. Studio now has only “The Joker" and “The Tin Star" be¬ fore the cameras. ‘Carnival Story’ Profit Seen Near $500,000, King Bros. Reports King Bros. Productions, Inc., chalked up a net profit of $125,- 024.64 before Federal income taxes Only 6 Roll In Bleak December Hollywood, Dec. 4. December will probably be the bleakest production month in modem Hollywood history. Only six films are scheduled among the nine major lots, and one or two of these may not start because of the unavailability, of star names. Scheduled starters are “Hellcats of the Navy" and “Jeanne Eagles" at Columbia; “The Way to Gold" and “The Wayward Bus" at 20th- Fox; “Man on Fire" at Metro and “Pylon" at Universal-International. Of the list, the 20th entries are the most doubtful starters since neither has a director or a com¬ pleted cast as yet. There are several indie films but on a tentative basis. for fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 1956, prexy Frank King- disclosed in a report to stockholders. Figure com¬ pared with $101,678.66 for preced¬ ing year, * repping an increase of 33%. Net profit afte'r provision of $58,- 710.80 for taxes amounted to $66,- 313.84. Total assets of company were listed at $950,419.66. King advised shareholders that it was expected outfit’s “Carnival Story," released last year, will real¬ ize profits in excess of $500,000. Greater success is anticipated, he declared, from “The Brave One," now in early release. A new source of profit is expect¬ ed from company’s entry into tele¬ vision, Bfing reported. First series will be “The Adventures of Sinbad the Sailor," and plans are under¬ way for a second, “Adventures of a Gaucho," to be produced in sub¬ ject's Souui American locale. Nicholson Party in N. Y. Trio of execs of American Inter¬ national Pictures in New York from-the Coast over the weekend to hold a series of regional hud¬ dles with their distributors and franchise holders. Comprising the contingent are prexy James H. Nicholsoh, v.p. Samuel Z. Arkoff and national sales manager Leojn Blender. Group will also confer with local circuit heads and have scheduled exhibitor screenings of three re¬ cently completed AIP productions. The AIP officials remain in N. Y. until Saturday (8) when they plane to New Orleans for sales confabs, with their Southern distribs. U. S. Gheers Aliens == Continued from page 3 the problem of how to be helpful to foreign industries with their eye on the U.S. and yet to draw the precise line beyond which it can¬ not go. The Americans went so far as to subsidize the Italian promo¬ tion—and later distribution—effort in'' the States. MPEA is constantly faced with demands for quid-pro- quo distribution. It has set up a Foreign Films Advisory Unit which, for several years now, has been handing out procedural advice to overseas pro¬ ducers with pix they’d like shown in the market. MPEA arranges screenings of such films for inter¬ ested parties. It’s pointed out that no other in¬ dustry in the world has gone to this length to aid what is essen¬ tially competition. To this the. re¬ ply is that a.) the American com¬ panies can well afford to boost imports which, even at their best, barely dent the market, and, b.) MPEA is painfully aware that, dominating the screens of the World as it does, it must keep re¬ assuring one and sundry that the U.S. is a free market where, with¬ in natural limitations, everyone gets h<is chance. Rank’s^ entry into the market will put to rest, once and for all, British contentions that American distribs haven’t done justice to British pix. There may still remain the charge, of course, that U.S. exhibitors resist. The MPEA feels it will not have much of a problem explaining that its members no longer control the circuits. SOME KEEP'EM Use of a wrong advertising ap¬ proach and an unappealing title can cost a picture $3,000,000 to $4,000,000 in gross Income, it was charged at the Allied States Assn, convention in Dallas last week. The assertion was' made by re- search£r..Al„S.mdlinger, _who based his claim on surveys made by his staff. He noted, for example, that de¬ spite the widespread criticism in advertising circles of Warner Bros.' campaign on “The Bad Seed," his staff of researcheas found no re¬ sentment amongdhe general public which, he said, liked the picture and was not disappointed because of the ad campaign. Sindlinger claimed that in areas where the controversial * campaign was u^ed the picture grossed 30% hotter than in sections where orpinary advertising was usecL-HEfe main¬ tained that if a commonplace cam¬ paign had been used the picture would have grossed only $1,000,000 instead of the $4,000,000 it is ex¬ pected to hit. Women & Westerns In appraising the campaign orf WB's “Giant," Sindlinger declared that a simple change, such as re¬ moving the western hat worn by the late James Dean in the orig¬ inal advertising, made a difference in the picture’s gross. “There are a lot of people, especially women, who might have remained away from the. picture if they thought it was a western,” Sindlinger noted. He pointed to a strange quirk— discovered by his researchers— femmes like westerns while they’re in the theatre, but they don’t want to go to see them. No ‘Persuasion' Sindlinger ridiculed such titles as “The Friendly Persuasion,” “Death of a Scoundrel," and “The Sleeping Prince." He charged that the public when confronted with these titles expressed no interest in the films. However, when given an outline of the story of each of the pictures, Sindlinger said there was considerable “ interest in the property. As a result of a survey, he noted, WB is changing the title of “The Sleeping Prince" to “The Prince and the Show Girl." Lat¬ ter title, he said, won immediate response from the public and fin¬ ished first among some half a doz¬ en titles tested. He claimed the new title could make a $4,000,000 difference in the picture’s gross. REPUBLIC HANDOUTS CALLED ‘BOOTLEGGED’ Hollywood, Dec. 4. IATSE Publicists Assn., for the second tim,e in month, has warned Republic prexy Herbert J. Yates that the firm must cease “bootleg¬ ging" publicity releases. Studio, with no theatrical film production plans at the moment, shuttered its praisery a month ago-and is now the only major without a function¬ ing press feed. Association pointed out that un¬ der the basic agreement all news and publicity material must be handled by members of the Pub¬ licists Assn. It charged that non¬ members have been sending re¬ leases to the press since the pub¬ licity department was axed. Copyright Attorney Harriet t 1 . Pilpel who's a specialist in-author relations chides thf Ineffectuality Of Authors to Protect Own Rights * * ★ another of the many editorial features in the upcoming 51st Anniversary Number of P^RIETY United Artists Keys Up Field Team As Other Companies Adopt UA-Like Partnership Deals 2-to-l RKO-Scope Hollywood, Dec. 4. A new widescreen process perfected by RKO will be in¬ troduced on Sol Lesser’s “Tarzan and the Lost Safari" and will be used for practi¬ cally every one of the com¬ pany’s upcoming releases. Tagged RKO-scope, the ana- morphic process will have a screen ratio of 2-to-l. Venice Festival Not ‘Recognized’ International Federation of Film. Producer Assns. executive council, meeting in Paris, recently, has nix¬ ed official recognition for the 1957 Venice Film Festival. Move came on technical grounds since Venice didn’t submit its rules under the deadline. The IFPA decision isn't final and there is still plenty of time for it to include Venice in the months to come. It does, however, emphasize European and American misgivings re the Venice rules which arrogate to Venice itself the right to pick films for the fest. Both the Americans and the British have made it plain they object to this procedure. Motion Picture Export Assn, didn’t offici¬ ally participate at this year’s Venice shindig. When Eric Johnston was in Mos¬ cow some months back, he ran into the Italians who were holding a film week there. They told him that “something had to be done" to restore U.S. participation at Venice. It’s definite that, unless there is a change in basic rules, MPEA will continue to stay out. Meanwhile, Cannes has issued new rules for its fest. They limit official entries to a single picture per country. However, Cannes will continue to invite films. Schary Eclipse Continued from page 3 ——; more to partnership deals with in¬ dependent producers, the top man now is to be an “administrator." He’s to approve the partnerships and perhaps assist the indies in putting up their packages. But there’s no longer those onetime well-populated stables of contract producers, directors and players who had to be kept employed to justify their upper-bracket sala¬ ries. There’s no longer the control to. be exercised over story inter¬ pretation, casting and production development. This obtains largely with just about every studio. The indies are at, work in large number at WB and while Jack Warner is still at the helm he, too, has relegated himself to a certain extent to ad¬ ministrator status. ’ Ditto 20th, where Zanuck himself is function¬ ing as an indie and Buddly Adler, while taking top billing, is . in ad¬ ministration command. Harry Cohn’s iron-hand rule at Columbia has been kid gloved as per the overall Hollywood pattern. It’s become an industry of package deals all around. At RKO, William Dozier is the v.p. in charge of pro¬ duction but only half of the RKO production is to be studio fostered, the other 50% coming from free¬ lance film-makers. Further reducing the power of Warner; Cohn, Dozier, Adler, Y. Frank Freeman at Paramount and Ed Muhl (working under A1 Daff) at Universal are the participations. The stars are taking a part of the ownership of their pictures and are. demanding, and receiving, all sorts of approval rights. The czar has done a fade. As other \ companies more- and more are engaging in partnership deals with independent producers. United Artists i^ faced with a strong competitive situation. But the company is confident that its record of experience in merchan¬ dising product will continue to bring stars, producers, writers, di¬ rectors, etc., into the field. This was 1 a major point made at UA’s New York conference of field exploitation men and homeoffice department heads over the ‘past week. .Max E. Youngstein, v.p,, re¬ lated how the company emerged from a redrink operation some five years ago with only a few boxoffice pictures but with much promo¬ tional drive. The Italian-made “Fabiola," which.had been turned down by other distributors, was ac¬ cepted for release by UA and, bal- lied to the hilt, grossed $1,000,000 domestically,. said Youngstein. . The campaigns for “African Queen" and “Moulin Rouge” clear¬ ly helped push both entries in the top-money brackets, he added. Youngstein participated in the confab along with distribution v.p. William J. Heineman, ad-pub direc¬ tor Roger Lewis, Coast publicity coordinator Leon Roth, exploitation chief Mori Krushen;. assistant ad- pub director A1 Tamarin and pub¬ licity manager Mort Nathaqson. Youngstein pointed to UA’s line¬ up of 48 features for 1957 which represent, he said, an investment of $42,000,000. These,' he pro¬ claimed, are to be backed by inten¬ sive merchandising, with new em¬ phasis On local “sell." Heineman said the job of the fieldman com¬ bines the functions of specialists in advertising, publicity and ex¬ ploitation and because of changed market conditions the exhibitor is (Continued on page 25) Yanks Waive Takeout In Dollars of Gain Should British Kill B.O. Tax Board of the Motion Picture Ex¬ port Assn, last week voted to waive dollar remittance on funds accru¬ ing to U.S. distribs in Britain un¬ der any local admission tax cut there. Info, figured to be helpful ijHhe British traders battle to get the tax sliced, has been relayed to the British Chancellor of the Ex¬ chequer. , It’s figured, that some 35% of any tax cut would benefit the distribs - in Tfntain. American companies, which are short on sterling in Britain anyway, made the gesture partially to offset local criticism that they went along with the British tax campaign for strictly selfish gains. Par Rental Space at 75%l __;_j Hollywood, Dec. 4. Paramount’s film-rental opera¬ tion of its Sunset sound stages is now functioning at 75% of capac¬ ity and will be working at capacity .^shortly after the first of the year. ‘'Only one of the four stages now in use is being utilized for theat¬ rical film production. It houses “Johnny Trouble,” initial effort of the new Clarion Productions. Other tenants are BBD&O which is filling General Electric tele¬ blurbs; Tom R. Curtis productions, readying “Sergeant Preston" tele- pix; and the DuPont Electronicam system which has taken one stage for demonstration purposes. By the first of the year two other features planned by Tudor Produc¬ tions and Milner Brothers Produc¬ tions, will also be housed at the Arthur /Massed 24, son of an Ot¬ tawa French Baptist clergyman, has signed an acting contract with M-G-M British Studios and Ealing Films/Ltd.