Variety (April 1957)

16 PICTURES P$l iSIETf Wednesday,, April 24» 1957 *Mel Opera Singers Continued from page 1 — baldi, Antonietta Stella,- Fedora Barbiere (Italian); Delia Rigal. The Met’s 24 tenors work out for the who’s-from-where as follows; American Born: Charles An¬ thony, Jon Crain, Albert DaCosta, Paul Franke, Thomas Hayward, Norman Kelley, Charles Kullman, John McCracken* -Jan Peerce, Brian Sullivan, Richard Tucker. Naturalized: Kurt Baum, Alessio De Paolis. Foreign: Daniele Barioni (Italian); Jussi Bjoerling (Swedish); G. Can> pora (Italian); G. Carelli (Italian); Guilio Gari (Italian); Mario Ortica; Gianni Poggi (Italian); Cesare Val- letti (Italian); Ramon Vina'y (Chile); Wolfgang Windgassen (German); Mario Del Monaco (Italian). Continuing the relentless prob¬ ing of the facts, as contra-distin¬ guished from the Communist prop¬ aganda, the Tucker-Winston study $ifted the baritones thusly: American Born: Arthur Budney, Walter Cassel, Frank Guarrera, Clifford Harvuot, Ossie Hawkins, George Cehanovsky, Ralph Her¬ bert; Geir George London, Calvin Marsh, Robert. McFerrin, Robert Merrill, Theodore Uppmann, Frank Valentino, Leonard Warren. ■ Naturalized: John Brownlee, Martial Singher. Foreign: E. Basstian Bastianini (Italian); Otto Edelmann (German); Tito Gobbi (Italian); Enzo Sordello (Italian); Herman Uhde (German). Finally the bassos of which the Met has a supply of 13, with such stalwarts as Salvatore Baccaloni and Gerhard Pechner noted ;as nat¬ uralized Americans. The facts: • American Born—Loreiiza Alvary, Lawrence Davidson, Jerome Hines, Norman Scott, Louis Sgarto, Gior¬ gio Tozzi. Naturalized: Salvatore Baccaloni, Nicola Moscona, Gerhard Pechner. Foreign: Kurt Boehm .(Ger¬ man); Fernado Corena, Dezso Ern- ster, Cesare Siepe (Italian). Mexican Monopoly Continued from page 7 —; Asked whether the new setup didn’t have the American i distribu¬ tors over a barrel,'Skouras pointed out that'the sword cut two ways, ‘‘After all,” he observed, “they need our product, too.” He held that the situation in no way affected his< deal to finance the production of ten. Mexican films, which 20th will release throughout Latin America. *> Several of the U. S. distribs ‘are definitely concerned over the situ¬ ation. They don’t like to see such a concentration of bargaining power anywhere’ and, in the Mexi¬ can case, they fear it’ll be used against them. Nevertheless, no one is seriously thinking of “getting together” to present a common front. Antitrust Ties Hands “We can’t, under the antitrust laws,” said one. It’s pointed out, however, that the companies can operate jointly abroad under the umbrella of the Webb-Pomerene Act, which is the Act under which ■the Motion Picture Export Assn, was established. There are, apparently, some in¬ vestigations going on at the mo¬ ment to look into the antitrust ■situation in Mexico and to estate lish how far the companies could go in an emergency. “As usual, We aren’t going to get together on anything,” noted one of the.for¬ eign managers. “If we’d be able to do that, we would have done something long ago. in other, sim¬ ilar situations.” Co-related with the distributors’ problem is that of the Government film bank and those producers who are financed by the bank. Majority of these are indies who make at most three to four pix per year. In the local production field, with a number of the heaviest producers completely subsidized by the Jen¬ kins group, they are also in a con¬ trolling position. Two banks—the official Banco de Mexico and the Nacional Finan- cera—are the only ones feeding the government’s Banco Cinematogra- fico. Latter handles a great ma¬ jority of the locally produced indie product. Jenkins, it’s believed, is one of the Financeras heaviest de¬ positors, with reports that his bank¬ ing control is almost equal to his filmic status. Should he, for any reason, decide to withdraw his funds from the Financera, he could easily precipitate a complete industry catastrophe. At the moment, such a move seems farfetched. It could occur, however, should political expedi¬ ency require it. Also, there seems to be a ques¬ tion as to the direct control still exercised by Jenkins. Skouras commented offhandedly that Jen¬ kins was no longer involved It’s, known that the financier has estab¬ lished a trust fund and that Alar¬ con and Iglesias are operating more or less on their own. Thej/. have not always seen eye-to-eye, which is also an important factor in the American distribs’ thinking. Garduno Wants Out? First possible Casualty of the production industry’s present dol¬ drums could easily be Eduardo Garduno, prexy of the Banco Cirie- matografico, Who has been report¬ ed wanting' out at the earliest pos¬ sible date, with recent word he’s considering exiting around July. Garduno’s job is a highly charged political spot, named directly by government sponsors, and super¬ vising both production and distri¬ bution activities for the govern¬ ment-controlled industry. As it stands now, the Jenkins group is as strong if not stronger than the government group, and With any sort of unbalance, the. in¬ dustry in Mexico might easily suf¬ fer a severe setback. Recent re¬ ports that the government’s Clasa Studios and the Churubusco-Azteca Studios were in financial hot water, plus the extremely slow business at' General Abelardo Rodriguez’s Te- peyac Studios have caused numer¬ ous local industryites plenty con¬ cern over the future of native pro¬ duction. Sol Hurok ' ^ Continued from page 2 firmed the deal begun by phone to Moscow'. Royal British Ballet (Sadler’s Wells) currently in N. Y. for a special NBG spectacular next Mon¬ day (29) returns for its longest -road touif.Sept. 8 opening at the Met Opera and hitting 17 • cities with (present estimate) eight bag¬ gage cars of scenery. Royal group repertory will include the unprece¬ dented total of seven full-evening ballets. It’s toured U. S. in 1949, .1950, 1953 and 1955. At least four major dates in Canada, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, are' Included this swmgaround. Black Watch Regiment hnd High¬ land Dancers will be Hurok’s big- circusy event on the arena circuit". Inviting a second coming of light¬ ning at the boffice (Scots Guards tour grossed nearly $1,000,000), Black Watch already has a sub¬ stantial advance sale at Madison Square Garden prior to public an¬ nouncement. Three dates are set at Garden, a fourth is in negotia¬ tion. Hurok regulars returning to the concert stage next season, and now booking, will include in addi¬ tion to those already named his 21-year old Polish pianist, Andre Tsehaikowsky, who opens the N. Y. Philharmonic season- Oct. 10. Youth was' discovered by another Hurok regular, Artur Rubinstein. Victoria de la Angeles will be back after an absence at the .Met Opera. Tours are pending for Jan. Peerce, Isaac Stern, Pila Loranger, Segovia, Vienna Choir Boys, Jerome Hines, Mattiwilda Dobbs, Roberta Peters. On his point that there are never enough • good • attractions to go round Hurok 'remarks -that big- draw virtuosi on his, and other managers’, lists need to rest and revitalize *their talents and that wise’handlers'often, have to cur¬ tail tours. ' “Too much is too much.” His ■ colleagues at the Hurok office say that the maestro exempts himself from the rule of periodic rest. DOSTEL LEASES EL CAPITAN 2,200-Seat Nabe To Reopen In Frisco May 1 San Francisco, April 23. Exhibitor Ralph Dostel has leased the 2,200-seat El Capitan, one of Northern California’s big¬ gest neighborhood theatres, and .will reopen it May 1. Fox West Coast relinquished its<, lease on the house, equipped with the second largest screen in Frisco, a year ago and house has been dark ever since. Dostel' operate^ seve.ral downtown exploitation houses, including the Cinema on Market Street which he has on l lease from Fox*West Coast. Yank Actress —^ Continued from page 1 made a three-minute appearance in the BBC program “Highlight.” Since her tv' date, she has re¬ ceived batches of- letters Offering to provide shows for Americans at the club, . A high-ranking officer is alleged to have told,.her that the tv public¬ ity was “not good for Scottish- Ameritan relations.” Miss Taylor said: “When I re¬ turn to the Sjtates, I shall go to Washington and make a report.” <■ Actress said there were “hordes of girls coming to the base” when she arrived three months, ago. It was later regulated that an airman could bring only one guest. . “What I shall say at Washington will be in- black and white. I don’t want to say more, otherwise - some¬ one there will get the advance story and think I am a crank. “I will place before the U, S. Air Force department the facts on how money is wasted in these American clubs in Britain. I hope no one thinks they are typical of Service clubs in other parts of the world.” Actress has publicly thanked the many helpful Scots who haye of¬ fered to put on. shows for the Americans at the base here. “The Scots have, been wonder¬ ful,” she said. “But the American Air Force takes itself too serious¬ ly—at least the Scots have a sense of humor. I want to get the Air Force out- of my system.” Films Wage Peace Continued from page 3 which was considerably less than the anticipated 50,000,000. Exhibitor financing of films: —- After several failures, a new effort, in this direction .is being . made under the sponsorship of a group of New York'metropolitan area theatremen. This consists, in the main, of providing production coin for ^Distributors Corp. of .America so that the latter can increase its production program. Despite • the renewed efforts, many theatremen regard the attempt with pessimism. Even if the coin is raised, many’ exhibitors doubt that the increase in production will mean much from the boxoffice staildpoint. Anoffort by Theatre Owners of America, via the Exhibitors Film Financial-Group, to finance produc¬ tion ended disastrously when suf¬ ficient exhibitors foiled to support the project. Whether the new at¬ tempt Will meet with any more suc¬ cess is still open to questions. Ef¬ forts of groups of theatremen to finance production goes .back to’the early days of the industry and most of them have ended in failure. The only successful ones were those launched by individual theatremen who were* not required to work with a committee of fellow exhibi¬ tors. Arbitration:—An new effort to formulate an industry arbitration and conciliation system will be launched on May 13. This is the third attempt within the past five years. In addition, there have been several efforts in the past. Since Allied States Assn, has dropped its demand for the arbitration of film rentals, a stipulation that doomed the two previous arbitration at¬ tempts, there is hope.that a system will be worked out this time. There is considerable speculation, how¬ ever, as to whether an arbitration plan will help to . solve the trade differences between distribution and exhibition. It’s hoped that it will, to some extent, cut down the numerous antitrust suits and litiga¬ tion that has plagued the industry since the Government handed down the consent decrees. Home-Toll Video:—As a group, exhibitors are* opposed to pay-as- you-go tv as long as they cannot control it. However, there is a growing number of theatremen— who ar e supporting wired - tv systems • whereby local theatres pipe" film programs into the home. The majority of exhibition is .con¬ tinuing to fight efforts of outside entrepeneurs to obtain the use of the airwaves for the transmission of toll-tv programs. However, wire- tv systems are arousing the interest of many, causing a difference of opinion in the ranks' of exhibition. For example, Ernest G. Stellirigs, president of TOA, is opposed to any system of toll-tv while Julius Gordon, Allied president, is among the wire-tv proponents. Council of Motion Picture Or¬ ganization:—Allied States Is on the verge of returning to the all-in¬ dustry organization. However, when it disagreed with its policies, it promptly pulled out. Question how being pondered is what will pre¬ vent Allied or any other partici¬ pant from acting similarly in* the future. Motion Picture Assn, of America; —United Artists joined the MPA A riot too long ago and promptly re¬ signed when the MPA A failed to. support UA on a censorship ques¬ tion. Now UA is contemplating re¬ joining the MPAA. Again; it’s asked, what will prevent UA or any other company from taking the same action in the future. Pix Static Continued from page 1 ■ - — above $4,000, Johnson made an in¬ teresting point: “Their- movement upward in purchasing power does not mean they will automatically take on the same desires, beliefs and standard of living of the income group into which they have moved; Yet the change in purchasing power since ,1950 represented by' those with [ disposable income over $4,000 is vast — $163,000,000,000 in 1954 against $248,000,000,000 estimated for 1960 as compared with $88,000,- 000,000 in 1950. That’s after taxes!” Johnson said the prewar days were Jtypified by the $25 a week family. The “middle income” fam¬ ily, fell into the $1,000 to $1,500 a year group. Now the “middle in¬ come” family is up to $4,0,00 to $6,000. “After taking into account both increased taxes and present costs of maintaining an equivalent 1940 standard’ .of living in the necessities of food, clothing and shelter, the middle income family now has discretionary spending power over, six times as great as the prewar middle income family,” Johnson said. He said total discretionary spend¬ ing *power for the entire popula¬ tion during the second quarter of 1956 had reached the level of $162,900,000,000. . By the fourth quarter Of the same year ft had gone up to $170,200,000,000. It could reach $180,000,000,000 by 1958. Discretionary spending power is defined at the amount of money people have to spend after pur¬ chasing ' the absolute necessities. Johnston said in’ 1956 it repre¬ sented 58% of the total disposable income, after taxes, whereas in. 1940 it represented only one-third of the much smaller total. “That represents a huge pool of purchas¬ ing power dependent upon the whim or discretion of the individu¬ als as to how it is to be used,” he maintained. Implied point is that the motion picture industry, to get its cut of the available spending money in people’s pockets, must, go after it more determinedly and with more imagination. Johnston noted the significant changes-in the educational level of Americans, with 98% more high- school graduates in the adult pop¬ ulation than in 1940. He noted, too", the change in the attitude to¬ wards family life, i.e: growing per¬ centage of those married, greater home ownership, larger families, more children per familysubur¬ ban living and-a resurgence of re¬ ligion. He said that, in three years from nbw—by 1960—there would be a rapid, dmcrease in the number of those'reaching 18 years, and adult¬ hood. This, in .turn, would point to a record birth rate over the fol¬ lowing 15 .years. As for the child- makeup .Of the population,' 1956 has seen *76% more children under five than jn 1940 and 68% more in the 5-9 year group. In terms of the motion picture, that means that the juvenile mar¬ ket is growing steadily and the “teen-age” audience looms as more of a b.o. factor than ever, ‘ Johnson noted the' change to Suburban living, with 83% of the 14,000,000 net. population growth since' 194t0 taking place in subur¬ ban parts of metropolitan areas. While the big department stores have followed-this trend,.film dis¬ tribution still is keyed primarily to the downtown runs, with only a few cities—like Los Angeles— adapting to suit the changed popu¬ lation pattern. Finally, Johnson pointed to the changes in leisure time. Total weeks of vacation of U. S. workers doubled in 10 years^from 34,400,- 000 weeks in’ 1946 to 70,000,000 in 1956. About 85% of these vaca¬ tions were with pay. Art Ghetto’ Continued from page 4 =~ — the filmj Shurlock had said: “The most important problem pas to do with the sympathetic portrayal of the illicit sex affair between our male arid female leads, which cul¬ minates in the scene of the young soldier jumping out of her bedroom wearing ^only his shirt. This il¬ licit sex affair is condoned by everybody, including- the girl’s father. Such a treatment of sex¬ ual promiscuity is unacceptable un¬ der the code.” Shelton’s problem with “08/15” via-a-vis the Code is likely to re¬ cur more frequently ill the days to come, as importers seek and find ways of making their films more accepting to the mass audience. Increasingly, pictures are being dubbed into English and American stars are /used to hypo the im¬ ports’ commercial release.' At the theatre-end, partly due to a short¬ age of product,^ the acceptance of foreign lingualers as first or sec¬ ond features, is'definitely growing. In the past, the vast majority of imports never applied for a seal (and most couldn’t have gotten it anyway) % on the simple theory that a seal was a waste of mbney. The art house's playing the overseas product are oblivious of the seal, and for the most part they care little, if at all, about the rating from the Catholic Legion of De¬ cency. • Now, however, the situa¬ tion is slowly changing. • Dubbing of a picture is expen¬ sive, and the independent dis¬ tributor has to get"the coirimercial runs to get his money back. One of the first hazards he wants to eliminate is the lack of a seal. While many theatres will book pic¬ tures regardless of seal, some of the important circuits do demand a Code okay and—in some cases —something better than a Legion “C” rating. In some instances, it’s been pos¬ sible to edit pictures to Shurlock’s satisfaction. In others, elimination of key scenes virtually cuts the heart out of a film. Shurlock him¬ self has recognized tiiis and has ex¬ pressed his distaste for having to pass on pictures that come to him in finished form and on which he has not had’ an opportunity to o.o, the script, if for no other rea¬ son that at least to make sugges¬ tions* Yet both MPAA prexy Eric John¬ ston and Shurlock have steadfastly turned down the idea of a “dual” seal that would recognize the-dif¬ ferent morales and approaches to life that prevail abroad and that are reflected in pictures made there. Of course, the Code’s argu¬ ment against such a special classi¬ fication becomes even stronger the moment that pictures are dubbed and released to general audiences, which are precisely the audiences the Code seeks to “protect.”. When the MPAA in the past has discussed the notion of a special seal, it’s always been in terms of subtitled films and by virtue of their necessarily limited circu¬ lation in the arties. Metro’s Policy — Continued from page 3 , , — hence our decisions must be made quickly and they must be Fight.” Reagan has emphasized that a policy of “constpuctive discontent” will govern the. future operation of the. sales department. . He added that this point of view will be ob¬ served at the homeoffice in ap¬ praising the accomplishment of each salesman and each branch of¬ fice, “The, free ride has been over for a long time,” Reagan said. “When business was lush, we could afford to overlook some of the weaknesses in the distribution set¬ up, but in the light of today’s con¬ ditions; in the industry—and our company—we can no longer afford such luxuries.” The sales chief warned that every m*an on the staff “must carry his share of the load” because the company could not afford to “carry a single free ride” if “we are to turn in the revenue we must have to compete successfully with our competitiors.” Rejuvenation of the sales depart¬ ment has apparently been prompted by orders of prexy Joseph R. Vogel that the company must take stern steps- to increase its earnings. In recent years-Me- tro’&income from pictures has been on the downgrade. While Vogel is striving to improve the quality of the product.