Variety (July 1958)

Wednesday, July 2, 1958 IsJatlETY [Doe* It Favor or Hamper Efficiency?] ; Not new at all, indeed one of the oldest of proposals in the his¬ tory of the film industry, is the idea of centering financial, mana¬ gerial and publicity control alongside production on the West Coast; This is now t^e proposed plan for Warner Bros, though it only just recently established new headquarters on 5th Avenue, n:y. ■ .. . The scheme is not new even in the instance of Warners since Charles Einfeld, when he was WB pub-ad chief operated from the Burbank studios. Metro has lately given the ad-pub stripes to its West Coast veteran, Howard Strickling. That Was part of the econ¬ omy initiated by President Joe Yogel just as economy, in part* motivates the prospective WB transfer west; . The late Harry: Cohn within the year is known to have mulled a switch of Columbia Pictures’ publicity to the studio but out¬ spoken friends of his finally convinced Cohn that it was healthier for publicity and promotion'to be far away from studio politics, and the insularity of the film colony with its tendency to lose per¬ spective on promotional values.. The East-West argument is never settled because men with op¬ posing views argue the pros and dons. The fact remains that near¬ ly all magazines (See adjoining story, this page) are located in. Manhattan and on the practical question of publicity-promotion ef¬ ficiency and contacts the odds still favor Manhattan. . V [One angled- comment on the WB : move itself. is that it is a “delaying action.” Xndustryites who' inake thw .comment are coy about what such delaying action might delay.l ... AUDITORS MOVED WEST Denver - To - L.A, Tor National . Theatre Treasured and Eads BY HAPPY BENWAY Schroon Lake, N.Y., July 1. Receipts of the Will Rogers Me¬ morial Hospital and Research .La¬ boratory, as of May 31, totalled $649,898. This Sum, according to the report submitted by treasurer S. H. (Si). Fabian, is an all-time high for the nine-year period the hospital has been under film indus¬ try sponsorship. Last year’s $555;- 261 was the previous high mark. SPEED SAM PEARLMAN Showman To Quit Biz For Cafe- Motel Venture Sam Pearlmari. who has resigned from Stanley . Warner- Cinerama Corp. where he’s been easfern di¬ vision manager since the advent of Cinerama, is leaving this month to “ u ! manager.of the,N. Y. State Theatre,; the country a ls0 1 has supervised the launching of the country, a l ?-O, ^ new Cinerama release in the , Annual meeting over last week: 1 end at Herman Robbins’ Edgewa-; Pal t f ra s £ nng!s J ter Motel, attended •by.: ^honorary' 1 '^ ° Previously v had been members TY1or ' throughout learned that when the motion pic-, ture industry assumed responsibil-.j ea ®5 ; . , , ■■ , ity for the hospital .in Saranac Lake I, ■ F l?? nSs , $ » h , i in 1949, the sum of $269,482 was: f?L hlm at *>'<-' Taft Monday turned over. Since then, receipts!* 30 '* . have amounted to $3.048,308. for ’ the nine-year period.. Expenses of the N.Y. office, including fund raising, totalled $.528,561 for the nine years. Warner Bros.’ decision to move the headquarters of its domestic and foreign sales departments and “allied components”:, from New York to the Coast has led to con¬ siderable trade Speculation as how this move will affect the company’s publicity activities, particularly: in relationship to .-national magazines and the fan books. According to one fan mag edlr tor, if the film companies do nov leave public relations people in N.Y., ‘‘it’ll be tough: for us,” He added that such a move would be a definite hardship for the maga¬ zines. “Whenever we want any¬ thing,” he Said, “we deal directly with the N.Y. office.” Few of the national . mags and fan hooks maintain Coast offices permanently - attached repre¬ sentatives. For those that , do, it's pointed out, the eventual decision on story ideas, pictures and plant- able material is made by the editors in N.Y. . it’s noted, for example, that among the magazines with Coast offices — Life, Look, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Town &/ Country — the! Hollywood - based representatives merely “suggest” the ideas for the stories, and that no action is taken Until’ it is okayed by the N.Y. edi¬ tors. In the case -of the fashion magazines, it’s stressed, the . top editors in Gotham usually insist on supervising., the photography lay¬ outs. | Though other film, companies say New. York Is HQ [ they’re going to keep a close w*atch McCalls has an advertising rep ! on the results of the Warner Bros, on the Coast, but all the editorial I. move to the Coast, it’s pointed out matter is supervised from N.Y, { that the WB case still is a rather Such publications as Coronet, Red ! special one. Book, Cosmopolitan, Ladies. Home i : . Key figure is Benjamin Kal- JOurnal, Esquire and True do.not- merisori, the exec v.p./who's been The. hospital's, combined fund- raising drive for 1957 brought in a . record $547,703, according to Eu¬ gene Picker, chairman of the fund¬ raising and * finance committee. . Under the. leadership of Fabian and Ned Depiriet, the 1957 audi¬ ence collection’ and the Christmas t Continued on page 16) : ‘Anne Frank’ Should Hit Harder on Screen Than Having written in some addi¬ tional scenes, the husband-and-wife writing team of Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich believe that the film version of “Diary of Anne Frank” will surpass the legit show in impact. ‘‘The presence of danger will be . much greater in the picture, and so will the fun of it,” they said in New York last, week, having just recently returned from a trip to Europe which also took them to Russia. “There are things you. can do in a film that you just can’t do on the stage. - The film medium is more expansive, if you want it that, way, and yet it also can be ; . inuch more intimate/’ . One example cited by the. Hack- etts is the; air-raid scenes which will be in the film; but wasn’t in the play (though it’s in the diary). : Camera will catch the beams of the searchlights, the planes coming over and the expressed fear of Anne’s family of where they would go should their rooftop hideout be bit or the building catch fire. . Picture is being : directed at 20th- Fox by George Stevens. Stage set,, only encompassing the., entire house, was duplicated for the film. Stevens insisted that the cameras shouldn’t go out of the building to preserve the “eooped-up” feel- (Continued on page 11) to SamUel. Goldwyn. has issued the edict that his production of "Porgy and Bess” will not be ; dubbed in any foreign language for presenta¬ tion anywhere in. : the world. The producer insists that the film play theatres everywhere in the En¬ glish language, only. ... Reasons given for GolilWyn’s ac¬ tion are: (1) a group of the world’s finest singers have been assembled for the film;'. (2) “Porgy and Bess” prbved an international success when it toured as a stage produce tion, and (3). a. translation of the Ira Gershwin lyrics Into another language “wouid lessen the beauty of the songs”, . ‘MADE ON HOLLYWOOD . . Hollywood, July 1. UPA Pictures will shutter , its N.Y. production arm this month and shift all production to main studio in Burbank, Cal.: Only a sales and liaison, staff will remain in Gotham, supervised by vp. Her¬ bert Klynn from .Coast. Firm last year turned out $550,- 000 in animated tv commercials in the N.Y. plant, compared to about $350,000 in Burbank, . Burbank facility will make about $500,000 worth of commercials this year plug filling orders which would have been completed in ,east. • Some of personnel of N.Y. studio will be absorbed at Burbank, boss- man Stephen Bosustow says, but no decision has been made as to number. . 1 ; Unions Await Answer on Who Pays as Los Angeles, July 1. . National Theatres has. moved the accounting dept, of its Denver (Fox Inter-Mountain) Division to chain’s headquarters here, In further streamlining company’s operations. Harry . B. Green; Fox Inter- Mountain treasurer, has been trans¬ ferred to Coast, along with four ac¬ countants* William L. Zint, Robert E, Reed, Jack Ritman and Anthony P. Geranich. : Denver, accounting, dept, will op¬ erate under A M. Ahlskog, treas¬ urer of Fox West Coast Theatres, NT subsid. have permanent Coast reps or of¬ fices. The Sunday supplements such as American Weekly, This Week and Parade have Coast affil¬ iations, but as in the Case of the national mags, the decisions rest with the N.Y. editors. Good House¬ keeping’s editor Herb Mayes who for 10 years, had a Hollywood edi- running the eastern end of the Warner operation and who now seems to be moving into produc¬ tion, with prexy Jack L. Warner. Decision to shift the Warner centre of gravity to Hollywood (the target date is mid-November) is as much tied to the desire for econo¬ mies as it is apparently geared to + Warner Bros, has notified thi Screen Publicists Guild, the union representing homeoffice pub-ad staffers, that the entire staff oi 16—14 in domestic and two in foreign—will be laid off on Oct. 1 This is the date the company hai chosen for; the shift of all its ac¬ tivities to the Coast. Despite the pinkslip notice, it’i believed that there is a possibility that the company will maintain some of the pub-ad men in New York. It’s conceded that WB may be protecting itself in keeping with the contract with the union which provides for a 90-day notification if the company contemplates lay¬ offs or transfers. Letter to the SPG was signed by Charles Boas- berg, sales chief. A spokesman for the SPG de¬ scribed the WB action “as a whole¬ sale execution which wipes out 423 years of service with Warner Bros We are* all family people with heayy obligations.” The spokes¬ man added that it was “callou* and heartless” and that it was also a blow to the industry “to hava veteran, faithful and hardworking employees thrown out at a tima when business building is needed more then ever.” Earlier, unions representing WB homeoffice employees advised their members not to answer the com¬ pany’s inquiry relating to which of them would want to be considered for reremployment on the Coast when WB’s shifts its operation. Ac¬ cording to Russell M. Moss, exec v.p. and biz agent of. the Home- office Employees Union, Local H-63, International Alliance of (Continued bn page 21) tor in the person of Ruth HarbeTt, extend Kalmensori’s influence at the recently transferred her to N.Y. ;t company. Thus, while he’ll have It’s also understood that Here, a; % new. say-so in production plan- new, teenage fan book Which had i hing/he obviously doesn’t plan to been publishing on the Coast, •; is relinquish any of his authority over moving to N.Y. on the advice of its; sales and other activities, distributors. . . 1 Many in the trade are of the . In recent years there’s been a; opinion ..that ’ the Warner, move general retrenchment in the fan«won’t last very long and the corn- magazines and/ as a result, only two—Photoplay and Motion Pic- CContinued on page 6) After All Trouble He Had With‘Little Acre’ By HANK WERBA Madrid, July I. Producer-film director Anthony Maim, sharing “God’s Little Acre” net with United Artists, Phil Yor- dan and Erskine Caldwell, has been following Variety’s across; the-natlon . b.o. returns" with de¬ light during the past weeks. • -“I'm particularly gratified,” he told this reporter/ “that ‘Acre’ is doing the best business in Georgia since GWTW, even though the Talmadge administration . vetoed my march to Augusta last year with a location unit.” In a long, drawn-out bout with the Legion of Decency, Mann said he succeeded in getting a “C” rat¬ ing changed to “B” with relatively minor editing of “Acre” finale and elimination of “a few breast shots/’ although at the outset Legion of- (Continued on page Iff) . ment is frequently that“they’ll be back in six months/’. Situation will be watched with much the same interest as has been the . Warner closing of exchanges in Britain. Other companies are known to lie playing with the idea of moving to the Coast (20th-Fox being one, though not In the near future). If they do, the circumstances of the shift will differ considerably from the motivations; that are taking WB but west.- Baker to Loew’s, Miami Loew’s new 17l|th St. Theatre in Miami Beach, scheduled to Open soon, will be managed by Donald E. Baker, according to Loew’s Theatres v.p. John F. Murphy. Baker is being transferred from St. Louis where he manages Loew’s Orpheum. : He will take over the reins from Frank Arena; who has represented Loew’s during the period of the theatre’s construction and furnish¬ ing. Arena will return to his‘post as manager of Loew’s Twin Drive- In Theatres in Chicago. William F. Cox, assistant man¬ ager of Loew’s Theatre, Indian¬ apolis, V'ill succeed Baker in St. Louis, • Boys Lie in Path of Cars ; Greensboro, N. C,, July 1. Add to dangers of outdoor theatres: Three boys were struck by an automobile as they lay on a blanket watching a film at Crescent Drive-In Theatre near High Point. One, 8, was son of manager. All were lying on the gfound on the first row in path of cars. Accident happened as patron started to leave the theatre grounds. No charges Vrera filed. .... „ , TV Refugee, Plugs AU-Departments-In-West; Sees Improved Liaison The combination of sales and advertising-publicity with produc¬ tion under one roof on the Coast is wholly desirable, producer Her¬ bert Bayard Swope Jr. said in N.Y. last week. Stressing, he wasn’t expressing anything but his own, personal Views (Swope is a producer for 20th-Fox), he said the move west to. him seemed “.essential.” “So many of the decisions concerning the ultimate presentation of a film are made in New York where, ac¬ tually, they should be made In 'Hollywood and in. conjunction with the creators,” he opined. Swope* after homeoffice- huddles re his latest, “The Bravados,” a. Gregory Peck starrer, said he had become convinced that “this sort of perfect liaison should be on a permanent basis.” He added that this would be possible if the New York end moVed out west. Swope is a staff producer with 20th, having come from tv. He’s tinder a . seven-year contract and has no participation in the films he makes.' Originally hired to direct, he has yet to meg a single pic¬ ture.; “They seem to need pro¬ ducers,” he observed. “Product is the key out there.” Starting off with “Hilda Urane,” Swope then did “True Story of Jesse James,” “Three Brave Men” and “The Bravados.” He’s got “The Quick Draw,” with Robert Evans and Hugh O’Brian, completed and is now discussing his next assign¬ ment. Producer said there had been some difference of opinion re the use of O’Brian, star of the “Wyatt Earp” series on tv. Studio felt that a star on a tv series shouldn’t be Used on pix, partly because he was pyer-exposed and partly be¬ cause people felt they’d be made to pay for something which, on the air, they get free. Swope said that,, in his view, tv stars would be okay for theatrical films “if they have parts, that are different from the ones they play on the air.”