Variety (February 1959)

UShieTy PICTUItKS Wednesday, February 11, 1959 PRODUCTION JUNGLE GUIDES Revue (MCA) Moving In—Will Split Stages for TV Use—Other Changes Hollywood, Feb. 10. Music Corp. of America yester¬ day (Mon.), took possession of Uni¬ versal Studios, which it bought re¬ cently. MCA immediately launched plans for multi-million dollar mod¬ ernization and construction pro¬ gram. Studio henceforth will be known as Revue Studios. A1 Dorskind, who had been vee- pee of Revue Productions, has exited that company to become vice-president in charge of studio operations. Expected are cutting rooms, and possibly new wardrobe and props facilities. Revue is retaining vir¬ tually all Universal department heads, who go on Revue payroll, with takeover of lot. Universal, which now leases space from Revue, was reported to be considering suspending its tv commercial department. Universal front office had terse “will hot con¬ firm or deny” response to reports. George Boles, head of studio’s com¬ mercial department, is leaving company to join Leo Burnett agency. Revue plans to slice some of present motion picture stages into smaller, more compact telepix stages, as was done at Republic, where Revue production is current¬ ly headquartered. No date has been set for moveover to Universal City lot from Republic, although Revue Productions’ mailing room, steno¬ graphic pool have already shifted over. Management operations of Revue are to be moved there in immediate future. Some of Revue series are already blueprinted for production at Universal City, one of them new Ray Milland series, “Crisis.” It’s believed one of reasons for U considering abandoning its video commercial division is lack of space. With new Revue produc¬ tions activity at studio, it’s expect¬ ed studio will soon be near ca¬ pacity. Phone operators at valley lot yesterday were answering calls with “Revue - Universal,” but spokesman explained this was only because there hadn’t been time to install two sets of phones—one for Revue studios, other for Universal. What’s For Gluck? Universal is preparing to dis¬ band its television unit, the sub¬ sidiary devoted to the making of commercials for tv. Norman Gluck, head of the division since its in¬ ception, is reportedly negotiating with a number of firms in an effort to shift the operation intact to an¬ other affiliation. Although the unit has been a successful one, grossing more than $3,000,000 .annually, it’s seen a victim of Universal’s new style*of operation. The film company sold its Coast studio to Music Corp. of America with an arrangement to lease*, back space for its own pro¬ duction needs. Under the deal, .U-| is required to pay rental only when the ^production space. is .utilized. Wfftle this arrangement is seen as working to U’s advantage in the makftjg of feature films, it’s not regarded as economically feasible to rdfit space for the making of tv commercials. The latter is an ex- trenffily competitive market and U could conceivably be at a disad¬ vantage in attempting to match the bids of firms devoted exclusively to the production of commercials. Previously, U had no difficulty in offering competitive prices since the tv production setup was chalked up as part of the overhead of its formerly-owned studio. In addition, U formerly had a big selling point in going after the tv business, since it could offer the pitch that the technicians and facilities of a major studio would be at the dis¬ posal of the advertisers. The com¬ pany no longer has these tech¬ nicians or facilities, merely utiliz¬ ing thefn when it has a production eoin e- • .. ■ - .. Uh Sit CHATTANOOGA OUCHOO Five Majors and Par Chain Named In Antitruster Five majors and American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres have been named defendants in a $3,100,000 treble-damage anti¬ trust suit brought in N.Y. Federal Court by Independent Theatres Inc. Operating four hardtops and three drive-ins in. the Chattanooga, Tenn., area, the plaintiff charges the d 1 s t r i b u t o r s discriminated against its houses by refusing to accept bids for first-run features. Papers filed by attorney William Gold also claim the distribs con¬ spired with certain AB-PT houses to give the latter the benefit of first-run product. Aside from AB- PT, defendants include 20th-Fox, Paramount, Warners, Loew’s, Uni¬ versal, Citation Films and the Wilby-Kincey Service Corp. (an AB-PT subsidiary). Stockholders Get Wilmington, Feb. 10. Stockholders of Warner Bros, at annual meeting here today were told the company’s first quarter ending last Nov. 30 showed net profit of $1,922,000 after taxes, or $1.10 a share, compared to a loss of $467,000 In the corresponding quarter of a year ago. Former Federal Judge Hugh M. Morris, chairman of the meeting, said that' the company’s second quarter which ends March l also has bright prospects. The judge went into no details as to the cause for the hike in profits but a Warners publicity man put it tersely enough. “Good pictures,” he said. One big money-maker, he commented, is “Auntie Mame,” while the com¬ pany has on outstanding prestige picture in “The Old Man and the Sea”’ While winning prizes all over the world, the latter film can¬ not be considered a real money¬ maker to date, stockholders were told. Over 80% of the outstanding stock was represented by proxy or in person. Jack L. Warner, Al¬ bert Warner, Benjamin Kalmen- son, Charles Allen Jr., Serge Semenenko were reelected direc¬ tors for two years. Other board members, Waddill Catchings, Stan- leigh P. Friedman, Thomas J. Martin and Robert W: Perkins, serve until 1960. The meeting also approved granting, of stock options to three officers of the company, William T. Orr, James B. Conkling, and Rod¬ ney Erickson. Each will be entitled to purchase 10,000 shares. Modification of stock options, previously granted were approved for Jack L. Warner, 60,000 shares at $22; Benjamin Kalmenson, 40,- 000 shares at $19; Herman Starr, 15,000 shares at $19; Wolfe Cohen, 10,000 shares at $19; Steve Thril¬ ling, 10,000 (increased from 5,000) at $19. Before the modification, the option price for Warner was $29.29 and the others was $25.77. The financial report showed net current assets were $35,929,000 and debt maturing after one year was $5,975,000 at Nov. 28, 1958, compared with $34,736,000 and $6,- 051,000, respectively, at Aug. 31, 1958. Film rentals, sales; etc., for the three months ending Nov. 28, 1958, amounted to $18,938,000 as compared with $15,764,000 for the corresponding period last year. . Harmony prevailed at annual meeting. . The Boy. Who Owned an Ele¬ phant Company Inc. has been au¬ thorized to conduct motion picture business in New York, with capital stock of 200. shares, no par value. Robert Kagan is a director and , - t, cnm PjTout Dick Clark s Video Fan Mail As Tipping Teens Theatre Tastes By HY HOLLINGER As a new service to its affiliated independent producers, Columbia has established a budgeting de¬ partment for the producers who want to make films abroad. The new 10-man department, headed by overseas production supervisor William Graf, is part of Col’s pro¬ duction setup in Great Britain, headed by Mike Frankovich. In addition to supplying the budgeting service for producers who desire it, Col’s British opera¬ tion, one of the most active of American companies, provides all the necessary spadework for the establishment of a U.S. film unit in a foreign country. According to ] Graf, Col’s services in no way usurp the creativeness or functions j of the independent producer, but) are aimed , to give “advice when it is required” and, at the same time, •to protect Columbia’s investment. On the basis of Col’s experience, in filming pictures in England as well as In other parts of the world, Graf noted, the company can come up with a more realistic and prac¬ tical budget than a producer who has never made a film overseas. Moreover, he said, Col’s assump¬ tion of many of technical functions relieves a producer of many com¬ plicated details and leave him free to devote himself to the creative aspects of the film. Know-How In association with an independ¬ ent producer or one of his staffers, Col’s overseas unit will scout the locations, select the necessary technicians, provide for the hous-. ing of the cast and crew, obtain the necessary local Government permits, arrange for the rate o! pay of local workers* etc. Every¬ thing that is required for a pro¬ duction unit is ready and waiting on the day the producer arrives with his unit, Graf pointed out. As part of his duties, which have seen him visit almost every coun¬ try in Europe, Graf frequently must obtain the approval of the script from local government authorities. I* some instances, countries express the fear that a certain story might offend its own nationals or a nation with which it has friendly relations. For ex¬ ample, when “The Bridge on the River Kwai” was set for filming in Ceylon, local authorities feared that the picture might offend the Japanese. It was Graf’s task to see to it that the Japanese am¬ bassador would notify the Ceylon government to the contrary. Arranging of the technical and physical facilities is only a small part of foreign - location filming, Graf pointed out. It requires, m addition, long and frequently com¬ plicated negotiations with local government officials, including prime ministers and ministers of finance, commerce and labor. Indie producers, he noted, more than likely do not have the time ox the ■experience to handle these details and therefore turn over these functions to Col’s specialists, Graf declared. Graf has headed Col’s produc¬ tion unit in England for the past seven years. He stopped over in New York last week on his way back from Havana where he scouted locations for Carol Reed’s production of Graham Greene’s “Our Man in Havana,” which Col is financing and releasing. . Preminger, Undivided Hollywood, Feb. 10, Board of the Screen Directors’ Guild last night (Mon.) unanimous¬ ly voted to give Otto Preminger sole credit as director of Samuel Goldwyn’s production of “Porgy and Bess.”. Rouben Mamoulian had appealed to the Guild’s credits committee for credit on the basis of his long preparatory work on the film. Mamoulian initially was signed to direct the production and was re- EXPAND NAT'L SCREEN Charles Welsh Added With New ‘Specials’ Service National Screen Service, ex¬ panding, has appointed Charles L. Welsh as homeoffice sales rep for its special films division, according to Burton E. Robbins, sales v.p. For the past 27 years Welsh was a partner in Welgot Trailer Serv¬ ice. Branching out, NSS Is now in¬ troducing a special announcement films division. Hiring of Welsh is in line with this. Italo Kickoff Rome, Feb. 10. Going by current pre-release dates, Titanus’ “The Naked Maja” shapes as the top grosser to hit Italy from any source since records were kept. The Ava Gardner- Anthony Franciosa starrer is set¬ ting a torrid pace in Rome and the keys. The pre-release run in Rome just ended with over $65,000 grossed by a single house, showing a daily average of $1,500, which is tops for this market. Milan and Turin b.o. figures are even more impressive. With the national total said to hit a fast $800,000, producers’ estimate for the final Italian gross now runs to about 2,000,000,000 lire (some $3,000,000), which makes it the champion for this country. Picture gets a United Artists re¬ lease in the States and is handled by Metro in most other markets. Henry Koster directed for producer Goffredo Lombardo. Picture was made in English, with an Italian track dubbed in later. Gotham Publicists Seek Skills in Coast Studios The N.Y. Screen Publicists Guild has filed notice with 20th-Fox and Warner Bros, that it is reopening its contracts with the two compa¬ nies to demand a $210 weekly min¬ imum for senior publicists and a 20% wage hike for ail pub-ad staffers earning $140.50 or more. In asking for reopening of the contracts, the SPG Is seeking par¬ ity, with its Coast counterpart,* the Publicists Assn, in Hollywood, which has a $210 minimum for senior publicists. The minimum in the east is $140.50. The SPG's contracts with 2Qth and WB permit reopening on wages and mlnimums as of Feb. 10. Re¬ openings with Columbia and Uni¬ versal come up a month later, fol¬ lowed by' a' review of the Metro ' Dick Clark, who appears on ABC-TV and has a large teenage following, hag organized his own film company, Drexel Film Corp., which in turn has signed a two- film deal with United Artists. One of the two will star Clark. Idea Is to make pictures with a specific appeal to the teen set and based on Clark’s impressions of what his audience likes and dis-« likes. Charles Reeves, exec v.p. of Drexel, and Marvin Josephson, the outfit’s business v.p.; flew to the Coast Monday (9) to huddle there ; with UA on production details on the Clark starrer. The second pic¬ ture may be a coproduction, but won’t have Clark in the lead. While on the Coast, Reeves and Josephson will huddle : \vith an¬ other major for a more extensive schedule ef pictures. Duo also will seek additional properties for Clark and for the Drexel produc¬ tion roster. They’ll be on the look¬ out for a top exec to head Drexel’s Coast office. Company’s film and tv activities are currently head¬ quartered in Gotham. According to Reeves, Clark gets thousands of letters from young¬ sters every week, many of them ex¬ pressing their tv and film views. “As a result, Clark knows better than anyone, else what makes good boxoffice for this key segment of today’s movie audience, and that knowledge is being put to use in all Drexel productions, whether he (Clark) stars in the picture or not.” WB Teaming With Filmways in TV Warner Bras, and Filmways have finalized a partnership ar¬ rangement unique in the annals of tv blurb production. Filmways, essentially a Gotham-based firm, and Warner, in the same blurb areas on the Coast, have formed what the particioants call “an op¬ erating alliance.” Filmways is moving out of the General Service lot in Hollywood, and, in effect, giving up its Coast production operation. Its staff and material are moving over to War¬ ners lot. And, by the same token, the combined Wamers-Filmways biz in New York will go through Filmways existing plant there. Al¬ though not offering full details of the two-ply deal, the participants did explain the situation as a “bookkeeping arrangement.” Ac¬ tually, neither shares in the prof¬ its of the other via teleblurbing and industrial film-making. Instead, the deal evidently offers I Warners, on the one hand, easy ac- J cess to the. greater commercial Client contacts of the well-estab¬ lished Filmways hlurbery, plus use of the latter’s Gotham video tape machinery, at least until Warners A _ . . , gets tape equipment in Hollywood, contract United Artists has a Job the other hand, Filmways, straight two-year deal without a’**-■ " * •* . ’ reopening. clause. The present contracts with 20th and WB went into effect last April and continue until April- 9, 1960. However, the Guild has the right to terminate the contracts on April 11 of this year if no agreement is reached on the current negotia¬ tions. Th N.Y. union has long fought for equality with the Coast pub¬ licists. The SPG charges that the film companies have been forejng standards downward in recent years through slashes in employ¬ ment. In addition, it’s maintained that current staffers are doing the work of individuals who received well over the current minimums when they were axed from the pay¬ rolls. At WB, for example, it’s pointed out that some of the re¬ cently dismissed employees were making $235 weekly while several former Metro staffers received as mqch as, $3Q0.. it , .. ... through this tieup with the major, can eliminate the great additional- expense of maintaining separate film studio space at General Serv¬ ice. The only money consideration that at the moment appears to be tangible in this reciprocal produc¬ tion arrangement is the fact that Warners is to be given stock op¬ tions in Filmways. If Warners ex¬ ercises the options in Filmways, a new public corporation, it will not take the controlling interests out of the hands of Filmways' present management, headed by Martin Ransohoff. Filmways will not get options for Warners stock. Steinbrink on Theatre Bd. Judge Meier Steinbrink has been elected to the board of United Art¬ ists Theatre Circuit Inc. Steinbrink twice served on the N.Y.' Supreme Court. He Is active in philanthropic and Jewish affairs. J ^ J J.: ‘- 7 i ~ 3 . -- - > L .’i