Variety (February 1959)

18 PICTURES P&RIEfY Wednesday, February 11, 1959 Profits of Assoc.-British Touch Off lively Activity in TV Shares On London Market; Other Tele Setups By HAROLD MYERS London, Feb. 10. Lively (stock exchange activity in tv shares followed the publica¬ tion last week of the profit esti¬ mates by Associated British Pic¬ ture Corp. Sir Philip Warter*s forecast that the corporation would make around $13,000,000 for the current financial year (ending in March) touched off a new boom.; And with good reason. The earn¬ ings of all the majors look like be¬ ing ahead of even the fabulous returns of the past year. Of ABPC’s total profit, it is reck¬ oned that at least $8,500,000 came from its wholly-owned tv subsidi¬ ary, which operates only two days and the West of England, will net a tidy $2,000,000. Estimates put the capacity of the Southern-TV network, the company in which Rank, Associated Newspapers and Amalgamated Press are equal part¬ ners, at a minimum of $1,500,000 annually once the teething period has passed. Its ‘Ciarumor On Wall Street KERASOTES APPLAUDS 20TH’S STEREO PRINTS Theatre Owners of America has hailed 20th-Fox’s decision to make prints available again with stereo¬ phonic sound as a “forward step for -our industry.” In a letter to 20th topper Spyros P. Skouras, TOA prexy George G. Kerasotes congratulated Skouras on the move and offered the co¬ operation of TOA “in any way pos¬ sible to make exhibitors aware of the availability of stereophonic prints.” Kerasotes pointed out that thea¬ tres had large sums of money in¬ vested in stereo sound equipment, but no prints to employ the equip¬ ment. “This I felt was particularly lamentable because of the growing popularity of home stereophonic sound equipment,” Kerasotes said. KANSAS CITY PRODUCTION CO. The recent activity in the stock a"week'(over^the'weekends) in the j of Cinerama, Inc., listed on the Midlands and the north of England, j American Stock Exchange, is at- Remainder came from its produc-. tributed by knowledgeable. Wall combined^And° the^stimated 1 j ®^ ee ^ ers ‘° a "Cmarumor" rather son non fmm film industriv activi- tnsn to any acti Sarafian, Rhoden Jr. Alumnus, Secures Local Backing Kansas City, Feb. 10. New indie producing outfit has been formed he 'e, and has its first feature cn drawing board. Writer- _ — . „ . . , , . ,, , ... director-nroducer Richard. C. Sara- 500.000 from film industriy activi- tnsn to any actual deal that would; fian already has scouted locations ties is considered a notable achieve- cause the quick rise in -the value ’ m the Arkansas Ozarks, and shortly ment under present day conditions. ^ the shares. j will trip to the Coast to wrap up The finances and the earning ca- J Most persistent report in Wall I soms ta ^ eTlt Interiors of the film the controversial issues raised s C00,0G0 to $12,000,000 loan with an western cantering around a hang- prior to G 'anada’s annual stock-j insurance company so he could jing^and^tentatively titled ‘Ordeal holders meet'ng. One of the big j launch h : s own production-exhibi¬ tion program. Reeves acknowl¬ edged that he was seeking financ¬ ing, but daided that any loan had been completed. question marks was the compara¬ tive smallness of Granada’s earn¬ ings of $2,800,000, which included returns not only from its tv net¬ work in the north of England, but also from its chain of theatres and its string of candy stores. As the industry well knows lo¬ cally, Granada-TV entered into an accommodation arrangement with Associated-Rediffusion in the early days of its operation. As a result of this, a substantial proportion of its earnings is taken over by A-R and included in the latter com- n _ ?rn T* pany’s balance sheet. In the last: D&tfi «)“ lOpS, financial year, A-R showed a trad-' ing profit o~ around 814 000,000 and it’s -estimated that approxi¬ mately one-third of that total came directly from the deal with Granada. Deal Continues Until July, 1959 at Dry Red.” Sarafian formerly was with Im¬ perial Productions, the Elmer Rho¬ den Jr., local indie company which has produced three budget fea- Another rumor making the.)*** He wrote The^ Cool and the rounds of Wall St. was that Cine- KW ard The . r.-.ma Inc. had developed a. new I New company is fatled M«id.an single lens camera. However, this 1 Productions Inc., v'lth Sherman innovafon has been on Reeves'; Rosenberg, as president; SolBaum, drawing board for some time and, I it’s understood, still requires sev- | eral million dollars for complete development. vice president; Leonard Belove, treasurer; and Sarafian, secretary. AH are Kansas Citians.* Bede Best ; Continued from page 1 ; Directs’ Specials For , n T r ■n Jean easily he absorbed by anyone t.Rltra and L Parsons l who has mastered braille. The wjia l aiauMai bQl ^ using the braille cell sys _ Hollywood, Feb. 10. | tern, give the melody line, the The Screen Directors Guild an-1 chords and time values simultane- The A-R-Granada deal is to con- ; nual aVv - ar( j f or the best directorial. ously. The new system features new tinue until July next year, and; Granada’s earning capacity c’an be | achievement, for^ 1959 went to Vin-| e new^ enc * ur _ gauged from the fact that in the. cente M:nelli for Gigi m the, improvisation. Students in null n/IH cnmAtViimy 11__..J +_ .. - .... _, current year it will add something ; theatrical division and to Richard like $7,000,000 to A-R’s profits. All j Bare for the “All Our Yesterday’s” this, it is believed, is in return for (Segment of "77 Sunset* Strip” in financial aid to the tune of about j the tv field. Both directors were $2,500,000 made in the early part saluted by the Guild at a dinner of 1956. The arrangement, however, a t the Beverly Hilton Hotel Satur- included other programming as- , day (7) night, pects, one of which gave Granada Finalists for the theatrical film the right to make all film deals for ; award, in addition to “Gigi,” were A-R. That arrangement, it is un- “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Richard derstood. has been terminated. In addition to ABC-TV’s $8,500,- 000 for the year ending next March, the following is a forecast of the earnings of the remaining commer¬ cial tv majors: 1. Associated-Rediffusion. A min- Brooks directing; “The Defiant Ones.” Stanley Kramer; “Inn of the new classes will he encouraged to beecme teachers of the system, Berk said. M>ss Best, whose faves in the old days were “I Only Have Eves For You” and “With My Eyes Wide Ooen,” wts one of the early song belters. In 1934, she found she wrs goin^ blind. One eye was sightless, the other had 40% vision. Later, she sang with Carl Ravazza’s tfrch, hut band chirping became too the Sixth Hanpiness,” Mark Rob- r dif£i ^ ult . she joined A1 Pearce & son, and I Want to Live, Robert j Gang on rad'o for a while and • .. ^ > .. ... , I then went with the Emory Deutsch Rere Clam cited for the best j variety s how, hut her sight con- i directed non-English speaking pic- r tir .. pd f a n’ imum of $22,000,000 for the year j ture” for “Gates of Paris.” j ‘ . . . in ending April next, including the; Frank CaDra received the David returned “fr , me $7,000,000 from Granada. This is ) W. Griffith award and Louella Par-: Boston f° d pia “?f d a V£Sr in respect of a five-day-a-week op-; sons got a surprise award for “loy¬ alty, devotion and many valuable contributions to the industry.” 10 First ‘Journey’ Dotes Metro’s general sales manager John P. Byrne has set 10 special eration in the London area only. 2. Associated Television. In ex¬ cess of $15,000,000 for the year endoing next Aoril. The company operate-: fh 1 jondon station at weekends and the Midlands station on weekdays. _____ _ 3. Granada-TV. Between $10 to ■ pre-release engagements of ‘"The $12,000,000 ' for the year ending J Journey,” starring Yul Brynner September next, out of which ap- j and Deborah Kerr, for Washing- proximately 87,000.000 will be paid j ton’s Birthday. over to A-R, Granada has the j In addition to a Radio City Music franchise for the weekday opera- Hall, N.Y., date, the Anatole Lit- tion of the Northern outlets in j vak production will open between Lancashire and Yorkshire. j Feb. 18-20 in' Cleveland, Columbus, intense Stock Trading * Houston, Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago. These profit estimates, which are Denver, San Francisco and Los reflected da% in intense Stock Ex- i Angeles. change trading, and a continuing f_ and steady rise in the stock value j of all the leading tv companies, puts the British television industry financially well ahead of the major U. S. networks. Not only are the profits substantially larger, but the returns are being accomplished with a much lower capital invest¬ ment. Additionally, the franchise hold¬ ers in the smaller seven-day-a-week regional territories are also sharing comparatively in the golden tv bonanza. Insiders reckon that the Scottish network is earning arounc $2,500,000 a year and that this yea: TWW, the outlet for South Wales spots. She married and had a son. A series of misfortunes developed. Her husband died, her mother be¬ came an invalid and the singer’s sight sank to 5%. A corneal trans¬ plant operation was unsuccessful. She began learning braille, and as she continued, she found how cumbersome and difficult it was for the sightless who wished to compose or play pop music. From the difficulties with the braille method of teaching composing and playing, she and Berk evolved the simpler symbols and boiled down song sheets. The new system will be offered to blind persons at “reasonable” tuition rates. Berk said. Revised Yank-Rank Pattern Rank Film Distributors of America is eliminating regional man¬ agers and closing two of its exchanges, reducing the total of RFDA offices from 17 to 15. Exchanges being closed involve Salt Lake City, which will be combined with Denver, and St. Louis, which is to be combined with Kansas City. The Washington office is also shuttering, hut RFDA is reopening Philadelphia instead. Field supervision from now on will be exercised from the home- office, v.:ie~e Abe Weiner, formerly New England regional man¬ ager, * osen named assistant to Foster Blake, general sales mar' 1 ' TIost cf the regional mam"-- v : ’l vr-iain on as tmnnch managers. Amusement Stock Quotations Week Ended Tuesday (10) N, Y. Stock Exchange * Week Ended Monday (9) t Actual Volume. t Ex-dividend (Courtesy of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc.) TOA’s Broadened Washington Meet State and Regional Official* Join Board—C. of £• And How to Help it a Main Topic -+ UNITED NATIONS' FEATURE Marlon Brando to Narrate Version For America The United Nations has com¬ pleted its first feature-length film, ‘Power Among Men.” In color, it was produced by the film services of the U.N. Office of Public In¬ formation. Thorold Dickinson and J. C. Sheers produced the picture. The American version will be narrated by Marlon Brando. Virgil Thomp¬ son has composed and conducted the music, which is played by the N.Y. Philharmonic. Film is due to bow at gala in¬ vitational previews next month. Its theme is human achievement and threats to achievement in the atomic age. Quarterly Habit: Disney Pays 10c Walt Disney Productions, which has been marking substantial gains in both earnings and “rating” on the New York Stock Exchange, is holding the line on its dividends to stockholders. Board of directors last week declared the regular quarterly divvy of 10c. per share. At the same time, Disney issue on the big board, still going up and up, went over the $50 mark for the first time.- This compares with the apparently continuing cash divvy of 40c’ per annum plus, as in 1958, 3% in stock. It compares, too, with a net profit of $629,838 for the 14-week first quarter which ended last Jan. 3. This was equal to 40c per share on the 1,581,100 shares outstanding. In the corresponding period of a year ago Disney earned $527,684, or 34c per share. Company’s gross revenue in new quarter amounted to $11,799,302, up from $10,830,898 a year ago. What Theatreowners of America originally planned as a mid-winter meeting in Washington March 1-3 appears to be expanding into a full- sized conclave of the exhibitor unit. TOA prexy George G. Kerasotes has invited the presidents and sec- I retaries of 4 * state and regional units te the Capital to map a pro¬ gram of action on state and na¬ tional problems confronting thea- treraen. A luncheon and roundtable con¬ ference will be held on March 2 at-the Mayflower Hotel, with the ! aim being to effect a closer liaison | among the units and the national i office. Topping the agenda will he [discussions on means of strength¬ ening the exchange area commit- I tees for the American Congress of Exhibitors, and TOA’s national campaign to outlaw pay-tv by Con¬ gressional legislation, to have mili¬ tary posts play pix after neighbor¬ ing commercial houses, and to [ guard against extension of any I national ininimum wage legislation to the theatre .industry. As part of the Washington con¬ clave, ,TQA members will see their Representatives, .and Senators to present the theatre industry’s prob¬ lems. In addition, TOA will host a cocktail party for the solons. From the* state and local units are expected to come proposals to coordinate and exchange Informa¬ tion on local censorship, minimum wages, daylight savings time, and local admission taxes. SHOWMAN'S GOLDEN ANN1 Portsmouth, N. H., Feb. 10-. Mr. and Mrs. Daniel J. Hennes¬ sey were honored at a reception in the First Methodist Church par¬ ish house when they observed their 50th wedding anniversary Feb. 1. Hennessey was for a long time associated with the Maine-New Hampshire Theatre Co., managing the chain’s theatres in Lewiston, Augusta and Brunswick, Me., and Berlin and Portsmouth, N. H., Anthony Asquith signed to direct “Libel” for Metro.