Variety (March 1959)

Wednesday, March 4, 1959 Variety pictures QUALITY-QUANTITY PARLAY Re: IATSE Pact With Coast Studios, 8 Locals Okay, 2 Nix, 12 to Vote Hollywood, March 3. Eight locals have ratified the IATSE’s collective bargaining agreement with the major theatre feature and television film produc¬ ers, with two holding out for addi¬ tional negotiations after nixing pact as-is, and 12 others still to vote. Latest to approve pact are Mo¬ tion Picture Studio Projectionists, Local 165; Set Designers, Local 847; and Illustrators and Matte Artists, Local 790. Others which previously voted approval include Property Men, Local 44; Film Tech¬ nicians, Local 683; Costumers, Lo¬ cal 705; First Aid, Local 767; and Scenic and Title Artists, Local 816. Nixing: Sound Technicians, Lo¬ cal 695; and Set Painters, Local 729. Ansco Going to Paramount Pix Deal for Paramount Pictures to acquire the Ansco division of Gen¬ eral Analine & Film Corp. looked imminent this week, with the Hollywood company to pay a little short of $25,000,000 for the camera and photographic equipment prop¬ erty. Serving, in effect, as agent in the transaction is Bache & Co., Wall Street brokers. While the various parts of "Gen¬ eral Analine are up for bids—the seller being the U.S. Dept, of Jus¬ tice, which siezed the corporation as alien property in 1944—the downtown word is that Par is on the inside. It was added that the film company already is well un¬ derway with negotiations with In- terhandel, Swiss holding company, which will share in the proceeds with the U.S. Government. Interhandel at the outset wanted to be paid off in Par stock but Par, which fias been pursuing a capitali¬ zation shrinkage program for the last several years, insisted on pay¬ ing cash. Interhandel is now will¬ ing to go along with this. Tied in with this is Par’s hold¬ ings of 51% of the ownership of Famous Players Canadian, above- the-border exhibition outfit. Par is out to peddle about half of its FPC stock, with the proceeds to be used as part of the payment for Ansco. Tonka/ Under the Gun Of ‘Beauty/ Postponed Pittsburgh, March 3. As a result of the record run of “Auntie Marne” at the Stanley, where the Rosalind Russell starrer is now in its 11th week, Walt Dis¬ ney is withdrawing “Tonka” from Stanley deluxer for an indefinite period. The reason is that Disney doesn’t want two of his pictures competing against each other, as they would be doing if “Tonka” were permitted to follow “Marne” since “Sleeping Beauty” opens a grind run Friday (6) at the Nixon, the local legit house. When “Tonka” was inked in after “Mame” at the Stanley, no¬ body figured latter picture would be around so long inasmuch as pre¬ vious record-holder was “Sayo- nara” a year ago and it ran just six and a half weeks. The Gary Cooper-Maria Schell “Hanging Tree” will come in when “Marne” winds. It’.U probably be mid-May before “Tonka” makes it now- Amusement Bonds, 19 th Bond issues of the amuse¬ ment industry on the New York Stock Exchange had a total trading. valuation of $114,573,905 as of last Jan. 30. Amusements ranked 19th on the list of all industrial groups in terms of market value. Average price for the amuse¬ ment bonds was $107.79. Schnee’s WB Script Joh Hollywood, March 3. Charles Schnee, who bowed out of a producer contract at Columbia Pictures several weeks ago to re¬ turn to writing, will script Michael Frost’s upcoming novel, “The Crowded Sky,” for his first activity. He checked into WB yesterday. Film Stocks Moved Upward by 1.7% During February Film stocks, as a group, moved up 1.7% during the month of Feb¬ ruary, compared with gains of 1.8% in January and 0.4% in December, on the Netf York Stock Exchange. Thus, an upturn that began more than a year ago is still continuing. Month after month the film se¬ curities have been going up and up, to the extent that many of the professional analysts are shaking their heads in incredulity. The downtowners have been high on the picture business right along, some because of the blockbuster money being raked in by certain productions and others because of the potential revenue from the dis¬ position of assets. But the sustained nature of the uptrend, over such a long haul, has come as an unexpected develop¬ ment. Most spectacular advance has been made by Walt Disney Produc¬ tions, which climbed to another new high of $51 per common share, from a low of $14. Warners went up $2.37 3 /£ per share for the month, •Loew’s went up $1,50. Paramount up 50c and 20th-Fox was off $2. Strength of Disney reflects the powerhouse boxoffice activity of “Sleeping Beauty.” Although in re¬ lease only a few weeks, returns so far strongly indicate that Dis¬ ney’s investment of almost $6,- 000,000 in the cartoon feature will pay off handsomely. And impor¬ tantly for the trade to note, there hasn’t been evidence of any public balking at the roadshow prices for the picture, which runs only 75 minutes. Naturally, there’s no telling anent how many people are staying away because of the tariff ($1.25 for moppets at times for the run at New York’s Criterion). But packed houses mirror the fact that there’s not too much resentment. BEST U1 DOMESTIC TAKE Proving that, even in the “block¬ buster” era, quantity and quality on a release schedule can still make for a winning combination. United Artists in 1958 hit record highs in both its domestic and for¬ eign film rentals. Its total gross for the year was $82,000,000, an increase of close to $12,000,000 from 1957. But the real significance lies in the sharp up¬ ward curve in gross domestic, i.e ; U. S. and Canadian film rentals during a year w r hen several other major outfits showed a decline from that same source. UA, which intends to sharply increase its releases for *1959, took in $45,600,000 in domestic rentals during '58. That’s an improvement of more than $10,000,000 over 1957. That record was achieved with vol¬ ume and an uninhibited approach to advertising spending. It flies in the |ace of the theory that it’s only the concentration on biggies that pays off these days. On the foreign. side, ’58 rentals . totalled $32,000,000 as against $29,- I. 400,000 the prior year. This from a ; company, which, in 1951, showed a : foreign gross of $4;738,000 and which owns no theatres abroad. .. \ Domestic '57 rentals were $35,-. 400,000. in a 52-week year. The; $45,600,000 total was for 53 weeks.! Some of the big UA entries dur-1 ing ’58 ware “The Vikings,” “Thej Defiant Ones,” “Witness for the j Prosecution,” “God's Little Acre’ and “The Big Country.” Jets, Phones Close O’Seas Gap; Skouras in ‘Bold-Tomorrow’ Stance; Payroll Cuts Unnerve 20th Men 'G-STRING ENTERPRISES' Jack Dreyfus Jr. Chief Investor In Film Venture ' By FRED HIFT Jack Dreyfus Jr., of the Wall Street brokerage house bearing his name, is among the partners in a new picture business company called G-String Enterprises. He put up $7,500 toward the capitali¬ zation and, at that figure, is the top investor. Details were unavailable (Drev-1 sales supervisory setup in Paris Impact of the jet age and of improved international communica¬ tions is dictating the new shape of 20th-Fox’s : foreign operations, Spyros P. Skouras, 20th-Fox prez, said in N.Y. last week. Skouras spoke as his organiza¬ tion’s personnel appeared some¬ what stunned by the cuts he’s made abroad and in the anticipa¬ tion of cuts he’s asserted to' be planning at the domestic side. 20th has eliminated the Continental Build New Faces, List Names Fore And Aft-TOA ‘Hard-Sell Joe’ Levine Shoots Ad-Pub Bankroll; Exceeds ‘Rights’ 3-to-l Joseph E. Levine, head of Em¬ bassy Pictures of Boston, is shell¬ ing out for the marketing of his newest feature an amount equal to three or four times what the dis¬ tribution rights cost him. The production is “Hercules,” . Italian-made entry which Levine! has had dubbed and re-scored.} j He’s ordered 600 prints from Pathe i ! at a price of $360,000. He hopes! to have all of them in work around ‘ the country in mid-July. He’s blueprinted a campaign in mag¬ azines and supplements alone which will cost $250,000. Add to this unspecified amounts for local ■ blurbs. | Levine has a luncheon set for March 20 in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria, New York, and acceptances already indicate an audience of 1.000 exhibitors, press, etc. This naturally is to'fo¬ cus attention on his “Hercules.” There’s nothing official on ex¬ actly what Levine put up in ac¬ quiring “Hercules” but the word in (Continued on page 16) 3 Stooges Panic Naborhood Kids BlooktuUieni Wkick jbosi't Zaplode. Sca/ie Bankl 0^ 1 9Pnaduceni By GENE The banks aren’t doing business with independ¬ ents any more. For one reason, they’re scared. Figuring in the trade is that four lending houses made up about 97% of all monies advanced to in¬ die film-makers in past and the latter have been shut off by all four. Group consists of Bank of America, Bankers Trust Co., Chemical Corn Ex¬ change and Security First National of Los Angeles. With the exception of a Samuel Goldwyn or Walt Disney, these institutions are making capital avail¬ able only to the distributors. The reasoning is clear. The film companies are sufficiently well heeled to guarantee a loan 100% whereas the individual pro¬ ducer usually is not. Thus it is that all borrowed money is between the banks* and the distributors; the independent producer is forced to rely upon the distrib for the budget outlay. A banker prominent in film financing this week further explained the relatively new niodus oper¬ and!. He said all banks are traditionally conserva¬ tive and in these days the Hollywood producers are just too hellbent on blockbuster conquests. This means unusually tall expenditures. “We can’t ARNEEL - ’. fus is vacationing somewhere in \ an< I the national territories now Florida) but the obvious interpre- i will report directly to New York, tation is that the outfit is to en-; Implication automatically is much gage in the handling of a strip pic. j S rea ter local autonomy. Partnership papers simply state ! That Edward Ugast, the Far East that the character of the business is ! supervisor, and Sam Burger, who’s to engage in “making, producing, I been on special assignments, also renting and/or selling one or more ! kave been given their walking pa- motion picture films” in New York.! P ers ’ was confirmed by Skouras. 1 The Latin American setup so far hasn’t been touched. “With the jet planes cutting travel time, And the telephone so close and conveniently at hand, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t change with the times,” Shouras said. “From now’ on, every office abroad is just a sub-office. They’ll report to New’ York.” There are no immediate indications of any plans to augment the N.Y. staff or to re-employ the 20th employees ; who have been let go. Washington, March 3. ! Asked whether he thought other As part of its effort to helo de-: companies might follow suit in the velop new r film personalities Thea- wake °* 20th’s streamlining moves, tre Owners of America has re- iSkouras sa . ld 'J dont care about quested producers to re-list the Continued on page 14‘ cast of characters, along with their ; picture roles, at the end of the fea¬ ture. In addition, the film-makers were asked to place the new char¬ acters in the beginning with the. name underlined, so that identifi- j cation of the new personality by the audience throughout the pic- ■■ ture would be easier. j This w’as reported to TOA’s mid- ’ The Three Stooges, revived by winter board meeting here by the showing of their old shorts on Henry G. Plitt, chairman of TOA’s television, continue to ride the committee on new' personality de-; crest of a new popularity w’ave. velopment and liason with the i Loew’s Theatres in N. Y. latched Academy of Motion Picture Arts ; 0 n to the comedians this past week- an £i^£ iei \ ces * j end for sock results in three thea- Plitt also reported that broad: tres in the Bronx, Brooklyn and general arrangements have been j Queens. worked out with the film compa-; Special kiddle shows, featuring nies to have the new personalities { three Three Stooges comedies, car- visit the territories along with the ; toons and the comedians irt person, saturation release of their pictures, j SCO red sellouts Saturday (28) at the Plitt said his committee had re- j Para dise, Kings and Valencia The- ceived many letters from.producers : a t re s at admission prices of 75c for who had pledged to go along with j children and 90c for adults. The the new personality format. Plitt j in _ person appearance of the ?i S< ?A dl , Cated that ■P rodu cer Jerry : sto oges, a i ong with “Officer” Joe Wald had agreed to seiwe as pro- j Bolton host % f the gtooges com . ducrion liaison with exhibition. ! edies on wpIX staggered so re " I that the comedians appeared at JJ3S ft** ®^Ithe-beginning of the show at the ceeded in getting the Academy; p arad j set i n < the middle at the Valencia, and at the end at the Kings. The time schedule was 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. After the conclusion of the special kiddie program, houses were opened for the regular show’. Boxoffice success of the three show’s last Saturday has prompted Loew’s to repeat the program at three different theatres this Satur¬ day (7). Performances are set for the Commodore in Manhattan, the Oriental in Brooklyn, and the Tri- boro in Queens. The complete kid¬ die show will run for tw’o and a half hours. afford to miss with one of these.” said the money man. Another important angle is that the 6% interest rate can be gotten from substantial * industrial (or other) clients. In comparison with these the indie producer is too chancey. In exchange for making the capital available for the indies, the film companies take, of course, dis¬ tribution rights to the product involved plus a par¬ ticipation in the ownership. Also contributing to the banks’ aloofness to the indies is the constant chance of the film-maker go¬ ing over the blueprinted budget. Experience has been that while a property may . be itemized at, say $2,000,000, unanticipated (by the producer) ex¬ pense might send the budget up another 50%, more or less. As a result the entire- project may have to be abandoned (as was the case of John Huston’s attempt at . “Typee”; Huston didn’t antici¬ pate the tropical storms in the tropics). In the case of “Typee,” Allie'd Artists, which guaranteed the bank financing, took a loss of sev¬ eral hundred thousand dollars. The banks don’t want this sort of thing to happen to them. Dudley, Brown, Evans Pend as Fntore Makers Of Cinerama Story-Films Hollywood, March 3. With Cinerama Inc., now geared financially to forge ahead on a new production slate via its $15,000,000 deal with Prudential Life Insur¬ ance Co., talks are underway with Carl Dudley, Harry Joe Brown 1 and Maurice Evans to supply product Dudley, whose “South Seas Ad¬ venture” is the current Cinerama (Continued on page 14)