Variety (March 1959)

Wednesday, March 18, 1959 VSstlETY PICTURES 5 MAGS, SUPPS IN FILM-AD DIVE -4- Rackmil on U Deficits & Hopes; Maybe 15 Features to Market » Universal anticipates an operat¬ ing loss of “several hundred thous- ahd dollars,” excluding the $5,000,- 000 in capital gains from the sale of its studio to Music Corp. of America, for the first quarter of the current fiscal year, prexy Mil- ton R. Rackmil told stockholders at the company’s annual meeting Wednesday (11). As a result of the non-recurring profit, the quarter will be in the black, but Rackmil gave stockholders no hope of an immediate resumption of dividends on common stock, declaring that /'if we’re in the black at the end of the year, the board will consider dividends.” Rackmil said the company might show an operating profit for Feb¬ ruary and that it would definitely move into the black for March. In answer to a stockholders’ query, Rackmil initially said that the op¬ erating loss for the first quarter would be about $700,000, but he revised that to “several,” indicat¬ ing later, however, that it would “probably be more than $500,000.” See 14-15 Features •The U chieftain reiterated that the company was following no set policy in regard to number of pic¬ tures it will make annually, noting that U will produce as many pic¬ tures “as we- can put together.” After the meeting, however, he said that the company hopes to assemble 14 or 15 pictures this year. He told, the shareholders that six pictures had been completed and that four are currently shoot¬ ing. “The Desert Flower,” starring John Saxon and Sandra Dee, is set for an April start and "Viva Gringo,” a Bryna production star¬ ring Rock Hudson and Kirk Doug¬ las, is scheduled for production in May or June. In answer, to questions from minority stockholders John Gil¬ bert, John Campbell Henry and Kurt Kayser, Rackmil made the following points: Yes, and But— Universal has (1) no intention of merging with Decca Records (own¬ er of approximately 80% of U’s share) at this time, but (2) the pos¬ sibility is always under considera¬ tion. He pointed out, however, that oppQrtunities for^joint economies were always being considered, such as Decca taking over some the office space relinquished by Uni¬ versal in the homeoffice biulding. Universal has (3) no intention at this time of calling in its preferred stock, but Rackmil acknowledged that (4) the company is still buying up the preferred shares when they are offered and that U had ac¬ quired 1,000 shares of preferred in the last two months. The average price for the preferred, he noted, was “well under 80.” He declined to release figures on the company’s advertising expendi¬ tures, merely noting that it was slightly lower than last year. (See Variety’s disclosure of same, else¬ where this issue.) His refusal to give out the advertising costs, he said, was because pf competitive reasons. He noted that too many companies were employing their advertising figures “to attract in¬ dependent producers.” He added that Universal’s advertising expen¬ ditures were dependent on the number and type of picturesithe company released. The failure of board chairman Nate Blumberg to attend more than one board meeting annually led* one stockholder to wonder if the “sickness clause” in Blum- berg’s contract should be exer¬ cised. However,- Rackmil stressed that Blumberg “worked at the stu¬ dio.” The meeting lasted about 40 minutes, with the formal portion being devoted to the reelection of the board of directors and the re¬ naming of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. as the company’s auditors. Premiere Filins Inc. has been authorized to conduct a motion picture business in New York, witn capital stock of 200 shares, no par value. Hess, Mela, Segall, Popkin & Guterman were filing attorneys at Albany. Paris Dub Plant Whirls Leo Lax, whose Paris plants dub films and do special ef¬ fects work, reports the labs are booked to the hilt. Job chance: He’s looking for a young American with dubbing experi¬ ence to do special translating ■ work in Paris. Exhib Volk Tells Distribs: Give Me Pix or 1 Convert Minneapolis, March 17. Continuing on the war path against the film sales practices here, William Volk, who with his brother Sidney owns and oper¬ ates four local neighborhood houses, two of which are consid¬ ered among the nation’s finest and newest, threatens now to turn them into supermarkets. Volk charges that distributors, ignoring their own best ; economic interests* have tossed the sub¬ sequent-run uptown houses “into chain gangs” in order to protect “old dow’ntown realty.” - “We’ll not tolerate this condi¬ tion much longer,” says Volk. “We’ll go into court again for the privilege of bidding competitively with downtown theatres for first- runs and if w'e lose once more we’ll turn our properties into su¬ permarkets.” The Volks tried unsuccessfully in federal court two years ago to compel the film companies to re¬ lease pictures to the Terrace day and date with loop firstrun move- over houses. “We sit around for weeks not knowing when we’ll get a picture or what it will be. We hardly know where we’re at anymore because there’s no telling how long a loop firstrun theatre is going to hold its pictures. “Still we’re paying the same high percentage terms as the loop firstrun houses which get the pic¬ tures before us and play* them ex¬ clusively. We not only pay them much later and without the chance to sell them properly, but have to plajr them day and date with as many as 10 other neighborhood theatres. And because ‘of? the clear¬ ance setup we can’t hold a picture like ‘Auntie Marne’ longer than a week unless we want to continue with it along with a raft of still more houses in the later avail¬ abilities. “We get one big grosser now¬ adays about oncd in six months. Most of the time we’re desperate for attractions.” Bill Volk is currently at home after two weeks in the hospital where he was treated for bleeding ulcers brought on, he declares, by anger over the present distributor treatment of his' theatres and* worry. B&K Pipes Into Villa ' . Chicago, March 17. Old theatre organs don’t fade away—they wind up in living rooms. That, lat least, is the fate of the organ which has berthed since 1927 in the Marbro, cavernous Balban & Katz nabe house. The instrument, one of the largest pipe organs ever built, is being shipped to St. Paul, where Byron Carlson plans to build his new home around it. , It has been used only in¬ frequently by the Marbro in recent years. « OFF IN 1 Motion picture advertising in national magazines and Sunday newspaper supplements hit a low in 1958. The major film companies spent only $1,860,303 in these media, a . firop of close to 40% from 1957 and a strong indication of the new conservation in the distributors’ advertising policies. In the magazine field alone, the, companies cut back to $1,690,275* from an outlay of more than double—$2,728,473—in 1957 and $3,138,775 in 1956. The Sunday supplements got hit even worse, dropping to $170,028 last year whereas the companies spent $353,942 in these outlets in 1957. The overall mag and supplement film and budget that year was $3,082,415. In contrast to the film policy, now oriented primarily to the point-of-sale pitch, overall adver¬ tising expenditures of all indus¬ tries in mags, supplements and on television was up some in '58 over 1957. It ran to $1,380,301,300 against $1,365,527,700 the prior j^ear. The entertainment industries generally, of which films consti¬ tute a major part, dropped back in their advertising activities in these media in 1958. The count was $3,439,173 against $4,436,000 in 1957 and about the same in ’56. These, and the specific figures on film advertising in magazines and Sunday supplements, were supplied to Variety by the Pub¬ lishers Information Bureau in N. Y. Fewer Pictures The PIB statistics reflect not only changes in merchandising policy, but also the reduced num¬ ber of films put out and the de : sire, particularly on the big pic¬ tures, to promote as much free space as possible. Whether the melting of the ad funds for mags and supplements has influenced the amount of editorial copy, and possibly even the tenor of it, is open to question. Certainly, the magazines of late have shown a tendency to get a little rougher with Hollywood, and the general impression (though not borne out by surveys) is that less material on films is carried. Hurts Pre-Selling There is no question, however, among the ad-pub execs that the lack of magazine advertising has knocked one of the props out from under the pre-sell campaigns, with the emphasis more than ever on selling the customer when the merchandise is actually available to him. That’s obviously not the case when one runs an ad several months ahead of release, though in the past this kind of activity was considered important in help¬ ing to create word-of-mouth. On an individual company level, Metro in 1958 again was the ad¬ vertising leader, spending $732,- 206 in the magazines for 16 films. Though it used the supplements to the tune of $52,865 in 1957, it did not place a single ad in the Sunday inserts last _year. Metro went heavy on “Gigi” ($127,420), “Merry Andrew” ($93,141), and “Cat on‘ a Hot Tin roof” ($80,- 019). Second largest spender was 20th-F6x with $317,594. of which $214,984 was allocated to the mags and $102,610 to supplements. 20th, in,fact, was the only company left still willing to spend a hefty sum on the Sunday supps. Total ex¬ penditure was spread over five pictures. “South Pacific” got the big mag and supplement ride, but of course this was shared by Magna Theatre Corp, Film got $277,700 worth of support. The as yet unreleased “Diary of Anne Frank” already has been adver¬ tised to the tune of $21,700 -in the mags by way of pre-sell. Others Third is Paramount Pictures, with $225,496 spent in the mags only, on eight pictures. Par let go with $83,032 for “Wild Is the Wind” and $14,200 for “Teacher’s Pet.” Fourth in line is the Walt Disney outfit, which spent $197,- 475 on the mags and $30,600 for (Continued on page 17) Carbon Copy of American Features Holds No Magic for British 450 Prints of ‘Gigi* Metro sales chief Jack Byrne is gearing the satura¬ tion release of “Gigi” for April 1. Because of the special hard-ticket hahdling, pic has only played 2,600 of a poten¬ tial of 15,000 accounts. Metro plans to have all 450 prints in circulation next month. Columbia Busy* Nearly All Pix 'Independents’ London, March 17. Though the approach by Theatre Owners of America to the British film industry urging the making of more features “aimed at the U.S. market” received almost un¬ qualified approval from exhibitors here, it hasn’t been so ivarmly re¬ ceived in other quarters. Notably it got the cold shoulder from An¬ thony Asquith, president of the Assn, of Cinematograph, Televi¬ sion and Allied Technicians, at the labor union’s 26th annual general meeting while the Federation of British Film Makers has pointed out among other things that “the employment of American stars and directors ~ must be limited by fi¬ nance union agreements and other factors.” TOA’s move is likely to get pre¬ cisely nowhere in view of the fact that, for years, British film-mak¬ ers have been trying in various ways to insert their pictures into . America, anyhow. Asquith summed Hollywood, March 17. ‘ up a fairly widespread view w r hen Columbia Pictures will roll 17 he said at the annual conference: features in the three months I “Of course we want our films period through June 1, and will! shown in America and elsewhere, put 20 others before the cameras j but I still believe, difficult as the in the final six months of 1959,: position is in getting screen time operations v.p. Samuel J. Briskin ; in that country largely because of discloses. ] economic boycott, that if we break Virtually all the films are inde-' through eventually it will be be- pendent productions for Columbia i cause we make films which are release under the company’s new j British, and therefore different, setup. Prospects are that the 20; and n °t because we make imita- now slated for the second half of. tion American films.” this year will be augmented by ad¬ ditional pix as Columbia makes more deals with indie producers. Columbia now has 33 indie units ' releasing through its world-wide< organization. j Upcoftiing before cameras are: j "Battle of the Coral Sea.” Charles j Schneer, Mornineside Pictures Corp.: di- f rector, Paul Wendkos: starring Cliff ! Paris, March 17. st°epSn°Kandei *nd j T Following months of discussion, March 16—“Ten Years a Counterspy,” j Jacques Flaud, head of the Centre Louis de Rochemont production; director, ! National, has now finalized the A fd dr vAr®in°Mitn^^i ng Ernest Borgnine J split of the remaining 40 permits March 23-"Ana,omy of a Murder." ' ‘J 1 * .^ meriC1 ” companies in otto Preminger production; directed by ■: 1958-o9. Universal emerges as the Preminger; starring James Stewart, Lee j main loser, giving lip three lie- Adjusted French Permit Scheme Bros, and one each. „ | Columbia and United Artists gain Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O’ConneU, : Eve Arden; screenplay. WendeU Mayes, i enses. March 30—"Gene Krupa Story." Philip J 20th-Fox. Warner . Waxman production; screenplay, Orln ! Allied Arti^S lose Jannings. suiuS ^ 0 ?eT ?roducSn? ^Stor.; one, each going from seven to Donen: starring Yul Brynner and Kay 1 eight permits. Sr£ U paris eenplay ‘ Harry Kurnitz ‘ Fam ' i This is actually a modified ver- April 7—“Rim of the Canyon,” pro- j ^. e . or ^Sindl . Flaud plan, duced by Kendrick Sweet and Don Siegel; j Which envisioned giving out per- 2SfMcM*^i=^S5jS! r al.2^ "? lts w . hoI ! y in line wit !> , h . is evalua- Marion Hargrove. April 20—“Our Man in Havana,” Carol Reed production, director, Ree£; starring Alec Guinness, Burl Ives. Ernie Kovacs. Noel Coward, Ralph Richardson, Jo, Morrow; screenplay, Graham Greene. April 30—“A Magic Flame,” William Goetz-Charles Vidor production; director, Vidor; starring Dirk Bogarde; screenplay, Oscar MiUard. © May 1—''Suddenly, Last Summer.” Sam Spiegel production: director, Joseph Mankiewicz; starring Elizabeth Taylor; screenplay, Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal. May 11—“Who Is Sylvia?” Roger Edens-Martin Melcher production; direc¬ tor, David Miller; starring Doris Day* screenplay, Leonard Gershe; musical score, Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. May 20—“Who Was That Lady?” Nor¬ man Krasna production: director-writer, Krasna; starring Dean Martin and Tony Curtis. May 25—“Air Force Academy,*- Eric Johnston will go to Paris next month to huddle with Flaud Quine; on ^e permit problem. Charles Schneer Momlngside production; : . screenplav, Daniel Ullman. ! Should n t SUlfer. May 25—“Pepe,” George Sidney pro¬ duction; director. Sidney; screenplay, Claude Binyon; starring Cantlnflas. June 1—"The Image Makers,” Richard Quine production; director, screenplay, Norman Katkov. June 1—“Caves of the Night." Cornel Wilde production; starring Wilde and Jean Wallace; screenplay, John Christo¬ pher. June 1—“The Mountain Road," William Goetz production: director. Daniel Mann: starring James Stewart; screenplay. Al¬ fred Hayes. June 1—“The Devil at Four Q’Clock,” Fred Kohlmar production; director. Peter GlenviUe; starring Spencer Tracy. pany had done for the French in¬ dustry. The Mo'ion Picture Ex¬ port Assn, has held out for an allocation approximating the divi¬ sion under its own global license formula. The total allocation for the MPEA member companies is 110 permits. Of these, Flaud handed out 70, to he divided by the com¬ panies themselves. The remaining 40 were to be allocated by the Centre. MPEA hopes to make up pari ot the loss with three RKO licenses. It’s asked Flaud to give an additional three, the argument being tha‘, if some of the majors are to be rewarded, the rest ‘SP’ Misses Full Year Chicago, March 17. “South Pacific’’ (Magna) exits the McVickers Theatre March 23, just three days short of a year’s roadshowing. Two days later “Diary of Anne Frank” (20th) bows at the house on hard ticket at a $3 top. Town then will be down to two reserved seat pictures, after a peak a few months ago of five. Federal Judge Richard Levet last week imposed a 10-month jail sentence upon a 70-year-old man who was convicted of mail fraud in connection with illegally distrib¬ uting a French-made religious film. Laurence Lambert was found guilty of wrongfully selling “Golgotha/' a 25-year-old picture about the lif« of Christ, following a trial in N. Y. Federal Court last month. Mail fraud rap stemmed from letters Lambert sent in an effort to solicit customers. Samuel Waa- genaar, “Golgotha’s” owner, said he never authorized Lambert to dis¬ tribute the picture. His alleged pirating took place from 1949 through 1952.