Variety (August 1959)

Wednesday, Augu.t g, I9?9 / . / ,, . . . /;> , - #gjSg!py. .■ , ■ PICTPBES_#_ Producers aren't taking sufficient advantage of "objective’* opin¬ ions and views available to them via the New York homedffiee, Richard Einfeld, now on his own in production, opined last week,. . “We should listen more to the advertising-publicity department!. . In the east/’ Einfeld said. And he summed up the producer men- : tality on the Coast. “Nobody there listens to anybody.’’ Tax Angles; Glen Alden Corp. Gives a This-Is-How Demo Merger of List .Industries and Glen Alden Corp. already has ; pro : vided a fancy payoff; The surviv¬ ing company, bearing the Alden name, this week disclosed six- month- earnings to June 30 of $8,321,P00 before depreciation, de¬ letion and amortization of $2,140,- 240. And it’s all* tax free/ Tax angle has been behind the fieavy Wall/ Street interest in Alden. right along: It came about via losses sustained by. Alden when on its own as a coal-mining operation. Said red ink meant tax benefits in the amount of $9,000,- 000 for List (RKO Theatres, et al.) upon the merger. More diversification / by top man Albert A. List is anticipated, .fur¬ ther strengthening the Alden stock in big board trading. The six-month earnings were equal to $1.11 /per share based on 5,566,034. shares Outstanding,. Ii> eluded in. the profit is a net gain of $2,500,285 on the sale of prop¬ erties. These were not identified but it’s known that List has a policy of selling theatres which are uneconomic; Either, that or the sale and lease¬ back of theatres as a deal recently consumated; Confirming last week’s - Variety story, the RKO chain announced sale of five houses in the New York area to a group headed bv Milton Kesten- berg. Part of. the deal has the five theatres—A1 bee. Flushing,. Madi¬ son, Ford ham and 86th Street— continuing to be managed and op¬ erated by RKO under a 20-year lease,- In Foresight While many a Hollywood pro¬ ducer is moaning about the rock¬ eting costs of talent, Hal Wallis has some important names, lassoed at bargain-basement prices. In making “Career” for release by Paramount this year, Wallis has Dean Martin and .Anthony Franciosa each tied to a $35,000 contract, has Shirley Maclaine for $17,500 and Carolyn Jones hemmed in for an undisclosed but appar¬ ently similar small amount. Commitments, of course, were entered some time ago—before any of the aforementioned achieved top-money stature. JOHN WAYNE’S ‘ALAMO' Hollywood, Aug. 4,' Frankie Avalon, the rock ’n’ roll singer, drew his second starring picture, namely Batjac’s “The Al¬ amo” for United. Artists release. He put off two months of per¬ sonal bookings for costarririg with John Wayne and /Richard Wid- mark. AB-PTV25c jDiwy American Broadcasting - Para¬ mount Theatres this week declared the regular dividends of 25c per share on each of the company’s outstanding common and preferred stock issues. Both payable Sept. 15 to stock¬ holders of record on Aug. 21/ Story Check® Out A. downtown .Manhattan financial writer found a recent Variety story hard to believe.. It was the one in which. Roy Disney .was quoted as saying he thought the price of Disney , stock on the New/York Stock Exchange was . priced un¬ realistically high when it was selling /way up ip the 50’s. The writer .called Disney on the Coast and was given con¬ firmation of the story, along with Disney’s comment that .“maybe l talk too much ” . The Disney shares since fell to a low for the : year of $39.62*2 per., Roy Disney, had said he thought the right price. would be in the mid-40’s. Advances Losses; As the financial affairs: at War¬ ners have taken on a new/ pros¬ perous look, a . key factor behind the mightily improved position is the company’s, come-out on ad¬ vances . to independent, outside producers; A year ago pt this time WB entered /on its books a loss of $2,500,000 via tieUps with the indies. This was bank money, guar¬ anteed by WB, which just couldn’t be recouped out of the Inadequate rentals. "Old Man and the Sea” was among the more prominent in the loss category, • At the present day WB has no loss at all on advances to the in¬ dies, according to this week’s fi¬ nancial report from the .company. The advances have been recouped and obviously there’s been, a profit to boot. • A'', for the next financial state¬ ment from. WB. there’s an inter¬ esting inside-trade angle. It’s that the company’s release of Joseph Levine’s Import, “Hercules/’ is proving a handsome profit-maker, despite the- critical clobbering It received in . many sections of the press. The steam-roller campaign is getting the credit. /■'• UNKNOWN FOR LeROY No: Stars Available—'‘Ring Horse* Stars Script Hollywood, Aiig. 4. Mervyn LeRoy/ who last week bought Thomas Duncan’s latest novel, -‘Ring Horse,” will start picture with an unknown, since good names “are all tied up,” ac¬ cording to producer-director. Any¬ way, he adds, “my big star is the .story,” LeRoy, currently prepping “Wake Me When It’s Over” for 20th-Fox release, has made no commitments for “Horse,” which may or may not be included in his 20th deal. Arrangement with Buddy Adler calls for at least: three films for 20th during the. next six years. In addition to 20th pact, LeRoy has three films remaining under his current contract with Warner Bros;, where his “The FBI Story” is awaiting release. Exploit Eavesdroppers Aides of Otto Preminger, even while on vacation, do not lose an opportunity to get in . plugs: for “Anatomy of a Mur¬ der,” made for Columbia re¬ lease under the Carlyle Pro¬ ductions banner. . Carlyle v.p. George Schae¬ fer, cruising in his hoat With N.Y. rep Nat Rudick off Martha’s Vineyard, put in a ship-to-shore call to N;Y. to get. the latest . "Anatomy” grosses. Knowing that the call could be heard by all radio- equipped boats in the vicinity, Schaefer insisted that his N.Y. source repeat the full title of the picture With each theatre gross. Brisldn at Col About Overhead Hollywood, Aug. 4: ’ Columbia Pictures , is cutting overhead costs of independent pro¬ ducers affiliated with the studio from 25% to 22*2%. The 2*2% sav¬ ing, ‘according to Samuel J. Briskin, veepee In charge of the I Gower lots operations, was brought ] about because of general rise in i production costs, |. Briskin stated that the cut is j retroactive to July 1, and will i apply to features now in produc- . tion which started prior to July 1 ‘date./ Studio topper also revealed pro¬ ducer contracts would be amended accordingly: and that new rate is based on present. overhead costs and production schedule for cur¬ rent fiscal year/ Col/will also take over other charges heretofore not : absorbed by the studio. This will apply for films shot abroad as well as those lerised iri Hollywood. “It is our policy,” said Briskin, “to have greatest percentage of dollar reflected on theatre screen. In the . past 12 months, we have moved slowly and cautiously to ef¬ fect sayings throughout our opera¬ tion that would enhance the qual¬ ity of the entertainment we are offering today to world markets.” ' Jack L. Warner, president of Warners, left New York over the weekend for London and a series of meetings with execs of Associ¬ ated British lectures Corp. WB is a substantial stockholder of the British outfit. Warner’s trek abroad—he’s to be joined in London by Benjamin Kalm.enson, WB exec v.p.—comes on the heels of unconfirmed re¬ ports heard both in London and Wall Street that WB is about to unload its Interests in . Associated British. 0 Sitting in with Warner and Kal- menson will be Sir Philip W’arter, chairman of AEPC; C. J. Latta, managing director; Jack Goodlatte, director, and Arthur Abeles, WB’s Continental manager and manag¬ ing director In the United King¬ dom. There’s still no confirmation of an impending sfbek sale but the rumors have strengthened and seem to go hand in hand with the top-echelon conferences in the British capital this veek. Sellout price heard in Wall Street is $15,- 000.000. Further anticipation in ; some quarters is that the stock ■ divestiture will be a preliminary to j a WB stock tender. ! Following London, Warner and ; Kalmenson will tour company of- / fices in France, Belgium, Holland, i W T est Germany and Italy. There’s a j chance they might extend the tour j to include the WB South Africa ! headquarters in Johannesburg^ MAKE BURT SLOANE UA PUBLICITY CHIEF Burt Sloane has been named publicity manager for United Artists. He takes over immediately. Sloane had been assistant publicity manager. He steps into the shoes of Morton Nathanson, who’s been, upped to become director Of inter¬ national advertising and publicity. Shuffle arranged by - Roger H. Lewis, UA y;p. in charge of ad-pub and exploitation, sees Val Coleman succeeding Sloane as assistant pub¬ licity manager. Coleman joined UA in 1956 as a feature writer and has scripted documentaries. Sloane started in the business in 1950 with Paramount Pictures. In 1953/ he moved to UA as trade press contact, a. job he held until 1958 when he became assistant publicity manager* LIONEL ROGOSIN'S CO. Just Back From Making Apartheid Film In So. Africa /Documentary producer Lionel Rogosin, known for his film “On the Bowe : ry,” has organized Lionel Rogosin Films, a limited partner¬ ship; to produce a : feature film tentatively titled “Anne Domini 1959.” Rogosin recently returned from South Africa where he shot a pic¬ ture on the apartheid situation. Vic Carter Takes Both Top Posts In. Republic Pix Victor M. Carter, Wegt Coast banker and real estate operator, shelled out close to $7,000,000 in buying out Herbert J. Yates’ vot¬ ing control in Republic. This was disclosed following a Rep board meeting in New York last week at which Yates severed all connec¬ tions with the. company. It was less than a month previ¬ ous to this meeting that Carter took over the presidency and Yates was named board chairman. Latter title, regarded as honorary, has now been relinquished by Yates and assumed by Carter. In Carter’s case the designation. In¬ stead of being honorary, means in effect he’s the one-man boss—at • least to the extent that any one j individual can run a company. New members elected to the hoard last week are Sidney M. Davis, N.Y. attorney, and Patrick J. Frawley Jr., president of Ever- r sharp Inc. They replace Rep vet* Albert Lind and Theodore Black. FOUR GET SLUFFO AS CARTER RULES REPUBLIC Hollywood, Aug. 4. Four members of Republic Pic-, tures organization have turned in resignations to Victor M. 'Carter, prexy and chairman of board. Car¬ ter accepted the resignations with¬ out revealing their replacements, if any. Four include Douglas T. Yates, director of company and general manager of Consolidated Film La¬ boratories in Fort Lee, N.J. and New York; Walter L. Titus, sales¬ man for Consolidated labs in New York; Richard G. Yates, eastern sales manager of Hollywood Tele¬ vision Service Inc.; Rudy Ralston, producer at Republic studios in Hollywood. Carter last week took over as chairman of Republic board siic- iceeding Herbert J. Yates.