Variety (October 1960)

FICTinES y&RlETY Wednesday, October 5, I960 plays by Metro . . Steve McQueen will make a national personal ap¬ pearance toiir on behalf of United Artists’ "The Magnificent Seven.” Brooklyn- Academy of Music’s four children’s matinees Saturdays at 3 on Ocf; 15, Dec. 7 arid April 8. is on one. child-orie adult basis via. general membeislii card. “Toby Tyler,” “Follyanna” arid ‘Dog of Flanders” are set. , . , , Al Cohan begins, a three-week swing to bally Metro’s ‘‘Butterfield 8” On the advise of his doctors. John Wayne has been forced to cancel;. ; ; Meade Roberts signed bv MG to write the screenplav of Susan the remainder of his lour or. behalf of the hardlieket engagements of F,rtz’s “In the Cool of the Dav” . Doris Day. to promote''Universal’S “The Alamo.” lie returned io the Coast from New York for “rest and - - r - - • - tieatment.” The sole cinema in Ascona. Switzerland, the Othello Theatre, pre¬ sented the following inulti-lingo program recently: commercials,' in German: followed by Walt Disney short in English; Italian newsreel; trailer on upcoming “Wild Strawberries” shown in the original Swed¬ ish with German and French subtitles; and main film, a French dilly about American teenage delinquents and race problems in the U. • S.„ • A*rts. A post-preein supper dance .sponsored by the Academv will be calied something like “I Spit fit-;. Your Courage,” shown in French witn, he]d at, the Hotel. Astor .=• Embassy Pictures y.p. Eddie Solomon to German subtitles. | the Coast to confer with;Metro on release plans for “Where the Hot Frontcover story of Oct. issue of Canada's Liberty niag “The Tvi. Wind Blows”. . Jules Bassin and Meli Mercouri td the Coast to Fares ot Marilyn Monroe” by Yives Montand. j i bally “Never On Sunday” ... Louis Nizernamed guest of honor for the Yves Montand refers to “34-!year-oId Marilvn” (her age is usually I960 “Health for Peace 7 dinner.to be held on behalf. of the Children s given as 31 or 321 as “powerful”'and adds, “It never bothered m when. Asthma Institute for Research Billy Wilder came to N/. Y. to;.see she arrived hours late She rilv avs had a good reason.” the Broadway bow .of “Irnia. la Douce.” \vhich he: will film, .in Paris next Pfdro Armandariz. tlu> Mexican screen star, headlining stage show for Sltriseh as a lJA release.. Mirisch signed Riia .Moreiio. • to a .three-year pact. . Fortunat Baronet, Universal s foreign publici- i luncheon tv brick from. South' American meetings on “Spartacus” Stan/ at the Harvard Club Friday .3<* lor Spain’s Alfredo Timermans, sec- Iey Donen in from London after: winding up the Cary Grant, starrer, rotary general of the department of Cinematography and Theatres “Midnight Lace”. . ./ A five-week sales drive saluting Americo Aboaf. Universal-lnternationars v.p, arid foreign general manager, will con¬ tinue to Get. 29. Metro will hold the world prei iere of “Cimarron” in Oklahoma City on Dec. 1 . Walter Reade and Universal held four invitational previews pf “Spartacus” at ’the 1 'DeM/ille. Theatre before tomorrow’? iTliurs.) opening for the .benefit of the Arrirican Academy of Dramatic at Alameda Theatre. San Antonio this week. MPEA toppers Ralph Hetzel and Griffith Johnson hosted a 1 “The Grass Is Greener.” for Universal Metro has 27writers work- Film-tv director Allen Reisner Has'bought the rights to William Gold^ : in 8 ;ori- scripts.. xyith studio- chief Sdl C Siegel.Expected to add Jive man’s novel, “The Temple of Gold.” and plans to start production of > mo ? e tbe next thr ? e ') ce k s / the feature pic in Mav. 1981 . 'j Ed Harrison's “The World of Apu” Columbia's Mo Rothman; got Eduardo Haedo’s ear about a picture was given a special invitational bremiere Sundav <3r night at the Fifth iax reduction in Uruguay and this could be meaningful because Haedo Ave. Cinema sponsored bv UNICEF for ainbassadors to the United likes pix. and also happens to be President of the country ■ Worn Nations . ... A print of the Moijal Re-Armamerit feature. “The Crown-, out of Texas ; has it that Stan.Sheptner..will produce a film on the site ing Experience.” was flown to Nigeria last week for screening as part . °f trie Alamo \vhich. as .everybody know. , has beert nu.de famous hy of that new nation's independence celebrations. '• John W'ayne.; It's; to-be a western . directed, by John .Ford and starring Local industries were semewhat amused by fact that 20th-Fox James Stewart and Richard Widinark ; . Paul Montague. Harry Free- prexy Spyros P. Skourss p ; eked! Thursday : 29>, the same day that the man and Jack Wodejl, film exploiteers. joined the Pietro fide staff, to Bnai B’ritii .was honoring United Artists’ Max E. Youngstein, to throw. w6rk on Joseph Levine’s “Where: the Hot. \Miid Blows. ... his luncheon for Sarwet Okasha, the United Arab Republic's minister While Otto Preminger was watching a rough cut of “Exrid.us:- lie of culture and national guidance. Two competing functions put some-- received word that his wife!; Hope Bryce, liuiner model and fash ton thing of a strain on the usual group of personalities who are used to coordinator on a number :of his. pix. had given bir.ih to. twins. a : boy “diess” tlicse affairs. However. jSkouras Julia Meade, Maggi McNellis, Ariiie Bancroft, Ion. 1 . . .. ..... Ira D, Beck, UA's Lat in-America tele supervisor. wri fr m Mexi- coincide with./lhe^ .Broadway bow of the Alan. Jay Lerner-Frederjck CO City. Will spend a veok in HQ huddles. Twentieth veep Charlie Einfeld has initiated a se- i of exhib ad- pub conferences, brinyine in iniportant exhibitors from around the country lo address the homcoffice ad-pub people. Series kicked off. Wednesday t28> with the visit olf Bert Pirosh. prexy of Cal-Tecii Thea- 1-ies . . Arthur Blaustein. owner of ihe Right Bank coffee house at Madison and 69fh St., has been awarded the contract to operate the new Trans-Lux 85th Street Cinema-Cafe . . 20th prexy Skouras.and David Sarnoff, RCA chairman, ire two of the six winners of the first annual Eastman Achievement Awards, Loewe musical “Cameldt.” The return engagement. will begin during ■the week of. Nov. 14. the same week in which “Canielot” will open. With “My Fair Lady’’ still running at the lleilinger Theatre, Lerner. and Loewe will have three offerings on Brqadway. TV Sperisor Be‘First Money’ ; Conti. net! from page 3 ; Writer-director Joe Mnnkiewjfcz has delayed his projected trip to early in September at. the Festival : eiated with; Cinerama Trie , is con- :ypt 'for a look-see at “Justin;” locations! in order to head the;dele-. Hall, as a Roval premiere. Egypt gation of 20lh reps gong to Moscow for the opening of “All About Eve” there. Julie Xewnr*- aN : is scheduled to make the junket , . : NBC newsman Chet liuni'ey is going to appear in a prolog. lor Allied Artists* prizewinning German import. “The Bridge.” fat Metro siened George P;1 to produce and direct another' picture, ten- Compass., who. ively titled “Project -* 7 -'. . ! Embassy Pictures’ Dick Brooks weds runs, dr if they des nected w ith Kaufman in :ihe new Advantages i scheme. .According to , Kaufman, Following "the showing on, tv in : Leennouts is. in the process of the U, the U. S. and Canadian Mining up five similar deals—that rights . belong to .Hallmark and- is, , arrangehicnts whereby the film se" it- for re.- jis pre-sold lor U. S; television and. desire: can arrange : Is available for theatrical release Phyllis Leder on Dec. 17. joe Pasternak’s "Where the Boys Arc” for.. ..sub<eciuenf- ' thpat.firil release' elsewhere: Arrangements. also ristmrt«-N'ew Year's offering . Ralph-VVheelwright, ih .'the''.y," S. and Canada, The. ad-1 pending, to expand the filming ac- set *as Metro's Chr; who has been coordinaline i’:e publicity campaign lor ".King of Kings” vantages of the deal are., during its production in Madrid,; in X. Y. as is Sam Bronston lo confer according .to Kaufman: (1) Hallmark, without- creasing its costs, can get two Or three times as much on the. screen. (2) Hallmark obtains, unlim¬ ited V- S. and Canadian rights, and can ..re run the film as. many times as it wishes with¬ out additional payments to the erformers or others. (3) The film qualifies as a; 7 Bfitish quota picture and is eligible for Eady Plan funds. 14) The cost of production is approxiniately 60 r f, less of what it would cost in /Holly¬ wood. HaUmark, Kaufmari niaintairted; with Metro officials.. M-G will/release the Brons’on production as resdshowat tract ion in 1981. Stanley Kramer returned from Germany to begin a three-week tour cn behalf of his “Inherit the Wind”. . Universal throwing a feed for Doris Day at the Pleza lomonipw 'Thurs.) in connection with “^lid- night Lace”. . . Cary Grant in !i'nm London tc discuss release plan? on “The Grass Is Greonei” MJton Fenster huddling with Gov. Nelson Rockefeller at the Thertre Network Television telecast for the GOP . . . Seymour Mayer. Metro International v.p., back from a IQ-.day swing through Central Ameticai where he set film deals for the new season . . . Sydney M. Goldman. Radio City Music Hall director of theatre operations, and Ids wife, concert singer Tessa Smallpage, off lc Europe for four weeks . United Artists publicity staffer Walter \Valdman sent Lee Solters a thank-you note for tickets-for-’“The Tenth Man.” The missive read: “Thanks a minion”. . Herbert Swope Jr. and his wife, actress Margaret Hayes, back from the Coast. Swope will d.o some casting for “The Chase,” ;a film he will produce early next year- in partnership with .director is Milestone. Several hundred Dcirecr Jin the Republican County of Greene, may emerge with a free program beard addresses at the Klein Brothers’ Hi-Way Drive-in, Coxackie,. by “or better/” He -pointed, .out, for playwright Gore Vida!, candidate for Congress from the 29th District, example, that Hallmark shares "in/ Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman and Ina Ballin. t the profits of. the world wide the- William Wyler stopped over | in New York at the weekend enroute atrical release after the . coin /pro¬ to Europe to attend “Ben-Ilur” openings . ,. Embassy Pictures publicity vfded by Grand Prize is recovered, director Ed Feldman back at his N. Y. office after a i0-day visit to Similar!/. Gran/1 Prize, shares in’: Rome where he met with Titaribs officials on bally plans for “Morgan any extra revenue the .film may the Pirate” and “The Thief of; Baghdad.” Embassy topper Joseph E. ear in the U. :S. after Hallmark's Levine also returned from Rome . . Eric Ambler, who just completed costs are recovered. The principals; the screenplay for “Mutiny on the Bounty,” signed for two more screen- w ho agreed to deferments also -- : — 7 share in the profits : of the world¬ wide theatrical .release, i Appeal To British ■ The plan also has significant ad- UaTFT ?AIICDI T bV II == Continued from page 1 _ vantages for a British company, HUII 1 L OALIiSdLKI it 4 4 . i a “^ Kaufman noted. He rioted, for ex- “ ferring to the “Bel Air ghetto” ample, that the chronic problem where “at least one person, in the faced by all British film? is its household riiust be in psvehothera- d e stlhy in the . U. S. riiarket. The , r . . .. . British companv. he pointed out is py before you re eligible to move aheai| if it wn’get 50fi, qf its cost; [1 -’ in the American market via pre-/ Speakers at the luncheon in- selling to television. He said that (tivities to other countries which ; also enjoy government subsidies, A i (leal ha? already- been set with I Louis Dolivet's Gray Films of Paris, according to Kaufman. inEirdtrntSotel is Hid-Hanhattan. NEW YORK, rn Y Resilience of the Stars, ^rv -large Rooms Walk-in (ZIom-is S ei \ ing Pantries Air-i »>nilitionm , j * I V Dailv troui- $iO for onc,.Sl _ ) f*»r two Parlor suites from -ViO Revjdrnir sates quoted T23 VZeit 57ih Sneei. New York 19. N. Y,. Circle 6-1300 cr, colt your local ‘Aik Mr. p c>i f er Trcei Service. Coos! * .cc.sf. Exhibs Shudder ^^^_ Contiiiued from, page 5 homes and thus unavailable as a tv audience:’’ Sindlinger Rating Debate program on television, arid radio resulted in a major dent in... theatrical boixoffice income: across the 1 country. Sindlinger & 1 Co. % market analysts, states its sur¬ veys show- a tv audience of 69,142,- 000 and radio audience of 17,119.000. Watching or listening;was a to¬ tal of 52,1 r c. of the entire popula¬ tion 1 12 years and older) iri the east, 53,9 iri the’midwest, 50.1 in the south and 73.4 in the west. All this added up to a great plus for tv arid a.m. iri terms Of audi¬ ence. Arid murder on film exhibi¬ tors, who also must face the com¬ petition of followup Nixon-Ken- nedy “debates.” These, come as an additional mi¬ graine for the theatremen who must cope with, the traditional post-Labor Day b o. sluggishness, the Jewish holidays f leaningful on a regional basis) arid the fall re- turn of the straight entertainment programs on fv. P. S.: Sindlinger says Keiyiedy got the edge, 26.4^ to 23/5^;, with the balance : of . those surveyed either feeling the contest, was a draw or having no opinion. Importers’ Elections Membership of the Independent Film Importers & Distributors of America has. reelected its three- man board of governors for anoth¬ er year's term expiring Oct. 1, 1961. Governors are Richard Brandt, prexy of Trans-Lux Dis¬ tributing; Daniel Frankel, prexy of Zenith International, and Jack r- Ellis, prexy of Ellis Films. Y.oungstein, Randall s/aid: “I fig- ran^eroe/rit outside of the U, S. and Election. of secretary and treas¬ ured who could do me the most Canada. . urcrwill be held at the Oct. 19 good—you or Nasser ” | Grant Leenhouts, forineily assO-.i.board meeting hi New Yorki Youngstein eluded Metro ad Si not iiianv British films' can get as nianager Seller, Cinema Lodge prexy Abe ,, rfee a! , has ils own Dickstein, Paramount Theatre man-: distribution company; but handles aging director Robert Sehapiro, its releases through British Lion in doubletalk artist A1 Kelly, and ac- the qbota countrie-s. Sam Eckman tor Tony Randall. f®S? t txcti.tivc of „ , „ -j .. a . Metros British operation, heads Randall said that he had been distribution unit, called by the 20th-Fox publicity! In summarizing the advantages department to appear at . two of the. tv-theatrical filrii partner- luncheons on the same day—the ship, Kaufman called. attention to Bnai B’rith one for Youngsteih . il) the financing above U, S. costs, "and a Spyros Skouras-sponsored <2) the .Eacfy Plan and British one for the cultural attache of the quota,, <3) the coiripletion guaran- United Arab Republic. Tur ing. to tec, and '.4) the distribution Einfeld Idled Continued, from page J ating the national market which Would, in turn, prepare: the pub¬ lic for the local sales pitch to be riiride by the exhib. Its an open secret that 20th-Fox had particularly successful results from its riation/ai tv promoti of. “From the Terrace” and. “The Lost World,” viri a large buy-in. in ABC-. TV’s coverage of the Democrat! arid Republican national, convert- lions.last sumirier. : At . present time it’s estimated... that the major companies all to¬ gether spend., approximately 90 f / of their totril rid budget? ;.at the local.Jeyel, with perhaps i09c on the national sell. In the forefront of the national sell idea, of course, has been Walt Dis Who lias had tremendous success i several cases. py pitc hing his the¬ atrical offerings via his- rial ional tv j shows. Uniiersal als has had- ! success: through a heavy ccncenfrri- ■ tion ,qri piitiqnai- magazine/ lo sell | its product: particularly the. filrii [slanted toward the distaff market, j Eirifeld would actually go further in, this direction -. than either; /Dis¬ ney or U has yet dorie. National^ Media , i He Would utilize both . and the national ipiibliCations, blit in for example, he "would .'■.utilize'"a wide-ranging group of network [programs, always: of cours pro- f vidirig the.opportu iiy for the local : exhib to buy up local spots iq tie- jin with, .the/ network sales pilch. ; This was done on both the .“Ter¬ race” arid “World” pushes over ABC last suirimer. It’s ,aiso cpnceiVable that th_ distributor Would .seek ' to.. adver¬ tize “as . a national manufacturer” in newspapers but off the amuse^ merit pages.. As Einfeld envisions .the. .plan, distrib would probably continue its. support Of the three key openings Of a pic. (New York. Los. Angeles, and Chicago', with those openings regarded as part of the national, campaign. Once put of those cities* however/ , he would present, his; nationally presold product to the local exhib-Tetajler and sa , “You Carry the budget from'here.” offering; of course, materials and riclyic.e for the local: The. amount; of money tiiis would. free for the national buildup would be of incomparable value to ware]* realizing the full , boxoffice■ pWen- tial qf the big budget product; h« says. Exec doesn't say this proce¬ dure should, bie/ followed for all films; of . cou:..s ,. ince there .will ahvays be those low-budget or.ex¬ ploitation-type films which benefit principally from the intense local level,; saiuratibn. tarnpaigns. He., also admits that, it may be a bit. difficult to sell exhibs on the' idea, “but it shouldn't be impossible, riot if you have a picture they want to play badly enough.” As things stand presently, say Einfeld, motion picture distribu¬ tion,is about the only business in ;tbe world wfiich i l,i. has to sell its retailer on the quality of the prod¬ uct, <2) pursuade the retailer to buy it,; and <3 > then go out and. sell that product to. the customer of the retailer. motor hotel New York Theatre MDIO cm MUSIC Hilt—1 ^ RcchflaltM CMt.r , Ci 6^600 THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS a WAIMEIl BROS. PICTURE fh TECtlMCOlM 0W STAGE "THHE£ CHEERS" I'milimi"