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HOLLYWOOD<br />
MEWS AND VIEWS THE PRODUCTION CENTER<br />
(Hollywood Office— Suite 219 at 6404 Hollywood Blvd.: Ivav Svo-r. Westpm Manaaeri<br />
Council Heads Speak<br />
On Relations Setup<br />
HOLLYWOOD—Back in the film colony<br />
last week were Roy M. Brewer and Art Arthur,<br />
Motion Picture Industry council delegates to<br />
the all-industry public relations conference<br />
held recently in Washington. Brewer is cocha-rman<br />
with Ronald Reagan of the council,<br />
and Arthur is executive secretary.<br />
The two laid before the public relations<br />
session a suggestion for a preliminary "experimental<br />
period" as a necessary first step<br />
in the development of a national public relations<br />
organization. Th's recommendation was<br />
based upon the council's experiences in organizational,<br />
financial and public relations<br />
problems in the Hollywood area, which members<br />
declare resemble those "likely to be encountered<br />
by the national organization,"<br />
Meantime at a midweek council meeting<br />
speakers included Luther Evans, librarian<br />
of Congress and executive committee member<br />
of the U.S. national committee for<br />
UNESCO; actress Myma Loy, member of the<br />
American delegation to a recent UNESCO<br />
conference in Paris; Howard M. Vickery of<br />
the State department, and Mogens Skot-<br />
Hansen, Hollywood liaison for the UN.<br />
Evans and Miss Loy reported on UNESCO<br />
matters relating to motion pictures.<br />
Contracts With 80 Houses<br />
Signed by New Film Firm<br />
HOLLYWOOD—With contracts already set<br />
with more than 80 California theatres for<br />
individual weekly newsreels in each community<br />
served by the showcases, fonnation<br />
of Town and County Topic Productions as a<br />
newsreel and television fii-m has been completed<br />
by Robert Farquhar, Sam Martin and<br />
Bradley Kemp. Jack Patterson heads the<br />
camera department and Milton L. Smith is<br />
the outfit's theatre representative.<br />
Annual Emmy award dinner will be held<br />
January 27 by the Academy of Television<br />
Arts and Sciences at the Ambassador hotel,<br />
honoring 1949 achievements in live and film<br />
video. Emcees will be Ed Wynn and Bill Gwin<br />
Plan Start on 'River'<br />
HOLLYWOOD—A February camera start<br />
is slated for "Proud River," first in a projected<br />
series of independent films to be produced<br />
for an as yet unnegotiated release by<br />
Shenandoah Pictures, headed by Joseph<br />
Gottesman. "Proud River" is a story of the<br />
first exploration passage down the Colorado<br />
River by white men in 1869. Ben Colman will<br />
direct. The U.S. Park department will cooperate<br />
for this Technicolor film.<br />
Academy Board Approves<br />
Names of 19 Applicants<br />
HOLLYWOOD—The Academy of Motion<br />
Picture Arts and Sciences closed its membership<br />
ranks for the year with 19 new names<br />
approved by the board of governors.<br />
John P. Austin, Francis Cugat, Francis<br />
Keogh Gleason and Joseph Kish were accepted<br />
into the art directors' branch; Harry<br />
Wilde, cinematographers; Mark Robson,_directors;<br />
Mishel Green, Kenneth L. Grossman,<br />
Andre Hakim, Joseph Justman and<br />
Mon-is M. Landres, executives; Herschel<br />
Burke Gilbert and Joseph A. McLaughlin,<br />
music; Robert Stillman, production; Carl<br />
Foreman and Irwin Gielgud, writers, and<br />
Stanley E. Fox, William J. German and<br />
Jacques Leslie, members at large.<br />
The rules committee governing film editing<br />
awards in the Sciences Oscars sweepstakes<br />
has been completed. G. Carleton Hunt,<br />
RKO, is chairman, with other members including<br />
Harry Ger.stad, Stanley Kramer Productions;<br />
Ernest Nims, Universal; William<br />
Hornbeck, Paramount; Warren Lowe, Hal<br />
Wallis Productions; Lester Milbrook, RKO,<br />
and Georg« White, MGM.<br />
Berg-Allenberg Combines<br />
With William Morris<br />
HOLL"YWOOD — Dwindling<br />
employment<br />
from the top star brackets right down the line<br />
to featured and supporting players, plus reductions<br />
in salaries and other offshoots of the<br />
lagging production scene, have been reflected<br />
in concrete fashion in an important adjunct<br />
to motion picture making—the talent agencies.<br />
In one of the largest-scale mergers in the<br />
history of such firms, Berg-Allenberg has<br />
pooled its interests with the William Morris<br />
agency, and has begun operations under the<br />
name of the latter. Bert Allenberg, who had<br />
headed the former office, becomes a partner<br />
in the new setup, acting as coordinating chief<br />
of the motion picture department. He joins<br />
Abe Lastfogel, William Morris and John<br />
Hyde, partners in the Morris firm.<br />
Almost simultaneously, three other agency<br />
groups—Levee-Stark, Goldstone-Willner and<br />
Vic Orsatti—merged their firms into the new<br />
United Agency Corp., effective immediately,<br />
with a board of d rectors including M. C.<br />
Levee, Nat Goldstone, Ray Stark, Orsatti,<br />
George Willner, George Gottfried and M. C.<br />
Levee jr. The new company represents more<br />
than 150 clients.<br />
Douglas in 'My Shadow'<br />
HOLL'YWOOD-Actor Kirk Douglas and<br />
producer-agent Charles K. Feldman have<br />
formed an independent company to produce<br />
"My Shadow," starring Douglas, from an<br />
original by Leonardo Bercovici, Ivan Goff<br />
and Charles Lederer.<br />
Leaders of Air Force<br />
At 'High' Premiere<br />
HOLLYWOOD—It was 20th Century-Fox's<br />
turn to step into the premiere Imelight when<br />
the company's new World War II aviation<br />
drama "Twelve O'clock High" was given its<br />
world premiere December 21 at Grauman's<br />
Chinese Theatre, with top air force officials,<br />
civic and industry dignitaries in attendance.<br />
An atmospheric entertainment highlight was<br />
contributed by the Lackland Air Force base<br />
band, which staged a parade down Hollywood<br />
boulevard and presented a 45-minute concert<br />
in the theatre forecourt prior to the showing<br />
of the Gregoi-y Peck starrer. Among those<br />
present, most of them with their wives, were:<br />
Darryl F. Zanuck<br />
Gregory Peck<br />
George Cukor<br />
.<br />
Edmond Goulding<br />
Howard Hawks<br />
Walter Long<br />
loseph Mankiewicz<br />
Otto Preininger<br />
John M, Stclhl<br />
Lamar Trotti<br />
Claude Binyon<br />
Nunnally Johnson<br />
Hugh Marlowe<br />
Ronald Colman<br />
Lou Schreiber<br />
Heflry King<br />
[j"^«<br />
Hath"crway<br />
Henry Koster<br />
Anatole Litvak<br />
Jean Negulesco<br />
George Seaton<br />
George Jessel<br />
Robert Bossier<br />
Sam Engel<br />
Sol Siegel<br />
Dana Andrews<br />
First world premiere ever staged in Montana<br />
will be held at the Marlow Theatre in<br />
Helena when Warner Bros.' new Technicolor<br />
western "Montana," starring Errol Flynn<br />
and Alexis Smith, opens January 10. A statewide<br />
series of special events will be conducted<br />
in connection with the premiere.<br />
M'dwest premiere of Monogram's "Bomba<br />
on Panther Island" will be held January 18<br />
at the Gopher Theatre in Minneapolis.<br />
The Missouri Theatre in St. Louis will be<br />
the scene of the January 12 world premiere<br />
of U-I's "South Sea Sinner," starring Shelley<br />
Winters and Macdonald Carey. The opening<br />
will be tied in with a homecoming celebration<br />
for Miss Winters, who will participate<br />
in the event and then will visit other midwestern<br />
cities to attend territorial openings.<br />
U-I also is planning a series of invitational<br />
sneak previews of its new comedy, "Francis,"<br />
in each of 31 exchange centers and other key<br />
cities to permit all exhibitors to see the picture<br />
with an audience.<br />
Local 150 Re-Elects<br />
LOS ANGELES—Earl Hamilton, running<br />
unopposed, was re-elected president of the<br />
projectionists Local 150, Magnus Neilson was<br />
renamed business manager. Charles Venc 1<br />
defeated Charles Crowe for the post of secretary-treasurer.<br />
BOXOFnCE December 24, 1949 47
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