Boxoffice-December.24.1949

Brighton 1,500 2nd
Colony 1,500 2nd
E. A. R 720 3rd
Empress 1,000 2nd
Englewood 1.290 2nd
Halfield 952 3rd
Harvard 688 3rd
Highway 900 3rd
Linden 700 3rd
Marquette 900 3rd
Midwest 1,600 2nd
Milda 850 3rd
Ogden 2,042 2nd
Peoples 1,850 2nd
Ramova 1,100 2nd
Regent 825 3rd
Rex 500 3rd
Southtown 3,202 2nd
Stratford 2,433 2nd
4th and Subsequent
.•
Acadia 671 '
Ace 800
Atom 500 •
Oharm 285 •
Cornell 300 »
Cort 285 •
Eagle 300
Gaelic 290
Gale 275 •
Hillside 300 *
Holden 250
Loomis 280 *
Lynn 299 '
Metropole
30O
*
Norwal 280 *
Olympia 582
'
Park Manor 299
*
Radio 450
*
Rita 298
*
Sun 600
*
Wallace 300
Clearing, Mayfair 300
*
DISTRICT SOUTH NO. 5
Blue Island, Lyric 939 2nd
Chicago
Beverly 1,240 2nd
Capitol 2,456 2nd
Cosmo 1,181 3rd
Highland 2,043 2nd
Parkway (Roseland) .... 761 3rd
State iRoseland) 1,981 2nd
Chicago Heights
Lincoln or 1,610 2nd
Rio 706 2nd
Harvey, Harvey 876 2nd
Homewood, Homewood 600 3rd
Oak Lawn, Coral 1,000 2nd
4th and Subsequent
Blue Island. Grand 719 *
Chicago
Normalf 750 •
Ridge il20th)t 734 *
Roseland 991
*
Verdi 383
•
Chicago Heights
Liberty 400
*
Nortown 500
*
Dolton, Dolton. 500
•
Harvey, Brandt 525
*
Harvey, Era 428 '
Midlothian, Towne 500
*
Steger, Steger 325 •
JNote: Normal and Ridge are now negotiating competitively
and we propose to continue this procedure
if satisfactory to both Iheatres-
DISTRICT HAMMOND
East Chicago, Vogue 914 2nd
Griffith, Griffith 600 2nd
Hammond
Calumet 700 3rd
Hohman 700 2nd
Milwaukee Towne Case
Now in Hands of Judge
CHICAGO—The decision of Judge John P.
Barnes in the hard-fought $1,050,000 triple
damage antitrust suit brought by the Milwaukee
Towne Corp., owner of the Towne
Theatre, Milwaukee, is being awaited with intense
interest. So many witnesses were examined
during the six weeks of the trial, and
the testimony was so extensive that it covered
several hundred pages of transcript. It
is not expected that the decision will be
handed down for three or four weeks.
Defendants in the case are MGM, Paramount,
RKO, 20th-Fox, Warner Bros. Distributing
Corp.. Warner Bros. Circuit Management
Corp., Columbia, and James A. Coston
of Warner Management Corp.
"It takes three things to make out an antitrust
cause of action for damages—the proof
of an unlawful conspiracy, the proof of damages
to the plaintiff, and most important in
this case, it takes proof of a direct and proximate
and casual connection between the conspiracy
charged and the damage claimed."
defendant counsel argued. "There is not even
prima facie evidence of the necessary hookup
between the Milwaukee plan and the availability
to the Towne of first run pictures."
"It is our position that the so-called piece
of whole cloth is a patchwork which hangs
together only upon the gossamer threads of
counsel's oratorical ability. The defendants
contend that the so-called Milwaukee plan,
even while it was functioning never had the
meaning, the pm-pose. the force or the effect
of preventing the Towne or any other theatre
in Milwaukee from buying first run pictm'es
if they wanted to and were competitively in
a position to buy them.
"In any event, the so-called Milwaukee zoning
and clearance plan, after having shed by
the processes of attrition throughout the
years, all but a residue of its meaning was
snuffed out immediately after June 1, 1946.
"We also contend that prior to that time
the plaintiff did not make any request for
first runs from distributors who are defendants
here. We contend that the operation
of clearances in Milwaukee after 1946 was a
New Hammond 700 3rd
Orpheum 836 2nd
Paramount 1,992 2nd
Parthenon 2,139 2nd
Hessville, Ace 475 3rd
Highland, Town 432 2nd
Indiana Harbor, Indiana.. 1,217 2nd
Lansing, Lans 803 2nd
Whiting, Hoosier 785 2nd
4th and Subsequent
*
East Chicago, Forsythe.... 847
•
East Chicago, Mars 500
Indiana Harbor
•
American 578
*
Broadway 440
•
Garden 750
Vic •
429
DISTRICT GARY
Crown Point
Palace or 497 2nd
Rex 345 2nd
Gary-
normal, lawful operation of what the courts
have held not to be lawful.
"The plaintiff's idea of what was lost in the
way of profits by not getting all the first runs
wanted has been exaggerated many, many
times over the true facts."
An attorney for Warner Bros, argued the
Towne had not been deprived of first runs,
and a Paramount lawyer said in his last
argument, "There is nothing in this whole
story of the old Milwaukee system of release,
or its remmants, if there be any, which has
anything to do with this case."
Counsel for the Towne Theatre, in his closing
pleas, Thomas C. McConnell, attorney for
the plaintiff said: "It was as clear a case of
conspiracy as could be presented in a court.
Every single theatre in the city of Milwaukee
had its clearances fixed, had a number in a
zone and a subzone. Admission prices were
fixed with the further vicious provision that
if a theatre lowered its admis.sion price it lost
clearance position.
its
"There is not any possible question that
this sort of arrangement is illegal. The overriding,
overwhelming interest of the public
condemns it and declares it illegal from start
to finish. There are overwhelming, inherent
and transcendent rights of a whole community
involved in this Utigation.
"Witness after witness testified the purpose
of the monopoly was to throw patronage
into fu'st runs at the highest admission
prices, keep the second run admission high
enough so it wouldn't compete too much to
keep the patronage away—stagger it down
the line, work it out so that the overall dollar
taken away from the community will be
the highest po.ssible. Of course the conspirators
were happy. You couldn't imagine a
better system. They had everything tied up.
the whole city sewed up. There isn't a legal
clearance shown in this case, not one of them.
The theatres were manipulated just like men
on a chessboard. The defense says we didn't
complain. We are complaining now. This
suit is a complaint."
Fifth Avenue 956 3rd
Gary 980 2nd
Grand 600 2nd
Indiana or 1,000 2nd
Roosevelt 800 2nd
Lake 500 3rd
Miller 760 2nd
Palace 2,458 2nd
Ridge or 670 3rd
Roxy 1,070 3rd
State 1,200 2nd
Tivoli 1,200 2nd
Hebron, Hebron 292 2nd
Hobart, Art or 550 2nd
Strand 420 2nd
Lowell, Ritz 320' 2nd
Gary, Tolleston 550 4th
* Specific run for each theatre to be neg^otiated.
*'Because of the policies followed by these
theatres, no designation of second or subsequent
run has been made.
BOXOFFICE December 24, 1949
57