Warners

'
'
TAX CUT PROSPECTS
AS INDUSTRY FIGHT
House Ways and Means
Committee Now Said
To Favor the Step
WASHINGTON—Pressure to ride over
the administration recommendations for
tax revision in order to cut the 20 per cent
federal admissions tax in half was mounting
in strength this week as the nationwide
theatre campaign began to be reflected
more and more clearly.
At the weekend it was even reported that
a majority of the key House ways and means
committee was ready to support reduction
of the admissions tax along with reduction
of other excise taxes asked by the administration.
Meantime. MPAA President Eric Johnston
predicted flatly that there will be a reduction
of the admissions levy this year, and
support for the battle was voiced by both
the AFX and the CIO.
TO PRESENT INDUSTRY CASE
It was announced that the industry's case
for reduction will be presented the committee—perhaps
next week—by Gael Sullivan
and A. F. Myers, respectively director of TOA
and chairman of National Allied. Myers is
also chairman of the COMPO tax committee
and thus head of the united industry
campaign.
Johnston will probably appear on behalf
of the National Committee to Remove Wartime
Excises. He said he will make a strong
plea for the removal of the 25 per cent
manufacturers' excise on photographic apparatus
and the 15 per cent levy on raw
stock.
Secretary of the Treasury John Snyder
told the ways and means committee last
week the government cannot afford to give
up any more revenue than would be lost by
enactment of the President's recommenda-
EDfTORI>tL PAGE OF THE DAILY MIRROR
NEW YORK. SATURDAY. JA.NUARY 28. 1950
Another Tax Gouge
VI/HILE THE NATION is aroused over the un-
*' fairness of the whole range of wartime excise
taxes, we hope people won't forget one particular
gouge that cuts into the purse of every
American family and bites those in the lower and
middle income ranges the hardest.
This is the flat 20 percent "amusement" tax
on movies, theatre, opera, sports events, etc. Let's
confine our attention at the moment just to the
movies.
"They affect more people, about 85,000,000
Americans being regular weekly moviegoers, and
the movies being their principle source of outside
recreation.
You take your wife to the neighborhood movie
and, on the average, you will be paying 30 cents to
the Washington spenders for the privilege of
watching the show. Multiply that by the number
of times you go to the movies in a year and you can
see it is a considerable tribute.
The movie people, through the Council of
-Mntion Picture Organizations, starting a dermined
is
battle on this discriniinatorv tax, and we
ivl' all for them. Moviegoers should take part in
iO
fight for their own self-interest.
The Tax Campaign:
1. Newspaper editorials across the country
call for tax aid to the industry.
2. Radio announcements now going on
the
air.
3. First shipment of 10.000,000 campaign
aids has been sent to exhibitors by
National Screen Service, which already
has requests for 8,000 more booklets.
4. Current newsreels carry an appeal
by Congressman Cecil R. King, and tell
theatre patrons to "sign up in the lobby."
5. Actors Equity, League of New York
Theatres and Committee of Theatrical
Producers pledge aid.
6. Fifteen New York congressmen will
support repeal with their votes, with
others due to follow their lead.
7. Eric Johnston, MPAA president, predicts
a cut in the tax.
8. Abram F. Myers, National Allied
general counsel, and Gael Sullivan, TOA
executive director, selected to testify at
House ways and means committee hearing.
9. John Balaban and Jack Kirsch, Illinois
Allied head, co-chairman of COMPO
committee in Chicago, consolidating drive
there.
10. Jerry Zigmond of Paramount becomes
general chairman of San Francisco
campaign.
11. Variety Clubs lining np all 35 tents
to join campaign.
12. Sam Pearlman, manager of Loew's
State, New York, sends initial batch of
900 protest cards to Congressman Walter
A. Lynch of House ways and means committee,
as New York theatregoers begin
mass support of appeal.
13. All amusements interests in New
Jersey to work together.
14. Many exhibitor groups publicly announce
they will pass on savings to the
public.
15. New York Bookers club says repeal
would increase business, employment and
taxes on profits.
16. Gael Sullivan warns exhibitor
inertia is greatest threat to a snccessfnl
campaign.
tions. He did not refer to the admissions
tax specifically in his formal statement, but
when asked if the admissions tax enjoys any
priority for reduction in the event the treasury
finds it can give up more revenue, Snyder
replied only that he would "have to look at
my list."
Both SulUvan and Myers warned against
exhibitor inertia, stressing that public relations
values going far beyond the tax battle
are to be gained from personal contact between
management and patrons.
Biggest Tax Repeal Danger
Is Inertia, Sullivan Warns
NEW YORK—The greatest danger to successful
completion of the industry's admis-
BRIGHTEN
BROADENS
sions tax repeal campaign is exhibitor inertia,
Gael Sullivan. TOA executive director, said
after conferences in Washington with A.
Julian Brylawski, TOA tax representative;
Abram P. Myers, National Allied general
counsel and chairman of the COMPO committee
on taxation, and Henderson M. Richey,
consultant.
"It will not be enough to show the trailer
and posters and set an unmanned table in
the lobby." Sullivan said. "Our patrons are
eager and willing to help, but we cannot
expect them to stand in line to sign the
petitions. We must make it convenient and
easy for them. Comparable theatres in comparable
locations show a wide variance in
totals. The results will match your enthusiasm
and efforts. The fight has just begun."
'HEARTENING ACTION'
Sullivan found "heartening" the action of
William Green and the AFL in maldng a
specific plea in Congress on the tax. He said
he had assurance from Philip Murray that
the CIO will reaffirm its position "in the
strongest possible language" to the President
and Congress for tax relief.
Referring to a postal deficit this year of
$500,000,000. Sullivan said over $225,000,000 of
it is a subsidy to the press for certain mailing
privileges which cannot be met by the
revenues from second-class mail.
"It has been said there are three great
freedoms in communication: freedom of the
press, freedom of the air and freedom of the
screen," Sullivan said. "Millions who benefit
from the motion picture industry, whether its
workers or general public, cannot understand
why the nation's screens should be imsubsidized
and overtaxed, while the nation's
press is subsidized and untaxed, except for
those normal taxes which apply to all business
enterprises."
New York World-Telegram
and
A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER.
Tax That Should End.
Now that Congress is reported ready
to repeal the odious wartime excise taxes
on women's handbags, cosmetics, furs, luggage,
etc., motion picture theaters ask for
a rollback of admissions taxes which Congress
doubled to 20 per cent on the same
plea of war emergency.
The admissions tax is a tax on every
man, woman and child attending a movie.
They thus tax "the poor man's entertainment"
and discriminate against him and
his family.
In fairness, the admissions tax should
either be repealed or at least rolled back
to the pre-war rate.
It should not be allowed to become
permanent through sheer Congressional
neglect or refusal to keep the promise
made when the tax was doubled.
BOXOrnCE :: February 11, 1950