Boxoffice-June.09.1951

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FOUR CIRCUITS GET LOUIS BOUl
FOR EXCLUSIVE BIG SCREEN
Sports Event Marks First
Network Telecast for
Theatres Only
NEW YORK—The Fabian circuit, Loew's
Inc., RKO Theatres and United Paramount
have joined in a spectacular move to put on
the first exclusive theatre television broadcast
of a major sporting event on a network
basis. The three circuits have reached an
agreement for the exclusive telecasting of
the Joe Louis-Lee Savold fight at the Polo
grounds Wednesday < 13i
The telecast will mark a historic step
in the linking of the theatre screen and the
new medium of television. The big-screen
telecasting of major sports events over a
nationwide network of theatres has been one
of the goals of exhibitors who have pioneered
in theatre TV.
CAN'T SCREEN IN NEW YORK
The circuits, however, will not be able to
carry the fight in their New York houses,
under the arrangements with the fight promoters.
This restriction was agreed upon on
the theory that theatre telecasting of the
fight in the metropolitan area would cut
receipts at the Polo grounds.
Transmission will be by coaxial cable and
special telephone circuits at each terminal.
For boxing fans who want to see or hear
the fight outside of New York, the theatre
auditorium will be the only place as the fight
is not going to be aired otherwise either over
TV channels or radio.
The TV feature may not mean much at the
boxoffice. because the line charges are at the
rate of $1 per air mile from New York and
the International Boxing Club, headed by
James D. Norris, will get a share of the theatre
grosses. Presumably he will cut this
with the two contestants.
The move was made possible because the
boxers wanted $100,000 for their share of the
TV rights to the fight and the nearest bid
was around $62,500 from an advertiser.
Nathan L. Halpern. television consultant for
Fabian Theatres and the Theatre Owners of
America, stepped into the breach with the
percentage offer and then began negotiating
with the circuits which have TV large-screen
installations.
WATCH BOXOFFICE RESULTS
Exhibitor interest centers in the boxoffice
results. Heavy-weight fights are admittedly
competition when shown on home television
receivers. Some months ago Fabian had an
exclusive basketball broadcast at Albany and
reported results beyond expectations, and
United Paramount had been successful with
football telecasts in Chicago and Detroit.
Late in the week the lineup of theatres had
six definite commitments as follows
State-Lake and Tivoli, Chicago; Fulton,
Pittsburgh; Century, Baltimore; Keith's,
Washington and Palace, Albany, with a total
of about 16,400 seats. The Loew's installation
in Baltimore is a new RCA one rushed to
complete for the fight. It is the first Loew's
Republic,AFM Close Dei/
For Re-Scoring TV Filns
NEW YORK—Republic Pictures is the second
film company to sign a contract with
the American Federation of Musicians whereby
musicians will be paid to re-score old films
which they may employ for television, according
to James C. Petrillo, AFM president.
Robert L. Lippert, president of Lippert Productions,
signed an agreement with AFM
some time ago to pay for the re-scoring of his
old films before exhibition on TV screens.
Similar deals with Monogram and with
David O. Selznick are in negotiation, according
to AFM officials. None of the major
companies have any deals with AFM for rescoring
old films.
Although Republic coast executives recently
denied the report that the company
is preparing its old pictures for TV distribution,
the AFM deal would make a 15-year
backlog of program pictures and westerns
available for showing on TV. Petrillo broke
the news that the deal had been signed "two
weeks ago" at the 54th annual convention at
the Hotel Commodore June 4. Herbert J.
Yates, Republic president, referred to the
profits to be derived from TV distribution of
old films in his last stockholders' report.
The agreement with Republic also calls for
payment to the musicians of five per cent of
the gross of old pictures sold to TV, if a new
music sound track is not made. This sum
will go into a "second trust fund for musicians"
which, like the current fund, will be
for the purpose of providing unemployed
musicians with work on public service projects.
AFM now has contracts in effect with TV
house to install television. The Fulton equipment
is General Precision. The image is
taken off the tube onto 16mm film and
magnified to large-screen size by lamps and
the 165-foot throw to the screen.
Sam Pinanski said he had about given up
hope of showing the fight at the Pilgrim in
Boston because network shows are on the
two radio relays that night. The same difficulty
faced the Capitol of the Comerford
chain in Binghampton. UPT reported it
wouldn't be able to get cable service into the
Radio City in Minneapolis and the Michigan
in Detroit.
Circuit officials said decisions on admission
increases wouldn't be made imtil after the
weekend, but if there were any, they would
networks covering five per cent royalty payments
on every subsequent showing of television
films. Discussing these recent contracts,
Petrillo described them as "the best
ever negotiated." He then went into a detailed
explanation of the scale raifi tha
preceded the new contracts and th'erm,
of the current network agreements,
y
A recent decree by Petrillo put th^hinl.
mum recording session scale at $50, :';ompared
to $39.90, the old rate. The ne j-agi
scale started June 1.
"It's the $500-a-week musicians ,,Ne\
York who are doing the crying that i 'soli
them down the river,' yet the New Y; am
Los Angeles locals stand to '
make tl;
nosi
if not all, of the television films," trill
•
charged.
The AFM deal raises the questio is t
whether the talent unions will demi^ ad
ditional pay for actors whose old Iture
are shown on television.
A recent survey in BOXOFFICE I'owe
that approximately 1,300 films were 'ecai
during 1949 and 1950, comparatively 'W (
them originally released by major cor 'inie
The bulk of the pictures were old !onc
gram and United Artists releases wit 'nan
of the others originally released by inm
companies, such as Producers Releasin /lorp
Chesterfield and Grand National. v.
In Hollywood, Steve Broidy, presi jit (
Monogram, said the management v ej
plore the matter of the re-sale pos: liti(
of its older product for telecasts thcijighi
before making a move. A decision (1 I
made before the end of June. Broidy, lid,
A definite decision on Republic's pii^y o
using its older releases for telecast '^ ni
be reached for three or four weeks, ion
Ing to Hollywood executives.
CBS-TV in New York and KTLA Li
Angeles have closed deals with Lipi ; fi
the rights to televise 26 Lippert i«
ure
originally released to theatres during
i
:6-4
i
The same films were previously lePd
WGN-TV, Chicago.
j
be .small ones. They also said the to-^ ca
of the program and its allocation to I'tic
pants wouldn't be known until arrang len
were complete. Getting allocations torijjxii
cable use to key centers is a feat when lev:
sion networks with time contracts are ead
using considerable time. The "occasio j U!
basis" rates of the American Telepl.je >
Telegraph Co. are something new.
The charges are $1 per air mile piTioi
and 25 cents an hour for each air r f<
;
each consecutive 15-minute period. Si id
go with the pictures costs 15 cents a ,e £
hour and between three and four ce f
5
each consecutive 15-minute period, lie
also is an additional charge for the,los(
circuits at the terminals.
8
BOXOFFICE
:: June 195