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Boxoffice-October.04.1952

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S'lA^m<br />

Colorado Drive-In Circuit<br />

Sues Wolfbergs and UA<br />

DP:NVER— Kar-Vue Theatres. Inc.,<br />

headed<br />

by Lem Lee. operatliiK four drlve-lns In<br />

Colorado, filed .suit In U.S. district court Ihl.s<br />

week a-skhiK for $100,000 damage.s under the<br />

antltru.st act. to be tripled If won. against<br />

United Arti.st.s and theatre companies headed<br />

by Harris and John WolfberR. father and .son.<br />

The WolfberR.s operate .six theatres In Denver.<br />

Including the Parumoinit and Broadway, both<br />

first runs, and four drive-Ins.<br />

Lee claims he has been unable to buy a<br />

proper run of United Artists films for tht<br />

Monaco Drive-In here. Lee .says United<br />

Artists refuses to sell them second run. which<br />

means first run as far as drive-ins is concerned,<br />

and Is selling this run to the Wolfberg<br />

drivc-ins and he Is unable to get the films<br />

until a week later.<br />

The Wolfbergs were awarded $300,000<br />

damages from RKO. Loew's and 20th Century-<br />

Fox recently, and have on file another suit<br />

asking over a million dollars in damages<br />

against the same companies.<br />

Motion Picture Academy<br />

Adds 18 New Members<br />

HOLLYWOOD—By vote of the board of<br />

governors. 18 new members have been added<br />

to the roster of the Academy of Motion<br />

Picture Arts and Sciences. They include:<br />

Actors—Philip Sudano. Directors—Henry<br />

Levin. Executives—Evelyn Lane. Producers<br />

—Hall Bartlett. Members-at-large—James<br />

Paris. Arthur Gardner. Yale Gracey. Jules<br />

V. Levy. William C. Park. Associates—Sidney<br />

Barton. George Carillon. Herman Citron. Tony<br />

Duquette. Samuel Gray. Frances Inglis. Ralph<br />

Nelson. John J. Parker. Paul Small.<br />

Additionally. Mervin Houser and Martin<br />

Lewis were reinstated as members of the<br />

public relations branch, and Harry Keller was<br />

shifted from the film editors to the directors<br />

classification.<br />

First Commercial Use<br />

Of Vistascope Device<br />

HOLLYWOOD—The first commercial use<br />

of the Vistascope device, owned jointly by<br />

Sol Lesser and Paramount, was made in connection<br />

with the lensing of several scenes in<br />

Revue Productions' TV subject "Mona Lisa."<br />

The gadget permits the u.se. with live action.<br />

of photographs for motion picture foreground<br />

settings.<br />

• * •<br />

All officers of the Alliance of Television<br />

Film Producers, against which the Screen<br />

Writers Guild launched a strike some weeks<br />

ago. have been reelected. Remaining in office<br />

are Maurice Unger, president; William F.<br />

Broidy. vice-president; Basil Grille, treasurer,<br />

and Richard Morley, secretary.<br />

New Mexico Chain Signs<br />

NEW YORK—Albuquerque Exhibitors has<br />

contracted with the RCA Service Co. for<br />

scheduled and emergeiicy calls and sound<br />

parts replacement plan covering its ten New<br />

Mexico theatres, Francis A. Pelosa, general<br />

manager of the chain, signed the contract.<br />

The theatres covered are the State. Sunshine,<br />

Kimo. Yucca. Lobo. Highland. Chief. Rio,<br />

Cactus Drive-In and 66 Drive-In.<br />

iNDOUBTEDLY the most exciting and<br />

Ill<br />

lil significant news to confront Hollywood<br />

—and probably the rest of the motion<br />

picture Industry— in many months was the<br />

intelligence that Howard Hughes had disposed<br />

of his controlling interest In RKO<br />

Radio to a syndicate headed by Ralph Stolkln,<br />

Chicago Industrialist.<br />

While Stolkin is entirely a newcomer to<br />

the business of making and distributing<br />

films, his phenomenally successful activities<br />

in other fields of endeavor appears Irrefutable<br />

indication that he can and will<br />

be comparably impressive In the motion picture<br />

trade.<br />

As concerns the company itself, no one<br />

will gainsay that there is vast oppportunity<br />

for improvement of its of>erations, most<br />

especially those that pertain to the studio.<br />

From almost any viewpoint the Gower street<br />

film plant has been in a state of confusion<br />

and uncertainty ever since the day Hughes<br />

assumed control, and which had attained a<br />

crescendo during recent months. Such circumstances<br />

are no reflection upon either<br />

the productional savvy or the business acumen<br />

of headman Hughes. The impressive<br />

records established by some of the pictures<br />

he independently made before his purchase<br />

of RKO are inescapable testimony to the<br />

former, while his wide and varied industrial<br />

empire establishes the latter beyond possibility<br />

of argument.<br />

The studio's troubles— and they were manifold—undoubtedly<br />

stemmed from the fact<br />

that Hughes had so many other interests<br />

that he found it physically impossible to<br />

devote the necessary time to operating the<br />

celluloid factory, and that he apparently was<br />

unwilling to delegate complete authority to<br />

anyone else.<br />

Resultantly. production activity had slowed<br />

down to the pace of a paralytic snail.<br />

Further, the morale and the public relations<br />

of the organization—or those of the<br />

entire industry, for that matter—certainly<br />

did not benefit from the parade of luridly<br />

publicized litigation in which the studio was<br />

constantly involved during the Hughes tenure.<br />

Witness; The action lodged against<br />

scenarist Paul Jarrico. and the writer's suit<br />

against Hughes and RKO Radio, after his<br />

name had been removed from the credits on<br />

"Macao" because Jarrico had been subpoenaed<br />

as a so-called "unfriendly" witness in the<br />

house un-American Activities Committee's<br />

probe of asserted Communist infiltration of<br />

the film industry, and the more recent lawsuit,<br />

decided in her favor, wherein actress<br />

Jean Simmons sought a ruling that she was<br />

not bound by an alleged oral agreement<br />

calling for her services on a multiple picture<br />

contract.<br />

As is always the case under such circumstances,<br />

the transfer of ownership started<br />

Cinemania's rumor mill working on a threeshift,<br />

around-the-clock basis. The railbirds<br />

have conjecturally projected virtually every<br />

possible top-bra.ss name as being in line to<br />

head RKO's future filmmaking program,<br />

among them Darryl F. Zanuck. Louis B.<br />

Mayer, David O. Selznick, Henry Ginsberg,<br />

etc. At this writing, however, none of the<br />

guc.s.ses .seem.s to have transcended the tealeaf<br />

status, and the new ownership haa remained<br />

significantly and discreetly silent on<br />

this Important detail.<br />

It would be neither surprising nor Illogical<br />

If the studio chieftain turns out to b« someone<br />

already on the lot: to wit, Jerry Wald.<br />

He, with his then-partner, Norman Kra.sna,<br />

affiliated them.selves with the Hughes team<br />

In August 1930. At that time Wald and<br />

Kra.sna were loudly and widely heralded as<br />

the knights In shining armor who would<br />

rescue already floundering RKO from the<br />

morass of too-Uttle and too-weak product In<br />

which the studio even then was sinking. It<br />

was announced ambitiously they would devote<br />

their proven filmmaking talents to the rtianufacture<br />

of 12 high-budget pictures annually,<br />

for a period of five years, on an over-all<br />

budget of $60,000,000. But. hamstrung by the<br />

studio's over-all tempo and because they<br />

obviously didn't see eye-to-eye with Hughes,<br />

the duo. over a period of slightly more than<br />

two years, turned out only four features.<br />

Last May. Wald and Krasna .severed their<br />

partnership, and Krasna checked out to de-<br />

Vote full time to the writing of a play which<br />

is scheduled to be produced on Broadway<br />

next year. Wald stayed on at RKO to complete<br />

pictures already in the works, while so<br />

engaged, news of his possible continued<br />

association with Hughes was very much of<br />

an on-again-off-again nature. Most recent,<br />

and undoubtedly authentic, report, wa.< that<br />

he was to ankle the organization as of the<br />

end of this month.<br />

Stolkin could do worse than to give .serious<br />

consideration to keeping Wald on the job.<br />

Despite its generally moribund atmosphere,<br />

there ore other spots in RKO's skeletonized<br />

organization that remained basically sound<br />

and effective. One such is the publicity<br />

department, headed by Perry Lieber. Considering<br />

what they had to work with, praise<br />

pundit Perry and his deleted staff have<br />

done an outstanding and praiseworthy job in<br />

garnering for RKO. its pictures and its people<br />

more than their just share of press and<br />

public attention.<br />

So. Stolkin has taken upon himself a<br />

studio and an organization which has plenty<br />

of latent power. The apphcation thereto of<br />

some of the same solid, sensible business<br />

principles and modus operandi that Stolkin<br />

has manifested in his various other ventures<br />

can and undoubtedly will rewin for RKO its<br />

esteemed place in the community of major<br />

motion picture producers.<br />

THAT'S TOO BAD DEPARTMENT<br />

(George Lait Division)<br />

To hand from Columbia, a release informing<br />

that Designer Jean Louis, delving into<br />

Egyptian history to find what Cleopatra wore<br />

when she first met Julius Caesar, discovered<br />

she was "attired in a diaphanous skirt and<br />

was bare from the midriff up."<br />

However, the Laitian communique continues,<br />

"Rhonda Fleming's costume for her<br />

initial scene in 'Serpent of the Nile' will be<br />

completely<br />

different."<br />

BOXOFFICE October 4. 1952 51

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