Boxoffice-December.20.1952

I
44 LEGISLATURES MEET IN '53;
TAXES. CENSORSHIP TO FORB^
Industry May Take Up
Fight to Repeal All
State Censoring
NEW YORK—What will happen In connection
with censorship and taxes are current
topics of speculation among exhibitors
as opening dates for 44 legislatures approach.
Forty-two are scheduled to open
in January; one—Florida—in April and
two—Alabama and Louisiana—in May.
The states that wUl not meet in 1953. unless
special sessions are called, are Kentucky,
Louisiana. Mississippi and Virginia. Only
one of these—Virginia—has state censorship.
The cerisoring states are Pennsylvania, Massachu.setls
(Sunday only), Kansas, Ohio and
New York.
Reports have circulated that censorship
repeal bills will be introduced in Maryland,
Ohio, Kansas, Pennsylvania and New York
with indirect MPAA support, but official
confirmation is lacking.
DIFFER IN MARYLAND
Since the Supreme Court decisions in the
Gelling and Miracle cases, the attorney general
of Maryland has expressed the opinion
that present censorship laws there are void,
but the chief censor, Sydney Traub, has indicated
that he will fight for continuance.
Some action by the legislatures is expected.
In Massachusetts, where the department of
public safety censors films for Sunday showings—which
is equivalent to seven-day-aweek
censorship—there has been practically
no discussion of the po.ssibility of seeking repeal
among exhibitors.
In Ohio an analogous situation prevails.
The chief censor. Dr. Clyde Hissong, is definitely
on the defensive. A test case started
by the Motion Picture Ass'n of America some
months ago resulted in a stalemate. The Ohio
law requires that failure to comply with the
censors ruling is a misdemeanor to be handled
by magistrates courts which have only local
jurl.sdiction.
A battery of lawyers challenged the censors
Theatre TV Wrestling
May Get Colorado Tax
DENVER—Plans are being laid to present
a bin to the Colorado legislature,
meeting next month, to tax closed circuit
large-screen television of wrestling
matches and prize fights. At present only
the Paramount In Denver Ls equipped to
show .such events. Eddie Bohn, chairman
of the state boxing and wrestling commission,
wants the state tax to be 5 per cent,
the same as now levied on live events.
Bohn is afraid that with television of
those sporting events in any number,
the actual events might pa.ss out of the
picture, at lea.st locally, and If such should
be the case, the boiird would have no
funds to keep Itself going.
Chicago Censorship
Taken Into Court
CHICAGO—The Chicago Chapter of
the American Civil Liberties Union, filed
suit in circuit court December 23, asking
that Chicago's motion picture censorship
ordinance be held unconstitutional.
The suit results from a ban on the
showing in Chicago of "The Miracle," an
Italian film. Police Commissioner O'Connor,
on recommendation of the police censor
board, banned the film on the ground
it was immoral and held religion up to
ridicule. Mayor Martin Kennelly, on an
appeal, upheld O'Connor, but on the
ground the film was immoral and obscene.
The plaintiffs contended city authorities
have the right to act after an improper
motion picture has been shown,
but that censorship prior to public showing
is a violation of constitutional guarantees
of freedom of speech and of the
press.
Signers of the complaint were Dean
Arthur Cushman McGiffert, head of the
Chicago Theological Seminary, as chairman
of the Chicago division of the
ACLU, and Attorney Charles Liebman.
acting as an individual. Liebman holds
the rights to exhibit and distribute the
film in Chicago territory.
power to regulate the content of newsreels on
the ground that the reels were entitled to
freedom of the press. Martin G. Smith consented
to be the central figure in the test
case. He showed a newsreel without the censors
license and was arrested.
Smith won when the local coiu-t ruled the
censors were acting beyond their powers, and
it was thought that the groundwork for
higher court rulings had been laid. After
some delay the attorney general refused to
take an appeal and this left the ruling
applicable only to Toledo.
There was some talk among Ohio exhibitors
of refusing to pay the censors fees and thus
precipitating t6sts in other municipalities, but
nothing came of it. They have been paying
under protest since then, a technicality that
may enable them to collect if some other court
nues on the problem.
Dr. Hissong has been voluble in defense
of censorship since the Toledo incident, but
both the MPAA and the Independent Exhibitors
Ass'n of Ohio have been silent since that
time. There would be no surprise if the
problem should reach the legislature in the
form of an amendment to the present cen-
.sorship law.
Some exhibitors favor it, and some don't,
the latter basing their objection on the theory
that if the $3,000,000 annual income from
censorship which is now used for school purposes
Is cut off, the legislature might think of
some other way for making up the lost
revenue.
In New York the chief defender of censorship
is Charles A. Brind jr., counsel to thl
New York state education department, whic
has jurisdiction over censorship. He has mad
a number of speeches declaring that if stat
statutes governing censorship are outlawet
he would advocate the licensing of theatre
Under his plan, theatres would be licensed i
a manner similar to pharmacies and liquc
stores, and any theatre showing a film ths
violated the state code would have its licens
revoked.
Some of the exhibitor groups are in favc
of staying away from the legislatiu'e excepi
as it may become necessary to battle any nc
tax plans.
New York City is making desperate effoii
to increase its revenues and some upstati
cities are in the same predicament.
This also is the situation in many oth«
cities in many other states where exhibit*'
groups are watching the development closely
without being able to predict what wi
happen.
Spyros Skouras Back
From His World Tour
NEW YORK—Spyros P. Skouras, presider
of 20th Century-Fox, ended a three-mont
round-the-world film survey Wednesday (24
when he returned from Europe by plane. H
had left here early in October, going first t
the far east, where he visited Honolulu, Ms
nila, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Djakarta
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Switzerland. At all stopovers he surveyed thKiitiJlieii
Plans Congressional Bill
To Cut Theatre Taxes
WASHINGTON—A bUl to reduce admissio
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taxes to 10 per cent, to exempt admissioi *tot circle
under 60 cents and to bring excise taxe.'^ ger isfd to arbjt
erally down to 1939 rate levels will be intn
duced m Congress shortly after opening i
the 1953 session by Rep. John D. Dingell (I
Mich.), it was learned on Friday (19K
Dingell said that under the terms of h
bill some excises would be repealed entire.|
and some reduced. He predicted strong COI
gressional support for his bill.
U.S. Industry Investments
Abroad Total 111 Million
WASHINGTON—American investments
overseas motion pictiu-es reached $111,600,01
in 1950, according to the Department of Con
merce on Tuesday (23t. Slightly over ha
$56,400,000, was invested in western Europ
$22,900,000 was invested in Canada; $16,400,0'
in Latin-America; and $15,500,000 in oth
nations around the world.
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BOXOFFICE :: December 27, 19." lOfFJCE