Boxoffice-January.17.1953

THREAT OF SENATE INQUIRY
INTO UPT-ABC TYPE MERGER
Senator Tobey Questions
Legality; May Call for
Outlawing Legislation
WASHINGTON — The Department of
Justice has asked that "appropriate attention"
be given to certain antitrust factors
in the proposed merger of United Paramount
Theatres and American Broadcasting
Corp. and Sen. Charles W. Tobey (R.,
N.H.) has sent another of his telegrams
about the case.
HEARING IN TWO WEEKS
Tobey's second wire, the contents of which
became known on Monday (12 1, followed by
one day a Federal Communications Commission
meeting at which it was learned that
the FCC voted to approve the merger with
only Commissioner Frieda Hennock dissenting
and asking for "a couple of weeks" in
which to write her dissent. The voting was
almost as unanimous on other issues, it was
reported, with a 5-2 split on some phases.
Tobey's wire, in which reference was made
erroneously to an ABC-Paramount Pictures
merger, read in part. "The Senate Committee
on Interstate and Foreign Commerce will hold
a hearing sometime in the next two weeks to
determine whether or not the proposed UPT-
ABC merger is legal and whether or not in
the public interest and whether it would be
helpful to prepare and pass legislation to
prevent mergers of this kind in the future."
A letter to Paul A. Walker, FCC chairman,
from Attorney General James McGranery
was also made public on Monday (12),
along with the FCC reply which, in effect,
told the Justice Department it had missed
the boat completely on the ABC-XJPT case.
McGranery emphasized that the Justice
Department was not making actual recommendations
to a verdict, but said some of the
factors that should be considered included
whether approval of the merger might "encourage
a general integration of the motion
picture exhibition industry with the radio
and telecasting industries" which could well
lead to "serious competitive problems" as a
result of "the control of such important segments
of the visual entertainment field by a
few dominant companies."
RAISES EXHIBITION POINT
McGranery raised the question of whether
film exhibition interested "placed in a position
to do so" might not protect their theatre
investments from TV competition by hampering
the development of televi-sion, and in any
case, he said, "the incentive to improvement
that comes from active competition will
inevitably be lost under common control."
The attorney general indicated that if the
UPT-ABC merger were to be approved others
of like nature might follow and the development
of the television industry might be
"subordinated to the interests of the motion
picture industry."
Merging of exhibitor and TV interests, he
continued, "would impede the entry of new
business enterprises into any phase of these
industries" and the merged company would
have advantages in bidding for attractions
UAs Gross for 1952
Up by 50 Per Cent
NEW YORK—The United Artists world
gross for 1952 was $30,000,000. an increase of
50 per cent over the $20,000,000 for 1951,
according to Arthur B. Krim, president, in
his "progress report" to the tradepress Thursday
(15).
The increase in profits will be at a lesser
rate, mainly because of higher costs, increase
in selling manpower and the fact that the
company still took on costs of write-offs
before the current executive group came into
UA, Krim said.
The company has made "substantial progress"
on three points in 1952, according to
Krim: (1> At least four UA releases, "High
Noon," "The African Queen," "Limelight" and
"Breaking the Sound Barrier," were on practically
every "best ten" list and UA won
three out of the five awai'ds given by the
not available to a firm without such connections.
Walker's reply did not point to the fact that
the counsel for the FCC's own broadcast
bureau, Frederick Ford, had devoted many
pages of his "proposed findings" and at least
half an hour of his oral arguments to development
of exactly the same arguments. He did
remind McGranery that the D of J had been
kept advised of all proceedings in the case
and had nevertheless informed FCC that it
was not in a position to take any formal
part in the case. That was on December 29.
1951. and since then the Department has
never requested intervention or participation
of any kind.
Victory for the Majors
In Dallas Trust Suit
DALLAS—A directed verdict for the majors
and the Interstate circuit in the five-year-old
antitrust suit brought by Tivoli Realty Co.
and I. B. Adelman. owners of the Delman
Theatre here, was returned in federal court
here this week. Judge William H. Atwell of
federal district court instructed the jury to
bring in such a verdict after less than three
days of testimony. He said the plaintiffs
failed to prove conspiracy to deprive the Delman
of the run and product it wanted.
Judge Atwell held that when the distributors
decided that the competing Village Theatre
was the outstanding theatre in North
Dallas and could provide the most profitable
run they were acting independently and in the
exercise of their separate business judgments.
They had the legal right, he said, to select
the customers to whom they wished to
license their product.
Loew's, RKO Radio, Paramount and 20th
Century-Fox had offered product to the Delman
on a competitive bidding basis.
New York film critics: (2) The directorial
talent which gravitated to the independent
field for UA release included Anatole Litvak,
Otto Preminger, John Huston, Lewis Milestone,
Mark Robson and Carol Reed: and (3)
UA had two "block-busters," "High Noon"
and "The African Queen," which were among
the eight biggest grossers of 1952. "Noon" had
$2,500,000 in sales in 18 weeks, the fastest
liquidation in UA history.
The company has eight pictures for 1953
which are potential biggest grossers for the
year. Krim also said UA has set the 36
features for 1953 and is now finalizing plans
for 1954 production. Krim is awaiting the
results of current negotiations for "Bwana
Devil," Arch Oboler's natural-vision feature,
which UA will probably buy outright for
world distribution.
Lippert Will Release 12
January Through May
CHICAGO—Twelve releases, all completed
and either awaiting release or in various editing
stages, will constitute Lippert Pictures'
distribution program for the first five months
of 1953. franchise holders were informed by
President Robert L. Lippert at a two-day
meeting here Saturday and Sunday (10. 11).
Following the parleys. Lippert proceeded to
New York with Arthur Greenblatt. general
sales manager, for a week of huddles before
returning to his headquarters in Hollywood.
Heading the lineup of new product are
"The Tall Texan." starring Lloyd Bridges.
Lee J. Cobb, Marie Windsor and Luther
Adler, and "I'll Get You," with George Raft
and Sally Gray. Two science-fiction entries
are "Spaceways," toplining Howard Duff, and
"Project X." A1.SO available will be "Bad
Blonde," starring Barbara Payton: "Bachelor
in Paris," with Dennis Price; "Park Plaza
605." starring Tom Conway: "Chu Chin
Chow." a musical: two Romulus productions.
•Twilight Women" and "The Little Big Shot,"
and a feature-length cartoon in Technicolor.
"Johnny, the Giant Killer."
Williams Leaves Fox
For Television Post
NEW YORK—Phil A. Williams has resigned
his sales post with 20th Century-Fox to enter
the television field. For the past year he has
been sales manager of the 20th-Fox television
productions and assistant to the short subjects
sales manager.
Prior to joining Fox. Williams was sales
manager for the March of Time and served
in various capacities with the Time. Inc.,
organization since 1937. He will announce his
new connection next week.
16 BOXOFnCE January 17, 1953