Boxoffice-Septemeber.19.1953

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action
HOLLYWOOD
MEWS AND VIEWS OF THE PRODUCTION CENTER
'Hollywood Office— Suite 219 at 6404 Hollijin^cd lihd Iran Sv
Premiere of 'Holiday'
Is Hospital Benefit
HOLLYWOOD—With all
proceeds going to
the SI.000,000 expansion fund for the Santa
Monica hospital, a special benefit premiere of
Paramount's "Roman Holiday" was staged
Monday (14i at Fox West Coast's Village
Theatre in Westwood. The William Wyler
production, starring Audrey Hepburn and
Gregory Peck, will begin it.s regular Los
Angeles area fii-st run engagement late this
month.
Industry celebrities, stars, social and civic
leaders were among the first-nighters at the
event, of which Esther Williams was general
chairman. The guest list included:
Audrey Hepburn
Irving Berlin
Debbie Reynolds
William Bendix
Don Hortmon
Terry Moore
Ronald Reagan
Collier Young
Robert Mitchum
Joan Fontoine
Clark Gable's new MGM starrer.
"Mogambo," will be world-premiered Wednesday
(231 at Loew's Warfield in San Francisco,
launching an intensive national advertising-promotion
drive for the Sam Zimbalist
production, in which Ava Gardner co-stars.
The "Mogambo" opening will be dovetailed
with the preview-premiere of "Take the High
Ground!" in five Texas cities, opening Monday
(21 1 in El Paso. Dore Schary. MGM vicepresident
and studio head, who personally
produced "Ground," is heading for the Lone
Star state for .speaking engagements in Fort
Bliss, El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas
and Fort Worth in connection with bookings
of the feature.
"Laughing Anne," produced and directed
in England by Herbert Wilcox for Republic
release, was world-premiered Thursday dOi
at the Leicester Square Theatre in London.
Starring in the Technicolor film version of
Joseph Conrad's story are Margaret Lockwood,
Wendell Corey and Forrest Tucker.
"Those Redheads From Seattle," 3-D Technicolor
musical produced by the Pine-Thomas
unit for Paramount release, will have its world
premiere in—you guessed it—Seattle. It will
open at the Paramount Theatre there on
Wednesday (23 1, attended by players in the
film including Rhonda Fleming, Agnes
Moorehead, Gene Barry, Roscoe Ates and the
Bell Sisters.
"Man of Conflict," an Edward Arnold
starrer produced by Hal R. Makelim, has been
set for prerelease bookings in U.S. army
camps and stations beginning early in October.
Following these screenings the feature
will be placed into release through Atlas
Pictures of which Makelim recently acquired
complete control.
BOXOmCE :: September 19, 1953
Actors Guild Slate of Officers
Renominated for
HOLLYWOOD—With six offices and 16
board posts to be filled, the Screen Actors
Guild nominating committee has selected
all incumbent officers as candidates for reelection.
At the .same time, made available
were nominating petitions by which, through
signatures of 35 members in good standing,
competing candidates can be cho.sen. The
official slate:
President. Walter Pidgeon: vice-presidents.
Leon Ames, John Lund. William Holden; recording
secretary. Paul Harvey; treasurer,
George Chandler; board members, Edward
Arnold. Wendell Corey, Robert Cummings.
Ruth Hu.ssey, Pj-ank Lovejoy, William Lundigan,
George Murphy, Verne Smith, Georgia
Stark, Lyle Talbot, William Walker, Jimmy
Lydon, Richard Widmark. Robert Stack.
George Boyce, Jack Mower.
Independent nominating petitions are returnable
October 10. The SAG annual meeting,
at which results of the election will be
announced, is scheduled for November,
Meantime, by a close vote of 2,009 to 1,941,
SAG members adopted a new dues .schedule,
calling for the first increase since 1935. The
new scale goes into effect November 1.
£'Zecutii4e
East: Art Arthur, exicutivi' .secretary of the
Motion Picture Indu.--try Coiiiuil, planned to
pull out over the weekend for Gotham to
attend a COMPO meeting.
West: Edward L. Walton, executive assistant
to President James R. Grainger of
RKO, arrived from New York to join Grainger
in production planning huddles at the studio.
• • •
West: Joe Pasternak. MGM producer,
checked In after an extended stay in England,
bringing with him a print of a Lana Turner
starring vehicle which he made abroad.
West: Jack L. Warner. Warner Bros, vicepresident
In charge of production, was back
at his studio desk after a European sojourn.
West: Charles Slmonelll. U-I's eastern advertising-publicity
head, and Jeff Livingston,
eastern advertising manager, planed in from
New York for conferences with David A. Lipton,
vice-president and advertising-publicity
New Terms
Pending the .selection of a permanent replacement.
Carl Cooper, lATSE vice-president,
will function as Hollywood representat:ve
following acceptance by Richard F.
Walsh, lA president, of the resignation of
Roy M. Brewer. The Brewer resignation had
been proffered several weeks ago.
Cooper's first official duty was to take
over supervisory control of the lA locals'
current negotiations with major studios anent
new bargaining agreements. Brewer will remain
with the lA for about two weeks, cleaning
up his affairs, and has not as yet announced
his future plans. He Is active in
other film organizations Including the Motion
Picture Industry Council.
Perturbation appeared rife within the
Screen Writers Guild as the executive board
launched a probe into what it described as a
"leak" to the press of a recent meeting of its
working rules committee, at which committee
members in attendance dissented from a
board ruling that no further Investigation be
made into the circumstances surrounding the
penning by scenarust Michael Wilson of "Salt
of the Earth," a film denounced by government
representatives as CommunLst-lnsplred.
The press was Informed of the committee's
action before the SWG board learned of It.
^^uuteien^.
head, on campaigns to be drafted for .several
forthcoming releases.
East: Heading for Gotham to attend the
Wednesday (16 1 world premiere of 20th Century-Fox's
"The Robe" were Charles P.
Skouras. president of National Theatres, and
other executives of the circuit, including John
Bertero. R. H. McCuUough and John Lavery.
A1.S0 winging east for the premiere was Earl
Sponable. 20th-Fox's technical director.
East: R. J. O'Donnell of the Interstate circuit
of Texas returned to his Dallas headquarters
after spending the summer here.
West: Merian C. Cooper. Cinerama's production
chief, returned from New York after
planning conferences with executives of the
Stanley Warner circuit.
East: Nat Holt. Paramount producer,
trained to Gotham for homeoffice parleys.
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