Boxoffice-March.19.1962

and
- "
—
jeaffai
ocietjD
[111
Wi
AIP Lists 13 Features
For Release to Dec.
LOS ANGELES—A total of
13 films will
be released in 1962 by American International
Pictures, as follows:
"Pi-emature Burial," in color and Panavision,
starring Ray Milland and Hazel
Court, will open nationwide later this
month.
March 14— "Twist All Night," a musical
starring June Wilkinson, Louis Prima, and
Sam Butera and the Witnesses.
April 4—Combination of "The Brain
That Wouldn't Die," hon-or film, and "Invasion
of the Star Ci-eatures," science
fiction adventure film.
April 5— "Burn, Witch, Burn," a
suspense-horror thriller starring Janet
Blair and Peter Wyngarde.
May 16— "Warriors Five," war action
thriller toplining Jack Palance and Giovanna
Ralli.
June 13— "Marco Polo," color and 'scope
spectacle drama starring Rory Calhoun
and Yoko Tani.
July 4— "Survival." 'scope drama about
the experiences of an average American
family caught in the upheavals of the
aftermath of an atomic attack. Ray Milland
directs and stars, with Jean Hagen.
Prankic Avalon. Mai-y Mitchell and Joan
Freeman.
July 18— "Poe's Tales of Ten-or." Edgar
Allan Poe trilogy in color and Panavision
staiTing Vincent Price. Peter Lorre. Basil
Rathbonc and Debra Paget.
September 19— "Strange Women." color
and 'scope adventure spectacle starring
Pier Angeli and Edmund Purdom.
October 17 (tentative)— "End of the
World." science fiction drama in color with
the cast not yet set.
November 21 (tentative)— "Haunted Village."
horror thriller in color and 'scope
which is not yet cast.
December 19 (tentative)— "When the
Sleeper Wakes," H. G. Wells classic in
color, starring Vincent Price.
Columbia Sets 14 Films
For Release to June
HOLLYWOOD—Fourteen pictui'es have
been set for release by Columbia between
now and June, including three which have
just gone into release; "Walk on the Wild
Side," "Underwater City" and "Three
Stooges Meet Hercules." Set to go out before
the end of the month are "The Hellions"
and "Belle Sommers."
In April, "Experiment in Ten-or," "Safe
"
at Home "Don't Knock the Twist
wiU be released. May releases are "Five
Finger Exercise," "13 West Street" and
"Mothra. " In June, "Advise and Consent,"
"Broken Lariat" and "Best of Enemies."
Filmgroup to Release Mermaid Film
LOS ANGELES— "Mennaids of Tiburon,"
an underwater color feature, will be distributed
by Filmgroup in the late spring,
according to president Roger Connan.
The film, written, produced and directed
by John Lamb, stars Diane Webber and
George Rowe. with Timothy Carey costaiTed.
The science-fiction yarn treats
with an expedition which is seeking pearls
but discovers mermaids instead.
ARA and SBA Offer Encouragement
To Theatres in Depressed Areas
WASHINGTON—A new force at work in
the neediest sector of the economy, the depressed
areas, promises to help boost their
theatre attendance with benefits to the
equipment industry, to Hollywood production
and to national attendance.
Theatres in depressed areas have borne
the heaviest brunt of the decline in national
attendance. The replacement of coal by
oil on the railroads and in house heating,
automation, and withdrawal of key industries
cut industrial payrolls, shi-ank commerce
and reduced attendance in the depressed
areas.
Less money at the boxoffice meant fewer
bookings of pictures, fui-ther shrinkage in
attendance and a growing shabbiness of
the theatres.
DROP IN BANK LOANS
Local banks inclined less and less to
long-term loans for renovations and improvements
or even short-term loans for
working capital.
What happens when an accident strikes
a film theatre in a distressed area was illustrated
when, four years ago, at Carbondale.
111., a coal and railroad town, fire
badly damaged the Rogers Theatre.
A parking lot now occupies the site of
the Rogers, the town's only first-run house,
the building having been razed.
Other causes, notably TV competition,
underlie the decline in national attendance
but the heavy slackeniiig of demand for
product in the distressed areas contributed
to the national condition.
As of last week, 852 areas with a population
of 34.7 million in 47 states had either
the high chronic unemployment or low
family incomes reflecting persistent underemployment
that qualified them for federal
assistance.
These areas account for nearly one-fifth
of film fans. Had the areas' demand for
film product been higher. Hollywood would
probably have responded with more pictures,
relieving the present product shortage
and resulting in a national attendance
gain.
Hope dawned for the distressed areas
and their exhibitors—with the signing by
President Kennedy last May 1 of the Area
Redevelopment Act. It authorizes $300 million
of 4 per cent, 25-year loans to finance
65 per cent of the cost of establishing or
expanding job-generating industries in the
areas and to finance other supporting
projects.
ECONOMIC SURVEYS MADE
Through their own public and private
funds, states and areas finance most of
the remaining 35 per cent.
The act established within the Department
of Commerce and Area Redevelopment
Administration to coordinate federal
technical assistance assuring that the projects
the areas propose wiU be economically
feasible and provide permanent employment.
First, the areas make economic
surveys.
The Small Business Administration helps
areas on the economic surveys, counsels
them on feasibility of projects, negotiates
financing and processes applications for
ARA loans.
As of last week, 449 areas with a population
of 36.5 million had submitted redevelopment
programs, 310 of which ARA
had approved and that agency had also
approved 59 projects. Of these, nine, involving
$2.5 million of ARA loans, were for
payroll-generating industries.
In Carbondale, for example, a $455,000
ARA loan sparked investment of an additional
$1.3 million of state and local funds
to convert a city-owned warehouse into a
tape manufacturing plant that will generate
980 jobs, increasing area payrolls by
$4.3 million yearly.
For Carbondale's lone, remaining theatre,
the Varsity, that payroll spells higher
boxoffice receipts.
The Illinois governor, Otto Kerner,
publicly thanked ARA and SBA for their
help to
the southern Illinois town.
While theatres in such towns are not
eligible for ARA's industrial project loans,
they may, thi-ough SBA's business loan program,
take direct part in regeneration of
then- areas.
To qualified exhibitors in the areas who
need funds to modernize four-wall theatres
or to convert or expand into drive-in operations,
SBA will lend up to $200,000 per
borrower for up to ten years at the same
4 per cent interest that ARA charges.
Motion Picture Ass'n of America is observing
the progress of the redevelopment
program for its immediate effects on boxoffice
receipts in the distressed areas and
for possible long-range effects on Hollywood
production schedules.
Says Kenneth Clark, vice-president of
the MPAA:
"The program can hardly fail to improve
theatre attendance in the areas and that
would help everyone in the business. With
more spending money in their pockets, the
people will naturally turn in greater numbers
to theatres for entertainment. The
lights would go on in many places now
dark, itself a cheering sign."
Audubon Films' Victory
In Censorship Action
NEW YORK—Two Audubon Films
releases.
"The Fast Set" and "The Twilight
Girls." were held to be not obscene by the
grand jui-y of Montgomery County, Ohio,
according to Radley Metzger of Audubon.
The prints of the two Audubon pictm-es
were confiscated from the Far Hills Theatre
last September by the Oakwood police
but have now been returned to the distributor's
home office after a grand jury of
schoolteachers, clergymen, housewives and
psychiatrists reviewed the film.
SW to Award London Trips
LOS ANGELES—Six two-week trips to
London, all expenses paid, will be awarded
six Stanley Warner circuit managers and
their wives at the conclusion of a "Found
Money Drive" now being held. Vice-president
HaiTy M. Kalmine disclosed that results
will be based on increases of two
given periods over the past year.
IjjBOXOFnCE :: March 19, 1962
11