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I<br />
The<br />
I<br />
NEW<br />
j<br />
HOLLYWOOD<br />
I<br />
;<br />
Fred<br />
Theatre Income Gain<br />
Predicted for 1965<br />
NEW YORK—An amusement industry<br />
•securities survey released tliis week by<br />
Standard & Poor's predicts a continuing<br />
gain in boxoffice receipts wlricli should result<br />
in income of about $1,375 billion in<br />
1965, compared with $1,325 billion in 1964.<br />
survey pointed out that the trend<br />
|stai'ted in 1964 and resulted in a 4 per cent<br />
increase in boxoffice receipts for that year.<br />
lit credited higher admission prices as a<br />
major factor in last year's gain and added<br />
that "attendance was apparently boosted<br />
;by an improvement in the quality of feature<br />
films.<br />
"A continuation of these trends," S&P<br />
jasserted, "along with the addition of new<br />
theatres and the renovation of old ones, is<br />
expected to result in a further advance in<br />
.boxoffice receipts in 1965."<br />
The report also said that the dwindling<br />
Isupply of feature films for television was<br />
|increasing the value of motion picture<br />
'backlogs of major companies, adding that<br />
I'with the CBS-TV network showing feaiture<br />
films for the first time in the 1965-66<br />
season, the supply of films not yet released<br />
ito TV will continue to dwindle.<br />
"As a result of the scarcity<br />
I<br />
of these fea-<br />
'tui'es, producers' backlogs of such films are<br />
becoming increasingly valuable. Metro-<br />
,3oldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures<br />
;are best situated to take advantage of this<br />
[situation."<br />
lAlbert BoUengier Named<br />
Treasurer of Seven Arts<br />
YORK—Albert E. Bollengier has<br />
iiesigned as financial vice-president and<br />
treasurer of United<br />
Artists Theatre Circuit<br />
and Magna Pictures<br />
Corp. to become<br />
treasurer of Seven<br />
Arts Associated, the<br />
U.S. distribution subsidiary<br />
of Seven Arts<br />
Productions, according<br />
to Eliot Hyman,<br />
president.<br />
Samuel H. Haims,<br />
who has been Seven<br />
'Albert E. Bollengier Arts treasurer, will<br />
move up to become<br />
^'inancial vice-president of Seven Arts<br />
['Associated. Bollengier had been with UA<br />
ifheatres and Magna since 1956, after serving<br />
as treasurer of United Artists Corp.<br />
he distribution company, from 1951 to<br />
11956. Earlier, he had been with Universal<br />
Pictures, Eagle Lion Films and the Price<br />
Waterhouse accounting fii-m.<br />
iLoth Named Columbia<br />
lEastem Story Editor<br />
— Jean Loth, who has<br />
|)een functioning as an assistant to Wil-<br />
,iam Bloom, Columbia Pictures' executive<br />
;tory editor at the studio, has been named<br />
!<br />
eastern story editor.<br />
Loth began his new duties at the Coumbia<br />
home office in New York Monday<br />
Haines, a member of the studio<br />
S'tory department, has been named to replace<br />
Loth.<br />
Landau, Unger, Goldman<br />
Consolidate Their Firms<br />
NEW YORK — Ely Landau, Oliver A.<br />
Unger and Harold Goldman will consolidate<br />
their individual operations into a<br />
snigle corporate entity, thus re-establishing<br />
a ten-year relationship between the<br />
three during which time they founded and<br />
built National Telefilm Associates. The<br />
new company will function primarily as a<br />
worldwide creative motion picture and<br />
broadcast production and marketing organization<br />
with headquarters in the Time<br />
and Life Building and in Los Angeles and<br />
London.<br />
The new company will have 23 pictures<br />
in distribution for the 1965-66 season. Existing<br />
distribution arrangements of the<br />
Landau Co. and Unger Productions will remain<br />
unchanged, with Landau's deal with<br />
Allied Artists continuing. Pour pictures are<br />
in active AA distribution, "The Pawnbroker,"<br />
"The Fool Killer," "The Servant"<br />
and "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," and<br />
five more, "The Secret Agents," "The Girl<br />
Getters," "The Teenager," "King and<br />
Country" and "Life Upside Down," will be<br />
put into release before the end of 1965.<br />
The six pictures produced by Unger,<br />
"The Face of Dr. Fu Manchu," "Ten Little<br />
Indians," "24 Hours to Kill," "Mozambique,"<br />
"Coast of Skeletons" and "Sandy,"<br />
will all be distributed in the U.S., as scheduled,<br />
by Seven Arts Associated.<br />
Fourteen color action pictures owned by<br />
Harold Goldman Associates, never before<br />
released to television, will be distributed by<br />
the new company's television department,<br />
headed by Goldman.<br />
PRODUCTION MOVING AHEAD<br />
Future productions originally scheduled<br />
by Landau and Unger individually will go<br />
forward without delay, but will be controlled<br />
by the new merged operation, including<br />
Landau's version of Carson Mc-<br />
Culler's "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter"<br />
and Pat Frank's "Forbidden Area," as well<br />
as Unger's "Battle Royal" and "Cervantes,"<br />
all four scheduled to start production before<br />
the end of 1965.<br />
Paul N. Lazarus, who joined the Landau<br />
Co. last year as a partner and executive officer<br />
will continue in the same capacities in<br />
the consolidated operation and will continue<br />
to have responsibility for supervising<br />
the distribution and merchandising activities<br />
of the new company and Bernard G.<br />
Kranze, vice-president in charge of distribution,<br />
will continue to head this<br />
activity. Erwin Lesser, vice-president and<br />
domestic sales manager of Landau Releasing,<br />
will likewise continue in that capacity.<br />
Heni-y T. Weinstein. the MGM producer,<br />
who was named production executive<br />
and head of a creative department, is<br />
also part of the new company.<br />
Landau. Unger and Goldman originally<br />
joined forces in the pioneer days of television<br />
and their NTA operation became a<br />
major distributing organization for TV<br />
films and developed and produced "The<br />
Play of the Week." After the sale of NTA<br />
to National General Corp.. Landau entered<br />
the film industry and produced "Long<br />
Day's Journey Into Night." which was distributed<br />
by Embassy Pictures, followed by<br />
"The Pawnbroker" and "The Fool Killer."<br />
He also purchased and operates the Little<br />
Carnegie and Cinema Rendezvous theatres<br />
on 57th Street, New York.<br />
Unger, who left NTA in 1963, worked on<br />
the development of a pay TV system, which<br />
was eventually sold to Subscription TV. before<br />
turning to producing the six feature<br />
films. Goldman, after leaving NTA in<br />
1960, formed Television Entertainment<br />
Corp. and joined with Heni-y Saperstein in<br />
forming Screen Entertainment Co., a major<br />
distributor of films for television.<br />
The new company will include television<br />
production as well as continuing to release<br />
theatrical features.<br />
Six Cinerama Theatres<br />
To Be Built in Mexico<br />
LOS ANGELES—Following months of<br />
international negotiations, a multimillion<br />
dollar contract has been concluded granting<br />
exclusive rights for the presentation of<br />
Cinerama in the Republic of Mexico, which<br />
now becomes the 28th country and the 8th<br />
Latin American nation in Cinerama's<br />
global spectrum, according to William R.<br />
Porman, president of Cinerama, Inc., who<br />
disclosed that the Mexican principals to<br />
whom the rights were granted are Carlos<br />
Amador, Jose Jamui and Jose Zavala<br />
Olmos, active in films, TV and diversified<br />
interests below the Rio Grande.<br />
Forman said the first theatre of 1,500<br />
seats, new from the ground up, with all the<br />
latest technical facilities, goes into immediate<br />
construction in Mexico City, located<br />
next to the Plaza de Toros. The second<br />
theatre in Mexico City will go into<br />
construction almost simultaneously on one<br />
of several sites under consideration, according<br />
to Forman.<br />
Thereafter, he said. Cinerama theatres<br />
will go up in Guadalajara, Monterrey. Leon,<br />
and Vera Cruz, making a total of six Mexican<br />
houses, in which the investment, said<br />
the Mexican principals, will be approximately<br />
$5,500,000.<br />
It is anticipated, Forman further announced,<br />
that the first Mexico City theatre<br />
will be in operation by next Easter for a<br />
gala international premiere. When all<br />
Mexican houses are operating. Cinerama<br />
will have 79 theatres using its process<br />
around the world.<br />
Film Director Fined $650<br />
In Bomb-Hoax Charges<br />
DENVER — Conrad Russell Rooks, 29-<br />
year-old movie director, was fined $650<br />
in U.S. District Comt here Fi-iday i6i<br />
and placed on a .year's probation after<br />
pleading no contest to bomb-hoax charges.<br />
He first pleaded not guilty, then changed<br />
the plea on June 11.<br />
He. John Barrymore jr. and a woman<br />
companion were taken off a Western Airlines<br />
flight here November 27. after Rooks<br />
told a stewardess that a wooden box he<br />
was carrying contained a bomb. An FBI<br />
investigation showed the box held Indian<br />
artifacts.<br />
30XOFFICE :: August 16. 1965