18 PICTURES fr&RIETY W e d n e s d a y , S e p t e m b e r 14, . 1 9 5 5

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derful World." For his tune-up of "High Tor," first on his spec sched-ule, his lyric par tner will be Max-well Anderson, who'll also teleplay his original stage piece.

'Tor ' for Theatres , Too "Tor," with Bing Crosby starred,

will be filmed here in color for about 78 minutes of the 90-minute running t ime and its eventual ex-hibition goes far beyond the chan-nels. I t will be franchised for the-atrical showing outside USA, may later be whipped into shape for stage presentation and if by then i t hasn't b3en saturated t he pic-tu re companies can have it. For a round figure $350,000 will do for cost of film-tinting "Tor," which Is about what it costs to stage a Broadway musical. Live telecast of his spec c~n be guesstimated at roughly $100,000 less. If this sounds lika high finance, it 's bruit-ed about that NBC has a big one in the hopDer that will run closer to $500,000.

Writing original music for the electronic medium is no new ex-perience to Schwartz. Back in 1934 he and Dietz wrote 80 songs for 39-week season of "The Gibson Family" on radio. It was a daring experiment and the fact that it lasted out a full season is no small t r ibute to the quality of the score. Sez Schwartz, "out of the 80 I guess seven caught on." In those days the songs came on "cold." Advance exploitation on the scores of the three Schwartz specs will be so vast and penetrat ing that by the time the show comes on the air at least two or three of the songs from each of the shows will have been familar to the lookers.

Schwartz likes television "very much." What he likes most is the occasional "one-shots," w h i c h "gives you a chance to be good." In the continuing series, he says, "you can't be good every week." While primarily a "music man," Schwartz rates the story above the melody. "If a song doesn't prog-ress the action," says Schwartz, "it becomes unrelated and weakens its main function. Being a t_ i-poser is not enough. It must be hyphenated with dramatis t and if the story is believable you're half way home."

Big production numbers ar meaningless, to Schwartz's vity cf thinking.! "They can't be seen on the small screens so what good are they?"

Schwartz comes back into tv with as varied a career and solid

; a background as any producer ex-t a n t . He hss produced two pic-tures , two stage shows and com-posed the scores for at least 15 stage musicals and 10 theatrical films. For Harry Ackerman's color spec operation in Hollywood he'll tu rn out the three biggies and after that decide whether he wants to forsake all other forms of show

•biz and stick to tv. From his en-thusiasm for his present schedule it 's worth a bob or two that he'll be around in video for a long time.

cording to Leenhouts, photography of events that occur only once, such as the launching of the nu-clear-powered submarine, Seowolf, has already begun. He said the pic-ture is planned "to present in warm human terms a view of the full range of peaceful atomic energy work, including research and ap-plications in medicine, biology, agriculture, industry, power and the life sciences."

Wenthworth Fling, executive v.p. and head of Cinerama Inc.'s studio and laboratory, it 's noted, will 'work closely with the producers and writers to insure maximum use of Cinerama's seven-track stereophon-ic sound system.

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active primarily in the U.S.); Peli-culas Nationales, which handles Mex pix in Latin America, and Peli-culas Mexicanas, which is the domestic distribution outfit. Pro-ducers have the right to forfeit the combined advances from these groups, if they choose, and make their own deals with Seidelman, Clasa-Mohme or anyone else. How-ever, under the circumstances, this is becoming less advantageous.

In Mexico, the government is very close to the industry via the Cinematographic Bank, which is part-owner of Cimex along with the producers. Having bought out Azteca, Cimex and the bank are naturally anxious to strengthen that setup as much as nossible.

Seidelman said in N.Y. recently that he would continue as super-visor for Manuel Espinoza, leading Mexican circuit operator, for the United Artists product being han-dled in Mexico by Espinoza. What-ever production plans Seidelman has had in Mexico, for the moment are dormant. Seidelman observed that his immediate concern was to get his product into the Spanish-language houses, of which there are between 500 and 550 In the U.S.

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its own. The same provision also applied to Cinerama Productions Corp., which turned over the rights to the process to SW. Lat-t e r also revealed plans recently for a production project.

What Is 'Completion' In the midst of Cinerama Inc.'s

filmmaking plans the company is also hassling with SW on the t imetable for the completion of "Seven Wonders of the World." The contract provides that the pic-ture should have been completed by August of this year. The con-troversy involves interpretat ion of exactly what is "completion." The principal photography on the SW film, being produced- by Lowell Thomas, has been completed and Thomas and Merian C. Cooper are currently editing the film. Cur-rently Cinerama Inc. is awaiting a s tatement from SW and, on the basis of SW's reply, will dec'de if arbitration or litigation is neces-sary.

Accordng to Reeves, President Eisenhower's atoms-for-peace pro-posal served as the inspiration for his company's proposed production. I t will be made with the technial assistance of the Atomic Energy Commission. Grant Leenhouts, Cinerama Inc. v.p. and identified with the early development of the process, will produce the film. Ac-

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years, but had been moved up to managing director oniy last year.

Rothafel, who is a nephew of the late S. L. (Roxy) Rothafel, has been with National Theatres and Fox-West Coast for a number of years. The theatre , incidentally, was named after the senior Rotha-fel.

Distribs Should Release All Their f i r Abroad, Even 'Controversial' Sez B. Cohn

Basing his remarks on impres-sions gathered during his recent Far Eastern survey tr ip, Ben Cohn, Universal's assistant foreign gen-eral manager, said in N.Y. Monday (12) that in his opinion American film companies should r e ^ a s e all of their pictures abroad, including those showing some aspects of American life in a negative l ight.

Cohn stressed that he was giving his personal opinion and wasn't necessarily reflecting company pol-icy. His comments took on im-portance in the light of the issue created by the yanking of "Black-board Jung le" from the Venice film fest.

"When people abroad get to see everything we make, including films that may be tuned to a nega-tive pitch, they then know that the good they are seeing in our pic-tures about the U.S. isn't propa-ganda but the truth. A film that is critical of America may be used by the enemies of this country, but— more important—it proves to peo-ple abroad that here we are free and working under no restrictions. Once they understand that, it 's a big point in our favor."

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NT Coast Shifts . Los Angeles, Sept. 13.

Edwin F. Zabel, National Thea-tres v.p. in charge of Pacific Coast operations of Fox-West Coast The-atres and Evergreen Theatres, has instituted a series of promotional shifts of key circuit personnel.

William H. Thedford, prexy of Evergreen division, heads the list, taking on added duties of heading FWC's Northern California divi-sion, and shifting his headquarters from Seattle to San Francisco. James Runte transfers from Frisco supervisor to Seattle as new Ever-green division manager, and John Klee moves from Los Angeles area district manager to Frisco, where he will be East Bay District topper under Thedford. Klee succeeds Robert C. Rothafel, who swings to N.Y. to become managing director of the Roxy. William Moclair is transferred to the Fox in Philadel-phia.

Harold Seindenberg flies out from Philadelphia to take over as Oakland city manager, post va-cated recently when Fay S. Reeder was transferred to ad-pub manager of Bay area.

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for a replacement to share with Raleigh.

Seeds prez Freeman Keyes and Jay Herbert, his assistant, have been on a Chicago-to-N.Y. shuttle over the past six months, with Keyes due in again next week and Herbert in Gotham continuously ever the past th ree months. Seeds stake in television is more bullish than ever, with "Navy Log," "Penny," "Two for the Money" all in the Sheaffer l ineup, Bishop Sheen due to preem for Admiral (now a Seeds - only account), Raleigh in on "Penny" and lotsa Sheaffer participations in the NBC biggie specs.

draw the picture from the foreign market.

Foreign countries, more sensitive to the effect of films than the U. S., may make the i r own decisions as, for example, is already being done in Japan. A threat tp ban all American films unless the Japa-nese have the opportunity to re -ject "undesirable" pictures has been made by the Theatre Owners Federation of Japan Enterprise Op-erators. The move was sparked by "Blackboard" and 20th - Fox's "House of Bamboo," both of which have aroused many Nipponese the-atregoers. "Blackboard," which has been labeled as "harmful" by the Japan cinema censorship board, has been barred to children under 18 in four principal cities and in one entire prefecture. ',

As an example of the want-to-see that can be aroused by Mrs. Luce's action, industryites are pointing to t h e spread and attention the inci-dent received in the current issue of Cine Monde, France 's big-cir-culation, Life-like publication. The layout has a special heavy type read-in, playing up all aspects of the Venice controversy.

The general feeling in most quar ters is that Mrs. Luce's deci-sion had just the opposite effect of what she intended. Unique aspect of the U. S. Ambassador's action is that many Americans, in-cluding a surprising number of film industryites. applaud what she did although they do not agree with the move as a mat ter of principle. Long before the Venice festival many industryites voiced the opin-ion that "Blackboard" should not be shown abroad, feeling that it presented a distorted and inac-curate picture of the American ed-ucational system.

Indicative of the support Mrs. Luce has received is the view of veteran producer Arthur Hornblow Jr., Van interested professional ob-server" at the Venice Festival. In a let ter to the N. Y. Times, Horn-blow stressed that Mrs. Luce did not censor tfie picture or forbid the showing. "I am able to tes-tify personally," he said, " that she merely said she would probably not attend if the picture were shown. This is clearly within her right or anyone's r ight."

Hornblow noted that the Ameri-can distributors (Metro) and not the Festival authorit ies withdrew the film, and that if M-G had in-sisted, the picture most likely would have remained on the pro-gram. In defending Mrs. Luce's action, Hornblow said: "The smell of anti-Americanism and commu-nism in Italy is no joke, and Mrs. Luce lives with it daily . . . There are elements here eager to grasp at anything that shows our way of life as contemptible and criminally inclined. It impresses many Amer-ican film people who are currently here that Ambassador Luce per-formed a needed service for our industry, not with a big stick but with tact and skill."

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license, get to run for th ree years, was renewed in 1946 for another five years.

Another Sui t In 1949, while t he agreement

was still in effect, the plaintiffs filed another t reble damage anti-t rust suit against NSS. Named were NSS, the three film compa-nies that were defendants in 1942, and five other film companies that entered contracts with NSS since 1942. Suit charged that 1942 set-tlement was a device used by de-fendants to perpetuate the i r con-spiracy and monopoly; that NSS made slow and erratic deliveries aimed at destroying the plaintiffs' business, and that for the same purpose NSS used tie-in sales and other means of exploiting its mo-nopoly power.

In 1951, a lower court, acting on a petition by the defendants, dismissed the suit on the ground that the 1943 sett lement bound the plaintiffs and they, therefore, could not bring the later suit. In an appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court, the plaintiffs won a revers-al, with the High Court rul ing that they were entitled to a tr ial on the merits of the case. This decision, acting on the question if the second sui t was the "same cause of action," sent the case back to the lower court for tr ial .

The Supreme Court stated that the fact that the two cases in-volved essentially the sarnie course of wrongful conduct is not de-cisive. I t noted that (1) the plain-tiffs in the second suit were seek-ing damages from the period of 1943; (2) that in the second suit there were allegations of addition-al illegal acts, such as tie-ins and del iberate slow deliveries; (3) tha t there were five additional defend-ants involved, with the result t ha t NSS control of the market for accessories had increased to near-ly i o o % : :

The Supreme Court, Levy noted in his summation, stated that if it adopted the views of the defend-ants that the dismissal of the 1942 suit prevented the plaintiffs from bringing another suit, it would "in effect. confer on them (the de-fendants) a partial immunity from civil liability for future viola-t ions."

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associates Robert Whitehead and Robert W. Dowling, and the p rom-ised cooperation of the Shuberts .

With the idea of taking one step at a t ime, Stevens intends to start modestly with an information cen-t e r where prospective patrons could inquire about ticket avail-abilities for all Broadway shows, primarily on short notice. He recognizes the complications in-volved, but is about ready to go ahead on the first one—raising the financing for the undertaking.

The numerous details of the in-formation office and, ultimately, charge account ticket purchases by telephone, will have to be worked out as the project proceeds. But Stevens figures the whole setup is essential to the present-day thea-tre, and he's determined to go through with it.

As figured now, the central of-fice would be purely a service out-fit for all theatres and manage-ments. I t would not make any charge for ticket information and, at least as tentatively planned, probably wouldn't even get a serv-ice fee for charge orders.

How this would affect the established ticket agencies is a matter of speculation.

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of the American Continent, and the third was made up of countries such as the Soviet Union and cer-tain nations in Africa and Asia which did not belong to ei ther group.

The Convention affords protec-tion for a minimum of 25 years either from the time of the work's first publication or from, the death of the author. The author is further guaranteed a reasonable fee from the publisher for translation rights and no translations of his work may be made without his author-ization.

ARBITRATION PACT SET; FINANCING LEFT BLANK Section u n d e r t he heading of

"Financing" in the latest draft of the film industry 's arbi trat ion agreement has been left blank, but principals of the agreement f^eel that raising coin for a working arrangement is the least of their problems.

Draft of the agreement, which still remains to be approved by all of those on the committee tha t drew it up, has a final article deal-ing with conciliation, the hope be-ing that , it would keep many cases from coming to arbi trat ion in the first place.

Each company would be allowed two roadshows a year and these wouldn't be subject to arbitration unti l and unless they are an-nounced for general distribution. There would be an appeals board in N. Y.

While not outlined in the draft of t he agreement , various means of financing have been discussed.

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port on what programs and films people are 'talking about."

First release reports dur ing week e n d i n g . Sept. 3 24.8% of adult population of Oklahoma and Texas had a film recommended to them; and 20.9% had a tv program recommended.

Films talked about and recom-mended were: "Mister Roberts ," "We're No Angels," "Love Is Many-Splendored Thing," "Lady and Tramp," "To Hell and Back," "Blackboard Jungle , " "Pe te Kelly 's Blues," "Not As Stranger ," 'Seven Little Foys" and 'Strategic Air Command."

Television programs recommend-ed were: "$64,000 Question," Dun-ninger, Jane Wyman Show, "Peopia Are Funny," "Frankie Laine Show," Lawrence Welk "Dodge Show," "Groucho Marx Show," "Guy Lombardo Time" and "Str ike It Rich."

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of a problem in Siam, Kenya and the Gaza Str ip . They jus t call i t "The Pic ture ," which t ranslates easily into any language. In Ran-goon they call it "The Work of Ar t ." In Sumatra they call i t "Gone With Guys and Dolls," doubtless because they r emember "Gone With the Wind" a s does David O. Selznick.

The cost of the picture has ex-cited much comment. In Lisbon they were astonished to hear tha t Samuel Goldwyn paid 66,000,000 escudos for his production. When you consider that the average Lis-bon picture costs only 400,000 escudos you can see why they were astonished. In Madras there are three firstrun theat res in a row on Main Street—or Chow Main Street as they call i t—and the re they have titled the picture "Main Entrance."

The problem you raise is on the way to solution, thanks to our thorough-going canvass.

Houxird Dietz.

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on narcotics addiction, is flatly banned by the Code.

Shurlock advised that notice of appeal should be sent to Eric A. Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, along with a print of "Stories." John-ston thereupon will set a screen date for the MPAA board of di-rectors who, as an appeals board, is empowered to make an excep-tion in the case of the Ellis film or might revise the Code's provi-sions on the subject of drugs.

Ellis this week said h e l l go along with the appeal idea only on condi-tion there 's a chance of his being successful. His mission would b« accomplished and litigation would be avoided, he added.

However, before taking this ac-tion, the at torney wants to know beforehand if there 's any point t o such appeal, specifically if the board intends to categorically ad-here to the Code's present edicts. If this is the intent, he insists, t he appeal could serve no possible pur-pose and he'll go to court.