Boxoffice-March.06.1948
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Boxoffice-March.06.1948

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. Named : March . . . Such $61108,975 Suit Filed By 'Unfriendly Ten' HOLLYWOOD—Those writers, directors and producers labeled as •imfriendly" witnesses and indicted for Congressional contempt when they refused to answer the socalled "$64 question" before Rep. J. Parnell Thomas and his house un-American activities comimittee have finally decided to reply —with a $61,108,975 damage suit. The stratospheric action was filed in superior court against virtually the entire industry by Lester Cole, Ring Lardner jr., Dalton Trumbo, Alvah Bessie, Samuel Ornitz. Albert Maltz, John Howard Lawson, Edward Dmytryk, Herbert Biberman and Adrian Scott. The voluminous complaint makes three major charges: CHARGES ARE LISTED 1. The studios are guilty of "malicious interference" with their individual employment and with their right to maintain political beliefs. 2. The studios violated sections of the California state labor code which forbids an employer to discriminate because of political affiliations. 3. The studios entered into a "con.spiracy" to "blacklist" the plaintiffs when the Motion Pictui'e Ass'n of America and the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers adopted a resolution last November barring from employment anyone who refused to tell Congress whether he is or ever has been a Communist party member. The action was filed by Attorneys Robert W. Kenny, Ben Margolis, Bartley C. Crum and Charles J. Katz, who appeared as counsel for the "unfriendly ten" during the Thomas corrunittee hearings. Each of the plaintiffs demands about $2,000,000 actual and $4,000,000 punitive damages, basing the claims on individual earnings and on whether the petitioners were working with or without written contracts. They also demand an injunction "perpetually restraining and enjoining" the defendants from "maintaining any blacklist or policy of blacklisting or discriminating against plaintiffs with respect to employment in the motion picture industry." DEFENDANTS NAMED as defendants, in addition to the MPAA and the SIMPP, were LoeWs, 20th Centui-y-Fox. Paramount, Columbia, RKO Radio, Warners, Republic, Samuel Goldwyn, Hal Roach and Universal-International. Individual defendants named were Eric Johnston, Donald Nelson, Nicholas M. Schenck, Louis B. Mayer, Spyros P. Skouras, James K. McGuinness, E. J. Mannix, Joseph M. Schenck, William C. Michel, Barney Balaban, Y. Frank Freeman, Henry Ginsberg, Harry and Jack Cohn, Ben B. Kahane, N. Peter Rathvon, Dore Schary, Ned Depinet, Leon Goldberg, Harry and Jack Warner, Herbert J. Yates and Walter Wanger. Attorney Margolis made it clear in a statement to BOXOPFICE that the action is entirely separate from civil suits previously filed by Trumbo, Cole, Lardner, Dmytryk and Scott against MGM, 20th Century-Fox and RKO Radio, charging breach of contract because of their discharge from studio positions. Althoug-h the four scenarists labeled among the industry's "unfriendly ten" will receive BOXOFFICE : Here's a Minister With Something Good to Say of Films- In Prayer Filmrow in Memphis is still talking about the prayer which the Rev. F. F. Moore, pastor of the Methodist church at Waverly. Tenn., delivered at the recent opening of the Mi-De-Ga Theatre there by Nathan Flcxer. Leonard Shea, branch manager. Eagle Lion, was so impressed he is having covies of the prayer printed tvhich he plans to distribute throughout the United States. The prayer folloivs: "Our Father, We come to invoke Thy blessings upon this gathering of citizens who are here for the opening of this splendid institution. We pray that Thou wilt rest Thy blessings upon the owner of this theatre. We give Thee thanks for all of the tireless effort which has been put forth to make possible such an institution for the benefit of the people of this area. Thy blessings be upon his family. Bless the people of our town and of our nation in these days of restlessness and uncertainty. "We thank Thee for the technological advances which make possible entertai:mient for the common man. Most of us who are here are caught in the monotony of a work-a-day world. Our lives are filled with mundane things, so that we need this medium of escape from the hard, difficult places of life to recreate ourselves. To some of us this offers our only means of recreation. "We thank Thee for the movie screen no official help from the Screen Writers Guild in their trials on charges of contempt of Congress, the "blacklist" as applied to them and other industi'y workers by the producers on ideological and political grounds will be fought to the limit. That was the substance of a declaration by Thurman Ai'nold, one-time trust-buster who has been retained by the SWG to assist the WTiters—Trumbo, Cole, Lardner jr. and Scott—in their respective civil actions against their former studio employers, who discharged them following their indictments. Arnold will represent the SWG in its appearance as "amicus curiae" in those cases. Arnold specified he will not appear in the congressional contempt proceedings, but emphasized that the alleged "blacklist," as promulgated in a statement of industry policy by Eric Jolmston, is "intolerable." The program, he said, constitutes an "industry court which determines the fitness of every wi-iter to have his work produced. a court cannot be tolerated in any industry involving freedom of expression." He charged the producers' action was "lai-gely dominated by feai-" and reiterated that the film makers individually have the right to hire and fire "as they see fit," but that when such action is taken as part of a unified plan the situation becomes "intolerable." Arnold was here for a weekend stay to confer with President Sheridan Gibney of the SWG. Gibney pointed out that Arnold's fees which has made of us world travelers. Most of us will never see the palms on a Pacific island or know how people live in the great metropolitan centers of the world. We will never see what life is like in China or in Poland. We will never walk the streets of London or rub shoulders with Fiji islanders. But through travelogue, we are made aware of the nature of our world and our society. The hopes of a peaceful world rest upon an understanding of the people of our world and this is' means to that understanding. "We thank Thee for this medium of teaching. That which we read may be little understood, but not that which we see. Many of us with limited education have had opened to us vast vistas of new information of which we had never dreamed. Grant us wi.sdom to use this mode of entertainment and education wisely. May we have insight so as to separate truth from farce. Enable us to be wise enough to see that farce can be used in such fashion as to teach and to demonstrate the right. "Give courage to the leaders of the industry so that they may face squarely the issues of life. Help them to know their responsibility to society. Grant, we pray Thee, to the motion picture industry a serLse of its responsibility to foster clean living, since it is such a powerful instrument in the formation of character. May it glorify the good rather than the evil." and other costs will be met through "voluntary" contributions from high-salaried members of the writers' organization. There will, he said, be no membership assessment. U-I and Stars Are Sued Over Rights to Novel HOLLYWOOD—Damages of $1,000,000 are sought in a superior court action filed by Charles K. Feldman Group Productions against Joan Fontaine, Burt Lancaster. Universal-International and others pertaining to the film rights to the Gerald Butler novel. "Kiss the Blood Off My Hands." Lancaster and Miss Fontaine are to co-star in the film version for U-I release. Feldman contends the defendants conspii-ed to deprive him of film rights to the book. He demands an injunction, an accounting and a "quiet title." Czech Reds Pull U.S. Film PRAGUE—"This Land Is Mine," American film dealing with underground resi.stance to German occupation, has been withdrawn after a one-day run at the Cinema Freedom Theatre here. "Love Letters," starring Joseph Cotten was substituted. In the U.S., Charles Laughton, star of "Tliis Land," said the move did not surprise him, since the film strongly occupation "of any kind." 6, 1948 19

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