Boxoffice-January.07.1950
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Boxoffice-January.07.1950

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STUDIO PERSONNEUTIES Barnstormers Columbia SMILEY BUnNETTE, who stars with Charles Starrelt in the Durango Kid series, was set lor personal cppearances in 16 eastern and southeastern cities this month. Independent BILL (HOPALONG CASSIDY) BOYD was grand marshal at the Beverly Hills centennial parade December 29. Monogram KIRBY GRANT returned Irom Chicago, where the actor made personal cfppearances in connection with his starring vehicle, "The Wolf Hunters." Warners Booked into New York's Strand Theatre for cm e.ngagement starting January 20 was singing star GORDON MACRAE. Briefies Metro "A Wife's Life" will be the first Pete Smith Specialty for the new year and will star Mrs. Dave O'Brien, who will show the wife's side of trying to please a husband by the way she runs a house. David Barclay and Julian Harmon wrote the script which Barclay will direct. Warners Completed was "Seal m the Lighthouse," tworeel Technicolor short which Gordon Hollingshead produce:^- and Larry Lansbury directed. Cleffers RKO Radio STANLEY JONES has been set to collaborate with RICHARD HAGEMAN on the score for Argosy's "Wagon Master." 20th Century-Fox HAROLD ARLEN and RALPH BLANE have completed six songs for use in "My Blue Heaven," the current. Betty Grable-Don Dailey starrer. Henry Koster is directing. Warners WILLIAM LAVA was set to score "Colt 45." Loanouts Universal-International rrowed from 20 h-Fox for a lead in BARBARA LAWRENCE. Meggers Fir slate KQt;r

— Arizona Anniversary To Feature Premiere HOLLYWOOD—Latest filnxmaking unit to jump aboard the premiere junket bandwagon is Lippert Productions, which will give its new historical western, "The Baron of Arizona." w'orld premiere treatment Februai^ 14 in Phoenix, Ariz., tieing in with that state's observance of its 38th anniversary of its admission to the union. With the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce participating, the debut will be attended by state officials and local dignitaries, while the Lippert company will fly stars and members of the press to the opening from Hollywood. "The Baron," toplining Vincent Price and Ellen Drew, was directed by Samuel Puller and produced by Carl K. Hittleman. • * • Eight film players—Donald O'Connor, Patricia Medina, Yvonne DeCarlo, Gloria De- Haven, Jackie Coogan, Peggie Castle, Leslye Banning and Jack O'Connor—^have been set as part of the contingent to be flown by U-I and the U. S. air force to Germany, leaving January 18, for the world premiere of "Francis." Pianist Ray Turner will go along as accompanist and Hal Belfer, U-I studio dance director, also will make the trip. The party also will include Sam Israel and Frank McFadden of the studio publicity department; Archie Herzoff, studio advertising department official: E. V. Dinnerman, Cincinnati advertising man, who will handle advance exploitation in Germany, and Lieut. Col. Joseph Goetz, USAF. The troupe is slated to arrive in Wiesbaden January 20 and "Francis" will be shown air force persoiinel in Wiesbaden, Berlin and other German cities during the ten-day European tour. New Year's eve openings in a dozen southern California and Arizona cities were staged for 20th-Fox's "Twelve O'clock High," currently receiving first run treatment in Los Angeles and Hollywood. The Gregory Pec'.< starrer began runs in Santa Barbara, Riverside, San Diego, Phoenix, Santa Ana, Long Beach, San Pedro, Bakersfield, El Centro. Tucson, Globe and Yuma. Republic's "Sands of Iwo Jima" was screened for marine corps personnel at Camp Pendleton, Calif., by Edmund Grainger, who produced. He was a guest of General Erskine, commanding officer. Three of U-I's behind-the-scenes personnel l.ave been dispatched on an exploitation tour to promote "Woman in Hiding," slated for its world premiere at the Lafayette Theatre in Buffalo January 7. Making the trek were Bud Westmore, head of U-I's makeup and hairdressing departments: Joan St. Oegger, chief hair stylist, and Yvonne Wood, fashioi. designer. They were to participate in advance promotion through radio and presf interviews and appearances in depart- ;nent .stores, beauty shops and dress salons. Peru Likes U.S. Films HOLLYWOOD—Peruvians are completely sold on American films, Reno BrowTie, Monogram contract player, opined upon her return from Lima, Peru, where she was a guest of honor at the government fair. The actress said that during her stay there she saw only Peruvian or U.S. products. ¥HERE is cause for thought— and perhaps additional worry—for the thespian and creative personnel of Cinemania in the recent important development in the Hollywood agency field. That development concerned the mergers of a quintet of the ten-percenter organizations into two new talent agency groups. Berg-Allenberg pooled its interests with the William Morris company and has begun operations under the name of the latter, while almost simultaneously the Levee-Stark, Goldstone-Willner and Vic Orsatti agencies merged their firms into the new United Agency Corp. There can be little doubt that the combining of the five flesh-peddling groups into two can be attributed, in part, at least, to dwindling employment in the celluloid vineyards; to smaller honorariums for many of the agencies' clients; and to other natural economic repercussions of lagging production and shaved budgets. And it seems logical to assume that, if current conditions continue, the trend toward the merging of agencies will manifest itself in other similar combines. Whether or not this evolution on the Hollywood scene will prove advantageous to the film capital's salaried workers time alone will reveal. Fewer agencies, with greatly increased influence and bargaining powers because of their larger client lists, easily could develop into an additional thorn in the sides of harassed producers—most especially the shortbankrolled independents—trying to hire talent as cheaply as possible. And to the ambitious newcomer with unproven abilities and earning capacities it means proportionately lessened chances of interesting a ranking agency in undertaking furtherance of his or her career. On the other hand, the stepped-up power of the larger agencies should be beneficial and profitable to their well-established clients —the actors, writers, directors, etc., for whom there is a steady and strong demand. From an overall perspective, it becomes obvious that the question of whether or not the agency-merger tendency will prove a boon or a curse to the filmmaking trade is largely up to the agencies themselves, and how they conduct their respective and increased businesses. Past performances of most of the principals figuring in the combines give promise of clean, considerate, ethical, business-like conduct that should benefit the industry as a whole. While on the subject of agencies, there is one of their established practices the elimination of which would remove a troublesome stumbling bloclt from the paths of producers. That is the constant bickering over respective screen credits for featured players. The need for entering formal contractual arrangements as concerns such credits—and the resultant necessary vigilance to protect himself against violation (hereof—is one of the major headaches, and a constant cause of expense, for the independent producer. It is standard practice that the agreement under which a featured player is hired for a part carries a clause which provides, with much legal verbiage, that the player shall receive screen credit on positive prints and in paid advertising and paid publicity, if any, which is issued under control of the producer and distributor, of a specified percentage of the size of type given to the star; that the player must have billing above certain other members of the cast, even if those members are seen in more important roles, etc., ad nauseam. During more prosperous times when there was plenty of work—and princely payments for Hollywood's middle-bracket thespian contingent, such career-protecting legal hocuspocus possibly had a place in agency-producer bargaining. But under existing conditions, when featured players—and good ones—are available in droves, and willing to take comparatively small parts at salaries that are but a fraction of their former demands, to handicap a producer and distributor with archaic, vanity-feeding, costly contractual arrangements over screen credits is nothing short of ridiculous. Extremely sensitive to the story content of the films for which, as United Artists' publicity major-domo in these parts, he beats the drums is Cecil Coan. On a recent evening he arranged a tradepress showing of "Mrs. Mike," which details life in the rugged, below-zero snow country of the Canadian northwest. Almost immediately thereafter Coan went to bed to nurse a heavy cold. Comes now to this desk a clipping from the Philippines Herald, English language newspaper of Manila, edited by one H. P. Vibal. The clipping is a review of Paramount's "Samson and Delilah," which was lifted verbatim from this publication. Probably it will be months before a print of the DeMille epic reaches the Philippines, and many more months before the picture has a booking in the islands. But that didn't discourage Editor Vibal; nor was his editorial pencil sufficiently ambitious to eliminate from (he review certain clauses which were directed to the film trade, and which would be meaningless to his readers unless they operated theatres. Either BOXOFFICE gets around—or Paramount has a very persuasive press agent in Manila. Also in the holiday mails was Vol. 1, No. 1 of a new monthly magazine titled "Hollywood" and printed in Arabic and English. Its format provides for reproduction of content in the latter tongue, with the same material in Arabic in an adjacent column. What a break for such catch-as-catch-can space-snatchers as Maury Foladare and Arthur Eddy, most of whose releases might as well be in Arabic anyway. BOXOFFICE January 7, 1950 41

STUDIO PERSONNEUTIES<br />

Barnstormers<br />

Columbia<br />

SMILEY BUnNETTE, who stars with Charles Starrelt<br />

in the Durango Kid series, was set lor personal<br />

cppearances in 16 eastern and southeastern cities<br />

this month.<br />

Independent<br />

BILL (HOPALONG CASSIDY) BOYD was grand<br />

marshal at the Beverly Hills centennial parade<br />

December 29.<br />

Monogram<br />

KIRBY GRANT returned Irom Chicago, where the<br />

actor made personal cfppearances in connection with<br />

his starring vehicle, "The Wolf Hunters."<br />

Warners<br />

Booked into New York's Strand Theatre for cm<br />

e.ngagement starting January 20 was singing star<br />

GORDON MACRAE.<br />

Briefies<br />

Metro<br />

"A Wife's Life" will be the first Pete Smith Specialty<br />

for the new year and will star Mrs. Dave<br />

O'Brien, who will show the wife's side of trying<br />

to please a husband by the way she runs a house.<br />

David Barclay and Julian Harmon wrote the script<br />

which Barclay will direct.<br />

Warners<br />

Completed was "Seal m the Lighthouse," tworeel<br />

Technicolor short which Gordon Hollingshead<br />

produce:^- and Larry Lansbury directed.<br />

Cleffers<br />

RKO Radio<br />

STANLEY JONES has been set to collaborate with<br />

RICHARD HAGEMAN on the score for Argosy's<br />

"Wagon Master."<br />

20th Century-Fox<br />

HAROLD ARLEN and RALPH BLANE have completed<br />

six songs for use in "My Blue Heaven," the<br />

current. Betty Grable-Don Dailey starrer. Henry<br />

Koster is directing.<br />

Warners<br />

WILLIAM LAVA was set to score "Colt 45."<br />

Loanouts<br />

Universal-International<br />

rrowed from 20 h-Fox for a lead in<br />

BARBARA LAWRENCE.<br />

Meggers<br />

Fir<br />

slate<br />

KQt;r

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