Boxoffice-January.07.1950

—
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