Boxoffice-January.07.1950
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—<br />
Arizona Anniversary<br />
To Feature Premiere<br />
HOLLYWOOD—Latest filnxmaking unit to<br />
jump aboard the premiere junket bandwagon<br />
is Lippert Productions, which will give its<br />
new historical western, "The Baron of Arizona."<br />
w'orld premiere treatment Februai^ 14<br />
in Phoenix, Ariz., tieing in with that state's<br />
observance of its 38th anniversary of its admission<br />
to the union.<br />
With the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce<br />
participating, the debut will be attended by<br />
state officials and local dignitaries, while the<br />
Lippert company will fly stars and members<br />
of the press to the opening from Hollywood.<br />
"The Baron," toplining Vincent Price and<br />
Ellen Drew, was directed by Samuel Puller<br />
and produced by Carl K. Hittleman.<br />
• * •<br />
Eight film players—Donald O'Connor, Patricia<br />
Medina, Yvonne DeCarlo, Gloria De-<br />
Haven, Jackie Coogan, Peggie Castle, Leslye<br />
Banning and Jack O'Connor—^have been set<br />
as part of the contingent to be flown by U-I<br />
and the U. S. air force to Germany, leaving<br />
January 18, for the world premiere of "Francis."<br />
Pianist Ray Turner will go along as<br />
accompanist and Hal Belfer, U-I studio dance<br />
director, also will make the trip.<br />
The party also will include Sam Israel and<br />
Frank McFadden of the studio publicity department;<br />
Archie Herzoff, studio advertising<br />
department official: E. V. Dinnerman, Cincinnati<br />
advertising man, who will handle advance<br />
exploitation in Germany, and Lieut.<br />
Col. Joseph Goetz, USAF. The troupe is<br />
slated to arrive in Wiesbaden January 20<br />
and "Francis" will be shown air force persoiinel<br />
in Wiesbaden, Berlin and other German<br />
cities during the ten-day European tour.<br />
New Year's eve openings in a dozen southern<br />
California and Arizona cities were staged<br />
for 20th-Fox's "Twelve O'clock High," currently<br />
receiving first run treatment in Los<br />
Angeles and Hollywood. The Gregory Pec'.<<br />
starrer began runs in Santa Barbara, Riverside,<br />
San Diego, Phoenix, Santa Ana, Long<br />
Beach, San Pedro, Bakersfield, El Centro.<br />
Tucson, Globe and Yuma.<br />
Republic's "Sands of Iwo Jima" was<br />
screened for marine corps personnel at Camp<br />
Pendleton, Calif., by Edmund Grainger, who<br />
produced. He was a guest of General Erskine,<br />
commanding officer.<br />
Three of U-I's behind-the-scenes personnel<br />
l.ave been dispatched on an exploitation<br />
tour to promote "Woman in Hiding," slated<br />
for its world premiere at the Lafayette Theatre<br />
in Buffalo January 7. Making the trek<br />
were Bud Westmore, head of U-I's makeup<br />
and hairdressing departments: Joan St. Oegger,<br />
chief hair stylist, and Yvonne Wood,<br />
fashioi. designer. They were to participate<br />
in advance promotion through radio and<br />
presf interviews and appearances in depart-<br />
;nent .stores, beauty shops and dress salons.<br />
Peru Likes U.S. Films<br />
HOLLYWOOD—Peruvians are completely<br />
sold on American films, Reno BrowTie, Monogram<br />
contract player, opined upon her return<br />
from Lima, Peru, where she was a guest of<br />
honor at the government fair. The actress<br />
said that during her stay there she saw only<br />
Peruvian or U.S. products.<br />
¥HERE is cause for thought— and perhaps<br />
additional worry—for the thespian and<br />
creative personnel of Cinemania in the<br />
recent important development in the Hollywood<br />
agency field.<br />
That development concerned the mergers<br />
of a quintet of the ten-percenter organizations<br />
into two new talent agency groups.<br />
Berg-Allenberg pooled its interests with the<br />
William Morris company and has begun operations<br />
under the name of the latter, while<br />
almost simultaneously the Levee-Stark, Goldstone-Willner<br />
and Vic Orsatti agencies<br />
merged their firms into the new United<br />
Agency Corp.<br />
There can be little doubt that the combining<br />
of the five flesh-peddling groups into two<br />
can be attributed, in part, at least, to dwindling<br />
employment in the celluloid vineyards;<br />
to smaller honorariums for many of the<br />
agencies' clients; and to other natural economic<br />
repercussions of lagging production<br />
and shaved budgets. And it seems logical<br />
to assume that, if current conditions continue,<br />
the trend toward the merging of<br />
agencies will manifest itself in other similar<br />
combines.<br />
Whether or not this evolution on the Hollywood<br />
scene will prove advantageous to the<br />
film capital's salaried workers time alone will<br />
reveal. Fewer agencies, with greatly increased<br />
influence and bargaining powers because of<br />
their larger client lists, easily could develop<br />
into an additional thorn in the sides of harassed<br />
producers—most especially the shortbankrolled<br />
independents—trying to hire talent<br />
as cheaply as possible. And to the ambitious<br />
newcomer with unproven abilities and<br />
earning capacities it means proportionately<br />
lessened chances of interesting a ranking<br />
agency in undertaking furtherance of his or<br />
her career.<br />
On the other hand, the stepped-up power<br />
of the larger agencies should be beneficial<br />
and profitable to their well-established clients<br />
—the actors, writers, directors, etc., for whom<br />
there is a steady and strong demand.<br />
From an overall perspective, it becomes obvious<br />
that the question of whether or not the<br />
agency-merger tendency will prove a boon or<br />
a curse to the filmmaking trade is largely<br />
up to the agencies themselves, and how they<br />
conduct their respective and increased businesses.<br />
Past performances of most of the principals<br />
figuring in the combines give promise<br />
of clean, considerate, ethical, business-like<br />
conduct that should benefit the industry as a<br />
whole.<br />
While on the subject of agencies, there is<br />
one of their established practices the elimination<br />
of which would remove a troublesome<br />
stumbling bloclt from the paths of producers.<br />
That is the constant bickering over respective<br />
screen credits for featured players. The<br />
need for entering formal contractual arrangements<br />
as concerns such credits—and the resultant<br />
necessary vigilance to protect himself<br />
against violation (hereof—is one of the<br />
major headaches, and a constant cause of<br />
expense, for the independent producer.<br />
It is standard practice that the agreement<br />
under which a featured player is hired for a<br />
part carries a clause which provides, with<br />
much legal verbiage, that the player shall receive<br />
screen credit on positive prints and in<br />
paid advertising and paid publicity, if any,<br />
which is issued under control of the producer<br />
and distributor, of a specified percentage of<br />
the size of type given to the star; that the<br />
player must have billing above certain other<br />
members of the cast, even if those members<br />
are seen in more important roles, etc., ad<br />
nauseam.<br />
During more prosperous times when there<br />
was plenty of work—and princely payments<br />
for Hollywood's middle-bracket thespian contingent,<br />
such career-protecting legal hocuspocus<br />
possibly had a place in agency-producer<br />
bargaining.<br />
But under existing conditions, when featured<br />
players—and good ones—are available<br />
in droves, and willing to take comparatively<br />
small parts at salaries that are but a fraction<br />
of their former demands, to handicap a<br />
producer and distributor with archaic, vanity-feeding,<br />
costly contractual arrangements<br />
over screen credits is nothing short of ridiculous.<br />
Extremely sensitive to the story content of<br />
the films for which, as United Artists' publicity<br />
major-domo in these parts, he beats the<br />
drums is Cecil Coan. On a recent evening he<br />
arranged a tradepress showing of "Mrs. Mike,"<br />
which details life in the rugged, below-zero<br />
snow country of the Canadian northwest.<br />
Almost immediately thereafter Coan went<br />
to bed to nurse a heavy cold.<br />
Comes now to this desk a clipping from the<br />
Philippines Herald, English language newspaper<br />
of Manila, edited by one H. P. Vibal.<br />
The clipping is a review of Paramount's<br />
"Samson and Delilah," which was lifted verbatim<br />
from this publication.<br />
Probably it will be months before a print<br />
of the DeMille epic reaches the Philippines,<br />
and many more months before the picture<br />
has a booking in the islands. But that didn't<br />
discourage Editor Vibal; nor was his editorial<br />
pencil sufficiently ambitious to eliminate<br />
from (he review certain clauses which were<br />
directed to the film trade, and which would<br />
be meaningless to his readers unless they operated<br />
theatres.<br />
Either BOXOFFICE gets around—or Paramount<br />
has a very persuasive press agent in<br />
Manila.<br />
Also in the holiday mails was Vol. 1, No. 1<br />
of a new monthly magazine titled "Hollywood"<br />
and printed in Arabic and English. Its<br />
format provides for reproduction of content<br />
in the latter tongue, with the same material<br />
in Arabic in an adjacent column.<br />
What a break for such catch-as-catch-can<br />
space-snatchers as Maury Foladare and Arthur<br />
Eddy, most of whose releases might as<br />
well be in Arabic anyway.<br />
BOXOFFICE January 7, 1950 41