PONDERS TAFT-HARTLEY WAL

\ Casey,
-
'NAKED
"
'HIGH
estimonial Dinner
banned for Casey
lOLLYWOOD— After 50 years in the larcliUioiis
field, tlie last 20 with the maproducers,
Pat Casey wil be honored
liih a testimonial retirement dinner soon,
lists planning the fiuiction are confined to
li.ise Pat calls "my boys." and include 22
i( llywood studio industrial relations man-
(TS and their assistants.
at one time a vice-president of the
Inierican Federation of Labor, became asiDi-iated
with the picture industry in 1926,
phen two committees of motion picture pro-
[iicers and international heads of craft
liiions were first organized to handle inliistry
labor problems. Casey became chairlian
of the producers' group. He was still
lerving in this capacity when he retired two
feeks ago.
Fred S. Meyer of 20th-Fox is to preside
ft the farewell dinner as chairman of a comiittee
that also includes W. R. Walsh of
I/IGM and W. K. Hopkins of Columbia.
3ARAMOUNT international executives who
completed studio cotrferences and headed
ipmeward included George Weltner, presiifnt
of Paramount International: John B.
J.ithan, European general manager; Stanley
r'raig, general manager for New Zealand:
.Villiam Hurworth jr., Australian sales repcsentative:
James E. Perkins, managing
lirector for Great Britain, and Fred E.
i.itchinson. managing sales director for
3ritain.
* * «
Paul Hollister, RKO Radio studio representative
in Manhattan, trained out followng
two weeks of studio conferences on forthxming
product.
Jack Osserman, RKO supervisor for Latin
A:nerica. planed out on the first leg of his
:np around the U.S. visiting RKO exchanges.
After three weeks in Mexico City, where
Ui' supervised production on "Adventures of
C.isanova," shooting at the Churubusco studio,
Bryan Foy, vice-president in charge of
roduction for Eagle-Lion, checked back at
I
I
s
desk.
Stanley Kramer, head of Screen Plays,
Inc., new independent producing outfit,
planed out for New York to complete releas-
Irg plans for the company's 3'---year lineup.
• •
Producer Boris Morros trained in from
New 'York for powwows with 'William Le-
B iron, his partner in the United Artists
sharecropping outfit. Federal Films, on their
frrthcoming productions.
• « *
John J. Jones, president of Screen Guild
P:oductions, planed out for Chicago for busint
ss conferences.
P. A. Bateman, general .sales manager for
SG, returned to his desk after completing
a series of nationwide sales conferences, the
la;t two of which were held in Pittsburgh
aid Washington, D. C.
• » •
Ed Morey, vice-president and assistant to
P:esident Steve Broidy of Allied Artists and
Monogram, arrived from New- York for sales
huddles.
[OM AND DAD." the exploitation
progr.un
conceived by Hygienic Produc-
r^
tions of Wilmington. Ohio, has been
one of exhibition's financial sensations of the
past two seasons. From a modest beginning, it
has grown to where 15 units currently are
roadshowing the attraction in four nations.
Now-, rather belatedly, comes the Catholic
Legion of Decency to damn the program with
a "C," or condemned, classification. Says
the CLOD, "It deals with a subject mo.st objectionable
for presentation in entertainment
motion picture theatres, the treatment of the
subject as presented is most objectionable
for entertainment motion picture audiences
and the film ignores completely essential and
supernatural values associated with questions
of this nature,"
M. and D. may be ignoring the "supernatural
values" associated with "questions of
this nature" (hush! hush! it's sexi but, as
showmen w-ho have booked the feature will
testify, it hasn't ignored the supernatural as
concerns the black figures it left behind on
the ledgers of those showmen.
Now that the CLOD has decided that it
naughty to see the show, its business probably
will become super-supernatural.
Monsignor John J. McClafferty, executive
secretary of the same Catholic Legion of Decency,
was guest of honor at an industry
luncheon at MOM with Louis B. Mayer acting
as host. Most heads and executives of
all studios attended.
The same week Leo press previewed its
"The Hucltsters."
Producer Sam Katzman, who plows a
sharecropping acre over Columbia way, in
one w-eek added two newcomers to his already
heavy schedule of features and serials.
One is "The Corsair," to be based on the
epic poem by Lord Byron, first published in
1814. As the basis of the second, to be titled
"Knights of the Round Table," two other
classics of English literature will be utilized,
Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Idylls of the King"
and Sir Thomas Malory's "Morte d'Arthur."
Looks like someone gave Producer Katzman
a book of poetry for Christmas and he
finally got around to reading it.
Spealting of Indians. Lou Lifton, who beats
the tom-toms for Monogram, took a bow because
nine tribes were represented at the
powwow dinner Allied Artists staged for Hollywood's
hungry press prior to the screening
of Jeffrey Bernerd's "Black Gold." Tribes
were Yakima, Sioux. Shawnee. Mission, Ilopi,
Navaho, Kalmath, Ponca and Potawatomi,
Overlooked, Chief Smohawk of the .Smolensk
tribe took to the warpath.
Bernie (Tlie Bashful Boy Blurben Kamins.
director of publicity— if any—for Je.sse L.
Lasky-Walter McEwen Productions, finally
managed to ring the bell. When Bashful
Bernie calls members of the press these days
his conversation is preceded by the sounding
of chimes, which playful and time-killing
pursuit is to inform the harassed listener
is
that the call is on behalf of Lasky-McEwen's
"The Miracle of the Bells."
Characteristically Kaminsian, the chimes
are muffled—and off key.
Because of international red tape and unsettled
conditions, John Ford and Merian C.
Cooper of Arko Productions have cancelled
plans for an expedition to the Belgian Congo
to obtain footage for their "Mr. Joseph
Young of Africa," an upcoming RKO Radio
relea.se. Now, the entire picture will be shot
in Hollywood.
From one jungle to another.
Costumes for Sol Lesser's "Tarzan and
the Mermaids" will be designed by Norma,
Jerry Hoffman informs. The '.cript. he -says,
calls for special imaginative wardrobe for
more than 60 mermaids who will not wear
tails.
* * «
Some day the magi of production
Will go too far in their destruction
Of myth, tradition, time-honored fable
To win for films originality's label.
Sweet femmes who slay, cowpokes who
croon.
Whodunits what answer the question too
.soon,
Pug-ugjy heroes with elephant's hide,
All these the public has taken in stride.
But be not surprised if its patience falls
When it sees on the screen Lesser's mermaids
sans tails.
« 4> *
Anyway, the tail-less mermaids may answer
the traditional observation made by the
Indian upon meeting one of them.
Cary Grant plays a harp solo in Samuel
Goldwyn's "The Bishop's Wife." Recently
he revealed plans for investing his more or
le.ss hard-earned bankroll in an independent
production company in partnership with
Alexander Korda.
One way or another. Grant seems determined
to be an angel.
WALL' WITH
ROBERT TAYLOR
ROLLS AT MGM"
—Howard Strickling Headline.
Perhaps it was anticipation of rolling with
a high wall that accounts for his recent
vertiginous testimony before the House
Committee on un-American Activities.
Title changers at Columbia decided to
shorten "The Mating of Millie McGonigle"
to "The Mating of Millie." and "Silverado
Squatters" to "Silverado."
Apparently, the studios' current economy
drives will stop at nothing.
CITY' CAST
ARRIVING IN NEW YORK"
—John Joseph Headline.
The humidity,
no doubt.
BOXOFFICE :: June 28, 1947 59