Big Frog

Universal-International Pictures was the first major Hollywood moviemaker to decide that the little 16-and 8-mm. movies shown in homes, schools and churches had big domestic moneymaking possibilities. Three months ago, Universal set up a subsidiary called United World Films Inc. and jumped into the little movie pond. Last week, after much splashing about, United World emerged as the pond's biggest frog.

For some $2,000,000, it bought Castle Films, top-ranking producer-distributor of 16-and 8-mm. "packages" (film sold outright for private use). In 1946, Castle sold about one million packages--seven times as many as any competitor--and made some $800,000 doing it. The deal gave United World not only 200 film subjects but 3,300 retail outlets, mostly camera shops and department stores. To keep Castle running under its own name as a division of United World, Founder-Owner Eugene W. Castle was signed up to a long-term contract at $40,000 a year.

Big Deals. The deal which automatically made United World the big frog was made by globular little Matthew Fox, 35, U-I's executive vice president and United World's board chairman. Matty Fox, who started his movie career at eight as an usher in Racine, Wis., made his first deal in little movies by buying up the 6,000-subject Filmo-sound Library of Chicago's Bell & Howell, one of the biggest U.S. makers of projection equipment. Built up to promote movie-projector sales, the library consisted mostly of non-entertainment films. But Bell & Howell also leased regular "feature" pictures from Universal and other Hollywood firms, reduced them to 16-mm. size and rented them out.

On these pictures, which accounted for a big chunk of the library's $600,000 annual business. Hollywood could easily pull the carpet out from under Bell & Howell any time it wanted to. When Matty Fox began dickering a month ago, it looked as if the time had come. Hence United World got the library almost for nothing: $600,000, to be paid over a ten-year period. Gloated Matty Fox: "We'll pay for this cow out of its milk."

Big Money? Along with the library, United World took over Bell & Howell's entire U.S. film distribution setup. But that was not enough for Matty Fox, who wanted to work on a global scale.

So he next made a family deal with famed British moviemaker J. Arthur Rank, owner of a big block of stock in U-I, which handles U.S. distribution of his standard films. The deal: Rank, who makes many 16-and 8-mm. films too, would distribute United World pictures in the British Empire, and United World would distribute Rank's in North and South America. Together, Rank and United World would sell little movies in continental Europe and the rest of the world.

Matty Fox has more deals in the works, but last week he was vague about details. Best guess was that they would involve adapting Hollywood techniques to educational and religious films, stepping up production of entertainment films in small sizes. Said Fox: "People are buying projectors so fast the manufacturers can't keep up with demand. This is going to be one hell of a big business."

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