HOLLYWOOD'S Eagle Lion Studios, Inc., which has been ailing for years, will be the first movie studio to convert entirely to TV. A West Coast syndicate (among the directors: Oilman Edwin Pauley and Broker Daniel F. Reeves, president of the Los Angeles Rams football team) bought Eagle Lion for $1,100,000, will change the name to First National Studios Inc.

TIN prices, which jumped from 77-c- to $1.83 a lb. after Korea, will be stabilized under a new plan just drafted by tin producing and consuming nations. Plan calls for an international stockpile of up to 25,000 tons which would be used to keep prices between 80-c- and $1.20 a lb. (present price: 86-c-) by releasing tin in times of scarcity, buying it up in times of oversupply. The plan probably won't be okayed by the U.S., but it can go into effect anyway under the auspices of an international tin council if enough of the six producing and 18 consuming nations agree.

PIONEER Air Lines, in trouble since it bought nine Martin transports and then couldn't afford to use them (TIME, March 30), will merge with Continental Air Lines for about $600,000 in cash and 65,000 shares of Continental stock.

OIL producers in the Williston Basin may soon have a pipeline to carry their crude oil to Midwest refineries. A committee representing eleven producers (among them: Shell and Socony-Vacuum) has asked the Shell Pipe Line Corp. to start studies for a large-diameter line.

THE silver-fox industry in Canada, whose sales dropped from $5,000,000 to $463,000 in 13 years, is trying to make a comeback. Breeders will soon kick off $75,000 campaign to popularize new styles, colors and name (probably Crystal Fox).

COCA-COLA has finally won its four-year court battle with French winegrowers and mineral-water bottlers, who (along with the Communists) hinted that its secret formula contained harmful ingredients. A Paris court threw the case out after experts said that Coke was "neither harmful, nor habit-forming, nor against the existing laws."

DUTCH businessmen, taking a cue from Britain's trawler dealings with Russia (TIME, Dec. 7), are planning a private mission to regain some of their former trade with China. Exporters, who anticipate tacit government consent, say they will ship no strategic goods, hope to do business in textiles, industrial machines and railroad equipment.

DOUGLAS Aircraft, whose DC-7 has just gone into transcontinental service (TIME, Nov. 30), is building a heavier DC-7B with 4,000-mile range (plus 16% fuel reserve) for ocean flying. Pan American has placed a $14 million order for seven, will put them into service in 1955, probably to Europe and South America.

PONTIAC, following the trend to superdeluxe models, will turn out a new Star Chief line in 1954 only two inches shorter overall (213 in.) than this year's Cadillac, and priced to compete with medium-priced Buicks and Oldsmobile 88. Features, besides fancier trim; new springs, higher horsepower (up to 127), as much as 40% more trunk space and a driver's seat with multiple adjustments.

BELL Telephone Laboratories, Inc. has installed an experimental booth in Boston's South Station that has no conventional instrument --just a speaker and small microphone recessed in the wall, leaving a caller's hands free to jot down notes.

UNITED Aircraft Corp., which makes both engines (Pratt & Whitney) and planes (Chance-Vought), has decided to concentrate on engines because the combined business has put both divisions at a disadvantage in dealing with outside firms. If United stockholders approve, Chance-Vought will become a separate company and apply for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.