Boxoffice (Jul-Sep 1940)

Allied Product Survey Bank Night Cleared of Lottery Will Start July 16 Stigma by Middlesex Court Boston — Arthur K. Howard, Independent Exhibitors business manager and one of a national committee of four named at Chicago to handle National Allied’s product survey and information bureau, plans to inaugurate the new product survey setup here July 16 with a business meeting in Boston of the Independent Exhibitors. Serving with Howard on the national committee are Sidney Samuelson of Philadelphia, Pete Wood of Columbus, and Don Rossiter of Indianapolis. Committee headquarters will be in Philadelphia. Product survey cards, according to Howard, will be distributed among exhibitors nationally in an effort to compile accurate information as to product deals, as to sectional success of major selling policies, and as to percentage and flat rental arrangements. Stronger buying power and better informed independent dealings are the aim, Howard stated. B-41 Unanimously Elects Sam Zipkin President New Haven — Local B-41 (exchange employes) unanimously elected Samuel Zipkin of Universal president for the coming year at a meeting at the Hotel Garde. Officers elected were installed by James Mullen, retiring president. Others in the new slate include: Fay Spidoni, Universal, vice-president; James Mahan, Paramount, secretary; William Nutile, Paramount, treasurer; Edward Canelli, Warner, sergeant-at-arms, and Robert Hoffman, 20thFox, business agent. The executive board will consist of all officers, Henry Bruenig, United Artists, and Anna Brownstein, Paramount. A clambake and social has been scheduled for July 31 at Indian Grove, West Haven, with Zipkin in charge of arrangements. Otherwise, meetings of the local will be suspended until September 9. Broidy Outlines Friars Club Fund Raising Plan Boston — Steve Broidy, Monogram sales manager in New England and president of the Boston Friars Club, called a meeting of feminine exchange employes Tuesday at the Hotel Statler. Announced at that time was a proposed Boston Friars Club plan for raising funds for underprivileged children. A second meeting, at which inspectresses and shippers will attend, was planned for a later date. Perakos Succeeds Sirica At Thompsonville Strand Thompsonville, Conn. — John D. Sirica, who has been manager of the local Strand since it was opened some three years ago by Peter Perakos, New Britain exhibitor, has resigned. He intends, however, to retain his residence in Enfield. He has been succeeded by Sperry Perakos, son of the Strand owner, who has been manager of the Franklin. Always the Films to Fall Back Upon Hopedale, Mass. — The Rev. I. Harris Tegarden, pastor of the local Unitarian church, has an ace up his sleeve in case he's forced to forego his regular Sunday sermon. In his spare time, the Rev. Tegarden has produced an 800-ioot sound motion picture titled "Getting the Most Out of Your Life," which will run about 20 minutes and which, according to present plans, can be run during the regular service. VI ■■ J Details to Theatres On Tax Collections New Haven — Exhibitors in the territory received a bulletin of instructions from Hartford on details of tax collection and remission just before the new amusement tax went into effect last Monday. Connecticut MPTO’s executive secretary, Herman M. Levy, issued a special bulletin to its members the week before, while Allied Theatre Owners of Connecticut’s secretary, Lawrence C. Caplan, communicated information to key exhibitors in various towns and called a meeting for Tuesday at the Hofbrau Haus Restaurant for further explanation. Most exhibitors had tickets enough on hand to make it necessary to take advantage of the month’s leeway on purchase of new tickets. Loew houses put in new ticket machines, new tickets, new books and records in advance. Only in a few isolated instances was the admission scale changed, except to add the actual pennies of tax, the majority of exhibitors having been opposed to adding the extra amounts to make even admissions of the next higher fivecent bracket. Ozoner in Middletown Is Planned by Sal Adorno Middletown, Conn. — If an appeal is not taken from the state police commissioner’s decision to permit a 900-seat open-air here, with certain restrictions, it is reported that Sal Adorno plans to open the ozoner this summer. One of the provisions of the commissioner’s decision was that the noise was not to be heard for further than a radius of 250 feet, and Adorno is reported to be considering individual speakers if necessary. O'Flaherty Completes "Valley" Hollywood — Liam O’Flaherty has completed the script of 20th-Fox’s “How Green Was My Valley,” based on the best seller by Richard Lewellyn. By BRAD ANGIER Boston — Judge Frederick Fosdick found Bank Night and Good Will Award not guilty of lottery charges in Middlesex superior court in Cambridge. Judge Fosdick, earlier in the week, found Lucky guilty of violating anti-lottery statutes. The action leaves Bank Night and Good Will Award (the latter a form of Bank Night conducted on the punchcard system) the only theatre giveaways legal in Middlesex county. William McLaughlin, operator of the Stoneham in Stoneham, who had consented to become test case defendant in the Lucky case, was found guilty of violating the lottery law. The decision, according to promoters of the game, will be appealed. The case went up on an agreed statement of facts. George S. Ryan, Bank Night attorney, also brought up the Tower, Lowell, case on statement of facts, agreed to by himself and by District Attorney Robert Bradford. Trial by jury was waived. Judge Fosdick gave his decision in short order, following arguments by Ryan and by the prosecution. Ryan had previously cleared the Bank Night plan in Rhode Island, Maine, and in Middlesex, Suffolk, and Bristol counties in Massachusetts. Michael J. Hurney of the Tower in Lowell, was nominal defendant in the joint Good Will Award-Bank Night action. Hurney was charged with setting up and managing a lottery for money. Watch and Ward Society Report Raps Giveaway Boston — Agitation against Bank Night by the New England Watch and Ward Society is one of the main features of the recently published annual report of Charles S. Bodwell, secretary of the organization whose object, in its own words, is “to remove commercialized temptations to vice and crime, to stop up sources of corruption.” Ruling by Court Exempts Women Theatre Workers New Haven — Hotels and theatres are excepted in a supreme court ruling that women entertainers or musicians cannot participate in floor shows or be otherwise employed after 10 p. m. in this state. The high court refused to issue an injunction enjoining State Labor Commissioner Cornelius J. Danaher from enforcing a provision of Section 1605c of the general statutes limiting the hours of employment of women in restaurants, cafes, dining rooms, barber shops, hair-dressing establishments, etc., to 6 a. m. to 10 p. m. “If exceptions are to be made, it is for the legislature to determine them,” the court ruled, admitting “women entertainers worked only 8 to 30 minutes a night” and their activities were “not laborious, exacting or injurious to their health.” BOXOFFICE ;; July 6, 1940 NE 63