The Exhibitor (Aug-Nov 1948)

THE EX H I B I T 0 R NT-1 XL'ws OF rnii: New CROSSTOWN May Helabian, Columbia exploitation department, home office, was married last week to Harry Chakraakian. . . . The engagement of Kathleen Walsh to Charles Fitzgerald was announced last week. Miss Walsh is secretary to A.W. Schwalberg, Paramount. Eagle Lion’ s “Raw Deal’’ was the last film shown at the Victoria before that house undergoes extensive alterations in preparation for its new policy in the fall. ... George Brown, publicity director. Paramount studio, arrived last week forborne office conferences. The Universal Newsreel recently signed a sound servicing deal with Altec. Tom Rogers, radio contact, MGM, is mourning the lo!?s of his mother, Mrs. Edward Rogers, 70, who died recently in Phoenix, Ariz, , of a heart ailment ....Rudy Berger, MGM southern sales manager, ■ returned to his Washington headquarters last week following home office conferences. .. Jacques Peyder’ s latest film, “Back Streets Of Paris”, will be released in the U.S. in October, it was announced last week by Irvin Shapiro, general manager. Film Rights International. Hoagy Carmichael arrived last week en route to England, where he will make a four-week appearance at the Casino, London. David Niven also sailed for England last week. .. Columbia star Ella Raines arrived last week for press interviews and radio appearances as part of the national publicity cam¬ paign on “The Walking Hills.” Ed Hinchey, head, Warners home off ice playdate department, left last week for Cleveland. ... Frederick Brisson, executive prouucer. Independent Artists, returnea last week from Europe. Sack Amusement Enterprises, dis¬ tributors of Negro films, last fort¬ night moved its offices from Columbus Circle to 354 West 44th Street. Richarii de RochemonL, producer. The March of Time, sailed for Europe last week. ... Harry Goldberg, director of advertising and publicity, Warner Theatres, left last week for Los Angeles. ., James R. Grainger, Republic executive vice-president in charge of sales and distribution, returned last week following a visit to the com¬ pany’ s North Hollywood studios and branches inLos Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, New Orleans, Chicago, and Detroit. Buttons were popping off the chest of Prank Daut, credit manager, Altec Service’ s New York district, last week. Son Jack, 17, al 1 scnoi ast ic high school tackle of Nassau County, has ioeen awarded a four-year scholarship at Notre Dame. Herb Crooker, Metro publicity mana¬ ger, was on vacation on his 25-foot sloop cruising the waters around New York. ... Albert Lewin, MGM studio executive, arrived from the coast. . . . Charles C. Moskowitz, Loew’ s vicepresident and treasurer, returned after several weeks at the studios. ... Tom Gerety, Metro’s publicity department, vacationed. Milton S. Kusell, vice-president, domestic and Canadian sales, Selznick Releasing Organization, arrived from Hollywood last week for conferences with David 0. Selznick, and Paul MacNamara, vice-president in charge of public relations. ... William Satori, Monogram’s continental European repre¬ sentative, who, heretofore, made his headquarters in London, is now defi¬ nitely established at the Monogram International offices here, and will supervise his territory from here. Satori also moved his private residence from Pittsburgh. S. Barret McCormick, national di¬ rector of advertising, RKO announced last week that the national campaign for “Joan of Arc” will be the biggest effort ever made to presell a motion picture to the world. There will, in fact, be two campaigns. Joseph Green, Michael Hyams, and Alexander Parkson last week announced the formation of Gramercy Films, Inc., with the new distribution company to release many new outstanding foreign films in the United States. Green and Hyams are present owners of the Little Met, the Hopkinson, City and Irving Place, and are connected with Globe Film Distributors, Inc. Seymour ‘Cy’ Eichman, advertising manager, Astor, accompanied by his wife, returned following a 15-day auto trip through New England and Canada. Some of the best publicity stunts of the year have been used forColumbia’ s “Lulu. Belle”, Rivoli, with credit going to publicity man Bill Tell. The New York Post and Daily News carried (Continued on next page) Twenty five members of Columbia's New York City office recently gave blood for Israel at the Red Mogen Dovid blood bank. Shown wi th Ernes t Lichten¬ stein, center, chairman of the com¬ mittee which organized several blood donor groups at Columbia, are Irving Colrnan, a Red Mogen Dovid aide, and also Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Abrams. TRAVELLING AROUND WITH LEW HERB p m wirnmmm (Lew Herb continues his trip through the northern New Jersey territory. -Ed. ) Having made the rounds in Perth Amboy, we headed out of town, towards New Brunswick, and stopped off at Metuchen, where we dropped in at the ■porum, operated by H. Fields. Fields not be¬ ing expected before the end of the week, we pushed onto New Brunswick, where we first ■f t ■ '^E|| dropped in at the RKO ■ State. We met a couple ■ <85*5-^ of young men, Tom Wright I and Gene Levine, Wright manages the house, with Lew Herb Levine^his assistant. They were, currently plugging “Asylum of Horrors”, amidnight show attraction that seems to be an annual event in these parts. We witnessed the perfor¬ mance of this show the night before, and found it very entertaining, as well as lucrative at the boxoffice. Wright and Levine had rigged up a good lobby display board on the attraction, and had dressed two aides in appro¬ priate skeleton and ghost costumes. These turned out to be traffic stoppefs. We next found ourselves at the Strand, owned and operated by Dave Snaper, who was out of town at the time of our call, but we did get a chance to chat with Lou Abrams, looking after the house in his absence. Another old timer in the business, he takes care of the Capitol, South River, and has been connected with the organization for some time. In the Strand booth we met August Strieker and Jim Madalino, bothmembers of Local 534. Strieker is the junior, with six years of projection exper¬ ience, while Madalino has been at it for over 20. Dropping in at the RKO Albany, we talked with Steve Kucson, who manages the house, one of the finest in the city, second only to the State. All seats are on one floor, and while it is located in one of the older sec¬ tions of town, it is kept in very good condition. In f act , its front was just receiving a new coat of paint at the time of our visit, and manager Kucson informed us that the rest of the businessmen in the area were getting ready to do the same thing. There are two other RKO theatres in New Brunswick, the Rivoli, under the direction of Nat Faggen, and the Reade, actually in Highland Park, an adjoining community, under the direc¬ tion of another old-timer, JohnBodley. Two independents, the Opera House, under the direction of Sam Wormser, and theEuropa, whichplays all foreignlanguage films, also operate. Our time being limited at the time of our visit, we were unable to make the rounds of all these houses, but hop'-* to be able to do so in the very near future. I expect to be travelling through the New York State territory soon. August 11, 1948 New York