The Film Daily (1948)

™3*Sfe Tuesday, March 16, 191 Realart Sets First 12 Releases for '48-'49 Six "super specials" and six "exploitation specials" comprise the first group of Realart releases for the 1948-49 program, Budd Rogers, vicepresident, has announced. "Super" sextet includes "Magnificent Brute," "Sea Spoilers," "Next Time We Love," "Men of Texas," "Pardon My Sarong" and "My Man Godfrey." Exploitation group embraces "Drums of the Congo," "Captive Wild Woman," "Timber," "Mutiny on the Black Hawk," "Zanzibar" and "Rio." Company will also release eight Buck Jones westerns. 50 Millions More Patrons j |||. Allied Renames Kirsch for 3 Years . . . but we're not "selling" 'em N. J. Circuit Names Com. To Study Operations Malcolm Kingsberg, president of Trenton-New Brunswick Theaters Co., has announced that at a meeting of the board it was voted to appoint an Operating Committee consisting of Sol Schwartz, Walter Reade, Jr., and Frank Hirst to operate the theaters, subject to the approval and direction of the directors. Walter Reade, Jr., was elected a director and secretary in place of Walter Reade, who resigned. Schwartz and Hirst were elected vice-presidents of the company. William Tamme Services St. Louis — Service for William L. Tamme, 73, pioneer theater operator, were held in Lake Charles Cemetery. He opened the Casino Theater here in 1907, later selling out to operate Amusement Supply Co. Eisenstat to Century Irving L. Eisenstat has been appointed office manager of Century Theaters' home office by J. R. Springer. Eisenstat spent 15 years as a field accountant supervisor with Warners. New 14th St Policy "Shoeshine" will inaugurate a new policy at the 14th Street Theater whereby 10 foreign pix per year will play seven-day engagements. It opens March 26. Teen Agers to Films 2i/2 Times Weekly Survey completed by Dr. Leo Handel, director of Metro's Motion Picture Research Bureau, discloses that average film theater attendance for a number of representative boys and girls in the high school to college age-brackets was two and a half times weekly; the average among middle-aged picture-goers went down to five times a month and that of the older person about half of this. One boy, a high school senior, claimed an average of five visits weekly to the movies; the nadir on the graph was once a month, by a retired minister. (Continued from Page 1) board included reduction of infant mortality, advances in the science of nutrition and greater concentration of childbearing in early years of marriage. The box office application in what has preceded should be fairly obvious. IN a subsequent column, attention was invited to the estimate, by one of the industry's ablest distribution chiefs, that there is at the present time an audience potential in the Continental U. S. of 75,000,000, whereas a top quality picture only attracts an aggregate gate of 25,000,000 admissions. Just about the same appraisal of the existing situation now comes from Metro's William F. Rodgers who, closing a sales assembly on the Coast, stressed the need for attracting "at least a good percentage of the more than 50,000,000 Americans who do not regularly go to the theater." Read that again slowly, pal. More than 50,000,000 Americans are only casual patrons of the motion picture! It's frightening . . . it's shocking . . . it's an indictment! And it's a challenge! ! ! Sure, the foreign market is important. A dollar is a dollar whether it comes from London, Cairo, Singapore, Sydney or Rio. Or any other spot outside these U. S. A. you may care to name. But isn't the home-earned dollar a better deal? Well, isn't it? And, to ask another pertinent question, isn't the American patron a better customer? Doesn't he have more money to spend for entertainment than the Briton, the Frenchman, the Australian, the Argentinean, et al? And doesn't he spend it, what's more? OKAY, then, whyinhell doesn't he, in far greater numbers, spend it at the motion picture box office? To merely say that Hollywood isn't turning out the right kind of pictures is, at best, only a half-answer. Sure, the right kind of pictures will attract — in varying degree — those who constitute today's mass audience — the 25,000,000 cited by distribution chiefs. And in a Utopia, with nothing but Grade A pictures coming through from Hollywood, some millions would be won over as regular customers. But forget about Utopia; this is film business. And the trick is to woo and win X millions of the 50,000,000 mentioned by Rodgers and others today . . . and of course, with an eye as well to the added millions coming along in the years ahead. Essentially it's a "selling" job in all phases for the entire industry. Research, from which the industry surprisingly has shied away from is indicated, too. But research is part of "selling," and so let's stick to "selling." IS the exhibitor today being "sold" by the distributor? You know the answer to that one. And it's a sotry one. Is the exhibitor "selling" John Q. Public? Not when 50,000,000 Americans are by-passing the motion picture. Not when Lynn Farnol, advertising-publicity director for Samuel Goldwyn Prods., back from a Southern and Middle Atlantic tour, tells the New York Times that, having gone out of his way to ask all sorts of people about pictures, "It was a revelation to find out how little they knew about pictures, and how little they cared . . . with only a few exceptions, they were lost when it came to a particular picture." Advertising one picture occasionally in the industry journals won't turn the trick. There's an urgent need of consistent advertising, day in and day out, if the exhibitor is to be convinced that the film on his screen is more important than the popcorn and the candy in his lobby. When the popcorn and the candy are put ahead of the film the theater operator is no longer a showman; he's a confectioner. That's only one slant . . . and it doesn't mean that popcorn and candy have no place in the theater. It's just a matter of the proper perspective. Now that the British crisis is over, let's get back into film business for a change. There's still money in it. NT's Skouras Due Monday National Allied Big "5" To Map TOA Campaign I To Urge Lewis Bill Okay (Continued from Page 1) was reached at the organization's directors meeting in Los Angeles last week. Skouras will direct the program to be embarked upon by theaters throughout the country in spearheading the national effort to direct the country's youth in worthwhile leisure pursuits. Isaac Higgins Dead Petersburg, Ind. — Isaac Higgins, 65, part owner of the Lincoln Theater, is dead. (Continued from Page 1) rangements for everything in their films — including ASCAP music, will be board chairman and general counsel Abram F. Myers. Following Myers will be Sidney Samuelson of Allied Theaters of Eastern Pennsylvania, Trueman Remhusch of Associated Theaters of Indiana, Martin G. Smith of Independent Theater Owners of Ohio and Joseph P. Uvick of Allied Theaters of Michigan. TOA, MPA and ASCAP will also be heard. Chicago — Jack Kirsch was elected to a three-year president term at the eighteenth ann ing of the Allied _ Theaters of Illinois in the Congress Hotel here. Also named to office were Van Nomikos, vicepresident; Benjamin Banowitz, secretarytreasurer; Harry Nepo, sergeant-atarms, and the following directors: Arthur Davidson, Lou H. Harrison, Charles R. Lindau, Ludwig Sussman, Richard B. Salkin, John Semadales, Sinuel R( erts, James Gregory, Verne Langd< Howard Lubliner, Joseph Stem, S; Lockwood, Nate Slott, B. Charul and Jack Rose. KIRSCH CBS Video Program Will Telecast Hit Show Bits v," • A new CBS television series, "" night on Broadway," starts tot with the televising of actual scei and behind-the-scene glimpses of Broadway hit, "Mister Roberts was announced yesterday. Progr; sponsored by Lucky Strike Cij1 rettes, will visit other Broadv plays on subsequent Tuesday nings, producing the programs fore the regular performances. Columbia will televise "Tonight Broadway" over its Atlantic seabo; network stations in New York, Ph delphia, Baltimore, Washington : special "feeds" to viewers in Bost Actors Equity has granted a wai to the producers, permitting them engage actors, and establishing wage scale for the purpose. It is planned to use films of "ve I ous types" — commercials, backd; clips, shots of Times Square, Bro way, etc. — to "create the mood" these programs. I Warner Signs Montgomery West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAI Hollywood — Jack L. Warner nounced over the weekend that E ert Montgomery has been signedappear opposite Bette Davis in "Ji|l~ Bride." Film Council to Meet "Community Film Council in tion" will be the subject of ton row's meeting of the New York F Council at the Williams Club. lUEDDIRG BELL Gilmour-McConaty Denver — Helen Gilmour, daugl of Charles R. Gilmour, presidem ried raltar enterprises, wxu De n April 3*k08i4>h1atocCon