The Film Daily (1948)

Tuesday, August 3, 1948 DAILY PAYETTE Payette, Warners Zone Cliief, Dead Washington Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Washington — The capital's pix circles were saddened over the weekend by ii=\ death of John J. Payette, 56, W-^Mer zone m siWk g e r for Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Penn sylvania, as well as for the District of Columbia. Death came to the industry veteran from heart and kidney ailments after a long illness. He is survived by his wife, the former Dorothy ^Crandall, and four children, Mrs. Charles 'Kemp Devereux, John J., Robert C, and Ronald C. Payette; a brother, George N. Payette of Hagerstown, and two sisters, Mrs. George A. Degnan and Mrs. William Schwalm. Services will be held, at 9:15 a.m. tomorrow at his home 5126 Palisades Lane N.W., with further services to be held at 10 a.m. at the Sacred Hearts Church 16th St. and Park Road. Payette first beranic assoctated with the industry in 1904 when he started as an usher at the old Academy of Music. At 17 he was appointed tnanagrer of the Rhode Island Theater. Following World War I army service, he was appointed assistant .manag-er of the Metropolitan. In 1920 he .was elevated to the assistant g-eneral mana'-'ership of all the Harry Crandall theaters and in 1925 became general manager. When Crandall_ theaters merged with the c Stanley Company of America, he was ap. pointed theater supervisor, and when Warners purchased the theaters, he was made gen■eral zone manager of the 45 theaters in Washington. Maryland. Virginia. West Virginia and Pennsylvania. During World War II. he was the WAC's co-chairman for thf District and was a member of the executive committee of the Civilian War Sen-ices, deputy air raid warand a member of the D. C. Salvage CWc^ifii ih^-^^f<rW den. Committee. Usher Dies a Detroit Hero Detroit — Douglas Seit^, chief usher at the Redford Theater, was hailed as a hero following his death in an auto accident. When he saw that a crash was inevitable, he jumped into position to shield his feminine companion from the force of the impact, at the cost of his own life. STORKS A son was born Saturday to Mrs. John H. Rugge at the Hackensack Hospital, N. J. The father is assistant to Ralph W. Budd, Warners personnel director. The baby, John H. Rugge, Jr., weighs 6 lbs. 2 ozs. Detroit — John Dembeck, Cooperative booker, is the father of a new son. '^^ PHIL M. DALY Tuesday^s Tele-lines • • • PASSING OVER THE WEEK-END of such widely known industry figures as Max Milder, P. A. Powers, John I. Payette and Alexander I. Kearney cast the proverbial pall over home offices and Film Row yesterday. ... • The lobby show is back on Broadway Charlie Potter is singing in the Palace lobby during the run of "Give My Regards to Broadw^oy." ... • Crosley's getting set to turn out 10,000 video receivers a month And what ore YOU doing about television? ... • Very smart, that slant employed by the Rivoli in its met. daily display copy for "So Evil My Love." ... 9 li you don't think inflation is here, Childs luncheon menu yesterday quoted 50 cents as the price of a bowl of corn flakes and half-and-half. ... • Could it be that some one has an ulterior motive in spreading those ownership-management rumors about Universal? Well, now, who might expect to benefit? T T T • • • IS THE PRESIDENT of a principal indie distributing company stepping out? There are persistent reports, despite a flat denioL ... • Distribs. are up against a booking jam in Chicago loop first runs. ... • The enthusiasm, pep, vigor and loyalty to be noted at Film Classics first world-wide sales conclave warmed the heart There's an outfit that knows what it wants and proposes to get it It will A doff of the old chapeau to the Messrs. Bernhard, Blumenthal, Kranze, Zimbalist, et al. . . . • With Enterprise shooting "The Numbers Racket" here, the New York Telephone Co. coincidentally is announcing that a new exchange, Luxemburg, will be in operation on Labor Dory First to catch the Monte Carlo motif was Emerson Yorke Luxemburg will relieve the overloaded Bryant exchange. ▼ T T • • • IS JUDGE STEPHEN S. JACKSON leaving the MPAA? . . . • Notional Legion of Decency has placed 20th-Fox's "That Lady in Ermine" in its Class B. . . . • Didja know Warners expect "My Wild Irish Rose" to gross $4,500,000 domestically? ... • Noted by Tony Weitzel of the Detroit News emblazoned on the marquee of a Detroit name: "The Swordsman" and Cutlery Night. ... • Dorothy Barko of Century Theaters legal staff sails aboard the SS America tomorrow for Europe and, upon invitation, will present a paper, "Modem Trends in the Law of Succession" at the Second International Conference of the Bar Association at the Hague which meets Aug. 16 Miss Borko will visit England, Switzerland, Belgium and France before returning. . . . • Mr. and Mrs. Spyros P. Skouras will entertain at their Greenhaven home Saturday night, Aug. 21, at a buffet, to be followed by a gala auction and gin rummy tournament for the benefit of Holy Trinity Church. ... • That's a mighty interesting idea, that proposal for a central research bureau for films, which Alfred Stern, brother of Radio Daily's Ernie Stem, has come up with There may be objections to the plan, but it would seem to rate study at this time when economy is the watchword. ▼ ▼ ▼ • • • MOST ANY DAY NOW, Phil M expects to read of the introduction of a radio receiver which, when properly tuned in, delivers as a giveaway a sweepstakes ticket on a lottery in which the first prize is Fort Knox, the consolation prize, the show's sponsor. T T ▼ • • • AIN'T IT-THE-TRUTH DEP'T: "Today the boxoffice is in competition with dollar hamburger and dollar butter. It is also in competition with new forms of entertainment such as dog racing, horse racing, night baseball, television." — Eric A. Johnston. New German Currency Helping U. S. Pictures (Continued from Page 1) so," Maas goes on, "our comparatively small revenues today have more real value than our large revenues under the old reichmark. Overnight, with the appearance of the new currency, large stocks of vitally needed commodities have come out of hiding and are freely sold at reasonable prices. . . ." Maas said that of the four cities in the British zone that he visited, Hamburg was making best recovery. He observed more building activity there than in any other city. Three first run houses are intact. Two of these have been requisitioned for British troops. For release outlets MPEA, Maas revealed, has been obliged to convert two suburban first runs. He pointed out that this was no handicap since with downtown Hamburg bombed out, there has been a shift to outlying areas. Maas reported MPEA has established offices in seven key cities in Germany, three in British territory. All are in full operation. In Berlin Maas reports he spoke with Ambassador Murphy The diplomat was frank in expressing his appreciation of the value of U S. pix and the job the industry was performing in Germany "He (Murphy) categorically considers our pictures the most important part of the reorientation program," Maas said. Pimstein Hits Hole in One Playing iti the Mortimer Scope Memorial Tournament on his home course of the Vernon Hills Country Club, Tuckahoe, Harry Pimstein of the RKO legal department scored a 188-yard hole-in-one Sunday. Harry used a number two iron for the long single stroker. / Warners* Max Milder Dies in Surrey Home London (By Cable) — Max Milder, whose long illness forced him to retire after 17 years as managing director of Warner Bros. Pictures, Ltd., in England recently, died at his home Sunday, Nietherfield House, The Heath, Weybridge, Surrey. He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Ma del a i n e Milder. Milder had been in the industry for 36 years, the last 30 of which were with Warners. He was Eastern division domestic sales manager before going to England in 1931 as managing director for the company's interests there. MILDER