Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1959)

Motion Picture Daily Friday, October 9, 1959 PERSONAL MENTION MILTON R. RACKMIL, president of Universal Pictures, left New York last night for Hollywood. • Marty Wolf, sales manager of Altec Service Co., will leave New York on Monday for the Coast, with six stops scheduled at key cities enroute. • Winston Rarron, Paramount Pictures Canadian public relations director, will return to Toronto today from New York. • Julian Rlaustein, producer of M-G-M's "The Wreck of the Mary Deare," arrived in New York yesterday from Hollywood. • Rebt Orde, of Redboow, will leave here over the weekend for the Coast. • Harry Relafonte will leave New York tomorrow on a tour of key cities in behalf of Harbel Productions' "Odds Against Tomorrow." • Gary Cooper will arrive in New York on Sunday from the Coast. VogeVs 50th Anniversary Jerry Levine Resigns As Para. Ad Executive Jerry Levine, Paramount Pictures advertising executive, has resigned from that post, effective immediately. Prior to joining Paramount, Levine was assistant account executive at Donahue & Coe, servicing the Loew's Theatres account. He had previously been a free-lance advertising consultant in the motion picture industry. Levine will announce his future plans shortly. No Paper Monday MOTION PICTURE DAILY will not be published on Monday, Oct. 12. The next regular issue of the DAILY will be dated Tuesday, Oct. 13. NEW YORK THEATRES i — RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL — i Rockefeller Center • Ci 6-4600 "THE FBI STORY" serin, JAMES STEWART VERA MILES A WARNER BROS. Picture In TECHNICOLOR® and GALA NEW STAGE SPECTACLE ( Continued duction reestablished on a sound economic basis and tackling the myriad other operating problems that demanded immediate attention on all sides, opportunists moved into attack formation, mounting a stockholders' proxy contest which, had it been successful, would have meant seizure of control of the company, liquidation of its theatrical film assets, at least, and its elimination as a theatrical film supplier. In a mass display of loyalty perhaps never before equalled in industry history, individuals on all levels rallied to Vogel's support. Those who could afford to do so, purchased stock to vote and many others made personal appeals to to known shareholders to give their proxies to him. Firmly Racked by Stockholders The result was an overwhelming vote of confidence by Loew's stockholders for the man and his management. Rut even then he was not permitted to give his undivided attention to the still manifold problems of reorganizing his company and effecting the changes dictated by necessity. A new attempt to seize control of the company was mounted almost at once. This serious diversionary activity again was maintained for months, but in the meantime the benefits of the work already accomplished under Vogel's direction were beginning to be manifested. One operating division after another began to displace red ink with black. At the next meeting of stockholders, dissidents once more were soundly defeated and solid support remained with Vogel's management. Permitted at last to do his normal work unhampered by financial guerillas, Vogel soon was able to report that every operating division of the company was once more on a profitable basis. The improvement continued and almost concurrent with Vogel's 64th birthday last month, Loew's, Inc., resumed payment of stock dividends. Vital Force Rehind 'Ren-Hur' Of late, a large part of Vogel's attention, understandably, is being given to the multitude of decisions and the complex of planning attendant upon the launching next month of M-G-M's $15,000,000 spectacle, "Ren-Hur." The production could well prove to be the crowning achievement in Vogel's long and distinguished industry career. Even now he is at the Culver City studios where so much of his time of late has of necessity been spent. Inquiry revealed that insofar as Vogel, at least, is concerned, his 50th anniversary in the industry will pass without special notice. It promises to be from page 1 ) jut another day in a very busy career. Several years after Vogel got his first industry job as a part-time usher in 1909, he was advanced to theatre treasurer and assistant manager in New Rochelle and at the old Seventh Ave. Theatre in Manhattan. A year later, at 18, he was named manager of the old Fulton Theatre in Rrooklyn, now demolished. In the next eight years, Vogel was assigned as manager to a number of other Loew's theatres, including the Palace and Victoria, and at 26 was named manager of the State on Broadway, the circuit's flagship. Two years later he was made a home office executive with supervision over out-of-town theatres. During this time he was concerned with much of the building of the various large, de luxe theatres being constructed then. Elected to Board in 1939 From there, his rise in executive ranks was rapid. He was elected a director of Loew's, Inc., in 1939; vicepresident of Loew's Theatre Realty Corp., vice-president and general manager of Poli, New England Theatre Corp., director of Colorado Orpheum Corp., Moredall Realty Corp., director and vice-president of Loew's Roston Theatres Co., director of Ruffalo Theatres, Inc., and others. He was elected vice-president of Loew's, Inc., in 1942, and was made general manager of the circuit in 1945. With divorcement in 1954, he became president and director of the new Loew's Theatres company. He was elected president of Loew's, Inc., in 1956. Alan Abeel, 63, Dead; Was Film Loan Banker Alan C. Abeel, vice-president of the Morgan Guaranty Trust Co., who died in New Rochelle, N. Y., Hospital of a stroke on Wednesday, will be buried from the Larchmont Ave. Presbyterian Church, Larchmont, N. Y., tomorrow morning. Rurial will be in Mountain View Cemetery, Saugerties, N. Y. Abeel, who was 63, was well known in the motion picture financial world, having been in charge of motion picture loans for the former Guaranty Trust Co. branch at Fifth Avenue and 44th Street for many years. Abeel had been assigned to that branch in 1928 and had continued there since. NT&T Dividend Set LOS ANGELES, Oct. 8. The board of directors of National Theatres & Television, Inc., has declared a quarterly dividend of 12% cents per share on the outstanding common stock of the corporation, payable Oct. 29, 1959 to stockholders of record on Oct. 20. Robert Benjamin Benjamin Will Receive Louis Marshall Award Robert S. Benjamin, chairman of* the board of United Artists, has been named a recipient of the Louis Marshall Award of The Jewish T h e o 1 ogical Seminary o f America, one of the highest awards accorded to laymen by the Seminary. He will receive the award at the dinner of the Seminary's National Patrons Society, Sunday evening, November 1, at the WaldorfAstoria here. Similar awards will be presented at that time to other American and Canadian civic and religious leaders. The Louis Marshall Awards are given in memory of Louis Marshall, famed constitutional lawyer, who was chairman of The Jewish Theological Seminary's board of directors from 1904 until his death in 1929. He was widely known for his civic and philanthropic achievements. Coca-Cola To Be Host At T0A, NAC Banquet The Coca-Cola Company will again be host to the Theatre Owners of America and the National Association of Concessionaires, at the president's banquet on Thursday night, Nov. 12, which will close TOA's 12th annual convention at the Sherman Hotel in Chicago, it was announced by George G. Kerasotes, TOA president. Kerasotes said that arrangements for the party, to be held in the Grand Ballroom of the Sherman, were made by Harold Sharp, vice-president of Coca-Cola with the assistance of Charles Okun. Sydney Markley, vice-president of American Broadcasting Paramount Theatres, will be toastmaster for the evening's program, a highlight of which will be the awarding of the Star of the Year trophy, presented annually by TOA to the actor or actress TOA deems to have done the most, during the prior year, to enhance the reputation of the industry and assist theatres through performances in top grossing pictures. AlP Sales Meet Slated HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 8. James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff of American International Pictures, will hold a national sales meeting in Chicago, starting Nov. 13, immediately after conclusion of Theatre Owners of America convention there. Advertising Manager; Gus H. Fausel, Production Manager, TELEVISION TODAY, Charles S. Aa'ronson, Editorial' Director? Pinky ' Herman V^n™nt clnbv EasVer wood Bureau, \ ucca-Vme Building, Samuel D Berns, Manager; Telephone HOllywood 7-2145; Washington, J. A. Otten, National Press Club' Washington D C ■ Li Bear St. Leicestjr Square, W. 2. Hope Williams Burnup, Manager; Peter Burnup, Editor; William Pay, News Editor. Correspondents in the nrincinal n'nita'l* nV tl M OT_I O >I C TUR E DAILY, JMartin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief^ andPuWisherj^Sherwin^Kane, Editor; James D. I vers, Managing Editor; Richard Gertner, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke ern Editors. HollyLondon Bureau, 4, Picture Daily is published daily except Saturdays, Sundays and" holidays, by Qu'igley Publishing Company," 'inc., 1270" Sixth 'Aven'ue,*''Rockefener Center New^Yortc Cult ^nn" Gable address: "Quigpubco. New York" Martin Quigley, President; Martin Quigley, Jr., Vice-President; Theo J. Sullivan, Vice-President and Treasurer R™„„ GallaXr' Vice-President; Leo J. Brady, Secretary. 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