Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1956)

(. Continued from preceding page ) Tri-State Buying and Booking Service is now handling B. Wiest’s Hollywood, Elizabethville. Pa., and Vincent Tate’s Orient, Dunmore, Pa. ... A $50,000 improvement program for the Capitol, Lancaster, Pa., is now under way, with the lobby and box office being rebuilt, a new front constructed, and a new marquee erected. The house will continue operations during the improvements, according to manager Ray O’Connell. Pittsburgh The local booking situation is so jammed that Paramount is sending two of its big ones “The Vagabond King” and “The Leather Saint” first run into 20 neighborhood houses. . . . Nancy McCarthy, a 19year-old Carnegie Tech drama student, is the only local candidate tested by Otto Preminger for his “Saint Joan” movie. . . . "Tea and Sympathy” is doing huge business on the strength of rave reviews. It will be followed by “War and Peace.” . . . Critics Karl Krug, Kaspar Monahan and Harold Cohen heading to New York for the world premiere of “Giant” at the Roxy Oct. 10. They had to turn down MGM’s invitation to Cincinnati to meet Doris Day whose “Julie” premieres the same day in that city. “Giant” goes into the local Stanley Oct. 31. . . . “Bigger Than Life” which has been on and off the Harris booking chart for two months finally got a date in that house, to be followed by “These Wilder Years.” . . . “Lust For Life,” helped by a big ad campaign and fine notices, gave the Guild theatre art house a new house record. Portland Paramount theatre executive M. M. Mesher and Mrs. Mesher were in New York for the TOA meet. . . . Guild theatre director Marty Foster is back at his San Francisco office after working with house manager Nancy Welch for a week. ... Fox theatre manager Dean Mathews is out of the hospital after having a throat operation. . . . Helen Rose, MGM designer, and Marjorie Helen, Theona Bryant, and Betty Uitti, MGM starlets, were in town to promote “The Opposite Sex.” . . . Evergreen officials are off to Phoenix for the National Theatres meet. Jim Runte, John Beall, Frank Christy and G. S. G. Patterson are going from the Seattle office. Oregon district manager Oscar Nyberg also went. Four house managers attended as winners of the annual showmanship award — Murt Makins, Bremerton; John Bretz, Winatchee; Jack Dudman, Seattle; and Dean Mathews, Portland. Eugene City manager Alton Robins takes over the Portland area temporarily. Providence The Quidnessett Church, through the courtesy of the theatre, has been using the facilities of the Quonset drive-in for its Sunday morning services, making it Rhode Island’s first and only drive-in church. . . . Members of the press, radio and television stations, and other dignitaries were guests of the Loew’s State management at a special private pre-screening of “Tea and Sympathy.” ... So popular was the Rhode Island premiere showing of “Madame Butterfly” at the Avon Cinema, that it held for a second week. . . . The Strand management brought back “Two Years Before The Mast,” and “The Virginian,” two Paramount re-issues. . . . With surrounding amusement parks operating only weekends, from now until October, and auto race tracks, and other forms of commercial amusements, concluded for the season, there is a marked trend back to the motion picture theatres. San Francisco Mervyn LeRoy, who produced and directed Warner’s “The Bad Seed,” was a recent visitor to San Francisco. “We need new talent,” he told reporters, “the talent which hasn’t been worn out by TV.” . . . Rosaleen (Pat) McGuinness, secretary to Bill Elder, manager of Loew’s Warfield, is in New York spending a well earned two weeks vacation. . . . Plans are underway for Elisabeth Mueller, co-star with Robert Taylor in “The Power and the Prize,” to visit the city for purposes of exploiting her first. American film, made for MGM. St . Louis Teamsters Local 618 removed its pickets from the Missouri theatre and five adjacent parking lots when Adlai Stevenson, Democratic candidate, spoke at the theatre. The teamsters local has been picketing the Missouri, Fox and St. Louis theatres in a strike to obtain a new contract for parking lot attendants. . . . The All-Star drivein theatre, located a short distance from Holcomb, Mo., in the southeastern part of the state, now has inside seating with air contioning and/or heat. . . . Bill Spicer, operator of a Fort Smith, Ark., drive-in theatre, is the Republican candidate for the United States Congress from the Third Arkansas District. . . . C. L. Pittman of Perryville, Ark., a retired U. S. Army captain, has been appointed manager of the Logan theatre in Paris, Ark., succeeding Hugh Johnson. Toronto In the admissions war in Winnipeg, H. Silverberg’s Northmain drive-in offered free admissions any time any hour to all cars and occupants, plus one gallon of free gas to each car. . . . The annual meeting of the Alberta Theatres Association was held in Red Deer, Alta., this year. Wives and members saw a screening first. . . . Fred Leavens, named supervisor of Regional Theatres Circuit of Odeon Theatres (Canada) Ltd., took up his residence in Toronto. . . . Paramount Pictures Ltd. is back in its old but refurbished quarters on Bond St., after being ensconced in the Film Exchange Building on Victoria St., nearly six months. . . . Ben Sommers, veteran Winnipeg exhibitor who recently closed his State in that city, moved to Los Angeles. The former president of the Manitoba Exhibitors’ Association was tendered a luncheon by members before he left. . . . Park, Windsor, previously specializing in action pictures, on a third and fourth run policy, has become a first run house, for “art” and specialized films. . . . Bill Smith, until recently Vancouver branch manager for RKO, has been appointed general sales manager of the 16mm division of International Film Distributors, Toronto. He succeeds Sam Lambert, who resigned. . . . Bill Foreman has resigned from Astral Films. . . . Tom McKnight, London manager relieving in Welland, Ont., was in hospital after being hit by a car. Vancouver Dolly Inkster, on the Odeon-Plaza staff here for several years, was married recently to James Woodcock, of the Canadian Navy. They will live at the Victoria naval base after the honeymoon. . . . Les Walker, business agent of projectionists local 348, was elected a member of the IATSE advisory board for district No. 1. Former president of 348, Bill McCartney, Jr., is a member of the district legislative committee. The local projectionist union is the largest in the Pacific northwest. . . . With the closing of the 974-seat Atlas in Victoria, Famous Players will re-open the 1312-seat Capitol in Victoria. . . . The Odeon circuit is still trying to unload five small-seat theatres in B.C., located in the Fraser Valley and on Vancouver Island. . . . Saskatchewan Court of Appeals has ruled that Foto-Nite is legal and dismissed an appeal by the Crown against a police magistrate’s acquittal of a Saskatoon theatre. The same verdict was given in a Vancouver Court case two years ago. . . . John Franko, former manager of the Dreamland, Edmonton, was moved to the Strand in the same capacity. He succeeds the late manager Roly Keil, who died recently. Washington Sam Galanty, Columbia Pictures divisional sales manager, attended meetings in Cleveland. . . . Robert J. D. Johnson, and Walter R. Saunders, partners in JohnsonSaunders Theatres, a chain of drive-ins, were mentioned in an article in the Saturday Evening Post, as among those who achieved outstanding success in this field. . . . Abbott & Costello, Jeanne Crain, Virginia Mayo, Michael O’Shea, Esther Williams and 45 political and comic-strip cartoonists were scheduled to be in Washington for the Treasury Department’s Freedom Fair from October 1 through 8. The celebration marks the 15th anniversary of the Series E Bond program. . . . “Invitation to the Dance,” was given “The Golden Bear,” by German Ambassador Hein Krekeler. This is equivalent to our Oscar. . . . Eddie Fisher and Helen Hayes were added to the “Youth Salutes the President” party to be given by the Young Republican National Federation and the National Youth for Eisenhover on October 13 at the Statler Hotel. Photo-Cinema Exhibit Held in Germany The “Fotokina,” a photographic and cinematographic exhibition, will be held for the fifth time in Cologne, Germany, from September 29 to October 7. This trade fair presents to dealers and others interested everything within the wide range of photographic and cinematographic apparatus and accessories recently developed. 36 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, OCTOBER 6, 1956