Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1939)

Page 24 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW June 3, 1939 The Showman Takes A Day Off and Soliloquizes He Spends a Peaceful Sunday at Home Until Theatre Troubles Start HELLO. What's that? The air conditioning system doesn't work? All right, I'll be right down. Meanwhile, you'd better get Jones on the phone and have him take a look at it. Gosh! I can't have a minute s rest on bunday. I go down to the theatre to get everything started off all right. I come home to rest, and what happens— the coohng system won't work. Can't I ever get a minutes peace, or is that the lot of a theatre manager? Oh well, I might as well get going. Molly! Molly! Molly, I've got to get down to the theatre. The air conditioning system seems to be conditioning the wrong way. What's that? Yes, I'll be back as soon as I can — in time for dinner. Thank heavens we only live a coupla blocks from the theatre. Wouldn't do to live out in the residential section in a nice home. Just as soon I'd get settled they'd transfer me somewhere else. No — a small apartment is good enough for me right now. Boy, is it hot out today. I'll bet this weather's playing havoc with business. It's certainly a job to convince these bozos around town that the Bijou is cooler than the beach and a lot of other places. Well, here I am. Won't Wait For Cashier's Reply Hello, Jane. What's wrong? I won't wait for her to answer. She won't know a darn thing about it. Hello, Gus. So it's fixed, eh? Well, I'm glad to hear that. What? A Mr. Johnson to see me — on Sunday? Johnson. Johnson. Oh, yes, he's a salesman from Perfect Pictures. Send him on up to my office. I'll be right up in a second. Mmmm— well, business isn't so bad but it isn't so good, either. That operator must be asleep from the looks of that picture. Gus, better wake up whoever's on duty upstairs. Oh, no, there's the changeover mark — he's changing over. Carbon probably just lasted long enough to run the reel out. Hello, Johnson, how're you? What brings you out on Sunday? I could easily believe if you said you were passing through and really passed through, but not when you stop like this. No, if you want to know the truth I don't think your product has been so hot this year. Course I'm only the manager here, and the boss higher up does the booking; but I've got a right to my own opinion. That Mark Cable film, "The Awful Troth" was the only good picture you've put out so far this year, but it kept us busy explaining the title. Folks kept calling us up and telling us we made a mistake and spelled "truth" with an "o." Well you can have "Lily of Union Square." They nipped that in the bud around here before it even got started. And as for "This Is Certainly A Great World in Which to Live" I had to use extra ad space to get the title in. We ran out of marquee space and letters when we got to "which," and I couldn't substitute the names of Geraldine Twelvebranches and Claude Vanlandingham, either. So I plugged Bank Nite instead. "Sit Down and Do Nothing" would have been better if there'd be a little action in it. Yes, I'll admit "You Can't Tell a Leopard By Its Spots" had a good cast, but it was rather spotty as far as entertainment goes. The wife and kids are fine. No, I haven't planned my vacation yet. Excuse me a minute. Hello, hello. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Well, how many minutes ahead of schedule are you? Five minutes? That's 25 minutes on the day. No, you can't borrow that comedy. It was bad enough when we ran it the first time. And I won't have patrons sitting for five minutes between shows twiddling their thumbs — five minutes will seem like 5 hours to them. I thought you had this thing all scheduled out to the minute. Oh, they did? Can you imagine that? They cut out the market crash scene from "Money Isn't Everything." Well, we'll just have to run ahead of schedule today; tomorrow j^ou'll have to start 25 minutes late. Why couldn't they tell me they deleted that scene from the picture? It was 85 minutes when I booked it — now it's only 80 minutes. Don't kid yourself, Johnson, your company did the same thing once. I'll never forget how chagrined I was to find the conflagration scene had been cut out of "Fires of Youth." Boy! Did that burn me up? Come in, Gus, what is it? Here's the key. Go in the supply room and get a couple. You boys are certainly using a lot of batteries. I know people have to be shown to their seats, but I've noticed the man on the right aisle flicking his light off and on more than once. Better tell 'em to watch that. And please tell 'em to stop exploring their oral cavities between patrons. You needn't be in a rush, Johnson. Yes, I wish I could; but you know I never get to conventions like I used to. Gotta stay around here and see that things are all right. It was bad enough for you to put out 78 pictures this year, I don't see how you're going to get away with 89 in '39-40. Why not make it 90 and be done with it? Let's see now — 15 specials, 10 super specials, 14 superfluous specials (superfluous is right), 11 outdoor thrill dramas (why dontcha call 'em westerns?), 13 Good Luck specials, 10 box office hits, 8 side exit specials and 8 colossals. My God! Not a program picture among 'em! So long. Don't worry, we'll probably play all of 'em. Well, now that he's gone guess I'll go down and watch the picture a while. I hope someone hasn't taken my seat. Nope, there it is. This must be another one of those diving shorts. Oh sure, there'll be a comic diver jump of?, get halfway between the diving Bocloin's"U. P." Train Ballyhoo The local Slirine^ Club cooperated -with Rex Bodoin, advertising manager of the Waco Theatre, Waco, Texas, for the opening day of "Union Pacific" by providing him zvith the organization's trackless train for use as street ballyhoo. And take it from Rex, the stunt really caused a lot of excitement. board and the water, and then go back again. It never fails. There he is. I'd better be planning my campaign on "All This and the N. Y. World's Fair, Too." Wonder if it would do any good to write Grover Whalen and have him send me a letter congratulating Moonville citizens on being able to see this great film. Think I'll have the cashier wear a perisphere and trylon headpiece. Might even give 'em away to women patrons. Can't do that. Nobody'd be able to see the screen. Wonder what the wife's going to have for dinner. Think I'll put on a local Fair here to stimulate interest in the picture. Can't do that, either. Oh well, maybe I'll get a few more ideas between now and tomorrow . . . What? What? Tell her I'll be right home. I must have fallen asleep. Missed the whole feature. I'll drop around again tonight to see it. I hope nobody saw me asleep there. Well, another Sunday gone — almost! JOSEPH PISAPIA, manager of the Earle Theatre, Jackson Heights, L. I., has taken over the Hobart Theatre, Woodside. He is replaced at the Earle by SAMUEL BLEIWEISS. HAROLD VAN VORST, manager of the Queensboro Theatre, Long Island City has been shifted to the St. James in Asburv Park. MALCOLM MARSHALL will manage the Paramount in Asbury Park, reopening this month for the summer season. EDDIE LA RUE has been appointed manager of the Warren Theatre, Hudson, N. Y., replacing CHARLES WARREN transferred to the Community Theatre in the same town. CLYDE HODDER, treasurer of the Leona Theatre, Homestead, Penna., has been named manager replacing SAMUEL E. BLEYER, who died recently. CLIFF BOYD has resigned as RKO Theatre manager in Cincinnati to open a talent agency. BOYD was the dean of managers in the Queen City. RALPH SMITH has been appointed personnel manager for the John Danz Theatres of Seattle. He is succeeded as manager of the Uptown Theatre by WARREN LEMON, formerly Northwest manager for Tri-National. Father succeeds son in Oklahoma where DUDLEY TUCKER takes over the management of two theatres at Pauls Valley and Wynnewood to replace his son ERWIN who has been appointed city manager for Griffith Dickenson Theatres in Fa^^etteville, Missouri. CHARLES H. MEREDITH has been appointed manager of the rebuilt Dock Street Theatre in Spartanburg, S. C. WALTER POTAMKIN and CITARLES WAGNER, manager of the Adelphi and Frolic Theatres, respectively, in Philadelphia, have exchanged posts. FRED LEOPOLD, manager of the Arcadia Theatre, Wilmington, Del., which has been closed, has been transferred to the Grand Opera House. STANLEY ZEBROWSKI, his assistant, is at the Grand. IRVING BLUMBERG has been shifted from the Alleghany to the Oxford Theatre replacing BILL HUFFMAN, who has beai transferred to West Chester, Penna.