Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1943)

October 2, 1943 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW 15 Bond Premieres and Events Swell Totals In War Loan Sales Additional reports of Third War Loan bondsale activities continued to pour in this week from various sections of the nation. Typical examples : Jamaica, N. Y. The war bond stage, screen and radio show at the Alden Theatre one night last week netted over 16 million dollars in war bonds. With admissions paid for by purchases of bonds only, the show featured on stage Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra, Wendy Barrie, Lew Lehr, Johnny Morgan, Jimmy Wallington, Grantland Rice, WABC's radio program, "The Mrs. Goes A-Shopping," with John Reed King and Ray Block and Orchestra. Screen attraction was "The Sky's the Limit." CBS broadcast the program, and all Queens theatres aided in the venture by selling bonds scaled from $100 to $1,000,000. St. Louis. Incomplete returns from local and county motion picture theatres up to September 22 showed that 71 of the 110 theatres had sold 3033 war bonds amounting to $271,129 since the opening of the Third War Loan. In the same period, theatre employes had purchased 737 bonds amounting to $38,664. Meanwhile, metropolitan St. Louis, as a whole, seemed to be dragging in the 15 billion dollar bond drive. Up to midnight of September 21 the St. Louis area had sold only $91,364,553 or 50.5 per cent of its quota of $180,675,000. It was hoped, and every effort was being made, to sell enough bonds to put St. Louis "over the top" by a substantial margin before the drive ends. North Chicago. Mayor John Dromey, who is also film booker for the Great States circuit, announces that this town (population 12,000) will go over the top for the Third War Loan. They expect to make a house-to-house canvass and exceed the $263,000 quota. Local citizens recently raised $75,000 to buy a bomber. The Sheridan Theatre is cooperating in the present drive. Memphis. A War Bond Auction Premiere was held here last week, with "Let's Face It" as the screen attraction and special features made up of local talent constituting the stage show. Although figures of the auction-premiere were not available at this writing, Norman J. Colquhoun and James Prichard, co-chairmen of the show, expected to push the $3,000,000 which the industry has set to achieve, up to a close Finishing line. Keansburg, N. J. The Keansburg Casino Tlieatre at the Beach held a Bond Rally last week which netted $63,000 in bond sales and pledges. A stage show was presented through the courtesy of Jerry Sheehan's Beach Palace. Autographed baseballs from the various baseball leagues were auctioned off. Bronx and Brooklyn. Thousands of Bronxites and Brooklynites who purchased war bonds and received free tickets jammed Loew's Paradise Theatre in the Bronx and Loew's Pitkin in Brooklyn last Friday night to see starstudded variety shows featuring (at the Paradise) Maria Montez, Pierre Aumont, Ralph Bellamy, Doris Nolan, Arleen Whelan, Richard Kollmar, Mary Small, Molasses & January, Smith & Dale, Borrah Minevitch's Harmonica Rascals, Eric Blore, Everett Marshall and Earl Hines and his orchestra, and (at the Pitkin) Willie Howard, Georgie Tapps, David Burns, Ethel Sliutta, Virginia Field, Arlene Francis, Victor Jory, Elizabeth Bergner, Allan Jones, Irene Hervey, Paul Draper and Miss America of 1943. The Paradise sold an estimated $834,000 worth of bonds, with the Pitkin figure estimated at $800,000. Hifs Quota, Keeps On Tishomngo County, Miss., is small: there are only two banks and two motion picture theatres. But the county has over-subscribed its bond quota, according to Manager Marion Jourdan of the Majestic Theatre, luka. During the first two weeks of the drive $23,837.75 in bonds were sold, and the sales are still mounting, luka was too small for a B;nd Premiere, but free tickets have been given with each bond sale. Cavalcade Tour Ends; Sales Over a Billion {Continued from Opposite Page) fashion and expression of willingness to do anything and everything possible was immediately forthcoming. All of many activities which industry has undertaken have been fulhlled in true showmanlike manner. Please extend my thanks to all of stars and executives who had part in Airmada tours and the great Hollywood cavalcade. I hope everyone is as happy about this enterprise as we are here and we feel that the job they have turned in has exceeded everyone's expectations." Up to and including its bond show in San Antonio, Texas, last week, the Cavalcade had grossed over $1,074,000,000. This figure, coupled with the $21,614,600 garnered in San Francisco brought the total up to $1,095,614,600, with Glendale and Hollywood yet to go. With its tour now concluded, the figure of $1,125,000,000 in bond sales for the entire tour is a pretty safe estimate. Loew's Report $6,967,580 Loew's Theatres report a total of $6,967,580 in war bond sales during the period from September 9th through September 22nd, an all-time record for a 14-day period since becoming official issuing agents. Of this total Loew theatres in New York report $3,559,300, and Loew's out-of-town theatres, $3,408,280. Film Companies Rate High in Purchases Of War Loan Bonds With a few days of the Third War Loan Drive still to go, Columbia Pictures has achieved better than 94 per cent of the $1,500,000 quota established for the company and employes, it has been announced by Columbia offfcials. The $1,500,000 set at the opening of the Drive was based on the maximum returns realized from the last bond campaign. Of this amount, signed pledges and actual sale of bonds already total $1,410,500, and indications are that Columbia will pass the $1,500,000 quota early this week. Third War Loan subscriptions of Paramount Pictures, Inc., and theatre partnerships were increased Monday by $470,000, brmgnig the total to date to $12,233,790, according to Claude Lee, chairman of the Paramount central committee for the Third War Loan. The added amounts include a $400,000 war bond subscription of the Graybar Electric Co., a Paramount vendor, which placed its purchase through Paramount, and an additional $70,000 subscribed by Paramount Pictures, Inc. Lee stated that the purchases of extra war bonds by personnel throughout the home office departments and exchanges reached a high percentage. The total reported does not include subscriptions by the personnel of the Hollywood studio or theatres. Universal Pictures Company announced that it has purchased one million dollars worth of Third War Loan Bonds. Half of this purchase is being credited to the Universal Studios in Los Angeles, and the remaining $500,000 is being credited to the Universal branches throughout the country. The company has been buying Government obligations regularly during the past year to the extent that its cash position warranted. The last purchase prior to this million-dollar subscription was made about six weeks ago, also in the sum of one million dollars. REAL BOND SALESMANSHIP IN SMALL TOWN Operating a 374-seat house in a town of 1,500 people, Manager J. C. Lee of the Town Theatre, Quincy, California, is proving that the small-town exhibitor is earnestly str ving to make the Third War Loan a cfmplete success. He organized his three usherettes (right), enlisted the aid of kiddies on horseback (left), sent them out to sell bonds and stamps. In four days the youngsters had sold $8,400 worth, and that's a fine achievement for a town the size of Quincy. Lee follows up each bond sale with a personal letter in which he expresses his appreciaticn for "this sale and trust that you will be in a position to purchase others the size of these or larger on or before October 2, 1943." Letter adds that when purchaser brings family to see next attraction "we will be happy to discuss any further purchases." Not only does Lee sign the message, but also his grrup of salesmen, as The Town Hall Bond Selling Team.