Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1943)

12 SHOWMEN'S T R A D E RE \' I E W October y, 1943 NDUSTRY ^ ■ ' v ■ ■ I ■ ■ I ■ I ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ I ON THE PATRIOriC FRONT $100,000 Goal Set For Night of Stars to Reach Million Figure A goal of $100,000 has been set for the tenth annual show of "Night of Stars," which will be presented at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday evening, Nov. 16, to bring to $1,000,000, the funds realized for the United Jewish Appeal for Refugees, Overseas Needs and Palestine since the first "Night of Stars" was staged at the Yankee Stadium in 1934 before an audience of 45,000 New Yorkers. Present indications are that proceeds from the forthcoming event will exceed the quota by a substantial margin, because the cavalcade of top-flight performers from the amusement world will over-shadow that of former years. Virtually every star of stage, screen and radio who is available will be in action for "Night of Stars." Entire proceeds will be turned over to the United Jewish Appeal for Refugees, Overseas Needs and Palestine, which is the nationwide campaign for overseas war relief and rehabilitation, for the upbuilding and defense of the Jewish homeland in Palestine, and for refugee aid in the United States. Bond Drive Results in Hugo A Third War Loan bond rally and parade held in Hugo, Oklahoma, resulted in sales amounting to $25,388, according to City Chairman Dwight Seymour of the Erie and Ritz theatres. At a Bond Premiere held in the Erie $50,140 in bonds were sold. The 26 employes of the two houses all purchased bonds. Century Totals $684,000 A clerical error in the War Activities press department sloughed off the efforts of the Century Circuit of 38 theatres by saying that it had only sold $84,000 in sales on Free Movie Day, held on September 27th. Actually, a later check showed, this figure should have been $684,000. Six-Day Drive Nets $750,200 Bond Sale The Northio Palace Theatre, Marion, Ohio, affiliated with Paramount, was the focal point of a whirlwind si.x-day selling campaign for its War Bond premiere which became a community enterprise and realized a "gross" of $750,200. George E. Planck, manager of the theatre, took advantage of the presence of a film company on location in Marion to bill the players as an added attraction, but had only six days in which to put on his campaign and stage the show. With seats going at $100 minimum and several at $10,000 each, a total of 1,599 tickets were sold for the 1538-seat house, largely through the Marion Rotary Club. This brought $443,][25. An auction in which the players participated from the stage netted $294,075 more. After the show, three patriotic patrons subscribed an additional $13,000. Among the large sales made by Planck was $100,000 worth of admissions to the Marion Steam Shovel Co. The premiere was credited with sending Marion County over its quota, the first county in the State of Ohio to do so. The premiere sale represented more than 25 per cent of the county quota. LAMM'S AUCTION SELLS $47,575 IN BONDS Some 62 merchants donated prizes for a stage auction at Warners' Uptown Theatre, Cleveland, in conjunction with the Third War Loan Drive. Included among the awards were one dozen nylon hosiery which by themselves brought in $24,000 in bonds. Total sales for the night: $47,575. Cleveland papers plugged auction, as did radio stations and a jeep in front of theatre. Reports Julius Lamm: "Grand success!" Action On Reports Of Film Deficiencies Overseas is Urged Immediate attention by the War Department and such remedial action as a complete investigation by Government authorities may warrant was this week advocated by Francis S. Harmon, e.x:ecutive vice-chairman of the War Activities Committee, in connection with reports of serious filrr, deficiencies overseas. Said Harmon : "The American motion picture industry is proud of the fact that it commerced delivering its gift of current motion picture programs to the Army in February, 1942, for free showing to our fighting men in combat areas abroad. To date, we have delivered 6635 of these gift programs, many times turning 16mm prints of new pictures over to the .A.rmy authorities for shipment before a single theatre audience in the United States had seen the picture. 'Stage Door Canteen,' 'Arsenic and Old Lace,' 'Star Spangled Rhythm,' 'Tarzan's New York Adventure,' are illustrations. "Furthermore, the Special Service Division of the Army has been completely free for more than 12 months to order any number of prints from the industry's entire supply of current releases. At the beginning, the Army ordered only four prints. Today we are delivering 38 prints of each film. Last week 177 curent motion picture programs were turned over to the Army overseas film exchange in New York for shipment abroad. "We have received from time to time reports from members of the industry in military service overseas, that the films getting through to them were frequently old and insufficient in number, and that the projection equipment was unsatisfactory. In each instance we promptly shared these communications with officers of the Special Service Division and were repeatedly assured that these were only isolated instances. We hope that this is still the case, especially in view of the fact that we have recently been receiving an increasing number of communications from overseas expressing grateful appreciation for new pictures, with comments as to the regularity of their exhibition. ■'Last year, in an effort to insure these films getting through to the front line fighters for whom they were intended, the War Activities Committee sent an official communication to the Special Service Division ofTering the entire overseas facilities and personnel of the motion picture industry to the War Department in connection with the distribution and servicing of these films and of the Army's projection equipment. We even suggested that if it were impracticable for us to handle this in a civilian capacity, then one of our exchanges in each country where our men are on combat duty, be militarized, since in our opinion the secret of satisfactory distribution was trained, experienced personnel on the job in each overseas theatre of operations. No written reply to this letter dated November 30. 1942, was ever received. We were told orally by officers of the Special Service Division that our suggestion was impracticable and that steps were being taken to insure satisfactory distribution of the industry's gift films." Free Movie Day in Maysville Free Movie Day at Schine's Russell Theatre in Maysville, Ky., resulted in the sale of bonds amounting to $1,825, according to Manager Edward May. Highlights of May's campaign : lobby decorated with seven American Flags ; stage announcement by manager three days in advance ; lobby and street bond booth attended by ladies furnished by local committee ; special lobby boards announcing Free Movie Day; twenty inches of newspaper publicity; half of paid newspaper advertising devoted to bond sale.