Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

8 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW. October 1, 1949 Polio Cases Show Slight Decrease The infantile paralysis epidemic, largest since the end of World War I, was on the way down this week, according to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. Total cases this year to date are 31,288 with Illinois turning in reports on the largest number of state cases. Total for that area alone was 2,326. The comparative breakdown Iby states follows : Sept. 24. 1949 Aug. 6. 1949 Alabama 196 119 Arizona 124 44 Arkansas 844 554 California 1,688 907 Colorado 492 110 Connecticut 422 81 Delaware 38 14 Dist. of Columbia 70 17 Florida 194 99 Georgia 147 81 Idaiio 360 159 Illinois 2,326 599 Indiana 856 370 Iowa 876 292 Kansas 577 251 Kentucky 473 185 Louisiana 194 100 Maine 382 84 Maryland 141 41 Massachusetts 1,384 215 Michigan 2,156 479 Minnesota . 1.478 450 Mississippi 269 154 Missouri 1,107 476 Montana 63 16 Nebraska 462 128 Nevada 11 10 New Hampshire 160 18 New Jersey 1,026 214 New Mexico 142 60 New York 4,091 862 North Carolina 180 HO North Dakota 415 129 Ohio 1.341 255 Oklahoma 1.050 596 Oregon 163 69 Pennsylvania 547 94 Rhode Island 107 14 South Carolina 86 41 South Dakota 289 100 Tennessee 420 205 Texas 1,876 1,324 Utah 170 68 Vermont 94 14 Virginia 250 82 Washington 425 143 West Virginia 292 118 Wisconsin 749 172 Wyoming 90 25 Total 31.289* 10,748 * Including six reported cases which have not been allocated as to states. NEWSREEL CLIPS Wotth Reading Nace, Paramount Split Due Oct. 1 ■Vice-President Harry L. Nace and his son, General Manager Harry L. Nace, Jr., Wednesday announced in Phoenix, Ariz., that they would resign as 'officers in the Paramount-Nace Theatres, effective Oct. 1. The move is in connection with a split of interests in accordance with the Paramount consent decree. As a result of this split. Paramount will take over the Catalina, State, and Paramount in Tucson, the Orpheum, Palms, Rialto, Strand, Studio, Ram'ona, Aero, the Drive-in and the Indian Drive-in at Phoenix. Nace will continue as board chairman with his son as general manager of the Harry L. Nace Theatres, which include more than 20 houses throughout Arizona. Show for Boy Martin Theatres City Manager in Talladega, Ala., gave a special show recently for a young boy from Mumford in that state who faces several weeks of plastic surgery due to cancer. The sum of $237 was raised at the show and given to the youth. Folks who think reports by presidents to >tockholders make dull reading ought to give them another look. Last week Paramount President Barney Balaban revealed that the court had been persuaded to change the consent decree so Paramount stockholders would not have to pay income taxes on dividends held in escrow, a move which Paramount had managed to slip through the courts quietly. This week 20th-Fox President Spyros Skouras revealed to his stockholders that Motion Picture Association of .America President Eric Johnston had in mind a series of conferences with other governments similar to those that led to the Anglo-American film conferences and that he was abroad for that purpose, among other things. This came as a surprise to some in the trade, for few have been able to see what has come out of the Anglo-American conferences that would make Johnston eager to spread them to other countries. It came as a surprise to the Johnston office, whose "information" directors would not confirm that such was Johnston's purpose but who certainly did not seem eager to deny what Skouras had written the stockholders, evidently on the assumption that Skouras is usually right. Great Reception Universal-International is celebrating the fact this week that "Hamlet" has rounded out a one-year run at the Park Avenue Theatre and that a film which some of the initiated looked upon dubiously because it came' from a classic has stood up successfully instead of falling on its face. To date, the film version of Shakespeare's blood-and-thunderer, which gets by with frank speech, incest and murder, has been seen Film Events Calendar OCTOBER 3-5, convention. Allied Theatres of Michigan, Book-Cadillac Hotel, Detroit. 5-6, Kentucky Association of Theatre Owners convention. Brown Hotel, Louisville. 12-13, meeting of the national committee of the Motion Picture Exhibitors Association of Canada, Chateau Laurier Hotel, Ottawa, Ont. 15-17, convention. Pacific Coast Conference of Independent Theatre Owners, Sun Valley, Idaho. 23 24, convention. Theatre Owners of North and South Carolina, Charlotte Hotel, Charlotte, N. C. 24 26, annual convention. Allied States Association, Minneapolis. 25 27, Variety Club mid-year conference. Hotel Astor, New York City. 18-20, annual convention. Motion Picture Theatre Owners of Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee, Hotel Chisca, Memphis. 27, presentation of charter to Variety Club Tent No. 35, Hotel Astor, New York. NOVEMBER 14, directoi-s' meeting. Associated Theatre Owners of Indiana, Hotel Lincoln, Indianapolis. 15-16, convention. Associated Theatre Owners of Indiana. Hotel Lincoln, Indianapolis. 16, tenth anniversary dinner. Motion Picture Pioneers, WaldorfAstoria Hotel, New York City. DECEMBER 1-2, convention. Independent Theatre Owners of Wisconsin, Hotel Schroeder, Milwaukee. by 500,000 persons in its New York engagement alone and has grossed $1,500,000 in 351 engagements throughout the nation. Next year U is going to put it but on the road all over again, probably at lower prices and on a continuous run instead of a two-a-day policy. Quotes "In three years there are chances that there will be no such thing as affiliated exhibitors. , . . . Government decree means that every man and woman in the theatre business will have a chance to expand as much as his or her ability and acumen will permit — Abram F. Myers, National Allied General Counsel. "If you discriminate against children you imperil your future business." — Mrs. Ethel Niles. "Government decrees have given the film business the right to run its own affairs. Government has helped us, not hurt." — William Ainszvorth. National Allied President. Hail Columbia . . . What the terse-talking sales and public relations staff of Columbia Pictures term "Columbia's P'laydate and Billings Drive in Honor of Division Managers" opened Friday to pay tribute to Division Managers Nat Cohn, S. A. Galanty, Jerome Safron, Carl Shalit, I. H. Rogovin, B. C. Marcus, R. J. Ingram, J. B. Underwood, H. E. Weiner, with everybody enthusiastic. Incidentally Columbia General Sales Manager A. Montague pointed out that "Jolson Sings Again" won't be part of the drive. Seems it's getting special handling. Lippert Meets Lippert Productions President Robert L. Lippert and General Sales Manager Arthur Greenblatt have announced the following sales meeting: New York, Sept. 27-28, Warwick Hotel ; Chicago Sept. 30-Oct. I, unspecified place ; San Francisco, Oct. 7-8, place also unspecified. Hand picked MGM has selected 12 members of its organization to go to Europe fox a series of conferences with the international sales department. The 12, selected by Vice-President and General Sales Manager William F. Rodgers, will sail Oct. 17 to visit Naples, Rome, Paris and London for a 30-day period. They are : Rudolph Berger, John S. Allen, Walter E. (Doc) Banford, Hillis Cass, Louis Formato, Saal Gottlieb, Carl P. Nedley, Jacques C. ReVille, Louis J. Weber, Irving Jacobs, Harry W. Bache, Louis Oxlove. All were picked for their "individual efforts during the anniversary vear." Cinecolor fo Use Safety Film Cinecolor will print all its release prints on Eastman's new non-inflammable nitrate base stock beginning Nov. 1, office of the company in Hollywood announced this week. Only the actual increased cost of the new stock, amounting to .0023 cents a foot, will be passed on to the customers, the announcement said, adding that it was expected that when safety stock becomes universally adopted, the price will come down to current cellulose-base stock.