Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, October 22, 1949 w m -A I: Young Blood We liked that portion of Bill Rodgers' remarks at the opening of his company's recent sales meeting in which he stated that they were vitally interested in bringing up the young men of the organization and developing them for top executive sales positions. If there is anything this industry needs today it is the injection of new and young blood into its executive ranks. Not that the old-timers are not firing on all cylinders, but the future and security of any great organization is dependent upon promotions from within and the development of good, young and aggressive manpower. This is the kind of a business that gets into your blood. Most of our top executives are men who grew up in this industry and they have been very active in it for a long stretch of time. They don't like to step down or retire. Perhaps that is why so darned many of them die in harness. Perhaps if they had retired or gone into partial retirement a lot of those we've lost might still be with us. These are fast-changing times. The whole complexion of business changes rapidly and calls for entirely different slants and the ability to solve the new order or orders as fast as they take shape either by the changing times or by government's ever-expanding influence in industry. The older men just don't realize or refuse to acknowledge the fact that they don't have the fight and courage they once possessed. Just make a comparison of how the same men of today fought the battle of the deep depression in the early thirties and brought their companies and their industry out of the dumps and back to prosperity. Sure, they are still smart. But do they have the same courage and tenaciousness they had then? We won't •venture an answer. Let them do that themselves. But we will say that more young blood and more courage would help to solve the problems of today. And that is why we applaud Rodgers' remarks. C. B. Is Still C. B. DeMille, has out-DeMilled himself with "Samson and Delilah." All of the spectacle, the thrills and the cunning, which he so well understands and knows how to translate into celluloid, has gone into this latest of his epoch-making productions and the net result, we are very happy to report, means another milestone in the great picture contributions he has made to our industry. This magnificent production has all the ear-marks of a money picture in all classes of theatres from the downtown first runs right on through to the remote subsequent runs. Of equal importance is the intelligent manner in which Paramount is handling the advance build-up. Variety Clubs Conference During the week starting October 23rd, Variety Clubs International, holds its third Mid-Year Conference at the Hotel Astor in New York City. Representatives from thirty-seven tents located in that many different cities in the United States, Canada, Mexico City and Great Britain, will gather in the big city on Sunday the 23 rd when they board their special cars for a trip to the Variety Clubs-Will Rogers Hospital at Saranac Lake where they will inspect the institution and its modernized facilities and learn, first hand, how this great Hospital is being operated under the Great Heart of Showbusiness, the Variety Clubs. On their return to New York on the morning of the 2 5 th they go into their series of business sessions interspersed with an elaborate program of entertainment sponsored and hosted by the New York Tent under the leadership of Max A. Cohen. The climax of this year's conference will be the banquet on Thursday night when Bob O'Donnell inducts the new Tent officially and presents them with their Charter. At this function most of the top executives of the industry and honored guests and dignitaries from Washington will be present. Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark and Secretary of the Treasury John Snyder will lead the Washington delegation to the dinner. This event, or series of events, again brings the industry into favorable public relations as the medium through which so much good is being done for so many people in and out of the industry. The Clubs have gained thousands of lines of newspaper space, radio comment and newsreel coverage for the many outstanding acts of charity they are performing. No matter what the industry's critics may say or try to say against our business they cannot take away one iota from the fine work of the great Heart of Showbusiness. —CHICK LEWIS SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW. Title and Trade Mark Registered U. S. Patent Office. Published every Friday by Showmen's Trade Review. Inc.. 1501 Broadway, New York 18, N. Y. Telephone, LOngacre 3-0121. Charles E. 'Chick' Lewis. Editor and Publisher; Tom Kennedy. Executive Editor; Ralph Cokain. Mana^ng Editor; Merlin C. Lewis, Film Advertising Manager; Harold Rendall. Equipment Advertising Manager. West Coast Office, 6777 Hollywood Boulevard. Hollywood 28, California; Telephone Hollywood 2055; Ann Lewis, Manager. London Representative, Jock MacGregor, 16 Leinster Mews, London W.2 ; Telephone AMbassador 3601. Membtr Audit Bureau of Circulation. Address all correspondence to the New York office, fable address: "Showmen's New York."