Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, October 22, 1949 REGIONAL Variety Club Chief Barker Irving Mandel announced the Club was preparing for a huge Hallowe'en party for the evening of Oct. 29 with all families of members invited to be Club's guests. The Club held a special meeting last Monday night to consider the matter of new quarters. M. Welt is the new assistant to Manager Mort Lang at the new Telen,ews Theatre which opens Oct. 28, while James Norman has joined the State Street Telenews as assistant manager. . . . George J. Brown succeeds Maurice F. Shea, resigned, as advertising manager of the Kingan Company. . , . Lubliner Circuit's Bob Lublinger will wed Ann Cahill, a sister of actress Jan Sterling, next month. . . . George Mahoney has quit as Great Lakes city manager in Joliet, 111., to go into other business. OKLAHOMA CITY Hasahim M. Hassim, manager of the Lyric Theatre on Lover's walk, Fordsburg, Johannesburg, South Africa, wants to copy the advertising methods used by Oklahoma theatres. Morris Loewenstein, president of the Theatre Owners of Oklahoma, received a letter from Hassim asking for more information about the "I Am a Movie Fan" campaign which gets under way here soon. The local Yale Theatre last week dualled the two "Belvedere" film as a special. . . . Redskin Theatres here has installed a clock for the benefit of its patrons. The Big Four Drive-in Theatre, Inc., of near Benton, Ark. has been incorporated by H. T. Crawford, of Benton, Clyde E. Wilson, James Taylor and Ellis Taylor of Hot Springs. Clarence R. McDonald, who for the last three and one-half years has managed the Dickinson in Webb City, Mo., has been transferred to Springfield as the circuit's city manager. Localite Walter R. Pruitt succeeds him at the Dickinson. The company recently purchased two theatres in Springfield where it has operated one for six years. McDonald will also serve as field representative for the other Dickinson houses in the Ozark region at Noel, Anderson,* Granby, Branson, Springfield, Windsor, Pittsburgh, and Webb City, and also The Glen (formerly the Show) in Joplin which is being remodeled in ultra-modernistic style. LOS ANGELES Frank Murphy is being transferred from manager of Loew's State, Newark, N. J., to manage the Los Angeles State when the circuit takes over that*house on Nov. 30. With Loew's 15 years, he has held managerial posts in Boston, Syracuse, Rochester and Providence. . . . Universal Salesman Art O'Connell is on vacation, while District Manager Foster Blake is making a trip to exchanges he supervises — Salt Lake City, Denver, Omaha, Des Moines and Kansas City. . . . Marty Solomon of Monogram returned to work, having fully recovered from his recent operation. Ground has been broken for the new 1,400seat Paradise Theatre and Recreation Center in Westchester, on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Project — a 16-alley bowling center, cocktail lounge and stores — is being put up by Alex Schreiber, head of Associated Theatres in Detroit. Pat DiCicco is opening new offices in preparation for the time when theatre divorcement will go through and some of the theatres now run by Fox West Coast will go back to United NEWSREEL Artists. . . . Frank Ulman, pioneer exhibitor of El Centro, was on, the row this week renewing old acquaintances. Also in town was James Conley of El Segundo, booking and buying. John P. Filbert and his son have returned from a business trip through Arizona where they encountered snow and rain. . . . Louise Vigna, pretty secretary to MGM Office Manager Jack Valpey was married here last Saturday at St. Agatha's Church. PORTLAND Both film and exhibitor sections of the motion picture industry are going all-out to raise quotas in the annual Community Chest Drive. The initial event was the B. F. Shearer party at Jewel Box Theatre. Fred Danz is Colonel of the industry drive, with Paul McElhinney and Frank X. Christie, Lieut. Colonels, while Majors are Roy Brobeck, Bob Clark, George DeWaide, Sam Davis, Lowell Parmetier and Walla Rucker. Roscoe Ates visited the Seattle row with Sterling Theatres City Manager Zollie Volchok. . . . Buck Stoner, 20th-Fox western district manager, came up from San Francisco for the Notre Dame-Washington football. . . . Jerry Divis opened his Caribou Theatre in Brewster, and Al Fernandez opened his Mt. Olympus, Clallam Bay. . . . Howard M. Wood has purchased the Kettle in Kettle Falls from his father, H. B. Wo6d Mrs. Paul McElhinney is home from the Swedish Hospital where she was confined by a broken hip. Seattle exhibitors honored Jerome Safron, for the past 17 years Columbia's western divisional supervisor of exchanges, with special luncheon. Guests included Frank L. Newman, Sr., Evergreen; John Hamrick, Maurice Saffle, Saffle Theatre Service ; Frank Christie, Herb Sabottka, Cascade Theatres ; Leroy Johnson, Liberty; John and Fred Danz, Sterling; B. F. Shearer and Hal Daigler, B. F. Shearer Company; William J. Connor, Tacoma; Sammy Siefel and Neal Walton, Columbia Pictures. Floyd Wood has purchased the Wigwam, Nez Perce, Ida. . . . Jack J. Engerman of Lippert Production is visiting Portland and Seattle exchanges. . . . iHarold Murphy of Evergreen's Egyptian is on vacation in the middle west. SAN FRANCISCO Boyd T. Sparrow will be transferred from manager of Loew's Theatre in Indianapolis to become manager of the Warfield here when Loew's takes over that theatre on Nov. 30. Sparrow started as a Loew usher in Norfolk and has held managerial posts in Washington, (Continued on. Page 28) Virus Serious Situation A peculiar situation developed at the called business meeting of the Publicity Club of Boston last week. President John J. Malloy was ill with Virus X and had his secretary call Floyd L. Bell, the first vice-president, asking Bell to preside in his stead. The secretary was obliged to inform Malloy's office that Bell, too, was ill with the same virus. Then Ralph Banghart, second vice-president, was called and his secretary said : "I am sorry but Mr. Banghart is out with an attack of Virus X." 27 A Hew Release \ NOT A RE ISSUE Astor — Atlanta; Bay State — Boston; Astor — Charlotte; Capital — Chicago; Screen Guild — Cincinnati; Imperial — Cleveland; Astor — Dallas; Allied — Detroit; United Film — Kansas City; Astor — Los Angeles; Astor — Milwaukee; Independent— Minneapolis; Connecticut Films — New HavenDixie Film — New Orleans; Bell Pictures— N. Y. C. (Serving Buffalo); Capital — Philadelphia; Astor — San FranciscoCrown — Pittsburgh; Screen Guild — St. Louis; Equity — Washington, D. C; Peerless Film Canada — Toronto — Winnipeg — Montreal.