Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1937)

CHICAGO CHAINS IN POWER PUSH Chi. Exhibitors Unit to State-lake Bldg. Chicago — The offices of the Chicago Exhibitors Association, local MPTOA unit, is now located in the State-Lake Building, 109 No. State St. The office was moved on Wednesday, March 31, on the order of Morris Leonard, president of the association. Myrtle Collins will remain in charge of the office as secretary to Leonard who still retains his own personal office with Balaban & Katz. B. & K. probably will start moving various departments into the State-Lake Building some time after May 1, when they take official possession of the building and of the State-Lake Theatre. STAGE ALL SET FOR CAPA APRIL FOOLIES Chicago — The presence of practically every big-time performer in Chicago at the time is promised by the Chicago Amusement Publicists Association for the coming second edition of the CAPA April Foolies, set for the Bal Tabarin of the Sherman Hotel on Saturday night, April 10. Committees co-headed by Dave Goldman of Program Press and Tony Owen of the Chicago Daily News have been busy working on the affair for many weeks. One particular note is impressed by the committee, same being that attendance looks like a complete sell-out. At present writing, over 300 places have been sold out of the total capacity of 400. The party will consist of a complete dinner, a giant celebrity show, several original interludes, and interspersed dancing to the orchestra of Lew Diamond and Jack Chapman. Tickets are $3.50 and are available from any CAPA member or by calling Guercio & Barthel, Ad-Art Display Studios, or Allied Theatres. Record Registration of 580 at MPTOA Meet New York — Attendance at the recent convention of the Motion Picture Theatre Owiiers of America in Miami surpassed all previous annual meetings, according to a final tabulation of registration made this week by the MPTOA office here. There was a total of 580 registrations and the banquet drew 730, the latter figure including many of the Paramount theatre associates who held a meeting in Miami at the same time. Missouri May Get New Exhibitor Unit St. Louis — A new organization for Missouri motion picture theatre men to be known as the Theatre Owners & Managers Ass’n of Missouri has reached a stage of development where those behind the movement hope to file the necessary incorporation papers in Jefferson City immediately. Membership in the new association will be open to both theatre owners and managers and it will have no national affiliation, either with MPTOA or Allied. It is understood that the new organization will concern itself only with Missouri exhibition problems, principally of a legislative nature, and other matters of general interest to exhibitors. Estes Joins Filmack Chicago — Joe M. Estes, former director of publicity for the Saenger theatres in New Orleans, has joined the forces of the Filmack Trailer Co. here as promotional sales manager, according to a statement by Irving Mack, head of the firm. Drive for Subsequents to Augment First Runs Is Talk of the Town By CALVIN HERMER Chicago — If any concrete concensus at all may be found in the mass of gossip which for some days has been seething in Chicago, it must be that the city’s exhibition is on the verge of an era of tighter circuit control than ever in its history. Most prominent among the evidence, as indicated in conversations both with important exhibitors and exchange men, is a reported move of Balaban & Katz toward acquiring second run neighborhood situations wherever possible in spots where they now control the first showings. Added to this are the already known facts of building operations by B. & K., Essaness, and Harry and Elmer Balaban, as well as the rumored acquisition and building program credited to the recently formed Balaban Theatres, Inc., headed by A. J. Balaban, now back from Europe, who are said to be looking for likely spots to either acquire or erect some 50 houses in Chicago and vicinity. A Building Boom Although much of this is based on rumor, there is the underlying fact that motion picture exhibition is right now on a more profitable basis than it has been in many years, and the idea of getting more houses appeals as being a fairly sane procedure. Building operations now, as reported in Boxoffice last week, show that already investments of over two million dollars are contemplated in new theatre properties by both circuits and individuals. Most of the rumors come from old line independent exhibitors who have built comfortable fortunes from the incomes of long-established theatres, and who now are expressing grave fears that circuit encroachment upon their profitable domain might seriously affect their own houses’ money-making possibilities. A good bit of this has risen from the news that Balaban & Katz have plans for a second run house on West Belmont Ave., plus the reports that a number of other spots are also being considered by the city’s ace circuit (Continued on page 17) CENTRAL EDITION Is One of the Seven Sectional Editions in Which BOXOFFICE Is Published Weekly. The Other Six Editions Are: NEW ENGLAND, MIDEAST, MIDWEST, WESTERN, SOUTHERN, EASTERN. CALVIN HERMER, Central Editor, 908 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, 111. Phones: Webster 2233-4-5. DAVID F. BARRETT, 5149 Rosa Ave., St. Louis, Mo. H. C. BRUNNER, 2820 N. 52nd St., Milwaukee, Wis.