Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1937)

^^ITH Narragansett race track in the closing week of its spring meet getting the crowds in the daytime and the Shrine Circus at Rhodes ballroom attracting from 2,000 to 5,000 persons nightly this week it looks like a tough week for Providence theatres. The Shrine affair, run annually by Palestine Temple, is a money-raising proposition for the benefit of the crippled children’s hospital sponsored by the Masonic organization at Springfield, Mass. And just as a bit of added competition, Tom Mix’s circus is due in town "Wednesday for a matinee and night show. Bingo also comes back to Providence this week after being under the shadow of police bans for more than three months. Under rulings of the bill passed by the general assembly the police will now license all bingo games, require sponsorhig organizations to keep the books and expenses and manner of disbursing proceeds to charities; permit no cash prizes nor prizes worth more thaii $100 and in other manners take the "racket” out of the game. Whether the public will go for the pastime with as much enthusiasm under its revised code remains to be seen, although many organizations are planning on running the game one night a week. Rivalry between CIO and AFL to organize front-of-house theatre workers in Rhode Island continues hereabouts with neither side, it appears, doing much as yet in signing up members. Last week Frank Volante. business agent of the CIO, announced he had received from John Brophy, national secretary of the organization, confirmation of a request for a charter for Local No. 4, United Theatrical and Motion Picture Workers of America. He told newspaper men that his organization in the past five months had enrolled 142 Providence theatre employes. Business agents of the lATSE and MPO took 'Volante’s announcement with pronounced skepticism but seem to be waiting for orders or communications from their own national headquarters before making any rebuttal statements or announcements of their own. PRODUCT SURVEY IS EXTENDED BY ALLIED Boston — The product survey being conducted by Allied in New England has been extended throughout the month of May by Arthur K. Howard, business manager of the Independent Exhibitors, Inc. Over ten per cent of those contacted by the double-postcard method have responded. Howard, together with Frank Lyon, local organization vice-president and operator of the Hamilton Theatre in Dorchester, are the local men appointed to serve on the eastern regional product survey committee at the recent convention in New Haven. Compilation of the data obtained through the questionnaires is to be disclosed to member exhibitors, probably at a meeting in Boston on June 8. MONOGRAM INTO HUB EXCHANGE SHORTLY Boston — Monogram’s Boston exchange probably will be ready for opening by Monday, it has been announced by Steve Broidy, treasurer and manager of the New England office. The former Pathe offices at 39 Church St., the center of the Hub film district, have been renovated and modernized for occupation by the new distributors. Monogram salesmen have been on the road for the past few days with contracts for the concern’s forthcoming releases. Eight prints are expected to be in the vaults by July 1. Fire at Sanford, Me. Boston — The sprinkler system in the Capitol Theatre Bldg, at Sanford, Me., is credited with saving the structure from serious fire damage, threatened last week when a blaze from an unknown cause started in the rear of the block. A general alarm was sounded. The building is owned by Joseph Belanger. Consider Ritz Bros. Boston — The three Ritz Brothers are being talked of as one of the opening stage attractions at the RKO Boston when that first-run house resumes a film-flesh policy in the fall. Because of another accident, George Holland, Boston American columnist, is not expected to make it a quartet again. Champlin Picture to Norwegian Firm Boston — William Cyl-Champlin, who together with Manager George French has been responsible for many of the striking lobby displays at Keith’s Memorial, some of which have achieved national recognition for the pair, has been notified that a special advertising portrait created by him has been purchased by the Aktieselskabet Schous Bryggeri, no less, of Oslo, Norway. The attention of the Norwegian firm was first centered upon Cyl-Champlin’s work as a result of a series of his poster reproductions, published in a magazine. Signs of the Times. The sketch, which is to be used internationally by the firm, portrays in color a brewery drayman at work. The motion picture man, born in Cincinnati and educated in Florida, is a protege of George Innes jr., of fame as an American landscape artist. OPERA STAR IN "BROADCAST OF 1938’’ New York — Kirsten Flagstad, world-famous Wagnerian soprano, made her film debut in ‘The Big Broadcast of 1938,’ in a scene photographed in the Paramount Long Lsland studio. CINEMA CLUB HOLDS FINAL MEET Boston — The Cinema Club, headed by Charles Repec of M-G-M, is scheduled to meet May 19 at the Soldiers and Sailors Club. It probably will be the last meeting of the group until fall. JOE CIFRE, Inc. ^ 44 Winchester St. BOSTON VITAL 1 link D 1 46 BOXOFFICE :: May 22, 1937.