Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1939)

BROADWAY — Metropolitan Photos He Didn't Mail It — Ben Goetz, in charge of British production for M-G-M, here again and this time with a print of “Goodbye, Mr. Chips’’ which he brought, didn’t send, over, thereby proving he thinks it a bit of all right. On the left is Sam Wood who directed the film and next to him is Mrs. Wood. The Normandie also dislodged Greer Garson who plays opposite Robert Donat in the film. fjERBERT WILCOX sailed Friday on the Queen Mary and returns in a fortnight with Anna Neagle, who will play the lead in “Edith Cavell,” which is to be the producer’s first American production for RKO in Hollywood. One sequence will be made in England and the balance on the coast, Wilcox said befoi-e sailing . . . Jim MacFarland is now with Arthur Lee handling publicity on Baird television, which is scheduled for several Broadway theatres. I. C. Javal, commercial director for the television device, is due from England the latter part of the month. According to Lee, May 15 will see the first television application on Broadway . . . The 35mm and 16mm rights to “Rose of Tralee” for this country have been acquired by Mecca Film Laboratories. Johnny Murphy of Loew’s reports some patrons who have seen “ Pygmalion ” at the Astor at least once have sent in letters asking that the shorts program be changed for those who are anxious to visit the theatre again. Addendum: The suggestion is being taken under advisement. It now looks as if “The Mikado” will not open at the Astor until the middle of May at the earliest . . . C. C. Moskowitz is still hoping to be able to leave for Miami before June. The contemplated Havana jaunt now looks cold . . . Judy Garland opens at the State, Thursday, for personal appearances . . . Carl Krueger is now officially attached to the Paramount studio exploitation department under a new idea Bob Gillham has in mind . . . It’s good seeing Capt. Dennis F. O’Brien back on Broadivay again after those trips to Ft. Lauderdale and Hollywood. Weekend Hallucinations: A friend of Sam Rinzler’s called him Friday night and tipped him off confidentially, sorta, the operators were going to be pulled out of his theatres the following day. Which meant no sleep for Sam or his partner, Louis Frisch, for a couple days . . . Business and Pleasure: Bill Rodgers managed to spend Saturday and Sunday in Atlantic City before landing in Washington for the Neely bill hearings . . . Johnny Mednikow of Trailer-Made in Chicago was a Broadway visitor during the week . . . Norman Moray is at the Warner studios in Burbank, having finalized his trip west . . . Most of the 20th-Fox boys who returned from the Chicago convention had colds as company . . . Abe Montague was among the sales executives in the Capitol . . . Tyree Dillard jr. is still absent from his office and recovering at his down yonder home in North Carolina from a sorta breakdown from de code draft . . . William Wyler gave a special screening of “Wuthering Heights” for William Lyon Phelps, the English professor, at Yale . . . Homer B. Snook, RCA executive, returns to Camden next week after a twoweek visit to various key cities. The Charlie Cohens — he’s in the M-G-M publicity department — celebrate their first wedding anniversary today . . . Bea Rappaport, secretary to Phil Reisman, has been ailing with the grippe . . . Ruthie Schwerin, of the Monogram publicity department, is getting over her illness at the French Hospital. She will be out about another month . . . Producer William Rowland is in town talking with RKO about distribution of Spanish-language pictures . . . Claude Rains is vacationing at his farm in Pennsylvania . . . Olga Petrova, silent screen star, docked on the Conte di Savoia for a short visit . . . Beulah Livingstone is in Boston handling the exploitation on Film Alliance’s initial release, “The Challenge” . . . Irene Castle is back in Chicago, leaving behind her a mass of newspaper breaks which the RKO publicity department is proudly filing away. S. Charles Einfeld is here from Hollywood and Dodge City to prepare for the opening of “Juarez” at the Hollywood and for pre-release runs of “Confessions of a Nazi Spy.” Mrs. Einfeld is with him . . . John Garfield, having finished one of the leads in “Family Reunion,” has forsaken the Warner lot temporarily and is in New York with his wife. Garfield’s father is ill . . . Howard Barnes, film critic of the New York Herald-Tribune, and Bruce Pinter, Sunday feature writer on that sheet, went west on the Dodge City Special instead of returning to New York after the opening of the film of that name in Dodge City last Saturday . . . George Arliss is in New York. Einfeld, by the way, returns west about May 1 . . . Grad Sears spent a couple of days in bed this week. The flu. In the sick bay this week: W. G. Van Schmus at St. Luke’s Hospital for a general checkup after being forced down with a bad cold. Spyros Skouras, in bed with a bothersome cold for the weekend . . . Bill Powers and Harry Buxbaum tried to shake colds off over the weekend, couldn’t and because of accumulated work reported to the office daily and thawed out . . . Irving Maas doing nicely at French Hospital after an operation. Ditto Jim Finey of Walt Disney’s office. He’s at Beth Israel Hospital where he underwent an incision . . . Leo F. Samuels of Walt Disney’s office on May 7 takes Alda Quighetti as his better half at A Roosevelt at an Odd Angle — The cameraman was somewhere close to the rug when he. maneuvered this shot at UA’s cocktail party for Merle Oberon. On the left is James Roosevelt, vice-president of the Goldwyn company which produced “Wuthering Heights” in which Miss Oberon essays the lead. On the right is William Wyler who directed. Roosevelt sailed Friday on the Queen Mary on business. Miss Oberon now is abroad on a vacation. 30-B BOXOFFICE :: April 8, 1939