Boxoffice (Jan-Mar 1939)

Variety Club Hosts First Lady — Among the important events on the First Lady’s calendar recently was attendance at the Washington Variety Club luncheon ivhen the club presented 11 incubator units to Sibley Hospital. Mrs. Roosevelt is pictured here between Rudolph Berger, M-G-M branch manager and chairman of Variety’s welfare committee, and A. Julian Brylaivski, of Warner Variety’s retiring chief barker. WA^IIHIIIIMC.TOM ^HAT was quite a preview staged at Cumberland, Md.. for Robert Taylor’s new picture, “Stand Up and Fight,” It was brought off by the combined interests of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, represented by Rudy Berger and Carlton Duff us; Loew’s, represented by Carter Barron and Ray Bell; the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and probably the entire city of Cumberland, including the adjacent countryside and mountainside, Messrs, Barron and Bell shepherded a quorum of the local press up, leaving at 8:30 in the morning, showing them the film and wearing them to a frazzle with the restaging of the famed old race between a stage coach and the B, & 0,’s pride of the 1850’s, returning to Washington at some strange hour in the night. Quite a preview. Charlie Pettijohn, chief counsel for the Hays office, ivas in town, helping with advance plans for film star importations for the President's Birthday Ball January 30 . . . Some of the boys want Scarlett and are betting they get Paulette Goddard if they ask for the “G.W.T.W.” heroine . . . Jack Benny, passing through by air on his way to New York, looked almost happy and unconcerned. That was the day before the indictment . . . Uptown Theatre has arranged with an adjacent parking lot for free parking for patrons and hopes it will be a hypo for business. Trans-Lux has scooped the town on the Tom Mooney release, booking in a two-reel short tilted “Tlie Strange Case of Tom Mooney,” exclusively . . . Downtown theatres noted noon to 3 p. m. business off 30 per cent the day Congress opened, what with every one huddling at radios to hear President Roosevelt speak. Plans for making this President's Birthday Ball a star-studded one are well under way. Melvin C. Hazen, president of the board of district commissio-ners, and former Commissioner George C. Allen, chairman of the general committee in charge of the affair, have named Nelson B. Bell, drama editor of the Washington Post, chairman of the entertainment committee. As vice-chairman. Nelson has named John J. Payette, Worrier’s zone manager; Carter Barron, eastern division manager for Loew's; Hardie Meakin, managing director of RKO Keith’s, and Gene Ford, Loew’s production manager, all of whom have had experience at this sort of thing. The committee of theatre and newspaper men now gets to work on the task of arranging continuous shows at some seven hotels and two theatres for the birthday ball night. It includes the following: Andrew R. Kelley, John Riseling, Sidney Olson, Howard Burkhardt, Jay Carmody, J. Raymond Bell. Betty Hynes, Fred Rohrs, Sam Wheeler. Frank Sheridan, Robert Smeltzer, Jess Willard. Richard L. Coe, Sam A. G-alanty, Katherine Hillyer, Louise Noonan Miller. Sidney Lust. Abe Tolkins, Willim B. Dolph, Michael Flynn, Gardner Moore, Edmund Plohn. Angie Ratto, Harry Somerville. Sol Sorkin, Fred Thomas, Charles Grimes, Tiobert Etris, Fred McMillan, Alan Bachrach, Maynard Madden. Dan Reynolds, LeRoy Sherman. LaMarr Keen, James Root, Walter Cersley, George Crouch, Harry Anger, Frank La Falce, Guv Wonders, Harry Lohmeyer, Nat Glasser, Julian Brylawski, Bill Ewing, Dan Terrell, Sidney Mayers, Alexander F. Jones, George DeWitt, Bernie Harter, Charles G. Duffy, John O’Rourke. Harold Kneeland, B. M. McKelway, I. William Hill, Rudolph Berger, Ed Fontaine, Paul Barron, Sam and Jake Flax. Harry Crull and Harry Brown. Hats Off to Screen Guild Air Show By B. O. TELLER Hollywood — An example unique in relief gestures is the Screen Guild Show over CBS for Good Gulf. Embraced in the venture is the talents of more than 40,000 persons engaged in all branches of production; their services free, their normal earnings going to the Motion Picture Relief Fund for a large-scale home for the industry’s less fortunate. The airshow is a double-barrelled project. One is the haven that it makes possible for the needy. The other is the smooth-as-silk entertainment that comes from the weekly half-hour Sunday evening broadcasts. The first two programs have met and possibly surpass every production standard for revue-type shows. They brought into play the talents of Jack Benny, Joan Crawford, Fred Astaire, Loretta Young, Herbert Marshall, Judy Garland, Reginald Gardiner, George Murphy, Morris Ryskind and Ernst Lubitsch. By the terms of the agreement between the Screen Actors’ Guild, Screen Directors’ GuUd, Screen 'Writers’ Guild and AMPP, and the sponsor upwards of 2,000 members of the SAG are available for the series, assuring the appearance of front-ranking stars at least once. Writers, directors and technicians have consented to contribute their services when requested. Fees which would ordinarily be paid for these talents will be used for one large main building and scores of individual bungalows surrounding it near here. This project is the realization of long dreams and hopes that the industry’s workers might have the proper care. These are Joseph M. Schenck’s sentiments; “The problem of safeguarding the future of those who contribute to the world’s entertainment through their loyal efforts in the film studios is a responsibility that has long been close to the hearts of the producers. We know how all too brief fame and its financial emoluments may be.” Exhibitor Contest on Shorts by M-G-M New York — M-G-M is offering exhibitors two awards for “the best execution of any one exploitation idea that has appeared in Shortstory, the company’s short subject house organ, on any given short. First prize is an option of a visit to the studios or the World’s Fair in New York with the second award a trip to Bermuda, all expenses paid. Gillham Leaving Jan, 20 For 3 Months West New York — Robert M. Gillham, publicity and advertising head for Paramount, accompanied by his wife leaves January 20 for a three-month stay on the coast. A New York Stock Exchange ticker report early this week listed Paramount’s 1938 earnings at approximately $4,000,000. 32-D BOXOFFICE :: January 14, 1939