Boxoffice (Jul-Sep 1938)

Film Publicity Mongers Plan Tie With Civic Event St. Louis— The local motion picture folk are working on plans to tie in with the annual Veiled Prophet festivities in October to obtain greater interest in these parts for the “Motion Pictures Are Your Best Entertainment” campaign. It is probable that a parade will be part of the plans. The Veiled Prophet parade and ball annually draws many thousands of visitors to St. Louis and as a result the local ballyhoo for the Quiz contest is sure to benefit theatres over a large section of the middle-west, south and southwest. And in the meantime the big business push of the industry is obtaining some excellent publicity cooperation in this sector from KMOX, local broadcasting outlet for CBC and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the St. Louis Star-Times. The Globe-Democrat has been marking each contest picture with an asterisk. In the past few weeks the local motion picture patrons have been concentrating on contest pictures and theatres without the Quiz books have heard in a big way from their patrons. The Post-Dispatch has been using promotion ads of its own and suggesting that the motion picture theatre ads be read carefully for important facts about the contest. The Star-Times has also been generously contributing space to bally the drive. Fanchon & Marco, Fred Wehrenberg, Harry Greenmann and others here have been calling attention to the Quiz contest in their own ads. All of the first-run theatres, the Fox, Missouri, Ambassador, St. Louis and Loew’s have tied in with the contest very effectively. The publicity committee, headed by Harold W. “Chick” Evens, manager of Loew’s, enlisted Thomas N. Dysart, president of the Chamber of Commerce, and Mrs. A. F. Burt of the Better Film Council of Greater St. Louis for talks on the industry over KMOX. Economical Oil Burner Announced by Enterprise Chicago — Emphasizing economy of operation, through the efficient fuelizing of low-priced oils by automatic operation, the Enterprise Oil Burner Co. of Chicago refers to the Esquire Theatre as one of the many outstanding theatre projects throughout the country in which their product has been installed. It is said to be the most efficient for all theatres, regardless of size or location. Magic Eye Clicks Chicago— With 14 installations in the Interstate circuit in Texas, ten in Sparks theatres in Florida, and orders from the Sehine circuit in New York and the Lightman circuit in Mississippi and Louisiana, Claude Ezell, sales manager of the Magic Eye Co., announced here that the company is stepping up production to meet the demand. Ezell has returned from a swing about the country. ST. L "jyjARIE ANTOINETTE” has been held over a second week at Loew’s . . . Dr. L. S. Gauer, 33 years old, a dentist, will be a member of an expedition to be headed by Floyd W. Bolton, president and general manager of Travelcolor Pictures of Hollywood, to the Dutch East Indies the latter part of this month. Russ Hogue, Effingham Theatre, Effingham, III-, did some quick booking along Filmrow this week. He had to hurry to Sportsman’s Park to see a baseball game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs of the National League. Tommy Tobin has returned to Grand National as local manager. Recently he has been a salesman for United Artists. Bill Guinan, whom Tobin succeeds in the manager’s chair, is continuing with Grand National as a film salesman. A mutually satisfactory deal for all concerned. Frances Hoffman and Libby Ingar of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s office here visited Chicago the past weekend . . . Hank Gleiss, Ross Federal Service manager in this port, is back from a vacation spent in New York. The motion picture film, “The Call of the Cross,” a Lutheran centennial production, is being released currently for showing in Lutheran churches of the Missouri Synod. The field men, recent graduates of Concordia Seminary, will have charge of the film’s presentation. Herb Bennin, M-G-M salesman for southern Illinois and eastern Missouri, claims a record with six sets of rubber on his benzine buggy during the past year. The seventh set is coming up and will be used to carry him on a honeymoon to the coast scheduled for November. Inability to get Tyrone Power, Charley McCarthy and others for personal appearances has caused the calling off of the three -day program of entertainment planned by the St. Louis Festival Association for the Municipal Auditorium during the Veiled Prophet festivities next month. In the absence of the three-day program the successful community dance of last year will be repeated. Harry Crawford, manager of the Ambassador Theatre, is scanning the local birth records to line up families with four daughters so that he can work out an exploitation stunt for “Four Daughters” which is due to appear on the Ambassador’s screen the week of September 23 or thereabouts. M. E. Holderness, president of the Playgoers of St. Louis, and treasurer of the Municipal Theatre Ass’n, and Paul Beisman, manager of both the American Theatre and the Municipal Theatre, attended the second national convention of legit theatremen in New York on September 13 and 14. Mr. and Mrs. Max B. Stubbs, manager and director respectively of the St. Louis MeglinFanchon & Marco studios, are due back September 17 from their trip to Hollywood. When KXOK, the new Star-Times radio station takes the air on September 19. Miss Rose Kaye, the Meglin-Fanchon & Marco (dramatic art instructor, will be on the station’s staff. The East St. Louis, III., Better Films Council opened its season last week with a meeting at the Y. W.C. A. Plans for the second annual film breakfast were discussed. WE SPECIALIZE IN ACOUSTIC TREATMENT FOR THEATRES WE RENDER A SERVICE FEATURING: (1) Advice, Engineering and Analysis on your acoustic problems at no cost or obligation. (2) Application of the proper materials to suit individual requirements at lowest market prices. THE NEW ESQUIRE THEATRE. CHICAGO, IS AN OUTSTANDING PRODUCT OF OUR SERVICE. R@f0r©nc0Si Balaban & Katz Corp. CALL ACOUSTIC DIVISION Publix Great States Theatres Harry Balaban Theatres INSULATION ENGINEERING SERVICE CO. Essaness Theatres Bland Brothers 2715 Irving Park Rd. Chicago BOXOFFICE : : September 17, 1938 107