Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1940)

— Photo by John Towse Raise $5,000 to Promote Unity and Goodwill Among the Faiths— Basil O’Connor, former law partner of the President, addressing a film group at the Hotel Astor on behalf of the National Coiiference of Christians and Jews when $5,000 was contributed to further the mobilization of national unity. Attentively listening are Will H. Hays, Jack Cohn, Dr. Frank Kingdon, educational director of the Citizenship Educational League, and J. Robert Rubin. Among those present were Jack Alicoate, Leon J. Bamberger, Nate J. Blumberg, Harry and William Brandt, Jules E. Brulatour, John Byram, Irving Caesar, Eugene W. Castle, J. Cheever Cowdin, Howard Dietz, Lynn Farnol, Peyton Gibson, Leon Goldberg, Morris Goodman, Moses H. Grossman, Toby Gruen, John W. Hicks jr., “Red” Kann, Malcolm Kingsberg, Abe Montague, Louis Nizer, Charles Prutzman, Martin Quigley, Sam Rinzler, Herman Robbins, Saul Rogers, Sam Rosen, Robert M. Savini, Joseph H. Seidelman, Abe Schneider, Max Seligman, Sam Shain, Beil Shlyen, Nate B. Spingold, T. K. Stevenson, William A. Scully, Walter Trumbull, Joseph R. Vogel and Cliff Work. B R O A lO W A Y QHARLIE PETTIJOHN is well enough recovered from his recent operation to spend a few hours each day at MPPDA headquarters . . . Joe Forest, assistant advertising manager to Milton Silver at NSS during the past three years, has taken a partnership in Melbern Press, which specializes in theatre advertising and printing . . . Harry Takiff, assistant to Jack Cohn at Columbia, is enjoying a Hollywood vacation . . . William P. Rodgers is due back from the coast Monday . . . Philip Harry Reisman jr., son of RKO’s general foreign manager, will be married to Anna Louise Tiebout at the Larchmont Avenue Church, Larchmont, November 8 . . . Walter Wanger is back on the coast . . . H. M. Richey and Dave Palfreyman were at the Columbus, Ohio, convention of the ITO. Fred Beetson, secretary of the MPPA, was here with Mrs. B. after a cruise on the Los Angeles from the coast . . . Cliff Work in toum from the Universal studios . . . There was a foreign press party given by RKO in honor of Desi Arnaz at the Bacardi Room of the Empire State Building Tuesday . . . M-G-M’s basketball team started the season by defeating Universal 36 fo 12 . . . Universal did better in Paterson, N. J., however. Although Wednesday was enveloped in rain, the town turned itself inside out for one of its native sons, Lou Costello, who also happens to be co-starred in “Moonlight in the Tropics.” The world premiere of the film as well as a gala show featured the day . . . Emerson Yorke and a crew have returned from location shooting in New England on the first reel of a Cinecolor short titled: “New England Tour.” The Paper Mill Playhouse production of “Jeannie,” starring Robert Allen, 20th-Fox player, is scheduled to open in Milburn, N. J., November 12 . . . Adolph Zukor talked about the romance of motion pictures and recalled some of the old-timers who have been with Paramount since its origin in the first of a series of talks sponsored by the company’s Pep Club. Other speakers were Austin Keough and Boris Morros. Arthur Israel jr., president, presided . . . Gary Cooper is in town . . . Lee Tracy and Susan Fox will be seen on Broadway around December 1 in “Every Man for Himself” . . . Harry Carey is due east soon for a Broadway show, too . . . Priscilla Lane will head the Strand stage show the week of November 8 . . . Charlie Chaplin and Walter Abel have returned to the coast, not necessarily together. The Leopold Friedmans celebrated their first wedding anniversary October 26 in Saratoga Springs . . . Neal Lang has gone to Miami Beach where he will manage the new Raleigh Hotel . . . Mark Block, New Jersey exhibitor, has gone to Orlando, Fla., where he will spend the winter . . . Henry Reiner’s wife, Claire, and the newest addition to the family left Lying-In Hospital over the weekend . . . Bob O’Donnell has gone back to Dallas after a short stay in town. Murray Weiser, who has been managing a Rockaway house during the summer, is At their fall conference, held at the Hotel Astor, various of the members of the Picture Pioneers did these things, starting at the top of the facing page and proceeding to the right: Will H. Hays smiled at some remark of Jack Cohn’s; George Dembow consumed oysters at the bar and Jay C. Flippen did the master-of-ceremoning. Earle W . Hammons wore the cap set aside to designate the incoming Pioneers; Herman Wobber posed for the camera, by request, and Joseph Friedman (center) had his first picture taken with Arthur A. Lee and M. A. Schlesinger . The novitiates had to listen to exhortations on the vague responsibilities of their forthcoming membership, at the hands of Judge Ferdinand now at Abe Savage’s Rivoli at Passaic . . . Irving Lincer has returned from a vacation cruise . . . Ted O’Shea returned early in the week from Buffalo ... Si Fabian made one of his usual trips to Albany the early part of the week . . . Lou Smith, Columbia studio publicity and advertising head, has been in town . . . Boris Morros says he will head back to Hollywood in a few days. On Broadway, the other day, he sported another of the colored shirts for which he has become famous . . . Eddie Golden is touring Monogram exchanges. Meanwhile, Norton Ritchey, foreign head for the company, continues to maintain offices in the RKO building . . . Cliff Lewis, Paramount studio publicity and advertising head, accompanied Cecil B. DeMille from the coast . . . Jack Ellis, president of M. P. Associates, states merger plans with the Variety Club are in status quo and another meeting with John Harris will be held in about a month. Sidney Justin, Paramount studio attorney, leaves for the coast in a fortnight. He is on a month’s vacation in the East. He points with pride to the fact that on (Continued on page 22-B) Pecora while Rutgers Neilson, Bob Wolff, Leon J. Bamberger, Morris Kutinsker and Max J. Weisfeldt decided to be recorded with Elsie, the Cow. W. A. Downs, and Cohn again. Red Kann and R. J. O’Donnell seem to be in the middle of an oldfashioned quartet, when actually they were not, and M. A. Silver, Gene Autry, the all-present Cohn and James R. Grainger determined theirs was an assemblage to be photographed. The beefsteak hats, worn by the newcomers, surround a breakaway table amidst laughter, including that belonging to Beri Shlyen while, off in a fairly quiet corner, Leo Brecher, Fred Mitchell, hidden mostly, Herman Robbins, Charles C. Moskowitz and Pecora indulge in conversation. The Picture Pioneers in Frolic 20 BOXOFFICE November 2, 1940