Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1963)

Warner Eastern-Central Divisions Meet in N.Y. NEW YORK — Warner Bros, held a combined eastern-central divisional sales meeting at the New York Hilton Hotel Thursday and Friday (17, 18) with Morey “Razz” Goldstein, vice-president and general sales manager, presiding to discuss the fivemonth “Winners From Warners” sales drive and the forthcoming releases in the drive. These pictures are “Rampage,” an October release; “Mary, Mary” and “Palm Springs Weekend,” for November” and “4 for Texas,” “Dead Ringer"’ and “America, America,” for December and early 1964 release. Joining Goldstein at the meeting were Larry Leshansky, coordinator of field sales activities; Ralph Iannuzzi, playdate department and circuit sales manager; Jules Lapidus, eastern division sales head; Grover Livingston, central division sales manager, and Sam Keller, supervisor of branch operations. Branch managers on hand were A1 Blumberg of New York; Ben Bache of Washington, William G. Mansell of Philadelphia; William Kumins, Boston; H. L. Gaines, Albany; Angelo Lombardi, New Haven; A1 Kolinski, Buffalo; A. Duren, Cincinnati; William Twigg, Cleveland; H. J. Morrison, Detroit; C. A. Blakely of Indianapolis and William H. Lange of Pittsburgh. The New York meeting is the second of a series of Warner Bros, regional meetings, following one held in Los Angeles. Chicago and Toronto meetings will be held later. Book Review THE CLEOPATRA PAPERS, A Private Correspondence, by Jack Brodsky and Nathan Weiss (Simon and Schuster, New York— $3.95). Making this private correspondence public can have but one purpose — to capitalize on the morbid interest of the public in the private lives (and loves) of the major stars of a current motion picture of epic proportions. That it also makes public the behind-the-scenes business transactions of one of the major film production companies going through financial difficulties puts it on the level of backstairs gossip. Briefly, the book consists of letters and telegx-ams exchanged by these two former publicists for 20th Century-Fox, one in Rome on the “Cleopatra” sets and the other in the New York office. They switched locations once so both were caught up in the early attempts to prevent the Burton-Taylor scandal from making headlines. Just to show they are big boys now and won’t get their mouths washed out with soap, they use uninhibited language of the gutter variety — explaining in the preface that this is the way they communicate. Moreover, they attribute more of the same to both Elizabeth and Richard, by direct quote. Brodsky and Weiss insist “Cleopatra” is the greatest motion picture of its time — in spite of or because of — but for industry readers, there is little here that has not been better reported in trade papers. And members of the general public will have to wade through a lot of dreary detail to find the dirt for which they were looking. — VWS LETTERS An Extremely Practical Service' We greatly value the pressbooks appearing in Boxoffice. These form a part of our pre-selling and pre-planning sessions and are included in our digest of campaign material circulated in the field. We find these pressbook inserts not only unique, but extremely practical for our purposes. We urge you and encourage you to continue this service which, along with the many other valuable departments of Boxoffice cause us to look forward each week to the publication’s arrival. ROBERT W. SELIG Vice-president in charge of operations National General Corp. Beverly Hills, Calif. The Red Lining in TV Clouds' To Ralph J. Erwin, business analyst, Tulsa, Okla. Your seven paragraph analysis appearing in Boxoffice, Oct. 7, is, indeed, (forgive me) in the “kindergarten” stage . . . and may lead some exhibitors astray . . . as well as to whet the appetites of some distributors to “UN-Load” more “Batches” of their back-logues to, our ill-named competitors, TV. Now, of course, I must unfold my simple contentions why your “Analysis” is of the “kindergarten” variety and is off course by two body blows! You fell by the wayside, when you stated that TV will finally run out of product and we, the exhibitors, will hold them in our bare hands for mercy! Could you believe the OLD re-runs would again be NEW to some odd millions! . . . who have reached RKO Merchandising Meet For 'Sammy Lee' Dates NEW YORK — RKO Theatres held a merchandising meeting of New York division managers, district managers and managers Friday (11) to help launch the campaign for “The Small World of Sammy Lee,” which will open October 30 on the entire RKO metropolitan circuit. The picture, which recently completed an eightweek first run at the Sutton Theatre, is distributed by Seven Arts. Matty Polon, vice-president, presided at the meeting, during which the advertising and publicity staff discussed all aspects of the campaign, placing the emphasis on making Sammy Lee a household word by the time the film opens. Anthony Newley, star of the current Broadway hit, “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off,” who plays the title role in the film, addressed the group. Others on hand included Harry Mandel, president of RKO Theatres, and Edward S. Feldman, vice-president in charge of advertising and publicity of Seven Arts. Feldman has named Dick Richman to join Seven Arts’ publicity staff as expolitation representative for “Sammy Lee” to work with exhibitors across the country. After the meeting, Feldman announced cash prizes for the RKO theatre managers who put on the best campaign. (Letters must be signed. Names withheld on reauest) the age for re-runs! ... as well as repeats shifted to different schedules of time to get the millions of viewers missing the first runs! ... on and on! . . . “The Bells of St. Mary’s” to my knowledge re-run eight times in the Los Angeles area in just three years! . . . Multiply the back-logues by just eight, see the totals! You fell by the wayside, when you inexcusably omitted and “analyzed” the matter Of ADMISSION COST! . . . Well, Mr. Erwin, here is my simple analysis, please read on — ERWIN’S DOUGHNUT SHOP (on First Street, Any Town) — you hang a banner out front: SPECIAL TODAY! DOUGH NUTS & COFFEE, 30c; too, you have pretty girl waitresses, or ushers, (if you still can afford them) air-conditioning, clean rest rooms and many other facilities, etc. — and me, right across the street! ZIMMERMAN’S DOUGHNUT SHOPPE, my banner reads, SPECIAL TODAY! DOUGHNUTS & COFFEE— FREE! WILL ALSO DELIVER INTO YOUR HOME FREE ! FREE! FREE! Now, come, come, Mr. Erwin, how far would your ANALYSIS allow you to stay in business? Now, please, don’t retort by simply saying, “The Zimmerman’s Doughnuts are OLD and will give you indigestion”! — WELL, the beloved public is eating these “OLD DOUGHNUTS” because the “OLD DOUGHNUTS” built Palatial Theatres, made Great Stars, and most of the folks didn’t see them! . . . AND FOR FREE! — Well, as the grapefruit sorter said, “I QUIT — decisions — decisions— decisions and ANALYSIS.” HENRY ZIMMERMAN Comfort Theatre, Comfort, Texas. Alexander-F ord-duPont To Release 9 Films HOLLYWOOD — Alexander-Ford-duPont, newly formed motion picture organization, announces that seven properties, representing a total expenditure of $3,000,000, have been acquired during its first nine weeks of operation. According to Alex Alexander, executive vice-president, AFD is preparing release schedules for “All About Love,” “Navajo Run,” “Storm Over Silver Peak” and “Ken Curtis Songs,” series of half-hour TV films featuring Sons of the Pioneers. The newest production acquired for world release by AFD is “Nightmare in the Sun.” Arvid Griffin to Manage MGM's British Studios LONDON — Arvid Griffin has been appointed managing director of the British studios of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Since the resignation of Matthew Raymond in December 1961, the post of managing director has been vacant. Griffin has been with MGM in the United States since 1935 and had served in various executive capacities at the Culver City studios. He joined the British arm of the company in June of this year. Lawrence P. Bachmann will continue as executive producer of MGM’s British productions. BOXOFFICE October 21, 1963 17