Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1963)

LINCOLN ^^alter Jancke wrapped up another year of work as cochairman for the air base coordinating team when this group of Lincolnites working with Lincoln Air Force base representatives presented an annual report of activities to Mayor Dean Petersen and the air base commander at a special luncheon . . . Omaha will be the working address of Dan Flanagan, 84th and O Drive-In manager, for about two months after the 23rd. He reports this to relieve Bob Collier for a month's vacation, then Paul Ellsberry for another month. Collier is city manager for the three Brehm-Hruska drive-ins in Omaha, also managing the Q-Twin open airer where he has his offices. Ellsberry is manager of the Airport Drive-In. Dan’s 84th and O here will still be operating on a nightly schedule, at least until the first of the year. The cold and fast-traveling winter winds I Take A Tip From Me Exploit More In '64' And Remember To Get Your S PECIAL TRAILERS From Dependable FILMACK n:iif in.: bearing down on Nebraskaland the weekend of December 7-8 at rates from 30 to 50 miles an hour left the Varsity Theatre marquee intact but the National Bank of Commerce building right next door on 13th street didn’t fare as well. It twisted the marquee and left some glass doorwindow damage in its all-night, all-day pounding. It also tore Dan Flanagan’s brick chimney off his house but left his 84th and O Drive-In alone. That left Dan free to provide second in-car heaters to some of the Saturday night patrons who found the temperatures canceling the usual efficiency of a single heater. This is official: Football fan Walt Jancke says the Cornhuskers from the University of Nebraska will have to win the Orange Bowl tilt New Year’s Day in Miami without his on-the-spot rooting — too many irons in the fire here at home with the State reopening Christmas Day and holiday shows at both the State and Varsity. However, Lincoln-Omaha drive-in owner Russell Brehm is one of some 7,500 Lincolnites-Nebraskans intending to head for Miami. That’s the number of Orange Bowl game tickets sold by the university here thus far. Larry Starsmore of Colorado Springs, president of Westland Theatres Corp., was in Lincoln earlier this month to meet and confer with Glenn Slipper of National Theatres Supply of Kansas City. Slipper’s firm is providing much of the equipment and material going into the renovation of the State Theatre, one of the houses owned by Nebraska Theatres Corp., sister organization of Westland Corp. Movie house professionals in this part of Nebraska are applauding nonprofessional’s “competition” from Archie Smith, Beatrice city fireman. Smith takes his “Kelly days,” the special off-duty ones given for unusually long work hours, and shows several nearby nursing home residents movies at “Smitty’s movie night.” It all started about five years ago when he and his wife showed vacation slides for her mother and some other patients at the Good Samaritan Home in Beatrice. Gradually added has been three others, the Mennonite Deaconess Hospital and the Peterson Nursing Home in Beatrice, plus the Good Samaritan Home over in Wymore. The slides gave way to movies borrowed from the library, now shown on a new projection machine purchased by interested friends and clubs. Smith says residents talk about a show two weeks before he comes and two weeks after, according to nurses. “How could we ever quit?” he asks. Varsity Theatre patrons, after the December 5 show, got their movie fare on a brand new white, 40-foot widescreen. The replacement of the older silver reflecting screen, installed when 3-D pictures came out, was done between the last show on the 5th and the next day’s 1 p.m. business start . . . Over at the State the extensive remodeling was progressing, wth stagehand workers hanging the new gold-colored stage curtain, now that the dust-raising work in the auditorium is over. Join the Widening Circle Send in your reports to BOXOFFICE on response of patrons to pictures you show. Be one of the many who report to— THE EXHIBITOR HAS HIS SAY A Widely Read Weekly Feature of Special Interest Address your letters to Editor. 'Exhibitor Has His Say." 825 Van Brunt Blvd.. Kansas City 24, Mo. BOXOFFICE Always in the Forefront With the News NC-8 BOXOFFICE :: December 23, 1963