20th Century-Fox Dynamo (July 22, 1939)

8 NEW DYNAMO PROLOGUE TO Seventh Annual S.R.Kent Drive Celebrating the 30 th Anniversary of Joseph M. Schenck in Motion Picture Industry by ROGER FERRI O NE thing we know definitely about both Clyde Eckhardt’s Chicago and Stanley Mayer’s Des Moines: nowhere is there more suspense; they’re holding their breath, for both are scrap- ping for first place in the K-6 52-week total delivery contest, which the Windy City veterans are leading. But both are, frankly, worried about Reg March’s St. John. And so they should be! 9 N OT only have these annual Kent Drives been the means of pouring millions of extra dollars into the company treas- ury, but we observe that it is developing managerial speakers of first rank. Everywhere the managers have spoken with con- fidence and with self-assurance that has been, indeed, very in- spiring. • C HICAGO has had a personal interest in the career of the last three Drive leaders. Bill Gehring, who succeeded Mr. Wobber as a Drive commander five years ago and served for two years, was a sales manager at Chicago. Jim O’Loghlin, who led the 1937 and 1938 Drives, was first employed by Mr. Eckhardt when the latter was in the Home Office. And Moe Levy was a former Chicago branch manager. T HE Prairie branches — Omaha, Des Moines and Minneapolis — have a Drive slogan. Stan Mayer disclosed that fact at the very enthu- siastic meeting held in the Des Moines exchange. And here ’tis: “Levy Leads, Des Moines Delivers” (as spoken by Stan). W E’RE still laughing at the stories told by Salt Lake City Salesmen Jimmy Dugan and Joe McElhinney during a very pleasant lunch at the Utah Hotel. One was about another company’s salesman who came back to a prospect, from whom he had not got exactly the sort of a deal he sought, and in- formed him he had put in a long distance telephone call to his manager who turned down the deal. The small-town ex- hibitor without saying a word walked away and would have nothing to do with him. Per- plexed after many vain efforts to talk to the prospect, the salesman asked another firm’s representative for an explana- tion. Asked the latter: “Did you tell him you had put in a long distance call?” “Yes,” replied the perplexed salesman. “Well, brother,” said his friend, “you got yourself in hot water that time. In this town all calls are local; you can’t make any calls out of town.” T HAT Allied convention cer- tainly did not make for any de- velopment of confidence among exhibitor-members, for from what we have been told by the latter, they were very much disappointed and disillusioned about the proceedings. This is indicated by the fact that inso- far as the Omaha, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago territories are con- cerned, more Allied exhibitor- members have bought the K-7 product than were on the K-6 books at this time last year. • C ONGRATULATIONS, Tru- man Talley and Vyvyan Donner. That fourth Fashion Forecast is a honey; the best of this great series. We saw it in Des Moines—and the person- nel there were still raving about it when we left Minneapolis. • T HINGS we did not know un- til now: Jack Cohan and Lou Cohen, Minneapolis salesmen, are brothers. And we have known them for a great many years. And what a keen busi- ness rivalry embraces the pair. Go to it, boys! • I N Beiersdorf’s Dallas ex- change we were shown many figures that bear out the am- bitious promises made there by “Handsome Herman” and his salesmen and bookers. • I N Des Moines employees pay 10 cents apiece to attend the weekly screenings. This money goes into an employees’ chest. From the money accumulated are financed picnics, hay rides, etc. And, incidentally, the of- fice personnel has been divided into two competing groups for each of which individual cash prizes of $7.50, $5.00 and $.50 are available. Everybody is eligible. To the employee in the office, shipping and inspec- I Agriculturally Analyzed Prospects for Outstanding Drive Are Unusually Bright The crops never have been better in many years. That, i briefly, sums up what the writer heard from the agriculturally S observing branch managers. And that means that in terri- I tories like Omaha, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, and Memphis the coming Drive should be productive of new records. Oklahoma City’s Clark, in his talk, said he had not the least doubt that record rentals would result from the exceptionally fine status of the crops there. And equally = enthusiastic over territorial Drive prospects were Branch Managers Fuller, Beiersdorf, Wilson, Young, Longdon. Podol- off, Mayer and Scott. tion departments getting the best results, via the extra play- time route, Manager Mayer per- sonally will dig down in his pockets and present $10 in cash. • G US KUBITZKI, Kansas City sales manager, is going to make a great local Drive leader. We believe Drive returns from George Fuller’s exchange will bear us out on that claim. Gus has been looking forward like this for some time—and now that he has it, bet 10 to 1 he is going to make the most of it. Of that we are positive. Go to it—and more power to you, Gus. • B Y the time you have this issue of New Dynamo, we will have held the meeting at Ernest Landaiche’s New Or- leans exchange. In fact, a prize-winning celebration was to follow and none other than Mary Healy of “Second Fiddle” fame, who started in the 1938 Drive as secretary to Manager Ernie Landaiche and was on her way to Movietone City and fame by the time it finished, was to be among those present. Mary arrived in New Orleans early in the week to make per- sonal appearances with “Sec- ond Fiddle.” • I T has been the custom for Calgary’s Verne Skorey and Winnipeg’s Joe Huber to high- light their talk at the Minne- apolis meeting with a wager. But this year, Huber said: “I’m not making any wagers until I get back to Winnipeg and learn what the quota is.” 9 W INNIPEG’S Charles Krupp has not only proved him- self Canada’s No. 1 salesman, being tops there in every phase of K-6 endeavor and headlining on Canadian K-7 sales to date, but he is also a prominent horse- man. Charles owns a string of horses that enter in the Western Canadian races—and on Thurs- day, in Winnipeg, his stable returned two winners. 9 T HE finest, most interesting talk any salesman anywhere has made in the seven years that we have been piloting Drive leaders was given by Nor- bert Hall at Minneapolis. Hall likened the 18-week Drive to an 18-hole golf tournament, etc. Congratulations, Bert! 9 S CHOLARLY indeed is Mil- waukee’s George Edgerton, salesman. He is Jack Lorentz’s local Drive leader and he has plans that mean Milwaukee will be in there fighting for a top spot. o I F the K-7 productions we saw with Messrs. Wobber and Levy at the studio are any criterion of those to come, the quota announced for the Drive and 1939-40 is conservative, for the product will have unprece- dented earning power. So sell them right and book them right —and put yourself on the right road. 9 B ILL CLAYSON, Minneapolis adsales manager, did not attend the meeting. He is in a hospital there, but at the mo- ment we were typing this para- graph information was to the effect that he was making rapid recovery. And that’s good news for all of them. 9 T ravelling Auditor Wilson was an interested listener at the Minneapolis office. By the way, we have no harder group of workers in our midst than those travelling auditors. Every time we have been down to an exchange at night or Sunday to work on the publication, it has been an auditor who has been there and kept us company. 9 T HAT new Chicago exchange is indeed a monument. It is the very last word in exchange construction and unquestionably the finest structure of its kind in the country. No wonder Clyde Eckhardt and the folks there continuously talk about it. 9 V ERNE SKOREY and Frank Scott were still thrilling to the joy of the branch picnic at Bragg Creek, in the foothills of the Rockies on Dominion Day. Games, baseball, volley ball, horseback riding, mountain climbing and eats were the fea- tures. J OE HUBER, by the way, broke up his annual vacation to be at the Minneapolis meet- ing. He and the Calgary dele- gation drove to the lakes, prior to entraining for home Saturday night. • W ELL, well, well! A note from George Eisele, Adsales Director Ed Hollander’s assis- tant at the Home Office, called attention to the fact that Cin- cinnati’s Annabelle Kelly ex- ceeded quota by 12 per cent. With a picture like “Second Fid- dle” loose every adsales man- ager should be beating quota. But, get ready to set records during the Drive—and eliminate the blot that marred 1938 Drive activity on adsales. 9 L OCAL Drive Leader Doris in Atlanta is well on the job, judging from information we had relayed from Paul Wilson’s alert exchange. The Georgians are in a speculative mood and say that they’ve got real money that says they will be “in the money” in the coming Drive. All right with us, Atlanta. 9 W ELL, about this time every year we find ourselves showing abnormal interest in things agricultural. The crops in the Midwest have become an annual concern. However, on this trip we have run into much rain. And that means good business ahead of the exchanges in the corn belt. Certainly, the crops never looked greener than they did on this trip. 9 O NE other thing we have ob- served: the open-air theatre is rapidly becoming a relic of the past. Two years ago and last year we observed many doing business. This trip all but two of them had been put out of business, either by the authorities or because of lack of patronage. 9 I N no territory we have visited to date have motion picture theatres been doing a better business than those in the Des Moines section. And exhibitors didn’t have to tell you that; it was there for you to see. Mid- west seems certainly more pros- perous than the West Coast where strike and other condi- tions are not helping business stage a comeback. As a matter of fact, they are definitely re- sponsible for the lack of im- provement in that region. 9 N ewspapers in the Mid- west were last week taking the same news interest in the arrival of John Ford’s “Drums Along the Mohawk” troupe at Cedar City, Utah, as they were when Henry King and his “Jesse James” company pulled into Pineville, Mo., last year. 9 T wenty-three of our 37 exchnages have formed branch clubs. And most of them plan having picnics this month. Continued on Page 9 r— ! Local Drive Leaders Snap into Quick Action Spurring Added Drive Contests Territorial Drive leaders have lost no time snapping into j action. This is apparent from reports sent to the writer. i There is a competition in every exchange where the Drive I meeting has been held. Extremely active in spurring added {j localized competition are San Francisco’s Joe Flanagan, Seat- i tie’s Bob Osborne, Milwaukee’s George Edgerton, Dallas’ Tid- ! well, New Orleans’ Broggi, Memphis’ Sheridan, Atlanta’s j Doris, Kansas City’s Kubitzki, Chicago’s Van Dyke and Okla- j homa City’s Friedel. These have novel competitions already ! under way or about to be launched. I