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

10 NEW DYNAMO DRIVE NOTES PENNED THE RUN Continued from Page 9 to invite exhibitors to attend the Drive meetings. That is im- possible, but when time in any branch permits, the Drive crew will be glad to talk to them about what we saw at the stu- dio and what we know the com- pany will deliver next season! • J OE SCOTT, Omaha branch manager, happened into the Chicago exchange while the meeting there was going on. Joe was on his way to New York to work with Bill Kupper on the Joe Cooper circuit deal. • M IDWESTERN District Man- ager Ward E. Scott flew to New York after the Kansas City meeting, the Drive crew going down to Oklahoma City for the session there with Charles Clark’s staff. Mr. Scott, too, went to the metropolis to work on the Cooper circuit deal, which was expected to be closed over the week. Inci- dentally, the Cooper circuit is expanding its theatre-holding interests. And so are the Grif- fith chain operators who have just acquired a house in Ne- braska. It is no secret in Okla- homa City and in Dallas that the Griffith boys plan in' the not distant future to extend their theatre-holdings clear up to the Canadan border in the Minneapolis territory. A gulf- to-the-Canadian-border is re- portedly their aim. • O NLY five of the nine districts are being directly super- vised by district managers at the moment. There is no dis- trict manager on the Coast. The Great Lakes has no district manager. Harry Ballance, Southern district manager, has been confined to his home for weeks because of a serious op- eration from which he is rapid- ly recovering. And the Prai- ries’ district manager, Moe Levy, is making his first Drive trip. Actively directing their respective districts are Tom Bailey of the Northeast, Edgar Moss of the Atlantic, George A. Roberts of the Mid-East and Jim O’Loghlin of Canada. • N otwithstanding the fact that at this time last year Ben Reingold’s St. Louis- ans had set a new high for the period’s volume of contracts on K-6, their total Saturday on K-7 was much larger. And Reingold will not be content un- til he has overtaken Cohn’s Pittsburgh. • H OW time flies! Chicago’s Sales Manager and local Drive Leader A. A. Van Dyke recalled that he first knew Levy in Washington—24 years ago. And that, Levy recalled in Kan- sas City, was when he first be- came acquainted with George Fuller, the Kasey pilot. • A N idea of what Chicago is doing to establish new July records in celebration of Clyde Eckhardt Silver Jubilee: A print of “Dante’s Inferno,” with 20 minutes out, is being bi- cycled. A surprisingly large number of repeats on every hit picture on which Chicago could get a print is helping make ev- ery week of July an over-quota affair in that exchange. Inci- dentally, Chicago has not only established a certain record for July for that territory, but no office ever has done the thor- ough July business that Eck- hardt’s staff will be in a posi- tion to boast. • T HE Dallas crew was mourn- ing over the fact that it did not finish in the money in the last Educational Month cam- paign, The Texans like other branches, did their best, but j What? Yes, it is Alice j I I aye — and as I | she looked after she got in the = | way of a flock of custard pies! Sin an early sequence in “Hol-j | lywood Cavalcade,” one of five! [Technicolor specials slated! ! for 1939-40 release. | Philadelphia, Washington, San Francisco and Minneapolis out- delivered the other qualifying 26 U. S. offices from every per- spective. • M ILWAUKEE Drive Leader George Edgerton directed attention to a significant fact: “We are positive we will break all past Drive records, for this will be the greatest Drive we have held in Milwaukee. And we don’t intend to be nosed out of any national money in any last-minute rally elsewhere. Those who distinguish them- selves in this office will positive- ly earn extra money, even if we are unfortunate enough not to win a national prize, because we will have local cash prizes of our own.” • K ANSAS CITY local Drive leader “stole” the “show” at the first meeting. Levy, in introducing him, said: “I know Gus you are nervous, but I want you to say a few words as best you can.” Gus got up on his feet, a cooler man never ad- dressed a meeting of branch em- ployees, and he proceeded to make the finest talk any local- ite has ever made at any Drive meeting. It was an inspired, in- formative and sincere talk that made his co-workers proud, for his words were definitely the outstanding feature of the meeting. • I N fact, the Kansas City Drive leader had a comprehensive plan for local competition. He had worked up simple, but very helpful forms; he had figures and he knew just how he was going to locally lead the cam- paign. Levy, swept off his feet by this truly excellent talk, commented: “Thanks, Gus. You have amazed me with your thor- ough, informative talk.” Quick on the trigger, Gus, who had worked under Levy when the latter was Kansas City branch manager, observed: “Well, when I saw you get on the platform at the convention and heard you talk, I said to myself: ‘Well, if you can do it I can’.” And Gus certainly did. He scored a bull’s eye and walked —yes, walked—away with the oratorical honors of that splen- did meeting. • GJ4HE mid-continental territor- ies never were in healthier shape. For that you have the word of Branch Managers Joe Scott, Stan Mayer, Joe Podoloff, George Fuller, and Charles Clark. All of these gentlemen enthused no end over the fine condition of the crops. In fact, the finest crop in years was ex- tremely helpful to the three Prairie offices. D OWN in Oklahoma City, Manager Charles Clark, who presided over the best Drive meeting held at his office —and you can take that from such veteran Oklahomans as Booker Clark, Adsales Manager Whelihan and Salesman Os- borne and James — passed on some very encouraging agricul- tural information: the wheat crop in his territory for this year is estimated at 59,000,000 bushels, which is 5,000,000 more bushels than the annual av- erage for the past 10 years, and the corn crop is estimated at 39,000,000 bushels, or great- er than 6,000,000 more than the annual average for the same 10- year period. “That means Okla- homa City will be one territory with a lot of money and with the widest circulation we have ever had and a great product, I cannot see how we are going to be kept out of first, second or third place,” he said. • O KLAHOMA CITY Drive Leader George Friedel said: “This office is set to win. We know we are going to beat quota and we are not concerned that it has been greatly in- creased. We’re going to try to go well over that increased quo- ta. every week and if in the final week of the Drive, we find we must get more, why we’ll come down to New York and sell the Brooklyn Bridge, for we expect to turn everything in this territory into cash.” • T WO weeks ago Salesman Os- borne and James of Okla- homa City were running behind their K-6 sales figures on the new product. Manager Clark called them into conference 10 days before the date scheduled for the first Drive meeting. He set a volume quota for each of those 10 days. The two veteran salesmen went out and got to work. When the Drive meeting was held in Oklahoma City Wednesday night, the K-6 sales volume, as of July 12, had been beaten by two contracts. • YTERMAN BEIERSDORF, at AA the Dallas meeting, directed attention to the fact that the situations, on which his office counts for 80 per cent of its rev- enue, have been closed. “The re- maining 20 per cent,” he added, “are the smaller accounts and on these the salesmen are now con- centrating.” • S OUTHERN District Manager Harry Ballance must be one of the country’s unhappiest men, not because he is still in the process of recovering from his recent serious operation, but be- I Smiles! Jan ! ,' Vi . th -j ers is in tor! ! the most eventful year of herj [career. She has finished herj [ first for K-7 and is now work-j ! ing with the Ritz Brothers in | I “Roughnecks,” which will bej j followed by the tentatively I | titled “Jubilo” in which she isj [co-starred with Gene Autrey.j cause his doctor has ordered him not to pilot his plane for some months. And that is no way to carry on, Harry thinks, but he has been through too bad and painful a siege to violate doc- tor’s orders. • I T was a pleasure to see Bal- lance at the Atlanta exchange. Because he cannot travel either on trains or planes, he could not attend the meetings at Dallas, Memphis, New Orleans and Charlotte. And his presence was greatly missed, for he always adds tremendously to the Drive sessions at his exchange. But, it is good news to know that he is back on his feet and on the road to complete recovery. Incidental- ly, he struggles through a few hours each day in his Atlanta headquarters. • H ARRY told the writer—and not in confidence—that “this is the Drive when we will get back on top of the heap.” He added: “The doctors put a deep dent into the old bankroll and if ever I wanted the district man- ager’s prize I’d like to earn it in the coming Drive.” And from what Managers Beiersdorf, Young, Landaiche, Wilson and Longdon told us, they’ll try to get him that prize by breaking records. • T HE South goes into the new season and the Drive consid- erably wealthier in revenue po- tentialities than last year. For one thing, every important, big- revenue circuit, excepting the Saenger outfit in New Orleans, was closed on the K-7 at press- time. So, from what we know and what we have been shown, our advice to Dixie’s rivals is: Watch out for the South as a district and as a collection of biff-banging exchanges. • 'pTROM Oklahoma City to Dallas A we flew on an American Air- line plane with Jesse Lasky who tries out his stage presentation of “Gateway to Hollywood” radio show at Bob O’Donnell’s Majestic in the Texas metropo- lis on Aug. 4. Mr. Lasky made this significant comment: “Dar- ryl Zanuck is the livest wire in the business. That Hollywood follows him is a matter of rec- ord now. He is developing and building new talent faster than all the other producers in Holly- wood put together.” And then he went on to rave over Linda Darnell, a Dallas girl who scores a personal triumph in “Elsa Maxwell’s Hotel for Women” and will later be seen in “Drums Along the Mohawk.” • A ND down in Dallas, the folks are anxiously awaiting the showing of “Elsa Maxwell’s Ho- tel for Women,” for the news- papers in that great city have been carrying considerable ad- vance publicity on Linda Dar- nell. We know Dallas’ expecta- tions could not be higher, but we know, too, that Texas is going to be exceedingly proud of her per- formance in “Elsa Maxwell’s Hotel for Women,” as proud as New Orleans was Wednesday night when they vociferously applauded the performance and the personal appearance of its favorite daughter, Mary Healy. • T O Dallas, Paul S. Wilson, Atlanta’s hustling, bustling manager, dispatched the follow- ing wire to Drive Leader Levy: “Welcome to the South. We are anxiously awaiting your arrival in Atlanta and the grand mes- sage we know you have for us. I want to again assure you that you can depend upon the Atlanta office returning to you a dollar delivery heretofore unheard of in this territory. Tell Beiersdorf he is going to have to step to keep up with Atlanta during this Drive. Kindest personal regards to yourself, Roger Ferri and Beiersdorf.” • W HEN Paul’s wire was read to Beiersdorf, the Texas’ lead- er commented: “You can tell Paul that Atlanta has never de- livered more money than Dallas and we know he is positively not going to start doing that in this Drive.” • Y OU’LL not find a peppier ag- gregation of beauties in any office than that in Dallas, for they are well organized and they applauded the loudest when Local Drive Leader Tidwell re- marked: “We can use some extra change this year. I know the girls want it because the styles are changing radically and some of them, who have gone to the World’s Fair, want to replenish their wardrobe.” And one of the girls later whis- pered: “I really can’t see how we can lose out.” And she certainly was in dead earnest. Okay, here’s hoping you do get one of those prizes. • S O far the following travelling auditors have attended Drive meetings and been among the most attentive listeners: Hil- dreth in Portland, Wilson in Minneapolis, Cohen in Dallas and Lichtenstein in Memphis. You’re always welcome — and part of this Drive, gentlemen! Continued on Page II