20th Century-Fox Dynamo (September 2, 1939)

NEW DYNAMO 9 LATEST FACTS, NEWS, FIGURES ON FIELD DRIVE CAMPAIGNS SURPRISING RETURNS SURE FOR ZANUCK WEEK Continued from Page 8 Many repeat bookings are reported to have been received from lists that had been mailed to prospects. The Public circuit in the Minneapolis territory has completed its contract on shorts for the K-6 season and has set dates on all new subjects for which release dates have been announced. • B EN SIMON’S New Haven are out for no one’s good health but their own in this Drive. By taking good care of their own needs, they are quite confident the other offices will provide for them- selves—and the result will be the suc- cessful Drive this one will undoubtedly be. The Nutmegs mean to exalt their delivery leadership of the Internationals and have informed District Manager Tom Bailey that they "have a flock of sur- prises to spring.” Meanwhile, local Drive Leader Earl Wright, salesman, is not only speeding up the closing of ac- counts in his zone, but he reports helpful action from the office’s teams, which, by the way, Booker Sam Germaine is lead- ing insofar as adsales are concerned, and this co-ordination of branch effort on ac- cessories is enabling Adsales Manager Morris Weinstein to set up new records. • P ITTSBURGH is coming right along. It is involved in the hottest three- office competition Edgar Moss’ Atlantics have conducted in Drive history. Wealthi- est in the matter of K-7 contracts sold against territorial possibilities, Ira Cohn’s Pirates will not be happy, they say, until they have overtaken Sam Wheeler’s Washington. To bring this about as quickly as possible, local Drive Leader C. C. Kellenberg is offering two prizes. One will go to the employee who, through his own individual effort, delivers the greatest sale on advertising over and above the accessories regularly used by the account. Then there will be a prize for the booker, who through his own efforts, obtains the greatest num- ber of actual short subjects bookings in excess of the K-6 total in the same peri- od. Just what these prizes will be will be announced later, but they will be pre- sented at Pittsburgh’s annual employ- ees’ Christmas party. • W INNIPEG is counting a lot on re- turns from unafhliated or inde- pendent houses. The big runs, con- trolled by Canadian Famous Players are set in Toronto, that circuit’s headquar- ters, and Joe Huber and the other Cana- dian managers have the assurance of Canadian District Manager Jim O’Logh- lin, that this circuit’s dates will be quick- ly obtained. The circuit has promised Jim maximum assistance, for the ex- Drive leader is anxious to defend the championships won by Canada in the two seasons he led the Big Push—and personally he is anxious to win another President’s prize. From R. A. Cringan, Winnipeg Drive leader, comes word that expectancy from the independent ac- counts for the Drive period has taken a promising boost. Salesman Charles Krupp returned from a trip into the ter- ritory and delivered a flock of Drive dates that Winnipeg hopes will consid- erably raise its status on advance rentals in the International group. • J IM PATTERSON’S Vancouverans see bigger results and much better days. In fact, they insist they will set a new record for quick selling in that territory. A note from there brings this encourag- ing information: “We expect to close from 10 to 15 accounts for K-7 by the 15th of September and we hope to have all situations in the territory closed on the new product before the Christmas holiday.” Here’s hoping, Vancouver. • H ERNDON EDMOND’S Seattle per- sonnel is seemingly getting a gen- uinely “big kick,” as Bill Gehring used to say, out of this Drive. Repeat runs are pouring in from Salesmen "Hap” Fred- erick and Jean Spear. And. by the way, here is an interesting paragraph from Seattle’s most active Drive Leader Bob Osborne: "We have developed a system of fixed responsibility to cover certain situations that may be giving us trouble. The dollar delivery crew has scrutinized every situation and selected the difficult ones; these have been apportioned to each member of the crew with instruc- tions to report back on his accomplish- ments within a fixed period. So far, in the short time this system has been in operation, we have secured starting dates on three issues of Movietone News, se- cured dates from several situations where no advance dates existed, and have materially reduced several de- linquent accounts.” • A LTHOUGH New Orleans’ livewire manager, Ernest Landaiche, was not pleased with returns for the first two weeks, the records shows that they were in excess of delivery in the same two periods of the 1938 Drive. There is no doubt that New Orleans is off on the right foot and with “Stanley and Living- stone” and “Hotel for Women” now un- der way, the Crescents will be prominent factors in the over-quota tussle. New Orleans Drive Leader G. J. Broggi has organized a contest among members of the sales and booking forces, and the individual who turns in the most play- dates every week collects one dollar from each of the other contest participants who follow him. • C LEVELAND Branch Manager I. J. Schmertz is offering a gold watch to the salesman who contributes the most to the success of that office in the Drive. Sam Lichter leads the contest on the basis of returns as of last Saturday, with Ted Scheinberg second and Ed Bergman third. Min Massing leads the branch em- ployees’ competition, with Frank Hunt second and Tom Alley following. Cleve- land Drive Leader Nate Scott has set up a mail promotional campaign that Manager Schmertz reports is getting quick results. The office has set up a schedule of re-issues and the response from exhibitors has been splendid. • D ENVER Drive Leader Howard A. Metzger is spending his nights dig- ging around for extra playtime. He called on the exhibitor at Arvada, Colo., one night last week and came away with 13 feature and 15 short subjects dates. Short Subjects Booker Tawson, by the way, has launched a campaign. This campaign already has set a new mark for volume of short subjects playdates obtained here by the end of the second week of a Drive. Yes, Denver is not only anxious to win a total delivery prize, but believes it can register itself in first place on shorts, too. Salesmen Rennie and Paulson, by the way, are doing a re- markable job on adsales, too, and helped Adsales Manager Gwin beat quota for two straight weeks. • B ILL KUPPER spent most of the cur- rent week in Denver. And his visit there was awaited with more than usual interest. Jim Morrison and his sales- men had piled up a flock of K-7 contracts awaiting the consideration of the West- ern Division Manager. The latter was to join Drive Leader Levy at Denver and continue with him on the meetings in Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas, New Or- leans and Atlanta. • B ILL REID in Toronto thinks that not only will Harry Bailey’s office be No. 1 among the Canadian exchanges, but Landis' Indianapolis Gains Strength! L ESTER STURM’S Detroit is making rapid progress on all fronts. Roy Carrow’s team is leading the branch race, but getting increasing competition. While waiting for “The Rains Came” and the ether big specials for which plenty of extra playtime in all key spots already has been pencilled in. while “Stanley and Livingstone” cuts loose. Detroit is cashing in on re-issues as a means of bolstering revenue all along the line. Local Drive Leader A. I). Knapp reports the salesmen’s branch contest standings as follows: first, Carrow; second, West- cott; third, Keilor; and fourth. Knapp. Westcott trails Carrow by 4.7 points and leads Keilor by 14 points. Knapp is 7.2 behind Keilor. And proud should the office be of the fact that for the second straight week Jack Sturm beat his adsales quota. • J ACK LORENTZ’s Milwaukeeans re- port a close race there among em- ployees. The word-juggling Drive Lead- er George Edgerton reports that the two teams—led by Bookers Ray Schulz and Meyer Kahn, respectively, are running a neck and neck race. And Ralph Heim beat his ads quota for two straight weeks. • N EW YORK is shovelling its way—and that is reported advisedly. With Harry Buxbaum’s personnel, this Drive is the most important. “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” business is missed there. Insofar as playtime is concerned the New Yorkers are ahead of last year. They have piled up a surprising amount of ex- tra and valuable revenue through re- issues. Out of 15 houses in the Times Square sector of New York, last week- end 11 of them were featuring re-issues. Local Drive Leader Joe Lee believes that before this campaign is six weeks old, the Metropolitans will be giving "no end of trouble to Los Angeles, Boston. Chicago and the other outfits that now lead us.” And Joe doesn't mean per- haps.” • D ON’T say we didn’t warn you! Keep your eyes on Ed Callahan’s Bos- tonians. Those bean-eatei's will go great guns this year. Bet 100 to 1, they’ll finish the 18-week Drive with a percent- age well over their 18-week’s quota— and, remember, no distributor’s Boston office ever had the ambitious quota ours has. But, it has anything but frightened the Culturists; on the contrary, it’s brought out more fight. Drive Leader Sam Berg and his bookers have the booking books black with playdates— and the future looms extraordinarily bright for Boston. Again we say: look out for Boston, you Nationals! S TAN MAYER’S Iowans are in there pitching with everything on which they can get their hands. And we don’t mean that figuratively. Take the case of Salesman Ed O’Neill: he came through with a flock of playtime on K-4, K-5 and K-6 short subjects that will come in mighty handy. Drive Leader and Book- er Evan Jacobs and his aides are not only booking solidly, but selling repeat runs and getting time for re-issue, with exhibitors showing what Des Moines re- ports to be a surprising interest in this sort of bookings. Samson's Buffalo Sees Great September LOWDOWN SHOWS NEW MONTH STARTS ZOOMS! “this time I feel quite sure you will find us in first or second place among the International offices.”. And in his letter, Bill proceeds to list the reasons for his belief. Drive meetings are being held every Saturday at the Toronto exchange. Lionel Lester is holding down the book- ing job, for Jim Powis is on the sick list, and has been for some Lime. Good luck, Jim, and regards from all your many friends. •