20th Century-Fox Dynamo (October 7, 1939)

8 NEW DYNAMO Published In The United States Every I Peek In The Interest Of Sales Promotion By The Distribution Department Oj 20TH CENTURY—FOX FILM CORPORATION SIDNEY R. KENT, President HERMAN WOBBER, General Manager oj Distribution Roger Ferri Editor SALISOMLS sm N EXT to newspaper advertis- . ing, the most profitable means of arousing interest in coming attractions is the screen | trailer. And our own studio su- j pervises the trailers on our pic- tures. No home-made trailer can compare in either quality or selling strength with the trailer we release through National Screen. And the smart exhibi- tor need not be told which trailer serves his box office to best ad- vantage. • T HE finest performance Alice Faye and Don Ameche have ever given they present in “Hol- lywood Cavalcade.” That is the opinion of all who have seen this production. A finer collection of individual performances no pic- ture has boasted. That goes for the entire cast. J. Edward Brom- berg’s characterization of Dave Spingold is as masterly as the portrayal of the sheik in “Suez.” • thoroughly adsales-minded film salesmen. • T ODAY more than ever it is imperative to sell and book with foresight. Today condi- tions over here are better than they have been in two years. And they will continue to get better, according to official re- ports. America seems to be in for its greatest prosperity in years. Bear that in mind when selling and booking, states Mr. Wobber. • W HAT is the value of your contracts ? You’ll get the an- swer in the delivery standings. There is no secret in making contracts earn their maximum. It’s just a question of proper liquidation. Revenue from re- issues is important in that it is “extra” money, but keeping an eye on booking of available re- leases keeps your house in order. H OLLYWOOD’S concern over revenue is a healthy sign. It indicates, beyond a doubt, that Hollywood is distribution- mi n d e d and watching every d o liar. That should be as good news to exhibitors as it is to distribu- tors. In sales- mindedness our studio leads; there is no con- dition in any territory that is not taken Ed Thor gers e n into c a retul cons ideration by Hollywood today! Now, if only distributors and exhibitors were as mindful of Hollywood problems — what a greater in- dustry this would be! Y OUR attention is directed to the sales movements of two offices from whom you will hear much in the near future: Boston and Indianapolis. They advanced five places each on K-7 sales. Both have fed strongly into their I advance for the Drive and our guess is that they will be hard to j keep out of “the money.” • W HO’S afraid of the big bad | bombers?” asked a New York newspaper the other day. Our answer is: not theatregoers, for revenue in England and France took a decided jump. But, while revenue there is much nearer the normal expectancy, the fact remains that war restric- tions forbid the transfer of funds out of the country. T HE latest figures on sales- men’s contribution to adsales delivery are most encouraging. Twenty-one salesmen have sold at least 20 per cent of their re- spective total adsales’ deliveries. That is further proof that we now have an aggregation of S O impressed have been many critics by “Hollywood Caval- cade” that many of them this week rushed into print with help- ful and certainly ticket-selling advance reviews on this produc- tion. At least 37 such instances were reported to this publication and wisely key city exhibitors are capitalizing these reviews by ad- vertising quotations from them. • A YEAR ago at this time 17 salesmen could boast an ad- vance plus delivery equal to their 18-week’s Drive total de- livery quota. And the product available then was nowhere near as good as it is today. But, frankly enthusiasm was seem- ingly greater. Let’s have more enthusiasm — and less sob-sing- ing and you’ll get the same “kick” out of this Drive that you enjoyed in prior Drives. You’ve got PLENTY about which to cheer today—more than ever be- fore! • O NE can’t help be inspired, for instance, by the truly great spirit in Harry Ballance’s South. There is a GREAT family! The family spirit dominates every- thing Harry’s offices do — and that is one of many reasons why we expect the Southern branches to be right up there among the Drive headliners. Yes, we’ll bet on that! • E D THORGERSEN’s Sports Reviews are becoming as popular as Vyvyan Donner’s Fashion Forecasts — and that’s saying that the former series has developed a permanent follow- ing. What the sports page is to the daily newspaper Thorger- sen’s Movietone News sports comments and Sports Reviews are to successful theatre opera- tion. His “Clocking the Jockeys” is a grand piece of entertain- ment! ATLANTA OVERLOOKS NO BET! From Paul Wilson’s alert branch comes this self-explanatory j ! and interesting note: I “We have noticed in some of the past issues of New Dynamo \ : your mention of the outstanding business which Kansas City, j I Oklahoma City, St. Louis and some other branches have done 2 j on ‘Jesse James.’ I don’t know how our record will compare | | with these exchanges; however, I would like to quote the fol- | ! lowing figures insofar as Atlanta is concerned: j "On the K-6 season we sold 520 accounts and on ‘Jesse ! j James,’ for 31 weeks, through the week ending September 2, { ' we had played 749 engagements. The grosses which we have j j I received are naturally larger than on any production we have = | ever handled in this territory. On ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’ I = for 54 weeks, also through to the week ending Sept. 2, we had | j served 732 bookings. We, of course, have quite a number of = j additional bookings coming up and on ‘Jesse James’ our book- j : ings are still heavy through the middle of November.” THIS WEEK A TLANTA’S salesmen are burning the midnight oil aplenty—and displaying the enterprise that made a champion of Paul Wil- son’s office in two successive Drives. For instance, Salesman Roland Fairchild closed a K-7 deal with the Starr circuit of colored situa- tions which this company had not served since the K-3 season. 0 KLAHOMA CITY continues to get a neat sum of extra coin on re-issues. According to word from there, last week Charles Clark’s office secured 19 repeat R. Fairchild T OM YOUNG’S Memphis, too, is ■ Joe Flanagan \ A picking up a lot of loose coin. Tom himself lined up for some 45 repeat runs none other than the territory’s biggest source of revenue, the Robb & Rowley circuit. And it’s a very chunky amount of extra gelt the Memphis man- ager’s deal will bring the office. • E NLISTMENT in Canada is confined to volunteers at present. But, business in the large situations is better than it has been since last Spring. For instance, after playing three big weeks in Montreal, “Stanley and Livingstone” followed through with great grosses in Quebec, Three Rivers and Hull, in Ed English’s territory. • B UT, along comes “The Rains Came,” reports Montreal’s Jim Pearson, and that picturization of a best seller not only out- grosses “Stanley and Livingstone,” but it has given Montreal’s Palace theatre the biggest business that house has done in many, many months. # H OLLYWOOD CAVALCADE” is the World’s series opposition in Cincinnati this week-end, the Technicolor special opening there on Thursday. It was the first public showing of this Zanuck triumph east of Los Angeles, where the world premiere was held Wednesday night. # B EST individual “feed” into the Drive advance in the past month came from Phil Longdon’s Charlotte branch. And smart sales- men will do well not to overlook Charlotte’s Ebersole, Holston and Mock in this Big Push! • T HE finest 24-sheet Jerry Novat has turned out to date is the one we just saw on “Drums Along the Mohawk.” Pictorially it is an eye-catcher that sells everything at a single glance! Our posters are the best in the business. And you can shout that to the whole world. • Sam Germaine /CONGRATULATIONS to Harry j E Holston vy Brand, studio publicity direc- tor, on the manner in which the world premiere of “Hollywood Cavalcade” was handled and run off. It was Hollywood’s most his- toric premiere—and handled in a manner befitting the importance of the production and the occasion, according to the observations of the newspaper men in Los Angeles. • M R. ZANUCK has cast all roles for “The Grapes of Wrath.” And from what we gather at least three of the lucky players will come out of that picture with an increased box office value. • M ARY HEALY, ex-New Orleans secretary, plays a non-singing role in “20,000 Men a Year,” but this week she signed a new contract with Brunswicke to make four more recordings within the next two months. She recorded four tunes from “Second Fiddle” for that firm. • S ALT LAKE CITY’S jump from 17th to seventh place on accumu- lated nine-weeks’ delivery gives you an idea of the superior job Charles Walker’s office did last week when it was the only exchange to beat quota! The Latest i shop j ITALK | Comment * E LEVEN productions were in work at the beginning of this week. They were: “The Grapes of Wrath,” “He Married His Wife,” “Swanee River,” “The Blue Bird,” “Daytime Wife,” “Everything Happens at Night,” “Little Old New York,” “The Ad- venturer,” “The City,” “The Man Who Wouldn’t Talk” and “20,000 Men a Year.” • P RINTS on “The Road to Glory” and “The First World War” will be in all exchanges by the time the accessories on those productions reach there. Mr. Wobber is hopeful that every branch will get early bookings on these re-issues. Meantime, he is studying the bookings on Grade Field’s “Shipyard Sally,” prints on which already are at the branches. • D ELL GOODMAN’S Far East is not only leading the Over- seas forces on Drive business, and on accumulated 39 weeks’ delivery, but the record shows that his division has registered the highest percentage of gain over the corresponding period of 1938. His division’s increase tops that of Europe by 5.64 per cent, according to latest figures. • H ERE’S a prediction: Eddie Collins will emerge from “The Blue Bird” one of the screen’s outstanding comedians, following up a particularly funny portrayal as one of the Keystone Kops in “Hollywood Cavalcade.” That’s the tip that comes from a reliable source at the studio. • U P UNTIL now Salt Lake City’s Tidwell and Dugan have been having things very much their own way there, but word from there urges us to “keep an eye on McElhinney and Hallstrom.” But in money fed into the advance “Bishop” Tid- well in the past four weeks has secured far greater results than the other three salesmen at Walker’s branch. • T HINGS are humming as never before down at Sam Gross’ Philadelphia. The next 10 weeks will be the best that office has enjoyed—and bookings are right on top of release. As a matter of fact, reports from all the large territories indicate the second half of this Drive will be an his- toric affair—and the returns will surprise many! • L OS ANGELES’ Robison and Wall are making promising headway. In fact. Jack Dillon’s office, as a whole, faces a future that will subject rivals for the Nationals’ Drive championship to the full limit. But, it is ap- parent that this is not frighten- ing Washington, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas or Boston. • I T WILL interest his rivals to know that in the past four weeks, Paul Shallcross, New Or- leans salesman, fed something like 25 per cent of his total 18- weeks’ Drive quota into the ad- vance. Nearest to that figure came another Southerner, Zeke Miller, who is on his way to establish new earnings records in his zone. B ILL KUPPER has developed into the industry’s No. 1 “flying division manager.” In the past four months he has flown something like 38,000 miles. This week he flew out to Denver and from there he continued on to Los Angeles, but he flies back to New York this coming week- end, totalling something like 6,450 miles in a single w'eek-