The Exhibitor (1950)

EXHIBITOR NT-1 NliWS OF TUF BRANCHES Cincinnati Managers of RKO houses in Colum¬ bus, 0., Dayton, 0., and this city attend¬ ed a one-day meeting to inaugurate a drive for business during the last three months of this year. Among the speak¬ ers were Sol A. Schwartz, executive vice-president; William Howard, assis¬ tant in charge of operations; Harry Mandel, advertising and publicity direc¬ tor; Mathew Polon, head, booking de¬ partment; Robert Sherman, head, film buying department, and James Roth, as¬ sistant to Howard. Allan S. Moritz, who retired recently as Columbia branch manager, was guest of honor at a testimonial dinner on Sept. 18 in the Variety Club. A large number of local and out-of-town guests were present for the dinner, the ar¬ rangements for which were handled by Maurice White, William Bein, and Vance Schwartz. After having operated for several years as the Tent Three Society, the name of this group has been changed to Variety Wives, following a contest for a new name, won by Mrs. James S. Ambrose. She donated her $5 prize to the foundling fund of the group. New officers, elected recently, are: President, Mrs. Morris Dennis; first vice-president, Mrs. Herman Hunt; second vice-presi¬ dent, Mrs. Allan Moritz; recording sec¬ retary, Mrs. Joseph Rosen; correspond¬ ing secretary, Mrs. Sol Greenberg, and treasurer, Mrs. Sam Weiss. Doris Day cut a special record to aid in the Community Chest Drive. Chest officials made a special request for a platter plugging the opening of the Chest campaign by the star of “Lullaby of Broadway” so a rush job was done on the set of the Technicolor musical, and rushed east. The Montgomery Drive-In closed for the season, and Jack Hauer, manager, went to New Jersey to open three new drive-ins for the Smith Management Company, Boston, Mass. . . . Charles Behlen opened the Nicklas, Nicklasville, Ky. Two employees at 20th-Fox are driv¬ ing new cars. Edyth Tieman, secretary to branch manager J. B. Rosen, has a Pontiac, and Virginia Meyer, assistant cashier, has a DeSoto. . . . George West, Monogram, returned from a Hollywood convention. . . . John Gentile, recently transferred from Paramount, Detroit, to be West Virginia salesman, has pur¬ chased a home here. Vincent Jacobs, assistant shipper, and Shirley Berry, assistant biller, 20th-Fox, were on the sick list. Ethel Stenger, formerly in the office, returned as an Lew Herb Visits In Indianapolis (Lew Herb reports on his jou7'ney mto the hidiunapolis area. — Ed.) Our visit in Cincinnati at an end, we once more readied our rolling home for departure, and took to the open road again to Indianapolis. Hieing ourselves to Film Row, we began making the rounds, and dropped in first at Realart, where we chatted with Joseph Bohn, branch manager. Mrs. Bohn, who assists him in operating the office, had had the mis¬ fortune to break her hip, and was confined to Methodist Hospital. Bohn announced that Lee L. Goldberg, Cincinnati and Indian¬ apolis franchise holder, had acquired six “Lum and Abner” reissues for both territories, and the first two of these, “Dreaming Out Loud” and “Bashful Bachelors,” were available. Sam Abrams, former branch manager for Film Classics, traveling the terri¬ tory for Realart, had a streak of bad luck, and was hospitalized. Screen Guild being next door, we dropped in, and were greeted by another old friend, Russel Bleeke, former office manager for Republic, who took over here last February, succeeding Larry Jacobs. This office is still operated as a franchise, owned by Harry Lorsch, Chi inspectress. . . . Helen Honnert, Thea¬ tre Owners Corporation, will be married on Oct. 21. . . . The office force at Para¬ mount presented W. A. Meier, branch manager, with a cake on his recent birthday. . . . Wilbur Hetherington, for¬ merly with RKO, is a new booker for Eagle Lion Classics. Vacationing were; Dorothy Ward, biller; Clara Wright, inspectress; Mabel Reinhart, inspectress, and Florence Her¬ mann, cashier, Loew’s; Leonard Katz, RKO head booker; Laura Finley, 20thFox inspectress; Howard Rodebush, RKO head booker, and Gladys Hadley, contract department, U-I, and Derek Sydney, Kentucky and West Virginia salesman, NSS. Visitors included : Fred Helwig, Charleston, W. Va. ; G. C. Porter, Beckley, W. Va.; A1 and Bill Thalheimer, Logan, W. Va. ; Frank Allara, Mattawan, W. Va.; Arnold Berger and Jack Hauer, Montgomery, O.; Carl Pfister, Troy, O.; Ted Tekras, Columbus, 0.; Bob Harrell, Cleves, O. ; Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Williamson, Dayton, 0.; Col. Jim Howell, Carrollton, Ky.; A. H. Bales, Brooksville, Ky., and Joe Marshall, Dan¬ ville, Ky. Vacationing were: Ross Spencer, Co¬ lumbia office manager; Gladys Hadley, U-I contract department, in New Orleans, and Margaret Woodruff, Lippert office manager-booker, in the Smokies. Lew Herb cago, who purchased it from Albert Dezel, Detroit. Bleeke has disposed of the former Dezel product, and is now con¬ centrating strictly on the Lippert pro¬ ductions. Lou Siebert, former Cincinna¬ tian, is also connected with the office traveling the territory. States Film Service, located in this same building was our next port of call, and we chatted with Frank Weitzel, handling this office for Bud Wessel, Cin¬ cinnati, for the past year or so. He was giving up his post to return to Cin¬ cinnati to take over the booking and buying chores for 13 Alpine Circuit sit¬ uations, 11 of which are in the Cincinnati territory and two in the Pittsburgh ex¬ change territory. Weitzel is well versed in this phase of the business, having held the same post previously for Alpine on several different occasions, as well as having worked in distribution for many years. Our next call took us to United Art¬ ists to see another old friend. Bill Hames, who came here from Atlanta as branch manager. We learned that Harry Hays, connected with the local branch as a salesman, had died last July, but Elmer Donnelly was still there, hale and hearty. Hames really likes it here. Downstairs in Warners, we ran into several more old acquaintances, Jules Goldman, Gayle Black, and Bob Shrader, sales staff, but C. W. McKean, branch manager, was out of town. We also shook hands with Bill Humphreys, who came here from Chicago recently to man¬ age the office, and Virgil Jones, booker, but missed the cheery smile of Mrs. Jane Beard, who, we were informed, was now at her home, convalescing. Cleveland The Variety clubhouse still belongs to the Variety Club. Chief Barker Irwin Shenker and Marshall Fine, Associated Theatres Circuit, were in Philadelphia to see the Browns-Eagles football game. Bob Handler and Joe Wasserman, also of Film Row, took in the game. Bert Brock, Argus, Inc., was in Hous¬ ton, Tex., to attend the AFL convention. On their return, his partner, Walter Olds, was to light out for the west to visit his daughter and grandchildren. . . . Kay Weschler is leaving Co-opera¬ tive Theatres to be free to join her hus¬ band, a chemical engineer and a veteran of World War II, who has been called back to active duty in the navy. Donald Wolf, son of Warner theatres’ Ohio zone manager Nat Wolf, who was graduated from the School of Business Administration, Western Reserve Uni¬ versity, was enjoying a vacation in Texas. . . . Alan Sogg, son of MGM branch manager Jack Sogg, resumed his studies at Miami University. . . . Jimmy Ochs, youngest son of the Herb Ochs, entered his sophomore year at State University, Oxford, 0. Frank Murphy, Loew’s Theatres divi¬ sion manager, and Mrs. Murphy left for a vacation in Boston. Gertrude L. Tracy, well known man¬ ager in the east as well as in Cleveland, September 27, 1950 mideast