The Exhibitor (1953)

NT-2 EXHIBITOR Teet Carle, Paramount studio publicity manager, left for Hollywood. . . . Herb Steinberg, Paramount home office pub¬ licity manager, returned from Boston fol¬ lowing a midwest and New England tour with Rosemary Clooney in connection with “The Stars Are Singing.” . . . Arthur Israel, Jr., assistant to Barney Balaban, Paramount Pictures president, returned from Des Moines. . . . Sid Blumenstock, Paramount assistant direc¬ tor of advertising, publicity, and exploi¬ tation and advertising manager, returned from Dallas following completion of arrangements there and in Miami, Fla., for southern premieres of “Come Back, Little Sheba.” Walter Reade, Jr., and Mrs. Reade, left for a short business and pleasure trip to Europe. He will attend to film business in Rome, and then spend the remainder of his stay skiing. Charles C. Moskowitz, vice-president and treasurer, Loew’s, got back from a visit to the studio. . . . William D. Kelly, head, MGM’s print department, returned from a visit to the studio. Major company and group chairmen for the 1953 campaign of the Boy Scout Councils of Greater New York met in the COMPO offices to plan cam¬ paign operations. The meeting was ad¬ dressed by Spyros S. Skouras, chair¬ man, amusement division; Charles Boasberg, chairman, distributors and producers; Leon J. Bamberger, associate chairman, and Frank Parachini, Boy Scouts. Messrs. Boasberg and Bamber¬ ger have announced the completion of their committee. Allied Artists, John Michelson; Columbia, Henry Kaufman; MGM, Mike Simons; National Screen Service, Burton Robbins; Paramount, Arthur Israel; RKO, Charles Drayton; 20th Century-Fox, Edward L. Sullivan; United Artists, Norman A. Hasselo; U-I, Anthony Petti; Warners, Stuart McDonald; MPA A and COMPO, Taylor Mills; Independent distributors, pro¬ ducers and producers’ representatives, David Weshner, and importers and ex¬ porters, Phil Lewis. Berk and Krumgold, real estate brokers, consummated a 21-year lease, with an aggregate rental of $400,000, for the 1400-seat Rugby, Brooklyn. The Rugby has been operated by the Century Circuit, which sold its interest in the property to Dave Rosenzweig, who, in turn, leased the theatre to Rugby Thea¬ tre, Inc., headed by Robert Seltzer. The same brokers recently leased the Little Neck, Little Neck, L. I., to the same interests. G. S. Eyssell, president, Rockefeller Center, Inc., accompanied by Maxwell Abramowitz, New York architectural firm of Harrison, Fouilhoux and Abramo¬ witz, travelled to Hollywood. Arleen Whelan, who has a featured role in “Never Wave At A Wac,” arrived to make a number of radio and television appearances in connection with the national promotion campaign for the film. Among those attending a recent Variety Club dinner to launch the annual observ¬ ance of “Brotherhood Week” in the Albany territory were, left to right, sit¬ ting, Rev. R. N. Hughes, secretary, Albany Federation of Churches; Jules Perlmutter, Chief Barker, Tent 9; Rabbi Samuel Wolk, Temple Beth Emeth, and, rear row, left to right, Charles A. Smakwitz, Warner Theatres zone manager and exhibitor co-chairman of the drive, and Jack Goldberg, MGM branch manager and distributor chairman. New Jersey Asbury Park The Atlantic Video Corporation, which will operate the new ultra high frequency television station on Channel 58, an¬ nounced the appointment of Harold C. Burke, former director of radio and tele¬ vision operations for the entire Hearst newspaper organization, as coordinating director for the station. Burke has been retained to complete plans necessary to get the station on the air, it was stated by Walter Reade, Jr., theatre circuit executive, and president, Atlantic Video Corporation. Burke will have his office in the Reade office building. Newark Piper Laurie, co-starred in U-I’s “The Mississippi Gambler,” was in to aid in advance promotion of the picture. She also visited Jersey City, N. J. Public Safety Director Keenan cited the showing of “Mom and Dad” at an Irvington, N. J., theatre as “emphasizing the need for state legislature regulating the presentation of certain type films. We attempted to ban this gutter-type view of sex when it appeared in a downtown Newark theatre, and we were handcuffed by the courts,” Keenan stated. At that time, he predicted that if the film were approved for downtown Newark, “it would crop up in strictly neighborhood houses far more readily available to children from the stand¬ point of admission price and location.” Keenan said such films should be limited to lecture halls, and should not be shown in connection with commercial exploita¬ tion. He commented, “One needn’t be a puritan or reformer to want common decency in entertainment.” The situation, Keenan said, points up the need for adopting a Home Rule Act amendment, proposed by Assemblyman Duffy, Repub¬ lican, Essex, to permit municipalities to control the showing of such films. Irvington police viewed the film at the Liberty after receiving several com¬ plaints. The Police Department, however, decided not to take any action after being informed by the town’s legal department of the court action which prevented Newark from interfering with its showing. New York State Albany The New York State Censors reported that licensing tax receipts totaled $347,000 in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year. Leo Greenfield, U-I manager and Film Row’s most eligible bachelor, tells a humorous story of the manner in which news of his engagement to Muriel Lanahan, Ted Baldwin Associates, New York, leaked out. Attending a recent U-I drive meeting in Boston, Greenfield kiddingly remarked that he “would have to win a prize”; he “needed the money,” be¬ cause of impending marriage. Colleagues carried the ball from Boston to New York, where home office staffers broke it to the trade press. A husband and wife combination is operating the Strand, Johnstown, Mr. and Mrs. Leland Warner. The Delaware building has been pur¬ chased by Sharine Trading Corporation for about $50,000. Warner Circuit will continue to operate the 14-year-old house on lease running to 1961. The virtually 100 percent turnout from Film Row for the “Brotherhood Week” meeting included: Columbia, Harvey Appell, Herb Schwartz, Saul Shiffrin, Carmella Mottolese, Rita Bagneto, Florence Bergman, Mary Ann Quest, Mildred Hanley, Sadie Moran, Ann Hasbrouck, and Adam Milinarik; Loew’s, Jack Goldberg, Arthur Horn, Ralph Ripps, Frank Carroll, Katherine Shea, Helen Wisper, Helen Dean, Lillian Buchofsky, Lillian Paulus, Mary Savini, Margaret Wildreth, Margery Mangeon, Anita Plouffe, Margaret Weichman, Mary Reilly, Mildred Levine, Anthony Rosello, Lillian Caroll, Katherine Newkirk, Sophie Minton, Steve Pochman, Bernard Pajack, A1 Coightry; Paramount, Gordon Bugie, Howard Smith, Edward J. Wall, Frank Lynch, Bob Arnold, and Douglas Hermans; Republic, Arthur Newman, Jack Keegan, Tom Carroll, Sue O’Brien, Kathryn Dobbs, and Betty Van Alstyne; RKO, Howard Goldstein, William Williams, William P. Hanley, Wilhelmina Wenzel, Jean Benedetti, Elizabeth Gela, Mary Saroko, Rosalind Magill, Elizabeth Elliott, Robert Blum, Alvenia Joos, Josephine Shippey, and Anna May Kretzler; U-I, Leo Greenfield, Eugene Lowe, Harry Alexander, A1 Marchetti, John Capano, James Tunney, Ethel Anameier, Catherine Burke, Shirley Cohen, Vicky Grygiel, Joan Pratt, Kathryn Reibou, Geneva Barcomb, Jane Flynn, Mabel Miles, and Mabel Van Amburg; Warners, Raymond Smith, Harry Aronove, James Moore, Mary Anameier, Lee Hecht, Betty Herrick, Marie Hollenbock, Charlotte Lansing, Harry La Vine, Milton Levins, Cornelius McCabe, Carrie Rodgers, Dorothy Rus¬ sell, Doris Senecal, and Nancy Wagner; 20th Century-Fox, Nat Rosen, man February 11, 1953