The Exhibitor (1951)

EXHIBITOR 11 This Was The Week When ... The State Department commended American film company participation in the Uruguayan Film Festival. . . . Para¬ mount concluded a national tieup with the Feature-Lock Diamond Ring Company on “Passage West.” . . . Columbia held a threeday meeting in New York City to discuss sales of 16 important films. Andy W. Smith, Jr., revealed that 20 top productions will be released by his company in the next six months, with five in Technicolor and one in Supercinecolor. . . . UA announced the world premiere of “Queen For A Day” in Waycross, Ga., on April 14. . . . RKO announced special exploitation in April, May, and June for “The Thing”, “Tokyo File 212”, and “Jungle Headhunters.” . . . The University of Chicago revealed that the word “Oscar” had been included among 50,000 “Made In America” words in the “A Dictionary of Americanisms.” Realart held a meeting of executives and franchise holders in New York City. . . . MGM set the world premiere of “Go For Broke” at the Kuhio, Honolulu, for May 10. . . . Ben Kalmenson, Warners’ vice-president in charge of distribution, presided over a two-day meeting of dis¬ trict managers in New York City. . . . Warners revealed that Doris Day, star of “Lullaby Of Broadway,” would be honored today (March 28) at a celebration in Cin¬ cinnati. . . . Paramount completed a short Technicolor film, “The House On Any Street,” starring Cecil B. DeMille, to be shown in connection with the United Cerebral Palsy Associations drive. . . . The board of Technicolor declared a dividend of 50 cents per share. Columbia, Kramer In Deal Hollywood — Completed last week was a $25,000,000 deal calling for Stanley Kram¬ er’s independent producing company to deliver 30 pictures during the next five years for Columbia release. Heading the 12 properties which Kram¬ er’s company will bring to Columbia are “Death Of A Salesman,” “The Happy Time,” and “Member Of The Wedding.” Others are Donald Wilson’s best-seller, “My Six Convicts”; Jan De Hargot’s play, “Four Poster”; “The Wide House”, a novel by Taylor Caldwell; an original by Carl Foreman, “High Noon,” and an untitled Foreman original; Irving Reiss’ “Four Shades In Blue”; Frank Rooney’s “The Cyclist Raid,” and Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Markheim.” All are in preparation. Under the terms of the deal, Kramer will turn out six pictures a year, with Columbia financing and sharing in the profits. Lippert Unit Pays Dividend Hollywood — The fh’st dividend of the Motion Picture Financial Corporation, organized a year ago by Robert L. Lippert for the purpose of financing a group of Lippert productions, declared its first dividend last fortnight. A. E. Bollengier, former secretary-treasurer, Hal Roach Studios, Hollywood, recently arrived in New York City to assume duties as UA treasurer. PCCITO Meeting In July San Francisco — Rotus Harvey, president, Pacific Coast Conference of Independent Theatre Owners, last week announced the group’s convention would be held at Delmar, Cal., from July 16-19, with con¬ clave headquarters at the Delmar Turf and Surf Club. Kirsch Renamed In Illinois Chicago — Jack Kirsch was last week reelected president, Allied Theatres of Illinois. Other officers elected are Van Nomikos, vice-president, and Ben Banovitz, secretary-treasurer. Oscar Brotman, Avalce, was added to the board of direc¬ tors, and 14 directors were reelected. Allied Asks Relief From Distributors WASHINGTON— In a bulletin last week. Allied States Association asked distributors “to reexamine their pres¬ ent selling policies so as to abate existing hardships.” Allied said that “we ask them to do this in hopes of avoiding further in¬ ternecine strife. If the plea is ignored we can look for an epidemic of protest meetings the like of which we have never seen before.” Dates for the spring board meeting were fixed for the Phillips Hotel, Kansas City, on May 14-15, with the national equipment show and drive-in theatre owners' convention being held in the same city from May 15-17. St. Louis Plan To TOA St. Louis — Tom Edwards, head, Motion Picture Theatre Owners of St. Louis, East¬ ern Missouri, and Southern Illinois, and the organization’s representative on the TOA board, stated last week that he would present to the TOA board of directors meeting at the Mayflower Hotel, Wash¬ ington, D. C., on April 4-5-6, a plan for a national industry public relations ad cam¬ paign estimated to cost approximately $5,000,000. The campaign was discussed at a meet¬ ing of directors and officers of the MPTO, with Edwards authorized to proceed. MMPTA Ratifies COMPO Changes New York — The Metropolitan Motion Picture Theatres Association last week ratified COMPO by-law changes, it was announced by President Edward Rugoff. Ads like this are appearing in 58 National Magazines and 93 Sunday Newspaper Supplements totaling 185,761,000 circulation. March 28, 1951