The Exhibitor (Jun-Nov 1944)

24 SCHINE SALE RULING DUE FROM JUDGE KNIGHT Government Suit Continues Upstate Buffalo — Federal Judge John Knight was to have ruled this week on the sale by the Schine Circuit of the four theatres to A. Charles Hayman, Niagara Falls, N. Y., exhibitor, before the Government’s suit resumed. The theatres in question are State and Appalachia, Appalachia, Va.; Liberty, Pikeville, Ky., and Viv, Corbin, Ky. Hayman has already made a $10,000 down payment to Schine. The delay in the Court confirmation of the sale resulted when Robert L. Wright, Department of Justice, objected to Schine “negotiating privately’’ with Hayman and the circuit’s failure to place the offer be¬ fore the Court in accordance with pro¬ visions of the temporary order of May 12, 1942, which adjourned trial for two years on condition Schine divest itself of more than 12 theatres it acquired since 1943. The Oct. 13 sessions saw other inde¬ pendent exhibitors on the stand including: Hubert P. Wallace, Auburn, operator, Capitol, under the Auburn Capitol The¬ atre Corporation for 14 years; Anthony J. Lauer, also of Auburn, who had dealings with Wallace in contemplating theatre con¬ struction in nearby Canadaigua, N. Y.; John C. Hersberger, Selma, N. C., a tourist court operator, who operated the Audi¬ torium, Perry, N. Y., for about 20 years; Walter A. Smith, Elmira, N. Y., hotel keeper who formerly was employed by Schine as a theatre manager in Corning, N. Y., Lockport, N. Y., and Medina, N. Y., and then went into exhibition for himself in Addison, N. Y., and Hammondsport, N. Y.; Charles V. Martina, Albion, N. Y., who once operated the Empire, Syracuse; Stanley A. Falk, Buffalo attorney and pres¬ ident, Syracuse-Strand Theatre Corpora¬ tion, and Raymond C. Todd, Salisbury, Md.; one of two managers employed by the Ullman Theatre Corporation, that city. Wallace testified as to difficulty he en¬ countered in obtaining major product for the Capitol after Schine-Shea interests acquired other theatre properties. He said he asked Charles Boasberg, RKO, for RKO product, and that Boasberg told him the full line of RKO had been sold to SchineShea. Having played Paramount for 1933-34, Wallace said he talked with Paramount’s Syracuse salesman, Robert Caskey, and Paramount Buffalo branch manager Ken¬ neth Robinson on Oct. 10, 1934, with re¬ gard to product for the forthcoming season. Wallace said Caskey told him, “It is my unfortunate duty to come in, and tell you Paramount has sold away to Schine.” Cas¬ key and Robinson together told him, he said, that they objected “very strenuously” to the Schine deal, but there was “nothing we could do about it.” Lauer identified a proposed plan for Wallace’s contemplated theatre construc¬ tion in Canadaigua, which was marked. Herzberger told of being visited in 1935 by John May, Schine circuit, and of May’s informing him Schine had purchased a lot in Perry for a new $100,000 1,000-seat the¬ atre. He said later Schine offered him $5,000 for the lease on the auditorium. The deal never went through, Herz¬ berger testified, because the Town Board of Perry, from which he leased the the¬ atre, refused to okay sale of the lease to Schine. “They wanted me to stay,” he said. THE EXHIBITOR THE SCORE BOARD (Editor's Notej Highlight opinion of recent pic¬ tures screened under the consent decree follow. Full reviews appear in The Pink Section.) RKO “The Princess and the Pirate" — High rating comedy. “The Woman in the Window" — Suspenseful melodrama. WARNERS "The Conspirators” — Packed with interest “To Have and Have Not” — Topnotch. 20TH CENTURY-FOX “Laura” — Murder mystery holds in¬ terest. Herzberger declared the idea of Schine’s buying a lot for a new theatre in the town prompted him to then sell the lease to Osborne and Dipson, after which he stayed on for a year, and managed the theatre. During the time, he said, improvements were made on the house. The proposed Schine house never was built, Herzberger testified,, and Schine then purchased, the Auditorium from Osborne and Dipson. “I was through,” he testified. Edward F. McClennen cro^s-examined Herzberger for Schine only briefly, con¬ centrating on the fact that Osborne and Dipson improved the Auditorium at a cost of several thousand dollars, and “removed any occasion for having another theatre built in town.” Smith testified that when he operated his Addison, the Schine houses in Coming, 12 miles away, issued 15 cent student tickets in Addison, “taking my Addison High School crowd down there because they played the picture before I did.” He told of appealing to various film exhange branch managers about the situation, and being told by them they couldn’t do anything about it. Martina told of difficulties he encount¬ ered in obtaining product for the Empire, Syracuse, and declared “I lasted only three weeks and six days.” Cross-examining Martina for Schine, attorney Saul Rogers succeeded in show¬ ing that Martina had a poor credit rating, and, as a matter of fact, went through bankruptcy after transferring his prop¬ erty generally to his wife, Sarah, during the summer and fall of 1939. Rogers drew from Martina admissions that the Empire was not a first-run before he acquired it, that it had been charging 10 cents and 15 cents, and was playing “Bingo” and “a miscellaneous run of pic¬ tures,” and that when Martina sought pro¬ duct from the majors and was refused, it was long after the distributors had closed their product deals for that particular season. Rogers also succeeded in showing that some of the discussions about product which the D. of J. brought out were made at a time when Martina actually had no theatre in which to exhibit the films he was asking to book. Falk testified as to various leases on the Strand, Syracuse, and of talks with dis¬ tributors when the decision was made by the corporation to run the theatre itself. He was not cross-examined. Ralph Ober Teaches New York — New methods in the instruc¬ tion of journalism are being introduced by Ralph Ober, United Artists publicist, who is teaching the course at the Abbe . Insti¬ tute here starting on Oct. 16. TRADE SCREENINGS ALBANY, N. Y., DISTRICT Paramount (Delaware) Oct. 23— 2.00 "Frenchman's Creek" ATLANTA, GA., DISTRICT Paramount (Rhodes) Oct. 23—11.00 "Frenchman's Creek" BOSTON, MASS., DISTRICT Paramount (Esquire) Oct. 23— 2.30 "Frenchman's Creek" BUFFALO, N. Y., DISTRICT Paramount (Shea's Niagara) Oct. 23— 2.00 "Frenchman's Creek" CHARLOTTE, N. C., DISTRICT Paramount (Dilworth) Oct. 23—11.00 "Frenchman's Creek" CLEVELAND, OHIO, DISTRICT Paramount (Colony) Oct. 23— 2.00 "Frenchman's Creek" NEW HAVEN, CONN., DISTRICT Paramount (Whitney) Oct. 23—11.00 "Frenchman's Creek" NEW YORK DISTRICT Paramount (Normandie) Oct. 23—10.15 "Frenchman's Creek" RKO (630 Ninth) Oct. 18—11.00 "The Girl Rush" Warners (321 W. 44th) Oct. 30 — 2.30 "The Very Thought Of You" PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT Paramount (State) Oct. 30— 8.30 "Frenchman's Creek" RKO (250 N. 13th) Nov. 13—10*30 "Girl Rush 2.30 "Experiment Perilous Nov. 14—10.30 "Falcon In Hollywood 2.30 "Farewell My Lovely" Nov. 15— 2.30 "The Brighton Strangler " Warners (1220 Vine) Oct. 30—11.00 "The Very Thought Of You" PITTSBURGH DISTRICT Paramount (Shadyside) Oct. 23— 2.00 "Frenchman's Creek WASHINGTON, D. C.. DISTRICT Paramount (306 H„ N.W.) Oct. 23— 2.00 "Frenchman's Creek FOR YOUR GUIDANCE THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU. Warners. Dennis Morgan, Dane Clark, Eleanor Parker, Faye Emerson. GIRL RUSH. RKO. Wally Brown, Alan Carney, Vera Vague, Frances Langford. EXPERIMENT PERILOUS. RKO. Hedy Lamarr, George Brent, Paul Lukas, Albert Dekker. FALCON IN HOLLYWOOD. RKO. Tom Conway, Barbara Hale, Jean Brooks, Veda Ann Borg. FAREWELL MY LOVELY. RKO. Dick Powell, Anne Shirley, Claire Trevor. THE BRIGHTON STRANGLER. RKO. John Loder, June Duprez, Rose Hobart. FRENCHMAN'S CREEK. Paramount. Joan Fontaine, Arturo de Cordova, Basil Rathbone — (Technicolor). 20th-Fox Announces Next Block New York — Twentieth Century-Fox an¬ nounced last week that “Laura” with Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, and Vincent Price; “Something For the Boys,” Techni¬ color musical, with Carmen Miranda, Perry Come, Michael O’Shea, Vivian Blaine. Phil Silvers, and Sheila Ryan; and “The Way Ahead,” English-made film with David Niven, Raymond Huntley, and Billy Hartnell, would comprise block four of the company’s 1944-45 product, scheduled for release during November. Date of trade screenings will be announced. October 18, 1944