The Exhibitor (May-Aug 1948)

THE EXHIBITOR NT 1 NEWS OF ini< BRANCHES Atlanta Henry Krumm, southern division ma¬ nager, SRO, announced that Colonel Bert Davis, sales representative, has resigned from the company, and that Nelson Towler, former branch manager, Eagle Lion, is now with SRO, ... Spence Pierce, publicity chief, 20th CenturyFox, left for a trip to Charlotte. Visiting the city were C.A. Drake, Pierson, Pierson, Ga. ; Ed Duncan and Clyde Sampler, Duncan and Richards and Duncan Theatres, Carrollton, Ga. , and L.J. Duncan and Sidney Laird, Al-Dun Amusement Company, West Point, Ga. Those on Film Row were glad to welcome back Walter Hickey after four months of illness. ...A summer outing was held at the home of Barbara Whitaker, College Park. She is with Eagle Lion. At this weiner roast, she announced her forth¬ coming marriage, and proudly displayed the large, sparkling ring on her finger ....Mr. and Mrs. Harry Katz and Ike Katz, Kay Exchanges, returned from Memphis. ... Grover Parsons, southern district manager, Eagle Lion, returned from Memphis. ... D. L. Turner, district manager, Altec; Harry Paul, sales manager, RCA, and John Cason, East Lake projectionist, were off to spend the summer in Los Angeles. ... Nat Ber¬ stein, Dixie, Miami, was in booking. John Jarvis, recently with SRO, has joined the sales staff of Kay Film Exchange. . . . Ike and Harry Katz, Kay officials, returned from New York, where they made deals for additional releases. ... Mrs. Bernice Hinton, book¬ keeper, and Mary Cole, secretary, Kay Film Exchange, returned from vacation¬ ing at Jacksonville Beach, Fla. Charlotte W.W. Presson and R.W. Dabney, Monroe, N.C., bought the Pastime from Mrs. Earle Shute, and took control June 1. They will operate it until they com¬ plete a new 900-seat house on West Franklin Street. The Pastime has been a popular amusement center for many years, and Mrs. Shute only sold her theatre because of recent bad health. H.M. Gibbs, projectionist, Visulite, for the past 10 years, has been trans¬ ferred by the owners, F.H. Beddingfield and T. A. Little, to manage the com¬ pany’ s drive-in between High Point, N.C., and Thomasville, N. C. .. .The Crys¬ tal, owned and operated byW.M. “Bill” Corbett, reopened for the season. Exhibitor' s Service handles the book¬ ing. Robert Kidd, former Paramount office manager, is now a Warner booker. Kidd left Paramount several months ago, and nad been rooking after other interests in the meantime. Two new drive-in theatres opened. One was the Dreamland, a $100,000 drive-in between Asheville and Black Mountain, N.C., operated by Pless brothers, and the other was the Park¬ in, Kannapolis, N. C. close to Char¬ lotte, operated by H. H. Everett, Worth Stewart, and H. D. “Hank’ Hearn. Hearn operator of Exhibitor’ s Service, who supervised the Kannapolis Park-In, says that he had a large pole set up on top of which was placed a flood¬ light that gives amber and blue-colored light. The effect is so nearly like that of moonlight. Bill Prager, RKO exploiter from Wash¬ ington, visited, mapping campaigns on “I Remember Mama” and “Fort Apache”. Another visitor at RKO was A. A. Schu¬ bert, RKO exchange operations manager. H.D. “Hank” Hearn, owner and opera¬ tor, Exhibitor’ s Service, was at Black Mountain, N C. , supervising the com¬ plete remodeling of his Pix, formerly the New, which he leased recently from A.J. Terrell. The Paula, Mt. Pleasant, N. C. , operated by Exhibitor’s Service, recently inaugurated Sunday movies. Seen on Film Row were J.L. King and BethRailey, Bethune, S. C. ; R.E. Brant¬ ley, Tryon, N. C. ; J.W. McMillan, Latta, S.C.; Ralph Cook, Walterboro, S.C.; Charlie Meyers, Rich Square, N.C., and J.S. McDaniel, Dallas, N.C. All officers and members of the board of directors of Charlotte Little The¬ atre were reelected. H.B. Meiselman announces that plans are completed for a Negro theatre at Seventh and McDowell Streets, and that he hopes to have the new house ready for opening in the late summer. This will be the fourth Negro theatre for Charlotte. The theatres now operating include the Savoy, Lincoln, and the Grand. The North 29 Drive-In, with 500-car capacity, opened. The city of Char¬ lotte will soon extend its limits, and then the North 29, so named because it is on the highway 29 on the road to Concord, will be strictly a city drivein. The Theatre Equipment Company out¬ fitted this drivein. It is owned and operated by the ASF Corporation, the owners being Bob Saunders and Byron Adams. Charles Lowe, owner, Stanley, Stan¬ ley, N.C. , purchased the Boar’s Head, popular eating place and rendezvous for entertainment. Barney Hochenstein, Blumenthal The¬ atres, returned after spending a few days in Atlanta. Memphis The Memphis Better Films Council celebrated its annual “Oscar party” by passing out “Oscars” generously. Top on Film Row was RKO, which re¬ ceived an “Oscar” for being the most cooperative motion picture producing company. It was received by Fred Ford, district publicity manager, Augustine Cianciola, owner, Rosemary/ neighbor¬ hood house, won his “Oscar” for being (Continued on next page) TRAVELLING AROUND WITH LEW HERB (Lew Herb, traveling representative of THE EXHIBITOR, continues with his leisurely tour through the southern ar ea.-Ed. ) Once again, we hooked up our rolling home again, and headed north to Chat¬ tanooga. Upon reaching the city, we dropped in first at the Dixie, where we chatted with W.L. Dowler, who operates this house, opposite the postoffice. Dowler is the third-generation of a pioneer exhibitor family. His grandfather was one of the pioneers in Chattanooga in the exhibition business, and built many of the theatres. The Dixie is the only theatre in Chattanooga still operating under the Dowler family, but it still owns and operates another, in Knoxville, Tenn. -We continued on uptown to the offices of Independent Theatres, which operates practically all the sub-runs and neighborhoods in the city. Jay Solomon, son of Abe Solomon, heads the organization. The late Sam Borisky was one of the cofounders of this same company, and was associated with Solomon in the oper¬ ation of these theatres before his untimely death. Solomon is another of the pioneer theatremen in Chattanooga, having been active in exhibition here for over 30 years. The company is currently constructing a new theatre in Brainerd, a suburban section of Chattanooga, and is contemplating the erection of a drive-in on the other side of the city. In the downtown section, it operates the Capitol and and Cameo, plus the American. The Capitol is under the direction of Miss Helen Plemons, who has been fronting at the house for the past seven years, and is evidently doing a nice job. Before taking her present position, she was connected with the Dowler Theatres, and really believes there is nothing like show business. Across the street, at the Cameo, we chatted with Granville Watson, who manages the house, and discovered another vet¬ eran in the industry. Watson, too, has had over 20 years experience^having been associated with Independent The¬ atres practically all of that time. Our next call took us to the Tivoli, largest theatre in the city, and the “A” house for the Wilby-Kincey or¬ ganization, which operates three the¬ atres in town. Emmet R. Rogers, who has been associated with exhibition in this territory from the early days, has been a fixture in Chattanooga since the theatres have been under the Wilby Kincey banner. He is a wellknown figure in both the city’s social and business life, and places much emphasis on taking an active part in the community’ s civic affairs. At present, he heads the Kiwanis organization, and is a past president (Continued on page NT-4) Lew Herb June 9, 1948 Southern