The Exhibitor (May-Aug 1948)

NT4 THE EXHIBITOR ‘Spanish in 20 Lessons”, and one Wash¬ ington Avenue delicatessen is searching frantically for the Spanish word for “matzo ball”. Recent changes in personnel in the Wometco Circuit include the following: Tim Tyler to manager, Surf; Malcolm Tait, assistant, Town, to manager, Ace; James Camp, assistant, Mayfair, to assistant, Town; Joseph Rynock, assistant, Rosetta, to assistant, Capitol; Joseph Fryer, assistant, Cen¬ ter, to assistant, Rosetta; Harold Greenberg, assistant, Grove, to assis¬ tant, Center; Claude Woods, assistant, Capitol, to assistant. State, and Joseph St. Thomas, assistant, Parkway, to assistant, Mayfair. The Tivoli will close for several weeks for a complete remodelling, ac¬ cording to manager Earl Potter. Airconditioning in included. Most thrilling confection news since the birth of the 15-cent popcorn box is the announcement of Wometco’ s base¬ ball contest, with best hitter getting a trip to Havana. All candy girls are girding for the battle, with competi¬ tion keen and managers determined. More details will be announced later, as released for publication by Kernel Van Myers. The projected Carl Fisher Theatre, intended as a legitimate playhouse for Miami, will be erected near Dade Boulevard and Alton Road, Miami Beach, according to present plans. Wometco Old Guard held a boatride recently. ... Labe Mell, former manager, Ace, now studying television in New York City, announced his engagement to Lorraine Klapper. Miss Klapper is the well-known heiress. According to Mell, it was love at first sight. Georgia MANSFIELD The Newton opened to the public on May 25. Roy Mitchell, Stone Mountain, Ga. , is owner, and Mrs. H. C. Adams, Newton, Ga. , will manage. The house has 500-seats. Opening ceremonies featured a welcome by the Lions Club. North Carolina KINGS MOUNTAIN The Cash brothers, who have the Dixie, will soon start construction on a new house. South Carolina CLINTON Mrs. Elizabeth Young Dick and J. Leland Young are erecting a $100,000 theatre. Tennessee CHATTANOOGA Celotex Company made installations at the Riveria. LIVINGSTON Altec Service signed a contract with the Ritz. LEW HERB ("Continued from page NT-1) of many other civic clubs. His the¬ atres are well -staffed with competent employees, who know their various duties. In addition to the Tivoli, now 20 years old, but still the finest theatre in the city, he also operates the State and the Rialto. The latter is to be abandoned as a theatre this coming September, when the present lease on it expires, and will be taken over by an adjoining bank on one side, and a department store on the other. Plans are underway, however, to re¬ place the loss of this with a new, modern theatre to be located some¬ where in the same vicinity as the old house. Calling around at the Rialto, we chatted with Felix Lacey, who heads the staff. He started out in his native Johnson City, Tenn. , in 1930, coming to Chattanooga in 1940. Like his co¬ hort, Charles Simpson, manager, State, and Milt Newsom, manager, Tivoli, he has come up through the ranks of the organization. The spacious foyer and lobby of the Tivoli are well adorned with many novel displays. The confection de¬ partment is also a little different from the usual display found in most theatres, and we learned that Rogers was responsible for the design and creation of all of the novel art work featured. In due course we learned that he once travelled extensively with stage shows, designing and building stage settings. He also designs all his own newspaper ads, instead of using the regular pressbook material. In this manner, he keeps a fresh view-point. The same applied when his organiza¬ tion for a time made its own coming attraction trailers. He wrote all of them, usually seven or eight daily, and this lasted for over a year and a half. He believes in originality, individ¬ uality, and just plain hard work. Our chat proved very interesting, and re¬ luctantly we bid adieu, and continued on. We next journeyed out to the SkyWay Drive-In, located a few miles out on the Brainerd Road, where we met Don Shaw, operating this modern the¬ atre for the past seven years. This is one of the most attractive outdoor theatres it has been our pleasure to visit during our tour of the southern states, and Shaw is to be commended. While not quite as large as some, it is, in its simplicity of design and well-kept landscaping, very at¬ tractive. Our visit reaffirmed the contention that the drive-in is here to stay, and has definitely swung over to the family trade. Shaw, another veteran showman, with prior experience in the business in Ohio, and later on the west coast, came to Chattanooga around 1940, and has devoted all of his ef¬ forts since that time to the oper¬ ation of the Sky-Way. He is being aided in the operation by his son, whom he is grooming to take over one day when he feels he is old enough to retire. Returning to the city, we went this time to the Rossville section, where we dropped in at the Ritz, and chatted with Howard Stone, who operates the house for Abe Solomon. Rossville Boulevard is currently in the process of being rebuilt, and, upon arriving at the theatre, we found that it too, was in the process of being remodeled. A new marquee has already been erected, and new carpets, seats, etc., were being installed inside the theatre itself. Stone has been associated with the organization for some time. This house, being a neighborhood, op¬ erating evenings only, left him time to handle another job during the day, and he is employed by the state. His mother is also connected with the ex¬ hibition, and handles the reins at another independent theatre, the Riveria, Nixson Pike. Our next neighborhood call was to the Rivoli, Glass Street, and, after losing our way several times, we finally arrived there, too late to see Julius Schwartz, who is associated with Solomon in the operation of this house, but we did get to chat with his manager, Jerome Bohannon, who has been located at this house for the past 20 years. We next looked up the operators of the Grand Amusement Company, which operates the colored theatres in Chat¬ tanooga. They turned out to be Mose and Robert Lebovitz, of the Amusu, Grand, Harlem, and Liberty, although the Harlem is currently not in oper-. ation. Calling at the Liberty, we met R. Lebovitz, who showed us around this newest of their houses, and of which they are justly proud. It is one of the better colored theatres in this section. Lebovitz says there is very little vandalism, if any, and since it was opened not too long ago, only a very few seats have been damaged, qnd these probably unintentionally. We also met Mose Lebovitz, who just returned from a booking trip to At1 anta. We’ve saved the record of our visit to the Park for last, and here we found Jay Sadow, son-in-law of Solomon, who personally looks after this theatre. It is located in one of the better neighborhood sections of the city, and caters to the better class of trade. Sadow takes a keen interest in the operation, and has from time to time tried to give the public some¬ thing different in the way of enter¬ tainment. Recently, in fact, he was running a new contest. He conceived the idea of the contest from the widely publicized radio “Walking Man Contest”. He calls his the “Talking Man”, and operates it in much the same way as the radio show was run. By tying up with several mer¬ chants, he secured some very nice prizes which he put on display in his lobby, with a credit card for each of the merchants who contributed. He made a recording of a well-known citizen of Chattanooga, who turned out to be a very well-known newspaper reporter, who described himself, giving a new clue to his identity each week, until he was finally identified. The con¬ test created so much attention locally that he continued to run it with a new “Talking Man”, and was still get¬ ting good results at the boxoffice. June 9, 1948