The Exhibitor (1950)

NT-2 EXHIBITOR Among those who attended the recent Paramount convention in Los Angeles were these men from the Pittsburgh branch, posing with stars Jan Sterling and William Bendix, left to right: Harry Passarell, Charles Morgan, Bob Caskey, Bendix, Dave Ivimelman, Miss Sterling, Harold Henderson, and Leo Wayne, all apparently pleased. dis, Frank Cost, Sid Holland, Louis Swee, Dave Polster, E. J. Stutz, John Newkirk, Lou Ratener, Henry Barden, James Kalafat, and Harold Greenberger. A camp site recently purchased by the Variety Club, to be known as the Variety Club Boys Camp, will open on July 12. Located at Northfield, O., it will provide supervised entertainment for underprivileged boys from 9-14 years of age. The 20-acre tract of land has cottages, a mess hall, baseball field, tennis, basketball and volley ball courts, and a swimming pool. It will accommo¬ date 40 boys a week. Camp director will be Joseph Price, athletic coach-science instructor, Brush High School. Irwin Shenker, Variety Club Chief Barker; Irwin Pollard, Republic branch manager, and Leonard Greenberger, Fairmount, are in charge of arrangements and poli¬ cies. The opening group of 40 boys is being selected through * The Presslighting Chance” contest. Those nom¬ inated in letters by readers will be screened and chosen by prominent Cleve¬ landers in the field of youth activities. The project has the support of Mayor Thomas A. Burke in a letter pledging the administration’s help. A daughter, Susan Lyn, was born to the wife of Harold Greenberger, manag¬ ing director, Esquire. They also have a two-and-one-half year old son, Bruce. This brings to eight the total number of grandchildren of Community Circuit offi¬ cial Henry Greenberger. Frank Murphy, Loew’s Theatres divi¬ sion manager, started his weekly State lobby dancing from seven to nine in his showmanship movie-radio promo¬ tion. Music was provided by radio sta¬ tion disc jockeys, playing MGM records. Five out of six people, queried at ran¬ dom in the lobby of a downtown theatre on whether the theatres are doomed by television, expressed the opinion that movies are here to stay. I. E. Chadwick, president, Independent Producers Association, told a group of exhibitors that without their support the small independent producer will soon be extinct. Abe Kramer, Associated Thea¬ tres Circuit, answered Chadwick, saying that in order to survive, the independent producers should combine their efforts to make fewer but better independent product. Kramer pointed out that many of the small houses now closed because of bad business will never reopen be¬ cause of the large number of new thea¬ tres built since the war, and which have absorbed the patronage of these smaller theatres. Yarro Miller, Warners’ office manager, took his family to Ocean Grove, N. J.,for a vacation. . . . J. Stuart Cangney, asso¬ ciated with Jack Gertz in the J. L. Gertz Enterprises, and Mrs. Cangney are en¬ tertaining their daughter, Mrs. Jane Duncan, and their two grandsons. More than 100 members of the indus¬ try joined in the farewell testimonial banquet to Jerry Wechsler, who recently turned the management of the Cleveland Warner office over to Eddie Catlin while he succeeded “Dinty” Moore as Warner Pittsburgh branch manager. In addition to the many Clevelanders, there were many out-of-town distributors and ex¬ hibitors present, including Milton E. Cohen, “Dinty” Moore, Martin G. Smith, Jack Armstrong, Marvin Harris, Jim Dempsey, Joe Robins, Jack Robins, and Howard Feigley. J. J. Maloney, MGM central division manager; Sam Galanty, Columbia divi¬ sion manager, and Columbia’s Louis As¬ ter attended the opening of M. B. Horwitz’ State, Cuyahoga Falls, 0. Jimmy Shrake, manager, Union Square, is a patient at Crile Veterans Hospital receiving treatment for a war injury. . . . George Wakely, Limelite, Woodville, O., was in. . . . The Indepen¬ dent Theatre Owners of Ohio convention, to be held at the Netherland Plaza Hotel, Cincinnati, will be Sept. 19-20-21. Detroit Rose Zotter, Theatre Control Corpora¬ tion, was married to Kenneth P. Weitzel. The Michigan Allied convention will be in Detroit again this year, with ses¬ sions scheduled for Sept. 25-26 at the Book -Cadillac Hotel, it was announced by executive secretary Charles C. Snyder. Entertainment has an important spot in the J. L. Hudson Company plans for a revolutionary shopping center in sub¬ urban Detroit. Wisper and Wetsman Theatres will erect a large theatre in the center, to be located in Gratiot Township only 10 miles from downtown Detroit. No plans have been released for the new theatre, but it is known that in architecture it will conform to the overall plan which will make this new area one of the most outstanding retail centers in the United States. Located on a 100-acre tract, the center will include a branch outlet of the J. L. Hudson Company, second largest cash depart¬ ment store in the nation and the largest credit department store. It will also pro¬ vide space in store buildings surround¬ ing an elliptical plaza for other mer¬ chants who wish to take advantage of the development. The Wisper and Wets¬ man plans for a large theatre are the first entertainment features to be an¬ nounced but it is expected that others will be incorporated in the area as soon as discussions now underway are firmed. Following completion of the Gratiot Township center, the J. L. Hudson Com¬ pany has said that it will consider a similar development on Detroit’s rapidly expanding northwest side. Saul Korman closed his Columbia for the summer, and plans to reopen in the fall with stage shows. . . . Owen Blougffi, owner, Telenews, is back from his Flor¬ ida vacation. . , . August Sermo, mana¬ ger, United Detroit’s Madison, resigned to move to West Virginia, where he will go into the night club business with his father-in-law. . . . Sherwin Harris is the new booker at United Artists. . . . Milton Zimmerman, former Universal-Inter Paramount men from Cincinnati took time out at the recent Los Angeles convention to pose with Bill Demarest, Betty Hutton, and Lizabeth Scott, and this resulted, in the usual left to right order: front row, Demarest, Fred Myers, Miss Hutton, A. M. Berwald, Miss Scott, Jim Grady, and Bill Meier, and, back row, Pat Newbury, Dick Miller, Jim Doyle, and Vince Kramer, a part of an extensive meeting schedule. July 5, 1950