The Exhibitor (1953)

16 EXHIBITOR THE SCORE BOARD (Complete reviews of pictures mentioned will appear in The Pink Section. — Ed.) COLUMBIA “Goldtown Ghost Rider” — Usual Autry. PARAMOUNT “Houdini” — Showmanship approach will make the difference. International ( Continued from page 12) In Cannes, the 15 judges at the Cannes Film Festival added another laurel to the crown of Shirley Booth as they singled out her performance in the Hal Wallis Paramount release, “Come Back, Little Sheba,” as the best by an actress. The picture was voted the best dramatic film entered. MGM’s “Lili” was voted a special award as the film with the most enter¬ tainment value. Charles Vanel won the prize for the best male performance in “Le Salaire de la Peur,” which won the festival grand prize. Other awards in¬ cluded a special mention for the scenario of “Welcome, Mr. Marshall,” from Spain, as the best humorous film. The French “Crin Blanc,” a story about a horse, won the grand prize in the shorts division. Italy U-I supervisors, district managers, branch managers, and territorial publicity chiefs from 24 countries in Europe, N@rth Africa, and the Near East will meet with home office toppers headed by President Milton Rackmil and executive vice-presi¬ dent Alfred E. Daff at the U-I European sales convention in Rome on June 6. Messrs. Rackmil and Daff will jointly preside over the three-day sales meet¬ ing assisted by Universal International Films vice-president Americo Aboaf. Also present will be UIF director of publicity Fortunat Baronet. Tyrone Power, vaca¬ tioning in Italy, will be the guest of honor at two functions. The delegates will have their first chance to view “Thunder Bay” and U-I’s 3-D production, “It Came From Outer Space.” Among the other pictures scheduled for screening are “All I De¬ sire”, “Veils Of Bagdad”, and “The Man From The Alamo.” Ilrazil In Rio De Janeiro, two months after Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Interior instructed the censor department to again permit the exhibition of newsreels and short subjects from other countries, American newsreels made their appear¬ ances on Brazilian screens. American newsreels were withdrawn approximately 18 months ago after passage of a Brazilian statute requiring American distributors to acquire Brazilian news footage equal to 10 per cent of American news footage released in Brazil. The law still stands, but is being reviewed by the Vargas government. Mexico In Mexico City, Pedro Tellez Vargas, secretary general, Local 1, Distributors Paramount Reveals Drive Winners Chicago — Ten branches were announced as winners in Paramount’s “Greater Con¬ fidence Parade Of 1952” by A. W. Schwalberg, president, Paramount Film Distribut¬ ing Corporation, at the company’s annual sales meeting. Prizes totaling $50,000 are shared by the winning branches, with 146 individual employes participating. In addition, the meeting was informed by Jerry Pickman, vice-president in charge of advertising, publicity, and ex¬ ploitation, that 16 employes were selected for membership in Paramount’s “100 Per Cent Club.” For the first time since the club was founded in 1924, a field exploitation repre¬ sentative, Mike Weiss, Philadelphia, was named to membership. The following branches were named by Schwalberg as winners in the “Greater Confidence Parade”: first, Detroit, Mike Simon, manager; second, New Orleans, William Holliday, manager; third, Kansas City, Harry Hamburg, manager; fourth, Portland, Wayne Thiriot, manager; fifth, St. Louis, Harry Haas, manager; sixth, Oklahoma City, Buck Weaver, manager; seventh, Minneapolis, Jess McBride, man¬ ager; eighth, Chicago, J. H. Stevens, man¬ ager; ninth, Jacksonville, Ed Chumley, manager, and 10th, Washington, Phil Isaacs, manager. The following were named to the “100 Per Cent Club”: Eastern and Southern — Edward C. Brad¬ ley, office-booking manager, Boston; Frank P. Folger, salesman, Atlanta; M. Dixon Regan, cffice-booking manager, Jackson¬ ville, and Harold S. Wyckoff, salesman, New Orleans. Mid-Eastern — Jack Howe, salesman, Washington; Weiss, field representative, Philadelphia, and Arthur W. Young, booker, Cleveland. Central — Joseph E. Armgardt, salesman, Chicago; Joseph M. Prill, salesman, Min¬ neapolis, and Arnold C. Shartin, office¬ booking manager, Minneapolis. South-Central — Robert W. Dunn, officebroking manager, Dallas; Thomas W. Luce, salesman, Dallas, and Jack B. Martin, salesman, St. Lou,is. Western — George T. Carmone, booking manager, San Francisco; King Trimble, salesman, San Francisco, and John Vos, salesman, Denver. Schwalberg pointed out that Paramount is enjoying a “great season” of sales and revenue. Dr. Charles R. Daily, Paramount studio technical research department, de¬ tailed the advances made by studio engi¬ neers in the designing of large screens. Other meeting speakers included E. K. O’Shea, distribution vice-president; Oscar Morgan, short subjects sales manager; Sid Blumenstock, assistant national director of advertising, publicity, and exploitation, and Sid Mesibov, exploitation manager. and Theatre Employes, announced that the National Cinematographic Industry Workers Union had demanded a 50 per cent wage increase and an extra day of paid annual vacation from United States distributors in Mexico. The bi-annual re¬ vision of the employes’ collective labor contracts is due in September. Uruyuay Pedro Peiroten has been appointed RKO’s permanent representative in Uru¬ guay with headquarters in Montevideo, it PEOPLE New York — Nat Levy, eastern division manager, RKO, will take over supervision of the company’s seven southern branches in addition to his present duties, it was announced last week by Charles Boasberg, general sales manager. David Prince will continue as southeastern district manager with headquarters in Atlanta, and Ben Cammack as southwestern district man¬ ager with headquarters in Dallas. Frank Mooney will function as assistant to the southern division manager, and will re¬ main as contact man at the home office for New York and Canada. Milton Platt will continue to assist Levy in supervising the eastern branches. New York — The success of the title songs from “High Noon” and “Moulin Rouge” and the interest in the title tune from the forthcoming “Return To Para¬ dise’1 has led United Artists to appro¬ priate a $50,000 budget for the exploita¬ tion of the music from S. P. Eagle’s “Melba,” and to appoint Lyle K. Engle as music exploitation consultant for the com¬ pany, it was announced last week by Francis M. Winikus, national director of advertising, publicity, and exploitation. New York — MGM once again is send¬ ing out a studio publicist to lecture on one of its outstanding attractions, it was re¬ vealed this week. The man is Fritz Good¬ win, and the attraction is “Julius Caesar.” Associated for many years with the TimeLife-Fortune group of magazines, Good¬ win headed the west coast bureaus of Time and Life in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and then came on to New York as associate editor of Fortune. New York — Maurice Segal last week, resigned effective on June 1, as trade press representative for RKO to join the newly formed public relations firm of Norton and Condon, Inc. Segal joined the industry in 1940. U-I Drive Sets Records New York — Americo Aboaf, vice-presi¬ dent and general sales manager, Univer¬ sal-International Films, announced last week that the results of the recently com¬ pleted “Daff Third-of-a-Century Drive” showed it to be the most successful sales competition in the history of the company abroad. The eastern and Far Eastern division under Bert Tonks was the winner. Uru¬ guay, headed by home office representa¬ tive James Alexander, was the individual branch winner. Trinidad, under manager Tony Garcia, finished a close second with David Mallah, Israel, third. Managers Raul Viancos, Chile, and Arthur Doyle, Japan, tock fourth and fifth places. Uruguay was also the winner in the Latin American division. Israel led the European division, and Japan finished first in the East and Far East. In two “drives-within-a-drive,” Ecua¬ dor, under Francisco Puig, took top honors in the sale of J. Arthur Rank pictures while manager Monroe Isen, in Argentina, finished first in 16mm. results. was announced by Alfred Crown, foreign sales manager. A deal has been concluded with Cinematografica Gluckamann-Cinesa for the physical distribution of RKO films in the territory. May 27, 1953