The Exhibitor (May-Oct 1945)

THE EXHIBITOR 25 Series Of ( Continued from page 7) drive beginning on Oct. 28, it was an¬ nounced last week. Announcement of the self-imposed quota was made by Charles P. Skouras, national co-chairman and director of the film in¬ dustry’s bond activities for the area of 11 states, at a pre-campaign meeting attended by state bond chairmen for the theatres in the 11 western states. The conference was held at the home office of Fox West Coast Theatres, and was presided over by Skouras. Gamble Attends Coast Session Hollywood — Ted R. Gamble, War Finance Director, Treasury Department, shared honors with Lieutenant General James Doolittle in addressing a Hollywood mass meeting of stars and industry lead¬ ers on Oct. 7, to launch the film industry’s program for the Victory Loan. The meeting was held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. More than 500 of Holly¬ wood’s top figures were on hand to hear the messages of General Doolittle, recently returned from the Pacific, and of the Treas¬ ury Department through Gamble. Drive Trailers Get Under Way Hollywood — “Bends Make History,’’ first of the three Victory Loan trailers for the forthcoming campaign, has gone into pro¬ duction at 20th Century-Fox, it was an¬ nounced last week by the Hollywood di¬ vision, War Activities Committee. Fred MacMurray stars in the subject, which ex¬ plains the historic war campaigns paid for by bond purchases. The script has been prepared by Connie Lee, Hollywood Writers Mobilization group. Crosby Records Now Available New York — With National Screen Serv¬ ice handling distribution in all exchange areas, the Victory Loan committee last week announced there will be 5,000 rec¬ ords of Bing Crosby singing “We’ve Got Another Bond to Buy,” available to ex¬ hibitors free for use in lobbies and during intermission. The discs also include spe¬ cial opening and closing announcements which ask patrons to buy Victory bonds at the theatre. Brown, Acting As News Liaison New York — Alexander A. Brown. Fox Movietone News, will act as liaison for the five newsreels and the War Activities Committee in the Victory Loan, it was an¬ nounced last week. The newsreel com¬ mittee, of which Walton C. Ament, Pathe News, is chairman, has already pledged its full support to the Victory Loan. Victory Shows Succeed Premieres New York — The green light went up last week for a tremendous concentration on the bond premiere angle of the Victory Loan. ( Continued on page 26) KoneCofF — ( Continued from page 14) While Thapar is here, he will attempt to negotiate for a means whereby Indian shorts may be shown here as a means of increasing the knowledge of the American people about his country since he believes that “there is a good deal of misinformation about India” in this country. He reported that there are quite a number of shorts available on various phases of Indian life, and he would be immeasurably grateful for the opportunity to show them here. The motion picture is becoming increasingly popular in India. He reported that there1 were approximately 1600 theatres in operation at present in his country, in addition to 200 or 300 travelling cinemas. Of this number, about 230 show Englishlanguage films, of which approximately 80 per cent are American. It is hoped that eventually Indian producers will be able to make one language film instead of the five made now, which will cover all the areas of that large country, a hope which is being steadily realized. He said that native producers were turning out 160 films for local consumption at present, length 11,000 feet, as compared to 225 annually prior to the war with a length of 14,000 to 17,000 feet. Thapar believed that the reduction in footage, due to the scarcity of raw stock, was of definite help to the industry. The industry is making a good deal of money at present, and he believed that not only have the motion picture and its production arrived to stay in India, but that the post-war period would see a great deal of expansion as well as additional capital being invested in it. There are approximately 60 sound stages in operation at present owned by 20 or 25 companies, with another 20 or 30 independent producers operating on hired stages. Thapar assured the gathering of press representatives there would be no restric¬ tions imposed by his government on the operation of 16mm mobile units by American companies, and that this would interfere in no way with the government sponsored program of exhibiting educational films. He plans to remain in this country for another five weeks, and will visit the Hollywood district on or about Oct. 19. Tom Baird, British Information Services, hosted the luncheon meeting. THE METROPOLITAN SCENE: Sally Perle, assistant to Homer Harmon, Roxy pub¬ licity director, has resigned from that position to accept the post of director of public relations for the MacLevy Slenderizing Salons, and will have charge of 12 establishments. . . . There are around 200 film journals (fan magazines and the like) in India, of which each issue devotes four or five pages to English-language films. . . . An article on “Policing Germany,” by RKO-Pathe prexy Fred Ullman, Jr., appeared in a recent issue of This Week magazine. . . . General Eisenhower recently ordered an additional 100,000 copies of Louis Nizer’s “What To Do About Germany” for the European Theatre of Operations. . . . RKO had five films on Broadway last week. . . . Walter* Abel, who just completed a role in the new Samuel Goldwyn Danny Kaye starrer in Technicolor, “The Kid From Brooklyn,” arrived in town last week to appear in the John Van Druten play, “The Mermaids Singing.” . . . Film Classics will be going in for national advertising in the not too distant future. . . . Stanley Rose, motion picture play and story agent, arrived in town last week to view several scripts for filming. He believes Hollywood should stock up on war tales now since after the next two years there will be a great recrudescence (isn’t that a two dollar word) of public interest in this type of story. ... A big campaign is under way on MOT’s “Palestine Problem.” . . . Captain Eddie Rickenbacker has signed as host and narrator for a series of 13 half-hour radio plays on aviation, which should get under way on a coast-to-coast network early in 1946. They will be written by Colonel Hans Christian Adamson, who, until his recent retirement from the AAF, was chief of the Air Force project, charged with collecting and writing the Human Interest History of World War Two in the air. . . . The world premiere of “Lease on Life,” a dramatic documentary for public health starring Gene Lockhart, was held on NBC’s television station last week. The film was made by the National Tuberculosis Association. . . . Joe Shea, former publicist and at present attached to the Office of Strategic Services, was in town last week. He looks swell. . . . Joan Davis has been named honorary president of The National Fire Prevention Institute of America. The honor was bestowed in recog¬ nition of the comedienne’s efforts the past year in behalf of fire prevention. . . . Warners’ “Rhapsody in Blue” gets a neat plug on Oct. 11, on a program featuring Andre Kostelanetz over 143 CBS stations, with the entire half hour devoted to Gershwin music. . . . Sidney Blackmer, veteran stage, screen and radio star, made his debut in television last week via CBS. SHORT SNORT DEPT.: Last week, we were privileged to attend a showing of a short, one that a capacity crowd of exhibitors and relatives roundly applauded, RKO’s “The House I Live In.” The star attraction of this single reel isn’t necessarily Frank Sinatra, who appears therein, but its theme, that of tolerance leading to the betterment of America. The film, an excellent entertainment and production entry, was made when Sinatra (who until now has devoted a great deal of time and effort to straighten¬ ing out potential juvenile delinquents), Mervyn LeRoy, and Frank Ross put their heads together, and presented the idea for the film to RKO’s Charlie Koerner. His okeh was immediate, and the result is this short costing around $60,000. The proceeds from the film's rentals will be put to work to further reduce juvenile delinquency and intolerance among youngsters. . . . Another high rating short we caught recently was the latest March of Time entry, “American Beauty.” If ever a subject was made especially to draw the women, this is it. It delves into the whys and wherefores of how women keep themselves and their figures trim and tricky, and is a natural comment-getter as well as customer-getter. The light vein of the subject is admirably suited, and this is on the whole one of the best in many a moon from the MOT studios. Some exhibs may object to much of the free advertising in the short for cosmetics, etc., which really is brought close to the cameras, but the short is still entertaining for all of that. October 10, 1945 QUIN.