The Exhibitor (1950)

EXHIBITOR NT-1 iniiws OF Tmi Chicago John Balaban, Balaban and Katz, has been named a TOA co-chairman for “Brotherhood Week.” Dallas At the annual election of the Houston, Tex., Variety Club, Francis Deering was named Chief Barker, succeeding Fred Nahas. Others elected were: L. C. Kirby, First Assistant; Conrad Brady, Second Assistant; Ray Hay, Dough Guy, and A1 Mortensen, Property Master. Nahas was elected international canvasman, while named as directors were Lou Baxley, A1 Lever, Bill Ring, King Robin¬ son, Frank Wilke, and Mack Howard. William O’Donnell, Interstate Circuit, has been named a TOA exhibitor cochairman for “Brotherhood Week.” The new $150,000 Cinderella Drive-In opened. Construction was begun six months ago by Virgil Post, who, with his wife, will be active in its manage¬ ment. The spot has a 1,000-car capacity. Post secured a special agreement with the Walt Disney Studios to use the “Cin¬ derella” name and characters on the five-story screen tower. Dallas led all other Realart exchanges in the recent “Jack Broder Drive.” St. Louis took second place in the number of playdates booked, and Atlanta was in third position. Denver Fred Lind, 49, owner, Ute, Rifle, Colo., and partner in the Chief Drive-In, died at his Rifle home following a heart attack. Funeral and burial were in Rifle, with quite a number of film and theatre men going up from Denver. Friends of Lind in the business are arranging a plaque in his honor, to be placed in the theatre. He is survived by his wife, Mary; a daughter, Pat; a son-in-law, Don Monson, his partner in the drive-in; three grandchildren, and brothers and sisters. . . . Westland Theatres opened the new Center, Pueblo, Colo. . . . Ralph Batschelet, manager. Paramount, was elected president. President’s Round Table, made up of presidents of Denver service clubs, Batschelet being president, Sertoms Club. Robert Lotito, Aladdin manager, re¬ signed, and has been named public rela¬ tions director, Loretto Heights College. . . . Fred Anderson, salesman. Western Service and Supply, has gone back into the marines. . . . Jack Pattison, Monogi’am head shipper, joined the army. . . . Jack Felix, Monogram salesman, goes to Portland as branch manager. Charles R. Gilmour has been named TOA co-chairman for “Brotherhood Week.’’ Des Moines The Call, owned by Central States Theatre Corporation, Des Moines, was destroyed by fire at Algona, la. Loss was estimated at $75,000. . . . The Roxy, Kanawa, la., reopened. The house, for¬ merly the Tall Corn, was destroyed by fire last summer, and rebuilt. . . . J. J. Sparks, who has taken over the booking duties at RKO, was scheduled to take his physical for Uncle Sam on Dec. 27. . . .Jim Ricketts moved from his Mono¬ gram selling job to the booking desk at ELC. . . . The new Traer was opened at Traer, la., by Gene McLaughlin. The owner is planning to sell the building housing the old Traer. . . . Lynn McBride has been named manager of the theatre at Carson, la., by Howard Brookings, owner. Mr. and Mrs. Charles White, who had managed the Carson theatre, will manage the theatre at Oakland, la., for Brookings, who will leave shortly for Des Moines to serve in the legislature. Myron Blank has been named TOA cochairman for “Brotherhood Week.” Kansas City Dale Danielson, Dream, Russell, Kans., has been named a TOA co-chairman for “Brotherhood Week.’’ Los Angeles Attempt to get equal rights on film product prompted the San Pedro Thea¬ tre Corporation to schedule an anti-trust suit against the majors and a number of releasing companies, charging they do not get the chance to buy product for drive-ins. The drive-in is owned by Don¬ ald Guttman, Kenneth Chantry, and Jack Y. Berman, suing everyone except¬ ing RKO and Metro. Two other drive-ins, California and the Skyline, filed suits through the same attorneys, Pacht, Tannenbaum, and Ross. Mrs. Lawrence A. Peters, wife of the FWC attorney, presented a junior in the family. . . . Sherrill Corwin had a press conference to show off his new RCA television equipment. Charles Skouras hopped a plane for northern Christmas party for FWC em¬ ployes, and returned for a Southern California party where he distributed $176,000 in Christmas bonuses and insur¬ ance dividends to employes. About $126,000 went to Southern California employes while the remainder was dis¬ tributed in the northern part of the state. Skouras also announced that the families of the 11 employes who died during the year received a total of $126,000. In town attending the Fox West Coast party was Mrs. Jennie Dodge, who owns four theatres in Ventura, Cal., among them the Mayfair. Murray Gerson, city salesman, Monogram, was in evidence as was Ezra Stern, Film Row attorney. Very much in evidence when they won door prizes or were on the hostess committees were Louise Myers, FWC purchasing dpartment; Phyllis Selzer, advertising department, and Pete Latsis, publicity director, FWC, who with his wife, Lillian, celebrated their sev¬ enth wedding anniversary on Dec. 26. Herb Kaufman, now heading Goodman and Kaufman exchange, is heading for New York. Kaufman was formerly west¬ ern district manager for SRO, and con¬ templates opening exchanges in Salt Lake and Denver. His partner, Del Good¬ man, formerly was with ELC and Paramount. Gus Metzger has been named TOA co-chairman for “Brotherhood Week.” Milwaukee Larry Schulz, National manager and National Avenue Advancement Associa¬ tion secretary, had a theatre party spon¬ sored by the Street Association. Bob Groenert, Warner assistant man¬ ager, was busy whipping things into shape for the party at Stanton Hall. As entertainment chairman, he did a whale of a job. . . . Dick Nowak, chubby Warner utility man, has appeared on WEMP and WFOX. . . . Harvey Black, the little man behind the machines in the Warner projection room, is no longer boss around his own home since the stork arrived with a boy. There’s a bit of friendly rivaly on Mitchell Street between the Granada boys and the Modjeska aggregation. The Granada’s Elmer Nimmer and his assis¬ tant, Tom Senger, started the showman¬ ship movement off by lining up the Old Duffer’s Club as sponsors for a kiddies’ party. Projectionist Art Wagner led in a community sing. For “Breakthrough,” a tiein was engineered by having the 32nd Artillery Division’s 155 Howitzer parked in front of the theatre. At the Modjeska, A1 Camillo and the boys went at “I’ll Get By” with all the fanfare of a young Barnum in action. The Friday evening contest shows attempt to keep the teen agers off the streets. These programs are rapidly being perfected, with a view towards running shows of this sort throughout the entire circuit. L. F. Gran, Standard Theatres, has been named TOA co-chairman for “Brotherhood Week.” Minneapolis The post office department notified newspapers and periodicals it will not accept papers for the mails with “Bank Night” advertisements. The post office holds that “Bank Night” is a lottery despite the ruling of the Minnesota State Supreme Court that it is not under cer¬ tain conditions. ... In response for pleas for reduced film costs, some Minneapolis film exchanges offered individual neigh¬ borhood operators some first-runs if they would help halt a declining box office. There were no takers. A special meeting of the North Central Allied board unanimously accepted the plan of Henry Greene’s committee for a fair basis of rentals to prevent closing of theatres. A new committee headed by Greene, and including Stanley Kane, NCA executive director, and Ernie Peaslee, first vice-president, and Ted Mann, scond vice-president, will ask all major company sales heads for a meeting in New York for discussion of the proposed January 3, 1951 MIDWESTWESTS® N