Exhibitors Herald (Jun-Aug 1923)

July 21, 1923 EXHIBITORS HERALD 79 Chicago Trade Events Balaban & Katz to List Theatre Stock To Incorporate Four Theatres in One Company — Also Exchanges Balaban & Katz, who operate the Chicago, Tivoli, Riviera and Central Park theatres, have made application to incorporate the various holding companies into one and will in the course of a week or ten days make application to list the stock on both the Chicago and New York stock exchanges. Exchanges in Deal With the four theatres is included the Associated First National Pictures, Inc., of Illinois, exchange; the Educational Film Exchange of Illinois and the Second National Film Company of Illinois. These exchanges furnish most of the pictures used by the B. & K. houses, as well as thousands of features and short subjects for other theatres. The name of the new concern has not been announced. It is understood there will be a total of 250,000 shares of common stock, 50,000 shares of which will be offered to the public at $50 a share. The remaining 200,000 shares are to be exchanges for the stock of the present four corporations. Those holding one share of Chicago stock will get three and onehalf shares of the new stock; the Tivoli theatre stockholders will get six and onehalf shares for one held; the Riviera theatre holders will get twelve shares each for one. Those interested in the Central Park theatre have not decided what basis of exchange to accept. Assets $10,000,000 The balance sheet of the four companies is said to show assets of more than $10,000,000. The proceeds of the stock sale will be used partly to pay off outstanding real estate mortgages of about $2,000,000. 'It is said the four theatres show earnings at the rate of $1,250,000 on the present common stock and $1,750,000 of the seven per cent preferred stock which is to be exchanged share for share. Monroe Holds Meeting F. C. Monroe, vice president and general manager of Hodkinson Corp., arrived in Chicago last Wednesday for a conference with the local district manager and branch manager. "Down to the Sea in Ships" will open July 29 at the Roosevelt theatre and it is planned to put on an extensive advertising campaign. New Manager Harry Hollander, former manager at Omaha, has been appointed Chicago branch manager for Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan. Mr. Hollander assumed his new position on Saturday. Benj. J. Reingold, who resigned last Saturday, left for Des Moines. The Orpheum theatre on State street closed Sunday, July 8, for three weeks, undergoing remodeling and repainting. When it opens on July 29, it will become one of the downtown first run houses pjaying exclusive features for long runs. Aaron J. Jones has arranged for a showing of the Paramount special "Hollywood" as the opening attraction at the newly remodeled Orpheum. Baseball Although some mighty big scores were piled up last Saturday at Washington Park, there were many brilliant plays as well. A feature of the day was the winning of a game by the combined F. B. O.-HodkinsonGoldwyn team, which romped off with the Universal boys — score 12 to 10. Next week the F. B. O.-Hod.-Goldwyn teams meets Metro. In the First National Metro game last Saturday young Silverman poled out two home runs. The scores were : First National 30* Metro 11 F. B. O.-Hod.-Goldwyn 12 Universal 10 Paramount ' 5 Fox 4 STANDING OF CLUBS Played. Won. Lost. Pet. First National 5 4 1 .800 Metro 5 3 2 .600 Universal 5 3 2 .600 Fox 5 2 3 .400 F. B. O.-Hod.-Gold... 5 1 4 .200 New Theatre Planned The estate of Isaac Goldberg, Highland Park, 111., is planning the erection of a new and modern 1,200-seat motion picture theatre on Main street. It will occupy one of the choicest locations in Highland Park in the business block. The building will have stores and offices as well as a theatre. The Rothacker Film Mfg. Company's annual picnic will be held at Pottowottamie Park, St. Charles, on Saturday, July 14, and the Herald staff has been invited to attend. It looks like a big day. Pathe First in City With Fight Pictures Film on Screens in Several Theatres by 6 P. M. on Friday, July 6 Score a scoop for Pathe News. Films of the Dempsey-Gibbons bout at Shelby, Mont., on July 4, were received via airplane on Friday morning, after a hard drive through storms, and were shown on screens in all of the principal first-run houses throughout the city that night. In Theatres at 6 p. m. Through the efforts of H. O. Martin, local branch manager, and his staff of salesmen, distribution was made at McVicker's theatre, Orchestra Hall, Stratford, Woodlawn, Pantheon, Senate, New Evanston, Tiffin and Crystal theatres before 6 o'clock Friday. Agents from the department of justice and deputy U. S. marshals waited all day Thursday and Thursday night for the arrival of the planes from Shelby carrying the fight pictures, and Mr. Martin armed with the proper release for his news pictures waited with them. The Pathe plane arrived at 5:55 a. m. Friday. Editor Cohen in Chicago Emanuel Cohen, editor of Pathe News, was in Chicago to handle the editing of the films and supervised the cutting. Prints were dispatched to New York on the Century Friday noon, but a few minutes after the train left word was received from New York that an airplane had arrived with first films of the fight. The Broadway theatres also had them on their screens Friday night. The Pathe News films do not show actual scenes of the fight but features connected with it up to the time the first round started. The federal law prevents the showing of actual fighting. UNIVERSAL SALES MANAGERS MEET— (Left to right) R. V. Anderson, newly appointed Universal Sales promotion manager of New York City; L. H. Mannheim, well known in and around Manhattan, who has just been appointed general manager of Short Subjects; Art A. Schmidt, general sales manager over all "U" exchanges; and Joseph Friedman, general sales manager. New York, in charge of special attractions. Photo taken atop the Congress Hotel, Chicago, where recent sales meeting was held.