Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1952)

essons of the RKO Crisis HA NEW RKO PEOPLE trnold Grant, chairman of the RKO board of directors, speaks to the press about the company's uture plans. Also seen are Kay Norton, publicity manager; Harry Pimstein, assistant to Grant, nd Richard Condon, director of advertising, publicity and exploitation. mntinued from Page 5) Ithe full realization of it? great potential. V recognize that a volume of unfavorable l)licity directed against us as individuals ||, or can be, damaging to the company, sistent with our original intent of doing which is best for the company, and for reason only, we have submitted our gnations." heir departure did not answer the muchated question of who had inspired the L Street Journal's onslaught. Henry imill, managing editor, said it was just curiosity got the better of him. Hearthat Stolkin, who had just assumed O's presidency, was a mail-order execuMr. Gemmill wondered whether it porled some kind of link-up between motion ures and mail-order, and instructed his ths to investigate. He had no desire to ck RKO, he protests, only to report s and, he added, all the personalities rerned had been given an opportunity to : statements for publication, ch was the chain of events which ended kin's brief reign. Unhappily, it has left RKO organization in a worse mess than re. A lot of those who have been gloatover Stolkin's discomfiture are already nning to regret their glee. Were the pany to fail, or fall back into the hands r. Hughes, it would be' a bad advertiset for the industry and a sad blow to pendent producers. lose who are left to wrestle with the i problem of pulling the company back the black will, we hope, profit by the >ns of the past few weeks. What RKO s more than anything else at this lent is an injection into the board — at :nt overweighted with non-film people progressive, experienced men known ie picture industry and conscious of its. tical operations. Next, the board must find a topflight production executive to»revivify the studio and to turn out the kind of quality product needed in today's market. There should be a positive statement of policy on television, not an arm's-length negative leaving everyone in doubt as to whether the exhibitor is going to be sold down the river when his back is turned. And there must be a greater measure of consideration— if goodwill is to be earned, and enthusiasm won — of the human element in business affairs. It is difficult, at this moment, not to feel slightly sorry for Air. Stolkin. His own worst enemy is his inexpereince. He remains a stockholder in RKO. So do A. L. Koolish and Ray Ryan. All three of them might gather a certain amount of genuine sympathy if, now that they have stepped off the board of directors, they disposed of their stock, and played' no further part in the affairs of the company they unwittingly brought so close to disaster. The present state of RKO was aptly summed up by board chairman Grant last Monday (October 27) in these words: "Having had three hectic weeks with the company, having met its personnel, investigated its contracts, financial statements, history and all relevant documents, it is my considered judgment that RKO, while a sick company, need not die from its illness. There is no cancer. There is no heart disease. It is suffering from a multiplicity of ills, from a number of dark blotches on the skin, a little dandruff, and it has got some trouble from sugar in the blood. Basically, however, it has a strong, healthy body. It is in a good financial position, except for the fact that it is currently losing. It has suffered a little mentally — perhaps through not being sure of its position, or perhaps because of its knowledge that its major organ, the heart — the studio in Hollywood ^Itort -Subjects (Continued from Page 19) Denver exchange, was rid of the "acting" part of the title by Paramount Distributing chief A. W. Schwalberg to become a fullfledged branch head . . . Former WB theatres district head Max Melincoff has been added to Allied Artists publicity department under John C. Flinn . . . Astor Pictures' upstate New York distribution will be handled by Sylvan Leff, head of the Albany Realart Pictures exchange. That gives Astor president Bob Savini 31 franchise distributors . . . THE MAN with the first names, we regret to learn, is leaving M-G-M. John Joseph, eastern publicity manager for Metro these past four years, is leaving the company at the end of the year. The soft-spoken boxofficer came to Leo's organization from Universal, where he had been national director of advertising and publicity for 12 years. THAT INDUSTRY baby, COMPO, is reacting very favorably to the intensive diet furnished by the membership drive under the leadership of Trueman Rembusch, Sam Pinanski and Al Lichtman since August. The total has swelled close to the 12,000 mark, based on the report of the three cochairmen. They called the job done by the COMPO Finance Committee and the various exhibitor committees and sales personnel that conducted the drive a "magnificent" one, "an unprecedented example of what can be done by industry organization and cooperation." The trade press also came in for kudos for its cooperation in the membership drive and hte tax repeal campaign. — has not been pumping blood into the system. Basically, the only point I really want to make is this; the patient will live for many years. When it dies, it will not die from the ailments from which it suffers now." While the supply of blood being pumped into RKO's "heart" certainly hasn't been sufficient in recent months to give the company a robust look, the line-up of features to be released within the next five months, as announced by general sales manager Charles Boasberg last week, has enough red corpuscles in it to give hope. Exhibitors will receive Goldwyn's "Hans Christian Andersen" (Danny Kaye), Disney's "Peter Pan", Gabriel Pascal's "Androcles and the Lion" (Jean Simmons-Victor Mature), Jane Russell in "Montana Belle", "Blackbeard the Pirate" (Linda Darnell-Robert Newton), Rosalind Russell in "Never Wave At A WAC", "Beautiful But Dangerous" (Jean Simmons-Robert Mitchum), "Face to Face" (James Mason) and "The Bystander" (Simmons-Mitchum). There is nothing anemic about product of this caliber; all that is needed is a steadier flow. Well, having survived the almost shattering blows of the past four weeks, it is quite possible that RKO will, indeed, grow into one of the powerful assets of our industry. Let's hope. FILM BULLETIN November 3. 1 9S2 Page 23