The Film Daily (1940)

10 DAILY Wednesday, January 31, 1940 ? s THEATER EQUIPMENT OUTLOOK 'VERY GOOD' The outlook for theater equipment sales during 1940 is "very good," according to Homer B. Snook, RCA Photophone reproducer sales manager, who has just returned from a lengthy business trip into the deep South and Middlewest. "My talks with exhibitors, chain operators and others on the 'firing line' in the motion picture industry lead me to anticipate a volume of equipment business substantially ahead of 1939, which was a good year as far as RCA Photophone is concerned," Snook said. "The brighter outlook is the result of increasing box office receipts and an overall improvement of business conditions throughout the country." Looking back over 1939, Snook said that the new series of High Fidelity RCA Photophone equipments introduced early in the year met with an enthusiastic reception from both chain and independent exhibitors. "The new Photophone equipments are being sold on the basis of builtin quality of workmanship, and proven performance capabilities," he said. "Reports from the hundreds of theaters where the new equipments are operating enable us to add the claim of reliability to the others. The year was one of progress in many fields." Sonneman to Build Two Houses In Fayetteville Fayetteville, Ark. — W. F. Sonneman, owner of three theaters here, has announced that a new Royal Theater to replace the one which burned, will be built immediately. Construction also will begin soon on a new theater on Dickson St., near the university campus. The two theaters now operating here are the Ozark and Palace. Butterfield Remodeling Grand Rapids, Mich. — A $15,000 remodeling job is under way at the Butterfield Majestic Theater here. Roger Allen is the architect. Contract is held by the Osterink Construction Co. New House in Acworth Atlanta, Ga. — Construction is under way on a new theater at Acworth. According to V. S. Golden, owner and operator, the seating capacity will be 500 and work will be completed by Jan. 1. nCUJS Of TH€ DfiV Fayeteville, Ark. — A fire which did total of $75,000 damages in the main business section here completely destroyed the Royal Theater along with other buildings. ager of the Strand here. He succeeds John A. McLeod, Jr., recently transferred to the Ritz, McGehee. Bridgeport ■ — Samuel Hadelman, who operates the Capitol, has taken title to the 499-seat Colonial Theater, acquired from Lou Anger. Anger operates the Barnum, Bridgeport, Astor, East Hartford, and Alcazar, Naugatuck, and has a new site for a theater in Bridgeport. Huntington, Ind. — The Huntington Theater Corp. is planning to spend $75,000 on improvements to their Huntington, Jefferson and Tivoli Theaters. San Jose, Calif. — Lawrence Borg and Joseph Lima, operators of San Jose Amusement Company's three theaters, announce plans for construction of a new 1,000-seater here. Denver — J. J. Goodstein has reopened the old Bideawee Theater as the Lincoln after spending $10,000 on modernization and remodeling. Pittsburgh — Leon Reichblum, who at present operates the Castle Theater, Castle Shannon, Pa., the State Theater, Wilkinsburg, Pa., and the Menlo Theater, Charleroi, Pa., has just awarded a contract for the construction of a 750-seat theater in Charleroi, on which work is to begin not later than Feb. 1. San Francisco — Bill Crosby has been appointed manager of the El Rey Theater, Golden State Theater Circuit house. Cleveland — Lee Chapman, for the past four years affiliated with the local Monogram exchange in a sales capacity, has resigned to become a member of the sales organization of the Cleveland office of Big Feature Rights, Exchanges, Inc. Cleveland — The Savoy Theater, closed since last spring, was sold last week to Sam Fine, former owner of the Mt. Pleasant Theater which he recently sold to Charles Gottlob and Ben Fain. Double Credit Casey Robinson is the only writer in 12 years to achieve the distinction of sole screenplay credit on two of the "10 Best" pictures of any one year. His "Dark Victory" and "The Old Maid" screenplays give him this honor. In the "10 Best" pictures of 1927, Benjamin Glazer contributed the screenplays to "Seventh Heaven" and "Flesh and the Devil." Pine Bluff, Ark. — Ralph Lehman, Little Rock, has been named man Lincoln, Neb. — Alvin Hendricks, formerly with the Nebraska Theaters, Inc. as assistant manager to Howard Federer, the g.m., has returned to the outfit in the same capacity after laying off since last July. Cleveland — Charles Gottlob who has operated the Main Theater since early in 1939, has relinquished the house in favor of Bernard Garfinkle. Cincinnati — Queen City Variety has inaugurated a $10,000 drive for their charity fund. J. J. Grady heads fifteen team captains for the affair which will wind up with a Victory dance and distribution of handsome prizes. Hillsborough, N. H. — O. Stone has resigned as manager of the Capitol Theater here because of ill health. He has been succeeded by Raymond Bruce. Dallas — The Joy theater has Doyle Davenport as its new resident manager, to replace L. L. Etchison, transferred to San Antonio to take over the newly completed Joy theater there. Davenport comes from the Warner theater in Oklahoma City. Cleveland — Norman Wheaton, for seven years with the local Warner theater department, has resigned as assistant manager at the Hippodrome. His succsesor is Don Reilly, manager of Warners' Plaza in Sandusky prior to sale of the theater to the Seitz interests. Crone. Maiden, Mass. — Beano privileges would come high under the plan of Mayor William A. Hastings, who announces that he is willing to license Beano games for six organizations — at $15 per day. The $25,000 per year netted by this plan would be used for welfare work, Mayor Hastings said. Hartley, la. — The Hartley theater has been sold by C. E. Werden to Harry Pace, of Pocahontas. Court Reserves Decision on Goldwyn Suit Dismissal United Artists has asked Federal Judge William Bondy to dismiss the suit of Samuel Goldwyn against UA for $54,559 which Goldwyn claims is due him under contractual clauses as a bonus for additional revenue on pictures. After argument on the legal question of whether the complaint states a cause of action, Judge Bondy reserved decision. Philip Sherman Appointed Warner Montreal Manager Philip Sherman, former salesman for Warner Bros.' Toronto exchange, has been promoted to branch manager of the company's Montreal branch office, Roy Haines, Eastern and Canadian sales manager announced yesterday. Sherman replaces M. J. Isman, resigned. The change is effective immediately. COMMERCE DEPT. MAY RECALL MAJOR EXECS. Washington Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Washington — With the belief growing on Capitol Hill that the Depai'tment of Commerce vj^ assume a permanent role as mWiator in anti-trust cases, the Department announced at the week-end that the report on the film industry, in preparation for several months, would be held up, pending further conferences with industry spokesmen. While no date has been definitely set for the resumption of the conferences, it is expected that the invitations to industry leaders will go out early in the new year. In all probability, presidents of the majors will be among those to be recalled, it was learned. (The industry-D of C conference were inaugurated on June 6 when Will H. Hays, Nicholas M. Schenck, H. M. Warner, George J. Schaefer and others met Departmental chiefs headed by Secretary Harry Hopkins). The Department will be represented again by Dr. Willard Thorp, E. A. Tupper, statistician, and Nate Golden, chief of the Department's motion picture division, with Secretary Harry Hopkins due to sit in finally. The effect of the conferences and subsequent report, which will be placed at the disposal of the Department of Justice, upon pending industry anti-trust cases instituted by the Government is highly problematical, of course. Yet marked importance is attached here to the Department of Commerce's experiment with an intermediary role. If the D of J accepts the Commerce Department's recommendations in the potash anti-trust case and a settlement results, it is the Commerce Department's view that a wholly new field with "tremendous possibilities" has been opened. That envisions, among other things, permanency for the "go between" role, and the possibility of a consent decree in film cases through the Department's good offices. It is emphasized here, however, that the Commerce Department can only present its recommendations; there is no compunction upon the D of J to accept them, and that is a sizeable fly in the mediatory ointment. Apple Pie Giveaways Milwaukee — Attempts to date to end giveaways have proven futile and the handouts range from carving sets to apple pies. The Mirth Theater, local nabe house, promoted 100 of the latter from a local pie bakery in connection with glass-bake giveaways. Giveaways for kids offer a similar variation with such handouts including rulers, ice cream and packages of shredded wheat, the latter promoted by the Bay Theater in Creen Bay from a nabe fruit market.