Motion Picture News (Apr - Jun 1927)

1954 .1/ o t i o n Picture A' c iv s Hammons Accepts Canada's Invitation to Hold Next Convention in Montreal THE invitation to Educational Film Exchanges to hold its next annual convention in Montreal, conveyed in a telegram received by E. H. Hammons, has been accepted by him and this announcement formed the closing statement to the sales conference recently concluded at Los Angeles. The invitation was issued by the Right Hon. Mackenzie Ring, Premier of the Dominion of Canada, the Hon. L. A. Taschereau, Prime Minister of the Province of Quebec, the Hon. Mederic Martin, Mayor of Montreal and several other high officials. Educational's acceptance of the invitation establishes a precedent in that it will be the first film industry convention held outside the United States. M-G-M Conventionees En Route to Coast Three Hundred Sales Representatives and Home Office Executives in Los Angeles May 19-24 APPROXIMATELY three hundred sales representatives and home office executives of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer are on their way to Los Angeles and the Culver City studios of the company, where the annual sales convention opens May 19, and ends May 24. The delegates, representing exchanges all over the United States and Canada, will see the M-G-M pictures scheduled for the 1927-28 season and visit the company's studios as well as the Roach plant, there to see in the making the short product to be sold next season. The business sessions will be held at the Hotel Biltmore. Felix F. Feist, general manager of sales and distribution, and Howard Dietz, advertising and publicity director, left Tuesday for the Coast. They were preceded by W. R. Ferguson, exploitation manager, and Frank J. Roehrenbeck, assistant to Major Edward Bowes and in charge of transportation. Together with Pete Smith, head of studio publicity, they will have a full week to prepare. On Sunday, May 15, the New York dele Meet Dates, June 1-2 THE dates for the semi-annual convention of the M. P. T. O. Kansas-Missouri were announced this week by President R. R. Biechale as June 1 and 2 in Topeka, Kans. The Flotel Kansan, Topeka, probably will be the site of the convention. Election of officers, discussion of chain and producer owned theatres, as well as the uniform contract, will be disposed of at the meeting. President Biechale has not definitely announced his intentions of being a candidate for re-election, but the consensus of opinion ab)ng Kansas (Mty's film row is that sentiment is so strong for the man who practically "made" the organization that he will be forced to again accept the presidency. The dates of the meeting, which fall on Wednesday and Thursday, will mark an exception to the usual Monday and Tuesday dates on which conventions of the past have been selected. gation, comprising home office officials and sales forces of eastern exchanges, entrained. The delegation consisted of: Arthur Loew, foreign department head ; M. Spring, his assistant; E. M. Saunders, western and T. J. Connors, Southern sales managers ; Fi-ed Quimby, short subjects sales manager; W. B. Frank, Hal Roach representative ; Leopold Fredman, secretary of Loew's; Si Seadler, advertising manager; Paul Burger, assistant to Feist in charge of sales personnel and development; A. F. Cummings, head of the statistical department ; Sam Eckman, New York and New England district manager; Sam Berger, home office representative; Arthur Cohan, general manager; and Henry Nathanson, sales manager of Regal ; Matthew Sullivan, Henry I. Rosefield, Arthur Gershwin, Edward Gelbin and Joe Wolf, special representatives; J. Freeman, Australian manager; I. I. Altmann, personal representative of Louis B. Mayer and George F. Denbow, Washington district manager. Branch managers and salesmen are: New Haven — William A. Scully, M. Rabamus and Alex Atlas. New York — David Rosengarten, N. Arewald. .T. Zurich, J. Bowen, D. Millinger, S. Strauss, H. Miller. B. Roman and .]. McManus. Philadelphia — Robert Lynch, J. E. Morrow, G. E. Schwartz, T. P, Mason, C. F. Powell, T. P. McLaughlin and Kly Epstein. Washington — Rudolph Berger, manager; A. .T. Milstein. H Cohen, H, G. Bodkin and H. G. Melvin. At Albany, the train will connect with the Albany and Boston delegations, which include: Albany — H. O. Worden, R. Pielow, Jack Byrne, .r. Kriihii, D. Sohmer. Boston — M. N. Wolf. E. Cohen, B. Abrams, R. Cnr.an, J. R. Smith, T. Donaldson, S. Lubell, H. Eckman and H. Rose. A M fl-iM special train of 14 cars left Chicago Monday afternoon carrying among those already (■numerated, the sales personnel of the Chicago, Jlilwaukee, Minneapolis. Detroit. Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Cincinnati and Indianapolis exchanges, as well as an Plastern Canadian delegation. Delegates from other areas will join the train at various points en route with the exception of the Pacific (^oast division, which will go south via a special leaving Seattle and will join the ChicagoLos Angeles delegation at Los Angeles. Following is a list of the sales i)ersonncl that will travel on the Chicago-Los Angeles special, with the exception of those already enumerated and the Pacific ('oast division: Buffalo -K. K. O'Shea. A. \V. Weissman. R. W. Maw, H L. Beccroft and S. Gershcl. Charlotte — Frank D. Drew, B. Bishop. .Ir., and C. \V. Cheek. Cincinnati — C. .1. Sonin. T. ,1. McDermott, H. O. Hugie, I£. W. WinstalTer, H. Cohen, ,1. S. Allen. G. H. Kirby, and Seymour Stone. Detroit — Frank J. Downey, R. Drew, H. D. Brown, G. A. Davidson and E. V'ogel. Chicago — Sam Shirley, T. Y. Henry, Felix Mendelssohn. E. L. Brichetto, Frank Ishmeal, Max Schwartz. A. Koescan, A. G. Perretz, J. A. Scott, Max Mazur and 3. E. Arnegardt. Indianapolis — W. W. Willnian, H. A. Gonnan, Ray Schmidt, F. B. Gauker, H. A. Wagner and Don Hammer. Omaha— F. C. Hensler, L, C. Hensler, J. Emenheiser and A. B. Seymour. St. Louis — C. T. Lynch, B. Green, Jack Harris T. L. Kelley, M. Kowall, E. T. Lux, J. O'Neill and G. F Keilly. Cleveland— Arthur L. Ehrlich, William Lissner E. M. Booth. A. Holah. M. Rubenfeld and O. M. Horwitz. 2. Pittsburgh — J. J. Maloney, Ira Furman, R. B. Haughton, A. Eskin, J. A. Gribble, J. Kaulfraan and H. M. Davis. Minneapolis — W. H. Workman, W. P. Cameron. H. I. Cohen, N. Furst, W. L. Gould, H. Hamerschlag, E. Lorentz, G. W. Turner and Olin Lambert. Milwaukee — Sam Shurman, Jack Shumow, Harry Shumow and E. Hcmmings. Des Moines — W. E. Banford, D. C. Kennedy, L. L. Wells and L. Levy. Kansas City — H. P. Wolfberg. C. E. Gregory. Jack Flannery, H, E. Schiller, Wm. Bradfield, L. C. Durham, E. W. Green and M. Holstein. Alanta — C. E. Kessnich, J. W. Hanlon, Jack Elwet. L. B. Butler, L. C. Butler, L. C. Ingram, J. J. Durfield and S. Maclntyre. New Orleans — C. J. Briant, A. P. Dessommes and .1. .J. Fabacher. Denver — S. D. Perkins, Jerry West, R. J. Garland, C. E. Pace, .1. T. Lynch and J. Hommel. Dallas — Leroy Bickel, J. S. Groves, A. J. Benedic and E. F. Stein. Memphis — J. F. Willingham. C. A. Diehle and C. D. Lyne. Oklahoma City — W. B. Zoellner, Phil Grau and R. .M. Avey. Salt Lake City — L. Wingham, Russell Egner, A. Bruce, C. R Wade and F. H. McGraw. The Pacific Coast contingent includes: Los Angeles — George A. Hickey, A. B. Lamb. J. E. Shaw, F, A. Wagner, G. Giroux and J. J. Hurschman. Portland — L. Amacher, L. E. Tillman, Jess Beckman, F. J. Becker, S. B. Tewksbury and Clifford Ball. San Francisco — G. C. Parsons, O. L. Olsen and Phil Weinstein. Seattle — Ben Fish, A. L. Sullivan, L. L. Goldsmith and Cherry Maotte. H. L. Rothchild Reentering Motion Picture Business Herbert L. Rothchild, who recently sold his theatres in this city to the Publix Corporation, is again to enter the movie game. This time it will be with Nat Holt, manager and one of the ownei-s of the Wigwam Theatre. The Wigwam will be entirelv rebuilt at a cost of $250,000 and Holt and Rothchild both stated no expense would be spared to make it one of the finest of its type. Other theatres also will be taken over and rebuilt, as well as built by these men. The rebuilding of the Wigwam will be done in quiet stages and the audience will not be disturbed. All the pictures will be shown each week, as well as the presentation acts. The Wigwam is at present operated under the control of the Golden State Theatre Corporation. S. M. Nutt Purchases Two Theatres at Hot Springs Sidney M. Nutt, Hot Springs business man, has recentlj^ purchased tlie Princess and Lyric Theatres at Hot S])rings, Arkansas. The jjurchase was made fj'oni Sam Bluniensteil and John C. Wolf, and involved a consideration of .$;300,000. Mr. Mutt had already acquired the Central Theatre in the same city. Mr. Nutt recently served as president of the Arkansas Motion Picture Theatre ^Managers' Association. Road attractions will be the policy of the Princess Theatre, which has a seating capacity of 1,100. The Lyric Theatre will b(> completely remodelled and will ic-' oi)en to high class vaudeville.