Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1944)

2 Motion Picture Daily Monday, February 28, 1944 Personal Mention COL. K. B. LAWTON, chief of the Army Pictorial Service and head of the Signal Corps studio at Astoria, L. I., left New York at the weekend for a Hollywood inspection trip. • Josephs Marks, formerly RKO short subjects manager in London, has been appointed sales manager o, Pathe Pictures in London, distributors of Monogram Pictures, the company reported here over the weekend. • Hymie Palefsky of Loew's Oriental Theatre, Brooklyn, will return to America soon as an Air Corps S/Sgt. He has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal. • Sigwart Kusiel, Columbia's general manager in Brazil, is in New York to confer with vice-president Joseph A. McConville and other home office executives. • David A. Lipton, former Columbia director of advertising-publicity, is now in the Army Signal Corps at Camp Crowder, Mo. • Thomas Goldberg, theatre owner in Baltimore, has returned from Atlantic City where he recuperated from an illness. H. A. Ross, president of Ross Federal Service, left over the weekend for an extended trip to the Midwest and West Coast branches. • J. J. Unger, United Artists Western division sales manager, is expected to return today from a business trip to k Chicago. • Harry Fein stein, Warner Theatre film buyer and booker in the Pittsburgh zone, returned to that citv from New York over the weekend. • Norman Elson, Trans-Lux vicepresident, will leave for Washington today. • Jules Fields of 20th-Fox exploitation department left over the weekend for Detroit. • Oscar Hanson, president of Monogram Pictures of Canada, returned to Toronto over the weekend. • Perc Westmore, Warner studio makeup director, will leave for the Coast tomorrow. • Mitchell Rawson, who recently resigned as Selznick's press chief on the Coast, has returned to New York. » Joseph H. Seidelman, Universal vice-president, has returned to New York from an Arizona vacation. • E. F. Walsh, Universal comptroller, has returned from a visit to the Coast. Tradewise By SHERWIN KANE HP HE Associated Motion Pic■■■ ture Advertisers' airing of the status of theatre advertising at its meeting in New York last week was good within the limitations of that meeting. But it is our opinion that it did not go far enough. Maurice Bergman, Eastern advertising and publicity manager for Universal, started the ball rolling in the right direction with his challenging statements concerning what is wrong with or what is lacking in present day theatre advertising. Some good rebuttals were entered from the exhibition side by Leonard Goldenson, David Weinstock, Arthur Mayer and Sam Rinzler. One of Bergman's principal contentions was that theatre advertising should be refreshing, should break away from the conventions and adopt a long range view. With that we agree unreservedly. Recent samples of advertising by leading Chicago Loop theatres, which occupied the most prominent display space on the amusement pages of the newspapers of that city, perhaps best illustrate why we believe the AMPA discussion did not go far enough. Here are some of the catchlines employed by the leading Chicago theatres in advertising major company product: "Spicy Screen Scandal Vies with Rousing Stage Rhythm !" "Were These Love Confessions Hers? Or Hers? It's Riotous, Scandalous, Blush Packed Panic." Or: "She Thumbed a Ride With Romance and Became the Best-Kissed Dish in the U. S. A. !" "Fourth frolicking week for the kiss blitz of a ritz miss !" (The exclamation points in this type of advertising appear to be a Must ! ) There was an era, we admit, when that type of theatre advertising might have been justified on the ground that it was the only sure-fire way in which pictures of the type concerned could best be merchandised. We believe that era has passed. It was conventional because it was in common usage. Today it is oldfashioned and is evidence of the barren imagination of theatre advertising. And for that reason, and for no other, it still is conventional. It is not refreshing. It is not far-seeing. • • Incidentally Motion Picture Daily recently reported that Chicago newspapers, while cutting advertising lineage in some departments, have not reduced amusement advertising space and, in some instances, are soliciting increases in amusement lineage. Exhibitors elsewhere would be well advised to ask a few questions of their hometown publications when they are told that desired space cannot be made available to them because of newsprint rationing. One of the pertinent questions which might be asked is how much advertising is being accepted by such publications from strictly wartime advertisers who have nothing whatever to sell to tne public, advertising by companies whose principal income is trom Government contracts and whose advertising is charged against cost of doing business and, thus, reflected to their advantage in their tax returns. • • Reports around Times Square, following the recent visit here of Y. Frank Freeman, are that Paramount is well satisfied with its present cushion of completed pictures ; will begin digging into the backlog and that the studio's production pace will be slowed somewhat in the months to come. Completed pictures at the studio are said to number about 18. • • The grapevine from downtown was busy last week with the report that Charles D. Prutzman, Universal vice president and general counsel, may be named by the New York Republican party as a candidate for United States Senator in the next election. Pursuing the rumor trail, we found Prutzman not unaware of the report but unaware of either its origin or its substance. • • Motion Picture Daily was gratified to receive the numerous letters and telephone calls from exhibitors expressing their appreciation of this paper's efforts to have made available to them a first-hand presentation of the distributors' proposals for an amended consent decree. We hope the results of that effort have been useful and we are gratified over expressions received from our exhibitor readers. The situation needed attention. As Leon Rosenblatt of the I. T. O. A. of New York expressed it : "Only one out of a thousand exhibitors knows about the proposals." It is our sincere hope that that situation has been corrected in some part through our efforts. Coast Flashes Holiyzwood, Feb. 27 LOUIS B. MAYER, vice-president in charge of M-G-M's production, will leave here Tuesday for Washington and will then go to New York, arriving there on March 4. He wy probably remain for forthcoming labor negotiations. Howard Strickling, M-G-M studio publicity chief,, will accompany him. • RKO has signed Frank Strayer, formerly of Columbia, to a producerdirector contract. He will produce' "The Girl Rush." A. Edward Sutherland has been signed as a director by the studio. His first will be "Having Wonderful Crime," starring Pat O'Brien. • Eleanor Powell's illness has caused production on Andrew Stone's "Sensations of 1944" to halt. Shooting of the film, to be released through United Artists, will be resumed upon Miss Powell's return. • The 10-house war bond premieres in Los Angeles of "Madame Curie" netted $1,069,981. M-G-M plans additional runs at 10 other houses. "Curie" is the studio's Academy award nominee. • Carroll Sax, Warner studio business manager, will leave here Friday for labor negotiations in New York. Wilson R. Stone, RKO labor relations representative, will leave on the same day. • Universal has announced "Song of the Hills," a musical with William J. Cowan producing, and "Singing Sheriff," with Bernard Burton producing, and Allan Jones starred. • Representatives of the industry met here Friday night at the HollywoodRoosevelt to complete plans for the Red Cross drive. • M-G-M has purchased "Bad Bascomb," by D. A. Loxley, and "Taps for Private Tussie," a Jessie Stuart novel with a "Tobacco Road" flavor. • Loretta Young has signed a term contract with Universal and will star 'n "Home Is the Sailor" by Eric Hatch, with David Lewis producing. • Voting in the M. P. Academy of Arts and Sciences awards election ended Friday night. A. W. Ramsdell Is Buchanan Officer Arthur W. Ramsdell, former vicepresident and sales director of the Borden Company, has purchased an interest in and has become executive vice-president of Buchanan & Company, advertising agency. Ramsdell is past president of the National Federation of Sales Executives Clubs and in 1940 arranged the appearance of Elsie, the Borden cow, in the RKO production of "Little Men." MOTION PICTURE DAILY, Martin Quigley, President and Editor-in-Chief; Colvin Brown, Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Executive Editor. Published daily except Saturday, Sunday and holidays by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., 1270 Sixth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, New York, 20, N. Y. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address, "Quigpubco, New York." Martin Quigley, President; Colvin Brown, Vice-President; Red Kann, Vice-President; T. J. Sullivan, Secretary; Sherwin Kane, Executive Editor; James P. Cunningham, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; Chicago Bureau, 624 South Michigan Ave., Leonard Gneier, Correspondent; Hollywood Bureau, Postal Union Life Bldg., William R. Weaver, Editor; London Bureau, 4 Golden Sq., London Wl, Hope Burnup, Manager; Peter Burnup, Editor; cable address, "Quigpubco, London." All contents copyrighted 1944 by Quigley Publishing Co., Inc. Other Quigley Publications: Motion Picture Herald, Better Theatres, International Motion Picture Almanac, Fame. Entered as second class matter, Sept. 23, 1938, at the post office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Subscription rates per year, $6 in the Americas and $12 foreign; single copies, 10c.