Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1947)

2 Motion Picture Daily Friday, March 7, 1947 Personal Mention HENDERSON M. RICHEY, MG-M's director of exhibitor relations, has been awarded a U. S. Navy Certificate of Appreciation for his services during the war. • William Goetz, Universal-International production head, accompapied by his wife and Claudette Colbert, are expected to arrive here tomorrow from the Coast. • Ben Kalmenson, Warner vicepresident and general sales manager, left here yesterday for St. Louis and other Mid-West points. • Arthur W. Kelly, General Motion Pictures Corp. president, will leave New York today for the Coast on TWA Constellation. • Sam Seidelman, PRC foreign manager, has returned to New York after a four and a half months' trip through the Far East. • Milton Kusell, general sales manager for Selznick Releasing Organization, is scheduled to leave here today for Hollywood. • Stuart H. Aaron s, Warner Club president and member of Warners' legal staff, left here by plane last night for the Coast. • Robert Gillham, of the J. Walter Thompson Agency, is scheduled to leave here today for a vacation in Florida. Pizor, Rank Officers, Seidelman Sailing William M. Pizor, foreign sales manager for Screen Guild Productions; Robert Benjamin, president of the U. S. J. Arthur Rank Organization ; Joseph H. Seidelman, president of Universal-International, "Us" foreign sales subsidiary, and A. B. Krimm, Eagle-Lion president, are among film industry notables scheduled to leave for Europe today aboard the 55" Queen Elizabeth. Pizor, who expects to be gone about two months, will stop in London before traveling across the Continent to set up franchises for the distribution of SGP releases. David Lewis, Enterprise producer ; Paulette Goddard, Burgess Meredith, Constance Collier, Glynis Johns, Dr. Hubert Clifford, musical director for London Film Productions; Noel Coward, playwright and producer ; Jack Buchanan and James Whale, will also sail. 'Adventuress' Opening A. W. Schwalberg, Eagle-Lion vicepresident and general sales manager, says that "The Adventuress," starring Deborah Kerr, will be premiered at the Majestic Theatre in Boston on March 14, as planned. He also confirms the March 17 national release date. Insider's Outlook By RED KANN \ /I ORE on the closely-watched -1 Paramount price change: The slash in morning scales from 70 cents from opening to 11 A.M. and from 85 cents from 11 A.M. to noon in favor of 55 cents straight from opening to one P.M., all including Federal tax, is not the only shift, although emphasis has been concentrated on that bracket. No doubt, because it is the deepest cut. Under the former structure, the house used to get 95 cents from noon to five P.M., then $1.30 from five to midnight, when the tariff dropped to 95. Under the new, it is 90 cents from one to six P.M., then $1.20 to midnight when it slides off to 85 cents. This prevails Monday through Friday. On Saturday, from opening-toll A.M. the price was 85 cents, rising a dime from 11 A.M. to noon, going to $1.10 from noon to two P.M., then up 10 cents to $1.20 for the next hour, climbing to $1.40 from three to six P.M., when it reached a peak of $1.50 and receded to $1.20 at midnight. Now it is 70 cents from opening to noon, 95 from noon ta one P.M., then $1.25 from one to five P.M., at which hour it clambers to $1.50 and remains there until midnight when it is cut back to 95 cents. The Sunday scale, likewise, has undergone a change. From opening to one P.M., the price formerly was $1.30, changing to $1.50 throughout the afternoon and evening until the midnight hour when it sluffed to $1.20. Now it is $1.25 from opening to one P.M., at .its maximum of $1.50 thereafter until midnight when it contracts to 95 cents. ■ The full-blown price setup is essential to any understanding of what the theatre is endeavoring to accomplish. That endeavor, primarily, is to restore morning business to some semblance of its former level. On the basis of the first nine days, the management, which is to say Bob Weitman, stoutly maintains the plan already is so pronounced a success that attendance is putting the previous three shows to shame. On the basis of the first six days, patronage to one A.M. was up almost 100 per cent, he reports. Meanwhile, Broadway competitors continue to look down their noses. They remain unconvinced, or so they say, of any need to follow suit and the probability is their judgment is sound so far as the new scheme has gone. One week, plus two days, hardly can be conclusive. ■ They are pointing out, also, that any drop in price stacks up as a bargain to the public whose support would be automatic. Principally, however, they are asking if the Paramount is more interested in attendance or in dollars. The answer is pretty obvious. The Paramount is interested in both. Weitman maintains the theatre reaches its break figure with Wednesday and Friday night and weekend business, which means the gravy train starts to gather speed with whatever else is left. He figures that, while he is getting less money per admission, particularly in the morning hours, he also is getting attendance so much greater than the house has known in about nine months that the gross inevitably must improve. It is in Weitman's mind as well that he won't have the field to himself much longer. If someone wanted to make a bet, we'd line up with him. ■ ■ For the record: Thornton Delehanty, reporting in the New York Herald-Tribune from Hollywood, had Dore Schary pursuing a new production tack at RKO. No longer was that company to rely so heavily on independents. Instead, new policy provided for the development of a contract list and "to play along less with the outside, or freelance, groups," he wrote. Hollywood checkup shows that Schary had been misinterpreted ; he has no such plan in mind. ■ ■ Century Circuit's program in cooperation with the Board of Education to gauge whether films will complement classroom studies ties the business of exhibition closer to the business of running a community. Bearing all costs and charging no admission, Century is holding one morning show a month for four months. This is a first-rate instance of good thinking, good service and progressive showmanship. DANA ANDREWS in "BOOMERANG" A 20th Century-Fox Picture PLUS ON STAGE — PHIL REGAN KATH ERIN E DUNHAM .ERNESTO LECUONA ED SULLIVAN . SID CAESAR DA¥V 7th Ave. & KW^V I 50th St. HEW YORK THEATRES —RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL Rockefeller Center [Spencer TRACY Katharine HEPBURN1 ■ Robert WALKER . Melvyn DOUGLAsl i'THE SEA OF GRASS"! A MetroGoldwynMayer Picture, SPECTACULAR STAGE PRESENpe' JN; He was made for ACTION! She was made for LOVE.1 JOHN GAIL WAYNE RUSSELL 'ANGEL and the BADMAN it with HARRY CAREY BRUCE CABOT IRENE RICH LEE DIXON A JOHN WAYNE Production A Republic Picture BRANDT'S GOTHAM SnTst* PALACE DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, Jr. MAUREEN 0 HARA WALTER SLEZAK StNBAD the Sailor //V GORGSOOS T£OM/COt0R i£30 ON SCREEN LORETTA YOUNG The PERFECT MARRIAGE' IN PERSON MOLLHICON Extra! Eddie PEABODY plus Others fi^-m paulette GotWard Fred MacMurray Suddenly Its Spring 'THE BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR" — N. Y. FILM CRITICS "The BEST Years of Our Lives' Continuous A CTf\D *' Performances A V-/1V * WAY and ^45th ST. Paramount's "BLAZE OF NOON" RIVOLI THEATER Doors Open B'way & 49th St. 9:30 A. M. MOTION PICTURE DAILY, Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; Martin Ouigley, Jr., Associate Editor. Published daily, except Saturdays, bundays 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; Red Kann, Vice-President; Martin Quigley, Jr., Vice-President; Theo. J. Sullivan, Treasurer; Leo J. Brady, Secretary; James P. Cunningham, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; David Harris, Circulation Director; Hollywood Bureau, Postal Union Life Bldg., William R. Weaver, Editor; Chicago Bureau,(624 South Michigan Avenue; Washington, Jim H. 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