Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1947)

Motion Picture Daily Thursday, July 17, 1947 Personal Mention HAL ROACH, United Artists producer, will begin a plane tour today from New York of key cities to address district managers' meetings on his "Comedy Carnival." Jules Seltzer, his representative, will accompany him. • Arthur H. Schwartz, member of the law firm of Schwartz and Frolich, has been named chairman of the executive committee of the New York City Bar Association. • Kay Harrison, managing director of Technicolor, Ltd., and Mrs. Harrison will leave on their return trip to London today aboard the S'.S' Queen Elizabeth. • C. J, Feldman,, Universal-International Western division sales manager, is due back here Saturday from Minneapolis and Milwaukee. • Fred Meyers, Universal-International Eastern division sales manager, returned to the home office yesterday from Albany, N. Y. division will rehome office today from Roy Haines, Western sales manager for Warner turn to the the Midwest Robert Ballantyne, head of The Ballantyne Co., Omaha, has left there for a business trip to Chicago and New York. • Louis J. Kaufman, Warner Theatres executive, left here yesterday for Cleveland, Akron and Pittsburgh. • Harold Wirthwein, captain of Paramount's 1947 sales, drive, flew to Buffalo from New York yesterday. • William B. Zoellner, M-G-M short subject sales head, is in St. Louis from New York. • Max Rosenberg of Motion Picture Ventures, will leave here Friday for a Midwest trip. • Frank N. Phelps, Warner Theatres executive, is in Boston from New York. Rank Off to England Today After US Stay J. Arthur Rank and Mrs. Rank will sail today aboard the Queen Elizabeth for England, after a two and one-half month stay in the United States. Rank had breakfast here yesterday with Ned E. Depinet, RKO Radio executive vice-president, and Phil Reisman, RKO Radio vice-president, in charge of foreign distribution. During the day he was a guest of David Sarnoff, president of RCA, on a tour of RCA experimental television stations in New Jersey. Last night he was a dinner guest of Robert R. Young of Pathe Industries, Inc., at the Waldorf-Astoria. Insider's Outlook pHARLIE REAGAN de^ scribed a case history in applied showmanship at some length on Tuesday. He was frank in recounting to reporters Paramount's initial experience on "Dear Ruth"' — how a normal advertising and publicity campaign resulted in only moderate success in opening runs ; how the budget was stepped up by $200,000 ; how theatre grosses of that attraction may jump an additional $6,000,000, to $8,000,000 as a consequence, in his opinion. From all this he then drew his conclusions. They were : "The right picture properly merchandised and exploited will do business at any time and under any conditions." Tli ere is too much listlessness on the part of some tvho continue in the dream zvorld of the wartime period. "Business can be just as good as our showmanship can make it." a Old and hackneyed stuff? It is. Reagan has fallen upon no new truths, but neither does he advance any claim of discovery. He merely gives added and required emphasis to a couple of basic merchandising approaches which all experienced hands in this industry know to be fact, although not many practice them in these days of too much bookkeeping and too little showmanship. H It has been written before, and there will be undoubted need to write it again, that the free-for-all is over. Studios now have to get by on merit, not war. Distributors now must sell, not just announce availabilities. Exhibitors now cannot throw the doors back and sidestep the deluge. The back-to-work movement is here with all its timeconsuming, brain-wearing demands. The enthusiasm, the excitement and the stimulation which always have been among the sinews of this business need flexing, and they require it very badly indeed. Some cotton to the belief we have left one era and are embarked in another. If they view the incredible war years as an era, then certainly we have left one. If they mean new standards must be established and, so, another era with them, probably they are wrong. By RED KANN The old Four 'Stallion' Dates "Red Stallion," Eagle-Lion's Cinecolor production, which will have its world premiere on Aug. 13 at Interstate Circuit's Majestic Theatre in Houston, will open the following day at the Majestic, San Antonio, A. W. Schwalberg, E-L vice-president, announced. Also announced were the Majestic, Dallas, on Aug. 15 and the Iff^A^ EdiL. PubHshed'ai^lTept1 Saturdays, ^IJ0^ ^fart'?,PUlg1?? Indent; Red Kann, Vice-President; MaVtm Qu.Vley ^ CIrde 7-3100 Cable address, "Quigpubco Cunningham, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; faavid Harris Or'^ Treasurer; Leo J. Brady, Secretary; James P Chicago Bureau, 624 South Michigan Avenue; Washington^, J. A. Ot ten. 2525 Ontario Road N W • ^ n^n?°-Byw0od ?H^5 Y"cca-yine, Building. William R. Weaver, Editor Burnup Editor; cable address, "Quigpubco, London." Othef Quigley Publications Motion Golden Sq.. London Wl, Hope Burnup, Manager, Peter SubsUcdntine^;Internati0naLM-0ti0? PICtUr? Almanac, Fame. Entered as second T class master Sept 23 1938 !ltL ™uc' ^^v'T^*11 Tek a3 a *ection °f Motion Subscription rates per year, $6 m the Americas and $12 foreign; single copies, 10c. md"er' sePl li> 193S, at the post office at New York, N. Y„ under the act of March 3, 1879. era of hitting the awareness of the exhibitor through channels long and well established for such a primary purpose was all right. It did its . job once. It can do the same, or a better job again. Not by halfhearted application and not by sacrifice of potentials through a grubbing method of operational economy. Audiences have been pre-influenced, of course, by the use of the radio, the magazines and the newspapers. But between the maker of the merchandise and its buyer stands the exhibitor. He is the indispensable. And, because this is so, it matters a great deal how he is conditioned. The contagion of enthusiasm can translate into a column of figures. b a Nell Rank, who is Mrs. j Arthur, accompanied her husband on the long American trip which terminates today when the Ranks return to London. Because she serves as counselor and family adviser, Mrs. Rank has detailed knowledge of many of her husband's activities. When E. V. Richards, Jr., invited the British film man to take on the Solid South and give out on English pictures, Rank offered his wife several alter| natives. One was to accompany him to Louisiana, another to linger several days longer in Hollywood and a third to precede him East. Mrs. Rank chose New Orleans, because, said she: "Evie Richards must be a very clever lady to run all those cinemas. I should very much like to meet her." M B Eddie Grainger, head of the Shea circuit, ought to find even greater welcome in distributor offices after his wire to the ITO of Ohio convention at Cedar Point. If an exhibitor has the right to tell other exhibitors, Grainger undoubtedly told 'em. Don't attack distributors merely because they sit on the opposite side, he urged. If a distributor gets _ involved, or stuck with, a multi-million-dollar negative, the gamble ought to be shared by the theatre man, he also suggested. But, principally, he advised the Ohioans to stick closer to home by meeting their direct problems — "devote more time to housekeeping, publicity, exploitation, public relations and allround theatre operation and less to outsmarting distributors." There, he made his most telling observation. Newsreel Parade ~M~EW editions of the newsreels of■L > fcr a wide variety of subjects, including many sports items, the announcement of the ■winning Cancer Fund slogan and Britons hailing the betrothal of Princess Elisabeth. The reels and their contents follow. MOVIETONE NEWS, No. 92-Prf Klizaheth and her future husband elf 'jiV Whaling m Japan. Oil boom in Canada Jhnounce winner of Cancer Fund slogan. Water skiing on Pacific Coast and Florida. NEWS OF THE DAY, No. 290-Whaling in Japan. Britain's royal romance. Announce cancer contest winner. Congressmen in baseball game. Water skiing. PARAMOUNT NEWS-, No. 93— Water sports. Cancer Fund slogan winner. Japanese whaling fleet at work. Princess Elizabeth to wed. Republicans and Democrats m baseball contest. RKO PATHE NEWS, No. 95-Griswald Hies to Greece. New atom smasher. Japanese whalers. Elizabeth's engagement hailed. Australian whip champion. Congressional baseball game. UNIVERSAL NEWSREEL, No. S6-Can cer Drive winning slogan. Japanese whalers Congressional baseball game. Bull-whip contest in Australia. Water sports. Koken Gets New RKO Theatre Division Edward Sniderman has been named division manager of RKO Theatres in Trenton and New Brunswick by Sol A. Schwartz, general manager. Lee Koken, manager of RKO Keith's Flushing, succeeds Sniderman as division manager of the RKO Manhattan group that includes the Coliseum, Hamilton, Regent and Alhambra theatres. Sol Sorkin, manager of RKO Keith's, Washington, replaces Koken in Flushing. Car Is Presented to ITO's Pete Wood Cedar Point, O., July 16.— A large distributor representation attended the annual banquet of the Independent Theatre Owners of Ohio, here, last evening, at the Breakers Hotel, which climaxed a two-day convention. Highlight of the dinner was the presentation of an automobile to P. J. (Pete) Wood, secretary of the organization. Delay Allied Meeting Chicago, July 16.— National Allied Theatres' convention originally scheduled for Nov. 10-12 at Milwaukee has been postponed until Dec. 1-3, it was announced here by Jack Kirsch, president. Reason for the delay was given by Kirsch as inadequate facilities during November. However, Allied is now promised complete accommodations for December.