Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1948)

2 Motion Picture Daily Tuesday, May 4, 1948 Charges Free-shows Are 'Snowballing' Hollywood, May 3. — The growing practice of showing free films in hotels, bars, and even groceries is snowballing into an acute problem directly biting into legitimate film income unless production, distribution, and exhibition leaders get together to formulate protective measures, Harry Popkin, head of Cardinal Pictures and owner of 30 theatres on the West Coast, declares here. While the practice of free showings in bars is not any real problem to the theatre box office, nevertheless it is the beachhead for a policy which, as it becomes more widely adopted, will really hurt business, Popkin said, adding: "Most of the big metropolitan stores now have or are planning on putting in small auditoriums in which free entertainment, mostly films, will be provided for shoppers. "One hotel chain now advertises free movies in each of its hotels, which is putting a direct drain on entertainment enterprises. Most of the films are 16mm. but that does not change the situation any because they are keeping patrons out of theatres just the same." The producer-exhibitor said, "the industry has absolutely no over-all policy of any kind in the face of this situation." WB District Heads Meet Here May 6-7 A meeting of district managers will be held at the Warner home office here Thursday and Friday by Ben Kalmenson, the companys' distribution head. District managers attending will be F. D. (Dinty) Moore, Sam Lefkowitz, Robert Smeltzer, Charles Rich, Harry A. Seed, Hall Walsh, John F. Kirby, Doak Roberts, Henry M. Herbel, Haskell M. Masters. Home office executives present will be Mort Blumenstock, Jules Lapidus, Norman Ayres, Roy Haines, Norman H. Moray, Ed Hinchy, Mike Dolid and Bernard R. Goodman. Denies 'Curtain' Libels New York attorney Sidney Schreiberg. who had requested a private screening of "The Iron Curtain" to determine whether his clients, James S. Benning, Eric Adams and Dr. David Shugar are libeled therein, will have to wait until the picture is shown publicly before he can view it, he reported here yesterday. He said 20th Century-Fox replied to his request with the assertion that Benning, Adams and Shugar, who were acquitted last year in the Canadian espionage case, are not libeled in the picture. Martin Printz Retires Cleveland, May 3. — Martin Printz, active in theatres here since 1908, has >old his interests in the Alhambra and is retiring to live in Los Angeles. Local industry members gave him a farewell dinner tonight. Personal Mention JOCK LAWRENCE, vice-president of the J. Arthur Rank Organization here, will enter Presbyterian Hospital in New York today for minor surgery. • Harry Switow of the Switow Amusement Co., Louisville, has become a grandfather, his daughter, Mrs. George Frehling, having given birth to a daughter. The Frehlings are in the theatre and hotel business in Bluefield, W. Va. • Tony Hunting, Walter Reade Theatres city manager in Red Bank, N. J., has been renominated for another three-year term as councilman in Fair Haven, N. J. He celebrated his 25th anniversary as councilman last winter. • Charles Burris, manager of the Telenews Theatre, Cleveland, for the past seven years, has been promoted to the New York office as general sales and advertising manager of the Telenews Newsreel. • James Loeb has been appointed to the staff of the concessions department of Walter Reade Theatres here. A former Navy flier, Loeb will also be a second pilot for the company's airline, the other being Walter Reade, Jr. • Edward M. Schnitzer, UA Eastern and Canadian division manager, left New York yesterday on a oneweek tour, to hold meetings in Toronto and Detroit. • Jack Share, former owner of the Cedar and Quincy theatres, Cleveland, is entering another business at Winter Park, Fla., with his former theatre partner, Oscar Bloom. • Edward Harrison, former manager of the Court Square Theatre, Springfield, Mass., has become manager for the new Sundown Auto Theatre, Westfield, Mass. Kenneth Kennedy, Eagle-Lion booker in New Orleans, has been promoted to salesman, with Kenneth Russell succeeding him as booker. • Mitchell Wolfson and Sidney Meyer, partners in Wometco Theatres of Miami are New York visitors. • C. J. Kremer, owner of the Rialto Theatre, Stanton, Neb., will observe his 30th year in the film business on June 15. • Charles McLeary, manager of the Parkway Theatre, Baltimore, returned to his post yesterday after an illness. • Leroy Kendis of Associated Theatres Circuit, Cleveland, is in Mt. Sinai Hospital in that city following an operation. • Lester Zucker, Universal-International branch manager in Cleveland, and Mrs. Zucker are vacationing at Asheville, N. C. RA. McNEIL, former Golden • State Theatres partner, will return to New York on May 17 from Buenos Aires. • Alice Lichtenstein, research librarian of the Congressional Aviation Policy Board and formerly executive secretary of the United Nations Central Training Film Library in Washington, has joined the staff of Louis de Rochemont Associates here. • Adele Harris, daughter of Ted Harris, managing director of the State Theatre, Hartford, and Mrs. Harris, has become engaged to Victor Feingold, also of that city. • Sam Lake, Selznick Releasing Organization sales representative in New York, and T helm a Bender of this city will be married here on Sunday. • Frank N. Phelps, head of the Warner labor relations department, has become a grandfather for the fourth time. • William B. Zoellner, M-G-M short subject sales manager, left here yesterday for a three-week tour of the South and Southwest. • Ed Hatrick, general manager of William Randolph Hearst's film interests, left the Coast yesterday for his New York headquarters. • F. J. A. McCarthy, Universal-International :Southern and Canadian sales manager, left here yesterday for Dallas. • Roland J. McLeod has been elected president of Local No. 277, Motion Picture Machine Operators, Bridgeport. • Ruth J. Smelter, advertising manager of the Strand Amusement Co., Bridgeport, has returned to her desk after an illness. • Rudy Berger, M-G-M Southern sales manager, .was in Beaumont, Tex., yesterday, from New York. • Robert Nathan, M-G-M writer, left the Coast yesterday for New York. • Lou J. Kaufman, Warner theatre executive, has left here for Cleveland and Pittsburgh. • Les Plottel, Empire-Universal Films branch manager at Vancouver, has retired. • Rodney Collier, manager of the Stanley Theatre, Baltimore, is confined to his home by illness. e G. W. Taift, Monogram branch manager in Omaha, has resigned to join Paramount in Kansas City. • John K. Hilliard, Altec Lansing chief engineer, is in town from the Coast. • C. P. Cohen, owner of the Dixie Theatre, Key West, Fla., has taken over the Royal in Panama City, Fla. Flood Damage Fails To Delay WB Pathe Warner Pathe News operated on schedule yesterday despite disruption in telephone and electric service caused by water from a broken water main that flooded the basement of the Pathe Building at 625 Madison Ave. The newsreel established emergency offices in the Madison Hotel across the street. Fire and police officials cooperated to enable the current issue of the reel ttf pear on time. The flood caused damage estimated at $500,000. H. Matcher Disappears Baltimore, May 3. — A search is under way for Henry D. Matcher, general manager of the Rivoli and Embassy theatres here, following his disappearance last Wednesday. He has been with the same firm for over 25 years. Authorities are trying to determine if he is the man who vanished earlier in the week from a stateroom of the SS. City of Richmond while enroute from Baltimore to Virginia. NEW YORK THEATRES ■RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL Rockefeller Center Spencer Katharine Van TRACY HEPBURN JOHNSON Angela Adelphe Lewis LANSBURY MENJOU STONE in FRANK CAPRA'S "STATE of the UNION" Presented by M-G-M and Liberty Films SPECTACULAR STAGE PRESENTATION RAY MILLAND CHARLES ihMMf ^cufNGroA mTHE BIG CLOCK VnsaSSfe A Paramount Picture BETTE DAVIS! er IN_ WARNER BROS.' new success ■ inter Meeting i -.T-^JANIS PAIGE • JAMES DAVIS WW J bretaTgn'e'winpust ■ henry'blanke r WARNER THEATRE ;B way 51st • Opens 10:30 AM • Late Midnight Film Z DENNIS MORGAN In Person CAB s LINDFORS i$M0& TOTHE '''Vo HIS MUS to the „i *isr BW -— W DEEP RIVER BOYS PEARL BAILEY OPENS 9:30 AM b way at 47th f LATE MIDNIGHT FILM g MOTION PICTURE DAILY, Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; Martin Quigley, Jr., Associate Editor. Published daily, except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., 1270 Sixth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, New York 20, N. Y. 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