Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1951)

2 Motion Picture Daily Friday, March 30, 1951 Personal Mention LEON J. BAMBERGER, RKO Pictures sales promotion manager, will return here today from Oklahoma City. • Judy Garland and scriptwriters Augustus and Ruth Goetz will leave here today for Europe on the He de France. Also going abroad today on the Queen Mary are actors Glenn Ford and Geraldine Brooks, and Frank La Grande, executive of Paramount International Films. • Lee Kline, former manager of the Stanley-Warner Orpheum Theatre in Philadelphia, has moved to Hollywood, Fla., where he is owner-manager of a motel. • Alexander H. Robertson, coowner of the Majestic Theatre, Springfield, Ky., will leave for the Warm Springs Foundation, Warm Springs, Ga., on Sunday. • Bob Hope has been named honorary chairman of National Defense Week, May 12-19, by the Reserve Officers Association of the U. S. • Si Seadler, M-G-M advertising manager, flew to the Coast from New York yesterday. He will return on April 9. • Joseph Weinberg has been appointed general sales manager of Brooks Uniform Co., in charge of its Coastto-Coast sales territory. • Harold Wirthwein, MonogramAllied Artists Western sales manager, is due to leave the Coast today for New York. • Sheldon Gunsberg, Universal exploitation representative, is in Philadelphia from New York. • Joseph Hazen, president of Hal Wallis Productions, will return to New York next week from Florida. • John K. Hilliard, chief engineer of Altec Lansing Corp., will leave here for Europe today. • Anthony Z. Landi, producer, has arrived here from the Coast. © A. N. Miles and Mrs. Miles of the Eminence Theatre, Eminence, Ky., are vacationing in Florida. 50 'Queen for a Day' Premieres Are Set Mochrie, Boasberg At Devaney Funeral Toronto, March 29. — Robert Mochrie, vice-president and general sales manager of RKO Pictures ; Charles Boasberg, North-South division manager, and Nat Levy, Eastern division manager, will represent the RKO home office at the funeral services for Leo M. Devaney here tomorrow. Devaney, RKO 'Radio's Canadian district manager for 18 years, died here suddenly on Tuesday from a heart attack at the age of 60. Most local industry offices will be closed during the services. Fifty key cities have been selected for local premieres of Robert Stillman's "Queen for a Day," to follow immediately after the world premiere of the film on April 14 in Waycross, Ga., designated as the "Queen City," William J. Pleineman, UA distribution vice-president reports. The 50 cities will be focal points in a widespread promotional effort which is being conducted by UA, Stillman, Mutual Broadcasting and the Raymond Morgan Agency, in line with a tie-up with the "Queen" radio show, which is in the background of the film. The cities include : Atlanta, Miami, Boston, Buffalo, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dayton, Cleveland, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Detroit, Indianapolis, Denver, Kansas City, Tulsa, Minneapolis, Hartford, New Orleans, Newark, Des Moines, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, Baltimore, New York and others. Of these, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Philadelphia Boston, Hartford and New York will be highlighted by the advance presence of the touring radio show, headlined by Jack Bailey, and city-wide "Queen for a Day" contests in which women entrants will compete for thousands of dollars worth of prizes, including a trip to Hollywood. The remaining 40 cities will participate in the "Queen for a Day" contest, with similar prizes for local contestants. In all 50 the premieres will be backed by an all-out exploitation and publicity campaign based on the local "Queen for a Day" contests. Directly following the key-city premieres, saturation bookings are being scheduled throughout each regional area. New York Mayfair Books 'The Man From Planet X' "The Man from Planet X" has been booked for a New York premiere at the Mayfair Theatre, following the current "Oh ! Susannah," it was announced here yesterday by William J. Heineman, United Artists distribution vice-president. Produced in Hollwood under the direction of Edgar Ulmer, the_ picture is a Sherrill Corwin presentation. Local Autonomy for Interboro Houses In consequence of the resignation of Samuel Handler as Interboro Circuit supervisor here, the company has promoted the following managers to local supervisory duties : Herman Slepian, Clifford Loth, James Pisapia, Richard Berner and Abraham Vallet. Handler is leaving the industry to enter the real estate business on Long Island. The decision to concentrate supervision on the local level was made in an effort to obtain closer coordination between the theatres and the home office, the company reported. Lew Preston continues in his capacity as a supervisor. UA's 'Sears Drive' Starts on Monday United Artists sales personnel throughout the U. S. and Canada, are fully prepared for the "Grad Sears Sales Drive," which will get under way on Monday for the nine-week period ending June 2, it was reported here yesterday by William J. Heineman, UA distribution vicepresident. All exchanges are decorated with special banners and pictures prepared by United Artists' advertising department for the event. Palsy Dinner Group Headed by Sullivan Ed Sullivan, newspaper columnist and telecast star, will head the artists' committee of the second annual "Michael Awards" dinner of the Academy of Radio and Television Arts and Sciences, it was announced here by Leonard H. Goldenosn, president of United Cerebral Palsy Associations, sponsor of the event. The dinner, counterpart of Hollywood's "Oscar Awards" event, will be held on May 7 at the Waldorf Astoria, New York. Proceeds will go to the 1951 Palsy Campaign for $5,000,000, Sullivan's acceptance of the chairmanship marks the second consecutive time in which he has participated in the "Michael Awards." Last year he was chairman and toastmaster. Zukor Heads Group To Tucson Opening Adolph Zukor, chairman of the board of Paramount Pictures, will head a host of celebrities who will attend the world premiere of the William Pine-William Thomas film, "The Last Outpost," at the Paramount Theatre in Tucson on April 4. Among the others scheduled to appear are the stars of the picture, Ronald Reagan and Rhonda Fleming. The premiere will kick-off the Tucson Festival of Arts celebration, an annual event in Arizona. Paramount News cameramen will cover the opening and attendant festivities. Kalmenson Ends Sales Meet Here Ben Kalmenson, Warner's sales vice-president, wound up a two-day home office meeting of the company's district managers and executives last night with the screening of "Goodbye, My Fancy." Discussions were held on business conditions throughout the United States and Canada as reported by the men from each district, as well as outlining of plans for spring. To Manage Drive-in Albany, N. Y., March 29. — Robert W. Case, for eight years manager for Walter Reade in the Kingston area, has been appointed manager of the Sunset Drive-in, Kingston. Small Houses Still Outside of NLRB Washington, March 29. — The National Labor Relations Board is continuing to follow a policy of not taking jurisdiction over labor disputes in small non-circuit theatres which are considered to be purely local business operations. A union filed charges against a company operating a theatre in an Illinoistown, alleging refusal to bargain. The annual gross income of the theatre company amounts to approximately $90,000 and the cost of film rental approximately $30,000, with no outflow of materials. The NLRB regional director refused to issue the complaint, and the NLRB general counsel sustained the director. He found the company does not furnish materials to businesses over which the Board will assert jurisdiction; does not substantially affect national defense ; and does not have a sufficient dollar volume of inflow and/or outflow of goods or services to meet the Board's jurisdictional standards in this field. The Board's standards waive jurisdiction over any enterprise which does not get over $500,000 a year of materials from out-of-state or which does not ship out-of-state $25,000 worth of goods or services annually. Mahoney Meets Press A press reception for Jack Mahoney, star of CBS-TV's new Western series, "Range Rider," was held at the Barberry Room here yesterday. WCBS has been showing an episode of the series, filmed by Gene Autry's producing company, every day during the past week as a "video premiere" and it is reported that 10 stations have already signed up for it. NEW YORK THEATRES RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL Rockefeller Center FRED ASTAIRE JANE POWELL "ROYAL WEDDING" Color by TECHNICOLOR A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture plus THE MUSIC HALL'S GREAT EASTER STAGE SHOW Paiamount preientl BOB HOPE in DAMON RUNYON'S The LEMON DROP KID ^22 2MZ Midnighr Fcatut* Nighlif record week! A Columbia Picture ; MOTION PICTURE DAILY. Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Sherwin Kane, Editor; Terry Ramsaye, Consulting Editor. Published daily, except Saturdays, Sundays 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, Vice-President and Treasurer; Leo J. Brady, Secretary; James P. Cunningham, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager; Gus H. Fausel, Production Manager. Hollywood Bureau, YuccaVine Building, William R. 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