Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1954)

2 Motion Picture Daily Thursday, July 15, 1954 Personal Mention Aw. SCHWALBERG, president • of Paramount Film Distributing Corp., will leave New York today for Europe aboard the He de France accompanied by his wife. • George Josephs, Columbia Pictures home office sales executive, is in Washington today for meetings with Mid-East division manager Sam Galanty prior to visiting company branches in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, • Vincent Trotta will leave here today for Long Beach, Cal., with contestants for the "Miss Universe" contest for which he is to be the dean of judges. • F. J. A. McCarthy, Southern and Canadian sales manager for Universal Pictures, will leave here today for Cincinnati. • Pericles Alexander of the Shreveport, La., "Times," is in New Yorkvisiting M-G-M exploitation head Emeky Austin. • Herb Steinberg, Paramount's national exploitation manager, and Burt Champion, publcity manager, are in Atlantic City from New York. • Americo Aboaf, vice-president and foreign sales manager for UniversalInternational, will arrive here today from London via B.O.A.C. Monarcli. • Albert E. Sindlinger, business analyst, is in Indianapolis today enroute to Kansas City. • Sam Levsne will leave here over the weekend for London via B.O.A.C. Monarch. William Hornbeck, film editor and production executive, has arrived here from London. • Harold Hecitt of Hecht-Lancaster productions is in New York from the Coast. • Milton Sperling of United States Pictures has returned to the Coast from New York. Bob Mathias and wife have left New York for Quantico, Va., where he will enter the U.S. Marine Corps. Calihan Resigns from M-G-M L. A, Branch William A. Calihan, Sr., assistant resident manager of the Los Angeles Exchange, has submitted his resignation to George A. Hickey, Pacific Coast sales manager of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer effective Saturday. Calihan celebrated his 2Sth anniversary on June 24 at the Los Angeles exchange. Prior to coming to Los Angeles, he was associated with the Eastman, Regent and Piccadilly Theatres of Rochester, N. Y. He is planning a vacation in New York City. 3 Get Holes-in-1 In V.C. Tournament DES MOINES, July 14.— Golfers say the odds against a holein-one are 8,750 to one, but no member of the Des Moines' Variety Club will believe it. Recently, during the club's charity tournament, three contestants had shot them at a cost to the club of about $2,000 in addition to the tournament proceeds. The money will go toward purchase of a new Cadillac and Plymouth for the winners, who will be selected by a shootoff later. About 6,000 tries were taken in the tournament against a total of 12,000 last year when there were no winners and the club's charity received $6,000. Winners include Rudy Faulds, a member of Tent No. 15 here. Contestants paid $1 for two shots on the 138-yard hole. SCTOA-Makelim Meet Open to All HOLLYWOOD, July 14. — The meeting scheduled for next Tuesday by the Southern California Theatre Owners Association is open to all exhibitors and is not restricted to SCTOA members, board chairman Harry C. Arthur, Jr., said here today. The session was called to hear Hal Makelim present his production plan which, according to Arthur, is the "only concrete solution thus far presented to alleviate the great shortage of product without any financial assistance from exhibitors and certainly warrants whole-hearted cooperation of all theatre owners." $2,000,000 Topped By Cinerama in Chi. CHICAGO, July 14. — "This Is Cinerama" has grossed over $2,000,000 here and will have played to more than 1,000,000 people at the Palace as the film celebrates its first anniversary at Eitel's Palace Theatre on July 29. A special morning show for underprivileged children will be held during a week of activities honoring the motion picture. Otto K. Eitel, owner of the theatre, and Douglas Helgeson, managing director of Chicago Cinerama Corp. More than 300 mayors from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin cities have been invited to attend the festivities in which the City Council, State Street Ciuncil and civic and business groups will participate. No Appointment Yet Of Ohio Censor Chief COLUMBUS, p., July 14.— Governor Lausche denied reports that he would appoint R. M. Eyman of Lancaster, to the po'st of state director of education and chief Ohio film censor. Eyman is assistant state education director. Resignation of Dr. Clyde Hissong becomes effective Sept. 15. Gov. Lausche said he had received several applications for the post but had made no decision. RKO Utilizes All Wide-Screen Media HOLLYWOOD, July 14. — RKO Pictures is utilizing all the available wide-screen processes for pictures on its latest release schedule, it was annnounced by the studio. All of these features will be in Technicolor. RKO is using the latest CinemaScope lenses for its biggest picture, "The Conqueror," starring John Wayne, Susan Hayward and Pedro Armendariz. Superscope Film Completed Superscope shooting of "The Americano" was finished, with Glenn Ford, Ursula Thiess, Cesar Romero and Frank Lovejoy in the stellar roles. Superscope is the Tushinsky process which was developed on the RKO lot. "Cattle Queen of Montana," starring Barbara Stanwyck and Ronald Reagan, began shooting in Superscope on location at Glacier Park, Montana. VistaVision will make its debut on the RKO sound stages when Frederick Brisson starts production of "The Girl Rush," starring Rosalind Russell. The comedy will have much of its location work done at Las Vegas and nearby ranches. "Son of Sinbad," "Jet Pilot" and "The Big Rainbow" will get the Tushinsky process of Superscope projection. Services Tomorrow For Grantland Rice Funeral services for sportswriter Grantland Rice, who died here Tuesday night, will be conducted tomorrowmorning in the Brick Presbyterian Church, 1140 Park Ave., here at 11 :00 A.M. In addition to his achievements in the newspaper profession. Rice edited the Sportlight, film shorts and collaborated in a series of one-reel sports films under the same name. One of these, "Amphibious Fighters," won an Academy Award in 1943 for the year's best one-reel picture. 'Sea' Grosses $1,600 In Trans-Lux Premie The United Artists release, "Victory at Sea," which opened at the Trans-Lux 60th St. Theatre here, grossed $1,600 on opening day and is expected to earn a high of $12,000 in the initial week, it was revealed yesterday by Tom Rodgers, general manager of the Trans-Lux Theatres. Screen Gems Active Production in the New York studios of Screen Gems, Inc., is at an alltime high with 17 commercials and five "Big Playback" programs currently before the cameras, Ralph M. Cohn, vice-president and general manager of the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures announced. 'Susan' Here July 29 RKO's "Susan Slept Here," Technicolor comedy starring Dick Powell and Debbie Reynolds with Anne Francis, will open in New York July ' 29 at the Victoria Theatre. Bronx Theatre Files $450,000 Trust Suit Against 4 Majors The IDA Amusement Co., operator of tlie Fleetwood Theatre in the Bronx, yesterday filed a $450,000 anti-trust action against RKO, Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox and J. J. Theatres, Inc., operators of the Kent Theatre also in the Bronx. The complaint charges that the clearance given to the RKO split and to the Kent over the plaintiff's Fleetwood Theatre is illegal. The plaintiff has operated the Fleetwood since 1952. Prior to that, it was operated by J. J. The complaint alleges that at no time previously was any clearance accorded the Kent over the Fleetwood. Eurovision Members Mull Closed-Circuit Members of the recently established European Television Network (Eurovision) are considering strengthening inter-European communications by the use of closed-circuit television, William Rosensohn, executive vice-president of Box Office Television, declared recently. Rosensohn, who just returned from a 30-day tour of Eurovision installations, stated that he discussed plans to utilize closed-circuit TV in the fields of diplomatic relations, European Defense Community communications in economic, agricultural and educational projects. • Participating in discussions with the BOT official were representatives of the British Broadcasting Co., the French Broadcasting Co., the Belgian Broadcasting Co., Cinema Television, Ltd., Nic Bal, Belgium's chief of information, and M. Michel Robida of Radiodiffusion-Television Francaise. Cohen,D.C, Exchange Man, Dies at 58 WASHINGTON, July 14.— Funeral services were held today for Max Cohen, active in distribution circles here and in New York for the past 30 years. Cohen died of a heart ailment yesterday, at the age of 58. He had been in Washington since 1940, working with the Universal and Lippert exchanges, and about five years ago establishing his own Minerva Film Exchange. 'Kings' Bow Moved Up _M-G-M's "Valley of the Kings" will premiere at the Plaza Theatre here on July 22 instead of July 29 as previously announced. 1327 S. Wikuh ■ Chicigo, III. f30 Ninth An. New Yoik, N. V. 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." 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