Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1956)

tjiy, July 27, 1956 Motion Picture Daily 3 of Drive-ins EDITORIAL tury Drive-in to Open ntury Theatres' new Route 110 :-In Theatre, Huntington, Long J, will be opened Wednesday , according to Leslie R. Schwartz, iry president. The drive-in has a :ity of 2500 cars. A dual ene feature permitting entry from r Route 110 or Walt Whitman lis designed to enable traffic to , smoothly and quietly from the j vay to the six box offices. Among i ew drive-in's features are a large Lhment center and a children's round. ® i;0p Ads in Milwaukee e five drive-in theatres surroundpfilwaukee have formed a group n as the Milwaukeeland Drive-In p and now place co-operative ading in newspapers and over the . Ben Marcus, who conceived idea, is chairman and Harold on acts as coordinator. Advertis; placed daily in the papers, with latest a full-page ad in color ring the banner, "All roads lead ilwaukeeland Drive-in Theatres!" ® t Opens in Maryland e Baltimore, Md. areas's newest -in, the Bengies, in the town at name has been opened. The re is owned by the Frog Mororp., headed by Joseph Einbindho also operates the Edmondson :-In near Baltimore, and Jack 1 of Ohio. The drive-in has a :ity of 1,000 cars and an end seating section for 250 persons, latter is air conditioned. ® \ n. Theatre Celebrates ' e 23rd Street Drive-In Theatre, b'anooga, Tenn., is celebrating its ft anniversary with a week-long proc< of special attractions. On Sunday ig all autos with a license number Hi ig in "5" were admitted free. Last i£ the first 25 Fords in line were i tted free. Tonight will be "Fill re* Car Night." Wednesday all 3i les celebrating their fifth wedding iri'ersary during the week will be d: tted free. Thursday will be "Luck liit," introducing a new game. Fria; light 100 passes will be given out. ® Vnstrong Opens His Sixth ;k Armstrong, Ohio exhibitor has d; d a sixth drive-in to his circuit of if, res with the opening of the r| Drive-In on Route 108, at Napo;c Ohio. (CONTINUED FROM PAGE I) Rank Opens New Theatre M son To Meet Press jmes Mason, who directed and ta in 20th Century-Fox's "Bigger 3ji Life," will air his views on the oi'oversial picture at a press coneiice Monday morning at the Fox io| ; office. He will attend the Aug. 2 m dere of the CinemaScope produciq at the Victoria Theatre. the industry they represent, are regarded by Congressmen and Senators. It is both a personal and an industry triumph. The fate of the measure is now to be decided by President Eisenhower. The lowering of the exemption from the $1.00 figure, as initially passed by the House, to 90 cents decreases the potential loss to the Treasury and thereby increases the chances of Presidential approval. In fact, as COMPO has maintained, this additional relief which will keep many theatres in operation, will not result in any net tax loss to the Government. Theatre income tax payments that otherwise would not be made should equal or exceed the estimated $60,000,000 saving in the admission tax. In addition to Bob Coyne, Robert J. O'Donnell, chairman of the tax committee; Charles McCarthy, information director; Sam Pinanski, Pat McGee and others are deserving of praise for their excellent work. At this time the industry should take the opportunity to promote internal harmony. This is no time to criticize those who thought there should be no COMPO tax repeal campaign this year, or even felt there should be no COMPO. Bob Coyne has proven that he was correct about the possibility of a successful tax campaign and COMPO has again demonstrated its value. The potential monies to be saved theatres by the tax relief makes the COMPO dues payments of both exhibitors and distributors seem quite insignificant in comparison. Also COMPO and its staff have rendered excellent service in other fields of all-industry interest besides taxation. Now, at last, COMPO should be given the full opportunity to function as its founders wished. Armed Service Theatres Have New Fiscal Policy WASHINGTON, July 26 Fred Bund, Jr., chief of the Army and Air Force Motion Picture Service, returned recently from a tour of bases in Alaska and the East, where he initiated a new fiscal integration policy. Under the new policy, all funds coming into AAFMPS will go into a central pool, and will then be distributed to all AAFMPS theatres on a basis which will guarantee the same motion picture service to all base theatres. Previously, each base kept the funds it earned, and the "poorer" bases consequently had a slimmer motion picture program. The new policy went into effect July 1. Promote Mexico Setting In 'Bandido' Campaign Plans for the international promotion of United Artists' CinemaScope production "Bandido" via a coordinated series of tie-ups with airlines, travel agencies and apparel shops in the U. S., Canada and Mexico are being outlined by the UA New York office, it was announced yesterday. Filmed in Mexico with Robert Mitchum, Ursula Thiess and Gilbert Roland in the main roles, the Robert L. Jacks production will be tied in with an exploitation campaign of the south-of-the-border setting. UA Anticipates Code Approval for 'Boss' United Artists anticipates Production Code Administration approval for "The Boss," a Seltzer Bros. Production which the company will distribute this coming October prior to the Presidential election, William J. Heineman, UA vice-president in charge of distribution, stated here yesterday. Heineman said that UA executives have been conferring with the Production Code Administration in Hollywood and that a Code Seal for the film is anticipated shortly. One Sequence Questioned Frank and Walter Seltzer, the producers of "The Boss," a film which they say shows the link between organized crime and politics, recently said that a Code Seal was withheld from the picture due to a sequence in which machine gun bursts, are heard. They emphatically stated at a press conference last week that they wouldn't delete this sequence from the picture in order to get Code approval. However, tiiey pointed out that UA financed the picture and the decision on release was up to UA. According to Roger H. Lewis, UA's national director in charge of advertising, publicity and exploitation, "The Boss" will be backed up in its engagements by big promotional campaigns. Award To 'Brave One' Jesse Edwards, 57 The King Bros.' "The Brave One" has been selected to receive the Parents' Magazine medal award of special merit in the September issue, it was announced yesterday by RKO which is releasing the CinemaScope-Teehnicolor film. ATLANTA, July 26-Funeral services were held here today for Jesse (Ted) Edwards, 57, a laboratory technician for Strickland's Films, Inc., who died in a hospital here following a lengthy illness. Edwards is survived by his wife, mother and three brothers. By WILLIAM PAY LONDON, July 24 (By Air Mail) —The Odeon Theatre, Sheffield, Yorkshire, described by John Davis, managing director of the J. Arthur Rank Organisation, as "the most important theatre we have opened anywhere since the war," was opened this week with showmanship appropriate to the occasion. Deputy Lord Mayor, Alderman J. Curtis, performed the opening ceremony, which was followed by the first screening in the North of England of J.A.R.F.I.D.'s "Reach for the Sky." Both received a warm Yorkshire welcome from the audience of Sheffield notables and a large party of Rank Organisation executives. 'Two Tenets of Faith' For Davis the opening was the fulfilment of an ambition of many years. He told the audience: "The Sheffield Odeon stood for 'two tenets of faith'— firstly, the faith to go through with the project originally conceived by the founder of the Odeon organisation in 1937 and, secondly, the faith of the Rank Organisation in the future of the industry. We have our problems, we do not deny. But we know that the industry will continue to satisfy the 23 million people who visit it every week." The new 2340-seater Odeon is not only Britain's largest post-war cinema but also its most modern in design, decoration and technical equipment, having been expressly fashioned for wide-screen entertainment. All projection, sound and stage equipment, seating, curtains and carpeting have been installed by G. B. Kalee Ltd. Site Is Unusual Externally, too, the Odeon marks a departure from tradition especially in its spacious glass-walled entrance foyer which projects at half height from the main building onto a stonepaved triangular forecourt. But impressive as it is today on its important island site, it will look even more imposing when the city's re-development plan clears many of the surrounding buildings and leaves the theatre in a dominant position adjoining the proposed Civic Circle Road. Manager of the theatre is Harry Murray who, a year ago, opened the re-built Streatham Gaumont. Japan Film Executives Arrive Here August 3 Vista Vision equipment will be purchased by Masaichi Nagata and Koji Shima, producer and director respectively of "The Phantom Horse" currently playing in New York, during their August visit to New York and Hollywood. The film executives will be accompanied from Tokyo by three Daiei Motion Picture Co. officials. Nagata, who heads the firm, and Shima will arrive here August 3.