Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1957)

Motion Picture Daily Monday, July 1, 195 PERSONAL MENTION EDWARD L. HYMAN, vice-president of American BroadcastingParamount Theatres, and Bernard Levy, his assistant, are in Chicago today from New York. They are en route to Des Moines. Martin Moskowitz, 20th CenturyFox Eastern division manager, and Glenn Norris, Central-Canadian division manager, have returned to New York from San Francisco. • Jerry Wald and Leo McCarey, producer and director, respectively of "An Affair to Remember" for 20th Century-Fox, will leave the Coast next week for New York. • Sam Spiegel, president of Horizon Pictures, left here for London on Saturday via B.O.A.C. • Seymour Borde, Western division manager for Rank Film Distributors of America, and Mort Goodman, West Coast advertising publicity representative, have left Los Angeles for San Francisco. • Harry Weiss, former RKO Radio salesman in Cleveland, is visiting there from Boston, where he is now associated with a record company. • Marilyn Divack, of the United Artists legal department, has announced her engagement to Kenneth Katz. • Burt Lancaster is in Philadelphia today on the first leg of a tour in behalf of "Sweet Smell of Success." Social Affair to Mark 'Key' Opening in Phila. Some 150 industry figures, headed by Kenneth Hargreaves, president of Rank Film Distributors of America, will attend an invitational cocktail party at the World Theatre in Philadelphia tomorrow to mark the opening of the Rank Organization's "The Third Key" at the newly-renovated Pathe Cinema Corp. theatre. Hargreaves, along with other RFDA executives, including general sales manager Irving Sbchin, Geoffrey Martin, director of advertising, publicity and exploitation, and regional manager Robert Folliard, will act as host at the afternoon function which also will be attended by the British Consul General in Philadelphia, Geoffrey W. Aldington, O.B.E., and Consul B. H. Wilcox. Orderly Film Release Urged ( Continued day and night"— and his plane flight home, the Allied leader declared that a steady flow of product would generate enough momentum to carry theatres and distribution through the slow spots and keep the public coming to the box office. Decries 'False Economy' Marcus linked this problem with that of print availability which he blamed on "false economy" on the part of distributors, asserting that the result of both conditions is "a starvation diet which is letting the theatres die of malnutrition." In spite of the severe slump in April and May, the Wisconsin president predicted a tremendous increase in attendance this summer and on the long term outlook declared that even though changing conditions may force even more theatres to close enough will remain to make the industry the leader in the entertainment field and "the biggest box office of all— and that includes television either pay or free." Will Remodel Four Theatres He's backing this confidence with dollars, too. This year he has contracted to spend $250,000 to remodel four theatres in his circuit, in Green Bay, Appleton, Neenah and Wauwatosa and, although he has been forced to make economy cuts he declared he will increase his advertising budget for all of his theatres. "The public," he said, "is shopping for pictures today. They are more selective than ever. But I do not believe there will ever come a time when they are going to confine their entertainment to their living rooms. We are a gregarious people. We are going to want to go out for our entertainment." Pleads for More Prints The cutback on prints became critical about a year ago, Marcus said, and is now proving a positive detriment to business. "What good does it do a merchandiser," he pointed out, "to spend huge amounts advertising and promoting a product, preparing the public to look for it, and then not have it available when they want it?" The cost of the few extra prints needed, he said, is minute compared to the loss in permanent patronage which results. In many cases, he pointed out, the saving is eaten up anyway in the cost to the distributor of phone calls and shipping involved in "borrowing" prints from one exchange area to serve another. For the smaller pictures which do not involve a major budget for national advertising Marcus advocated from page 1 ) the territorial or regional release plan in order to save print costs. The multiple run plan, being used more and more in the large metropolitan areas he praised as a new merchandising method which is the kind of plan needed to adapt the industry to changing conditions. The public is being trained, he pointed out, to do their shopping locally, avoiding the big downtown areas. In addition to a better and more even flow of product, Marcus asserted, new faces must be developed. "The audience today has changed," he said. "We have lost the older people. The people who come to our theatres are the teen-agers and the young married couples. We must make pictures for them and we must develop new stars for them." Sees 'Evaluation' as Vital In this, he declared, exhibitors must help distributors and producers by not demanding old established names and by not setting these names as the standard by which pictures are judged. "We must evaluate them," he declared, "on the basis of their entertainment value to this new audience." Minimum Wage Board To Meet Here Today Nine members of a New York minimum wage board to review standards in the amusement and recreation industry will be sworn in this morning by Isador Lubin, industrial commissioner, at 11 A.M. at 80 Centre St. The new board will hold its first meeting immediately afterward. Emanuel Frisch, board chairman of the Metropolitan Motion Picture Theatres Association, Inc., is the industry's representative on the board, which has three members each from the public, management and labor. The wage board will conduct a study of wages in the industry, hold public hearings to gather additional opinions and information and recommend to the industrial commissioner any revisions in the existing wage order deemed necessary and desirable. The current minimum wage standard for the amusement industry, established in April, 1951, sets an hourly minimum of 75 cents for workers with some variations based on size of community or specific occupations. 'Love' in Canada Billy Wilder's "Love in the Afternoon" has been set for a Canadian premiere at the Imperial Theatre in Toronto on July 19, it was announced at the weekend by Morey R. Goldstein, vice-president and general sales manager of Allied Artists. PCC Raised $1,201,788 In Drive, a 4-Year Record From THE DAILY Bureau HOLLYWOOD, June 30. Th Permanent Charities Comrnitte raised $1,201,788 in its annual driv ended today, according to the fina report, made by chairman Jerr Lewis. The amount is $40,000 great er than that reached in the pas three campaigns. Tabulation shows 22,684 studi and allied-crafts employees average $52.98 contributions, believed to b the highest average-per-person figur achieved by any industrial fund rais ing campaign in the nation. Slate IT0 A Officers; Hospital Drive Heads New officers were nominated fo the new fiscal year at a meeting o the Independent Theatre Owners As sociation here late last week. Nomi nated as president was Harry Brandt Max A. Cohen, first vice-president William Namenson, second vice president; Julius Sanders, third vice president; Norman Leff, fourth vice president; Leon Rosenblatt, treasurer Edith Marshall, secretary; and Join C. Bolte, Jr., sergeant-at-arms. Nominated for the board of direc tors were Samuel Einhorn, Normar Elson, Sam Freedman, Bob Goldblatt Al Green, Jack Hattem, Jack Heyman, Ben Knobel, Sam Koenig, Larry Kurds, Murray LeBoss, Martin Levine Al Margolies, Melvin Miller, Irving Renner, Ray Rhone, Jack Rochelle Tom Rodgers and Murray Schoen. Rogers Co-Chairmen Named Other activity at the meeting included the appointment of Levine, general manager of Brandt Theatres, and Edith Marshall, of John C. Bolte Theatres, to serve as co-chairmen of ITOA participation in the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital audience collection drive in August. The entire ITOA membership pledged cooperation in the drive at the meeting. 4 FILMS' for Denmark celand and West Indies Producers or distributors with American feature pictures available for Denmark, Iceland and the West Indies are invited to communicate with the Cinema Service Division of Quigley Publications, 1270 Sixth Avenue, New York 20, N. Y. 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