Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1959)

londay, November 16, 1959 Motion Picture Daily 3 TENT TALK Variety Club News Florida Drive in Is Winner DALLAS-Tent No. 17 elected new ■ew members at a buffet dinner in pe Adolphus Hotel. They are Louis igdon, Meyer Rachofsky, John owley, Gordon McLendon, Jimmy jritchard, Phil Isley, Wilbur Mar' iall, Charles Weisenburg, Wilham Williams and Harold Novy. Serv[g on the associate board are Jack lum, Ed Gall, Norman Teguns and obert Slaton. The new crew met lortly thereafter and reelected Isley ; chief barker. Others reelected are jachofsky, dough guy; and Marshall, k>perty master. Taking office are ■Veisenburg, first assistant chief jarker; and Novy, second assistant. A PHILADELPHIA Tent No. 13 ill stage its annual installation din'er at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel n Jan. 19, at which time Martin Ilis will be installed as chief barker, tgether with other newly-elected of f A CHICAGO-William G. Margolis, | the Harlem Globetrotters, has been eelected for a third term as chief iarker of Tent No. 26. Other officers re: Nat Nathanson, first assistant; )an Goldberg second assistant, Har:jy Balaban dough guy, and Sam iuevinsohn, property master. A ALBANY, N. Y.-The first general tieeting of the Variety Club under its Lew officers will be held Nov. 17, and lill be preceded by a buffet supper, t has also been announced that a Kings for a Day Dinner" will be leld in December and the annual jleart Fund Dinner in January. A j BUFFALO-Tent No. 7 has elected Us directors for the coming year: Aired E. Anscombe, Melvin Berman, krnie Burns, Jack Chinell, Nathan Dickman, Michael Ellis, Jr., Gerald jt. George, Myron Gross, James J. rlayes, Marvin Jacobs and Dewey Michaels. These directors will meet Shortly to elect officers for the year. A I ATLANTA— Crew members elected by the local Variety Club for the comng year are: George Kreeger, George ones, Jon Farmer, George Mayer, W. K. Laird, Frank White, Willard Kohorn, Hal Aronson, Leonard Berch, Lharles Dilcher, Jim Dodd and R. W. Ii( Tarwater. 1ATSE Worker Dies I DALLAS, Nov. 15.-Funeral services for Mrs. Louise Wright Rasmus(sen, 55, the only woman vice-presi*lent in IATSE history, were held tiere Thursday. Mrs. Rasmussen, who jdied last Tuesday, was for 20 years a Mm inspector in the Dallas M-G-M pffice, and also served as business gent for Dallas Film Exchange Local :|B53. ( Continued and Tom J. Connors of New York. They acquired it from George Hoover of this city about a year ago. Ben Schreiber is the manager. The state supreme court decision ends more than two years of litigation which began with a decision in favor of the drive-in theatre in Dade circuit court in August, 1957. Dade County, the State Road Department and Florida Turnpike Authority won a reversal in the district court of appeals. The theatre took the case to the supreme court where it lost again but a rehearing was granted. It was this decision, a final one, which was handed down in favor of the drive-in's owners last week. The decision means that Dade from page 1 ) County must file a condemnation suit to get title to a 14-foot strip of road and pay for the theatres' financial losses traceable to the road frontage isolation. The expressway feeder construction closed one of the theatre's driveways a week after the suit was filed and closed the other four months later. One of the theatres had been closed for a year while patrons of the other were guided on a frontage road. The theatre owners say that while the actual value of the 14foot strip is about $20,000, their $600,000 investment was ruined because the installations were designed for direct access, with State Road Department and county approval of the plans. 'Alamo' World Premiere To Celebrate Westerns A commemoration celebrating the golden anniversary of the western film is being planned in connection with the world premiere next year of Batjac's "The Alamo," now shooting on location in Brackettville, Texas. Every available western star, from the greats of the early era, to the big names of contemporary motion pictures and TV, will be invited to participate. The celebration will be held in a Texas city and on a date to be designated by United Artists, in conjunction with the roadshow launching of the picture being filmed in ToddAO and Technicolor. Three Texas Theatres Get Victoria-X 70mm The installation of Victoria-X 70/ 35mm all purpose projection-sound equipment in three Interstate Circuit theatres in Texas is reported by Cinematograph International, Inc., a division of Joe Hornstein, Inc., here. The Victoria-X was installed by Cinematograph's distributor, Modern Sales & Service, Inc. of Dallas, at the 25th Street Theatre, in Waco, and the Melba and Preston Royal Theatres in Dallas. Promote Technirama-70 United Artists is distributing more than 10,000 copies of an eight-page, full color brochure describing Super Technirama-70, the new wide-screen process utilized in Edward Small's "Solomon and Sheba." The promotion piece is being sent to newspaper and magazine editors, radio and television representatives, motion picture feature and trade editors and exhibitors in every major market of the world. 17-/ Buys Novel Rights HOLLYWOOD, Nov. 15.-"Kitten With a Whip," a novel by Wade Miller, has been purchased by UniversalInternational. Robert Arthur will produce the story. Industry Notables Will Be V.C. Guests Here A roster of industry-wide notables will be honor guests at the installation luncheon of Variety Club, Tent No. 35, to be held in the Grand Ballroom of the Hotel Astor tomorrow. Harry Brandt, incoming chief barker, will be installed, and Ira Meinhardt will be honored as retiring chief barker. Jack Levin is luncheon chairman. Peter Palmer, star of Paramount's "Li'l Abner," and Diane Baker, 20thFox starlet, will join other celebrities on the dais, including Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd of M-G-M's "Ben-Hur." Also on the dais will be Harry Brandt, Richard Brandt, Max A. Cohen, Ned E. Depinet, Russell Downing, Edward Fabian, Walt Framer, Emanuel Frisch, William J. German, Morey Goldstein, Alex Harrison, William Heineman, Rube Jackter, Leo Jaffe, Harold Klein and Edward Lachman. Also, Joseph E. Levine, Ira Meinhardt, Abe Montague, Charles B. Moss, Eugene Picker, Ralph Pries, Dr. Emanuel Revici, Samuel Rinzler, Herman Robbins, Sam Rosen, Fred Schwartz, Benjamin Sherman, Solomon M. Strausberg, Joseph Sugar, James Velde and Richard Walsh. 'Ben-Hur9 at $250,000 The advance ticket sale for "BenHur" has passed the $250,000 mark, MGM disclosed at the weekend. At Loew's State here, where the film will have its world premiere on Wednesday, the advance sale has reached $103,428. Within a week of its New York opening, the William Wyler presentation will open in Los Angeles, Boston, and Philadelphia. The combined advance sale in those cities is reported as having passed $150,000. Meiselman Re-equipping JACKSONVILLE, Nov. 15.-Mike Meiselman has closed his first-run Town and Country Theatre for the installation of 70mm. equipment. The house will reopen in mid-November. PEOPLE Stanley Kositsky, of United Artists, Philadelphia, has been named president of Motion Picture Associates for the coming year. David Law, Warner Brothers, is vice-president; John Kane, Paramount, is treasurer, and Jerry Levy, Columbia, secretary. □ Jack Maas, for 12 years a member of the music publishing organization of Warner Brothers, has joined the Hollywood office of Famous-Paramount Music Co. □ William Shirley, who has represented United Artists in the Buffalo exchange area as promotion representative, and who recently recovered from illness, has been transferred to the U.A. branch in Atlanta. □ John Johns, formerly in charge of MGM promotion and publicity in the Cleveland and Pittsburgh territories, is now handling the publicity for "Porgy and Bess" at the Palace Theatre, Cleveland. □ Eli Schwartz, formerly manager of the Parkway Drive-in Theatre, Thoroughfare, N. J., has been named manager of Irwin Hellman's Lincoln Drive-in, near Philadelphia. □ Earl L. Hubbard, formerly advertising-publicity manager at the Century and Teck theatres, Buffalo, has been named publicity representative at the 20th Century-Fox exchange there, effective Jan. 1. He succeeds Ralph Buring. □ Harry Perelman has leased the 900-seat Ambassador in the West Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, where he will continue his foreign and art film policy. □ William Goldman, head of William Goldman Theatres in the Philadelphia area, will be honored on Nov. 18 by the Mastbaum Lodge of B'nai B'rith at the Hotel Warwick there. He will receive the lodge's "Man of the Year" award in recognition of his work as chairman of the Mayor's Youth Conservation Commission. Levine Host for 'Ripper' Joseph E. Levine, head of Embassy Pictures, will be host at a trade luncheon at the Plaza Hotel here, Nov. 23, at which the promotion story for his "Jack the Ripper" will be told. Paramount will distribute the picture. Westrex Unit to Todd HOLLYWOOD, Nov. 15.— ToddAO Corp. has acquired the existing plant and equipment of Westrex Sound Services, Inc., here.