The Exhibitor (1956)

24 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR Among those attending the recent opening of Cecil B. DeMille's Paramount release, "The Ten Com¬ mandments," Stanley Warner, Beverly Hills, Hollywood,, Cal., were, left to right, Yul Brynner, DeMille, Anne Baxter, Charlton Heston, and Dr. William L. Young, national vice-president, National Conference of Christians and Jews. panied R. J. O’Donnell to New York when he was honored as the industry’s Pioneer of the Year. . . . Alfred N. Sack, owner, Coronte, Coronte, went to Holly¬ wood to look into booking possibilities. . . . “Oklahoma!” closed its Tower run after a record-breaking 24 weeks. . . . Ed E. Euler has accepted a position with Herber Theatre Equipment, and D. O. Hules, formerly with Herber, has taken over as manager, Grove, for the Isley Circuit. . . . United Artists held a special screening of “The Peacemaker,” the Hal R. Makelim feature. . . . The WOMPI inaugurated a series of screenings with the cooperation of local distributors. Mem¬ bers of the WOMPI act as hostesses to representatives of various local women’s clubs. The project is in line with the group’s objective of building goodwill for the industry. Harrison C. Gunter is scheduled to open the new Depot Drive-In, McAllen, Tex. He operates two drive-ins at Alice, Tex. . . . Mr. and Mrs. Bigham, owners, Best, Holland, Tex., staged a special twonight showing of Columbia’s “He Laughed Last,” with the proceeds going to the Bell County Society for Crippled Chil¬ dren. There was also a special children’s matinee. Denver Jack Scales is building a drive-in at Durango, Colo., to be named the Rosket and to have a 275-car capacity. . . . Rob¬ ert Hazard, United Artists salesman, be¬ came the father of a son, born at Albu¬ querque, N. M. . . . Because of the noise made by teenagers at 20th-Fox’s “Love Me Tender,” Paul Lyday, Denver man¬ ager, set aside two nights for adults only. . . . Leonard Saye, rodeo performer, has built a new theatre at Lame Deer, Mont., to be named the chief. . . . Bob Hope was in for the kickoff dinner that inaugurated the $3 million building drive at St. An¬ thony’s Hospital. . . . Lou Astor, Columbia circuit sales executive, New York, and Wayne Ball, division manager, Los An¬ geles, were in. . . . Jim Rickette, Para¬ mount branch manager, was instrumental in securing the use of “The Mountain” for a Hungarian relief show in the Den¬ ham. The use of the theatre and the help were donated by Mrs. Vera Cockrill, man¬ aging director, and the publicity chore was managed by Ted Halmi, who was born in Hungary but is a citizen of the U.S. . . . The Woodlawn, an 805-seat the¬ atre being built by the Woodlawn Theatre Corporation, will open Jan. 15. Des Moines Charles Recker has announced the closing of the Iowa, Buffalo Center, la., after 25 years of operation. Recker said lack of patronage made it impossible for him to continue. This final show was a special screening for children. . . . The WOMPI Christmas party will be held to¬ day (Dec. 12). The women are selling fruit cakes and pecans as a money-rais¬ ing project. Houston E. L. Pack, Steve Bakavitch, and Kenny Morris, Lone Star Circuit, were in visiting their Houston theatres. . . . The Hemp¬ stead Drive-In was burglarized for the eighth time this year, according to Jimmy Harris, manager. . . . Roy Gothard is the new manager, Red Bluff Drive-In. He succeeds Ray Fuller, who resigned to enter private industry. Gothard comes here from the Grove, Dallas. . . . Frank¬ lin Jones has resigned as manager, Pasa¬ dena Drive-In. He was replaced by Floyd Prater, Forth Worth, Tex. . . . Producer Edmund Grainger has the draft of Ihe screen play of “Galveston” from writer Niven Busch and will leave soon for Hollywood to make preliminary arrange¬ ments. Filming will be done in color and almost entirely in actual locales of the story. . . . Grady Goodwin, who re¬ cently took over the South Houston, instituted a series of Saturday morning kiddie shows. Goodwin operates the South Houston in partnership with F. W. Stilwell. Jacksonville Officers of Variety Club Tent 44, for 1957 are Ted Chapeau, chief barker; Horace Denning, first assistant; Johnny Miami Variety Elects MacLean Chief Barker MIAMI, FLA. — George J. MacLean was recently elected chief barker, Tent 33, Variety Club. Others named were Harvey Fleishman, first assistant; Robert Green, dough guy; and the Allenberg, property master. The crew comprises George Hoover, Jack Bell, Paul Brunn, Wallace MacCory, Jesse Weiss, and Harry Botwick. International canvasman is Sig Eisenberg and convention delegate is Ed Melniker, with Hal Kopplin, Jesse Weiss, and Abe Schonfeld as alter¬ nates. One-Woman Censoring Of " Baby Doll" Blasted Memphis — The Memphis and Shelby County Board of Censors received a full column of criticism from a local amuse¬ ment editor for the manner in which it banned “Baby Doll.” The movie, the first Hollywood film banned in Memphis dur¬ ing 1956 since the retirement of the late Lloyd T. Binford as chief censor, was viewed only by one member of the Board, Mrs. B. F. Edwards, who stated that the picture was immoral, and refused to elaborate. “We now have one-woman censorship, having formerly had one-man censorship,” wrote Edwin Howard in the Press-Scim¬ itar. “The Memphis Municipal Code calls for a five-member Censor Board. The film was banned by one member, the only one to see the screening. The doubtful legality of the ban is of far greater concern than the reason for it, but having seen ‘Baby Doll,’ ‘immoral’ seems hardly the word for it. The point of Tennessee Williams’ ribald tale is that nothing of a sexual nature— moral or immoral — happens. The one-woman ban raises the grave question of whether Memphis is again to permit one person to assume the powers dele¬ gated by law to a board of five members. Under recent Supreme Court rulings, even this law is of doubtful constitutionality. For the opinion of a single member to be given the force of law is unthinkable.” Tomlinson, second assistant; Bill Beck, dough guy; and John Grovo, property master. . . . Maurice Magnan, Lake Shore, boosts his attendance and income with Saturday night stage shows. . . . Approaching completion is the new H. B. Meiselman theatre in suburban Arlington. . . . Dolores Burnette, Howco Exchange, is the new editor of the WOMPI monthly bulletin. . . . Motion Picture Exhibitors of Florida officially endorsed efforts of the Florida Congress of Parents and Teachers in seeing that theatres present only those motion pictures which meet Code re¬ quirements. . . . Walter McCurdy, AB-PT confection sales chief from New York, was spending several weeks in Florida with a crew of sales experts. . . . Em¬ ployees of the St. Regis Paper Company mill will hold their annual Christmas party in the Florida. . . . Thirty San Marco merchants are sponsoring an all¬ day children’s matinee in the San Marco on Dec. 21 so that mothers of the suburbs can have an uninterrupted shopping spree. James L. Cartwright, 52, senior dis¬ trict supervisor, Florida State Theatres, who recently was elected treasurer, Mo¬ tion Picture Exhibitors of Florida, died at Daytona Beach after a brief illness. A native of Chattanooga, Tenn., he had lived at Daytona Beach for more than 20 years, where he was active in civic affairs. MIAMI, FLA., NEWS — Front page space was garnered recently in the Miami Daily News by Sonny Shepherd, Carib, Miami, and Miracle, when he got a group of teen¬ agers to picket the newspaper because its motion picture critic, Herb Rau, took a dim view of Elvis Presley in 20th-Fox’s “Love Me Tender.” The stunt was covered by WTVJ newsreel and Fox Movietone | s I December 12, 1956