The Exhibitor (1957)

.10 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR 20thfox Promises Extra Prints , More Lota! Advertising For Summer New York — To meet the needs of ex¬ hibitors during the peak summer season, 20th-Fox will make available a greater number of prints on each of the 16 at¬ tractions set for release during the three month period and will augment locallevel advertising and publicity in support of each production. The announcement of the new mer¬ chandising program was made last week by Alex Harrison, general sales manager, at a home office meeting of all division and district managers. Citing the success achieved by Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!,” first in Todd-AO and then in CinemaScope, Har¬ rison declared that the increased number of prints on this production will enable theatremen in as many different situa¬ tions as possible to present the pre-sold musical attraction during the JuneSeptember period. The executive also advised his sales force that Darryl F. Zanuck’s “Island In The Sun” will be made available to 300 key theatres coast-tocoast during the first two weeks of release, starting June 12. The romantic drama will be world premiered that night in New York and Los Angeles. A similar saturation campaign is plan¬ ned in August for “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” Harrison also told the assembled sales executives that producer Jerry Wald and director Leo McCarey will personally make a tour of key cities meeting exhibitors and the press in con¬ junction with their production of “An Affair To Remember,” which will be dra¬ matically world premiered July 11 aboard the S.S. Constitution in New York harbor. A new concept in motion picture-book publishing tie-ups will see Jerry Wald’s production of “No Down Payment” re¬ leased in 300 key book centers in August simultaneously with the publication of the John McPartland novel of young couples facing post-war housing and marital problems. Commensurate advertising, publicity and exploitation campaigns on the 16 summer releases were enumerated by vice-president Charles Einfeld and mem¬ bers of his department. Attending the sessions were George P. Skouras, president of Magna Theatre Corporation; Edward K. O’Shea, Magna sales manager; Fox division managers Martin Moskowitz, Glenn Norris, Harry Ballance, and Herman Wobber; district managers Abe Dickstein, Atlantic; A1 Levy, northeast; Tom O. McCleaster, central; Morton A. Levy, midwest; Paul S. Wilson, southeast; Mark Sheridan, Jr., southwest; Peter Myers, Canada. Reville Kniffin, assistant western division man¬ ager, and home office sales executives Frank Carroll, Jack Bloom, and Larry Ayres also participated in the sessions. USIA Budget Slashed Washington — The United States Infor¬ mation Agency was last fortnight given the compromise appropriation of $96.2 million for next year. President Eisen¬ hower had urged expansion of USIA with a $144 million appropriation. Berlin Festival Set; 40 Nations Participate BERLIN, GERMANY— Forty coun¬ tries by last fortnight had signified their intention to participate in the VII International Film Festival of Berlin set to open June 21. A Youth Festival is being held concurrent with the event. American films submitted in the festival are MGM’s “The Teahouse Of The August Moon” and United Artists’ “12 Angry Men.” All Exchange Areas Send Hospital Visitors New York — Exhibition leaders from the entire country have been invited to the A. Montague Testimonial Dinner on June 19 at the Waldorf-Astoria, as well as to the annual inspection tour of Will Rogers Hospital at Saranac Lake on June 21, and the board of directors meeting weekend at Herman Robbins’ Edgewater Motel at Schroon Lake, N. Y. All major film companies will bring in their branch managers who are members of the 1957 distributors com¬ mittee for this annual tour and meeting, and for the Montague Dinner. Charles J. Feldman, national distributor chairman, and M. A. Silver, national exhibitor chair¬ man, report that, “For a number of years the board of Will Rogers has wanted to take a national representation of exhibi¬ tion and distribution on a visit to the Hospital so that they may see at first hand the extent of Will Rogers healing and research programs. “It is particularly significant at this time, for it coincides with the inaugura¬ tion of a great new forward step in serv¬ ice to more and more of our industry employees. “Whenever anyone visits the Hospital they become imbued with greater appre¬ ciation and understanding of what is be¬ ing done at Will Rogers. And this en¬ thusiasm is reflected in their efforts to help further the Hospital’s aims and pur¬ poses. They become dedicated to the cause.” Theatre Loan Approved Washington — As exhibitors continued to complain that the Small Business Ad¬ ministration was too restrictive in its theatre loan policies, the body last fort¬ night okayed a loan of $10,000 to the Melroy, Taylorsville, Miss. This is the third granted by the SBA since it an¬ nounced last fall that theatres would be eligible for such loans. Roemer Leaves Columbia New York — Richard H. Roemer has re¬ signed as a member of the Columbia Pictures legal department and will join the legal staff of American Broadcasting Company, where he will handle both legal matters and business affairs. Industry Must Change, Kerasotes Asserts Nashville, Te:nn. — In an address last week at the Tennessee Theatre Owners Association’s annual convention, George Kerasotes, chairman of the executive committee, Theatre Owners of America, and general manager, Kerasotes Theatres, Springfield, Ill., stated that “the motion picture industry to survive must change its way of doing business.” “We are no longer in that enviable position of being sought after by the mass buying public,” he said. “Our pictures and players are not the subject of every¬ day conversations as they were in our early history. . , . During the past few months we have experienced the demise at the boxoffice of some of the best pic¬ tures produced in Hollywood. ... It is imperative that we determine the cause of this failure or inevitably the supply of motion pictures without its just re¬ muneration will be further reduced and curtailed.” “No one film corporation, nor group of film corporations, nor one exhibitor, nor one group of exhibitors,” Kerasotes stated, “can single-handed approach this gigantic and enigmatic problem as it is a problem that all segments of the industry by hard work and united effort must resolve by developing a sustaining all-industry pro¬ gram to increase theatre attendance. “The argument that nothing is wrong with our business that a good picture can’t cure is no longer true of our busi¬ ness as many good and entertaining mo¬ tion pictures are not successful at the boxoffice,” he asserted, adding, “We must accept the challenge now and with¬ out further delay to resolve our future existence or perish as showmen.” The exhibitor leader continued, “If we want our industry to stay ahead and be the leader in the competitive field of leisure time we must consolidate all seg¬ ments of our industry in a unified public relations and advertising program. There is a great latent and dormant movie audi¬ ence potential that we must seek out and sell as we have never done before.” Sunday Ads Herald "Island" New York — In the most lavish appli¬ cation of color advertising ever attempted by 20th-Fox at the local point-of-sale, elaborate full-color double truck layouts heralding Darryl F. Zanuck’s “Island In The Sun” appeared in the June 2 issues of American Weekly, This Week, Parade, Weekend (Canada), New York Sunday Mirror, Ebony, Pittsburgh Courier, and Afro-American. These advertisements, appearing in magazine supplements embracing prac¬ tically every Sunday newspaper in the country and reaching a combined total leadership of 120 million, will insure intensive national penetration two weeks prior to release of the CinemaScope drama. Elmer Aneser Dies New York — Elmer Aneser, 49, brother of Kenneth Aneser, Warners home office advertising department, died last week of a heart attack suffered at his Kew Gardens home. June 5, 1957