The Exhibitor (1957)

MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR 9 Camp Shows , Inc. To Quit At Year's-End NEW YORK — Camp Shows, Inc., an¬ nounced last fortnight it had resigned as a member agency of USO and that its activities would be liquidated by the end of the year. Formed before Pearl Harbor at the request of the War Department, Camp Shows came into existence through the efforts of a group of entertainment organizations headed by prominent people. In the 16 years since its inception, Camp Shows sent 10,316 actors and performers in every branch of show business to its overseas circuits with over 464,000 per¬ formances staged before an audience of over 22,834,200 service people. The allocation to Camp Shows for 1957 was $325,000. Some $62,000,000 was allocated to it in 16 years. George J. Schaefer was president and Lawrence Phillips executive vice-president of Camp Shows, Inc. Schaefer is also sales rep¬ resentative for Stanley Kramer Pictures, Otto Preminger, and others. MGM's "Thin Man" To TV NEW YORK— MGM-TV’s first half-hour television filmed series, “The Thin Man,” starring Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk, has been purchased by the Colgate-Palmolive Company for presentation this fall on Friday nights at 9:30 pm over NBC, it was an¬ nounced last week by Joseph R. Vogel, presi¬ dent of Loew’s, Inc., and Stuart Sherman, vice-president and director of marketing of Colgate. Sale of “The Thin Man” was negotiated between Charles C. (“Bud”) Barry, vice-pres¬ ident of MGM-TV; James Douglass, senior vice-president of Ted Bates, Colgate’s Agency; and George Laboda, radio-TV di¬ rector of the Colgate-Palmolive Company. "Sun Rises" For Labor Day NEW YORK — Twentieth Century-Fox is stepping up its distribution facilities to make available between 350-400 prints of Darryl F. Zanuck’s “The Sun Also Rises” for key Labor Day engagements across the United States. The announcement was made by 20th pres¬ ident Spyros P. Skouras and general sales manager Alex Harrison. With the scheduling of “The Sun Also Rises” for Labor Day re¬ lease, vice-president Charles Einfeld immedi¬ ately set into motion a pre-selling advertising and publicity program. Einfeld announced that the campaign will include extensive radio, television, newspaper and national magazine advertising. Wagner Aids Film-Makers NEW YORK — At a special meeting at City Hall last week with a committee of the Film Producers Association of New York, Mayor Robert F. Wagner personally pledged to do everything possible to help ease the problems of film makers here. He directed Leo A. Larkin, first assistant corporation counsel of the city, to meet with Harold Wondsel, president, FPA, to review local fire and tax laws, consider the advis¬ ability of legislation to correct conditions ad¬ versely affecting film production here and explore the feasibility of naming a city com¬ missioner or coordinator to serve as liaison between the film men and those city agencies concerned with the issuance of permits for New York location shooting. Paramount Meets With Theatremen On Campaign For Multiple Run Bow Board Elects Weltner Paramount Vice-President NEW YORK — Barney Balaban, presi¬ dent of Paramount, announced that the board of directors elected George Weltner as vice-president in charge of world wide distribution of its pictures. Weltner celebrated his 35th anniversary with Paramount last week. He is presi¬ dent of Paramount Film Distributing Corporation and also of Paramount Inter¬ national Film, Inc., and as such has been general world sales manager. Rank Expands Force; Names Two Managers NEW YORK — In line with an expansion of its domestic sales and distribution opera¬ tions, Rank Film Distributors of America has appointed sales representatives in Cin¬ cinnati and Kansas City, it was announced last week by Irving Sochin, general sales manager for RFDA. Sheldon Tromberg, for¬ mer sales executive for Screen Guild Productions of Philadelphia, has been appointed manager in the Cincinnati area, with Earl Dyson, formerly of RKO, to head the Kansas City area. Sochin added that Tromberg will operate under regional manager Otto Ebert in De¬ troit while Dyson will operate under re¬ gional manager A1 Kolitz in Denver. RFDA sales offices are already located in New York, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington. A.A.P.'s Katz Mourned BERGENFIELD, N. J. — Herman Katz, 36, an A.A.P., Inc., executive, died suddenly at his home here last fortnight. He is survived by his mother, his wife, and two children. “An Affair To Remember" T!ie 20th Century-Fox film, “An Affair To Remember,” produced by Jerry Wald, directed by Leo McCarey, and starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, deserves industry plaudits. Here is a picture that just brims with real human interest enter¬ tainment that should set it up as one of the year's best boxoffice hits. It has just about everything including big boxoffice potentialities. Based on a previous hit, “Love Affair,” made by McCarey in 1939, this film, which also has several top songs by Vic Damone and Miss Kerr, is worth extended playing time. — J. E. NEW YORK — Paramount Pictures and Loew’s Theatres this week held a series of meetings designed to provide neighborhood theatres with the promotional advantages of the Broadway showcases in the opening of a picture. The film under discussion was “Omar Khayyam,” which will bypass Broadway and get a saturation neighborhood house opening. All Loew’s first run and subsequent run neighborhood New York metropolitan area managers participated, and cash prizes were offered for the best “Omar” campaigns. Five Loew’s Theatres division managers also at¬ tended. The sessions were held in the Paramount home office prevue theatre and were ad¬ dressed by Adolph Zukor, Paramount board chairman, and Jerry Pickman, vice-president in charge of advertising, publicity and ex¬ ploitation. In attendance were Eugene Picker, vicepresident, Loew’s Theatres; Ernest Emerling, director of advertising and publicity; James L. Shanahan, assistant director of advertis¬ ing and publicity; and Ted Arno, publicity manager for New York theatres. In addition to Zukor and Pickman, Para¬ mount had at the meetings Sid Blumenstock, advertising manager; Herb Steinberg, na¬ tional exploitation manager; Burt Champion, publicity manager; Phil Isaacs, assistant East¬ ern sales manager; and Myron Sattler, New York branch manager. Robbins To Produce For AA NEW YORK — Harold Robbins, noted con¬ temporary novelist, will make his debut as a motion picture producer under a multiple picture contract signed between Allied Ar¬ tists and Robbins’ newly formed independ¬ ent production company, Caryn Productions, Steve Broidy, president of Allied Artists announced last week. Three pictures will be made by Robbins with Richard Day, seven time Academy Award winning art director, as co-producer. The three films will be “Never Love A Stranger,” based on the producer’s novel of the same title; “79 Park Avenue,” also based on one of the producer’s works, and “Mr. Boston,” based on “I’d Do It Again, the autobiography of James M. Curley, former Mayor of Boston. Anti-Toll-TV Unit Seeks Funds NEW YORK — Additional funds were being sought to carry on the work of the Joint Committee Against Toll-TV, it was learned. The committee was said to have incurred added expenses as a result of the FCC’s call for more legal briefs and information on pay-TV from interested parties. Contributions are being solicited on a voluntary basis, it was said. Riester Joins UA NEW YORK — Ed Riester has been named United Artists master print booker, it was announced by James R. Velde, general sales manager. Riester, who was head of the Republic print department from 1949 until this month, will headquarter in UA’s home office. Juhj 24, 19 57