The Exhibitor (1959)

41 Years of Service to the Theatre Industry Founded in 1918. Published weekly by Jay Emanuel Publications, Incorporated. Publishing office: 246-248 North Clarion Street, Philadelphia 7, Pennsylvania. New York field office: 8 East 52nd Street, New York 22. West Coast field office: Paul Manning, 8141 Blackburn Avenue, Los Angeles 48, Calif. London Bureau: Jock MacGregor, 16 Leinster Mews, London, W. 2, England. Jay Emanuel, publisher; Paul J. Greenhalgh, general manager; Albert Erlick, editor; M. R. (Mrs. "Chick") Lewis, associate editor; George Frees Nonamaker, feature editor; Mel Konecoff, New York edtor; Albert J. Martin, advertising manager; Max Cades, business manager. Subscriptions: $2 per year (50 issues); and outside of the United States, Canada, and Pan-American countries, $5 per year (50 issues). Special rates for two and three years on application. Second class postage paid at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Address all offical communications to the Philadelphia publish¬ ing office. volume 62 . NO. 20 SEPTEMBER 30, 1959 THE ACID TEST OF CONCILIATION In the nearly two years (November, 1957) since “Con¬ ciliation” was proposed as a practical instrument to settle intra-industry grievances, to the best of recorded fact exactly nothing has happened. It may be as Allied’s Abram F. Myers states that theatremen were reluctant to go “ back to plead with a branch manager who had already turned them down .” Or it may be that, in a business without specifications or price lists, where everything is based on negotiation, more negotia¬ tion, by whatever title, doesn't seem to have a place. After all, at the branch office level, who is to say where negotiation ends and conciliation begins? Regardless of all that, the recent ACE-MPA meetings have again introduced “Conciliation,” and have delineated the “rules” under which any theatreman can put it into operation. It now behooves theatremen with legitimate grievances, whether relating to runs, clearances, availabilities or exces¬ sive prices, to start the wheels of “Conciliation” grinding. The “rules” are simple, and can be operated in a friendly way. Not to invoke “Conciliation,” after the top-level attention and wide publicity that has been given to it, will supply a A GREAT MASS OF Jar Griffiths, Elaine Edwards, Angela Greene, George Hamilton, May Murphy, Bettye Ackerman, Jana Lund, Carol Ohmart, Ann Doran, Dawn Richard, Gene Evans, Arlene Hunter, Don Megowan, Molly McGowan, Yvonne Lime, Andrea Domburg, Gita Hall, Anne Aubrey, Nan Adams, Lynn Bernay, Jana Davi, Anna Lisa, Maureen Connell, Melissa Stribling, Karen Steele, Janis Carter, Luciana Paluzzi, Vera Day, Yvonne Craig, Elizabeth Mueller, Robert Urguhart, Marshall Thompson, Maria Landi, June Thorburn, Denny Miller, Johanna Van Koczian, Yvette Mimleus, Robert Harland, Pippa Scott, Aneta Coneaut, Jackie Loughery, Edward Kemmer, Tom Tryon, Mark Damon, Sara Shane, Michi Kobi, Violet Rensing, Steven Mario, Yoko Tani, Nora Hayden, Beverly Garland, Eiko Ando, Lita Milan, Terry Rangno, Audrey Dalton, Danielle DeMezt, Ziva Rodann, Robert Loggia, Marilee Earle, Gerald Mohr, Molly McCarthy, Jean Bryon, Shawn Smith, Simon Oakland, Lisa Gastoni, Nan Miller, Madalyn Trahey, Jerome Thor, Ann Verela, Dennis Weaver, Sandra Dome, Joanne Moore, Barbara Shelley, Kathleen Crowley, Arthur Franz, Yvonne Furneaux, Coleen Miller, Venetia Stevenson, David Love, Dawn Anderson, Andra Martin. This, gentlemen, is not the graduation class from Hayseed record of theatre apathy and theatre disinterest that distribu¬ tors can point to for many a year to come. To legislative groups, or Justice Department lawyers, such a disinterest can only mean that the claimed evils do not in fact exist, and that the alarms cried out by every theatre convention are not sincere. To invoke “Conciliation,” promptly and with enthusiasm, and to give it the same careful attention to dates and methods as awarded to any other business transaction, becomes there¬ fore a duty. Careful records should be kept by the nearest theatre owner association, complete with the cause, the branch or home office level it reached, and the ultimate result. A total of such results would then furnish incontrovertible proof of the sincerity or lack of sincerity of all concerned. Let’s see anyone argue against it. The two mountains of ACE and MPA have labored. Whether their joint labors produced a mouse or a legitimate giant can only be proved by the record of accomplishment. This is the acid test of “Conciliation.” And the results will be obvious within the next three to six months. Let us hope they will be everything expected of them. FACELESS NAMES Corners High School. Neither is it a bunch of names selected at random from the Bronx telephone book. Following a policy of picking only two top names from the cast of each feature reviewed, for use in the newspaper ads and on the marquees of the nation’s theatres, these are just a few of the dramatic, patron-pulling, and supposedly boxoffice star names that you will find listed in the reference index of this publication. These were the best we could find to suggest to our theatre subscribers as saleable personalities. Most appeared in just one picture and were gone. Others appeared in more than one. But who in the world knows anything about them. We agree that the day of the old star stables is gone. We also agree that many an old star is able to demand exorbitant fees, and is able to play youthful roles only because there has been too little attention paid to the development of new personalities. But are names like these the answer? At today’s prices, if names like these are worthy of star billing in pictures that are distributed by major companies, aren’t they also worthy of some publicity backing so that at least we in the theatre business can recognize them? Faceless names to us, must be faceless to our patrons. WE SEE BY THE PAPERS . . . . . . that at the big wingding the industry threw for Premier afraid the agents would tiy to sign “Krooshy” up for their Khrushchev out on the coast, talent agents were not invited, usual 10 per cent. Or to set a deal on that book of his toi a An industry sage observes that the producers were probably $1,000,000 or so.