The Exhibitor (1959)

6 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR September 30, 19 59 Reopens Iowa Theatre Conciliation Boston Exhib Also Uses System; Allied's Dollinger Credits Conciliation With Solving Serious Problem NEW YORK— Following the reopening, due to conciliation, of the Perry, Perry, Iowa, another step to help small houses was made when the Theatre Owners of America an¬ nounced that conciliation had been requested in the Boston area. TOA headquarters in Boston announced that Julius Covitz, owner of the subsequent run Fairmount, Hyde Park, formally re¬ quested conciliation with Harry Segal, United Artists’ Boston branch manager. In a letter to Segal, Covitz said that he had repeatedly attempted to date pictures which had not been picked up on availability by the Oriental, Mattapan, a first subsequent Boston run. The Fairmount run follows the Oriental run by one day. “We feel that this is creating unfair practices and is detri¬ mental to our interests,” Covitz said, “and we request conciliation on this matter. Covitz asserted that this gives the pictures “little box office value.” This case is one of the first to come to trade attention in the Boston area since last month’s agreement to assist distressed small houses between the American Congress of Exhibitors and the Motion Picture Associa¬ tion. Recently, Irving Dollinger, a partner in New Jersey’s Triangle Theatre Service, asked for conciliation, and claims that “although the situation was serious, relief came in less than 24 hours.” Triangle does buying and booking with 55 New Jersey theatres. Evidence of the effectiveness of concilia¬ tion to the small house may be seen with the Perry case. A 750-seat house, the Perry is the only conventional house in Dallas County, serving a community of 6,000 persons in Perry and 30,000 in the county. Harold Field, president, Pioneer Theatre Corp., which operated the theatre, said that the Perry closed last May after nearly 30 years of operation because operating ex¬ penses exceeded gross profits, excluding overhead and administration. Field said he found the film companies “either unwilling or unable” to help him, and therefore sought relief from the branch managers of every film company in the Des Moines and Omaha areas. By conciliation, the Perry reopened, the first such known instance of the effectiveness of conciliation. Use Conciliation— Cooper Tells Mountain Exhibs SALT LAKE CITY — In an address at the fall convention of the Mountain States The¬ atres Association, Roy Cooper, assistant pres¬ ident of TOA, urged small house exhibitors to use conciliation as a means of securing relief. Although Cooper stressed the fact that “the film companies are unanimously pledged to try and keep our snqall houses in business . . . through conciliation,” he said that “con¬ ciliation is not a one-way street.” “The prob¬ lems you submit must be reasonable and solv¬ able,” he said. Cooper was optimistic about the future, but explained that only 129 pictures have gone before the cameras this year as com DON’T OVERLOOK... The OBJECTIVES and the OPERATIONAL RULES of n •• rr conciliation -as published in this issue ANOTHER “THEATRE-WISE” SERVICE FROM . . . MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR Code Board Reappointed WASHINGTON — Reappointment of all members of the Production Code Review Board for a one-year term was announced by Eric Johnston, MPA A president. The 20-man board consists of 10 MPAA directors, six exhibitors, and four non-mem¬ ber producers. The non-MPAA members are Russell V. Downing, president, Radio City Music Hall Corporation, New York; Leopold Friedman, chairman, Loew’s Theatres, New York; Leon¬ ard H. Goldenson, president, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, Inc., New York; George Kerasotes, Kerasotes Theatres, Springfield, Ill.; Ben D. Marcus president, Marcus Theatres Management Co., Milwau¬ kee; Sol A. Schwartz, president, RKO The¬ atres, Inc., New York; John Ford, John Ford Productions, Hollywood; William Goetz, Wil¬ liam Goetz Productions, Inc., Hollywood; Stanley Kramer, Lomitas Productions, Inc., Hollywood; George Sidney, George Sidney Productions, Hollywood. pared with 149 in 1958. The total number of pictures distributed in 1960 will be less than in the preceding years “unless new fires are lighted in Hollywood,” he added. In conclusion, Cooper outlined some things which would help exhibitors to help them¬ selves. “It is up to us to maintain our the¬ atres to the best of our ability,” he said. “They^ must be more inviting, comfortable and attfiictive than ever before.” His second suggestion was to “do a better job of not only selling motion pictures but letting the public know we have them.” The last step, Cooper said, “is to maintain stronger and larger state and regional units for local cooperative purposes for combating legislation against our industry.” : ‘ # Continue "Summit" Meetings As Way To Peace— Lider BOSTON — Edward W. Lider, president, In¬ dependent Exhibitors, Inc., and Drive-In The¬ atre Association of New England, stated last fortnight that “ACE will no doubt spur on its efforts to produce a program with teeth in it so as to enable the small exhibitor to live and live better, and to help solve pro¬ ducer and distributor problems; aihd Allied’s pursuance of the goals of the White Paper can also spur on these efforts. “Yet I think I would rather achieve indus¬ try peace and prosperity on a fair and equit¬ able basis by a series of conferences between representatives of all segments of our indus¬ try and all trade organizations . . . These ( Continued on page 7) New Fox Exchange Planned In Dallas DALLAS — Plans for the building of a new $250,000 20th-Fox exchange in Dallas were announced at the company’s area showman¬ ship meeting held in the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel. More than 20 southwestern exhibitors heard assistant general sales manager C. Glenn Norris, publicity executive Ed Feld¬ man, and Dallas branch manager Tom McCleaster tell of the company’s forward look in producing motion pictures, selling and merchandising the films, and in building for the future. The new Dallas branch, which will be built in 1960, reflects both the film company’s optimism in the motion picture industry and its desire to grow with Dallas, one of the most rapidly expanding cities in the United States. Latest in a series of area showmanship meetings being held by 20th, the Dallas meeting followed a pattern as outlined in the earlier meetings. Norris spoke to the exhibitors about plans for the Spyros P. Skouras sales drive which has been getting unlimited exhibitor support across the nation. In his address, Norris told of 20th’s ambitious production plans for 1960-61. Norris, assistant sales manager Mar¬ tin Moskowitz, and general sales manager Alex Harrison have been making cross¬ country trips to speak before exhibitor or¬ ganizations and area showmanship meetings. Several new faces were added to the mer¬ chandising session. Representatives of Colum¬ bia records spoke to the group concerning plans for exploiting the Johnny Mathis re¬ cording of the title song from Jerry Wald’s “The Best of Everything.” In addition, the southwest’s top disc jockey, Jerry Haynes, of WFAA-TV, made a surprise appearance to give his enthusiastic approval of the Mathis recording and to tell the exhibitors that he felt the record was “a sure hit” and one which “ought to bring people flocking to the theatre to hear the song and see the picture.” Circuits represented at the showmanship meeting were Inter-State Theatres, Rowley United, Jefferson Amusements, Trans-Texas, Wilowin, Phil Isley Theatres, Claude Ezell and Associates, Video-Oklahoma, Tri-State, Wisenburg Theatres, Frontier Theatres, New¬ man Theatres, Martini Theatres, J. G. Long Theatres, and Edelman Theatres. Levathes Heads Fox TV Unit NEW YORK — Spyros P. Skouras, president of 20th Century-Fox Film Corp., announced the appointment of Peter G. Levathes as president of 20th Century-Fox Television Productions, Inc., a subsidiary of the parent company. Skouras is chairman of the board of 20th-Fox Television Productions and W. C. Michel, executive vice-president of the par¬ ent company, is vice-chairman. Levathes is currently director of television at Young and Rubicam and is rejoining the film company with which he was associated from 1937-1952. Skouras has often stated that he expects the television activities of 20th -Fox to equal the activities of the parent company which produces and distributes motion pictures. One of Levathes’ first undertakings will be the complete integration of all of 20th ’s vast television operations into a single organiza¬ tion.