The Exhibitor (1959)

MPEAA Transfers V-P To Mexico City Site Top Columbia Execs To Visit Every Exchange Area With Product Story NEW YORK— In an unprecedented move, top executives of Columbia Pictures will visit, within a four week period, every exchange area in the country to discuss with the leaders of exhibition the release pattern for the 13 months beginning January, 1960, in which time 39 films will be distributed by the company. In addition, the titles of 19 other major productions definitely committed to go before the cameras in the same period will be announced. To launch the project, Leo Jaffe, first vicepresident and treasurer, last week addressed 52 presidents and leading executives of every major circuit operating in the New York area or making their home offices here at a lunch¬ eon in the Crystal Room of the Savoy Hilton Hotel. This meeting will be followed by simi¬ lar conclaves in each branch city, with par¬ ticipation by A. Montague, executive vicepresident; Samuel J. Briskin, vice-president in charge of west coast activities; Paul N. Lazarus, Jr., vice-president; and Jonas Rosenfield, Jr., executive in charge of adver¬ tising and publicity. The product discussed by Jaffe represents the results of the “Columbia formula” policy enunciated last year by president A. Schneider. That policy calls for the produc¬ tion of big multi-million dollar films by independent units able to draw upon Colum¬ bia's production facilities and staffs in the United States and abroad. In enumerating the 39 films for 1960 and January, 1961, and the 19 others to be made, Jaffe pointed out that there possibly would be more films available for release in 1960 and there would most certainly be addi¬ tional production in 1960. The release schedule of three films a month as announced by Jaffe includes: January, 1960; “Who Was That Lady?,” Tony Curtis, Dean Martin, and Janet Leigh; “Suddenly, Last Summer,” Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, and Katharine Hepburn; “The Gene Krupa Story,” with Sal Mineo. February; “Our Man in Havana,” Alec Guinness, Burl Ives, Maureen O’Hara, Ernie Kovacs, Noel Coward, Ralph Richardson, and Jo Morrow; “Man on a String,” Ernest Borgnine and Kerwin Mathews; “Babette Goes to War,” Brigitte Bardot. March: “Once More, With Feeling,” Yul Brynner, Kay Kendall, and Gregory Ratoff; ■ The Killers of Kilimanjaro,” Robert Taylor; “Comanche Station,” Randolph Scott. April: “The Mountain Road,” James Stew¬ art and Lisa Lu; “Because They’re Young,” Dick Clark, Victoria Shaw, Tuesday Weld, and Michael Callan; “Search for Cherefto,” Maria Schell and Cliff Robertson. May: “All the Young Men,” Alan Ladd, Sidney Poitier, Mort Sahl, James Darren, and Ingemar Johansson; “The Enemy General,” Van Johnson, Jean Pierre Aumont, and Dany Carrel; “The Stranglers of Bombay,” Guy Rolfe. Special Release: “Crescendo, the Story of Franz Liszt,” Dirk Bogarde and Capucine. June: “Gulliver’s Travels,” Dynamation, Kerwin Mathews, and Jo Morrow; “Let No Man Write My Epitaph,” Burl Ives, Shelley Winters, James Darren, and Jean Seberg; “Underworld U.S.A.” July: “Strangers When We Meet,” Kirk Douglas, Kim Novak, and Ernie Kovacs; “Rin Tin Tin Story,” Rinty; “Lucretia Bor¬ gia,” Belinda Lee. When star Gary Cooper came to Philadelphia recently to publicize Columbia's "They Came To Cordura," Fox, the U.S. Navy and Army Recruiting Services made arrangements to pre¬ sent him certificates of appreciation for work he has done in aiding these Services. Shown making the presentations are Congressional Medal of Honor winners Chief Petty Officer Schmidt, left, and Captain Freeman Horner, right. August: “Surprise Package,” Yul Brynner and Mitzi Gaynor; “Caves of Night,” Cornel Wilde and Jean Wallace; “I Aim At The Stars,” Curt Jurgens and Victoria Shaw. September: “Pepe,” Cantinflas, Dan Dailey, and all-star cameos; “Two Faces of Dr. Jekyil”; “The Kingdom of Man,” Richard Widmark and Maria Schell. October: “Who Is Sylvia?,” Doris Day; “Brink’s Bank Robbery”; “Cry For Happy,” Jack Lemmon and Ernie Kovacs. November: “The Devil At Four O’Clock,” Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier; “Fair Game”; “Jazz Boat.” December: “The Captive,” Kim Novak; “The Wackiest Ship in the Army”; “Gidget Goes Hawaiian,” Sandra Dee and James Darren. January 1961: “The Guns of Navarone,” Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn; “Never Take Candy From A Stranger”; “The Truth,” Brigitte Bardot. The productions announced by Jaffe for 1960 filming included: “The Image Makers,” Glenn Ford; “The Chase”; “The Other Side of the Coin”; “Bunny Lake Is Missing”; “Here Come the Brides,” Burt Lancaster; “A Raisin in the Sun,” Sidney Poitier and Broadway cast; “The Jimmy Durante Story,” Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin. “The Beach Boys,” Kirk Douglas; “Revival”; “Roar Like a Dove,” Alec Guinness and Doris Day; “The Bridge at Remagen”; “Mys¬ terious Island,” Jules Verne classic in Super Dynamation; “Time of the Dragons”; “Nine Coaches Waiting”; “The Fanny Brice Story”; “Lawrence of Arabia”; “Return Fare”; “Baa, Baa Black Sheep”; “That Hill Girl.” Jaffe made special mention of the fact that arrangements for a producer and stars for “Andersonville,” Pulitzer Prize novel, to be the most expensive production in Columbia history, are being completed and will be announced shortly. The exhibitors who attended the luncheon were Harry Brandt, William Brandt, Joe Ingber, and Lou Wolff, Brandt Circuit; Julius Jeolson and Max Fried, Joelson Circuit; Samuel Rinzler, Harold Rinzler, and Emanuel Frisch, Randforce Circuit; Walter Reade, Jr., Reade Circuit; Murray Miller, Hecht Circuit; Wilbur Snaper and Irving Dollinger, Triangle NEW YORK— In line with the growing importance of the foreign market to the United States motion picture industry econ¬ omy, Eric Johnston, president, MPEAA, an¬ nounced the transfer of the Western Hemi¬ sphere headquarters office to Mexico City. Robert J. Corkery, MPEAA vice-president in charge of Western Hemisphere operations, including all of Latin America and Canada, left for Mexico City to establish permanent headquarters there. In commenting on this most recent move of an MPEAA vice-president to the field, Johnston said: “This move is in line with the Associa¬ tion’s policy of strengthening its position in the key foreign markets.” The Association now maintains offices in the leading production-distribution centers of the world — London, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Frankfurt, and Bombay. Additional offices are maintained in Rio de Janeiro, Stockholm, and Djakarta (Indonesia). Corkery’s move to Mexico City reflects the expanding potential market for U. S. product in the rapidly developing Latin-American area. Kodak Earnings Top a58 ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Sales and earnings of the Eastman Kodak Company for the first three quarters of 1959 were up substantially compared with a year ago and were the best the company has had for any corresponding interval, it was reported by Thomas J. Har¬ grave, chairman, and Albert K. Chapman, president. Consolidated sales of the company’s estab¬ lishments in the United States were $621,792,393, about 13 per cent more than sales of $551,006,974 for the similar period of 1958. Net earnings were $87,549,692, about 38 per cent above the $63,629,367 reported for the 1958 three quarters. Earnings were equal to $2.27 per common share against $1.65 a year ago. Circuit. Also, Charles Moss and Larry Morris, B. S. Moss Theatres; Larry Lightstone, Rugoff & Becker; Leslie Schwartz, Samuel Goodman, and Ben Gladstone, Century Circuit; Joe Seider, Walter Higgins, and Nat Harris, Pru¬ dential Circuit; Jules Liggett, Liggett Book¬ ing and Buying; Seymour Florin, Florin Booking and Buying; Max Cohen and Lou Fischler, Cinema Circuit. Also Lou Allerhand, Island Circuit; Leon Rosenblatt, Rosenblatt Circuit; Jack Hattem, Stanley Kolbert, Sol Straussberg, and Moe Straussberg, Interboro Circuit; Eugene Picker, John Murphy, and Milton Amswalder, Loew’s Theatres; Edward Hyman, A1 Sicignano, and A1 Guyler, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres; Leo Brecher, Walter Brecher, and Norman Arenwald, Brecher Circuit; Sol Schwartz, Matty Polan, Archie Berrish, and Harry Mandel, RKO Theatres; Salah Hassanein and Spyros Skouras, Jr., Skouras Circuit; Si Fabian, Charles Smakowitz, and John McKenna, Stanley Warner Theatres; Ed Fabian and Bernard Meyerson, Fabian Circuit. On hand from Columbia Pictures, in addi¬ tion to Jaffe, were Nat Cohn, home office exec¬ utive: Robert S. Ferguson, national director of advertising, publicity, and exploitation; Sol Trauner, New' York branch manager; and Jules Rief, Lou Steisel, John Wenisch, and Phil Greenspan, of the New York exchange. 14 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR October 28, 1959