The Exhibitor (1960)

ot H^mbassy Pictures, Robert Sternburg of New Eingland Theatres and Edward W. Lider of lENE. . . . Sympathy to “Doc” Romano, manager, Coolidge Corner, in the death of his father, Salverio R. Romano, and to Bill Price, manager, Capitol, Montpelier, Vt., in the death of his mother. . . . Ray Ellis who operates the Ludlow Theatre, Ludlow, Vt. has taken over the Chester, Chester, Vt., about 12 miles away. ... Joe Pizzi, a partner in the Route 44 Drive-In, Smithfield, R. L, has taken a lease on the Hollywood, East Providence, R.I., formerly operated by the Bomes Broth¬ ers, but closed for the past few years. . . . Bruce Nutter, former theatre manager, has joined Affiliated Theatres Corp. as a booker. . . . Howard Grinager, regional New England manager of the Coca Cola Company has re¬ signed to join the Donnelly Advertising Com¬ pany of Boston and is replaced by Jasper Yeomans. BUFFALO More than 1000 persons paid tribute to Lew Horschel recently at a prebirthday cele¬ bration in the Town Casino. Horschel cele¬ brated his 80th birthday. For close to half a century, he has been a public figure in Buffalo through his operation of concessions at amusement places and through his pro¬ motion of public shows. . . . When “Israel” played the Paramount in Rochester, manager Francis Anderson arranged to preview the film for local Israel Bond leaders, in coopera¬ tion with Jay Golden, RKO Theatres zone manager, who headquarters at the Palace in Kodak Town. The preview was arranged also with David J. Rosenthal, general chair¬ man of the Rochester committee for State of Israel Bonds. . . . Bucky Harris had his hands full recently. He was loaned by U-I to Columbia to work in Buffalo on three of that company’s productions — “Who Was That Lady?” in the Center; “Once More With Feel¬ ing” in the Century; and “Our Man in Ha¬ vana” at the Granada. . . . “Ben Hur” has been signed up by Schine Theatres for an “early spring” showing at the Riviera in Rochester. Sy Evans, a Schine executive, says that arrangements for the showing have been completed, with the exception of setting the opening date. . . . “Ben Hur” opened at Shea’s Teck in Buffalo with all seats reserved and at prices ranging from $1.25 to $2.50. There will be matinees Wednesday, Satur¬ day, Sunday, and holidays. The opening an¬ nouncement came in the form of a half page ad in the Courier-Express. CHICAGO Herb Elisburg, Sheridan Drive-In general manager, is better after a trip to the hospital. . . . Fire totally destroyed the Lyric, Blue Island, Ill., with a loss of $100,000. . . . Theatre attorney Hubert Will is in another hassle with the police censor board over “The 400 Blows,” which the board insisted on cutting. . . . Police questioned associates of Herman Posner, State projectionist, who was murdered recently. . . . Dore Schary was accorded an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts at Lincoln College. On his re¬ turn here he visited his brother, Stan Schary. . . . Faye Emerson took time out here to film a short on behalf of La Rabida Sani¬ tarium. Made by Filmack, it was sponsored by Variety Club. ... It was revealed that Herman G. David, 69, who was a projec¬ tionist from 1913 to 1945, had amassed $300,000 in the stock market. He died of a heart at¬ tack in a restaurant and it was disclosed he had $41,000 in cash in his pockets. . . . Mrs. Mathilda Magnus whose application to build a drive-in near Arlington Heights, Ill., was Miss Roberta Peters, 21, assistant manager. Centre, Denver, recently received congratula¬ tions and trophy from actor Stuart Whitman of 20th-Fox upon being named "Miss Theatre Per¬ sonality of National Theatres and Television" for 1960. turned down by a zoning boeird, has applied for redress in the Circuit Court. . . . The Censor Board didn’t love “The Lovers” and banned it, and the city may be sued again. . . . The Leopold estate suit against Meyer Levin, author of “Compulsion,” based on the Leopold-Loeb case, was dismissed in Federal Court. Judge William J. Campbell ruled the matter should be handled in a State Court. . . . Mr. and Mrs. Paul Sigler, Alexandria, Inc., took over the management of the Town, Anderson, Ind. . . , The Chicago Moving Picture Machine Operators Union elected Howard Blackwood, president; Frank Galluzzo, vice-president; and Ralph Mooney, secretary-treasurer. Clarence Jalus, business manager, has a contract which keeps him in office until February, 1963. . . . City movie tax collection of $3,500 proved that there was an increase in January movie attendance. . . . 20th-Fox’s “Can-Can” will start after Easter as the fii’st film following the Palace reopening. . . . Circuit owner Ben Banowitz moved his main office from Bremen, Ind., to 6570 Sheridan Road. . . . Stan Kohlberg, Starlight Drive-In owner, purchased the Dunes Drive-In, East Gary, Ind., for $400,000. CHARLOTTE Actor Ronald Reagan was the principal speaker at the annual dinner of the Ashe¬ ville, N. C., Chamber of Commerce and then moved on to Charlotte to address a lunch¬ eon of the Chamber of Commerce there. . . . When “On the Beach” showed at the Carolina, Durham, N. C., recently, the management offered free admission to anyone unable to afford a ticket, stating that “every person in Durham should see this.” The offer was good between the hours of 1 and 2 p.m. . . . Mrs. Burtus Bishop, Sr., mother of MGM’s assist¬ ant general sales manager, died recently in Winston-Salem, N.C. . . . Lewis Bagwell, for a number of years a manager with the Stewart-Everett chain of theatres in the Carolinas, is now sales manager with W.P.C.C. Radio Station in Clinton, S.C. H. M. Kil¬ patrick, who has had theatres in Bessemer City, N.C., Gastonia, N.C., and Maiden N.C., and is now manager of the Midway DriveIn, Clinton, S.C., is also on the staff of an¬ nouncers at W.P.C.C. Before coming to Clin¬ ton, he operated the Palace, Gastonia, N.C. . . . Phil Nance, manager. Village, Raleigh, N. C., has been promoted to division manager for Consolidated Theaters, Inc., of Charlotte. He will continue to make his headquarters in Raleigh, with his offices at the Village, direct¬ ing operations for his company in 10 towns in North Carolina and Virginia. CINCINNATI The coldest weather to date this winter and snowfall up to two or more feet in depth throughout the Ohio Valley during early March forced the temporary closing of scores of area houses as well as making the truck deliveries of films a hazardous undertaking, especially to smaller communities. However, local first-run houses enjoyed such surpris¬ ingly good business that films were held over in most of them. . . . Raymond L. Nemo, widely known Columbia field exploiteer dur¬ ing the last 10 years, has opened his own ad¬ vertising and entertainment promotion office in the downtown Gerke Building here. Dur¬ ing the last 24 years, he also has handled publicity for numerous local opera, ballet and theatrical presentations, and currently is publicizing a number of motion pictures, in¬ cluding second runs of Coliunbia’s “Porgy and Bess” at five neighborhood houses in this city. . . . Frank L. Weitzel, active in the in¬ dustry for 38 years, and an independent booker and buyer since 1952, has purchased the Alpine, West Rainelle, W. Va., and the Alpine, Sutton, W. Va., from the JUR Circuit. COLUMBUS, O., NEWS — “Ticket Stubs,”' with the heading printed in bright red, is the new title of the regular bulletin issued by Ken Prickett, executive secretary of the In¬ dependent Theatre Owners of Ohio. “We feel that our interest should be in getting more ‘ticket stubs’ in our collection box,” said Prickett, “and that our main efforts should be utilized in improving theatregoing. Your comments on the new heading or the new title will be appreciated.” . . . Effective May 1, advertising rates of the Columbus Dispatch will be increased to 40 cents per line daily and 45 cents Sunday. On the same date the new Citizen-Journal rate will be 321/^ cents per line. . . . Laurence Harvey, the British actor, was selected to choose the Makio Queen of Ohio State University via photos. The Queen will be honored in the Makio year¬ book. . . . Sam Shubouf, manager, Loew’s Ohio, presented a wrist watch donated by Tony Curtis to the 1960 Sweetheart of Sigma Chi in a tieup with Columbia’s “Who Was That Lady?” . . . Advance classification of movies shown on local television stations is being printed weekly in the Catholic Times, official publication of the Columbus diocese. Legion of Decency standards are being used in the classification, started in response to a resolution adopted by Council 400 of the Knights of Columbus. . . . Harlan Weirick, assistant manager, Loew’s Ohio, has resigned to resume his studies at Ohio State Univers¬ ity. CLEVELAND A 12 -inch snowfall, heaviest of the entire winter, tied up traffic, closed city, parochial, and many county schools, and discouraged any theatre attendance. In spite of this, all Greater Cleveland theatres reportedly re¬ mained open and film messengers maintained their routes. . . . H. E. McManus, who leaves Toledo where he has been general manager in charge of the Starlite, Parkside, and Tele.graph Drive-ins, to join the Smith Manage¬ ment organization of Boston in the St. Louis area, was honored by a testimonial dinner sponsored by the Toledo Theatre Managers Association of which McManus is vicepresident. . . . Old age and neighborhood changes resulted in the permanent closing of the 1600-seat Union Square by the Associated Theatres Circuit. . . .The mother of Ellsworth Staup, owner, Capitol, Delphos, O., and his brother, Paul, died. . . . Ray Schmertz, 20thFox branch manager, is distributor chairman March 16, I960 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR 19