The Exhibitor (1960)

Aere are The best men won MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR’S exciting 1959 EXPLOITATION Contest and garnered $1,000 in prizes. T he second “Showman-Of-The-Year” con¬ test of the EXPLOITATION Section of MO¬ TION PICTURE EXHIBITOR carrying with it $1,000 in prizes, divided among the five winners as chosen by a committee of theatre circuit executives, has been completed after weeks of judging and tabulating. The international aspect of the competition is proven by the fact that among the manners up were entries from Canada and England. The honor of submitting a campaign from the greatest distance again goes to Humayun H. Baigmohamed, Palace, Karachi, Pakistan. Noteworthy is the fact that winner Cliff Knoll also captured a top spot and $200 last year setting a mark for other showmen to shoot at. The winning entries are i-eprinted for the benefit of other exhibitors who may wish to CLIFF KNOLL was bom and raised in thea¬ tre business, his father being an old time thea¬ tre owner. He has been employed by Minnesota Amusement Company for 19 years, and located in Sioux Falls for four years as manager of the State, a 1400-seat, firstrun operation. Previous posts for Minnesota Amusement, a subsidiary of AB-PT, were at Grand Forks, N.D., Mankato, Minn., and Mit¬ chell, S. D. Before joining Minnesota Amuse¬ ment, he was general manager and adver¬ tising director for the Adler Theatres, head¬ quartering in Marshfield, Wise. He is mar¬ ried and has two children, a daughter and a son. Knoll’s winning entry, “Trade Unions’ Aux¬ iliaries Tieup on Kid Shows,” deservedly at¬ tracted the judges’ attention. For the past three of four years we have been unable to sell the Sioux Falls Chapter of the American Association of University Women on a series of movies for children. We approached the Boy and Girl Scouts on the idea of sponsoring this series and were told their organization could not enter into such an agreement because they are supported by the Community Chest. As an alternative we decided that we would approach the Sioux Falls Labor and Trades Assembly and offer them the sponsorship. In checking the local trades union, we found that the combined crafts have a membership of over 5,000 workers, including packing house employees, carpenters, communication workers, drivers, electrical men, restaurant and tavern employees, lATSE employees, and many others. The potential here is far greater than the AAU organization. We first approached one of our projection¬ ists, who is president of his local, and asked him to approach the Sioux Falls Labor and Trades and Labor Assembly for us. Naturally, he cooperated and helped push our plan for it meant more overtime for their members. During our presentation of our plan to the union members we were told by them that they would not take time to sponsor the series. We immediately then asked those pres¬ ent if they would arrange a meeting with the auxiliaries of the Labor and Trades As¬ sembly, who were meeting at the same time in a different room. They agreed to intro¬ duce us to the ladies and agreed that they would support the project if the auxiliary SHOWMEN OF THE YEAR 1. BILL TRAMBUKIS, Loew’s State Theatre, Providence, R. I. 2. JOHN J. PARSONS, Telenews Theatre, San Francisco, Cal. 3. CLIFF KNOLL, State Theatre, Sioux Falls, S. D. 4. JACK MITCHELL, Rialto The¬ atre, Glens Falls, N. Y. 5. GEORGE R. BROWN, Norshor Theatre, Duluth, Minn. RUNNERS-UP ROBERT RETZER, Solano Drive-In, Fairfield, Cal. HELEN JOHNSON, State, Statesyffle, N. C. PAUL D. FLOWERS, Fox Loyola, Los Angeles, Cal. JOE D. LYONS, Downtown, Mobile, Ala. FRED McHAM, Strand, Wichita Falls, Tex. D. J. FEBREAU, O’Brien, Renfrew, On¬ tario, Canada JIM DENTON, Majestic, Owingsville, Ky. HUGH S. BORLAND, Forest, Forest Park, m. GLYN MORSBACH, Chief Drive-In, Aus¬ tin, Tex. CARL DICKERSON, Schine’s Olympic, Watertown, N. Y. S. L. SORKIN, RKO Keith’s, Syracuse, N.Y. JACK McDOUGALL, Fox Oakland, Oak¬ land, Cal. E. D. HARRIS, Beverly Canon, Beverly HUls, Cal. NYMAN KESSLER, SW DeWitt, Bayonne, N.J. VAL DAGE, Granada, Reno, Nev. ED FARMER, Gulf Drive-In, Corpus Christi, Tex. H. M. KILPATRICK, Palace, Gastonia, N. C. JOHN G. CORBETT, Strand, Scranton, Pa. ARTHUR KOCH, RKO Proctor’s, New Rochelle, N. Y. PETER H. GASTON, Ritz, Keighley, Yorks, Eiigland FARRIS SHANBOUR, Harber, Oklahoma City, Okla. LANGDON WILBY, Shipyard Drive-In, Providence, R. I. RAY BARTLETT, Landsun, Artesia, N. M. KEN FINLAY, Texas, Texas City, Tex. REG HELLEY, Regal, Wakefield, England took it on. We then presented our plan to the auxiliary and showed them how they ; ^ could realize some money without any ex | pense to them and obtain an unlimited < amount of good will from the entire area ' ( through the sponsoring of this project. Briefly the plan is for the sponsoring group ; to sell a special season ticket consisting of a selected number of movies for a dollar. j The sponsoring group receives 25 per cent of all season tickets sold by them and their i groups. The special series will be held on ii the number of succeeding Saturdays that the i season tickets cover. Three complete shows i are held each Saturday at 11 A.M., 1 P.M., ‘J and 3 P.M. ! The sponsors have the privilege of select ' ing their choice of pictures, from a list fur , nished by our booking department. As with j the AAU season tickets we had hoped that . the labor auxiliary women could arrange to , sell their season tickets in all public and ■ parochial schools. This request was turned down by the Superintendent of Schools. Feel¬ ing that the Board of Education would want to cooperate with the Labor Union on this ; program we bypassed the Superintendent and , sent a letter of request for a personal inter¬ view with the Board of Education. For three months the ladies dickered and discussed the project with the Board of Education only to ' have the request to sell in schools turned ; down at the last minute. At this time we had to figure out a new approach so that we would not lose this highly successful project. We went to the proper authorities and foomd that there are , over 16,000 public and i>arochial school chil ! dren in town. Since the labor women could not sell tickets in the schools, they agreed to get them into the hands of the children anyway. This was accomplished by organiz ; ing groups to distribute tickets to children leaving all parochial and public schools start¬ ing six days before the first of the series. In other words, the city was flooded with ' 25,000 season tickets in hopes that through our publicity and the sponsorship of the labor auxiliaries, and the fact that these tickets were in the hands of the youngsters, it would stir up enough interest for the children to pay for their season tickets the first day of the series. Copy on the throw-out “tickets” read: ! Take this home. Kiddies and teenagers, too. 1959-60 Children’s Movie Series. 8 Movies ' plus a Free Bonus Movie sponsored by the Sioux Falls Federation of Trade Union Auxniearies at the State Theatre, Sioux Falls, S.D. In the interest of good motion picture viewing for children and teenagers we are sp>onsoring a series of eight selected movies in addition to a bonus movie with the co¬ operation of the State Theatre. This series of eight pictures and the bonus will cost only one dollar! These tickets are available to all children through Junior High School. Your child’s ticket is attached below. This ticket becomes valid when your child pre¬ sents it along with a dollar at the theatre adapt them. KNOLL 10 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR May 4. I960