The Exhibitor (1961)

Dissidents Win Two Seats On Beard Of NT&T; Cantor Exits As Chairman BEVERLY HILLS, CAL.— Leonard Davis and Philip L. Handsman, anti-management candidates, were elected to the board of Na¬ tional Theatres and Television, Inc. They re¬ placed Graham Sterling and William H. Hud¬ son, having conducted a proxy fight to gain seats on the 12 -man board. Despite the victory for two insurgent shareholders, president Eugene V. Klein in¬ sisted the election gave a “vote of confidence” to management. Previously, B. Gerald Cantor announced his resignation as chairman of the company. Cantor, who is retaining his seat on the board, said he felt “handicapped” in continu¬ ing as chairman because of charges by “a few shareholders” of mismanagement and conflict of interest. Davis started the proxy fight about six weeks ago, charging management laxity in certain of the company’s affairs. He said after his election to the board that he expects pri¬ mary consideration will be given to National Theatres’ 38 per cent stock ownership in Na¬ tional Telefilm Associates, Inc., which also operates a TV station in the New York City area. NTA had a loss of $3,000,000 in fiscal 1960 and a loss of $114,574 for the first quarter of fiscal 1961, ended Dec. 27. Davis and Klein said they do not expect friction from the insurgents’ presence on the board. “We’re still trying to run a business,” said Klein, “and we expect to all work to¬ gether.” UA Ups Nathanson NEW YORK — Mort Nathanson, who has been on special assignment with United Art¬ ists foreign distribution department as direc¬ tor of international advertising and publicity, has been named director of national publicity, it was announced by Fred Goldberg, UA’s executive director of advertising, publicity and exploitation. Nathanson has been with United Artists since 1952, when he was appointed UA pub¬ licity manager, a post he held until 1959. He was then given his foreign department as¬ signment. Prior to joining United Artists, Nathanson held a wide variety of promotional posts in the motion picture industry and the legiti¬ mate theatre. He was press agent for the late Michael Todd’s theatre enterprises. He also represented Katharine Cornell, Group Thea¬ tre, Theatre Guild, and Playwrights Company among other theatrical organizations. He sub¬ sequently moved into the motion picture field and held the successive posts of eastern publicity director for Samuel Goldwyn, Lib¬ erty Films, and Paramount Pictures. Fulgham To Head Video OKLAHOMA CITY— C. O. Fulgham will become manager of Video Independent Thea¬ tre organization and affiliated companies under its new ownership by RKO General, Inc. A 35 -year veteran with the organization, he has been a vice-president of Video since 1949. He said the present personnel will re¬ main xmchanged and the company will con¬ tinue its varied operations. The new ownership is subject to FCC ap¬ proval as stated in its application filed in Washington. North Central Leaves Allied; Was Inactive Previously MINNEAPOLIS— The North Central Al¬ lied Independent Theatre Owners Inc., has resigned from the Allied States Association of Motion Picture Exhibitors. The unit has been inactive for some time. It is the seventh unit to be lost to Allied States, the others are the Rocky Mountain, Indiana, Mid-South, Mid-Central, New England, and lowa-Nebraska-South Dakota units. Some Lucky Exhibitor To Win Danny Kaye NEW YORK — In a unique trade and con¬ sumer promotion set by Paramount Pictures for Shavelson-Rose’s “On the Double,” Danny Kaye will be given away free for a day to some lucky U.S. theatre exhibitor attending the currently in progress 34th annu¬ al International Variety Clubs convention in Miami Beach. Kaye has agreed to place himself exclusive¬ ly at the winning ex¬ hibitor’s disposal during the latter’s opening day of “On the Double.” Special publicity and exploitation activities will be scheduled to focus nation-wide attention on the event. All U.S. exhibitors attending the Variety Clubs convention will be invited to a special theatre preview of the Technicolor comedy tomorrow (April 27) at which time they each wiU receive a ticket giving them a stake in a drawing for “Kaye for a Day.” The draw¬ ing, to be held immediately after the screen¬ ing, will be personally conducted by Kaye, who as special guest of honor at the Variety convention will also present the organiza¬ tion’s coveted Heart Award on Friday night. If the exhibitor winning the drawing has already licensed “On the Double,” he auto¬ matically wins Kaye, who will travel to any part of the country for the winner’s local premiere. If the winning exhibitor has not already licensed the Paramount release, he must do so within 30 days. In either case. Paramount will guarantee Kaye’s attendance when the exhibitor opens the film, but the opening must be subject to Kaye’s commit¬ ments. The drawing will be open to all U.S. ex¬ hibitors attending the convention, except those in bidding situations who have not yet bid for “On the Double.” Tournament Committee Set NEW YORK — Marvin Kirsch, Television and Radio Daily, has been named co-chair¬ man, and Milton Livingston, Universal, pub¬ licity chairman of the 10th Annual Film Industry Golf Tournament and Funfest being sponsored by Cinema Lodge of B’nai B’rith and to be held on May 18 at the Briar Hall Golf Club, Briarcliff Manor, New York, it was announced by Martin Levine, chairman. Will Rogers Hospital Plans New Buildings NEW YORK — The board of directors of Will Rogers Hospital will be accorded the op¬ portunity to view the progress made on the three new buildings to be erected at WiU Rogers Hospital, at this year’s annual meet¬ ing and inspection tour Jime 22-24. The three structures represent the first new building to be undertaken at the hospital in 30 years. They are pre-requisite to the devel¬ opment of the new O’Donnell Memorial Re¬ search Laboratories to be installed in a large portion of the hospital’s main buUding. According to Eugene Picker, chairman of the building committee, “Before we can begin work on the laboratories proper, which are to be in the main building, we must relocate the resident doctors, nurses, and staff who are now housed in the area to be converted to laboratory use. All resident personnel wUl be taken out of the main building. One of the new buildings WiU contain one and tworoom apartments for the doctors and their families; in another will be efficiency apart¬ ments for the nurses; the third will be for the staff.” The building committee, comprised of W. G. German, Herman Robbins, Murray Weiss, and chairman Picker, has been en¬ gaged throughout the winter in niunerous meetings with architects and scientific plan¬ ners. Ground breaking and actual construc¬ tion" work is slated to begin as soon as weather permits. Murray Weiss, who is a Bos¬ ton construction engineer and theatre builder, is to direct the physical work program, which is expected to be sufficiently advanced by June to become a feature of the annual di¬ rectors meeting. AB-PT May Increase Stock NEW YORK — Shareholders of American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres will vote May 16 at the annual meeting here on a pro¬ posal to increase the authorized common stock to 10,000,000 from the present 5,000,000 shares. In a proxy statement, management said it had no present intention regarding the issu¬ ance of the additional shares, but “it would be advisable to have them available for gen¬ eral business and corporate purposes.” Stockholders will also elect 14 directors, and vote will be taken on an incentive com¬ pensation plan for executives and key em¬ ployees. It was revealed that AB-PT directors and officers received an aggregate $731,911 in remuneration during fiscal 1960. AA Names Garrett NEW YORK — Sanford Abrahams, Allied Artists national advertising and publicity director, announced the appointment of Charles B. Garrett to handle foreign pub¬ licity from New York for Allied Artists Inter¬ national Corporation, with special emphasis on the Latin American publicity campaign for Samuel Bronston’s “El Cid.” Garrett, a long time industry veteran, has specialized in promotion work in Latin Amer¬ ica. He recently left the 20th Century-Fox office in Havana where he supervised all publicity and advertising activities over the past five years. He has also served with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the foreign field and during the war worked for the federal government imder Nelson Rockefeller hand¬ ling 16mm. films throughout Latin America. KAYE 10 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR April 26. 1961