The Exhibitor (1961)

NEWS CAPSULES \/ FILM FAMILY 7‘C ALBUM Arrival Mrs. Evelyn Goodavage, formerly Max E. Youngstein’s secretary, gave birth to a seven and one half pound girl, Maria Diane, at Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospital, New York City. Obituaries Pat Casey, 87, died in Hollywood while on a vacation and business trip. An industry pioneer, he headed the studio labor rela¬ tions committee of the MPAA for a number of years. He started as a theatre manager in Springfield, Mass., and later had his own vaudeville booking agency, and then joined Keith-Albee as a booking executive. Louis N. Goldsmith, 69, secretary and treasurer, A. R. Boyd Enterprises, Phila¬ delphia, died last fortnight. An associate of Boyd for over 35 years, he was a member of Variety Club, Tent 13. In his early days he was interested in sports. He is survived by his wife and daughter. Michael D. S. Riccio, 83, retired Jamestown, N. Y., and Lackawanna businessman and at one time operator of the Colonial, James¬ town, died in Meyer Memorial Hospital. A native of Italy, he came to this country in 1911. He is survived by his wife, two sons, two brothers, and a sister. Marie J. Westergren, wife of Gerald M. Westergren, general manager, Basil Theatres in Buffalo, N.Y., passed away in her home there last fortnight. Services were held in St. Vincent de Paul Church and interment was in Forest Lawn Cemetery. Carey Wilson, 72, for many years associated with MGM as one of Hollywood’s most dis¬ tinguished writers and producers, died in Hollywood. He is survived by his widow, his son, Anthony, a producer at 20th Century Fox studios, and a daughter. NAACP Threatens Suit To Integrate Theatre DURHAM, N. C. — Spokesman for the NAACP appeared before the City Council and threatened it with a law suit unless it immediately orders racial integration of the Carolina, which is operated in a city-owned building. The Council took no action. The spokesman, Ralph Luker, representing the Durham Youth and College Chapters of the NAACP, chided the Council for taking no action on a recent recommendation of the Mayor’s’ Human Relations Committee that segregation be ended at the Carolina, and said if the Council continues to refuse to act “this will force us into other tactics.” Mayor E. J. Evans told Luker, who said he was a former graduate student at Duke University but is not enrolled there now, that the City Council never has received the re¬ port of the Human Relations Committee other than reading accounts of it in the newspa¬ pers. He said there is “doubt if the city can legal¬ ly force integration on a particular business.” FORMS FOR THIS PAGE CLOSED AT 2 P.M. ON MON., FEB. 12 NT&T Income Rises; Cinemiracle Sale Aids BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF.— Net income of National Theatres and Television, Inc., for the first quarter ended Dec. 26, 1961, was $332,390, or 14 cents per share, which in¬ cluded $411,270 from the sale of the com¬ pany’s widescreen Cinemiracle process and the Cinemiracle motion picture, “Wind¬ jammer,” it was announced by Eugene V. Klein, president. This compared with a loss of $114,574, or four cents a share, for the first quarter of the preceding fiscal year. Motion picture theatre attendance is tra¬ ditionally at a low ebb during the first quarter, Klein said, due to the withholding of new pictures until the Christmas holidays and the month-long pre-Christmas shopping period. Excluding the special item, National had a net loss of $29,000 for the period, but this was considerably less than the loss for the comparable period of last year, Klein said. With the exclusion of net gains from dis¬ positions of theatres and real estate from both periods, the improvement was $137,000. Kramer Joins Cinerama NEW YORK — B. G. Kranze, vice-president of Cinerama, Inc., announced that Sidney Kramer will join Cinerama, Inc., as foreign sales manager working directly under Kranze. Kramer is widely experienced in both foreign and domestic distribution, havingentered the motion picture industry in 1929 with RKO' Radio Pictures. Kramer was foreign sales manager for that company from 1954 to 1959, after which he was with National Telefilm Associates, Inc., as their vice-president in charge of foreign distribution. Albert A. List, right, president, Glen Alden Corporation, recently announced to Joseph Klingenstein that the Albert A. List Founda¬ tion had made a grant of $1,000,000 to Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City. The donation was made through the Building Fund of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York. BROADWAY A GROSSES New Pix Add Excitement NEW YORK — Several openings boosted grosses in the Broadway first-runs last week. “TENDER IS THE NIGHT” (20th-Fox). Paramount reported $20,000 for the fourth week. “LOVER COME BACK” (U-I). Radio City Music Hall, with stage show, garnered $106,000 on Thursday through Sunday, with the opening week sure to top $170,000. “SERGEANTS THREE” (United Artists). Capitol could reach $95,000 on its opening week. “KING OF KINGS” (MGM). Loew’s State claimed $22,000 for the 18th week. “EL CID” (Allied Artists). Warner did $31,000 on the ninth week. “A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE” (Con¬ tinental). DeMille reported $25,000 for the third session. “THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA”’ (MGM). Victoria anticipated the first week at $27,500. “ONE-TWO-THREE” (United Artists). Astor expected the eighth week to reach $24,000. “VICTIM” (PatheAmerica). Forum an¬ nounced that the opening week was $18,000. “SAIL A CROOKED SHIP” (Columbia). Criterion did $12,000 on the second week. “WEST SIDE STORY” (United Artists). Rivoli did $42,000 on the 17th road show week. “JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG” (United Artists). RKO Palace claimed $38,000 for the eighth road show week. Boston Exhibs Adopt COMPO Merchandising Plan BOSTON — New England exhibitors voted at a meeting in the Variety Club rooms at the Statler Hilton Hotel to adopt the COMPO Merchandising Plan. The meeting was attended by 50 exhibi¬ tors representing all of the leading circuits and independent exhibition interests and branch managers from nearly all of the major exchanges. Edward Lider, who pre¬ sided, was authorized to form an Exhibitors Executive Committee which would have charge of the operation of the Merchandis¬ ing Plan and select pictures to be shown under that plan. The plan itself was explained by Alec Moss, who organized the COMPO campaigns in the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati exchange areas; Jeff Livingston, executive co-ordina¬ tor of sales and advertising for Universal Pictures, who spoke for the general sales managers and the advertising and publicity directors committees of the MPAA, and Charles E. McCarthy, executive vice-presi¬ dent of COMPO. Sam Pinanski, member of the COMPO governing committee, explained that the meeting was held at the request of a group of exhibitors who were interested in the plan’s operation. Lider said that he expected to have the committee organized in the very near fu¬ ture. Moss will act as COMPO’’s co-ordina¬ tor of the campaign after the first, picture has been chosen for the plan’s operation. 6 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR February 14, 1962