The Exhibitor (1962)

Rogers-Krellberg Set Distrib Firm With New Publicity-Promotion Setup NEW YORK — Ultra Pictures Corp., a new distributing organization geared to provide grass roots saturation publicity and promo¬ tion for its releases in every key city in the United States, has been formed by Budd Rogers and Sherman S. Krellberg, two long¬ time veterans of the American motion picture industry. This totally new concept of independent motion picture distribution will utilize a net’^ork of national and regional promotion offices centering in New York and Hollywood and including working press representatives in 45 major metropolitan cities. All publicity and promotion will be under the immediate direction of Blank Rand Associates, Inc., New York, and its Hollywood affiliate. Rogers, president of Ultra Pictures, has been active in all phases of the American mo¬ tion picture industry, including production and distribution for the past 38 years. Krell¬ berg, vice-president, started his career more than 40 years ago as a nickelodeon operator and has gone on to become an important figure in motion picture and theatrical financ¬ ing and co-production. He is president of the Principal Film Exchange in New York and of the Goodwill Pictures Corp., an international distributing organization. In addition, Krell¬ berg produced such Broadway hits as “The Fifth Season,” which starred Menasha Skulnick, and was a co-producer with the Shubert organization of a number of important Broad¬ way shows. Ultra Pictures has already acquired the American distribution rights to four Italian films, all with English dialogue, and is in the midst of negotiations abroad for the rights to a number of other features. The first film to be released will be “Two Nights with Cleopatra,” a satire in color star¬ ring Academy Award winner Sophia Loren and Alberto Sordi. “We intend to provide exhibitors through¬ out the country with the kind of saturation exploitation and marketing support now available only in New York and in Holly¬ wood,” Rogers said in announcing formation of the new releasing organization. “Two Nights with Cleopatra” will open with satu¬ ration bookings throughout the nation in December, following just such an intensive grass roots campaign,” he noted. The three other films set for release by Ultra are “Da Risaia” (The Rice Girl), star¬ ring Elsa Martinelli; “Fatal Desire,” co-star¬ ring Anthony Quinn and May Britt; and “A Day in Court,” starring Sophia Loren and Peppino de Filippo. eiifFRIGHAIID got that’s made the proper girls of England flip as never before? You’ll find out when you this "Wonderful” singer! , m ‘'WONDERFUL TO BE YOUNG” Lester Named Canadian Pioneer Of The Year TORONTO, CANADA — William G. Lester, president. United Amusement Cor¬ poration, has been selected as the Cana¬ dian Pioneer of the year, and the award will be made at the annual dinner of the Canadian Picture Pioneers at the King Edward Hotel on Nov. 26. Others to receive special awards at the dinner are Roy Tash, newsreel camera¬ man for 53 years; William Stewart, promin¬ ent in management and promotion; and Hugh Sedgwick, former Canadian vicepresident of the lATSE Robert Selig Lauds AMPA Exhib Service Plan NEW YORK — Robert W. Selig, vice-presi¬ dent and general manager of National Thea¬ tres and Television, endorsed the activities of AMPA’s Exhibitor Services Division, in a letter to Melvin L. Gold, AMPA’s ESD chair¬ man. Selig wrote: “The ever-changing theatre business, con¬ fronted as it is with a serious product short¬ age and outmoded method of selling, cries for movements such as AMPA proposes in its Exhibitor Services Division. “Getting through to the prospective patron is, of course, the problem. “In an industry without organized, profes¬ sional research, we who operate theatres today are left to theory, trial and error and, too often, only the boxoffice result as the method of adjudging methods of selling pic¬ tures. “There is a vast and unexplored area of show-selling which AMPA can ‘grub-stake.’ ‘Reaching the market,’ if, indeed, the market is known, calls for joint enterprise among those willing to dare a little, imagine a little, and create a little. “We aren’t exactly living by our wits today. But week in and week out, the total effort of theatre operation takes on that com¬ plexion. Here and there, we are discovering exciting new ways to excite people into boxoffice motivation. These should be shared, improved upon, expanded. “We endorse your plan as we endorse any constructive effort which realistically aims at luring patrons, catching them, and then see¬ ing to it these patrons have a pleasant movie¬ going experience.” An initial move to obtain support for ex¬ hibitors’ October, November, December re¬ ceipts has been initiated by AMPA’s ESD, according to Gold, via letters to all trade paper editors and publishers, and to the ad¬ vertising and publicity directors of all mo¬ tion picture companies, in which Gold has requested “accelerated support to exhibitors during the last three months of 1962.” Jaeger Joins UA-TY NEW YORK — Andrew Jaeger has been named Latin America sales supervisor for United Artists Television, Inc., it was an¬ nounced by Manny Reiner, vice-president in charge of foreign operations for the company. Jaeger, who will make his headquarters in Mexico City, replaces Ira D. Beck, who has resigned to go into private business. Col. Producer Raps Defense Dept. Stand NEW YORK — Arthur Hornblow, Jr., pro¬ ducer of the forthcoming Columbia film, “The War Lover,” lashed out at a statement issued by Arthur Sylvester, Assistant Secretary of Defense, wherein he thought that armed forces cooperation for future films would be severely curtailed. If this stands, Hornblow estimated that 50 per cent of future pictures involving this country’s armed forces might well have to be made abroad with foreign troops posing as American servicemen or they might never be made at all. He also hit out at the lack of a strong in¬ dustry public relations voice which could have answered the government official, who he believed instituted the restrictions be¬ cause of a few isolated instances or because of pressures applied by a relatively few dis¬ gruntled Congressmen. Copies of his state¬ ment were to be forwarded to key govern¬ ment officials as well as to all Congressmen. Hornblow emphasized that cooperation be¬ tween the armed services and Hollywood was a two-way street, with vast world-wide audiences made aware of the accomplish¬ ments of American fighting men through the film medium. Cooperation, he said, assures the services that they will be accurately rep¬ resented in films made about them. The producer pointed to his own experi¬ ences with “The War Lover.” At first, the Air Force was reluctant to cooperate since the film deals with a psychotic bomber pilot. After an interchange of ideas took place, service coop¬ eration was forthcoming, and the result was a film of greater depth, reality, and validity. Withdrawal of cooperation would surely re¬ sult in less service films being made, Horn¬ blow pointed out, and would contribute to socalled “run-away production.” If the new po¬ sition of the Department of Defense is due to a feeling that Hollywood was getting some¬ thing for nothing at the exepense of the U.S. taxpayer, Hornblow remarked that there is no extra cost since all cooperation falls within the normal range of military or naval activi¬ ties. Hornblow asked the Secretary of Defense to “weigh carefully the consequences of any projected action which can inhibit in the fu¬ ture the kind of production that has been made so successfully in the past.” “The War Lover” will be a November re¬ lease and an aggressive campaign is being moimted, according to Columbia vice-presi¬ dent Jonas Rosenfield and national advertis¬ ing and publicity director Robert S. Ferguson. Part of this will be a cross coimtry tour by a B-17 used in the film, and by star Steve Mc¬ Queen and others. B'nai B'rith Drive Set NEW YORK — Max Fried, J. J. Theatres executive, has been named special exhibition co-chairman of New York’s Cinema Lodge of B’nai B’rith’s current fund-raising drive on behalf of the B’nai B’rith agencies, it was announced by Joseph B. Rosen and Leonard , Rubin, chairmen of the drive. The 1962 fund-raising drive of Cinema Lodge through the sale of $25 Contribution Share Certificates with one of the purchasers receiving a 1962 fourdoor Cadillac sedan, will be concluded at a limcheon at the New Hotel Americana on Oct. 18. > Cinema Lodge president Abe Dickstein is , sued a call for all-out industry support as the drive entered its final weeks in the hope that the goal of the sale of 750 certificates can be reached. 10 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR October 10, 1962