The Exhibitor (1966)

BUFFALO ( Continued from page 24) through the contributions from western New York, Pennsylvania, and Canada. James J. Hayes was general chairman of the event, assisted fey members of many committees who had worked for weeks on the various details. The Telethon received an avalanche of ad¬ vance publicity, including big posters on bus sides, 20 24-sheets at choice spots in Buffalo, window posters, bumper stickers, and much art in local, community, and school papers. Stars who were in Buffalo to help put over the Telethon included Forrest Tucker, Virgin¬ ia Gibson, Barry Morse, Lenny Welsh, Frank Gorskin, and local entertainers, including players from the Studio Arena Theatre, the Marine Corps karate team, Fred Herman and his Country Cousins, singer Marlene Badger, and many others. The funds go to the Reha¬ bilitation Center of the Children’s Hospital, Tent 7’s principal charity. . . . Paul L. Wall, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., branch mana¬ ger in Buffalo, has issued invitations to ex¬ hibitors in the Buffalo exchange area to at¬ tend MGM’s spring and summer meeting to be conducted by home office sales and ad¬ vertising executives Feb. 9 in the Washington Room of the Buffalo Statler Hilton Hotel, with a cocktail party to follow. Sidney J. Cohen, president. Allied Theatres of New York State, announces that the U.S. Treasury Depart¬ ment has just certified New York Allied Theatre Owners organization as being enti¬ tled to designation as a non-profit organiza¬ tion. . . . Frank Arena, city manager, Loew’s Theatres in Buffalo, announces that “Thunderball,” the James Bond film that has been smashing all box office records at Shea’s Buff¬ alo, is now expected to run until mid-March. The attraction will be followed by “The Silencers,” first of the three Matt Helm ad¬ venture stories from Columbia. “The Ten Commandments,” Paramount reissue, will follow “The Silencers” into the Buffalo. . . . Jack Chinell, manager, Buffalo branch of Buena Vista; James J. Hayes, managing direc¬ tor, Cinema in downtown Buffalo; and Emil Noah, managing director, Amherst, cooperat¬ ed with the Buffalo Sears stores in promoting their part in the national tie-up on Winniethe-Pooh Week, Jan. 31 through Feb. 5. The local celebration was a big box-office help for the Walt Disney featurette coming to the Cin¬ ema and Amherst with the BV feature, “The Ugly Dachshund.” There were events daily in the Sears stores, with Thursday, Feb. 3, the day when Winnie-the-Pooh came to town, was greeted at the airport, and was escorted to city hall in the Ford Motorcade and pre¬ sented with the key to the city by Mayor Frank Sedita. CHICAGO Chicago Youth Centers held a benefit pre¬ miere of “Dr. Zhivago” at the Palace. . . . Women’s Variety Club of Illinois hosted the grand reopening of the newly redecorated rooms of Variety Club of Illinois, Tent 26, at the Pick-Congress Hotel. . . . Northwestern Film Society presented “This Sporting Life” as the second in a series of films presented at Fisk Hall on Tuesday evenings. . . . Bernard Weiss, 75, movie projector operator for the last 35 years, died in Downey Veter¬ ans Hospital. He is survived by his widow, Margaret. . . . Theatre managers of the fol¬ lowing B and K theatres offered special discounts for students and groups for their showing of “Othello”; Century, Nortown, Portage, Berwyn, and Varsity. . . . Sig Sako wicz hosted a special screening of “Madame X” for the Mothers’ Fan Club. . . . Variety Club of Illinois reports that HRH Prince Philip will visit Chicago on March 15 and 16 “to help further the cause of Variety.” On March 16, a black tie dinner and cocktail party will be held at the Hilton Hotel in his honor. Dave Smerling, chief barker, is accept¬ ing ticket reservations at $100 each. . . . Sam Spiegel was to arrive here Jan. 31 to boost his new Columbia release, “The Chase.” March opening of the film will be at B and K’s State Lake. . . . Lovey Kravezit arrives on Feb. 13 to do the press rounds on behalf of the world premiere opening of “The Silencers” on Feb. 18 at the Chicago. A city¬ wide contest is being held among Chicago bartenders to determine who can concoct the tastiest “Silencers” cocktail. Dean Martin will judge the winner when he comes for stage appearances on the film’s opening day. . . . All Chicagoland Sears, Roebuck, and Co. stores have launched coloring contests for children to salute “Winnie the Pooh.” The same stores are to celebrate “Winnie the Pooh Week” Feb. 6-12, highlighted by the Feb. 9 visit here by a troupe from the Walt Disney Studios costumed as Pooh characters. The film opens the same week at the StateLake. “The Ugly Dachshund” will be pre¬ sented on the same State-Lake program. . . . Mervyn Le Roy arrived to speak on behalf of his latest film, “Moment to Moment,” opening at the Esquire on Feb. 18. . . . R. Lee Simpson moderated a discussion before the Green Brier Camera Club on “How to Judge Pictures.” . . . Frank M. Satauskas, 82, owner and operator of the Bilda, died. He leaves surviving his widow, two daughters, and three sons. CINCINNATI Construction for a new 1200-seat Cinerama theatre located on the suburban Kenwood Mall is expected to start in early spring. It will replace the downtown Capitol in the Stanley Warner chain when the Capitol lease expires in 1967. . . . “Snow White and the Three Stooges” will be the feature film in a two-hour special morning “kiddie” show Feb. 12 at the Princeton Cinema. The films will be free, and theatre employees will donate their time so all proceeds will go toward the Variety Tent Three “Sunshine Coach” fund. . . . A. H. Duren, district man¬ ager for Warner Bros., presided at a twoday district managers meeting at the local exchange, Jan. 25-26. Attending the meetings were managers William Twig, Cleveland; Chet Blakeley, Indianapolis; Virgil Jones, Pittsburgh; Ralph Salyer and William Spensley, salesmen, Cincinnati. . . . Robert Schmaltz, new manager for Mid-States plush Mariemont Cinema East, received his man¬ agerial training as assistant to Odis R. Owens, Keith manager, during 1963-65. Before that time, he was associated with WKRC radio-tv station and has just returned from his duties with the U.S. armed forces. . . . Film Row welcomes Terry Gruener as new booker’s clerk at 20th-Fox. . . . Tony Knollman, 20thFox office manager, has been reelected presi¬ dent and business agent for IATSE F-37. Also reelected were Nate Mutnick, MGM booker, vice-president, and Ann Keck, War¬ ners secretary, secretary-treasurer. Trustees elected were bookers Walter Mergenthal, UA; Chic Weinberg, MGM; and Helen Dodd, UA secretary. Bookers John Kallmeyer, 20th-Fox, and Morris Hail, Universal, were elected executive board members. COLUMBUS , O. Jerry Knight extended his run of “My Fair Lady” at the Drexel into a seventh week. . . . “Thunderball” opens a third month Feb. 15 at Loew’s Ohio. . . . Manager Ed McGlone, RKO Palace, held a sneak preview of “Our Man Flint.” . . . The Palace opened a second week of “Never Too Late” and “Operation C. I. A.” . . . Mr. and Mrs. Ken Prickett returned from a vacation at Coral Garden Villas, Montego Bay, Jamaica . . . Manager Robert McKinley, Northland Cine¬ ma, is hoping to reach the year’s anniversary soon of his engagement of “Sound of Music.” If it reaches the 51 week mark, it will be the new long-run champion in Columbus. Present record holder is “My Fair Lady” with 50 weeks at Hunt’s Cinestage. . . . Mrs. Pearl Hunt held a press preview at Hunt’s Cinestage of “The Loved One.” DALLAS Actress Joan Crawford was elected to the board of directors of Frito Lay, Inc. Miss Crawford will probably engage in public re¬ lations and promotional work for the firm and for Pepsi Cola. She is also a director of Pepsi Cola. . . . Burton E. Robbins, presi¬ dent; Paul N. Lazarus, executive vice-presi¬ dent: general sales manager Milton Feinberg; and assistant general sales manager Stewart D. Harnell, National Screen Service, attended the annual Texas Drive-In Theatre Owners Association convention. NSS hosted a break¬ fast at the convention. . . . Zsa Zsa Gabor stopped briefly en route to Fort Worth for the opening of the new $1,250,000 William Edrington Scott Theatre and returned to Dallas to promote her new picture, “My Last Duchess.” . . . Ken Pruitt, local Buick dealer, is offering free two tickets to “The Great Race,” now showing at the Tower, when any reader of the Dallas Morning News brings in a coupon from an ad and takes a demonstra¬ tion ride in a Pruitt Buick. . . . The benefit performance of “The Agony and the Ecstasy” at the Tower sponsored by the Sigma Delta Tau alumnae chapter has been postponed to the night of Feb. 17 to conform to the change in the date of the regular opening on Feb. 18. The performance for the benefit of the Wadley Resarch Center was originally sched¬ uled for Jan. 27. . . . Edith Head, costume designer, is scheduled to be here on a pro¬ motional tour in behalf of the film, “The Oscar,” for which she did the costumes. . . . James Coburn visited in Dallas to promote the showing of his latest film, “Our Man Flint,” current at the Palace. DENVER Location for Wolf berg Theatres’ new drivein at South Wadsworth and West Hampden is being temporarily held up on account of zoning difficulties. Site had been zoned for an open-airer, but now it seems the Jefferson County commissioners have other ideas and want to wait until a zoning study of the whole south area is completed, probably some time in May. Looks like the affair may wind up in the District Court. . . . Committee for ShowA-Rama, to be held here March 1-3, have promised several Hollywood stars here for the event. Named are Charlton Heston, Ann-Margret, Red Buttons, Honor Blackman, and Dick Van Dyke. . . . Host of the monthly luncheon of the RockyMountain Motion Picture Asso¬ ciation was Chick Lloyd Lloyd, American In¬ ternational Pictures. 28 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR February 9, 1966