The Exhibitor (1966)

i.MIII1lllllllllllirllllllllllllMIIIIIIIMIIIIIMnilllllllMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIlllllllllllllllllllMIIIIIIIIMIII|llltlMIIIIMIIIIIIIlllllillllllllliniinilllllllllMlinillllMIIIIIIIIIIIMIMIIIMIIIIIIIIMIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIl^ The NEW YORK Scene By Mel Konecoff SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND— ONE WAY OR ANOTHER: WHEN IS A PRESS agent not a press agent? When he’s a press agent. This seems to be the philosophy of Jim Moran, who has been variously known as a press agent, publicist, P.R. man, and unorthodox free-lance drum beater who is not adverse to selling refrigerators to Eskimos or the ways of a Bedouin chieftain to U.S. listeners and viewers, as in the case of “John Goldfarb Please Come Home,” if it will get him some space and make a few bucks. When we saw him the other morning in a hotel suite in the Drake Hotel, he claimed he was no longer a press agent but rather researcher for the New York Academy of Terrestial Magnetism, whatever that may be, and also an author. He is working on two books, one on marriage vsith which he hasn’t had much success and one on photography with which he has. He sat on a couch with a black blindfold over his eyes, and next to him was a pretty navi¬ gational aide named Linda Graves, who attends to his every (well almost every) need while he is in this condition. She even had a special brush to -wEisk any stray crumbs that may have caught in his beard after dining. \\Y heard that man in the balcony ask, “What the heck is he getting at?” WYll, it seems that Universal Pictures has a Technicolor suspense comedy starring Rock Rudson and Claudia Cardinale about to be released come Memorial Day, and somebody thought it might be a good idea to put a blindfold on Moran and send him out on a five-week nationwide tour of the country so that proper attention would be called to the film. Naturally, he’ll be willing to talk to press, radio, and tv representatives at the drop of a blindfold. When we saw^ him, he claimed he’d already had the blindfold on for 24 hours and w^as determined to keep it on all throughout the tour. In each of the 20-22 cities. Universal will supply attractive navigational aides to help Moran get around not only in his hotel room but to radio station,s, tv stations, newspaper offices, etc. He reported that it wmn’t come off at night or in the shower (he’s got a waterproof covering), and he may even watch television with it, w hich may give him a new' perspective on some shows. Turning serious for a brief moment, he observed that after 24 hours this experience has been an eye-opener. No one w'ho can see is really aware of how important eyes can be to a person. We suggested that if he’s really going to keep the blindfold on for five weeks that he w'ind up the tour w'ith a terrific party and call it his unveiling. As w'e left, his navigational aide was guiding his hand to his beard so he could really check to make sure it w'as crumb-free. SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW? FROM THE DARING PUBLICITY MEN WHO GAVE the world Dynamation and then topped it with SuperDynamation; from the publicists who sold Batman 24 years before the current craze; from the flacks who sent Mr. Smith to Washington; from the men who put a nation on tenterhooks with weekly installments of “The Shadow” and “Wild Bill Hickok”; from the department that immortalized Dagwood Bumstead on the screen and made the world “Three Stooge” conscious comes word that they’ve changed their publicity letterhead. We’re referring, of course, to the Columbia Pictm-es publicity department. It’s in jazzy blue if you want a colorful description of same. As for the news itself . . . we’ll see. MAIL NOTE: EUROPIX-CONSOLIDATED IS MAKING AVAILABLE TO Ex¬ hibitors a promotional giveaway consisting of a packet of gag postcards, featuring on one side ghoulish scenes from an upcoming horror program, “The She Beast” and “Tlie Embalmer,” with blank spaces reserved for the sender’s captions. They can be imprinted with the theatre’s name and playdate. The gag cards will be highlighted in newspaper ads, radio and tv spots, and in a special trailer and lobby sheet being prepared by National Screen Service. THE METROPOLITAN SCENE: ASIDE TO JOCK MACGREGOR: THANKS FOR the kind words the other week. Someday, we’ll have to do a piece on how much more alert and showmanship conscious your people are compared to their American counterparts, who ignore the trades as regards many functions, trips, promotions, etc. . . . UA’s Fred Goldberg sends along a portfolio of prints from the Illustrated London News drawn by artists who accompanied the Gordon relief expedition to Egypt and the Sudan in 1883. TTie force was sent to rescue General Charles Gordon, besieged by a dervish army at Khartoum. Many of the episodes have been recreated in Julian Blaustein’s production, “Khartoum,” to be pre¬ sented in Cinerama by UA. Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier star. . . . From Jerry Lewis comes a paste-up slogan, “Stamp Out-In,” which should mean something even to a square such as us. . . . UA’s Mike Hutner insists on sending us word that “The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming,” which we hear is very funny is very funny. . . . Movie stills illustrating the 70-year history and development of the art of cinematography selected from the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art will be on display at the Visual Arts Gallery most of May. . . . The Motion Picture Bookers Club has selected the play “Marne” for its first theatre party this year, and they’re advising members to get reservations in early as the demand for tickets is big. . . . Raymond Rohauer, film curator of the Gallery of Modem Art, has scheduled comedies of Buster Keaton and W. C. Fields May 10-15. . . . Nick John Matsoukas proposing a 13-month calendar sponsored by “The 13 Against Triskedecaphobia,” an anti-superstition organization founded by him. Cherin To Para. Ad Post NEW YORK — Barry Gherin has joined the staff of Paramount Pictures’ field advertising and publicity department, working out of the home office, it was announced by Bernard M. Serlin, field advertising and publicity manager. Cherin resigned from the American Interna¬ tional Pictures publicity department to accept his new post at Paramount, and was previ¬ ously with MGM in various publicity and ex¬ ploitation assignments. Continental To Introduce "Double-Date" Features NEW YORK — Walter Reade, Jr., president of Walter Reade-Sterling, Inc., announced that Continental is introducing a brand new marketing idea called the “Double-Date” for the merchandising of two new features. The Double-Date, he said, is designed to offer two separate feature attractions to theatres — one to play matinees only and the other to play evening performances only. Reade stressed that the sale of one film will not be conditioned upon the sale of the other. “To the best of our knowledge,” Reade stated, “this is the first time a motion picture distributor has recognized that two separate audiences, matinee and evening, do exist and that each audience tends to respond to a dif¬ ferent kind of product. This is something that has been taken for granted for years in radio and television programming but now with the Double-Date, motion picture theatres can cope with the same problem. “There are, of course, some very special films that can play virtually any theatre for 24 hours a day and gross as much money in the after¬ noon as they do at night. There are, however, other very successful films that, in our opinion, should have been presented as part of a Double-Date package. I think a case in point could be our own ‘Room at the Top,’ Conti¬ nental’s biggest box-office grosser. ‘Room at the Top’ did absolutely wonderful business evenings in virtually every theatre it played, but in retrospect, we believe that ‘Room’s’ total film rental would scarcely have been reduced had we permitted exhibitors to play a different feature during the matinees when ‘Room at the Top’ was playing to virtually empty houses. ‘Room” was simply not a matinee picture.” He continued, “The same conclusion, in reverse, can be drawn of many other motion pictures. We all know, for example, that Walt Disney’s films are tremendous box-office but it is equally well known that they are most defi¬ nitely exceptional grossers as matinee films. Generally, at night, in the words of a wise old theatre manager, ‘you could shoot an elephant in the balcony.’ “This fact of life of our industry, where we are confronted by pictures that either fill the theatre at night or fill the theatre at matinees but hardly ever do both, points up the need for the Double-Date. We believe that theatres should be booked to please audiences and we further believe that any exhibitor will generate more ticket sales when he Double-Dates and thereby virtually doubles his audience poten¬ tial. Reade added, “I’m also convinced that a creatively conceived Double-Date package w'ill allow the exhibitor to equalize his matinee and evening admission prices. If the matinee audience is treated as a first class audience, there is no reason it should not pay for it; indeed. I’m convinced it will willingly pay to see the kind of movies it wants.” He stressed that the Double-Date is not to be confused with current exhibitor practices of scheduling “kiddy” shows for matinees on j Saturday and Sunday. He pointed out that { such kiddy programs are generally of such j limited appeal as to preclude any possibility j of general release. Cooper to Univ. Council NEW YORK — Edward Gooper, vice-pres¬ ident, Motion Picture Association of America, recently was appointed to the advisory council of the Endowment and Research Foundation, Montana State University. 14 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR May 11, 1 966