The Exhibitor (1966)

CLEVELAND The Academy A^vards found most of the w inners on local screens. Best picture, “Sound of Music,” of course, is still at the Ohio, nowin its second year. The Continental Art is offering Award winner Julie Christie in “Dar¬ ling.” Best foreign picture, “The Shop on Main Street,” is currently on the screen at the Heights and Westwood Art. The Shelley Win¬ ters (best supporting actress) film, “Patch of Blue,” opened locally last week. Martin Bal¬ sam, best supporting actor in “A Thousand Clowns,” opened at the SW Vogue and Loew’s State April 20. The Lee Marvin best actor vehicle, “Cat Ballou,” was the only film miss¬ ing from local screens, but not for long. . . . Many area drive-ins went to full-time opera¬ tion. . . . Peggy Wood, former tv star of “I Remember Mama” series, and Academy Award nominee for her role as Mother Supe¬ rior in “Sound of Music,” was in town to give a benefit program for the St. Johns Episcopal Home for Girls in Painesville. . . . The SW Allen is enjoying their best business in a long time w'ith the return of “Ten Command¬ ments,” bigger now than 10 years ago when first road-showed. . . . Too bad we cannot report the same good news for “Battle of the Bulge” at the new SW Great Northern, which is being pulled after a weak four week run. “Harper” may be sandwiched in to fill out the commitment. “Harper” has been doing very good business in its first-run engagements here. . . . Mrs. Eno Girard Cole and Mrs. Ramon Tong Young, two beauties from Hono¬ lulu, are in towm drum-beating for the new UA epic “Hawaii.” COLUMBUS, O. Manager Sam Shubouf, Loew’s Ohio, was made an honorary member of the Columbus Fire Department at a ceremony at the an¬ nual press dinner at Desert Inn. Fire Chief Walter G. Strickfaden presented the award, given for “extraordinary services” to the department by manager Shubouf. Loew’s Ohio has cooperated for many years with the Fire Department in holding the annual Miss Fire¬ fighter competition for the benefit ball. . . . Mrs. Pearl Hunt has returned to her desk following recovery from injuries sustained in an auto accident. Mrs. Hunt operates Hunt's Cinestage here and Hunt’s McCook in Dayton. . . . Charles Sugarman held a sneak pre¬ view of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “The Glass Bottom Boat” at Cinema East. . . . Steel frame¬ work for the auditorium of the new General Cinema Corporation 1200-seat theatre in sub¬ urban Whitehall has been erected. The new house is located near Town and Country Shopping Center. . . . Film players signed to appear in person in the Kenley Players’ sum¬ mer season opening June 14 at Veterans Me¬ morial include Jerry Van Dyke and Billy DeWolfe in “How To Succeed in Business With¬ out Really Trying”; Richard Chamberlain in “Private Lives”; Gordon MacRae and Julie Newmar in “Kismet”; Connie Stevens and Tom Poston in “Two For The Seesaw”; Edie Adams in “Bells Are Ringing”; John Forsythe in “Who Was That Lady I Saw You With?”; Juliet Prowse in “The Boy Friend”; Mamie Van Doren, Monique Van Vooren, Marilyn Maxwell, Dagmar, Selma Diamond, and Jane Withers in “The Women”; Robert Horton in “Oklahoma”; Walter Slezak in “Oliver”; Carroll Baker in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’’; and Shirley Jones in “The Sound of Music.” . . . Manager James Tibbetts of Grand Cine¬ rama opened a hard-ticket run of Cinerama’s “Mediterranean Holiday” May 3. DALLAS Funeral services for Leroy Bickel, 89, were held here. He had been Dallas branch man¬ ager for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film company for 36 years before his retirement. He owned and operated a theatre in Oklahoma prior to coming to Dallas in 1915 as a film distributor. Fie was branch manager here from 1920 until he retired in 1956. Survivors include a sister and several nieces and nephews. . . . The Crescent, planned as an intimate adult art house, is scheduled to open on May 4 at 11 a.m. It has a seating capacity of 171. The Crescent was converted from an old store building whose interior was torn out to make room for seats, screen on the lobby wall, woodpaneled lobby, and brushed aluminum front. . . . Chuck Connors and Ann Ford ended a 10 day criss cross tour of Texas to publicize Connors’ newest movie release, “Ride Beyond Vengeance.” The two stars visited El Paso, Abilene, Amarillo, Austin, San Antonio, Hous¬ ton, Fort Worth, and Dallas. . . . Sol M. Sachs, Continental Pictures, has entered St. Paul Hos¬ pital for treatment of a chest cold. . . . J. P. Harrison, city manager. Interstate Theatre Circuit at Denton, Tex., has retired after a career spanning 41 years. He has turned over his duties to Betty Anderson, his longtime as¬ sistant. Paul Hudgins, city manager at Paris, has retired. He launched his show business career in 1933. His duties will be taken over by Charles Pomroy, former manager. Plaza, Paris, Tex. . . . Carolyn Shaftner, cashier at the Downs d-i. Grand Prairie, Tex., was robbed of $572. . . . Wallace Walthall is in the Gaston Hospital in Dallas with pneumonia. Walthtail is a veteran with National Screen Service. . . . Willard Cunningham, assistant cashier at Para¬ mount, is recovering from back surgery at St. Paul Hospital. HOUSTON The Trail d-i has been closed due to the fact that a portion of the new South Loop will run across a portion of the tract of land upon which the d-i is situated. The marquee sign in front of the soon to be razed Trail now reads: “Closed. Trail’s End. Freeway Takes Over.” . . . Miss Liz Kitman was winner of the Pret¬ tiest Tall Texan Contest held in conjunction with the showing of “Ride Beyond Vengance,” which had its world premiere showing at the Majestic on April 21. Attending was Chuck Connors. Miss Kittman, who is 6 feet tall, was Connor’s date Tuesday night at the Astrodome and participated in the premiere activities at the Majestic and the opening of the new Clear Lake on Wednesday. Other run¬ ners-up were Sandi Brinkman, Nell Rose Prather, and Carole Walker, who also partici¬ pated in the premiere activities. . . . The Broad¬ way and Yale played a triple bill of “Made in Paris,” “Harum Scarum,” and “Blue Hawaii,” and offered free admission to all children under 12 with a parent. . . . Stanley Shelton has been named manager of Interstate’s new Clear Lake. The house seats 900 on one level. Col. Shorty Powers was the master of cere¬ monies of the opening night ceremonies. The Clear Lake was Interstate Theatres’ first in¬ door theatre in the Houston area since 1946. The opening attraction is “The Trouble With Angels.” . . . The name of the Avalon has been changed to the Capri and will feature three adult hits on its bill. ... A dawn to dusk show was held at the Irvington d-i with six features being presented. Free coffee was served to patrons, and the snack bar was open all through the night. ... In observance of the San Jacinto holiday, the Airline, Pasadena, and Winkler d-i’s staged a dusk to almost dawn five horror hits show. . . . Over 50,000 entries were received in the Oscar contest co-spon¬ sored by the Houston Post and Frizzell Pontiac and theatres of this area. JACKSONVILLE The Motion Picture Charity Club has sched¬ uled its second annual outdoor fund-raising carnival at Sunny Acres Park for Handicapped Children on May 7, announced Charley King, MPCC president and local AIP manager. He said that a group of WOMPI members will assist the MPCC organization by setting up a concessions booth for the sale of cotton candy, sno cones, and other items. . . . Patricia Hart, daughter of John Hart, international CoWOMPI chairman, and Mary Hart, local WOMPI leader, has been accepted for enroll¬ ment as a student at Brenau College in Georgia next September. . . . Syd Shapiro is reported to be aiming at a June 1 deadline for the grand opening of his 970-car Mustang Drive-In, St. Petersburg. He also has the Skyview and 28th Street drive-ins in the same city. . . . The Sky¬ way Drive-In, Tampa, operated for many years by J. S. Carscallen, was completely destroyed by one of the tornadoes in central Florida which caused millions of dollars in property loss on April 4. . . . Tony Hoffman, Universal publicist, had a busy two-day period here while Robert Taylor and Geraldine Brooks were making public appearances in advance of the “Johnny Tiger” opening at the suburban Edgewood. . . . Kitty Dowell, local WOMPI president, has been advanced to a booker’s post by Robert Capps, MGM manager, fol¬ lowing the resignation of Robert Olivier. . . . Robert Pollard, Buena Vista manager, said that the 1966 reissue of “Bambi” will play at the suburban Edgewood in early June. . . . The annual WOMPI election of officers has been scheduled for the board room of the YWCA Building. . . . Mrs. Anne Dillon, former local WOMPI president and current interna¬ tional WOMPI vice-president, was the winner of a set of Teflon cooking ware which was the grand prize in a WOMPI fund-raising raffle on Film Row. . . . Mrs. Iva Lowe, WOMPI man¬ ager of the San Marco Art Theatre, returned to her post after being hospitalized for several days. . . . Manohar L. Checker, manager trainee at the downtown Empress and Impe¬ rial, remained at home for a few days with an attack of malaria fever. MIAMI, FLA. Dick Leonard is the new manager of Loew’s, St. Petersburg. He was formerly manager, Tyrone, in that city. He replaces Sig Wexo, who has resigned. ... Jim Levine, relief man¬ ager, Wometco Theatres, has become the new¬ est member of the Wometco Old Guard organization, having reached his seventh an¬ niversary with the theatre circuit. . . . First birthday of the Park East and West Theatres, Winter Park, was celebrated with a giant birth¬ day cake in the lobby for patrons. Carl Jamroga, supervisor, and Cecil Allen, manager, reaped much newspaper publicity in the Or¬ lando area. . . . Wometco Enterprises, Inc., reported all-time record earnings and revenues in the first quarter of 1966 on the occasion of the company’s annual meeting in Miami. The company posted a 10.3 per cent increase in per share earnings for the 12 weeks ended March 26, amounting to 43 cents, up from 39 cents a years ago. Net income in the quarter amounted to $950,212, up 11.1 per cent over prior-year earnings of $855,561. Gross income in the 12-week period climbed 28.7 per cent to an all-time high of $10,273,637, from $7,983,472 in 1965. Cash flow generated from 20 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR May 11, 1966