The Exhibitor (1966)

of The-Boss-Of-The-Year. New WOMPI offi¬ cers are Mrs. Marianne Bartlett, president, 20th Century-Fox; Miss Lois Boyd, first vicepresident, Film Transit; Mrs. Margaret Irby, second vice-president, Howco; Mrs. Mary Katherine Baker, corresponding secretary. United Artists; Mrs. Martha Sappington, re¬ cording secretary, Columbia; and Miss Jessie Rae Lucy, treasurer, Malco. . . . Circulation is growing by leaps and bounds for the movie rating list which a St. Louis Catholic Church committee of women began publishing in March. The women distributed nearly 5,000 movie guides to individuals and church and club groups. . . . The newspaper column “Along Film Row” stated: “The bookers must think quite a bit of Frank Sinatra’s “Assault on a Queen.” The movie is booked into seven Memphis houses for first run at the same time. Five are drive-ins, and two are hard tops.” NEW HAVEN-HARTFORD The Stanley Warner Roger Sherman, New Haven, will host New England premiere of 20th-Fox’s “Stagecoach” June 29, with the local plant of Winchester-Western Division, Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation, co¬ operating with A1 Swett, SW New England advertising-publicity manager, on extensive regional promotion. Governor John N. Demp¬ sey will attend a Winchester-Western function at the Ambassador Hotel, suburban Hamden, June 30. . . . Connecticut exhibition pioneer Irving C. Jacocks, owner, Branford, downstate Branford, will be honored at a testi¬ monial dinner June 11 in the Ambassador Restaurant, Hamden, sponsored by the Bran¬ ford Republican Town Committee. Jacocks, who is a State Representative from Bran¬ ford, is a director of the Motion Picture The¬ atre Owners or Connecticut. . . . Andrew Bartlik, B & B Concessions, has disclosed plans for development of a 340-acre commer¬ cial recreation complex, including facility for motion pictures, in the Babcock Pond area of Colchester, midway between Hartford and New London. Plans include a 20-acre pond with 2,000 feet of sandy beach; a swimming pool; 500 camp sites for trailer and tent camp¬ ing; golf driving range; putting greens; basket and volley ball facilities; tennis and bocci courts; motion pictures, dancing, and eventu¬ ally restaurant facilities. About two-thirds of the area will be used for supervised recrea¬ tion activity, open to Colchester residents on a season pass basis for a nominal charge. Col¬ chester, 25 miles southeast of Hartford, has one hard-top theatre, the Colchester, owned and operated by Markoff Bros. Theatres. . . . James Collins, General Cinema Corpora¬ tion district manager, visited Alfred Alperin, resident manager at the Meadows D-I, Hart¬ ford. . . . John Scanlon HI has dropped Mon¬ day and Tuesday performances at the Strand, Winsted. . . . Charlie Tolis, Tolis Theatres general manager, sold the Meriden parentteacher council on sponsorship of a morning show, screening “Fluffy” and cartoons, and also rented the Meriden to International Silver Company for a general sales session at¬ tended by 250. . . . Charles Gaudino, formerly manager of Loew’s Poll and more recently in an executive capacity with Western Massa¬ chusetts Theatres, Inc., Springfield-based cir¬ cuit, is opening an Agawam, Mass., travel agency. . . . Ray Crum, formerly manager of Redstone Theatres’ deluxe Cinema 1 and 2, West Springfield, Mass., is now associated with George Phelps in operation of the Ma¬ jestic, West Springfield. . . . Bernadette Barton has been promoted from house staff to assistant manager of the Irwin Cohen first-run Bijou. Louis Avolio, left, city manager for Frontier The¬ atres, and assistant Jesse Baca greet Universal pro¬ ducer Robert Radnitz in Albuquerque, N.M., where June world premiere of Radnitz's "And Now Miguel" will be held at Kime Theatre. NEW ORLEANS Variety Club of New Orleans, Tent 45, held the grand opening of their new clubrooms in the heart of the Vieux Garre on the third floor over Andrew Jackson Restau¬ rant, 221 Royal Street. . . . The Ladies of A^ariety held their installation supper dance with Mrs. Connie Aufdemorte seated as presi¬ dent. Other officers are Mrs. Cathy Good¬ man, first vice president; Mrs. Vaugh Guarino, second vice president; Mrs. Susie Gelvin, re¬ cording secretary; Mrs. Shirley Brandon, cor¬ responding secretary; and Mrs. Margaret Turner, treasurer. . . . Tent 45 Variety Club will hold a “101 Prize Night” for the benefit of its charities. Among the prizes will be por¬ table tv sets, cameras, golf equipment, radios, electric blankets, toasters, lamps, etc., and round trip airline tickets for two to Nassau. Tent 45 has pledged to raise $100,000 for Loy¬ ola University Dental School to extend their program of children’s dentistry to help un¬ derprivileged children of the community. . . . Gulf States Theatres, McComb, Miss., have started work on the construction of the hard¬ top Oak Lawn Cinema, Texarkana, Tex. . . . C. Clare Woods, president. United Theatres of New Orleans; and president of the Louisi¬ ana Association of Theatre Owners; and Harry Thomas, an executive of Gulf States Theatres, have been named joint chairmen of the Louisi¬ ana Association of Theatre Owners-Mississippi Theatre Owners Association joint threeday convention scheduled to be held in the Broadway Beach Hotel, Biloxi, Miss., start¬ ing June 19. . . . The St. Bernard Drive-In, Arabi, La., reopened. G. F. Wiltse, Dallas, Texas, is owner; and Robert Ricouard is man¬ aging. . . . Billy Everett, Magee, Miss., ac¬ quired the ownership of the Lakeview DriveIn, Taylorsville, Miss., from A. W. Vowell. PHILADELPHIA Ellis Theatres reopened the completely re¬ furbished Nixon and Tower formerly operated by AB-Paramount. Georgie Woods and other radio personalities appeared in the lobbies in person. Although the houses do not have stage shows, pickets from the stage-hands’ union were on hand. ... A 103-acre showplace in Lahaska, near New Hope, Pa., was purchased by Charles C. Arnold from Melvin J. Fox, theatre owner and president of Fox Enter¬ prises, for $112,500. The property which has a 15-room Colonial mansion was built in 1782 and remodeled in 1935. It contains 17 acres of pastureland, a swimming pool and a four-car General Acquires Two D-Ts BOSTON — Richard A. Smith, president. General Cinema Corp., announced acquisition of two drive-ins by the Boston-based chain. The theatres are the Admiral Twin, Tulsa, Okla., and the Young Street, Buffalo, N. Y. Announcements of the acquisition of the driveins were made in joint statements by Smith and H. B. Robb and Alex Blue, operators of the Admiral Twin; and Nate Dickman and Harry Berkson, operators of the Young Street. The linking of the two drive-in theatres to the chain brings the number of units in the circuit to 106. General also operates the Boulevard Mall Cinema I & H in Buffalo, and plans to build a I, 200-seat theatre in the South Roads Mall Shopping Center in Tulsa. Nate Dickman, one of the former owners of the Young Street and an industry veteran will manage the Young Street D-I. garage with an apartment. . . . Condolences to Columbia office manager Anthony Lamonaco on the death of his wife, Shirley. . . . Eddie Gabriel, Capital Eilm, one of Vine Street’s oldest independent distributors, is getting ready to celebrate the anniversary of his ex¬ change. SALT LAKE CITY Con Jaunti, assistant manager, Capitol, for some months past and also a student at the B.Y. University of Provo, Utah, has left for his home in Tehran, Iran. His post at the theatre has been assigned to E. Rich. . . . The Richy continues to successfully present for¬ eign films several times each week. . . . Para¬ mount’s “The Ten Commandments” at the Southeast gains in popularity as it continues. According to manager C. Hopkisson, the pic¬ ture is doing better at the boxoffice on its re¬ turn run than many first runs. . . . The new Movie on Wasatch Boulevard, sister house to the art policy Tower, started an engagement of “The Shop On Main Street.” SAN ANTONIO Services for local theatre owner Mario C. Otwell and his adopted son, Larry Lee Leitha, both killed in a plane crash near Crystal City, were held. Services for Otwell, 43, were in the Angelus Chapel, with burial in San Eernando Archdiocesan Cemetery. He was owner of the Empire here and the Wintergarden Drive-In, Crystal City, Tex. Survivors include his wife, one son, two daughters, two sisters, and two brothers. Services for Leitha, 26, were held in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery with full military honors. He is survived by his wife, one son, mother, and father. He was acting as manager of the Wintergarden DriveIn and was being transfered to San Antonio to manage the Empire. . . . Radio station KBER, local country and western music sta¬ tion, is cooperating in the showing of “Your Cheatin’ Heart” at the Mission Twin (north screen) and Alamo drive-ins. . . . Lynn Krueger, manager, downtown Majestic, flag¬ ship of the Interstate Circuit, placed a boxoffice in front of the theatre which had a checkered front for the sale of tickets to the Memorial Day 500 mile race classic pre¬ sented by closed circuit television. ... A crew from the United States Information Agency was in the city to film a story on urban beau¬ tification in American cities. The film will be shown all over South America. June 1, 1966 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR 17