The Exhibitor (1966)

$75 Million Schine Purchase Ends As REC Takes Title To Holdings NEW YORK — Realty Equities Corp. (REC) lias taken title to the 52 movie thea¬ tres, land and other income producing prop¬ erties comprising the Schine Chain Theatres, Inc. and the Schine CATV system in ETpstate New York, it was announced here jointly by Morris Karp, president of REC and J. Myer Schine. The theatre chain and CATV system are among the major assets in the nationwide real estate, movie theatre, hotel and broadcasting empire of the Schine family, which REC and partners contracted to purchase for about $75,000,000 on Sept. 1, 1965. Karp and J. Meyer Schine reported that the theatre purchase was the first by REC in a series of title closings scheduled through June 27, 1967 for the more than 100 individual as¬ sets included in the Schine empire. They added that REC and its partners are taking title to a number of income producing properties in¬ cluding the theatres, CATV system, seven hotels plus the world famed Ambassador Hotel and 23/q acres of land on Wilshire Boulevard in the heart of Los Angeles. REC is also ac¬ quiring 10,000 feet of ocean front land in Boca Raton, Florida. Karp and Schine revealed that REC al¬ ready has disposed of the following Schine assets: one mile of ocean front land in Palm Beach, Florida; the famed Roney Plaza Hotel in Miami Beach; radio station WPTR, Al¬ bany, N.Y.; the Western Skies Inn, Albu¬ querque, N.M.; Gulf Stream Hotel and apart¬ ments, Miami Beach; the Bradley Airport Inn, Windsor Locks, Conn.; five movie thea¬ tres; and the ocean front mansion and land comprising the estate of the late Col. Robert R. McCormick in Ocean Ridge, Florida. According to Karp, United Cinemas, Inc., a subsidiary of Realty Equities Corp. had taken title to the Schine Chain of Theatres and the CATV system. Under Schine management, the theatres alone grossed in excess of $6,000,000 in the last fiscal year. REC will operate the theatre chain and will simultaneously develop the miscellaneous real estate and income producing property included in the theatre operations. Karp stated that the underlying values of the real estate and the profits to be derived from its proper develop¬ ment coupled with the sizeable upsurge in movie theatre attendance and boxofpce re¬ ceipts were the major factors in REC’s deci¬ sion not to sell the chain. The theatre division includes 52 theatres in the states of New York, Delaware, Ohio, Maryland and Kentucky as well as vacant land, residential buildings, and stores in a number of the cities in which theatres are lo¬ cated (including Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Glens Falls.) In Sept., 1965, the Schine Chain consisted of 60 theatres however, 8 were sold or condemned under urban renewal pro¬ grams in the ensuing months. The CATV system is located in the cities of Massena, Potsdam and Canton, New York, near the Canadian border. The major single asset and crown jewel of the Schine Empire, the world-famed Ambas¬ sador Hotel with its renowned Coconut Grove and acreage on Wilshire Boulevard in the heart of Los Angeles, is to be purchased by Realty Equities. Karp stated that the company in¬ tends to construct a Rockefeller Center type 8 Mamie Fails to “Wrench” HOLLYWOOD — Superior Court Judge Ben Koenig ruled that actress Mamie Van Doren is not entitled to receive any profits from the motion picture “Three Nuts in Search of A Bolt,” in which she received $3,000 a week for her role. Under a December 1, 1963 contract she was entitled to 5% of the gross receipts after the producers, Tommy Noonan and Ian McGlashan, received $150,000. Judge Koenig ruled that an accounting showed Noonan and McGlashan grossed only $127,081. complex of office buildings on the huge site. Architectural plans and designs for a $250,000,000 10-year development are presently being drawn. Karp and Schine also disclosed that the multimillion dollar renovation and improve¬ ment program recently announced by G. David Schine, president of the Ambassador Hotel Company, will be expedited and completed as quickly as possible. The hotels being purchased by REC are: The McAllister in Miami; Ten Eyck in Al¬ bany, N.Y.; Queensbury in Glens Falls, N.Y.; Schine Inn in Chicopee, Mass.; Northampton Inn, Northampton, Mass, and the St. Regis Hotel and Schine Inn in Massena, N.Y. Realty Equities Corp., listed on the Ameri¬ can Stock Exchange, is a diversified real estate development, investment and construction company, which also owns about two-thirds of Ohio Valley Financial Corporation, an $80,000,000 savings and loan holding company. REC specializes in the purchase of property for development and relatively quick resale. In recent years, it has purchased and resold substantially all of the real estate assets of Kaymarq Consolidated Corp. and Barrington Industries as well as numerous estates of builders and property investors. Paramount Names Evans European Production VP NEW YORK — Robert Evans has been elected to the newly-created position of vicepresident in charge of European produc¬ tion of Paramount Pictures Corp., it was an¬ nounced here by George Weltner, president. Evan’s European production activities will entail the initiation and supervision of ac¬ quisition and packaging of new properties and development of creative talent for mo¬ tion pictures and related areas. He will be based in London and will maintain a close liaison with Howard W. Koch, Paramount vice-president and studio and production head, in Hollywood. “With the appointment of Evans, we ex¬ pect to maintain the closest possible link with the overseas filmmakers who are so im¬ portant to the continuous growth of Para¬ mount’s worldwide production activities,” Weltner said. “He will head a team of pro¬ duction executives that now includes Howard Harrison in London and Luigi Luraschi in Paris which will make Paramount a domi¬ nant force in international film production.” In joining Paramount, Evans has terminated his producer’s agreement with 20th CenturyFox, where he had been preparing the film version of the best-selling novel, “The Detec¬ tive,” in association with Mark Robson and Abby Mann, and “The Achilles Force,” with director Sydney Pollack. Evans, who is 36, is a former radio an¬ nouncer, actor and business executive, having been a partner in Evan-Picone, Inc., an ap¬ parel-industry firm since acquired by Revlon, Inc. “Russians” Smash In N.Y. NEW YORK — Norman Jewison’s “The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Com¬ ing” has grossed a phenomenal $1,246,795 during the first 19 days of its United Artists Premiere Showcase presentation at an average of 27 theatres in the Greater New York area, it was announced by UA vice-president James R. Velde. The Mirisch Corp. presentation is complet¬ ing the third week of its Metropolitan run, in¬ cluding the Astor, Trans-Lux East and Murray Hill Theatres in Manhattan. Seen at the recent combined convention of the Virginia Motion Picture Association; M.T.O.A.; ond M.T.O.D.C. at the Cavalier, Virginia Beach, Va., for the Theatre Remodeling Session were Thomas Regan, Small Business Administration; Richard H. Dilworth, State-Planters Bank, Richmond, Va.; Paul Roth, master of ceremonies; Roth Theatres, Chevy Chase, Md.; Ted Schiller, moderator, J. F. Theatres; and Louis Seidler, Grant Theatres, Baltimore, Md. MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR August 17, 1966