Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1942)

40 Majors Promo te. Realign Personnel and Territories Major film companies this week shifted and promoted sales personnel and established new divisions. Edwin W. Aaron, who has been with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for the past 25 years, has been named assistant general sales manager of the company by William F. Rodgers, vice-president in charge of distribution. Mr. Aaron has been assistant to Mr. Rogers for the past 12 years and in his new capacity will add more duties and will have a wider scope of activity. On Monday, Charles W. Koerner, general manager of RKO Theatres, announced a new divisional set-up starting Thursday, January 8th. The purpose of the realignment of theatres and the break-down of divisions is to provide more personal supervision of the houses. New Division A newly created division of out-of-town theatres has been assigned to Sol Schwartz, division manager of Bronx and East Side Manhattan Theatres. This division will include Keith's, Lowell ; Albee, Providence ; Palace, Capitol, Temple, Century and Regent, Rochester; the Eckel, Empire, Keith's, Palace, Paramount and St. James, Syracuse; Uptown, Detroit ; Iowa, Cedar Rapids ; Orpheum, Davenport; Orpheum, Sioux City; Capitol, Family and Strand, Marshalltown ; Orpheum, Minneapolis; Orpheum and Grand, Dubuque; Orpheum and Liberty, New Orleans and Orpheum, Waterloo. The theatres now supervised by Mr. Schwartz in New York will be split in two groups. John Hearns, present city manager for RKO in Yonkers, will have the Fordham, Chester, Franklin, Empire, Castle Hill and Pelham and Michael "Mike" Edelstein, now manager of the Tilyou, will operate the Regent, 125th Street, Alhambra, Roosevelt, Royal and Jefferson. Charles B. McDonald will continue with his present list of Manhattan and Queens Theatres in addition to the RKO 58th Street and 86th Street Theatres. Louis Goldberg will have the Brooklyn and Queens houses now under his supervision with the Albee and Orpheum added. H. R. Emde remains as the division manager for the RKO Westchester theatres, Union City and Newark. In addition to these changes, Mr. Koerner announces there will be several district managers named in the near future. No successors to John Hearns or Mike Edelstein have yet been selected. Jay Golden, manager of the RKO Palace theatre in Rochester, N. Y., since 1937, has been appointed city manager for the five local theatres in the RKO-Paramount-Comerford pool. They are the Palace, Century, Regent, Temple and Capitol. Mr. Golden succeeds William Cadoret, general manager for Monroe Amusement Co., who died December 20th. Mr. Golden will also continue to manage the Palace temporarily, it was announced. Tom Gilliam has been made sales manager of the RKO Chicago office succeeding to the office left vacant when Sam Gorelick was appointed branch manager several weeks ago. Mr. Gilliam is well known in the Chicago territory having been associated with the First National and Warner offices there for 22 year1;. He was manager of the Warner Bros. Chicago office from January 1, 1935 until December 1, 1940, when he was transferred to the management of their Atlanta branch. MOTION PICTURE HERALD FROM READERS DEFENSE STAMPS FOR CHANGE Dear Mr. Quigley: I am sure you will be interested to hear of the campaign we are conducting to aid the sale of defense stamps for the U. S. government. Every cashier in our circuit has been supplied with defense stamps in various denominations. When a ticket is sold to a customer, the cashier suggests to the patron that they take their change in defense stamps instead of cash, as well as trying to sell them additional stamps. Cashiers are supplied with sufficient stamp books to give the customers in which they keep the stamps until they have a sufficient number to exchange for a bond. We have secured signs from the local post offices which are prominently displayed in the box-office advising that defense stamps are on sale. I pass this idea on to you because of the excellent opportunity it affords every exhibitor in the U. S. to cooperate with the federal government in this time of national emergency. The reaction from this campaign has been amazing. It has received wide-spread publicity in all the newspapers, which includes the sending of photographers from the Washington newspapers to the theatres to take pictures of people buying the stamps. We have also received a letter from Mr. Powel of the Treasury Department in Washington complimenting us on this campaign not only for the fact that it produces much needed revenue, but also because it increases the knowledge of defense stamps among the people the Treasury Department most desires to reach, particularly the young folks. We are carrying this idea beyond the customer into the rank of employes by having each manager suggest to the employes that they buy defense stamps on payday with a small part of their salary. This idea is given strength by the fact that I make it a point to buy stamps myself from the various cashiers whenever at the theatres. In this way it helps to impress on the employes' minds that each and everyone of us must do our part to raise funds to carry on defense work. I should like to request that your paper pass this on to every exhibitor in the U. S. and suggest that you, as well as all other trade papers, sponsor this idea as a national movement in the industry ; to have every theatre in the country place defense stamps on sale immediately. In other words with the cooperation of every theatre, the people of America will know that defense stamps can be purchased not only at every post office throughout the U. S. but at every motion picture theatre as well. I need not tell you of the additional revenue that can be secured by this means, but I might call your attention to the tremendous good will it will create for our industry as a whole. May I hear from you by return mail with your comments and suggestions? SIDNEY B. LUST, Washington, D. C. Columbia Pictures announced Tuesday that Sam Glazer had been appointed general manager of Columbia Pictures of Canada, Ltd., replacing Dave Coplan, who resigned. Mr. Glazer, formerly Canadian general manager for United Artists, leaves that company after 19 years. Prior to that he was connected with Regal Films. Ben Kalmenson, general sales manager of Warners, has announced the appointment of two branch managers. Fred Greenberg, Indianapolis branch manager, has been shifted to Los Angeles, and Claude W. McKean has been named to replace Mr. Greenberg. January 3, 1942 Critics V ite ''Kane ' The Best of 1941 In their seventh annual balloting, the New York Film Critics Tuesday named the RKO-Welles "Citizen Kane" as the best picture of 1941. Gary Cooper was selected as the actor turning in the year's outstanding performance, in his role as Sergeant York, for Warners, and Joan Fontaine as the year's top actress, for her role in "Suspicion," for RKO. John Ford, last year's winner, was selected as 1941's leading director, for his work on "How Green Was My Valley," for Fox, his last assignment before becoming a commander in the U. S. Navy. Orson Wells was runner-up for the best-direction award. Mr. Wells, producer and star as well as director of the winning "Citizen Kane," will be awarded the Film Critics bronze plaque at a private dinner to be given by the reviewers on January 10th in New York. The annual open cocktail party which customarily marked the awarding has been cancelled this year because of the war. Gary Cooper, Miss Fontaine and director Ford will be awarded parchment scrolls. Votes for the year's "bests" were cast Monday afternoon in the private dining room of the New York Times, 18 critics being present, and two voting by proxy. Neither a best-foreign-film nor a special recognition award was offered this year, as in previous years. The reviewers from New York newspapers who voted are: Cecelia Ager, PM; Howard Barnes, Herald-Tribune; William Boehnel, World-Telegram; Kate Cameron, Daily News; Herbert Cohn, Brooklyn Eagle, secretary ; Bosley Crowther, Times; Wanda Hale, Daily News; Louise Levitas, PM; Dorothy Masters, Daily News; Leo Mishkin, Morning Telegraph, president; Rose Pelswick, JournalAmerican; David Piatt, Daily Worker; Edgar Price, Citizen; Thomas M. Pryor, Times; Theodore Strauss, Times, and Irene Thirer, Post. Robert W. Dana of the Herald Tribune and Archer Winsten of the Post voted by proxy. Schaefer Talks About Welles George J. Schaefer, president of RKORadio, in accepting the "best-film-of-the year' award to "Citizen Kane," by the Committee on Exceptional Photoplays of the National Board of Review, in New York, Monday, characterized the selection as a "justification" of his complete confidence in the talents of Orson Welles, producer, director and star of the picture. Mr. Schaefer, speaking at the New York Museum of Modern Art, said, "the circumstances were unusual in the case of 'Citizen Kane.' They were of extreme unorthodoxy . . . You remember the tumult and the shouting, the predictions of failure, the alarms ... I, as president of RKO Radio, had faith in Orson and decided to let him write his own ticket. Ideal Branches Open Ideal Pictures Corp., has established new branches in Memphis, Atlanta and Denver, with Stanley Nolan, E. C. Stevens and Howard Smith respectively in charge. Glennan Joins Goldwyn T. Keith Glennan, formerly manager of the Paramount studio, has been appointed manager of the Samuel Goldwyn Studios.