Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1946)

ipjllllllllllllllllllllllllim iiiiliilililllllliinil mm mm will Roach to Supply Weather Data THE HAL ROACH WEATHER SERVICE information. Mr. Roach, right is shown of a weather chart with Dr. Irving P. Krick, California Institute of Techno/ogy professor of Meteorology. The service, o monthly, long range weather forecast, will be distributed to exhibitors free. by WILLIAM R. WEAVER in Hollywood Although the learned delegates to the recent Society of Motion Picture Engineers convention here revealed many a device and technique derived by the industry from the experiences of war, it has remained for Hal Roach to give exhibitors direct and immediate benefit of a universally useful service developed to a high state of practicability under the pressures of military conflict. And producer Roach is going to give them that benefit gratis, starting the first of next month. The Roach undertaking in refutation of Mark Twain's observation that "Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it'.' consists in supplying to exhibitors each month a chart forecasting the weather for that period. It sounds like quite a commitment, but there is more than superficial justification for the belief that the chart will prove accurate beyond average expectancy, because the man who is to make it up did the weather forecasting for the Allied planes that flew the English Channel, and they did pretty well. War Record Impressive The man is Dr. Irving P. Krick, professor of meteorology at the California Institute of Technology, and Dr. Krick served as chief of the Weather Information Section of the U. S. Strategic Air Forces during the war, winding up in the same capacity at the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Forces in Europe. He was a member of the "team" of forecasters who decided on the date for D-Day. Latterly he's been furnishing forecasts for the guidance of agriculturists in California, where an unforecast night of "unusual" weather means the difference between a bumper crop and none, and where the crops are at all-time peak. The chart which exhibitors will be receiving in their mail each month measures about twice the size of this page, and the left margin lists vertically the names of the states, the top margin listing horizontally the days of the month. Thus an exhibitor in Keokuk, la., can run his eye down the column of squares under the numeral 25 to the one located due east of the word Iowa and get an idea of the kind of weather Santa Claus is going to bring him for Christmas. The square, he will find, is variously shaded and colored, and with a little practice he can locate within it the point which would be Keokuk if the chart had the towns indicated by name, which would clutter it up considerably in view of the fact that so many theatres are in villages and hamlets. Accuracy Not Guaranteed Naturally, Mr. Roach, who suggests that any exhibitor failing to receive the December chart communicate with him at the Hal Roach studio in Culver City so his name can be added to the mailing list, does not guarantee that Dr. Krick's forecast shall prove 100 per cent accurate 100 per cent of the time, but he does say, "Dr. Krick's accuracy, during the war, in predicting the weather over the English Channel, one of the most difficult areas in the world to chart, made a profound impression on me while I was in the Air Corps overseas." He continues, "with the tremendous stra tegic advantage attaching to a long-range advance knowledge of the weather, permitting our Air Forces to plan their missions under the most advantageous conditions, it occurred to me that a similarly profitable use of the forecasts could be made in show business after we had won. Certainly an exhibitor armed with a reliable source of information as to weather trends he would encounter in his own particular locality could take the guess work out of booking, and assure himself that his box office would not run into the competition of adverse weather. Accordingly, when we resumed production after the war I engaged Dr. Krick not only to furnish us with advance weather information at the studio to guide us in sending out location companies, but to provide in addition a service we could distribute gratis to exhibitors that would be of utmost benefit to them." Can't Forecast Lewis A secondary feature of Dr. Krick's service to exhibitors, mentioned in the Roach disclosure, is alleged to be guidance in the matter of fuel supply, but everybody knows fuel supply is subject to influences beyond the ken of chart makers. Now if Dr. Krick could forecast John L. Lewis . COMPLETED COLUMBIA Twin Sombreros Framed (fo r m e r 1 y "They Walk Alone") Guilt of Janet Ames UNITED ARTISTS New Orleans (Levey) Carnegie Hall (Federal) STARTED COLUMBIA Prairie Raiders MONOGRAM Devil's Deputy PARAMOUNT Blaze of Noon RKO RADIO Magic Town Dick Tracy vs. the Claw WARNERS Dark Passage SHOOTING COLUMBIA Millie's Daughter Lady from Shanghai ENTERPRISE Other Love Arch of Triumph MGM Undercover Maisie Personal Touch Green Dolphin Street To Kiss and to Keep It Happened in Brooklyn Unfinished Dance Romance of Rosy Ridge PARAMOUNT Variety Girl Big Haircut Desert Fury (formerly "D e a r e s t Town") (Wallis) Unconquered (DeMille) PRC Red Stallion RKO RADIO Build My Gallows High Thunder Mountain Time to Kill (Hakim Litvak) Tarzan and the Huntress (Lesser) REPUBLIC Gallant Man 20TH CENTURYFOX Forever Amber Mother Wore Tights Boomerang UNITED ARTISTS Personal Column (Stromberg) Red River (Moiiterey) Who Killed Doc Robin? (Roach) UNIVERSALINTERNATIONAL Egg and I WARNERS My Wild Irish Rose Woman in White Deep Valley Night unto Night Love and Learn Possessed iniiniiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiimiimiimiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiim iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmiiimiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiim iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii:ii MOTION PICTURE HERALD, NOVEMBER 9, 1946 33