Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1947)

SchoolCircuit Experiment with Pictures Begins An experiment in visual education was inaugurated this week when seventh and eighth-grade pupils of four Brooklyn schools attended a screening of "Tom Sawyer" at the Century Circuit's Rialto theatre in Brooklyn. The showing was the first of a series of such performances arranged by the circuit and the Board of Education. The project is part of the board's attempt to determine whether motion pictures, if carefully selected for that particular purpose, can be made into effective teaching aids. The initial program calls for four shows, all featuring screen adaptations of literary classics that are required reading in the two grades. After completion of the series reports evaluating the experiment will be made by the educators. The future scope of the project will depend on the results. No Admission Charged No admission is charged and the Century Circuit foots all bills. Included in the first four showings, besides "Tom Sawyer," will be "The Prince and the Pauper," "David Copperfield" and "Treasure Island." A "This Is America" short, "TVA," was also shown at the first screening. Shorts of this kind, which are related to the main feature, will be included in the future. According to Arthur Bowie and Paul Kennedy, assistant superintendents of schools in Brooklyn, the first showing last Monday was a success from the administrative, programming and routing point of view. More than 1,000 enthusiastic students, accompanied by 30 teachers and five principals, were marched to the theatre to witness the show. Their behavior was said to be exemplary. Besides the teachers, the Rialto's regular staff was on hand. The screening was originally planned for last Friday, but school authorities anticipated the heavy snowfall and asked a postponement. Fielding Cooperated The four morning shows, one each month from February to May, were made possible through the offer of Fred J. Schwartz, vicepresident of Century Theatres, who made his theatre available to the board, and through the cooperation of License Commissioner Benjamin Fielding. The whole program was worked out by representatives of Dr. John E. Wade, Superintendent of Schools; Mr. Schwartz; J. R. Springer, general theatre manager, and Edward Schreiber, advertising and publicity head. All of the principals involved expressed themselves in enthusiastic terms about the project. After promising "every possible cooperation," Mr. Fielding said : "In the possible broad development of this program, which has so much potential usefulness, neighborhood playhouses may become valuable annexes to our school buildings." AS NEW YORK CITY'S children began receiving their visual education program, via selected pictures, in the theatres of the Century Circuit: the scene in the lobby of the circuit's donated Rialto theatre. Brooklyn. Monday morning, after 7,000 seventh and eighth grade school children attended. Left to right, Nathaniel Kaplin, secretary of the Board of Education; Maximilian Moss, Commissioner of the Board; Fred J. Schwartz, Century Circuit vice-president, and Joseph R. Springer, general manager. ATA Loans Shugrue to "Freedom Train" Ned Shugrue, public relations director of the American Theatres Association, has been loaned to the American Heritage Foundation to organize and promote the U. S. Government's "Freedom Train." An intensive educational campaign designed to promote a greater appreciation of the American heritage is planned through the use of all media by means of a national tour of a train housing American documents. The program is sponsored by the Government through the Department of Justice. The industry is expected to play a leading part in the promotion. Pal Will Make Features Only George Pal, originator and producer of the Pal Puppetoon series of shorts which Paramount is distributing, announced in Hollywood this week that he is dropping his Puppetoon program to enter feature production. Three productions, budgeted at $1,500,000 each, will be made by Mr. Pal. . The cartoon series was dropped because of prohibitive production costs, according to Mr. Pal. "Notwithstanding Paramount's generous offer to increase the budgets for the continuation of the Puppetoon subjects," Mr. Pal said, "the increasing high cost of filming this type of entertainment more than offsets the box office returns." Both live actors and puppets will be used in three Pal features. All Puppetoon subjects now in production will be completed as well as the special sequence Mr. Pal is making for Paramount's "Variety Girl." St Louis Bill Makes Refund Mandatory The St. Louis Board of Aldermen has adopted a bill making it a misdemeanor for theatres and amusement places to refuse to refund the price of tickets if refunds are requested 24 hours in advance of a performance. Majors Handling Full Release of Red Cross Short Eight major companies, Columbia, Twentieth Century-Fox, Loew's, Paramount, RKO, Universal, Warner Bros, and United Artists are cooperating in servicing the American Red Cross short, "Call to Action !" to 15,000 theatres expected to run the film during Red Cross Month, beginning March 1, it was announced Wednesday by Tom Connors, chairman of the national distributing committee for the industry. Theatre organizations and independent exhibitors across the country are joining to assure the success of the campaign, it was reported. The subject runs seven minutes and reviews the heavy peacetime responsibilities of the Red Cross in combatting human suffering. Leading exhibitor associations have approved the picture. According to Peter G. Levathes, a»istant to Mr. Connors, the Red Cross film was to be pre-released in major first runs starting February 27. Close to 3,000 prints have been made available to the 31 exchanges handling the reel. The offices handling the film and the distributor chairman in the various cities are as follows : Columbia Exchanges: I. H. Rogovin, Boston; Edward Hochstin, Detroit; W. Guy Craig, Indianapolis. Twentieth Century-Fox exchanges: Fred R. Dodson, Atlanta; I. J. Schmertz, Cleveland; Clyde Blasius, Salt Lake City; J. R. Neger, Milwaukee; VT. J. Dugan, Denver; Clyde W. Eckhardt. Los Angeles. Loews exchanges: Louis Ingram. Memphis; Ralph Pielow and Ben Abner, New York; L. Formato, Philadelphia; John Allen, Washington. D. C. Paramount exchanges: Edwin Ruff, Albany; J. H. Stevens, Chicago; Henry Germaine, New Haven; C. H. Weaver, Oklahoma City; H. Neal East. San Francisco. RKO' exchanges: Sol M. Sachs, Dallas; M. E. Letko. Pittsburgh; E. A. Lamb, Seattle: Elmer Lux, Buffalo. Universal exchanges: L. J. Miller. Minneapolis; R. O. Wilson, Portland; Harry Hynes, St. Louis; J. V. Frew, Charlotte. Warner exchanges: Paul Webster. Des Moines: F. I. Harmon, Omaha; Luke Connor, New Orleans; Rus"sel C. Borg, Kansas City. United Artists exchange: Jack Fineberg, Cincinnati, and Walter Wiens of Paramount exchange, Cincinnati. In past years the Red Cross film was followed by a collection trailer. This year the Red Cross has not asked for theatre collections. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, MARCH I, 1947 4?