Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1947)

within a 35-mile radius of Los Angeles. The officers of the new company are: Charles Caballero, president ; William R. Forman and Gus C. Diamond, vicepresidents; and J. H. Tingle, treasurer. Chester Cooley has been elected president of Da-Lite Screen Company, Inc., Chicago. Ned C. Steele, has opened the Williams theatre in Maxwell, Calif., which has been closed since early September for renovation and remodeling. The Williams will show first run pictures in the territory with the Gem theatre in Colusa. The RKO Palace, Chicago, 2,500-seat house, is undergoing remodeling at an estimated cost of $250,000. Work is being carried on while the theatre is open. Rapp & Rapp, Chicago, are the architects. Robert L. Lifpert has sold his Pablo theatre at San Pablo, Calif., to Mr. and Mrs. E. Hogan. New equipment will be installed by the new owners. C. L. Fisk, who has been a showman in Butler, Mo., for more than 30 years, operating the Fisk theatre, will start soon on the building of a new theatre. Edward Auger and J. F. O'Brien, representing the RCA Theatre Equipment Section, and Carl E. Johnson, of the RCA Service Company, have been on a trip around the theatre circuits in the Atlanta and Dallas regions. The trip represents a farewell tour for Mr. Auger, who will retire. Members of the International Projector and National Theatre Supply organizations were hosts to the trade press in February for a tour of the company's new plant at Bloomfield, N. J. The factory is described on pages 38 and 39. In the rear row are Jack Lindsley, advertising manager of NTS; Edward Warfolk, IPC comptroller; Walter E. Green, head of NTS and vice-pres. of IPC; Arthur E. Meyer, sales manager, and Frank Goldback, director of engineering. In front are Henry Heidegger, head of servicing; John Campbell, general manager of plant operations; P. A. McGuire, director of public relations of IPC; William Turnbull, NTS sales promotion manager, and William Borberg, assistant to Mr. Goldback. Plans for the construction of four drivein theatres — three in the Portland, Ore., metropolitan area, and one in Eugene, Ore., — have been announced by Oregon Drive-in Theatres, Inc. This new firm has been formed by Ted R. and Willard Gamble, and Al and William Forman. L. D. Strong, president of the Essannay Electric Manufacturing Company, Chicago, This is the new theatre of John f. Lester, veteran exhibitor of Memphis, Tenn. The Park, which has been opened, seats 900 and has parking space for 300 cars. manufacturers of changeovers and other pro,ection accessories, is reported to be rapidly recovering from illness which confined him to Wesley Memorial Hospital in that city for several weeks. Harry Barrist, theatre broker and exhibitor in Philadelphia, has announced that the Airport Theatre Corp., headed by David Molliver, of the independent Principal Film Exchange in Philadelphia, has purchased the Airport Theatre in that city. Neil Hellmen of Hellmen Theatres in Albany, N. Y., has purchashed a 15-acre tract in Philadelphia on which a drive-in theatre will be built. This is the fourth of a chain of drive-in theatres to be built and operated by the Hellmen interests. M. Naify, head of T & D Jr., circuit and vice-president of Hollister Golden State Theatre Company, has announced that construction is planned for a 1,000-seat theatre in suburban Hollister, Cal. Mr. Naify said the house would have a balcony, plus a 90-feet frontage. Mr. Naify also owns the State theatre in Hollister with a seating capacity of 1 ,200. A. G. Petrasek, dealer sales manager in the 16mm equipment section of the RCA Victor Division, Camden, N. J., is now on tour of RCA 16mm equipment dealers throughout the south and west. The purpose of the trip is to consolidate plans for RCA's 1947 16mm sales program. 8 BETTER THEATRES, MARCH 8, 1947