Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1947)

ALBANY The resignation of Leo Rosen as manager of the Strand in Albany to take on the assistant general managership of three Fabian-Hellman drive-in theatres and the appointment of Aleide la Flamme as his successor was the chief topic of conversation in local industry circles this week. Rosen severed an 18-years' association with Warner Brothers Circuit Management Corporation to go with the Fabian-Hellman interests and to team with Neil Hellman in a chain of frozen custard and ice cream bars. He will devote much of his time to exploiting the three drive-ins. . . . Business was off during Lent. . . . Harry Alexander has assumed the post of PRC manager here. . . . Joseph Miller has resigned as PRC district manager for Albany, Buffalo, Cincinnati and Cleveland. . . . Inspectors of the City Building Department checked local theatres and found only a few minor violations. ATLANTA R. M. Kennedy, Alabama-Tennessee district manager, Wil-Kin Theatres, has retired as president of the Birmingham, Ala., Rotary Club. . . . The Ninth Street theatre in St. Petersburg and the Park in West Palm Beach, Fla., have closed for the winter while the Casino in Ybor City, Fla., has a new policy of, showing Spanish films. All are owned by the Florida State Theatres. . . . R. T. Arnold has opened his new Gem theatre in Mulberry, Fla.; cost $75,000, seating 500. . . . Milton Varnell, formerly manager Martin's theatres in Piedmont, Ala., has resigned to take over the Park in Trion, Ga. He has purchased half interest in the house. . . . Lester Persall, formerly assistant manager, Martin's in Talladega, Ala., has gone to Piedmont, to take over the theatres there. . . . Nat Williams, owner of Interstate Enterprises, headquarters in Thomasville, Ga., will open a new theatre in Quincy, Fla., to cost $200,000. . . . Bill Talley, formerly branch manager, Republic Pictures, Atlanta, appointed as special sales representative. BALTIMORE Business slumped badly over Good Friday but perked up Saturday afternoon and night and came back strong Easter Sunday. Little held "It Happened at the Inn" for a third week as did the Town with "The Best Years of Our Lives." New continued "Carnival in Costa Rica" for a second week to nice attendance. Century off to good start with "It Happened in Brooklyn," Hippodrome fine with "Johnny O'Clock," Keith's big with "Suddenly It? Spring," Stanley fine with "Pursued," Mayfair big with "The Red House." Valencia brought back "Thief of Bagdad." Pines and Roslyn good with "Don Ricardo Returns" and comedy and cartoon show. . . . Paul Wall succeeds Frank Scully as Baltimore salesman for MGM, with Scully transferred to Richmond. . . . Radio, in Schwaber circuit, has been remodeled outside with new marquee and work is progressing on interior. ... P. W. Moore, Paramount theatre manager, has new assistant in Thomas Golenblewski. . . . Henry Sauber, Pennington and Cameo, is back after a few days' illness. . . . Feature story in Sunday Sun, March 30, told humorously of the Pinochle Club that has been going on among film men of Baltimore for 23 years in business office of Harry and Al Vogelstein's Baltimore Poster Company. CHARLOTTE W. P. White, branch manager of WilKin Theater Supply Company, has resigned as of May 1, and will take a position with a new concern to be organized in Charlotte. White has been six and a half years in the present position, and in the theatre supply WHEN AND WHERE April 20: Theatre Equipment and Supply Dealers meeting, Hotel Drake, Chicago. April 21: Independent Exhibitors of Rhode Island, affiliated with Independent Exhibitors, Inc., of New England, testimonial dinner to Edward M. Fay, circuit executive, at the Sheraton Biltmore Hotel, Providence, R. I. April 21-22: North Central Allied annual convention, Minneapolis. April 21-25: Society of Motion Picture Engineers' 61st semi-annual convention, Hotel Drake, Chicago. April 23: Associated Motion Picture Advertisers' 30th anniversary salute to industry leaders, Hotel Astor, New York. May 5-6: Allied Independent Theatre Owners of Iowa and Nebraska meeting in Omaha. May 6-8: Pacific Coast Conference of Independent Theatre Owners annual convention in Los Angeles. May 8: Twenty-fifth anniversary dinner of the Motion Picture Association at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. May 14-17: Eleventh annual Variety Club International convention at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. May 16: Motion Picture Associates annual dinner dance, Waldorf Astoria, New York. July 13-16: Independent Theatre Owners of Ohio annual convention at the Dashler Wallick Hotel, Columbus, Ohio. business 28 years. . . . The Carolina theatre put on "The Jolson Story" beginning Easter Sunday to run a week. . . . "The Kid from Brooklyn" opened Easter Sunday at the Imperial theatre, receiving in the morning edition of the Sunday Charlotte Observer a "plug" seldom accorded any feature here. The newspaper carried a two-column picture of Miss Gloria Kirkley, posing with a bottle of milk in her hand, delivering it at the door of a prominent bachelor business man of Charlotte. Vernon D. Niven, manager of Foremost Dairies, acted as co-sponsor of the picture. . . . Cy Dillon, distributor for Republic Pictures out of Charlotte, says 5,000,000 tickets are sold annually in the two Carolinas for the "westerns." Dillon says there are 4,000 bookings yearly among the 500 theatres in North and South Carolina showing western films. CHICAGO Business is still holding up good with *loop theatre managers quoting the old adage : "Give them a good picture and the people will patronize it." . . . The Si Greiver Booking and Buying Company has been appointed booker for the Dunes theatre in Zion, Illinois. . . . M. J. Leonard, legal counsel for B&K, is back from a week's conferences with Paramount officials on legal aspects of the New York decree. . . . Thomas J. McConnell, lawyer for the Jackson Park theatre, has gone to Buffalo to plead the case of the Rivoli theatre before the U. S. District Court there. . . . The local Film Exchange Employees Union (Local F-45) headed by 20th Century-Fox head booker, Jack Eckhardt, will choose "Miss Film Row of 1947" when they hold their first annual dance at the Midland Hotel on May 24. . . . Leo Schauer, also with Fox, is chairman of the arrangements committee. . . . Jack Lieb, MGM camera man for the last 15 years and midwest bureau manager of MGM's news department since 1937, has been appointed manager of the motion picture and slide film division of the Kling Studios, Inc., Chicago. . . . The All-American News Reel Company filmed the winners of radio station WBBM's "Star Quest" contest for Negro singers and the reels are now being exhibited in Negro theatres throughout the country. . . . The local 20th Century-Fox exchange is holding a drive for their branch manager, Tom Gilliam, which will wind up on May 3. CINCINNATI Although several pictures are garnering good grosses "The Best Years of Our Lives," playing an extended engagement at the RKO Capitol at advanced prices, is doing exceptionally good business. . . . Charles Ackerman, who operates the suburban Glenway and Sunset theatres, has opened the Covedale, a deluxe house in suburban Price Hill. . . . Keith's theatre, local Universal "showcase" house, has inaugurated a series of Saturday morning children's matinees, under sponsorship of the public schools and other educational organizations. . . . Local exhibitors are encountering more or less opposition from films which now are shown and rented for 16mm projection at the Cincinnati Public Library, a new service just inaugurated. The Jewish Center also has started showing films, which, (Continued on page 36) 34 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, APRIL 12, 1947