Motion Picture Herald (May-Jun 1947)

<lAti international association of showmen meeting weekly in MOTION PICTURE HERALD for mutual aid and progress WALTER BROOKS, Director QP Frequently a manager receives cornel pliments for a job well done, and, in most cases, behind the scenes, is a welltrained assistant manager who does 101 nonspectacular jobs, writes Cyril Mee, manager of the State and Strand theatres, Harrisonburg, Va. Mee's letter was in recognition of a job well done by his assistant manager, Alton W. Lawson, for "Song of the South." The promotion came about this way. Lawson is secretary of the local Exchange Club and the president of the same organization also is principal of the Main Street School. This prompted Lawson to arrange a tieup with the result that the principal and teachers sponsored 100 grade students to the opening matinee. ■ Dick Peffley, manager of the Paramount Theatre, Fremont, Ohio, and a member of this club, is serving on a citizen's committee to facilitate the promotion of Fremont's new $700,000 municipal sewage disposal plant. The bond issue goes before the voters in a special election to be held on May 6th. It's good to see this sort of interest in community affairs originating with a local theatre. Dick is also circularizing the students in Junior-Senior classes in all the surrounding schools within a 15-20 mile radius, with a suggestion for theatre parties, inasmuch as small-town schools seldom have facilities for entertainment. "Buzzy" Mixson buzzes in, via the ^1 mails, from the Arcade theatre, Williston, Florida, with an entry for the Round Table. It's his third such visit and he says lie has twice been awarded by his company for having been listed as a contender for the Quigley Awards. ASTRONOMICAL ROBERT N. PATTON, manager of the Uptown theatre in Sonora and the Angels theatre, Angels Camp, Calif., has submitted one of the most comprehensive exploitation campaigns to reach the Round Table in many moons. The most impressive part of the letter which accompanies the entry is a notation from Patton stating that his gross receipts in both towns exceeded normal business by 300 per cent. Considering that the population of Sonora is 3,500 and Angels Camp 1,200, results attained by the energetic showman seem to indicate that special exploitation is effective even in those communities where a limited number of potential customers would ordinarily preclude the possibility of such an astronomical increase. Q Charley Zinn, of the State theatre, Minneapolis, had his printers working late at night, turning out a special mailing card to let teachers of his city know he had made a quick booking of March of Time's "The Teachers' Crisis." The subject was hot, and only 48 hours to do something about it, sufficient for a fast worker like Zinn. He maneuvered a screening for leaders of local teacher's organizations and arranged to have the cards mailed out in the morning through school channels, reaching several thousand teachers by direct delivery from the main office of the Board of Education, although it has been unwritten law that no commercial mail ever gets this special handling. €Over in England an intensive showmanship drive is in process at theatres in the North Western division of Odeon Theatres. It is the first of a series planned for that division. A silver cup will be presented every six months to the Odeon manager who submits the best and most consistent efforts in the preceding 26 week period. Harry Murray, formerly manager of the Odeon in Bristol, England, and a Round Tabler, created an exploitation department in the division to start the ball lolling. Each manager's entries will be compiled and recorded in separate folders in the exploitation department. The judge will be a prominent London showman. The initial drive is named in honor of L. B. Fancourt, controller for the North Western division. € Eddie Schrieber sends in his weekly "salaam" from the Century Circuit, New York, with a lead "headitorial" that may be calculated to prevent headaches. He warns the increasing number of reissues bring back for exhibition certain stars who, when the picture was made, were only newcomers in minor roles. So, when you sell such pictures, take pains to let the patron know in your advertising that this is an earlier picture. It isn't ethical or' profitable to give your patrons any grounds for justifiable complaint. QThe April 23rd bulletin from the Associated Theatre Owners of Indiana, under the caption, "A Stone for Two Birds," comments: "We like the new RKO mailing pieces that can double for lobby display. A particularly good one is the latest on 'Tarzan and the Huntress'." •MOTION PICTURE HERALD, MAY 10, 1947 57