Motion Picture Herald (Sep-Oct 1948)

(.Continued from preceding page) Rosenberg, Bert Stearn and Saal Gottlieb. . . . The annual meeting of the Allied Motion Picture Theatre Owners will be held in the Schenley Hotel instead of the William Penn as in former years. . . . Bob Green, Film Classics booker here, has been appointed an auditor by that company. . . . "Good Sam" ran for more than three weeks in the Warner and piled up better than average grosses during its stay. ft was removed to make way for "Rachel and the Stranger," and another third-weeker, "Tap Roots," was dropped at the Senator so that "Luck of the Irish" could move in from the J. P. Harris. . . . "So Evil My Love" moved from the Penn to the Ritz after a disappointing week so that "Pitfall" could be brought to that screen. . . . Leo Wayne has been named head booker at the Paramount exchange here. SAN ANTONIO Film fare along the Row: "Rachel and the Stranger" was at the Aztec theatre ; "A Southern Yankee" played the Majestic; "The Doctor Takes a Wife," and the Cerdan-Zale fight film showed at the Empire on the weekend; "Up in Central Park" was at the Texas. . . . The Prince is being remodeled. . . . Visitors on Film Row: Mrs. Ray B. Willie, Dallas; Mickey Riley, Dallas; David Shipp, new Republic salesman for south Texas, also from Dallas; Jack Jackson, Dallas, and Richard Hill Dunlap, Berkeley, Calif. . . . New office secretary for Southern Theatre Co. here is Miss Sally Stanton. SEATTLE "Easter Parade" was held over into its seventh week at the Liberty, and thus became the longest run feature in Seattle since the "Jolson Story" ran 13 weeks early in 1947. The neighborhood Varsity held "The Mikado" over for its third week. . . . Effective October 1, the Los Angeles office of Altec is absorbing the Seattle branch, which will be discontinued. Jack Gregory, northwest district manager, will go to Los Angeles, and Bruce Mewborn, Seattle branch manager, will go to Cincinnati. E. R. Holcomb and John Briggs will remain in Seattle as service engineers. . . . Archie Holt has resigned as salesman for Paramount in Portland, Ore., and was taken on in the same capacity by Universal-International. . . . Chuck Reed, on the staff of Robert Woock, northwest district manager \or Manley, Inc., has resigned. . . . Lois Harrison has joined the office staff at U-I. . . . Sam Shirley, formerly MGM district manager in Chicago, and now on special assignment work, was here conferring with Sam Davis, Seattle MGM branch manager. . . . Buck Tidwell, office manager for RKO, is improving from his recent illness at Doctors Hospital. ST LOUIS You couldn't drop a piece of confetti in the Hotel Jefferson without hitting a theatre man. The Jefferson was host to annual meetings of the Theatre Equipment and Supply Manufacturers Association, Theatre Equipment Dealers Protective Association, Motion Picture Theatre Owners of St. Louis, Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois, and a session of RCA theatre equipment sales representatives. The meetings ran from Sept. 25-30. ... If any visitors found time to drop in at the first run houses, the new fare included "Rachel and the Stranger" at the Ambassador, "Feudin', Fussin' and Fightin' " at the Fox, and "Luxury Liner" at Loew's State. . . . Two new St. Louis drive-ins beat the weather deadline and got operations under way this past week. The 1,000-car North Drive-In opened a rain-orshine schedule with "It's a Pleasure." The North Drive-In is the first in the northern suburbs, and is owned by Fred Wehrenberg, Paul Krueger, and the Kaimann brothers. It raises the Wehrenberg drive-in interests to three, all opened or purchased this season. . . . The other new drive-in is Henry Halloway's Airway near the St. Louis Airport in the northwestern suburbs. The Airway is also a 1,000-car "house" with an additional 1,000 seats. TORONTO The leading grosser of the week among Toronto first run theatres proved to be "Beyond Glory" at the Famous Players' Imperial, with "Rachel and the Stranger" doing nicely at Shea's theatre with the female trade. The new Odeon-Toronto continued with its first feature, "Oliver Twist," which held up well for its third week, while "Life With Father" remained a second week at the Tivoli and Eglinton at regular prices. "The Search" was playing a second week at the Victoria and Nortown theatres. An unusual single bill at the Danforth and Fairlawn: J. Arthur Rank's Technicolor record of the Olympic Games, which played to more than average business. "Henry V" had a run at regular prices at the Hollywood and Capitol in suburban New Toronto to get in ahead of the local premiere of "Hamlet," which is scheduled to open the Odeon Hyland late in October, the two theatres being units of the Allen circuit. "The Lost One" remained for a second week at the International. . . . The Ontario censor board has graded five pictures as adult entertainment: "Money Madness," "Deadlier Than the Male," "Lulu. Belle," "The Rope" and "Shed No Tears." VANCOUVER A suburban theatre in a Quonset hut is being erected in the Oak Bay district of Victoria at a cost of $25,000. Theatre will seat 450 people. . . . Famous Players made the following changes in their local setup when Tunny Morrison resigned as manager of the Victoria Road theatre ; Frank MacKenzie, assistant manager of the Orpheum, succeeds Morrison ; Mac Smee, from the Strand, takes over as assistant at the Orpheum; Ross Jenkins, formerly with Theatre Confections, succeeds Smee at the Strand as assistant to manager Jack Randall. Strand and Orpheum are first run spots. . . . First run business was on the light side. Best were "On an Island with You," Capitol; "Man-Eater of Kumaon," second week at the Plaza, and "So Evil My Love," at the Strand. . . . Max Sheine, Eagle Lion booker, has left for Toronto, having been promoted to salesman. WASHINGTON Business was fairly good, with holdovers reported as follows : "Good Sam," third week at RKO Keith's, and "Rope," second week at the Warner. New openings in cluded: "An Innocent Affair," at Loew's Capitol ; "Forever Amber," at Loew's Palace at popular prices; "One Night of Love," reissue at Warner's Metropolitan, and a double feature, "Rose of Washington Square" and "Slave Ship," at Loew's Columbia. . . . New associate members at Variety Club Tent No. 11 are Jack Kehoe and Nicholas Frederick. New resident members include: Thomas I. Martin, Maurice B. Mitchell and Douglass H. Covington. . . . Barbara Weber, transferred from Loew's in Pittsburgh, is the newest addition to the MGM contract department. . . . Variety Club's board of governors will meet on October 11. . . . The local Variety Club tent had one of the most active weeks in its history, with the following activities crammed into seven days : September 13, charity boxing match; September 16-18, mid-year conference of Variety Clubs, International ; September 18, Humanitarian Award Dinner for George C. Marshall; September 19, annual charity football game in Baltimore — plus active work on the Welfare Awards Drive. Interspersed were luncheons, cocktail parties, dinners and meetings. Savini Signs for 3 Italian Films Robert M. Savini, president of Astor Pictures Corp., has signed a deal for three pictures to be produced in Italy by Dr. Alexis Pantaleoni and F. H. Fodor. They will produce "Children of the Sun," "Pocohontas" and "Danger Point." A deal is now pending whereby Mr. Savini hopes to acquire a screenplay or an original opera based on Shakespeare's "As You Like It," for which the music and score already have been written by Florence Wickham. Should this deal be completed, the picture will be the fourth to be made in Italy for Astor. American casts and directors will be used in all the Italian pictures. The deals were signed during Mr. Savini's recent 10-week Hollywood visit. He returned to New York from the coast last week, bubbling with optimism. "Never in all the happy years I've spent in the film business have I been so optimistic as I am today," Mr. Savini told the trade press. He contends that not in the past decade has the future been so bright for the independent distributor and exchange man. Twentieth Century-Fox Sets Two Premieres Thursday's world premiere of "Apartment for Peggy" at the Fox theatre in Detroit, was the first of several to be staged by Twentieth Century-Fox during the Spyros P. Skouras 35th Anniversary Celebration, Charles Schlaifer, director of advertising and publicity, has announced. The second on the schedule is the November 4 premiere of "The Snake Pit," to be held at the Rivoli in New York. Stars of "Peggy," and producer George Jessell were to attend the Detroit opening. 46 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, OCTOBER 2, 1948