Motion Picture Herald (1954)

( Continued from opposite page ) Egyptian” opened to big business at Loew’s Broad following one of most extensive advertising campaigns here in recent years. . . . Schine’s Tiffin at Tiffin, Ohio, was reopened after having been closed during the summer. FOSTER , THEATRE “DOCTOR,” CURES PORTLAND PATIENT DENVER Marvin Goldfarb has resigned as branch manager for RKO to become district supervisor for Buena Vista (Disney). He will have charge of Denver, Salt Lake City, Des Moines, Omaha and Kansas City exchanges. Promoted to be branch manager for RKO is Lee Roy Hobson, who has been with the company as salesman. . . . Robt. Demshki, who has managed the Centennial since its opening, has resigned. . . . Chilt Robinette, special representative for J. Arthur Rank for the western half of the country, was in. . . . Bonnie Timmons, manager’s secretary at Columbia, has quit to move to Pueblo, Colo., to be with her husband. . . . Civic Theatres have moved to 2115 Champa St., just around the corner. . . . Wallace O’Neill, owner of the Vita, Spearfish, S. D., and Bud Lovell, have bought the Knox drive-in, Newcastle, Wyo. DES MOINES For the second time in a year, the safe at the Ranch drive-in near Ames was carted away by thieves. This time the safe contained about $150. . . . A new front and canopy have been completed at the Manson theatre in Manson. New doors also have been added, and future plans call for the remodeling of lobby and ticket booth. . . . The New Ames at Ames has reopened for the fall and winter following a complete remodeling, according to manager Joe Gerbrach. The other two Gerbrach houses in Ames, the Varsity and the Collegian, also underwent improvements during the summer. . . . Ludy Boston has closed his drive-in theatre at Muscatine and reopened the Place which he closed during the summer months. . . . C. C. Robinett, representative of J. Arthur Rank, was on the Row. . . . Ralph (Ole) Olson will soon be back at his old job selling for Universal. The Olson family has returned to Des Moines. . . . CinemaScope has been installed at the Elkader theatre in Elkader. Don Wolf is manager. DETROIT Picketing of the Pontiac drive-in by IATSE Local 620 has reached the stage of letters-to-editors and paid ads in the local papers. The local is asking prevailing scale and conditions comparable to other drive-ins in the area. . . . Harry Gilbert, onetime chief barker of the Detroit Variety Club, is now president of the Detroit Concert Series. . . . The Booth joined the Co-operative Theatres booking circuit moving up to third run playings. . . . Sol Korman’s new Gold Coast lured Wayne Parsons back from his native Texas where he’d gone after the Broadway-Capitol went back to United Detroit. . . . It’s a boy for Rose Vance, Stone cashier. . . . The late Phil Schare’s projector at the Film Exchange booth will be manned by Loeseph Sullivan. His spot at the BelAir drive-in will be filled by Ed Gibson from the Dearborn drive-in. . . . Margaret Studebaker has left after 10 years at Republic. PORTLAND, ORE.: Martin M. Foster has versed an old adage and become the city boy who made good in the small (comparatively speaking) town. Marty, as he is known to the trade here, is the enterprising and successful manager of the local Guild theatre, Portland's first and most successful art house, established after the war by the 32-year-old former New Yorker. Mr. Foster was born and raised in New York where, in his teens and early twenties, he worked in and around theatres gathering experience. He soon won the reputation of being a specialist in redeeming "white elephants," theatres which for one reason or another had unhappy financial histories. His abilities are not surprising, considering that both his father and his brother manage and operate theatres in New York and Louisiana. Marty, en route to Hollywood from New York after his years in the Army during the war, was visiting his brother in Portland when hb noticed this city's lack of anything like an art theatre. Sensing an ideal opportunity for his special talents, he took a six-month lease on a long-closed 400-seater, two blocks off the main stream. Redecorated and renamed the Guild and backed by special product, specially promoted, the house was an almost immediate financial click and the object of certain civic pride in the community. By putting together well-balanced programs and by enlisting the cooperation of the community in their promotion, Marty has come up with some of this city's longest runs, sometimes at the highest admission prices in Portland. He ran MGM's "Lilli" for 13 weeks and got six big weeks each out of Disney's "Vanishing Prairie," Stanley Kramer's "Cyrano" and "Four Poster" and the British imports, "Red Shoes" and "Tales of Hoffman," among others. In this town of 400,000 persons, where previously a three-week run on any film was news, Mr. Foster has created a whole new set of standards — and records. When the Italian film, the prize-winning "Bicycle Thief" was booked into the Guild, HARTFORD Two art film units in this territory, the Stanley Warner Art, Springfield, Mass., and the Hartford Theatre Circuit’s Art, Hartford, have resumed specialized policies. The Springfield theatre, in a bid for season opening public relations, invited western Massachusetts artists to participate in group and one-man exhibits. . . . Arthur Alperin has been named manager of the Colonial theatre, Southington, Conn., replacing Frederick Frink, resigned. . . . David Lustig of the Columbia exploitation department, was in Hartford, Bridgeport and Worcester, for "On the Waterfront.” . . . Albert M. Pickus, MARTIN M. FOSTER, right, manager of the Guild theatre of Portland, Oregon, greets Washington columnist commentator Drew Pearson on the latter's arrival in Portland to give a lecture for Mr. Foster's Northwest Forum, just one of the theatre manager's many extra-curricular activities. Mr. Foster ran into a pack of censorship, trouble which he pursued through the courts, eventually winning approval of the film in action which finally resulted in the abolition of the local censor board. Never before had an exhibitor beaten the board and concurrently won so much front page attention. With his Guild theatre as a sort of hub, Marty also set up the Northwest Forum through which he brought to Portland as lecturers such personalities as Eleanor Roosevelt, Drew Pearson, Sumner Welles, Estes Kefauver and William L. Sh irer. In the nearly two years of its existence, the Northwest Forum lectures hardly missed a sellout performance, at the same time sending up the stock, socially and economically, of the Guild manager. Such activities are typical on the part of Marty Foster, for whom being a successful theatre manager is only one part of being an active citizen in the local scene. owner of the Stratford theatre, Stratford, and TOA vice-president, has been elected to the board of directors of the Stratford Red Cross. INDIANAPOLIS MGM will hold its workshop here November 16, to coincide with the fall convention of the Allied Theatre Owners of Indiana at the Marott Hotel November 16-17. . . . Dale McFarland, general manager of Greater Indianapolis, and Bob Jones and Tom Baker of Affiliated Theatres, were in New York last week. . . . Howard Pearl, ( Continued on following page) MOTION PICTURE HERALD, OCTOBER 2, 1954 39