Motion Picture Herald (1954)

ALBANY A goal of $2,500 has been set for the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital Christmas Salute in this exchange district, by Norman Jackter, distributor chairman, and Charles A. Smakwitz, exhibitor chairman. Last year $2,100 was donated. Letters, with accessory kits, have been sent to every theatre, while film salesmen are contacting individual accounts. . . . Jack Goldberg, MGM manager, and Norman Jackter, Columbia managers were elected to the new Variety Club crew, along with Leo Greenfield, former Universal manager; Sylvan Leff, UticaWatertown exhibitor and Realart upstate representative; George Schenck, Tri-State Automatic Candy Corp. manager ; and Irwin Ullman, Mohawk drive-in manager. . . .The hope that Tent 9 might again occupy quarters in Ten Eyck, now the Sheraton-Ten Eyck, Hotel was expressed by several branch managers to William Morton, assistant director of sales promotion for Sheraton Corporation and ex-publicity director for RKOAlbee theatre, Providence, R. I., when he visited Filmrow. . . . Paul Wallen installed a 30-foot-wide screen in Grand, which will present TNT’s closed circuit of “Opening Night At the Metropolitan Opera” Nov. 8 at $1.10 to $3.30. ATLANTA Miss Christine Smith, Atlanta’s film censor, and Edwin A. Gilliam, city alderman, were married October 16. . . . The Coral Way drive-in theatre, owned by E. J. Meiniker, has been taken over by the Wometco Circuit of Miami. Plans are underway for a CinemaScope installation. . . . Bill Wolfson, city manager for Wilby Theatres, Montgomery, Ala., underwent an eye operation at St. Joseph’s Hospital at Fort Worth, Texas. Cecil Brown substituted for him as city manager, while George Loftin replaced Brown at the Charles. . . . Mr. and Mrs. Arthur C. Bromberg, (he is president of Allied Artists Southern Exchanges) have returned to their home in Alabama. . . . Ed Stevens, president of Stevens Pictures, is on a visit to his Memphis office. . . . Herman Rhodes, drive-in owner in Georgia and Alabama, is recovering nicely after a heart attack. The same is true of Dave Prince, southern district manager of RKO Radio Pictures. . . . J. E. Martin, Grand theatre, Montezuna, Ga. ; E. P. Clay, who has theatres in Georgia, and Marshall Maddox, who has theatres in Georgia, were in town booking. BALTIMORE Fred Schanberger, Jr. has resigned from Keith’s theatre. . . . Stanley Baker, HicksBaker circuit, has returned from a New York visit. . . . Bob Rappaport, Town and Hippodrome theatres, is getting ready for a European vacation. . . . Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Coblentz, Alpha theatre, are vacationing in Florida. . . . Richard Dizon, Town manager, is spending a few days in Pittsburgh. . . . Ray Trumbule, Fruchtman theatres, visited the southern Maryland theatres. . . . Stanley theatre will show telecast of Metropolitan Opera opening night. . . . Owen E. Schnepf, Century theatre, was in Atlantic City. . . . Chauncey Wolfe, Uptown, recently out of Sinai Hospital, is readying a trip to Florida. . . . Jack Whittle, Avenue theatre, weekended in Ocean City, Maryland. BOSTON Judson Parker has been appointed branch manager at Republic Pictures replacing Herbert Schaefer who resigned to join Buena Vista. Parker has been with Warner’s, U. A., U-l and more recently with Screen Guild, assuming his new post November 1. . . . Ken Hamilton won first place in the Manley merchandising contest and with Mrs. Hamilton has left for a week s vacation at the Caribe Hilton Hotel, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Contest was conducted from division manager L. O. Seley’s Boston office, with John Stone, second, and Irving Dunn, third. . . . Nathan Buchman has resigned from American Theatres Supply Company after 20 years with the circuit to enter the' theatre concession business for himself. He is replaced by Benjamin S. Conviser who will combine the maintenance, supply and vending departments under one head with the main office at 646 Washington Street and the warehouse and shipping rooms at 78 Broadway. . . . Jeanne Flatley, U. A. secretary is engaged to marry Thomas Fleming of Holyoke. BUFFALO Lester Pollock, manager of Loew’s, Rochester, as usual was prominent in liningup the show in Kodak Town for the annual Firemen’s Benefit Revue the other eveningin the Eastman theatre. . . . Among those attending the annual Shriners Veterans luncheon last Friday in Hotel Statler was H. E. Shipley, projectionist at Shea’s North Park and who has been an operator in this old town way back to the Mark-Strand theatre days when Harold Edel was manager of that house. Charlie Taylor, UPT, also was noted at the table with Shipley. . . . Local industryites at the Charles Boasberg testimonial dinner in the Astor in New York city last Thursday night were Robert T. Murphy, Century theatre; Richard T. Kemper, Dipson Theatres ; Dewey Michaels and son, Jimmy, Michaels Circuit and Robert Boasberg, twin brother of Charles. . . . James Connolly, division manager, 20th Century-Fox, was in for conferences with Charles Kosco, local Fox manager. . . . L. D. Netter, Jr., Altec Service Corp. sales manager, was a Buffalo visitor along hirst Run Row. . . . Harry Rubin, chief of projection for Paramount Theatres, was in Buffalo to supervise the installation of VistaVision in the local Paramount for the opening of “White Christmas.”. . . George F. Goodyear, president of the WGR corporation, has been elected a director of the Buffalo Better Business Bureau. CLEVELAND Two Loew first subsequent run theatres, the Park and the Granada become the property of the Associated Theatres circuit on November 1, bringing the circuit’s total theatre holdings to 32. This is the second major circuit theatre divorce here within the past six months. Previously Associated acquired the Uptown and Variety from Warner Brothers. Loew’s local interests are now confined to three downtown first run houses, the State, Ohio and Stillman. . . . Phil Smith’s East Side drive-in, Cleveland, is the first drive-in in Greater Cleveland to install CinemaScope. . . . Florida this week beckoned to Joe Leavitt, projectionist and to Howard Reiff who flew his mother down to Miami Beach to their winter home. . . . Nat Lefton, recovering from emergency surgery in Hawaii, is spending the month in town before going to Florida for the season. . . . Bob Bial of Luthi Studios was a Mt. Sinai Hospital patient. . . . Victor Salupo is having trouble finding an auditorium in which to show a series of five non-censored foreign films to his newly formed Group 16 patterned after New York’s Cinema 16. COLUMBUS Independent Theatre Owners of Ohio will hold the annual convention March 1 and 2 at the Deshler-Hilton Hotel here. Feature of the convention will be the MGM Ticket Selling Workshop, directed by M. L. Simons. . . . Lou Holleb, onetime manager of RKO Majestic and Uptown theatres here, has been named general manager in the In-Town Auto theatre, under construction on a 13-acre plot in suburban Whitehall. The new drive-in will be the largest in Franklin County, with a 1,000-car capacity. The In-Town will be the first area drive-in to have CinemaScope equipment. It also will have in-car heaters and is expected to be opened by Jan. 1. . . . A1 Sugarman, who has relinquished active participation in local theatre interests, will spend the winter in Tucson, Arizona. DENVER Claude Graves, of the Flatiron, Boulder, Colo., shot what was said to be the biggest bull elk ever seen in these parts, on his hunting trip. Others in the party got their buck, including Joe Dekker and Tony Archer, both of Civic Theatres. . . . Variety Tent 37 expects to be reactivated by the first of the year in new quarters. The tent was burned out last year. . . . Donald Cook, Paramount booker, and Miss Bernice Ashton areto be married. . . . Patricia Hill moves from RKO to Buena Vista to continue as secretary for Mervin Goldfarb. dis ( Continued on page 29) 26 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, OCTOBER 30, 1954