Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1955)

82*886*008 Is National Theatres Net HOLLYWOOD : Consolidated net income of National Theatres, Inc., for the fiscal year ended September 24, 1955, was $2,886,00S, equal to $1.04 per share on 2,769,486 shares of capital stock outstanding, it was announced last week by Elmer C. Rhoden, president, in his annual report to stockholders. Comparative figures for the previous fiscal year were $2,856,850, equal to $1.03 per share. The report said the company's profits from the sale of theatres and real estate were $298,000 for the year, as compared to $126,000 the previous year, while theatre income dropped to $58,692,000 from the preceding year’s $61,915,000. There were 29 theatres and 14 other properties sold or disposed of by the company during the year, the report revealed further. Mr. Rhoden said that National Theatres had complied with the court order requiring it to dispose of certain of its theatres and is free to acquire, with court approval, theatres in cities and areas where it is not now operating. During the past year, the company added seven theatres, including two drive-ins, and plans to build a theatre of “advanced design’’ in California in the near future. Comerford Estate Claims Are Settled Acquisition by Frank C. Walker, president of the Comerford Theatres circuit, and associates, of the minority interests of the M. E. Comerford heirs, was announced December 16 by Mr. Walker’s office in New York. The purchase price of the minority interest was $1,000,000. With it, a pending action against Mr. Walker and J. J. O’Leary as trustees, brought by the Comerford heirs in Scranton, Pa., Orphans Court, was settled and withdrawn. Mr. Walker’s statement said “All exceptions to the accounts of Walker and O’Leary in the M. E., M. B. and Anna D. Comerford estates were withdrawn and the court approved the account as filed.” "Carousel" World Premiere at Roxy, New York, in February The world premiere of 20th-Fox’s “Carousel” in the new process, CinemaScope 55, will be held at the Roxy theatre, New York. February 16 for the benefit of the New York Medical College, it was announced by Spyros P. Skouras, 20th-Fox president, and J. A. W. Hetrick, M. D., president of the Medical College. Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, stars of the film, will come to New York especially for the premiere and accompanying festivities, it was also announced. “Carousel” was directed by Henry King and produced by Henry Ephron. New York Film Board of Trade Elects Joe Wohl Joe Wohl, Republic branch manager in New York, has been elected president of the New York Film Board of Trade. He succeeds the late Fred Meyers of United Artists, who died recently. Mr. Wohl has been Republic manager since 1952. Other officers elected were Robert J. Fannon, Republic, first vice-president ; Myron Sattler, Paramount, second vice-president ; Ben Abner, Warner Brothers, treasurer ; Len Gruenberg, RKO Radio, secretary, and Saal Gottlieb, Loew’s, sergeant-at-arms. Shor * Blank Himes Heads Ruben Shor, president of Allied States Association, and Myron N. Blank, president of Theatre Owners of America, have been named co-chairmen of the motion picture division of the 1956 March of Dimes, it was announced this week by Basil O’Connor, president of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. Mr. Shor and Mr. Blank have joined forces in an effort to mobilize the theatre owners of the United States behind the forthcoming March of Dimes drive to raise the money to care for 68,000 patients and to continue intensive research. The showing of the 1956 March of Dimes trailer, “On Our Way,” starring Audie Murphy, and the cooperation of theatres on a community level are among the objectives of the motion picture division, Mr. O’Connor said. In a letter to exhibitors, urging them to play the trailer, Mr. O’Connor cited an editorial in the April 23, 1955, issue of The HERALD which described the March of Dimes as “our own national emergency and closer to us than anything else, in terms of heart interest and vital necessity.” Non-Theatrical Journal Lists Technical Terms The summer, 1955, issue of the University Film Producers Association's Journal defines more than 400 terms used in the production of 16mm. non-theatrical motion pictures. The list was prepared primarily for members of the association but can be used by any in production or exhibition who come in contact with 16mm. films, according to the association. The price is 50 cents per copy or 40 cents in lots of 50. Copies can be ordered through the organization, Television Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, la. Warners First With Rogers Hospital Contributions Warner Brothers New York home office has reported in with its contributions to the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital and is the first of the major motion picture companies to do so. It also reports its collections among employees one-third ahead of last year’s. One of the great pictures of the past 20 years THE CONQUEROR MOTION PICTURE HERALD, DECEMBER 24, 1955 33