Publix Opinion (Oct 10, 1930)

_ 4 ae ; Pa ‘ “as PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF OCTOBER 107, 1930 11 X=0 IN NAME OF . X. JONES, CIVIC BODY AIDS — BUT ACCOUNTING HEAD HITS PROSPERITY — HUGE TOTAL IN EXPERIENCE CAMPAIGN The first question Publix Opinion will answer about T. X. “Prosperity Week” had the Jones, head of the Publix Accounting Department and a veteran complete co-operation of the of ten years’ experience in the motion picture industry, is the Sate City and dade Ut a ne first question people always ask him. The X. does not stand Bagh KNOW YOUR ORGANIZATION! These Publix personalities depend upon your effort, just as you depend upon theirs. To know and understand each other’s personalities and problems will lighten the burdens of everyone, and make our tasks enjoyable. For this reason, PUBLIX OPINION is devoting an important part of its space to these brief biographical sketches. . a result of activity on the part of for Xavier. Fred Hamlin, Division Publicity Director stationed in Salt Lake City, and Jack Marpole, manager of the Ogden Paramount. In Salt Lake City, the Chamber of Commerce sent letters explaining the purpose of the week to all members, urging their cooperation, Officials assisted in getting an official proclamation from Governor Dern, and in getting the newspapers interested in the campaign as a civic feature. Three hundred of Paramount's prosperity window cards were distributed locally by the three theatres, and newspapers were furnished with slugs in all sizes for use in merchants’ ads. Prosperity Week stills of Paramount players were used in windows in both Salt Lake and Ogden. In Ogden, the Chamber of Commerce responded enthusiastically to the campaign, going through with practically every suggestion in the manual, in addition to paying for a full page Prosperity Week advertisement. Jones’ grandfather was one of a group of Welshmen who came to this country just after the Civil War, when the railroads were being pushed across the continent, and lent their indomitable energy to that arduous and often dangerous under ‘taking. Eventually they formed a little settlement in Minnesota, and Tom Jones had a son, also Tom. In a Welsh settlement there were naturally a great many families named Jones, and the peculiarity of this particular settlement was that practically all the men of the clan were named Tom. Thus much confusion arose in the matter of checks from the railroad, bills at the grocery, mail from “Wales, and such matters, So Jones the elder added to his mame the convenient initial xX. His son did likewise, and his grandson in due time was christened Thomas X. Jones. Just X., and not Xerxes, Xenophon or any one of the dozen or so names beginning with X which anyone can rattle off with abandon. From Minneapolis Hs Bt OT a The Thomas X. Jones of this chronicle was born in Minneapolis, and went to public grammar and high schools there. By the time he was ten he had found a job to keep himself busy after school hours. True to the family tradition, it was with the Milwaukee Railroad, in its commissary department. Through with high school, he Minneapolis will understand his feeling. So. strking out for wider and greener pastures, he came to New York. From the first his choice of a field was the motion picture industry, growing and developing as rapidly then as now, and he went to work for Goldwyn. Four years in Goldwyn’s accounting department followed. Then Jones accepted a position in a similar capacity with the late Wid Gunning, who had just organized a distributing organization under the name of Wid Gunning, Inc. Armed with a lot of contracts for pictures, many of which were never made, and not too much money, the new firm set about establishing a system of exchanges, | Threatened! | One of the incidents which marked the brief but stormy course of this enterprise causes Publix Opinion, before revealing it, to pause and call to your attention the old adage to the effect that time heals all wounds. Otherwise, of course, it wouldn’t mention the incident. It seems that the general manager in the South for Wid Gunning, Inc., was one Bill Saal. Rentals weren’t coming in at the home office with any great regularity, and there was the matter of several overdue payrolls which bothered Jones and his colleagues in New York. Bothered them a great deal, since their names headed those payrolls. So Jones wired their Mr. Saal, urging collection and prompt for T. X. JONES Head of Accounting Department WHEW! Hold tight Harold! But then, Harold never does. He’ slips out of one precarious situation into another in Feet First, and gets more bewildered and helpless with every passing moment. Will the audience love it! But what thrills and chills! And now’s the time to start selling it if you want the box-office to chuckle with as much enthusiasm as the patrons will! went to the University of Minnewarding of outstanding rentals. sota for a time, but his university | The wire produced no results. The career was cut short by a sudden! grave suspicion arose that Saal decision to go to Chicago and get| might be utilizing those moneys a job. He arrived in Chicago in| to meet exchange payrolls, but anthe fall of 1920, but when he ar-| other wire, or maybe several rived in the city he was disap-| wires, signed simply ‘‘Jones,” elicpointed in it. A dozen or so Pub-/ited no confirmation. Finally, lix executives who are also from probably in desperation at being ee NEW MUSIC NOVELTIES! Eighteen additional titles are included in the new list of Music Novelties Department 38 34 r. p. m. records for use on regular Vitaphone equipment as overtures, interludes, exit marches, etc. Priced at $1 per double-faced record, these may be ordered from the Music Novelties Department, Paramount Publix Corp., Paramount Building, New York City. New titles are as follows: ¢ OVERTURES MND No. 106—‘Russian Fantasie.” Rhythm overture based on Russian airs. MND No. 107—“Hungaria.””. Rhythm overture based on : Liszt’s Second Rhapsody. MND No. 108—‘Scotch Fantasie.” Rhythm overture based on famous Scotch airs. MND No. 109—‘Fantasie Orientale.’”’ Rhythm overture based on Tschailkowslcy’s airs. MND No. 110—'Overture Scherzo.” Rhythm overture based on Mendelsohn’'s airs. MND No. 111—“Carmen.” Overture of the opera of the same name. INSTRUMENTAL NOVELTIES (No vocal choruses) MND No. 112—‘'Symphonette.” Novelty in rhythm tempo. MND No. 1183—‘“‘Minor Gaff.’ Popular novelty in rhythm sistant. When Mr. Ludwig became Division Manager in ‘the Northwest, and Gowthorpe succeeded him as Cost Control Executive, Jones was ready again, and fully prepared for his manifold responsibilities as head of the department, although one of the youngest department heads in Publix. That department, too, has grown and developed since Jones joined it four years ago. Some sixty people then handled the accounting detail for 300 theatres. The immense number of theatres whose accounting has since been added to the responsibilities of the home «office department necessitated the department's removal, shortly after Jones became its ‘head, to two floors in the New York Herald Tribune Building, where the requisite floor space could be obtained more economically than in the Paramount Building, on Broadway. Now, with the accounting activity for theatres in Chicago and faced by a yellow envelope no matter where he turned—the wires were coming collect now—Saal wired back. “Certainly,” he said. “I don’t expect these people to work for me for nothing. And” he added bitterly, “if I ever lay hands on that guy Jones up there, I’, ete.’ You know Bill Sall, don’t you? | No Initials | .Now, a threat to do bodily and perhaps fatal injury to a fellow man is not to be taken lightly, but if the threatened man is known simply as Jones, with no identifying initials, he needn’t worry. There are so many Joneses. So nothing came of it. However, up to the present time, Mr. Saal, now General Director of Film Buying and Booking for Publix, has had no way of knowing that this particular Jones had the initials T..X., which simPlifies the task of finding him. He’s well acquainted with his fel‘low dasarinnGnt head, T. X. Jones, | Detroit being added to the vol That X; you can’t get away from|Ume of work in the home office it. accounting department, on Novem Eublix Opinion. ptlllchopes that Tn eS Hey Goce mate yates does heal all wounds. Tribune Building to accomodate Jones was with Gunning for al the three hundred employees who year and a half, then joined the] runction under Jones. Bray Studios, then making comedies and short subjects in New 2 York, and handled their account-| Printer Co-operates To ing for a year. In the fall of 1926 tempo. t MND No. 114—“Blacl< Horse." Popular novelty in rhythm tempo. cide : MND No. 115—""Punch and Judy.’ Popular novelty in fox he joined the accounting departPublicize Attraction trot rhythm. Ment of Publix. Manager Paul Short tied-up with a printing concern on an anagram contest to exploit ‘Dawn Patrol’ at the Tampa, Tampa, Fla. His rise with Publix was rapid.| Printer awarded discounts ' on Joining the organization when L.| Christmas cards to winners. Short J. Ludwig was head of the ac-|also staged a boy scout parade, counting department, he was ready displayed an attractive aeronautic for an important promotion when| exhibit in the lobby and had a Ludwig was made Cost Control|squadrén of Planes, with wings Executive. Montague F. Gowappropriately painted, fly over the thorpe became head of the depart-| city and drop 10,000 heralds plugment, and Jones was made his as-| ging the show. MND No. 116—‘‘Why Am I So Romantic.” Fox trot from “Animal Crackers.’’' MN, No.117—“Down South.’’ Popular. southern airs feaa turing the banjo; fox trot, MRSS . X 18—''Stars and Stripes Forever’'— ee: x “Semper Fidelis’ MND No. 119—"“El Capitan” MND No/120—'Sabre and Spurs’* MND No/121—‘‘Under the Double Eagle” MND Nw. 122—‘ Washington Post March “f MND yio. 123—“Battalion Forward March | Rises Rapidly