Screenland Plus TV-Land (Nov 1952 - Oct 1953)

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TV FEATURE "Come into my arms. We will fly to Paris," "You forget I have a girl," reminds vicbegs French maid of Bob Bean-blossom. tim, Bob Cummings, on "My Hero" show. fire in the kitchen! Sexy slapstick is popular 1 formula for laughs on TV shows But Marie (Mari Aldon) turns him up on top of Old Smokie and kisses him madly. Bursting in one scene, fiancee (Julie Bishop) declares, "I beg your pardon, but that's my hero you have in your arms . . . and his mustache you're wearing." PUT THOSE PISTOLS DOWN! [CONTINUED FROM PACE 47] people interested. They're also smart on another score — they don't have exorbitant admission prices. The average movie admission in the state of Texas is 36 cents! "I have real proof of lack of interest in promotion: we had a contest which ran in two exhibitor trade magazines, Motion Picture Herald and Boxoffice, offering $2,500 in prizes for the best promotion of any of my feature-length pictures and I am amazed that the exhibitors didn't seem interested, even for cash prizes. "Surveys have shown that show business receipts have decreased in areas where there is no television as much or even more than in those areas where TV is now in existence. Several theatres in large cities have tried TV advertising on an experimental basis, checked their customers as they entered the theatres and learned that TV advertising had brought in the patrons, not kept them away! And just see how RKO sold their re-issue of 'King Kong' with TV ads. "I believe that a new picture, if it is a good picture, will always bring business to a theatre if properly advertised and promoted, and that the more publicity a star receives, provided it is good publicity, whether on TV, radio or personal appearances, the greater his drawing power will be at the box-office. "I always try to encourage people's going to theatres. At the end of my radio and TV shows we have an announcement, 'Have you been to the movie, lately?' I don't feel that in any sense I've been a 'traitor' or enemy to exhibitors. I still make feature-length movies — recent ones are 'Pack Train' and 'Gold Town Ghost Riders' — and I'm not about to cut off that field, am I?" We were sitting in Gene's handsome office while we discussed this conflict — or lack of conflict — between TV and movies. That office, upstairs over his spanking new TV film studio, is a delightful spot with wonderful heavy Western fabrics covering some chairs, leather on others. Three walls are paneled in fine light wood with superb patina, a fourth has a mammoth photo-mural of a scene from one of Gene's pictures, with mountains fading into the background. The room smacks of the Old West with all modern comforts. Naturally, Gene cannot handle all his wide interests single-handed. He has a staff of about 25, including two producers and four directors who work exclusively on his TV films. "Back in 1950, Armand Shaefer, the man who has been producing my motion pictures since I first came to Hollywood, Mitchell J. Hamilburg, my friend and business associate since 1935, and I got together and decided it was foolish to fight something as strong as this new TV medium gave evidence of being. So we (CONTINUED ON PACE 60) i 58