Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1941)

Page 24 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW December 6, 1941 The Talk of the Tents Up and Down the Land Vwcitty Club Jtote* JOHN H. HARRIS. NATIONAL CHIEF BARKER Weekly Get-Together of Filmdom's Good Fellows Tent No. 2— Columbus Many Visitors to Clubrooms; Elections Postponed to Dec. 76; Father Corbett Returns to Town The clubrooms have been thronged in recent weeks. Visitors at the ITO convention and members of the casts of stage shows at the Palace and Hartman have made good use of the club. "A Night in a Honky Tonk" is the title of one of the bigger Saturday night parties of the season. Barkers Bovim and Sansbury are in charge of the entertainment. Election of officers is being held on Tuesday, Dec. 16 rather than Dec. 9, as announced previously. Father Paul Gerold Corbett is back in town and was a most welcome visitor in the clubrooms recently. Father Corbett, club chaplain, has spent the past several years in the West. He expects to be in Columbus all winter. Carol Bruce was the chief interest at the ITO convention. She was squired by Barker Schreiber, who met her at the airport, all in the interests of the forthcoming Universal picture, "Keep 'Em Flying," in which she appears. Ben Almond has revived his Saturday night bingo parties. Plans are under way for the tenth anniversary dinner with First Vice President Harrold C. Eckert, charter member, as chairman. Barker John Hardgrove is chief boxoffice man for the Grand's engagement of "Life With Father." Tent No. 3 — Cincinnati Installation Dinner a Great Success; Outgoing Officers Honored; Ladies' Gin Rummy Tournament Starts The installation dinner last Monday night proved to be the big success the committee in charge promised. There were gifts for the two outgoing officers, Chief Barker Bill Onie and Treasurer Ralph Kinsler and high promises of support to the new selectees, Wes Huss as Chief Barker and Pete Niland as treasurer. All other officers are holdovers. The master of ceremonies for the occasion was Carl Rich, Hamilton County's capable Prosecuting Attorney, who did a swell job of handling the festivities. The ladies' Gin Rummy Tournament got under way last Saturday night and will terminate next week-end with the playoff on Sunday. Dotty Kaplan, Peggy Greenberg, Mildred Kollitz and Gertrude Galley are in charge of this barkerette affair. A welcome visitor to the clubrooms was Barker Barcley McCarthy, a member of Tent 1, He was here ahead of "Life With Father," current attraction at the Taft Theatre. Barker Mike Greenberg has been feeling rather ill the last few weeks and all members are hoping for a speedy full recovery to the enthusiastic chairman of the house committee. There will be a New Year's Eve party at the clubrooms. Colonel Arthur Frudenfeld is in charge of the events for the evening. Joe Goetz and Pop Wessell are busy making arrangements for the -annual Christmas Party for over 1500 underprivileged children to be held at the Orpheum Theatre on December 24. The committee would like to receive donations to help defray the expenses of the affair. They will be highly appreciated and may be sent direct to the clubrooms in the Netherland Plaza Hotel. ELECTION DATES Crews and officers of Variety Clubs for the coming year are being chosen in most of the tents at this time. Scheduled dates are as follows: Dec. 6 — Tent No. 10 — Indianapolis Dec. 8— Tent No. 8— Kansas City Dec. 8— Tent No. 21— Atlanta Dec. 8— Tent No. 5— Detroit Dec. 16 — Tent No. 2 — Columbus Tent No. 5— Detioit Elections Set for Next Monday; Party Nights Drawing Big Crowds; Eddie Heiber Host Last Week Next week election news will be to the fore. Detroit Tent has a late election, and the date gives all Barkers more chance to think over plans and arrange a maximum turnout for this event. Party Nights have been big in Detroit of late. Saturday a week ago drew the biggest crowd in months, with a variety of special attractions on the program in the way of acts from local shows and night clubs. Phil Brestoff, local orchestra leader, was the guest of honor for the occasion. Eddie Heiber, Universal manager, was not to be outdone by the brilliantly successful nights that have gone before, and stage-managed a big Universal Night this past weekend. Outstanding among the attractions was the appearance of a number of stars from the "Folies Bergere," currently playing the Michigan Theatre. Earl J. Hudson, president of United Detroit Theatres, largest circuit in town, is to be guest of honor at UDT night next week. Detroit's own Alex Schreiber is about to extend his active traveling — he has just taken over a theatre at Cincinnati, and has been commuting that way for several weeks — now he is special Variety representative for Milwaukee and Minneapolis, and will be covering the "Northwest" as well. Alex is a showman with a flair for organization genius, and has headed the Theatre Division of the Community Fund Drive and other similar campaigns, especially in charity fields, for years. Tent No. 7— Buffalo Kozanowski Named Chief Barker; W. E. J. Martin Named SecretaryTreasurer for 7th Consecutive Term Stanley Kozanowski, manager of the Rivoli Theatre in Buffalo, N. Y., was elected chief barker of Tent No. 7 at the annual election last Monday. Elmer F. Lux, RKO branch manager was named first assistant and Andrew Gibson, secretary of Playhouse, owners of the Erlanger Theatre, second assistant. W. E. J. Martin, drama editor of the Buffalo CourierExpress, was named secretary-treasurer for the seventh consecutive year. In addition to the four officers the following were elected to the Board of Directors : Nicholas J. Basil, general manager and vice-president of Basil Bros.' Theatres ; Irving Fried, president of TriState Automatic Candy Corp. ; Ralph W. Maw, MGM branch manager ; Dewey Michaels, managing director of the Palace and Mercury Theatres ; Sydney Samson, 20th-Fox branch manager; Matthew V. Sullivan, Jr., United Artists salesman; Murray Whiteman of Whiteman's shop. Tent No. 9— Albany Jimmy Walker to Be Toastmaster at Moe Silver Testimonial; Many from Buffalo Tent to Attend Affair Jimmy Walker, former popular New York City Mayor, will be the master of ceremonies at the Moe Silver Testimonial Dinner which will be held in Albany in the Ten Eyck ballroom, on Monday evening, December 8th at 7 p.m. The affair will be informal and has already progressed to a point where requests for reservations are coming in from the entire eastern, as well as the western, part of the country. A large contingent will come from New York City headed by Joe Bernhard, Harry Kalmine, Ben Kalmenson, Roy Haines, Nate Blumberg, Herman Robbins, Tom Connors, Ned Depinet, George Schaefer, Sam Morris, Wm. Rodgers, Neil Agnew, Jack Cohen, Joe Vogel, Charlie Koerner, Joe Moscowitz, John Shea, Eddie Grainger, Johnny Dervin, Gus Schaefer, Mort Blumenstock, Leonard Schlessinger, Herman Starr, Herman Maier, Eddie Alperson, Charlie Kurtzman, Johnny O'Connor, Freddy Meyers, Frank McCarthy and many others too numerous to mention. Requests for additional reservations from the New York area are coming in daily and a special train may be chartered for this occasion to enable those attending to travel together. A large contingent is also planning to attend from the Buffalo area, headed by Sid Lehman, Chief Barker of the Variety Club, and will include Kenneth Robinson, Max Roth, Sid Samson, Ralph Maw, Phil Fox, Elmer Lux, John Scully, Charlie Hayman, Jack Belman, Harry Berkson, Bert Stern and many other friends of Silver in that area. Many prominent exhibitors and distributors from the New York State area, as well as from the Pittsburgh and Boston areas, are planning to attend including Mike Kallet, Louis and J. Meyer Schine and members of their organization, as well as Wm. Smalley, Nikitos Dipson and others. There will also be a large local delegation at the dinner, consisting of business men, city and state officials and the large circle of friends of Moe Silver. The committee is headed by Si Fabian as general chairman and Moe Grassgreen as treasurer and includes the following: L. R. Golding, C. J. Latta, C. A. Smakwitz, Clayton Eastman, Paul Krumenacker, J. Meyer and Louis Schine, M. J. Kallet, Samuel Rosen, H. L. Ripps, Joe Miller, Jerry Spandeau, Max Westebbe, Arthur Newman, Max Friedman, Harry Berinstein, Neil Hellman and Abe Stone. Tent No. 12— Twin Cities Maitland Frosch Elected Chief Barker; Frank McCormick and Arthur Anderson Assistants; Lowell Kaplan, Sec'y The new Chief Barker of the Twin City Variety club is Maitland Frosch, theatre equipment company head. He succeeds Ben Blotcky who held the post for two terms. Comprising the new board of directors, in addition to Frosch, are Blotcky, W. A. Steffes, Frank McCormick, Arthur Anderson, Charles Rubenstein, William Elson, Lowell Kaplan, Bennie Berger, Eddie Ruben, LeRoy J. Miller, Max Torodor and Paul Mans. McCormick was elected first assistant Chief Barker ; Anderson, second assistant ; Rubenstein, treasurer, and Lowell Kaplan, secretary. The club chose Elson as national canvassman and one of four delegates to the national con