Showmen's Trade Review (Jul-Sep 1944)

July 1, 1944 S H O W iM EN'S TRADE REVIEW 3 -Ma^p-^ rn^rA »^ The BIG Day Chairman Bob O'Donnell and his entire committee for the Industry's Fifth War Loan Drive are urging theatremen everywhere in the country — in small towns, big cities, rural communities — to join in the Big Push set for National Free Movie Day, July 6, as a means of going over the top with a whoop and like real fighting men. This is both an appeal and a challenge to the showmen of this industry. Theatremen have been doing, are doing, magnificently in the current Loan; but this job is one in which all that has gone before means only that so much more should be done to make sure, when it is all over, that there can be only complete personal satisfaction that each gave his and her best from start to finish. The Free Movie Day event on July 6 can be made one of the most glorious demonstrations of patriotic devotion on the part of theatremen this or any land has ever seen. To make it such there is only the need for each and every exhibitor to put forth his sincerest effort to make his own individual Free Movie Day show the most carefully planned, most energetically exploited and biggest showmanship success of his career. The incentive to do it is there. O'Donnell and his immediate aides on the Drive Committee are theatremen themselves. They know the extra work that is entailed in handling these events. They know how hard theatremen have been worked in this and former drives. They would be the last to ask theatremen for extra effort such as this were they not certain that the need is there to justify whatever sacrifice is involved for each and every exhibitor in making July 6 the kind of Big Day for which they now appeal. Here, in advance of the accomplishment, go our congratulations to the theatremen of America for making July 6th a really historic day for the industry. ▲ ▲ ▲ Merited Honors Announcement that the latest Liberty Ship to be completed by the Kaiser shipyards in Richmond, Calif., will glide from the ways bearing the name S.S. Benjamin Warner, has been hailed throughout the industry with a sense of pride and also of gratification over a distinction which must bring great personal happiness to three motion picture men who enjoy great personal affection and respect. The S.S. Benjamin Warner, which will be launched Saturday, July 1, is named for the father of Harry M., Col. Jack L., and Major Albert Warner, who, with their brother, the late Sam Warner, entered the picture business in its infant days and have come up to top-rank the hard way and have made such important contributions to the industry. The career of the Brothers Warner in this industry is marked by such accomplishments as could result from only the most unflinching courage. The spirit of the pioneer has marked the innumerable achievements in screen production which have issued from the Warner studios — to whose credit stand many advances importantly associated with the progress of motion pictures. The distinction is a great one — but it is an honor well merited and enthusiastically applauded. AAA Observations Nathan E. Goldstein, head of Western Massachusetts Theatres, puts punch in his observation that it's a mistaken idea to seek more revenue by charging advanced prices. He cites the fact that "Going My Way" (certainly a top-flight picture which might have been rated a "special" at advanced scales) broke records of eight and a half years at his Paramount Theatre in Springfield, Mass., at regular admissions. Under the heading "Unique Contribution," the Chicago Herald American on June 21 paid editorial respects to the motion picture industry's cooperation with the Fifth War Loan, pointing out that the motion picture business differed from most of the businesses that are so generously joining in the drive in that the film industry alone is giving up its cash receipts through War Bond Premieres. Good to see these occasional expressions of recognition of the sincere and generous job this industry is making toward the war effort. The brochure on "The Purple Heart," prepared by Charles Schlaifer, 20th-Fox advertising manager under Hal Horne, now being circulated makes an impressive statement for the power of the screen. Titled "A Mission Accomplished," the booklet reveals how this picture served to awaken the public to a full realization of the nature of our enemy in the East. —"CHICK" LEWIS