Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1944)

4 S M ( ) W M X ■ S TRADE R E \' I E W October 7, 1944 6th Loan Goal $14,000,000,000; Plan Regional 'Pep' Meetings The Sixth War Loan Drive began shaping into reality this week. Announcement was made that the Treasury Department had set $14,000,000,000 as the goal and almost simultaneously the national committee for film industry participation, of which Harry Brandt is chairman, disclosed the itinerary for a series of regional meetings in 21 key cities. With the starting date of November 20 coming closer every minute, exhibitors the country over were perfecting their own plans of campaign. The Treasury Department's announcement setting the goal at $14,000,000,000 also contained a breakdown in which banking and corporation purchases were to account for $9,000,000,000 and individual sales for $5,000,000,000. It is anticipated that the national E bond goal will approximate $2,500,000,000— or half the individual sales. This is something of a tip-ofT on what the theatres are supposed to do, for during the last loan drive they accounted for about 20 per cent of all E bonds, although they constituted only 10 per cent of the total bond selling outlets. (Let's see— 20 per cent of $2,500,000,000 is $500,000,000.) Credit for Sales The Treasury Department also disclosed that credit for the drive will include bond sales reported to the Federal Reserve Bank from November 1 to December 31. This, according to the Treasury Department, is necessary to give proper credit for bonds sold during the drive by approximately 25,000 issuing agents and thousands of plants now using the payroll deduction system. The series of 21 regional meetings announced by Harry Brandt will be along the lines of the successful meetings held prior to the Fifth Loan Drive, with a flying squadron of National Committee representatives meeting local regional chairmen and other officials. The first meeting will take place in Oklahoma City on October 20 and the trip will end in New York City on November 15. Executives on Trip Among the executives scheduled to attend the various regional meetings, in addition to Chairman Brandt, are Francis S. Harmon, WAC co-ordinator ; S. H. Fabian, chairman. Theatre Division ; Ned E. Depinet, head of the Distributors Division ; John Hertz, Jr., publicity director for the industry's participation in the Sixth War Loan Drive, and the following nine cochairmen : William F. Crockett, Hugh W. Bruen, Jack Kirsch, John Rugar, Henry Reeve, Al Steffes, Leo Wolcott, Fred Wehrenberg and Nathan Yamins. The Oklahoma City meeting on October 20 will be followed by meetings in Los Angeles on October 23 23; San Francisco, October 24; Portland, Ore., and Salt Lake City, October 25 ; Seattle and Omaha, October 26 ; Kansas City and Des Jloines, October 28 ; Chicago, INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS Advance Dope 56 Box-Office Slants 10 Current Product Summary 61 Feature Booking Guide 57 Feature Guide Title Index 60 Hollywood 54 Newsreel Synopses 53 Program Exchange 18 Regional Newsreel 21 Selling the Picture 15 Shorts Booking Guide 62 Short Subject Reviews 53 Theatre Equipment and Mainfenance 31 The Show Builder 51 October 30; Cleveland, October 31; Detroit, November 1 ; BufFalo and Louisville, November 2 ; Pittsburgh, .November 3 ; Hartford, November 9 ; Philadelphia, N'ovember 13; Baltimore, November 14, and New York City, November 15. Frenchman's Creek' Racks Up Ail-Time Record at N. Y. Rivoli In its first week at the Rivoli Theatre in New York "Frenchman's Creek" has set a new all-time record for the house, grossing $10,000 more than any previous attraction, it was announced this week by Charles M. Reagan, Paramount vice-president in charge of distribution. The new record was made at popular admissions, while the old mark was set by a special playing at road-show prices. The theatre's attendance record was also smashed during the week, Reagan pointed out, with a new high of 80,427 persons seeing the swashbuckling pirate romance. According to later reports from Montague Salmon, manager of the Rivoli, the first day of the second week topped the opening day by several hundred dollars, thus setting still another record. The seating capacity is under 2100. October WAC Films to Focus Attention on War in Pacific Two of the three War Activities Committee film releases for the month of October will focus the attention of the public on the war in the Pacific. The three films, all short subjects, will be distributed and exhibited by the motion picture industry in cooperation with the Office of War Information. Two of the shorts, "It's Murder," produced by Columbia and set for release October 12, and "Target— Japan," set for October 26— are one-reelers, while the third is a brief "film bulletin," attached to all the newsreels the week of October 9th, to serve as a trailer for the forthcoming Sixth War Loan. Kirsch Dedicates Honor Roll To Allied Illinois Servicemen An honor roll listing the names of 268 employes of Allied Theatres of Illinois in service was dedicated by Jack Kirsch, the association's president, as a feature of the ceremonies at a general membership luncheon Thursday at the Hotel Blackstone, Chicago. In making the dedication, Kirsch said : "Their sacrifices on the Allied battlefronts make it our solemn duty to express ourselves in advancing democracy on the home front by graduating to higher standards the theatre as a civic institution and the exhibition of the motion picture as a medium of culture and fine art through which the peoples of the world may be educated to live in peace." Magazine Format for Newsreel RKO Pathe News inaugurates a new type newsreel presentation in its current release which in broad-scope one-story magazine style, incorporates numerous individual stories into one main subject, "Allies Enter Germany." 'Princess and Pirate' Tradeshow RKO. Radio will tradeshow Samuel Goldwyn's latest Technicolor production, "The Princess and the Pirate" on Tuesday, 10 :30 a.m., at the Normandie Theatre, New York. Colossal Budgets Out? Films of the colossal type, with budgets running into three or four million dollars, appear to be on their way out so far as post-war production is ccncerned, according to A. J. Gock, vice-president of the Bank of America. Making his statement at the recent American Bankers Convention in Chicago, Gock said the film industry was in the best financial condition in its history, but that he figured the standard investment in production would run about a million after the war. Arthur L. Mayer Now R.C. Officiol in Pacific Arthur L. Mayer, who made a success of horror films at his Rialto Theatre in New York and who deserted this house when he received a call from the War Activities Committee, has now been named Deputy Commissioner of the Red Cross for the Pacific Islands area, it has been announced by Stanton Griffis, commissioner for that district, and Basil O'Connor, chairman of the American Red Cross. Mayer and Griffis will make their headquarters in Hawaii. They expect to leave shortly for their new posts. When the WAC was first set up, Mayer immediately volunteered his full-time services, dispensing entirely with his exhibiting and writing activities. At the WAC he became assistant coordinator, doubling as treasurer of the organization. At the request of Secretary of War Patterson he later headed the Motion Picture Branch, Industrial Services Division, Bureau of Public Relations of the War Department. The Mayer family is engaged in the war effort. One son, Michael, is in the ChinaBurma-India theatre, and the other, Peter, is now in the Signal Corps in this country after having served in the Mediterranean area. Mrs. Mayer is active in civilian defense organizations. H. M. Taliaferro (The Man on the Cover) President of American Seating Company, long prominently identified with the motion picture theatre and a company whose designing, manufacturing and sales departments in collaboration with theatre owners and architects have effected important advancements in the seating accommodations provided patrons of motion picture shows. Statements by Mr. Taliaferro on factors related to the question of how soon new theatre chairs will be available after conversion to civilian manufacture are quoted in an article in the Theatre Equipment & Maintenance section of this issue. SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW Title and Trade Mark Registered U. S. Patent Office Published every Friday by Showmen's Trade Review Inc., 1501 Broadway, New York 18, N. Y. Telephone BRyant 9-5606. Charles E. "Chick" Lewis, Editor and Publisher; Tom Kennedy, Associate Editor; James A. Cron, General Manager ; David Harris, Business and Circulation Manager; Harold Rendall, Equipment Advertising Manager; West Coast Office, 6777 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood 28, California; Telephone Hollywood 2055. Ann Lewis, manager. Ed Raiden, West Coast Editor. London Representative, Milton Deane, 185 Fleet St., London E.C. 4; Australian Representative, Gordon V. Curie, 1 Elliott St., Homebush, Sydney, Australia. Subscription rates per year $2.00 in the United States and Canada; Foreign, $5.00. Single copies, ten cents. Address all Communications to : SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW 1501 Broadway, New York 18, N. Y.