Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1944)

10 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW November 25, 1944 Variety Clubs Award in National Spotlight Event Honoring Hull Marks Climax of Meet to Expand Organization's Activities The Variety Clubs of America this week will essay the most important publicly-played role essayed thus far in the seventeen year history of the organization, when a wartime national meeting in Washington, D. C, will be climaxed by the presentation of the Humanitarian Award to Secretary of State Cordell Hull in a ceremony to which international significance attaches, with high government officials participating as honored guests of the occasion to take place at the Mayflower Hotel on Friday evening, November 24. Official Washington, as represented by members of the Administration, military officers of high rank and members of Congress, will join officers and delegates of the Variety Clubs and leading figures in the film industry in paying tribute to the great American upon whom the Humanitarian Award will be conferred in recognition of Secretary Hull's "tireless efforts in behalf of world peace," as the citation of the Award Committee states. The Washington meeting, the ninth national business conference of the Variety Clubs, opened Thursday (November 22) with the 24 Tents, or local regional clubs, represented by a "streamlined" delegation in conformity to the plan for a limited gathering for this important wartime meeting. National officers and the individual club representatives got together on important overall programs contemplated for an extension of the Variety Clubs' activities both along the lines of their established local charity endeavors and expansion of war activities in conjunction with the motion picture industry and allied amusement enterprises. Further business sessions were scheduled for Friday and Saturday, with Sunday set aside for the first meeting of re-elected and newly elected national officers. Nothing more forcibly emphasized the importance which attached to the gathering of the Variety Clubs' officers and delegates than the guest list for the presentation dinner centering about the Humanitarian Award to Secretary Hull. The list includes the names of internationally prominent government officials, diplomats, high ranking officers of the military, presidents of the leading film companies and organizations associated with the film industry. It follows : From Washington: Justice James F. Byrnes, Assistant to the President; Paul V. McNutt, War Manpower Commission; E. R. Stettinius, Under Secretary of State; C. W. Gray, Executive Assistant to the Secretary of State; M. J. McDermott, Special Assistant to Secretary of State; Hathaway Watson, State D»nartment; Walter Brown, State Department; Rear Admiral L. H. Thebaud, Assistant Ch,ef of Staff to Adm.ral King; General A. A. Vandergift, Commandant of the U. S. Marine Corps; Brigadier General R. L. Denig, U. S. Marine Corps; Vice Admiral R. R. Waesche, Commandant, U. S. Coast Guard; Rear Admiral W. B. Young, U. S. Navy; Rear Admiral Ben Moreell, Father of the Seabees; A. L. Gates, Assistant Secretary of Navy for Air; Ted Gamble, Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury; Ambassador Cimon Diamantopoulos, Greece; Senator Walter F. George, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance; Senator Tom Connolly; Senator Carl Hatch; Senator Warren Austin; Senator Arthur Walsh; Senator Theodore F. Green; Senator Kenneth McKellar; Hon. John Russell Young, President of the Board of Commissioners for D. C. ; Col. C. W. Kutz, Board of Commissioners, D. C. ; R. W. Coyne, Treasury Department; Col. Curtis Mitchell, U. S. Army; Col. Frank McCarthy, U. S. Army; Majir Alfred Bendell, U. S. Army; Captain Ellis Reed-Hill, U. S. Marine Corps; Governor Herbert O'Conor of Maryland. From the Film Industry: Barney Balaban, Charles Reagan. Austin Keough, Claude Lee, Paramount; Spyros Skouras, Tom Connors, 20th Century-Fox ; Will Hays, MPPDA; Harry M. Warner, Charles Einfeld, Ben Kalmenson, Warner Bros. ; Jack Cohn, Columbia; W. Ray Johnston, Monogram; J. R. Grainger, Republic; George Schaefer, WAC; Herman Robbins, George Dembow, National Screen Service; N. Peter Rathvon, RKO Radio; Nate Blijmberg, William Scully, Edward L. McEvoy, Universal; Ed Raftery, Grad Sears, United Artists; Leo J. McCarthy, PRC; J. Robert Rubin, Loew's, Inc.; Neil Agnew, Hugh Owen, Vanguard; Edmund Reek, Tony Muto, Fox Movietone News; A. J. Richard, Paramount Newsreel; Ben Shlyen, Boxoffice ; Tom Baily, Industry contact with the Treasury Department. Prior to the meeting in Washington, National Chief Barker R. J. O'Donnell indicated that R. J. O'Donnell National Chief Barker Carter Barron 1st Asst. National Chief Barker Earl Sweigert 2nd Asst. National Chief Barker Marc Wolf National Dough Guy Lou Rome National Property Master John H. Harris "Big Boss" James C. Balmer Ceremonial Barker C f "Chick" Lewis Publicity Director Vital Role for Clubs Praising the Variety Clubs of America for the "marvelous job already done," Ed Kuykendall, president of the MPTOA, this week suggests that an even greater opportunity will be offered to the organization for effective work in the postwar era. Kuykendall's suggestion, that an even greater role can be played when "our war activ'ties end," and the industry should enccurage the organization to the end that worthy welfare and charity drives receive organized cooperation, was contained in a bulletin issued this week to the membership of the MPTOA. one of the subjects on the agenda for discussion and action by the Variety Clubs will be the move initiated at the national meeting last year for the organization to sponsor support of the Sister Kenny Institute through contributions toward the training of nurses to administer the treatments developed by Sister Elizabeth Kenny for infantile paralysis. Sister Kenny received the Variety Clubs' Humanitarian Award for 1943. Another leading feature of the business sessions will be the complete report on the most ambitious undertaking since the inception of the Variety Clubs, the boys' ranch now being operated by Variety Club Tent No. 17, Dallas. The Washington Tent is playing host to the national meeting, and its officials, headed by National First .Assistant Chief Carter Barron, worked with national officers in organizing the details for the four-day event. Plan Survey as Aid In 'Dimes' Campaign In preparation for the 1945 March of Dimes campaign, a nation-wide survey to compile data on the most practicable, efficient manner in which to conduct this charity-campaign collection in theatres, is now under way by the national motion picture committee. From the facts gathered from exhibitors, a consensus on methods will be broadcast to all exhibitors in the 1945 March of Dimes campaign book, according to Oscar A. Doob of the campaign committee. "Instead of projecting theories and merely hopeful ideas, we plan to make use of the fact tliat some 11,000 exhibitors now have plenty of actual, firing-line experience gained in the highly successful Marches of Dimes in '42, '43 and '44," said Doob. Doob has requested to exhibitors whose collections topped the lists in each state, and also to several hundred exhibitors whose collections topped all others in their cities, to tell what and why they did it to get such outstanding results. Their comment will be quoted in the campaign book now being prepared. All exhibitors are invited to send their comments to the committee. Suite 124, Hotel Astor, N. Y. Schenck Names Committee For 1945 Campaign Nicholas M. Schenck, national chairman of the industry's 1945 March of Dimes drive (Jan. 25-31) this week announced the Executive Committee that will pilot the campaign. The Committee is made up as follows : Barney Balaban, Joseph Bernhard, Harry Brandt, Oscar A. Doob, Gus Eyssell, S. H. Fabian, Harry Kalmine, Malcolm Kingsberg, O. C. Moskowitz, Herman Robbins, Spyros Skouras, Joseph R. Vogel, Richard Walsh. Ernest Emerling will act as Public Relations Chairman.