Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1945)

28 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW April 14, 1945 REGIONAL Continued toria theatres, and on the side streets respectively on which are located the Bijou and Morosco theatres and the Fulton Theatre. The depth on 44th Street is 314 feet, and on 46th Street, 216 feet. Two 4000-seat theatres can be constructed on the property, provided store fronts on the Broadway side are eliminated ; but if a Broadway entrance is planned w'ith stores, then only one theatre is feasible. The Motion Picture Associates will bestow its own type of "Academy Award," on George J. Schaefer, for outstanding work performed in patriotic endeavor, in conjunction with its dinner and dance scheduled for either May 24 or 25 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The award is a forerunner of an annual award in the future and will center around a personality in the industry who has either accomplished the job in connection with the war, if the war should continue into the following year, or in the event of its termination, be bestowed on a member of the industry for outstanding achievement in humanitarian endeavor. While this year's award is the result of a ballot taken among its own members, future ballots will be distributed to approximately 1000 in the industry in the metropolitan section. It remained for a letter received by Moe Rose, MGM booker here, from Cpl. Harold Rosen, former Universal booker now stationed in France, to illustrate again how small a world it really is. Cpl. Rosen, conducting a 10-piece orchestra for the Army's entertainment and citizens on a furlough in Paris, met a resident who is a sister of Adolf Weiss, operator of the Gramercy Theatre here. CIO Local 1, comprising front office employes of Loew's, United Artists and 20th-Fox held a meeting Tuesday for job classification. Gustave A. Gerber, New York attorney, will again serve as chairman for the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York, it has been announced here by Monroe Goldwater, chairman of the 1945 campaign. Gerber has been head of the speakers bureau for the UJA since 1941, and is a director of the Saratoga Springs Foundation, and impartial chairman of the Residence Clubs. Executive committeemen will hold their first organizational meeting on Thursday, April 19, at 12:30, at the Hotel Astor, according to the co-chairmen of the division, David Bernstein, Major Albert Warner and Barney Balaban. Moe Silver, Pittsburgh zone manager for Warner Theatres ; James Totman, his assistant ; C. J. Latta, Albany zone manager, and Charles A. Smakwitz, assistant, arrived here early this week for conferences with Joseph Bernhard, Harry ]\I. Kalmine, Harry Goldberg and other home office executives. T/Sgt. Jack Ward, familiar to Broadway purchasing and maintenance executives as counter clerk in National's N. Y. branch, has .weathered .1 experience at the front such as happens only to a few. Sgt. Ward stepped on a land mine — •nd lives to tell about it. His friends at National's home offices received the following information about it in a letter that arrived this week : "This damn war," Ward wrote, "has caught up with me. My buddy and I were carrying signal equipment for a special job and had' nearly arrived at our destination when BANG ! Something threw us into a tree. We had stepped on a land mine . . . they tell me in this English iiospital that the broken leg will be healed in no time and there isn't any cause for you to worry as I'm getting the best of care and all I have to do is to lie here and wait for the leg to heal. Pretty lazy, huh?" BOSTON \ Bernard H. H. Stevens of the Hampton Theatre, Hampton Center, N. H., has filed a clearance complaint with the American Arbitration Association tribunal in Boston naming 20th-Fox, RKO and Warner Bros. Under the existing clearance, the theatres in Newburyport, Haverhill and Amesbury, Mass., and theatres in Exeter and Portsmouth, N. H., have from seven to 30 days over the Hampton Theatre. The complaint claims that all clearances are unreasonable with the exception of the clearance held by the loka and Exeter and asks that they be eliminated. According to a report here Loew's will build a large theatre in the center of Norwich, Conn., immediately upon the availability of materials. John Sullivan, James Sargent and Robert Quealy have been added to the staff of the Lynn Paramount Theatre. The E. M. Loew and the Phil Smith DriveIns will open early in May. Mr. and Mrs. Ted Saunders have announced the birth of a daughter. Bucky Levin has been promoted to a captaincy accordmg to a letter received by Abe Barry of Columbia. Sam Israel of the Capitol Theatre, Lowell, Mass., donated the opening day's receipts of the Park Theatre, Nashua, N. H., to the Red Cross. Ralph Staughton, son of the owner of the Fryburg Theatre, Fryburg, ' Me., has entered the Chelsea Naval Hospital for an operation on his eyes necessitated by an injury received in oversea's duty with the Army. Mickey Daytz, a brotner of Al Daytz with Warner Bros, here will join the WB sales staff in Albany. The Lt. A. Vernon Macaulay Theatrical Post of the American Legion on March 31 dedicated the Maurice J. Tobin Canteen to Governor Tobin, who was present at the ceremony. New members elected to the post include Joseph M. Cohan, David L. Schoolman, George R. Spivack and Miss Ruth Holmes, an ex-Wave and the first and only woman in its membership. A fund was raised by the post recently for late Patrolman Frank B. Callahan, well known on Film Row, who died of bullet wounds in the line of duty, and was presented to his family. The^ Lyric Theatre, Fitohburg, Mass., was damaged by a fire recently which started in the cellar. Morris Pearlstein, former proprietor of the Modern Theatre in Brockton, Mass., and the Randolph, Randolph, Mass., which were leased to the Interstate Circuit recently, is vacationing in Florida. Lt. Leon Task, owner of the Ideal Theatre, Milford, Mass., and the Keith in Brockton, Mass., has received a medical discharge and is on the inactive list. A fire which started back of the screen at the Uptown Theatre, Lynn, Mass., was quickly extinguished but necessitated the presence of two police officers to quiet the audience. The performance continued after a limited interruption. The Capans Amusement Co., will move to the Colonial Building. Several hundred people in the Capitol Theatre, Fall River, Mass., left in orderly fashion when a fire recently was discovered in a projection booth. Ushers and management were commended for their alertness by civic authorities. CHICAGO Some 32 employes of B & K theatres and Great States Circuit who have been discharged from various branches of the service have been reinstated in their former positions here to date. Larry Stein has resigned as advertising manager of the Warner Theatres after 14 years' service with the organization. He expects to go into advertising agency work. Abraham Teitelbaum, attorney, has purchased the Fine Arts 10-story building on Michigan Avenue housing the Studebaker and World Playhouse theatres for a reported consideration of $650,000. Willoughby Co. will continue to manage the property for the new owner. Sam Epstein, attorney, disclosed that the Shubert Theatrical Enterprises have acquired a long lease on the 2000-seat Majestic Theatre from the Monroe interests which bought the 14-story Majestic building from the Lehman estate. This gives the Shuberts five loop theatres. Tentative plans, call for modernizing the theatre when priorities can be obtained. Joe Kaufman, former B & K head film buyer, is directing his first film for Monogram in Hollywood. Hack Flynn, MGM Western manager, announced that the company's Chicago exchanges here so far have met all theatre demands despite the print reduction. B week here requires 22 prints ; C week, 49 ; first week general release, 65 prints ; second week, 88 ; and third week 45 prints. Harry Wood, Marbro Theatre stage manager, and Mrs. Wood have announced the birth of a son. Pfc. Eugene L. Hayden, former Senate Theatre service expert, has been reported missing in action overseas, according to word received here from the War Department. The Manta Rose Circuit have announced the addition of Jim Chrissis' New Rex and Owl theatres to its chain. While Erwin K. Lancebach, former manager of the Kerasates Palace Theatre, Chillicothe, 111., is in the Army, Mrs. Lancebach will replace him as manager. Sgt. Theodore A. Daum, formerly with the (Continued on Page 31) THEY SIGNED THE PACT. Shown above are the principal pact-signers in the recent deal which assures distribution of International pictures by RKO Radio for another year. From left to right: Leo Spitz, International's chairman of the board; N. Peter Rathvon, RKO Radio's chairman of the board; Laurence Green, RKO Radio director; William Goetz, International president. First pictures to be released under the new deal are "Along Came Jones," "Tomorrow Is Forever" and "Countess of Monte Cristo."