Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1945)

8 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW May 5. 1945 Depinet Sees Films Sponsored by Majors Holding Patronage (Sec Cover) Bronzed, smiling and apparently eager to get back into harness, Ned E. Depinet, president of RKO Radio, returned on Monday morning to his office at company headquarters in New York after an absence of more than 10 weeks following an illness suffered in Los Angeles in mid-February while on a trip in connection with the industry's Red Cross drive. Depinet said that during his vacation in Phoenix, Arizona, he had plenty of time to think and that all of his observations and thoughts on film business further convinced him that the industry will play as great a role in the reconstruction following the peace as it has during the war. He indicated his belief that the levels of theatre attendance will be maintained after the war and that the industry's production, distribution and exhibition branches will have a greater responsibility than at anytime in the past in bringing people of various countries into contact with one another and serve as a medium of enlightenment. Depinet stressed evidences which he said he observed as a movie fan attending a show every night during his vacation in Phoenix. The interest displayed by people in newsreels as well as the entertainment portions of shows, he said, impressed him with the important function the motion picture now performs. The RKO Radio president paid compliment to Bob Mochrie and Phil Reisman — general sales manager and head of foreign distribution, respectively— for the job they had performed during his absence. He expressed regret that there probably will not be a national sales convention of the company this year. "I am a great believer in these get-togethers of all of the boys at least once a year," he said. Will Whitmore Is Appointed Western Electric Adv. Manager Appointment of Will Whitmore, advertising supervisor of Western Electric Co., as advertising manager to succeed H. W. Forster, deceased, was announced this week by F. B. Wright, the company's director of public relations. Joining Western Electric in 1929, Whitmore has served the organization continuously since that time. His work in the company's public relations department has covered all phases of publicity, advertising and magazine editing. His articles, especially in the field of popular science, have appeared widely in business, trade and photographic magazines. Plan to Fete Goldstein A farewell dinner to Maurice Goldstein, newly appointed Monogram eastern division sales manager, is scheduled for May 14 at the Hotel Taft in New Haven. Reservations are being made by Connecticut film men, as well as guests from Boston and New York. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS Advance Dope 34 Box-Office Slants 16 Current Product Summary 45 Feature Booking Guide 41 Feature Guide Title Index 44 Hollywood 36 Newsreel Synopses 34 Program Exchange 18 Regional Newsreel 22 Selling the Picture 19 Shorts Booking Guide 46 Short Subject Reviews 34 The Show Builder 38 Due to an engraver's error, the names of the companies which inserted the special eight-page Seventh War Loan message in the trade publications were inadvertently omitted. The companies which sponsored the insert, as part of their contribution to the War Loan campaign, are: Columbia, MGM, Paramount, RKO Radio, Twentieth Century-Fox, United Artists, Universal and Warner Bros. These inserts appeared in the special War Loan sections and issues of the trade papers which appeared late last week. Dickson Rejoins FWC In Executive Post Dick Dickson, veteran showman of both the exhibition and production ends of the industry, has rejoined Fox West Coast Theatres as head of the Maintenance-Purchasing-Construction De ' partment of the circuit's theatres throughout California, it was announced last week by Charles P. Skouras. He succeeds in the assignment R. H. McCullough, recently promoted by Skouras to head of the Television and Pre-fabricated construction departments of National Theatres, Inc. Dickson, familiar with all phases of the theatre business, was formerly a district manager with Fox West Coast. He left the organization four years ago to enter the production end of the Industry. Dick Dickson Result of Time Rebellion Awaited by Minn. Exhibitors When rural Minnesota legislators forced what was thought to be a "gesture" measure to restore standard time in the state, displacing war time, before they would pass bills in which Governor Thye was particularly interested, rebellion opened in the Legislature. In spite of the Legislature, the Minneapolis City Council voted to remain on war time, and other large cities in the state are expected to follow suit. As a result, small town and rural managers fear that night clubs may seize the opportunity to add an hour to operating schedules by siding with the Legislature and returning to standard time. On the other hand, theatremen in the larger cities do not expect the rebellion to have any effect on operations. Bergman in WAC Relations Post Maurice Bergman, Eastern advertising and publicity director of Universal Pictures, has been named chairman of the public relations division of the War Activities Committee of the industry, it was announced by Francis S. Harmon, vice-chairman and coordinator of the committee. Bergman is the latest of a group of motion picture advertising and publicity men who have headed the WAC division. Others include Maj. Monroe Greenthal, United Artists ; Oscar Doob, Loew's, and Harry Goldberg, Warner Bros. Sachson Back at Desk Arthur Sachson, Warners' assistant general sales manager, returned to his desk Monday (April 30) after being confined to his home since February because of a serious spinal ailment. Nazi Atrocity Films Released to Public Release Tuesday of newsreels showing conditions in notorious Nazi "death" camps met with a general reaction of silence or muttered rage when exhibited in New York first-run and neighborhood theatres. Only New York City first-run theatre deleting the atrocity scenes from its newsreel was Radio City Music Hall whose managing director, Gus Eyssell, explained that since the theatre is patronized by a large number of women and children, he did not wish to take any chance on "shocking and sickening any squeamish persons in the audience." [The films were attracting record-breaking business to New York newsreel theatres, it was learned Thursday, attracting the largest crowds since the newsreel pictures of the HindenbergGraf Zeppelin disaster. Audience reaction was recorded by an Army Signal Corps newsreel unit in front of the Embassy on Broadway, where the sensational 13-minute Russian film of the Nazi murder factory at Maidanek was shown along with the American companies' release on the same subject. [Irving Shapiro, independent producer, claimed that the Hays Office banned "Atrocities," a documentary feature based on footage claimed to have been furnished by the Russian Government and OWI, because "it shows 97 documentary German atrocities and because its narrator uses the word 'damned'." From informed quarters, however, it was said that the Production Code Administration had not rejected the producer's application for a code seal and that the matter was still in process of adjudication.] Made up of footage photographed by Army Signal Corps cameramen who visited Nordhausen, Buchenwald, Ohrdruf and Hadamar, the pictures were prefaced, in some instances, by warnings to the audience not to look "if you are susceptible to gruesome sights." Indications were, however, that patrons were determined to see. An early report on audience reaction in the field, coming from St. Louis, disclosed that while the pictures had a profound effect on theatre patrons, with some women emitting suppressed gasps and others averting their eyes, the majority simply sat through the showings without expressing any particular emotion. In Washington full attendance at two screenings of Pathe News were urged in simultaneous announcements from the floors of the House and Senate. George Dorsey, Pathe's Washington Bureau head who arranged the screenings, said that 250 to 300 legislators, as well as the press and others, attended each showing. Another screening Tuesday for the House Appropriations and Steering Committees was requested by Speaker Sam Rayburn. Unanimous opinion _ of the legislators who saw the films, it was said, " was that they should be seen by everyone in the United States. 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 Pubhsher; Tom Kennedy, Associate Editor; James A. Cron, General Manager; Ralph Cokain, Managing Editor; David Harris, Business and Circulation Man ager; Harold Rendall, Equipment Advertising Manager, West Coast Office, 6777 Hollywood Boulevard, Holly wood 28, California; Telephone Hollywood 2055. Ann Lewis, manager. London Representative, Milton Deanc. 185 Fleet St., London E.C. 4; Australian Representa rive, Gordon V. Curie, 1 ElHott St., Homebush, Sydney, Australia. Member Audit Bureau of Circulations. All contents copyright 1945 'by Showmen's Trade Review, Inc. { Address all correspondence to the New York office. Subscription rates : $2.00 per year in the United States and Canada ; Foreign, $5.00. Single copies, ten cents