Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1945)

40 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW May 5, 1945 THERE'S GOLD IN THE THAR KIDS. Having found that juvenile attendance can really pay oif at the box-office, Manager W. C. Tyers of Odeon's Capitol Theatre, Niagara Falls, Ontario, has made children's shows one of the theatre's specialties. To accommodate the crowd pictured above, which represents those still waiting at 10:30 a.m. to gain entrance to a house whose doors had opened at 9:00 and had filled to capacity by 9:20, Manager Tyers was compelled to schedule a second performance starting at 11:30 a.m. The program was made up of cartoons, and a special feature was several prizes of bunny-rabbits. The already-swelled head of Warners' brash carrotchomping Bugs Bunny is probably near the bursting point, what with his name right up there on the marquee. Paramount M5-46 Program of 62 Shorts Launched by Morgan at Regional Meets Oscar Morgan Through a series of ten regional conferences with Paramount district and branch managers from coast to coast, Oscar Morgan, short subjects sales manager, is launching the new 1945-46 season on Paramount shorts. First of the meetings, all of which are limited to district and branch managers because of the war emergency, was held in New York last Monday, followed by Boston on Wednesday and Thursday, with a Philadelphia session set for May 4-5. Other points on the itinerary include Atlanta, May 7-8; Dallas, May 10-11; Los Angeles, May 13-19; Denver, May 21-22; Kansas City, May 23-24; Chicago, May 25-26, and Cleveland, May 27-28. While on the coast Morgan will spend some time with Paramount studio heads Henry Ginsberg and Y. Frank Freeman, together with George "Dink" Templeton, newly appointed producer of the Musical Parade featurettes. He will also confer with Jerry Fairbanks and George Pal on their respective product, as well as Ralph Ravenscroft, shorts west coast publicity representative. Several radical departures in distribution are being discussed at the sales meetings. In addition, Morgan is announcing an augmented advertising schedule which calls for regular monthly trade ads besides the traditional announcement of product at the beginning of the season. Sales figures, according to Morgan, "indicate a definite trend to play more shorts than ever before. Besides a general overall increase in shorts sales over the previous year, it is noted that some large circuits in strong double-feature territories have materially increased their use of shorts by replacing the second feature with shorts in many key points." Paramount shorts starts its fifth year as a separate department, having been established in 1941, and the encouraging progress is at tributed to this concentration on shorts. All matters pertaining to shorts distribution clear through Morgan under the direct supervision of Charles M. Reagan, vice-president and general sales manager of the company. Morgan said the company's experience with this policy during the past two years had "paid off." He added that, beginning with the advent of the two-reel Musical Parades in Technicolor, many innovations had enhanced the quality of the company's product over the past two years, including the increased use of Technicolor and the gradual tightening-up and emphasis on quality and variety. As proof of this, Morgan pointed to Paramount's record as a three-time (in three consecutive years) Academy Award winner for the best one-reel subject of the year and the record of the company's shorts in practically every exhibitor poll. Morgan revealed a few minor changes in Paramount's 1945-46 shorts program. Instead of six George Pal Puppetoons in Technicolor there will be eight. There will be six Musical Parades in Technicolor, 20 cartoons in Technicolor including eight Popeyes, six Little Lulus and six Noveltoons. Jerry Fairbanks will contribute six Speaking of Animals, six Popular Science and six Unusual Occupations. Jack Eaton will produce ten Grantland Rice Sportlights, thus rounding out a program of 62 subjects embodying nine different shorts series. SHORTS SHOPPING {Continued from Page 38) the outline of Roosevelt's life story was sketched. The problem was an immense one. In order to work fast, there was no opportunity to weigh scene against scene with ordinary care. Working mainly from memory, and mindful that many important aspects of the President's life would have to be left out, a subject was plotted which nevertheless, gave emphasis to its most significant and most colorful phases. "Because of the wartime agreement among all newsreels, it was necessary to secure unani mous consent for a 'special' release. All reels agreed, and Pathe's problem from there on was strictly its own: to make up the reel and get it into the nation's theatres as quickly as possible. "Arrangements were set up for coverage in Warm Springs and other points. George Ronan and Frank Clarke made three-way emergency reservations for travel to Atlanta. But fortunately Charles Beeland, one-time Pathe representative in Atlanta, was located in Brunswick, Ga., on production work for the Navy, and jumped into the assignment. After an overnight drive across the state to Warm Springs, Beeland turned in the Pathe coverage of the President leaving his 'second home' for the last time. "Within a matter of minutes, George Dorsey, Washington manager, Murray Alvey and Andy Willoner were at the White House where, at 7:10, they captured the historic pictures of President Truman's swearing-in, and of the mournful crowd that gathered as the Flag flew at half staff. These pictures, arriving at La Guardia Field at 9:15, formed the sequence of Pathe News No. 68 : Franklin Delano Roosevelt. "Meanwhile, screening and cutting operations were moving ahead at a fast pace. By 3 a.m. the subject had been put completely together. By 5:30 a.m. Dwdght Weist had finished his narration of Al Butterfield's script. By 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. the Spanish and Portuguese narration had been completed. And by four that afternoon (Friday, April 13) Pathe News was on the screen at Radio City Music Hall and at the newsreel theatres. "George Dorsey's swift-moving team bore the brunt of the coverage : following new President Truman, the Cabinet, new Presidential advisers, and military leaders ; discovering and acting on details of the Roosevelt funeral arrangements of Saturday and Sunday ; drawing up plans for the 'roto' coverage by all five newsreels and a total of some 18 cameramen, of the solemn procession through Washington of the Roosevelt cortege. They, and their colleagues, turned in coverage of that procession, of the vast throngs of silent, tearful spectators, and of the Roosevelt casket in the White House East Room. "Saturday, as the entire nation mourned, Pathe representatives covered community services and individual reactions to the tragedy through the country. Bob Donahue and Dave Oliver (Dave was held over for the weekend on leave from the Canadian Government) photographed the streets and the grief-stricken faces of New York. Howard Winner, in Hyde Park, covered the reactions of the little upstate town prior to President Roosevelt's return. Tony Caputo made moving scenes of Chicago's grief, and from San Francisco and Los Angeles, Frank Vail and Willard VanderVeer sent effective pictures to complete the round-up. "Sunday morning, in Hyde Park, Howard Winner photographed the interment of the President in the garden of his home — pictures which no one who has seen them will ever forget — and Bob Donahue followed the arrival of the funeral party through Hyde Park to the estate. "Faced with some 40-odd separate pieces of film on the Roosevelt ceremonies, about 14,000 feet in total length, Ament and the editorial staff produced a subject which ran only 568 feet, but which was an editorial job in which Pathe News can take pride. In order to present the first public address of President Truman, photographed by Dorsey, Alvey, Schmidt and Willoner at the joint session of Congress Monday noon, once again the cruel task of selection forced much that might have added to the treatment, out of the reel. An entire long sequence, photographed by Winner, Donahue, Oliver, Caputo, Vail and VanderVeer, and splendidly put together by Len Hein, showed the national mourning of Roosevelt's death. Regrettably, the whole sequence had to be eliminated. With the same staff working around the clock again on Monday as the previous Thursday, Newsreel No. 69 (Roosevelt: Last Rites, and, Truman : First Message) was finished an hour or so earlier than its predecessor, at about dawn, Tuesday, April 17." Alexander Plugs Bowling Reel Through Livewire Showmanship An example of how a live-wire manager can attract attention to a short subject is illustrated by Joseph Alexander, manager of the RKO Albee in Cincinnati. Having booked the RKOPathe Sportscope, "Five Star Bowlers," the theatre lined up free space in a majority of the local bowling alleys and tacked up a 21x28 twocolor poster calling attention to the short. Tells 'Em Bugs Is on Program When patrons telephoned Manager Jack Hendrix of the State Theatre, Wichita Falls, Texas, desiring information about the show, he told them, among other things, that a Bugs Bunny cartoon, "Bugs Nips the Nips" was being shown on the same program. Result : extra Bugs customers were on hand to see their favorite.