Showmen's Trade Review (1945)

October 20, 1945 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW :7 Doolittle Applauds Industry Gen. Doolittle, who bombed Tokyo in the early days of the Second World War when the Japs said it couldn't be done, added a special tribute to the film industry for its great effort in the war. ' Said Gen. Doolittle in praising the industry : "You men and women have responded magnificently to every call made upon you for the welfare of our nation. The millions of men mho were in the foxholes and behind the lines will bear testimony to what Hollywood has done. You know the man in combat wanted more than anything else to be home. Of course, he couldn't come home until he finished the job. But you carried home to him out there on the far-flung battlefronts. You did it at great personal sacrifice by individual appearances under the most trying conditions. You did it with motion pictures. You may not be aware of it, but you even did more — you actually added to the combat man-hours by boosting the morale of our fighting men. Fewer men, fighting with high morale, can do much more than a larger number of men who are dispirited." Ace Advertising, Publicity Men On Drive Backed by a wealth of experts in the advertising, publicity and exploitation fields, various WAC committees have been working night and day preparing accessories and other material for making the Victory Loan Campaign the final "all-out" effort for the industry. More than 125 men in the field and the home office have been concentrating the efforts in mapping ideas and preparing advance material for exhibitors to make use of in the Victory Loan Campaign. Donahue & Coe advertising agency has placed its best manpower at the disposal of the WAC committee and E. J. Churchill, president, has assigned to the committee, 0. A. Kingsbury, who has been acting as liaison between WAC and his company. Carl Rigrod has been working with the Treasury Department and the major radio networks on scripts and special programs to be put on the air during the six-week drive. William Schneider of the same company has been top man for creative art for posters, ads and the campaign book, while Jac Thall, Al Weisz, Lloyd Seidman and a number of others have been assisting in various capacities. Frank P. Rosenberg, of Columbia, who was serving as publicity director, was called to Hollywood for new studio duties by his company, and his activities at Victory Loan headquarters have been taken over by Ray Beall, of Interstate Theatres. Seadier's Return Engagement Si Seadler, advertising manager for MetroGoldwyn-Mayer, is head of the trade paper advertising committee, and has had Gil Golden, advertising manager for Warner, and Otto Luther, Warner artist, assisting. In addition Sam Forgoston of MGM's advertising department, and Nathan Lax of United Artists, have been handling the production and distribution of advertising plates to trade papers. Don Gillette, Warner trade paper contact, The S upreme Effort By Nicholas M. Schenck President of Loenfs, Inc., and MGM This final bond drive is the most im pcrtant in which we have engaged, must have our supreme effort. The talents and facilities of the industry must be put behind Secretary Vinson to make this last bond campaign the most successful cf all. It and Bill Ornstein, MGM trade paper contact, have been preparing and serving news hot off the griddle to the trade publications. Irving Blumberg of Warners' Philadelphia publicity staff also has been working closely with WAC headquarters in New York on ideas and campaigns. Ed Schreiber. vice-president of Richard Condon, Inc., prepared the special pressbook with the assistance of Henry Spiegel, Paul Walker, Harold Danziger, and George Ettinger of Columbia's publicity department. Ed Goth, publicity director for Fabian Theatres in Richmond, has also been doing extra curricula work at WAC on promotional campaigns. Janet Sawyer of the 20th Century-Fox publicity department and George Frazer of the RKO publicity department also have been on tap day and night preparing and planting special material for the campaign. In Hollywood. Arch Reeve has been handling all publicity activities for the Hollywood Victory Committee, of which Louis B. Mayer is chairman, and Charles P. Skouras, president of National Theatres, acting as liaison between WAC and Mayer's committee. Tom Baily, who served as liaison for WAC in Washington during the last drive, .has taken up similar activities for the "final" drive. Industry Produces 21 Films for Campaigns (Continued from Page 6) tury-Fox, and "Hollywood Victory Caravan," a Paramount subject. Casts for these films made up a blue book of Hollywood. Among the stars appearing in trailers were James Cagney, Rosalind Russell, Bette Davis, Carole Landis, Alan Ladd. Ginger Rogers, Ann Sothern. Bob Hope, Eddie Bracken. Jennifer Jones. Edward Arnold. Bing Crosby. Lt. Comm. Robert Montgomery. Fred MacMurray and Clark Gable. Studios which produced the trailers were Columbia, Warner Bros., 20th Century-Fox. RKO and Rainbow, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount and David O. Selznick. Each trailer played a total of 16,000 theatres and all subjects were contributed by the studios. Members of the Screen Actors Guild, Screen Directors Guild and Hollywood Writers Mobilization participated in their preparation. Hth lookt °Ve* sit, *»* . * Off,, „. 'w Cow «-f« it - ana of