Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1946)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, June 22, 1946 13 NATIONAL NEWSREEL Exhibitors Calm As They Study ^Decree^ Opinion (Continued from Page 4) the highest bidder, but thought that putting film on the auction block would lead to some confusion. The part of the decision dealing with unreasonable clearance Nathan thought was a setup in the right direction. He is in accord with the stipulation that companies will have to have 95 per cent interest to retain theatres and hopes to see the end of pools. "Prepared changes will help the independent showmen unanimously," Irving Ackerman," owner of the Nob Hill, the Down Town and now constructing the Stage Door theatre, said. He assailed the practice of pooling in that it keeps the small independent exhibitor from getting product and said : "A real, honest to God showman puts his heart and soul into exploitation and exhibition of the production of a picture if he is given honest treatment and believes in the product he has bought as the highest bidder." In the Portland, Oregon, area, leading independent theatre owners saw no special advantage of buying films singly. Regarding "divorcement," they appeared to believe in the old adage, "live and let live." They see no cause for resentment of big chains maintaining downtown theatres and remarkably enough they have no objection to pictures being "milked" by holdovers, claiming that the prestige of a long run is good advertising. But they also believe that chains ought to stay out of the suburban areas. Officials of the Oregon section of the Pacific Coast Conference of Independent Theatre Owners stated they would not care to make any statement in regard to "divorcement at this time. On the whole they do not favor additional court action or legislation to procure divorcement. Officials of the Oregon section of the Pacific Coast Conference of Independent Theatre Owners preferred not to comment until the entire Pacific Coast membership had adopted a stand on the opinion. That exhibitors were for the most part cautious in their approach to opinion and did not see any immediate benefits in it was best illustrated by comments from such diverse places as Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, Atlanta, Memphis, . New Orleans and Dallas. Here the attitude seemed to be that time alone would decide whether the opinion worked any actual benefits for the average exhibitor. Opens 16 Caravan For Island Mt. Sections While building six new theatres to increase his chain to 28, Ramos Cobian, Puerto Rican theatre magnate, intends to concentrate his next efforts in the development of a 16-mm. system of traveling units to reach districts that can not support regular 3S-mm. houses, he said in an interview at the Hotel Astor, at New York on Wednesday. In the case of Puerto Rico, Cobian explained, about 70 per cent of the population live in the mountains away from San Juan and other city areas. These people never see a movie, or if they do it is only once a year. The only way to reach them would be by traveling 16-mm. units. He already has three such units, completely equipped, which are starting operations this week. He plans twelve such units before the year is out. May Answer Monday Attorney Miles Seeley was scheduled to file the distributors' reply Monday in Chicago to the $6,750,000 triple-damage federal court suit filed by H. Schoenstadt and Sons in connection with their Piccadilly Theatre. The suit, long dormant, was revived in May, after the Jackson Park Theatre decision, with a request for the triple damages plus an additional $750,000 for alleged damage done the theatre. In his complaint Schoenstadt claimed that the B&K Tivoli and the Warner Avalon received preferential treatment over the Piccadilly, which had to play 13 weeks behind them. Defendants are: RKO, Paramount, Columbia, MGM, Warner Bros., 20th Century-Fox, Universal, Balaban & Katz and Warner Theatres. Steffes, Allied Leader, Dies of Heart Failure Funeral services for W. A. (Al) Steffes, 59, founding member of National Allied, as well as one-time president and director of that associaI '^SMBKt tion v.'ere scheduled to be I . <^mMKmk held from St. Joseph's Church in Minneapolis Saturday (22) morning. Steffes, powerhouse member of the Allied group who had been in the thick and thin of almost every controversy between his association and distributors, died of heart failure Wednesday while undergoing an operation at the University Hospital. He had been suffering from ill health since 1940 when he collapsed at an Allied board meeting in Washington. However, he refused to be inactive and continued to take part in Allied affairs. During his career he headed Northwest Allied for a quarter of a century and was also a director in North-Central Allied. He was also active in national theatre movements and headed the 1944 war bond drive. Steffes owned the World Theatre in Minneapolis and was a partner with Ben Berger in the St. Paul World at the time of his death. 'Al' Steffes Minnesota Theatres Raise Prices A general increase, in price admissions for the Northwest seemed possible this week as the Minnesota Amusement led off with raises for theatres in western Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota. Independents, generally, were said to be waiting to follow the lead of this circuit after they had observed what effects the price increase had on the box office. Already however, several independents in the St. Paul sector have raised admission five cents while in the north sector of Minneapolis four and five cents admission raises have been noted. Major Bowes Major Bowes Buried In Sleepy Hollow, Was 71 Major Edward Bowes, one-time managing director of the Capitol Theatre and the man whose polished accents helped make amateurs a paying business, was buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery near Tarrytown, N. Y., Monday after a pontifical requiem mass was celebrated for him in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York by Francis Cardinal Spellman before an attendance which exceeded 2000. Major Bowes died at his home in Rumson, N. J. June 13, the day before his 72nd birthday. Born in San Francisco in a family of four, the loss of his father at the age of six sent him out to make a living. He earned his first pay as an usher at an educators' convention where he made side money by penning personal cards for the delegates in a flowing Spencerian style. Later he got into the real estate business only to be burned out in 1906 by the fire which followed an eal'thquake. Faced by heavy debt he started again, buying land where he thought San Francisco's new business area would be. His guess proved right and Bowes, wealthy once more, went east where he became associated with the operation of the Cort Theatre, New York, and the Park Square Theatre, Boston. Built Capitol In 1918 he built the Capitol Theatre, New York, in association with Messmore Kendall ana remained there as managing director until 1941. It was Bowes who used radio for theatre advertising at a time when a large number of theatremen opposed radio as competition. The First Capitol Theatre program went on the air in 1922 as "Major Bowes Capital Family" and remained on the air until 1941. As a vice-president of MGM, Bowes was station manager for WHN where he inaugurated the original amateur hour which was to make him nationally famous. Bowes, who was a staff specialist in the Officers' Reserve Corps during World War I, was married to actress Margaret Illington in 1908, a union which terminated in her death in 1934. He is survived by a sister, Mrs. Ethel Bowes Smith of Santa Cruz, Calif. Ex-MPTOA Chief Dies Funeral services for Michael J. O'Toole, 74, one time president of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America and former publicity head for the Comerford Theatres, were held this week in Scranton. He is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Helen O'Toole Daley, secretary to MPTOA president emeritus Ed Kuykendall. Allied May Form Buying Unit .A.llied of Pennsylvania is reportedly preparing to set up a buying and booking combine to serve that area. John Dalton Passes Away Funeral services for John Dalton, 82-year old father of silent screen movie heroine Dorothy Dalton, wife of Arhur Hammerstein were held at Graceland Cemetery.