Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1947)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW. January 4, 1947 REGIONAL NEWSREEL (Continued from Page 29) its first luncheon meeting at the Hotel Antlers on Jan. 6 President Trueman Rembusch will preside. Fred Dolle, head of the Fourth Avenue Amusement Company, Louisville, Ky., was an Indianapolis business visitor over the weekend. Peter Rosian, district manager of Universal Pictures, and Ted Mendelssohn, local branch manager, spent several days in Ft. Wayne, Ir.d., on business. H. L. Hancock and Frank Warren, both of the 20th-Fox sales organization, and their wives spent the Christmas holiday in Miami Beach, Fla. Buying and booking on Film Row were Lonnie Davis, Pix, Louisville, Ky. ; K. Sink, Miami, Union City; Trueman Rembusch and his house managers and Harry Watts, AJhambra, Knightstown. BOSTON The Globe Theatre is undergoing extensive repairs and alterations and its opening as a new unit of the E. M. Loew circuit is announced for next Spring. Mrs. Philip Engel, wife of the United Artists publicity director here, is a great deal improved and was able to be out of doors again this week for the first time in many weeks. Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Wolf entertained at a small dinner party at the Statler at Christmas. Wolf is district manager for MGM. Dick Sullivan has returned to Boston after a lengthy tour with the Larry Sunbrock Rodeo. He will continue his publicity contracts here. Mr. and Mrs. Craig W. Barry came over from Westport, Conn., to spend the holidays with relatives here. Mrs. Barry formerly was a publicist in the local field. Manager Max Nayor of the Metropolitan went to Providence for a weekend visit. Louis Krasnow is again in the service of the Loew organization. Dick Hapgood has returned to civilian life after four years in the Indo-China area. Several neighborhood houses have recently upped their prices five cents. There has been no criticism of this move since the public has obviously felt it justified. Negotiations are in progress for the ultimate sale by the Longwood Cricket Club of a corner area, where the Longwood Bowl formerly stood. This is where the national tennis doubles are played, but if the deal goes through the Bowl will be moved back several hundred feet and the old location will be the site for a modern theatre and shopping center. John McConville gave the children of the neighborhood a big Christmas party at the Watertown Square Theatre and arranged special entertainment for them. Miss Willma Nash has been confined to her home with illness for the past three weeks. Many motion picture scouts attended the premiere here of "In Gay New Orleans" at the Colonial Theatre. Perhaps the most pretentious musical that has opened here in two or three years, the piece lacks acting but the songs are good and the costuming is ultra beautiful. Miss Mary Joans of the local Warner offices spent the holidays in New York visiting friends and attending two world premieres. The Boston Variety Club New Year's party was one of the gayest ever held for it saw for the first time the return to civilian life and clothes of many of the younger members and sons of the older members. The Club has Kid Competition Odeon's efforts to develop a children's trade through special shows is meeting with increased opposition in several localities. At Ottawa where the Odeon Avalon made a bid for the children, direct competition was set up in the Technical School Auditorium, where "meetings" of the Junior Film Club are held under the sponsorship of the National Film Society. A check of one of these shows, which are held very Saturday, showed an attendance of more than 700. In Kingston, the Biltmore, an independent house, started a complete film program for children at the same time as the local Odeon's Movie Club was putting on its kid shows. its spacious club rooms in Hotel Statler here. It was a happy Christmas for the James Winns (he is the district manager for United Artists ) for the popular Jim has recovered his health and is back home. Miss Janis Paige, the Warner star who recently appeared here, was sent an ice cream pie, at her home in Hollywood, by Manager u. B. Stanbro and Ice Cream Chef Alfredo Benedetti. Miss Paige wrote letters of thanks lO several of the local film colony. NEW ORLEANS John Jenkins and O. K. Bourgeois of the Astor Pictures Company of Texas, Oklahoma City, Memphis and Atlanta have bought 50 per cent of the stock of the Dixie Film Corporation of New Orleans, it was announced by Jack Auslet, president and general manager of the Dixie company, who owns 50 per cent of the stock and will continue as president and general manager. Dixie Film has also closed a contract with the Madison Picture Corporation of New York to release in the New Orleans area a large number of features and westerns. Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Jernigan spent the Christmas holidays in Atlanta with relatives and friends. Jernigan is manager here for Kay Films and he visited the home office while in Atlanta. Herman Biersdorf, division sales manager for Eagle-Lion, and Milton Overman, its publicity manager, were visitors at the PRC offices here. The New Theatre at Bruce, Miss., has been bought by D. U. Riley from J. F. Faust. A. L. Savereide, Kay Films salesman, his wife and daughter Melanie, motored to East Tallahassee, Ala., for a Christmas visit with Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Bryant, parents of Mrs. Savereide. Roland Hoffman of the Paramount-Richards organization spent several days here last week. Nick Lamantia, division sales manager for Worldwide, has returned from a tour of his newly assigned territory. Maj. Robert Davis was here for a several clays' visit with his son, Jeff Davis, en route from the east to his home in Stockton, Calif. Harnett Kane, author of various stories of life in Louisiana, is negotiating for the sale of the screen and stage rights to his new novel, "New Orleans Woman." John Galladet, who plays the role of Charlie Mitchell, musical secretary to Gov. James Davis in the motion picture, "Louisiana," now being filmed, spent a short holiday in New Orlean» taking in the night spots. It is rumored here that Bill Guthrie represents Warner Bros, in a $5,000,000 picture deal here. It is further stated that a river boat has been bought for use in the film and is en route to location "somewhere in Nebraska." Don Stafford of Dixie Theatre had a very "muscular" duck hunting trip during the holidays with J. V. Ferguson in Plaquemines Parish when he put the outboard motor out of commission and had to man the oars for many hours. Among recent New Orleans visitors were B. V. Sheffield and his two daughters from Poplarville, Miss. ; Charles Waterall, Pritchard, Ala. ; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Levy, Thibodaux, La., and Doyle Maynard, Shreveport. MINNEAPOLIS Several exchange salesmen are taking their annual vacation. Irving Marks of Columbia is vacationing in California ; Bob Wolheim of Columbia is in Hot Springs, Ark. ; Joe Loeffler, sales manager of Paramount, is in Cleveland, and Bill Mussman, Paramount salesman, is in Chicago. Duane Becker, Paramount salesman, is at his home in Madison, S. D. ; Hy Chapman, Columbia branch manager, is vacationing in New York. Guy Kibbee, stage and movie comedian, was in Minneapolis last week to make personal appearances at veterans' hospitals in the area. He is one of a number of celebrities on tour under auspices of the Veterans' Administration. Jules Serkowich, Columbia exploitation manager, is at the Minneapolis exchange to work on campaigns for "The Jolson Story," which opens at the Orpheum theatres in Minneapolis and St. Paul on Jan. 9. Warren Douglas, co-star in Monogram's "High Conquest," was in Minneapolis spending the holidays with his folks. Acquisition of the neighborhood Parkway theatre by Mrs. Delores Lundquist, has increased the feminine theatre ownership in Minneapolis by 50 per cent. Previously only two c;ty theatres had been under feminine ownership— the Agate and the East Lake, both neighborhood houses. . J. C. Halvorson is the new owner of the Capitol, Lakota, N. D. Arthur C. Bean has operated the house the past three and one-half years on lease from M. A. Zimmerman. Joseph H. Rupp is the new manager of the Towne, New Holstein, Wis. An "Art Anderson Room" will be established in the Northwest Variety Club Heart Hospital to be erected on the campus of the University of Minnesota as a tribute to the retiring chief barker for his work in raising money for the hospital. Edmund R. Ruben, Ben Friedman and Charles Winchell are on the committee which will try to raise the $1,000 reeded to establish the room. The money will be turned over to Anderson at a Variety Club dinner early in January when Anderson retires. Art Zuelch, MGM office manager, is vacationing in Detroit. Elaine Workman, daughter of MGM Branch Manager W. H. Workman, is engaged to Dewayne Lund. They plan to be married in the spring. Martha Dietch is new bookers' secretary at the MGM exchange. Little hope is being held out for the recovery of Otto Raths, pioneer St. Paul exhibitor, who is confined to the veterans' hospital at Fort Snelling with a throat ailment. Raths, a relative of the late Al Steffes, is credited with having opened the first movie theatre in St. (Continued on Page 32)