Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1947)

SHOWMENS TRADE REVIEW, February 1, 1947 23 : w W ; 1 i vh n ALBANY Visitors along film row included J. Perlmutter, I. Bernstein and C. Deitcher of Schenectady ; Mrs. Lydia Van Buren of Cair; Mr. and Mrs. Jerry LaRocque of Warrensburg; George Thornton of Saugerties ; Frank Wieting of Cobleskill ; John Ettinger. manager of the Paramount. Glens Falls ; Leon Duva of Morrisville. John Gardner of Colony, Schenectady, visited rilm row to arrange his bookings prior to a vacation in Florida. Sam Rosenblatt is looking very healthy and tan after his recent vacation at Miami. Sam operates at Watervliet. Jack Ellis, United Artists district manager, and Abe Dickstein, assistant to Joe Unger, sale manager, visited Max Friedman in W arner Bros. Theatres office. PRC has a new shipper in W endell Fredericks who formerly worked for Warner Bros, prior to entering the navy. Georgina Horrocks is the new MGM telephone operator, replacing Louisa Bike who has been promoted to assistant contract clerk. This position was held by Genevieve Stanazek who has now been advanced to biller. Arthur Horn, MGM salesman, very proud of write-up in MGM house organ. The Distributor for his excellent campaign on "Two Smart People" at the Palace I heatre. Lake Placid. Mrs. A. Naber, owner of the DeRuyter Theatre, DeRuyter, N. Y. which recently burned to the ground, is now showing movies in the auditorium of the local high school. Two ex-GI's have opened the Town Theatre in Fonda with a seating capacity of 175. The Albany Theatre Supply furnished them with all equipment. The Gl's are Francis McGibbons and Alec Pedro (latter was formerly an operator for the Smalley circuit). Adolph Fdman, National Screen salesman, is spending several weeks in the New Haven territory. Eleanor Paradeis of Pam-O-Film, Buffalo is in town and visited the Upstate Theatres office. Frank Durbin, Republic district manager and Leon Herman, Buffalo branch manager, visited local office and Warner Bros. Theatres office. Joe Rosen, Fox branch manager, conferred with Papayanakos circuit in Canton. David Miller, Universal district manager, visited Universal's Albany office. Miss Frances Begros, head inspectress at Warner Bros, exchange, resigned to operate her own business as beautician. Miss Begros was presented with an electric clock by her office co-workers. Mrs. Betty Griggs, Warner Bros, booker's stenographer, resigned to await a blessed event. Mrs. Griggs was tendered a farewell party at Jack's Restaurant, Albany and was presented with a bassinet. Idesther Dembo, Warner Bros, availability clerk, has been out of the office for several weeks because of a very seriously infected hand. Katherine Suriana is the new booker's stenographer at Columbia. Katherine was formerly with 20th Century-Fox. REGIONAL NEWS INDEX Albany 23 Boston 35 Charlotte 35 Chicago 23 Cincinnati 31 Cleveland 26 Columbus 34 Dallas 34 Denver 32 Des Moines 34 Harrisburg 33 Hartford 3'< Indianapolis 28 Kansas City 27 Los Angeles 31 Memphis 23 Minneapolis 32 Milwaukee 24 New York 26 Oklahoma City 31 Omaha 28 Philadelphia 30 Pittsburgh 33 St. Louis 27 Toronto 24 Washington 26 MEMPHIS "Gallaiu Bess." participated in the March of Dimes parade here and as a special exploitation feature was exhibited in the lobby of the historic Gayoso Hotel, the first horse to be in the Gayoso lobby since the Civil War when Col. Jesse Forrest, brother of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, rode his charger into the hotel lobby to chase out a union major general who fled in his nightgown. L'na Merkel, Guy Kibbee, Jane Darwell, Edward Norris, Arturo de Cordova, Steve Brody, Lois Andrews, Benny Rubin and Chili W:illiams are scheduled into Memphis Sunday (Feb. 2) as part of the exploitation for the new Eagle-Lion picture, "It's a Joke, son," with Senator Claghorn. Scripps-Howard managing editors, in Memphis for a three day conference, were guests of Col. Cecil Vogel, manager of Loew's Palace, and Bill Kemp, manager of Loew's State, at a special screening of the atom bomb feature, "The Beginning Or the End." Todd Ferguson, former MGM advertising manager in Memphis, is reported to be doing excellently in the real estate and home building business at Oklahoma City. Show New Contest Cross-out, a forthcoming radio show to support a new prize contest for theatres, was shown at the recent St. Louis meeting of the MPTO of Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois. Legality of the game was not discussed as that point is up to Missouri's attorney general, J. E. Taylor, with the state's Supreme Court having the last say in the matter. Some nice prizes were distributed at the MPTO demonstration and members agreed that the show was not bad. CHICAGO Sixty-one theatres here have agreed to make audience collections for the March of Dimes, the Cook County Infantile Paralysis Foundation reports. So far, however, none of the big circuits has agreed to make collections. March of Dimes collections here up to last week totalled more than $90,000. Chicago's goal is $500,000. Many thousands of dollars are reported by Chief Barker Jack Rose to have been raised at the Variety Club's benefit in the Aragon ballroom last week for the club's humanitarian activities. Hal Abbott of the Abbott Theatre Supply Company won the Cadillac auto offered as the chief prize. The Alex Theatre arbitration case has been postponed by agreement of counsel to Feb. 4. Van Nomikos, Allied Theatres vice-president, reports that auction selling is not acceptable to local independent exhibitors. Arthur E. Wright, former public relations director of Bell and Howell, has joined the State Street Council of Chicago as director of its new public relations department. The Warner Employes Club will hold its annual winter ball at the Shoreland Hotel, Feb. 7. Ted Turrell, for 20 years associated with Warner theatres, has resigned as manager of the Beverly Theatre and will go to Glendale, Calif., next month to make his home. His associates will tender him a farewell dinner. Nate Plunkett has been named advertising director here for RKO theatres. Frank Smith. RKO Radio's western theatre director, has returned from New Orleans conferences. \\ ill DeVry says his company will introduce new products this year, including ah 8-mm. projector. 1 he DeVry Company will occupy a third floor addition to its plant just being completed. Increased business may cause it to look around for a suitable location for larger quarters. James R. Grainger of Republic Pictures was here for business conferences. Dave Lipton, Universal's studio publicity executive, was a guest of the Universal publicity department here at a luncheon at the Ambassador Hotel. John Robinson, film union publicity director, is back from Washington conferences and conlined to his home by a bad cold. Clarence Jalas, secretary of the Chicago Operators Union, and W. H. Strafford, business agent, IATSE Local 666, went to Seattle for the IATSE directors' meeting. William R. Ferguson, MGM exploitation director, was here for several days, and has returned to New York. Theodore Anthony, owner of the Rex Theatre, Champaign, 111., died following a brief illness. His widow and two daughters survive. Burial was in Chicago. Rud Lohrenz, UA district manager, was in Milwaukee for business conferences. J. J. Donohue, Paramount western sales manager, was a Chicago visitor. Pete Panagos, promotion manager for the Alliance circuit, is the father of a 7-pound, {Continued on Page 24)