Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1947)

SHOWMENS TRADE REVIEW. October 18, 1947 REGIONAL SALT LAKE CITY Monogram Branch Manager Don Tibbs is currently working in the Montana territor\-. Harry Kerrer. local manager for Premier Films is leaving for Denver within the next few days, he reports. Exploiteer Dave Cantor was in the city from 1 the RKO Radio home office for a short visit j with Branch Manager Giff Davison. C. R. Wade (Buck) plans a trip into Idaho shortly with his attractive Universal-Intema! tional lineup. ,; Bob Bran, former booker here for Universali International, left for his new post in the same capacity at the Denver office a few daj's ago. i, Bran's place is to be filled in Salt Lake by i Richard Colbert from San Francisco. Manager Art Jolley of Eagle-Lion is back from a swing into Idaho. Paramount Division Manager George Smith and Assistant District Manager Harold Wirthwein spent a few days here conferring with Local Branch Manager F. H. Smith. The salesmen who came in for the conference included Gill Sessler and Dave Frazier, from Montana ; Wayne Theriot from Idaho and C. F. Ross, Utah. Harry Ashton, manager of the Uptown, one of the Joseph Lawrence houses, is back from his vacation, during which he visited his two daughters in Denver BOSTON Report that Bert MacKenzie, dean of publicists, had severed his connection with MGM, which he has represented in this area for many 1 years, were received with feelings of regret I in this territory where he has long been regarded as the mainstay of the public relations ■I fraternity. Mrs. Ellis Huh, for many years known as |j "Prunella Hall" the name under which she wrote as motion picture editor of the Boston Post, died recently at her home in Brookline. She had made many trips to Hollywood and was well known to many of the stars and producers. John Sebastian and Carl Brisson are scheduled for early personal appearances at the Terrace Room in Boston. .Alan Eraser has returned from San Francisco and Hollywood and will conduct a gossip colurrm titled "Hub Bub" in the Boston Evening American. The Winnah? Ed Ramsey, who closed his 220-seat Plymouth at Plymouth, Ohio, for 10 days in protest over the city's three per cent admission tax on the grounds that it discriminated against him by compelling him to make public his revenue, opened it again this week — and victorious. Ramsey reopened when the council passed an amendment which would fine any city official from $100 to $500 for revealing the amount of tax collected or for revealing the gross income of the theatre. The Plymouth, only theatre there, had pretested that it was the only business compelled, under the original tax ordinance, to reveal its revenues. In Shelby, Ohio, the neighboring community council included a similar punishment for disclosure of tax information on its city tax which becomes effective Nov. 15. NEWS REEL Shepard Epstein has gone to Hollywood and may move his family to that film capital soon. Jim Healey, formerh' with RKO, is in town for a two weeks' visit with his parents after which he will return to the Pacific Coast and the Richmond Productions. Ziegfield Cohen is taking a brief rest from his work, first \acation in some years. The new John Hancock Theatre in Boston will have a seating capacity of 1,800 and will be equipped for either motion pictures or stage shows. LOUISVILLE The Kentucky Ass'n of Theatre Owners' convention will be held in Louisville Oct. 22-23 at the Seelbach Hotel. Registration will begin at 9 a.m. on \\'ednesday, Oct. 22. There will be a directors' meeting and a general business session in the afternoon and cocktails later. At night there will be a dinner with TOA President Ted Gamble speaking. Thursday there will be another business session and a luncheon. E. Carroll of Allied will be a guest speaker. Switow Amusement Chief Engineer Willis Hopewell has returned from his two-week vacation in Florida where again, though he delayed his holidaj' this year, he encountered another hurricane. Mrs. Ethel Luckett Walsh expects to open her new Scott Theatre in Scottsburg, Ind., this week. M. E. Sparks refused to accept a good figure offered at the auction of his Strand in Edmonton, Ky., and will continue to operate it himself. Paul Sanders, owner and general manager of the Sanders Theatre in Campbellsville, Ky., has returned from a three-week trip to Washington, D. C, during which he also visited his daughter there and another in Kingston, Md. .Altec District Manager M. G. Thomas and J. A. Aull of the Swanson Nunn Marquee Co. of Evansville, Ind., were business visitors here. Mary .Anderson Burks replaced Wayne Smith as manager of the Lincoln Theatre at Hodgenville, Ky., for several weeks while Smith was moved over temporarily to the newly-acquired Ace in Cave City. The Dixie Drive-in, the largest in Louisville, was opened Oct. 10 with Floyd Morrow as manager. Morrow says the drive-in's screen is the largest in the south — 50x37 feet, 11 inches. Two shows will be given nightly with a midnight show on Saturdays. CHARLOTTE Barney Slaughter, Republic salesman, has resigned from that company to become the salesman for the new Film Classics exchange. Following the practice set up by many of the large theatres in the North, the WilbyKincey 'A'" house in Charlotte, the Carolina, has just installed a new grand organ to be played between shows. H. F. Kincey of Wilby-Kincey circuit and his wife have just returned from a visit to Woodberry Forest, Virginia, where they went to enter their son in school. Also returned from a trip to the same place is Robert Saxton. Exhibitor's Service booker. Metro Salesman Bill Mattingly has resigned, and Pete Prince, also salesman for Metro, has been transferred to another branch. Charlie Leonard, booker for Columbia Pictures, has resigned to accept the position of Head Booker at the local Warner branch. (Continued on Page 24) 23