Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

14 Divorce Promises Brilliant Future, Predicts Bob Savini Doesn't Go Far Enough But Is Salvation of the Industry, Veteran Says Bob Savini By BILL SPECHT A man who has lived 45 years in show business as an usher, exhibitor, fihn salesman and distributor looked backward for a brief moment in New York Tuesday atid then loked forward to predict a brilliant future for the motion picture industry — • now that divorce would split exhibition from distribution and production. He's R. H. (Bob) Savini, the six-foot plus monolith of the business who tal'ks slow and soft, thinks fast and sharp, and who has come up with an idea or so at various times which today even makes good listening. Savini's glad the Government is getting divorce. He's sorry that the Government doesn't go far enough, and he doesn't like the idea that the new distribution companies which grow out of the Paramount and RIvO consent decrees, eventually will be able to acquire theatres their own — provided such acquisition does not foster monopoly. He further thinks something more should be done about non-affiliated chains. But so far as divorce is planned to go, it is all to the good, he reasons. "That is the salvation of our business," he remarked. "Only the government has not gone far enough." Separation of theatre and studio, he believes, will open new markets to the producer. It will put a premium on quality and enable a producer of quality pictures "to get his value out of the box-office." This in turn will tend toward encouraging production of salable pictures instead of the system under which "pictures were made by factory method to fill theatres, had to be played, good or bad — and the public 'be damned." Suryived and Prospered Savini's faith in the industry's future, he said, arises in the fact that he has Seen big ones tumble while other, smaller industries, have survived and prospered. Over the years he has seen General Films, Motion iPicture Sales (not to be confused with the present organization). Mutual, Triangle, VUSE (Vitagraph, Lubin, Selig, Essanay) all grow, dominate the scene, and then vanish. Savini celebrated his 45th anniversary in mo tion picture business this year. It was in August, 1904, that he started as a theatre usher. Save for that job and when he worked with Herman Fitcheberg, New Orleans exhibitor and exchange operator whose Pierce Arrow limousine used to attract attention when he went a-calling on relatives who lived on Esplanade Avenue, Savini has been his own boss. It has been a very interesting business, he'll be the first to say. As an illustration, years ago he left his native Atlanta where he had become a well-known salesman with a somewhat legendary reputation, to come to New York. And immediately things began to happen as a distribution outfit specializing in re-issues si)rang up. Buying Reissues Years later, major exchanges caught up to what was going on. Savini was buying re-issue rights on hits and keeping the picture on the screen continuously. What's more he was making money. Eventually major exchanges perked up and '."he re-issue business was taken into their fold. In addition other re-issue outfits sprang up. But Savhii stayed right where he was in the business — and meanwhile started producing his own action pictures to make certain that he would have product should his access to reissues be choked off. So far it has not been. But even before that he had startled the South. In those days Charles Chaplin was the best box-office draw in the country. A certain company opened eight Chaplins and also had a line of pictures with feminine stars which were regarded by exhibitors as being as close to Thanksgiving fare as anything in celluloid can get. Takes Turkeys Savini made a deal with them to handle the turkeys along with the eight Chaplins. The owners, figuring that the Chaplins, all of which had played the territory at least four times, were about milked, agreed. After he closed the deal, Savini went to the circuits and offered the eight Chaplins with the turkeys as a tie-in double bill. And very blandly he made a deal that the circuit should average the business of each of its houses over an eight-week period and that he would accept this average as the regular house average. Then, he further agreed that the film rental for the ifirst week of the Savini double-biller would be 50 per cent of whatever the pictures brought in above the house average. This figure would then establish the flat rental for what the other dual bills, riding on Chaplin's popularity, would bring. B-r-r Ha! Ha! Ha! To the Motion Picture Association of America in Washington, D. C, rumors that Mayor William O'Dwyer of New York would succeed Eric Johnston as president of the MPAA are just one big joke. The reports gained added life when New York Candidate for Mayor Vito Marcantonio, who is lambasting the movies, asked O'Dwyer over the air if there were truth to the story that he would replace Johnston. The first bill opened in Atlanta during a blizzard which kept the street cars in their barns from Monday till Thursday afternoon. i3ut at that time, with Friday and Saturday business still to go, the iSavini twins had brought in $24 more than the house's average weekly business. The week finally cleared $1,654 for Savini. The story was repeated in varying amounts of money in Birmingham, Montgomery, Jacksonville while the small town of Aniston, Ala., which boasts a nice courthouse jquare and a bevy of beauties to walk through (Continued on Page 18) SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, November 5, 1949 Boom! An unestimated number of films were damaged by fire and water in an explosion in New Orleans Oct. 22 in the film inspection room of Dixie Films, Inc. The blast blew out part of a two-inch partition on the third floor of a four-story building at 218 S. Liberty Street. The damaged plaster wall, which was reinforced with a steel webb, separated the film inspection room of Dixie Films, and a poster storeroom of F. F. Goodrow, distributor of novelty films. There were no people in either room at the time of the explosion. Dixie Films District Manager Robert A. Kelly said that damage to the filrns by fire and water could not be immediately determined. Cause of the explosion was not known. Wilby-Kincey Paramount Deal Reported Reached Paramount this week appeared to be nearing the close of a deal by which it would acquire the 50 per cent interest held by its partner in the Wilby-Kincey circuit of approximately 140 theatres in Alabama, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Reports from Atlanta quoted a Paramount Theatre spokesman as saying that while the deal had not been actually signed, an agreement had been reached by which Paramount would take over on Jan. 1, 1950 and both Kincey and Wilby would continue as operating heads. The deal is similar to that reached by Paramount with E. V. Richards over the Paramount-Richards circuit in the Gulf area. Here also Paramount takes over full ownership with officials of Para'mount Richards remaining in operating charge. In the Wilby-Kincey deal, Paramount, to live up to the consent decree, must release about 48 of the 140 theatres. Paramount owned 50 per cent of the Wilby-Kincey chain and while the purchase price involved in the proposed transfer was not mentioned, it is thought to be in the neighborhood of $3,500,000 and includes contracts with Wilby-Kincey officials for their services at high-salaried figures. Memphis Strand Goes 1st Run Under Paramount Memphis' Strand became a first-run house under the Paramount Theatre banner Thursday night with "My Friend Irma" as the first picture under the new policy. The house was formerly part of the Malco Circuit and passed to Paramount under the partnership dissolution. Attending the opening were Paramount Theatres Service Corporation Vice-President Robert Weitman ; South Central Division Manager M. R. (Duke) Clark, and Memphis Branch Manager M. C. McClintock. To Confer Weitman is expected to confer here with officials of the Paramount subsidiary — ^Tenarken Paramount Corporation, which will operate eight additional theatres in Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky which were once part of the Malco chain. Said With Flowers The Translux at Washington hit the popularity jackpot last week when it distributed 1,000 gardenias, flown from Mexico, to the lady patrons.