Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

Paramount Buys Southern Circuit in Latest Decree Move Paramount this week took another step toward complying with the consent decree it reached with the Justice Department in the Government anti-trust suit by buying out the interest of its partners — R. iB. Wilby, H. F. Kincey and associates — in some 104 theatres and several drive-ins located in Alabama and the Carolinas. The purchase price was reported to be $7,700,000 in cash plus an undisclosed distribution of assets in some of the companies involved. The deal included full ownership by Paramount in the following corporations : Alabama Theatres with approximately 22 houses ; North Carolina Theatres, with approximately 75 theatres ; the Drive-in Theatres of South Carolina, Inc. the Greenwood, S. C. Theatres, Inc. Part of the deal included the seven theatres of the Birmingham Operating Company, with Paramount acquiring full ownership of the company and four of its theatres and its partners retaining three theatres. Of the total number of theatres involved in the over-all deal. Paramount under the consent decree assumably may retain 58. The deal did not cover the Wilby-Kincey interests in Charlotte, N. C— the State, Carolina, Imperial, Broadway and Dilworth. Involved in the sale to Paramount were : Wilby, Kincey, R. M. Kennedy, H. H. Harrison, and the Estates of Arthur Lucask, Sylvain Baum, and Walton Hill. New Circuit These houses, together with 33 which Paramount already owned in the area, will become part of the new United Paramount Theatres — a corporation formed to take over the theatres which Paramount must eventually surrender under the divorce terms of the consent decree. The new company is supposedly free of any producer-distributor control. However, actual management of the Paramount holdings will remain in charge of WilbyKincey, who remain in charge under a management contract. In making public the sale at Atlanta, both Wilby and Kincey announce that two of their former employes — 'District Manager R. M. Kennedy and Tuscaloosa, Ala., City Manager Cecil Grimes — had purchased theatres from the old Wilby-Kincey set up which they would operate for themselves. Kennedy acquired the Birmingham Strand, the Ensley and Franklin at Ensley, the Walton at Selma and the Empire, Montgomery, and three drive-ins — all in Alabama. Grimes took over the Druid at Tuscaloosa, Ala. Paramount Chain To Have SOS United Paramount Theatres , the new theatre operating circuit born as a result of Paramount's divorce-providing consent decree, will take over operation of the Paramount chain on Jan. 1, 1950, with a total of 508 wholly-owned theatres, or slightly under the neighborhood of the 600 which is the maximum the new company may operate under the decree. This was confirmed Wednesday as Paramount President Barney Balaban reported to stockholders on the progress made toward dropping theatres and acquiring partners' interests before the divorce which splits exhibition from {Continued on Page 16) SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW. December 10, 1949 Tsk, These Interruptions A fall is iust a fall to the 81-year-old regular patron of 'Frisco's Coliseum who resents a lot of interest in her mishaps, especially when they make her miss the picture. Recently she took a tumble in the street, and a motorist, pulling away from the curb saw her and got out to help. "I'm all right young man," she warned. "Don't bother me or I'll be late for the show." But the motorist, believing that the old lady might have been leaning on his car and fallen when he pulled away from the curb, advised police, who went to the Coliseum and asked Manager Edwin Scheeline "where the old lady with a cane" was sitting. She was located and told the inquiring police officer off, complaining about their "making her miss a part of the picture" and banging her cane on the carpet, tramped back to her seat to see what happened to Alan Ladd in "The Great Gatsby." Gulf Unit Asks Allied Booking Problem Study Gulf States Allied closed its two-day convention in New Orleans Tuesday with the election of Don George of Shreveport to the presidency and by passing a resolution calling upon national Allied to appoint a committee to meet with distributor chiefs on bidding and dating problems. The convention took no action regarding booking to drive-in but asked national Allied to get distributor chiefs to clarify their position on this question. One of them present — 20th Century-Fox General Sales Manager Andy W. Smith, did so, when he declared in an address to the delegates : "Our practices of refusing to grant drive-in theatres a first-run showing in any city or town that has adequate first-run theatres will be continued." On the question of bidding Smith said that his company would use bidding wherever the situation required it, stating : "We have never sought this type of negotiation, but on the other hand we will not refuse it." The Fox sales chief aho said his company planned to increase his 1950 schedule of "A" pictures beyond the 24 released in 1949. The convention, which was attended by 100 delegates representing 200 theatres in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida and was termed the most successful to date in the organization's history by manager Maurice Artigues also elected the following: Vice-President Abe Berensen ; Board Chairman W. A. Prewitt ; Secretary Hal Bailey, Treasurer F. G. Trap, Jr. Elected to the board were Bailey, Trap, W. A. Lighter, Joe Guillory, Louis Watts. Northwest Exhibitors Name Officers The Independent Theatre Owners of Washington, Idaho and Alaska this week elected the following oflicers : James M. Hone, executive secretary; Leroy Johnston, treasurer; Jack Neville, auditor; L. O. Lukan. trustee to the Pacific Coast Conference of Independent Theatre Owners. Fred Mercy, Jr., alternate. Directors are: Mildred Wall, Mike Barovic. L. A. Gillespie. Lionel Brown, W. D. McDonald, Erwin Fey, Joe Rosenfield. Chester Nilsson, Pete Higgins, Walter Coy, Shearer and Lukan. Exhibitors^ New Interest in Business ^Most Encouraging,^ Rembusch Finds Increasing interest on the part of exhibitors in their business is "one of the most encouraging things I have noticed in the last six months," Trueman Rembusch, recently reelected president of the Associated Motion Picture Theatre Owners of Indiana (Allied) told Showmen's Trade Review this week in discussing trade problems. Rembusch is inclined to be optimistic about the future. Product for 1950, looks better, he finds, and coupled with exhibitor activity on behalf of product, shoud achieve better results. 'Young America' "Our business is one built on momentum," he pointss out. "... Give our industry's theatres some really intelligent exploitation and operation plus a run of good films and the old Charges Discrimination Because the Maiestic at East St. Louis, 111., allegedly refused to sell tickets to Negroes, Manager Vincent O'Leary found himself charged with a violation of Illinois' anti-discrimination laws with a warrant issued against him on, a complaint signed by Ben Phillips. Phillips, president of the St. Louis Civil Rights Congress, alleges the theatre refused to sell tickets to 11 Negroes. momentum will build up and our box-offices will begin swinging along profit-wise." Rembusch attributes the recent drop in business to many conditions, including "unsettled labor conditions in the basic industries" and "too few want-to-see pictures coming out of Hollywood." He believes that many theatres could do with some re-seating, remodeling and re-equipping jobs, but he is not bearish on the future. As to the question of film rentals, he reports that distributors in Indiana are trying to get higher rentals but are not meeting with conspicuous success in getting them. "... Business is down and many exhititors are operating on sliding scales, and these scales are throwing off bottom percentages on quite a few pictures," he declared. "Some of the companies have tried," he continued, "to get the exhibitors off the scales on to straight percentages. However, the exhibitors answer them, and rightly so, with the old distributor pitch : "When a picture does well you share with the increased business. Likewise, when business is down on a picture, your earnings go down." Only 2 As to the exhibitor rumpus over the terms Columbia is said to be asking for "Jolson Sings Again," Rembusch said that it has had but two dates to his knowledge in the Indianapolis territory, both in Loew's theatres.