Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

16 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, December 10, 1949 NEWSREEL CLIPS Paramount Chain To Have 508 {Continued jrom Page 11) production and distribution takes formal effect with the New Year. At that time a new Paramount Picture Corporation will take over production and distribution while the United Paramount Theatres will take over exhibition. The new circuit's 508 houses are made up of 380 theatres which Paramount owned wholly before the decree was signed and was permitted to keep plus 128 other houses part of a 347theatre acquisition made by Paramount after the decree was signed. 97 Too Many Of these 347 theatres, Paramount has already disposed of 128 which it could not keep under the decree and 91 more remain to be disposed of, the bulk of which will probably have to be sold by United ' Paramount Theatres. Balaban's report shows that the old Paramount company terminated a large number of joint ownerships by two methods: 1) Outright purchase of entire circuits through acquiring its partners' holdings with intentions to dispose of surplus theatres later : 2) Dividing the assets of circuits by retaining some theatres in full ownership, transferring others wholly to its partners and dissolving the partnership. Deals to Date The joint ownerships disposed of to date, Balaban revealed are : Wilby-Kincey— Outright purchase of Alabama Theatres, Inc., North Carolina Theatres, Drivein Theatres of S. C, Inc., Greenwood Theatres for $7,700,000 with full ownership in 77 theatres and part ownership in 24 more houses making a total of 101 theatres. Under the terms of the consent decree Paramount may retain 54 of these 101 theatres and must dispose of the remainder. Concluded a deal with WilbyKincey by which Paramount took over the Birmingham Theatre Operating Company and four of its theatres, leaving three other of that circuit's houses to its partners along with some assets. E. V. Richards — Purchased full ownership of Paramount-Richards, Inc., and ParamountRichards Enterprises from Richards for approximately $3,500,000, obtaining thereby a circuit of 80 houses of which it may retain 36, under the consent decree. Pencom Corporation — ^Split assets, acquiring 14 of 70 theatres involved, 13 of which it may retain under the consent decree. The fourteenth has already been sold. Dominion Theatres — Acquired full ownership of the company by turning over to its partners 12 of the circuit's 15 theatres and retaining three. M. A. Lightman — ^Split assets, with Lightman who retained 41 of the circuit's 50 houses paying Paramount $1,700,000 and turning over full ownership in nine houses. Theatre Openings George Rizler's Ritz (formerly Joy). . . . The 600-seat Towne, Chillicothe, 111. . . . The 1,000-seat Rialto in Boston's suburb, Roslindale. . . . Strand, Prestoburg, Ky., will open Dec. 27. . . . Amusement Enterprises' Arty Sombrero Playhouse, Phoenix, Ariz. . . . The reconstructed Roxana, (closed since May) in Roxana, III., Nov. 20. . . . The $400,000 Fox, Missoula, Mont, on Dec. 8. f /7m Row Robert iBlotcky, son of Paramount Minneapolis Branch Manager Ben Blotcky, is now operating a theatre at Ft. Myers, Fla., in association with Frank Rubel. . . . Los Angeles' Bob Baretta is celebrating his 73rd birthday and has no contenders for the oldest man on film row — as well as the heartiest. . . . Bill Suda has left U. S. Army Motion Picture Service to join Warners as a special representative in Atlanta. . . . Gene Gaudette, Minneapolis exploiteer for RKO, is out in a continuation of the RKO personnel shuffle. . . . Harry Margolis will be inducted as president of the Motion Picture Bookers club in New York at a dinner on Tavern-on-the-Green. Other inductees will be Vice-Presidents Fred Mayer, Ben Drexler, Recording Secretary Lillian Bloomberg; Financial Secretary Ann Pliso ; Treasurer iMyron Starr, and Sergeantsat-arnis Max Fried and Ben Levine. Trustees will be Irving Kaplan, Oscar Lager, and directors, Ale.x Arnswalder, Archie Berish, Dan Ponticelle, Eddie Richter, Lil Seidman. . . . The 20th-Fox Family Club of Indianapolis elected John F. IBarrett, president, First VicePresident Robert Myer, Treasurer W. A. Michel, and Secretary Ruth Goodridge. Sales Get Togeihers Republic had held two sales meetings this week — Chicago with Assistant General Sales Manager Edward L. Walton, Atlanta, with Division Manager Walter L. Titus, presiding — and was scheduled to hold a third in Los Angeles, possibly after iDec. 19. In Chicago last weekend United Artist closed' a sales convention which heard President Gradwell Sears talk about "superior salesmanship." Eagle Lion has set the following dates and places for its three regional sales meeting : Dec. 12-14, New York; Dec. 15-17, Chicago; Dec. 19-21, San Francisco. Variety Club Notes Twentieth Century-Fox Branch Manager Joe Scott is the new Omaha Club Chief Barker, >ucceeding Meyer Stern. Other officers are First Assistant A. W. Renfro, Second Assistant Ralph Ayer ; Doughguy Henry McGrath, Secretary Edward Shafton. . . . New Board members of the Northwest Variety Club are E. R. Ruben, LeRoy Miller, Harold Field, Tom Burke ; reelected are Chief 'Barker Ted Bolnick, Pat Halloran, Ben Blotcky, William Elson, William Volk. ... St. Louis Variety Club named the following to its crew : Joe Ansell, Paul Krueger, Dick Fitzmaurice, Russ Bovin, Lester Grand, Sam Levin, Mike Riordan, Fred Joseph, Herb Washburn, Johnnie Meinardi, Jimmie Tappella. Ansell and Washburn will serve as delegates to the annual meeting. . . . Elmer Lux has been elected chief barker of the Buffalo Tent with Murray Whiteman as first assistant, Dave Miller as second; Robert Hayman, treasurer, and Harry Berkson, secretary. . . . Robert Snyder is again heading the Cleveland Club's Christmas part for underprivileged children. . . . Hi-jinx at the San Francisco tent featured "The IBorsch 'Escapades of 1949" by Chief Barker Jimmie O'Neal. . . . The Toronto Tent's special show at the Imperial which featured "The Inspector General" with Danny Kaye in the flesh raised $32,500 for the club's occupational-guidance school for crippled children near Toronto. Kaye was given a silver life membership card in the club. Another $3,500 came from the Hamilton, Ont., managers, who held a show at the Odeon Palace. This group promised an additional $500. Engaged RKO Omaha Biller Dixie Lusk and Paramount Booker J. J. Sparks. Columbia Indianapolis Manager Guy Craig and Ann Franklin. Carl Schneider of Joe Hornstein, Inc., St Louis, and Betty Fischer. Rochelle Gorelick, contract clerk, Ruth Barlow, booker-stenographer, and Jane Thompson, biller, all of Eagle Lion Manager F. J. Lee's front office, St. Louis, announced their engagements. J. W. Keiler, II, vice-president, Columbia Amusement Co., St. Louis, and Janie Hughes of Darien, Conn. Wedded MGM Cincinnati Booker Ruth Juengling, Nov. 26, to Robert Kohls. Cashier Helen Penny of the Melba Theatre, Atlanta, to Noel Passe. Jeanne Pruit of Columbia's Atlanta branch office to Clifford Tinsley. Julius Farkas of the Kimball, Yonkers, to Gloria Grosner. Ralph Leger, booker. Century circuit. New York, to Bernice Fried, secretary, same outfit. Births New Jersey .\llied President Wilbur Snaper, a daughter, Susan, Nov. 30, in Leroy Hospital, N. Y. Mother is Eleanor Kilgallen, sister to Columnist Dorothy and daughter of Jim Killgallen of International News Service. James Corbett, United .A.rtists Atlanta booker, a son. W. Freeman Smith, manager, Kentucky Theatre, Cadiz, Ky., a daughter. John Wood, owner, Zia Theatre, Springer, N. M., a daughter, Jennifer Terry. Dead HORACE G. BUCKLEY, brother of United Artists' Harry D. Buckley, in St. Louis. MORRIS KAUFMAN, owner, Liberty Theatre, Bridgeport, Conn. HAROLD M. BOWDIN, 80, architect for several New York theatres, at Newtown, Conn. RAYMOND KERSHAW, 79, veteran theatre ODerator in western Canada, at Victoria, B. C. LOUIS GILBERT, 70, former manager of Warner's Theatre, Pittsburgh, at Sarasota, Fla., after a long illness. JOHN CECIL GRAHAM, 76, for 27 years Paramount's European manager, while visiting his brother Fred at Falls City, Neb. At one time he was Universal's general manager. MRS. JOSEPH WHEELER, mother of Herbert Wheeler, Warner theatre manager in the Chicago district. MRS. GOLDIE GARBERS, mother of Jack Garbers of B&K's nublicity deoartment, Chicago. MRS. JOHN COSTELLO, wife of RKO's head shipper, in Cincinnati. GAYLORD PHELPS. 65, once a stage actor, and ticket taker and office helper at the Old Shea's Theatre, Buffalo, at his home, on Silver Lake, N. Y.