Variety (Sep 1942)

10 EXPLOITATION Wedneflday, September 2, 1942 Ihiilies Cue Studio PA's to Chinee Proverb: Give Rctures, Not Words Hollywood, Sept. 1. It niay interest studio publicity heads in a very marked manner that the Montreal Star considers that Warner Bros, gets out the best still photo service to newspapers— and that Metro runs a dogged, ener- getic last Also that the Birmingham Post fancies RKO's publioity still treatment, forswearing all others; whereas, the Toledo Sun-Times goes for 20th-Fox an(f RKO in equal por- tions, this pair, it adds, 'supplanting Paramount, which had led, with Metro far behind the rest.' The Oregon Journal (Portland) likes Warners, but the Knicker- bocker News, Albany, N. Y., picks them this way: Metro, first; RKO, second, with Universal and Warnerr at'the foot of the class. The Binghamton (N. Y.) Press says '50% of Hollywood publicity stills are worthless,' then goes on to name Warners and Paramount as turning out the best In (he field. Ilie Springfield (Mass.) Republican- Union says, *RKO the best, by far;' But the Kalamazoo Gazette prefers Metro; the Oakland Tribune votes for Paramount as best and 20th-Fox as worst and the San Francisco News says it's Universal, Warners and RKO, in that order. AU this is not hapazard hearsay. On the contrary, it represents valid excerpts culled from a canvass of the national newspaper field, under- taken by John LeRoy Johnston on behalf of the Hunt Stromberg-United Artists group. It represents,, too, a lot of honest answers honestly ar- rived , at, in considering various phases of publicity approach and re- ceptivity. It also represents honest confiision. Chanrtng Styles The poll, in fact, stresses one sig niflcant facet of the current situation —of which every publicity head in Hollywood is acutely aware, if he has the gumption of a gnat. It is that the picture approach to the amusement and entertainment pages has changed, and is changing. And that ev^ the newspapers themselves are unagreed as to what its final form may be. In the matter dl still photo treat ment, for instance, RKO seems to be pretty generally liked for what it is doing; but the difference of opin- ion along this line of particular in quiry is otherwise marked. In the matter of individual needs, the clients violently disagree on practically everything, which is un- derstandable In some" cases. For example, the wish to adequately dis- play or expugn leg art is largely de termined by the paper's degree of proximity to the so-called Bible Belt But, excetit for personal whim, there's apparently no accounting Ict the lack of unanimity with which the newspapers seem to approach the question of whether they like star heads, portraits, glamour art, can dids, legs, fashions, continuity, lay- outs, horizontals, full figures, pro duction stuff, etc. The fact is how' ever, that there might be some .<;em blance of a general standard in view- point and policy, except that stand ards are not feasible when change Is in the making. Right now. the bc^i that Holly wood publicity and its newspaper market are able to concoct, by way of diagnosis, is that the printed word —spiciflcally, that which deals with prattle in the bizz-bazz columns and the outbursts of planted rhetoric from the studio flacks—has lost its savor, even for the fan-magazine type of Intellectual dolt. That, in effect, the photograph now is the ideal means of getting over a stu- dio's deathless message. This, they aver, has been brought about by the prevailing restlessness of a people who, going through the emotional nlpups of a war era, would rather look at a lady's leg than re d about it. Offhand, It wouldn't ap- pear that you need a war to estab- lish that as a state of mind, but the bright boys at the studios are saiH to see it that way. They also have decided that the Increased importance of the photo- graph is due alike to the. decrease In drama space and the fact that failure to plant is costly in the mat- ter of paper, printing and general production. They, therefore, are ex- perimenting with the Idea of pre- senting the unusual—'grab' 'lots, candid.s. etc., as against the old, wooden action stills. They tag this NO EHRA FANFARE FOR REOPENED MASTBAUM Heigh, Uo Sailor Hollywood. Sept. 1. Rudy Vallee, now a sea-going maestro with a rating of chief petty officer, makes his first public appearance in uniform with the Coast Guard Band at the premiere of the 20th-Fox picture, "The Pied Piper,' on the stage of Grauman's Chinese the- atre tomorrow night <Wed.). Part of proceeds will go to Navy and Coast Guard Welfare funds. Philadelphia, Sept. 1. None of the frills and fanfare that marked the two openings of the Mastbaum in the past will be repeated when the $5,000,000 Stan- ley-Warner deluxer reopens for the first time in almost eight years this Friday (4). There will be no rib- bons cut, no glaring searchlights, no-speeches by the mayor or Holly- wood celebs. 'As far as we're con- cerned, it's just another theatre,' said a spokesman for the Warner of- fice. Reason for the lack of ballyhoo for the Mastbaum's reopening la be- lieved to be the fact that Warners feel ttiat stressing the luxurious- ness, etc., of the new house might take business away from the present established deluxers. The Mastbaum, built In the lush '20s at a cost of more than $5,000,- 000, was at one time one of the showplaces of the U. S. It featured elaborate stage presentations as well aspix. Then it closed for a couple of years to be reopened by the late Samuel L. (Roxy) Rothafel in 1934— but this attempt also met with fail ure. The house reopens with "Tales of Manhattan.' F-WC Slices Up $40,000 Prize Melon on Coast L Crime Pays Continued from pace 3s Los Angeles, SepL 1. Managers and execs In the Cali- fornia sector of Fox-West Coast Theatres cut a melon of $40,000 in prizes, for the last three months of the SpjrroS' Skouras Showmanship Drive. Checks were handed out 'to 260 winners by Charles P. Skouras, chief of F-WC and National-Thea- tres. Other prizes, amounting to $37,000, will be delivered by Skouras on a tour of the Evergreen, Wisconsin, Midwest and Intermountain circuits, starting Sept. 8 in Portland and winding up Sept. 24 in Milwaukee. Lon Smith's Liaison Job Lou Smith is in a newly-created liaison job on publicity-exploitation between the Metro studio, the home office and field. Company has a large exploitation force in the Held under Bill Ferguson. Smith, recentl> publicity director at Universal and formerly with Co- lumbia on the Coast, was for many ■vears with Par both on publicity east and west as well as on theatre advertising. At the U studio Smith is suc- ceeded as publicity director by Terry DeLapp, formerly with Para mount OA the Coast. 'SWEATER OAIS' TRAILEB 'Minneapolis, Sept 1. Nifty ticket sellers are being used this week to plug 'Sweater Girl,' coming to the Gopher theatre. Lookers are wearing revealing sweaters, with ribbons across their chest to call attention to the film. Gals are receiving plenty of mas- culine ogles. current tendency as an effort to 'humanize' their subjects. What apparently they haven't yet tagged Is that the war is now Holly- wood's chief competitor—not simply as a space-grabber, however. It is turning out better I.e. 'more human still photography. trigue, as good as new. What's it all about? Why, just Hollywood reacting alertly to the increasing demands of its market; a market that's prov- ing itself both mentally and nu- merically supei'ior to mere escapist blah. On the mental side, there's the professional man and business executive who goes for the stuff as what might be called a relaxa- tive. Numerically, the thing Is prodigious. A recent survey showed, in fact, that the radio, the pulps and the rental libraries were glutted with mystery rhetoric of one kind or another and that, even excluding the pulps, America had 40,000,000 crime fans. A report like that naturally was enough for Holly- wood. 4M«0,(MO Can't Be Wrong It very sensibly decided that 40,; 000,000 Americana can't be wrong either, with the result that a screen crime-wave has developed, the like of which might figure to knock Sherlock Holmes' cocked hat into a beret. Tl.is, to be precis^, was merely the over-all result Speci- fically, there was the increase In thrlller-dlllers from 48 pictures in 1040 to 141 the following year, with even greater production expected during the current season. There was the further develop- ment by which 'Mr. District At- torney,' 'Crime Doctor,' 'Gang Bust- ers' and the 'Ellery Queen' series were idea-borrowed from the "adio. And also a final symptom which caused practically every studio, save Warners, to have a reliable 'house dick' on the premises, ready to jump in at ttie drop of the false whisker and do a fast, glib job of foiling, practically at pleasure. Universal. RKO, Metro and 20th- Fox have been leaders in the Holly- wood Anti-Crime Club all along. U has featured its 'Gang Busters' «nd latterly has had Basil Rathbone solv- I|ig everything witti a clipped con- sonant; the writers, meantime, doing a neat job of bridging the gap from the Vic^rian era of gas-lamps 9nd hansom 'kebs' in order to relate the action to the present. However, Holmes and Watson still have their abode in the old chromo lodgings at 221A Baker Street Not wishing to overlook anything. Universal even has weaned Abbott & .Costello momentarily away from being just plain, haphazard loons and has them baffling the eye and ear In 'Whodunit' But, of course, they , hardly conform to type.- The type, for instance, so adroitly sug- gested in the playing of Ellery Queen by William Gargan at ,Co lumbia and Nick (Thin Man) Charles by William Powell at Metro. This last studio also has taken on Edward Arnold, who used to be 'Nero Wolfe' at Columbia, and has him doing a blind detective in 'Eyes In The Night.' Columbia's Crime PIx Columbia, meantime, still has its 'Queen,' which is backed up in ex- ploitation values by air shows and fiction; and the Harry Cohn lot has added Warner Baxter for the 'Crime Doctor' series, with 'Boston Blackie' continuing as before on a B-budget. RKO has been going right along with its 'Falcon' series, featuring George Sanders and later, George's brother, Tom Conway. The Leslie Charteris character, "The Saint,' is in temporary eclipse there but may ^ revived at any time if the present orgy of crime-production continues, Over at 20th-Fox, the crime-solver ever ha^been a conspicuous feature, from the days of the late Warner Oland and 'Charlie Chan,' but Chan at the moment has been interred and naturally 'Mr. Moto.' another Fox feature, became a terrible phooey long before Pearl Harbor. Howevet-, the lot is still in the running, and doing all right, with 'Michael Shayne,' a Lloyd Nolan portrayal, Paramount is in the hunt too, with The Glass Key,' in which Brian Denlevy, Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake skirmish around the scenery, eyeing everything very narrowly until the mystery is solved. All three players are t>oxoffice. Nor has Warners entirely overlooked this field in its effort to move Humphrey Bogart out of the law-breaker classi flcation into something less repellant It sUrted to do this in The Maltese Falcon' and through in the yet-to-bC' released 'Across the Paclfld,' both detective and investigator ple& And Bogart is definitely boxoffiee. Yes, in a general sense, the moral' i.sts are right: Crime Doesn't Pay. But, for some people-out here, it ob' viously can. And does. And will United Deta-oit Adds 2(lth House; Other Tiieatre-Excliaiige Briefs Detroit Sept 1- United Detroit Theatres has added to its chain here by taking over the operation of the Met, suburban house, from the Schlussel manage- ment. It brings the UD bouses to an even score. One of the innova- tions immediately following the ab- sorption of the house was the intro- duction of vaudeville. Cinema, small downtown hotise here formerly operated by the Cap- lin interests, has been taken over by HeniT S. Rosenwald and Martin J. Lewis, operators of the Fifth Ave. and Thalia theatres in New York. Undei-standing . is that they have taken a long-term lease on the house here which followed a policy of for- eign pictures. R. C. Guthrie has bought the Roxy in Howard City, from Percy Curtis. Sidney F. Hunt before going into the Army, sold his New theatre at New Baltimore, Mich., to Al Gros- grin, a partner in the Flatroc the- atre, at Flat Rock. New, Post-WPB Theatre Charleston, S. C, Sept 1. New American, 760-seater, opened here, Clarence S. Foxsworth as man- ager. House, one of few new units opened in Dixie since WPB restric- tions, named for men in service Charles W. Nessmith, manager, Tryon theatre, Tyron, N. C., inducted into Ar^y at Camp Croft" here. Nessmith, entered theatre business in Tryon in 1921, and was known to many service men. who attended Sunday shows at his house, located less than a mile from South Carolina area where weekend shows are barred. Beb Ablesen ShUis to BKO Minneapolis, Sept 1. Bob Ableson, veteran Paramount salesman, has resigned to become QKO city salesman, succeeding Rus- sell Engner, resigned. Man to fill Ableson's spot has not Jbeen picked as yet Carr Quito Shea's Hipp Buffalo, Sept 1. John ' Carr. manager of Shea's (Par) Hipp, has resigned. Carr, a brother-in-law of the late Mike Shea and brother of the late Henry Carr, manager of the old Shea's Court (two-a-day), has been at the Hipp for over 12 years. BUI Susman's PUbsT Bill Sussman, who recently re- signed as eastern division sales man- ager for 20th-Fox, is expected to re- main in distribution, but he states he can reveal no plans at this time. Hugh Owen, recently appointed eastern division sales manager for Paramount with three southern ex- changes added to his territory, re- turned to the homeoffice Monday (31) after visiting his three Dixie branches—New (Orleans, Atlanta and Charlotte. left In October, 1041, to take his present post at Burlington, , AUo announced ia the triainster of Ben Smart, manager of.'Imperial theatre, Greensboro, to Ml; Airy where he will become manager of the Center theatre, succeeding Em- mtt Stafford. Latter succeeds Had- away in Burlington. Smart came to Greensboro in December, 1940, from Danville, Va, His successor has not been announced. Bene Theatre Eeopens Heno,''Nev., Sept. 1. Reno's Nevada theatre reopened last week. Theatre operated for- merly under the name of the Wig- wam and has been a subsequent run house for years. It will continue its former policy of double bills on subsequents and B pix. For many years It was under the management of J. Fred Miller, now deceased. Hie Nevada and Reno's four other theatres are now under manage- ment of N, Dow Thompson, acting for the T. 8c D. Jr. Enterprises. Upstate N. T. Group Adds 2 Houses Albany, N. Y.. Sect. 1. Upstate Theatres, Inc., this area's buying-booklng combine of inde- pendent exhibitors, has added two more houses to' its list They are ihe Rivoli, Tioy, of which Adolph Kohn is proprietor, and the Palace. Sche- nectady, of which Bernstein and Deitcher are lessees. This gives Up- State Theatres representation of all independent houses in Schenectady and all but one in Troy. Harry Hcll- man's Palace In the latter clly re- mains outsider as do his Paramount and Royal, Albany. Thirteen theatres are now in the Upstate combine. Woodward for King Newark, O., Sept. 1. John T. Woodward, publicity and advertising manager of Zanc.sville Theatres, Inc., succeeds F'rank V. King as manager of the Midland nnd Auditorium, local Shea houses. King has joined the Navy with rank of Chief Specialist BrowBstcIn te Bartfqrd Hartford, Conn., Sept. 1. William Brownstein named asst. mgr. of Loew's Poll; replaces Sidney Klepper, shifted to the Bijou, New Haven, as ^manager. Name Mnlbaner In Pitt Pittsburgh, Sept 1. Henry Mulbauer has been ap- pointed manager of Warner ex- change's accessories department by branch manager D.F. (Dinty) Moore. He replaces Bob Munn, who has been called to service. Mulbauer was formerly Munn's assistant. Jim Levine has been named Para- mount exploitation rejSresentative in this territory, succeeding Louis ('Red') Weiner, who resigned. Le- vine formerly covered the New Eng- land area for Par. Nemacolin (Pa.) theatre, recently acquired by Peter ProflU, is being remodeled extensively and redeco- rated for a probable reopening on Labor Day. Joe Rost, WB checking supervisor here several years ago, is on duty currently at the local exchange as a traveling auditor. Frank J. Harris, head of Harris Amus. Co. and former state senator, has been named one of the five members of the GOP policy com^ mittee for Allegheny County. He's been active In politics for more than a quarter of a century. Bruce Smtih, who as Don Bruce formerly did theatrical and night club exploitation here, has been named news editor of the Coroap oils Record, a suburban sheet. Fox Boys Apolle, K. C. Kansas City, Sept. 1. Fox-Midwest has bought the Apollo, nabe, after having held it 12 Sears on a 09-year lease. The thea- 'e, which has been dark many months, last was used for extended showings of various foreign-made pictures. N. C. Change In Mgra. Charlotte, N. C, Sept. 1. Grady Beeker, manager of Caro Una theatre at Greensboro since September, 1041, will be replaced by Norris Hadaway, present manager of North Carolina Theatres, Inc. Becker has enlisted in the army and applied for service in the air corps Hadaway was manager of Greens- boro's (National theatre for about three -ind one-half years until he UA'S CAPE COD PREEM FOR INOON-SKPENCE' Mob of blueblood, literary and theatrical colonists in and around Martha's Vineyard are lining up for the preem of "Moon and Sixpence' which is to be run off in a 42S-seat theatre In Edgartown, Mass., next Saturday (9), with UA bringing a group of approximately 25 news- papermen from New York on the junket List of guests includes W. Somer- set Maugham, author of 'Sixpence,' Katharine Cornell, James Cagncy, Emily Post I. A. R. Wylie, two gen- erals and a flock of socialists. Asked what he thought of the pic- tjre version of 'Moon aqd Sixpence' after a private screening for the au- thor and a few friends last week, Maugham drawled: 'It is a good film .—but I seem to be able to recall the book only vaguely.' N. Y. Ops Want Some Billing, Waive Overtime Union projectionists are squawking over the lack of a credit line on the shorts and trailers dealing with one aspect or another of the war that theatres have been using, especially when other unions get screen credit for donating their services. These shorts often create overtime, but the projectionists wave extra wages, because films are patriot ic. But with no credit line, the boys are fetirful of being impugned if and when they ask for wage tilts. Matter has been discussed at mem- bership meetings of the New York operators union. Local 306. lATSE, with action deferred until execs figure out a way to handle the problem. Yonngstown Man Named Youngstown, O., Sept. 1. W. E. Hartman, business agent for Motion Picture Operatort, Local 388, Youngstown, has been elected a member of the executive board o( the Ohio State Moving Picture Oper- ators and Stage Employees.