Variety (Sep 1942)

16 EXPLOITATION Wednesday, September SO, 1942 Number of Wives Replacing as Mgrs. FortlicDiiralion:ll.eatres-ExcIiaiiges Wives of theatre managers who have entered the armed services are replacing their husbands in several territories as house managers. Reported that approximately 20 \^'omen in Dallas territory have al ready been trained, a considerable niimlier are reported In the Pitts- burgh area, and the plan is being widely adopted due to the fact that home discussion of picture problems has made it easy for the girls to pick up practical operation methods. Practical method of helping thea- tre men in uniform serves a dual purpose in improving industry pub- lic relations without exploitation stunting, while providing theatre op- erators with needed help. Appointments so far have been mainly in smaller towns and cities. Austin Woman E«places Hobby Austin, Texas, Sept 29. Mrs. William E. Heliums has been named manager of the Austin here by Louis Novy, city manager for the Interstate theatre circuit, succeed- ing her husband, William E. 'Bill Heliums. Heliums has been accept- ed for Officers Training School at Fort Sill. Okla. Mrs. Heliums makes the first woman manager in the city. Garson'i Break Moncton, N. B., Sept. 29 The Kent here has been opened by Abe Garson, after overcoming formidable impediments. The do- minion government stepped in and banned completion of his plans for remodeling a furniture store and upper living quarters into a 500-seat theatre. Garson went Into action and after a lapse of about a month, the remodeling was continued, the ban being lifted. The Kent policy is continuous, and the first grind house In Moncton. There are dual bills, whereas, the other Moncton houses. Imperial, Empress and Capitol, offer tingles and shorts. Kalmtne's Confab Theatre conferences were held at the Warner homeoffice Thursday and Friday (24-25) to discuss current op- erating matters, with Harry M. Kalmlne presiding. • Those attending Included James >E. Coston, Chicago zone inanager and his buyer, Alex Halperin; L. F. Gran, operator of houses In the Milwaukee territory; Ted Schlanger, zone man- ager at PhUadelphla; Moe SUver. m charge at Pittsburgh, and Harry Fein- stein, film buyer lor the PltUburgh lone. Clay Hake's Denver Spot Denver, Sept. 29. R. J. Morrison, for 15 years man- ager ot 20th Century exchange, has been retired on a substantial pen- sion. He is succeeded by Clay Hake, formerly Fox film representative in New Zealand, Australia and Japan. Morrison came to Denver in 1923 from Aspen, Colo, where he had operated a theatre, started selling for First National, and five years later went with Fox as exchange manager. Morrison will continue to live in Denver. Si Gertz. former publicity director cf Civic Theatres here, now a cor- poral. He joined the marines prior I to Pearl Harbor. Mrs. Lucille Wood operating the El I Cine, Espanola, N. M., while her hus- band is employed as a civil engineer on the highway now being built through Canada to Alaska. Mrs. Betty Menagh will operate the Star at Fort Lupton, Colo., after her hu.^- band. Eldon, joins the army next month. Ross Labart has sold the Ute at SnRauche. Colo., to Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Gray. Labart has eone to Pando, Colo., to work on the con- struction of a government army training camp. Chuck Flowers, who managed the Park at Estes Park, Colo., during its rummer season, made manaeer of the Rex at Brighton, Colo. He suc- ceeds Richard Dekker, who came to Denver as manager of the Victory. Bernie Newman, partner in Pro- ducers Releasing Corp. exchange, will be Inducted In as a petty officer In Navy as soon as he receives bis Army discharge papers from Wash- ington. Newman was In World War I, but lost his discharge papers. Jim Hughes of Yuma, Colo., out of the hospital. First National company for 18 years. A new field exploiteer appoint^ Is Frank Bruner, formerly with United Artists, who takes over in the southwestern district, succeeding Bill Lewis, who goes into the army, Marty Weiser, field man In the west, has been promoted to post of western division publicity rep, for merly held by Sam Clark who has gone to work for Jack Benny. Jack Galloway and Bill Bugle, new WB salesmen. Memphis branch David Kaufman goes Into Buffalo exchange as checking supervisor, succeeding Sol Gerber, resigned. Owen LifhtstoDC In Army Montreal. Sept. 2fi. Owen Lightstone, general manager o( Variety Amusements, Ltd., and manager of the Orpheum theatre resigned both positions this week and is now In the Canadian armed forces. He expects to be attached to General Headquarters staff, where his expe rience In the amusement world could be utilized in the Army. Mrs. Lightstone, nee Beverlee Schnitzer, has taken over manage ment of the Orpheum for the dura' tion. Par Pep Clnb Elects New officers for the coming year have been installed In the Paramount Pep Club, whose meml>ers comprise employees of the Par h.o., exchange, newsreel and subsidiaries. Herman Lorber, veteran'sales executive with the company and ^now assistant to Hugh Owen, eastern-southern di- vision manager, is the new president succeeding Job Doughney. Other of- ficers are Irene Scott of the legal de- partment, vice-president; John Mc- Dermott in charge of general ac- counting, treasurer; and Sophie Weint>erg, of the insurance depart- ment secretary. Pep Club plans to hold a dinner-dance at the Waldorf- Astoria, N. Y., the end of October, possibly Oct. 30. Paul Lazarus, Jr., who resigned from Warners last week after being with the company nearly 10 years, joins the Buchanan advertising agen- cy Oct. 5 on special ad duties directly under John Hertz, Jr. At Warners the trade paper ad and sales promo- tional work handled by Lazarus will be combined with the consumer ad- vertising supervised iby Gil Golden, with post of advertising manager cre- ated for Golden as a result Thomas Germaine has Joined the Warner exchange In New Haven, succeeding Louis Jacobson, ad sales- man, who has gone into the Army. Norman E. Kassel, with the Essan- ess circuit in Chicago for nine years, has been hired by Warners as assist- ant field exploitation representation in that territory. Ploltel Goes Empire St John, N. B., Sept 29. Leslie Plottel, for past three years manager of RKO exchange in St. John, covering the maritime prov- inces and Newfoundland, has gone over to Empire-Universal. The switch involves his moving from St John to Toronto. Leo Devaney, of To- ronto, Canadian general manager for RKO, has made an inspection of the St John branch since the retirement of Plottel. The latter is one of three brothers in film distribution in Can- ada. He originally came to St. John from Toronto on transfer. Mrs. Plot- tel has returned to Toronto with him. The name of a successor at the St. John exchange has not been an- nounced. Loewe Vpped In Okla. J. W. Loewe, salesman In the Warner exchange at Oklahoma City, made branch manager there. Suc- ceeds Walter A. Dolln, forced to re- tire due to Illness. Larry Gololt's Post Larry Golob takes charge of War- ficr.s' field exploitation force, suc- ceeding Lee Blumberg, who recently resigned to Join a hosiery concern. Golob will combine new duties with national magazine, fan mac and syndicate contact work on which he has specialized for sometime. He has been with Warners and the old Jenkins to Golden Gate San Francisco, Sept. 29. Frank Jenkins came from RKO Hillstreet Los Angeles, to take over a.s.st. manager tiost at RKO Golden Gate, replacing Mark Ailing, sent to Denver by RKO to manage the Or- pheum there. Tivoli shuttered again after Blu- menfeld Circuit failed to make it pay as a moveover house. Despite booming theatre biz here, this house has been unable to draw customers becaiLsc it is off beaten track, and now the dimout prevents use oT lichts to lure customers to its lo- cation. Gothamlles Going Richard Engel, real estate execu- tive attached to Eric Erriccson's de- partment at Paramount for many years. Coast Guard. Herbert Lazarus. Paramount at- torney, inducted today (Wed.) at New York. He has been a member of the National Guard for nearly two years. With Par at Its homeoffice for close to 10 years, Lazarus also has an outside law practice, partner in the firm of Garfield. Wrubel & Laza- rus, which continues in operation during his absence. State In Wllklnsburg. replacing Her man Denmark, recently called up by the army. Other WB shIfU an- nounced at same time include: Alex- ander Vasilevich, from chief of serV' ice at Stanley to assistant at Plaza Leonard Shapiro, from doorman at Sheridan Square to assistant of Schenley: Ronald Harrison, from aS' sistant at Schenley to assistant at Sheridan Square; and Melvin Smith from assistant at Memorial in MC' Keesport to assistant at Enright, ex- changing places with Leon Ruben- stein. Majestic, Philipsburg, transferred to Majestic Theatre Corp. following dissolution of partnership between William L. Lamproplos and Gust Contos. former owners. New com- pany includes such veteran, exhibs as Konstantine A. Vavcris and Chris Fourgis as well as Contos. Vnverls will be in charge of buying and booking and will retain his partner ship with Fourgis in the Grand the atre. Mt. Pleasant. Pa., and also his district managership with- the Al- toona-Publix Theatres, Inc. Sam'S. Hannuer. Beaver Falls ex hib, Inst weekend celebrated his 40th anniversaiy in show business in con- nection with Diamond Jubilee of es- tablishment of his family's mercan- tile business in that town. Ladies' store, which is still operating, was opened in Beaver Falls in Septem- ber. 1867, by his father, late Asher Hanauer. Another family enter- prise is the Hanauer Medicine Co. manufacturers of medicines and salves. Sam Hanauer and his father launched old Lyceum theatre in 1902 and later owned and operated sev- eral other houses. At present, he has the Rialto and the State. Injured four years ago In an acci- dent from which he miraculously es- caped death. Dr. Constantlne Kosta- kos. Elkins. W. Va., exhib, has re- turned to his theatre duties. < Son- in-law and partner of Mike Manos, circuit exhib. Dr. Kostakos accident- ally walked into an open elevator shaft in a N. Y. city building and fell 17 floors, a steel cable breaking his drop. He Is still partly crippled. Leo Wayne, veteran Pittsburgh film man, ' joined Monogram ex- change as booker and sales repre- sentative, succeeding Lawrence R. Carettie, now in army. Wayr* for last several years assistant manager of Jack Judd Theatre Poster Serv- ice here. Bud Gray is RKO's new exploita- tion man in the Pitt<iburgh territory. He replaces Louis Harmon, former legit agent who returned" to N. Y. Allan Douglas resigned booking post at Metro and John Miller no longer in shlnping department Johnny Jaffurs. son of Jim Jaf- furs. Wilmerding exhib. Is a star inesman this season on the Penn State coUcpe football team. Briefles: Red Silverberg, U booker. In an auto accident last week but not seriou.sly Injured.. .Ralph Mer- vis. of Mervis Brothers' theatres, an aerial photographer In the army and shoves off soon for Newfound- land. . .F. D. Moore, Jr., son of Dinty Moore. WB exchange manager, okay again after an appendix operation Barry theatre, owned by Bill Skirball. being refurbished under di- rection of Victor A. Rigaumont, ar- chitect who originally designed It Ida Friedman a new office clerk at Republic.. .William Penn Hotel hasbeen selected as site of annual AMPTO of Western Penna. conven- tion on Oct. 19-20. Mrs. Wol.v Sells Out Plaza. Monona. la., operated by Mrs. Don Wolff since her husband entered army Jan. 1.. just been sold to E. E. Graham of Kinross, la. Mrs. Wolff has joined Corporal Wolff at Ephrata. Wash. Phllly's Contingent Philadelphia. Sept. 29. Lincoln Wilmerton, stage director of Stage Door Canteen, U. S. Army. Howard Reynolds, bandleader Pa- umbo's. Army. Maurice Rosen. Monogram booker and son of Monogram exchange boss, Sam Rosen. Army. Florence Setron, wife of Silvan Setron. Uptown manager, WAACS. Edward Minet Record staffer. Army. Newsreels May Get a Better Break On War Clqis; Cheesecake Problem EXHIB HYPOS B.0; VIA CAN. MILITARY BAND Derolt Sept. 29. Mark off as a theatrical scoop the feat of Joe LaRose, manager of a nabe house here, in bringing '.he band of the Essex Scottish Regiment to his theat- - It was a natural business boomtr, since Dieppe put a sharp focus on the regiment recruited just acr. the river from here. Following raid by the Canadians on the French coast, the pre^ here played up heavily the heroism of the Essex Scottish and the heavy toll of 500 men from the neighbor city lost in action. In order to arrange the appear- ance of the regiment's kiltie band at his Eastown, LaRose obtained the necessary authoriz.itions from both the Canadian Government and U. S. authorities for the admission of 'for- eign troops' into this country. Par-UA Deal Continued from page B completed by Sherman are 'Silver Queen' starring George Brent and PrisciUa Lane; 'American Empire,' starring Richard Dix, and 'Buckskin Frontier,' also with Dix. Likelihood Is that of the 13 Hopys, UA will re- tease six this season, the number originally scheduled by Par and seven next year. 3 Features Three regularly-produced Par fea- tures, all ready to be picked up by UA, are 'I Married a Witch,' "The Crystal Ball' and 'Out of the Frying Pan,' last-mentioned until this week being known as 'Young and Willing.' Nothing but Sherman pictures are included on the second year of the deal and explained that the $4,500,000 figure, with money to be paid over as negatives are picked up, may vary up or down depending on cost at which pictures yet to be produced are brought in. Down payment of $1,900,000 Is im- mediately made on delivery of the first group of pictures, understood to number four, including one Hopy. Although the* Par-UA deal was signed In New York, Friday (25), of- ficial announcement was held up until Monday (28) at the request of UA so "that latter could break it at Its natloifal sales convention in Chi- cago on that day. Deal, written with United Artists Productions, Inc., subsid of UA, and calling for purchase of the Par pix at their negative cost, was signed at' session attended by Grad Sears, UA v.p.; Arthur W. ^Celly, UA v.p. over foreign sales; Harry J. MuUer. treasurer of UA; Neil F. Agnew, v.p. of Par over sales; Y. Frank Freeman, v.p. in charge of production; Austin C. Keough, Par's general counsel and H. Karp, Par's studio legal head. WB's Pitt Changes Pittsburgh. Sept 29. Warner Bros, upped Morton Haas from assistant manager of Sheridan' Square, East Liberty, to manage Moskowltz Aides Kapper Martin Moskowltz was last week appointed assistant to William J. Kupper. executive assistant to Tom Connors. 20th-Fox v.p. In charge of distribution. Moskowltz. a 20th dis- tribution exec for several years, was formerly a.ssistant to Herman Wob- ber and earlier to John D. Clark. Meshbeaber to WB Minneapolis, Sept 29. Ben Meshbesher resigned from Re- public to join the Warner sales staff. He replaces Leon Dizon, transferred to Milwaukee branch. Another Re- public resignation Is that of booker Abbott Swartz who has taken over the P.R.C. franchise from (Charles Wciner. BIdwell to Sidney, O. John D. Bidwell, formerly assist- ant manager of the Warner, Youngs- town, O.. named manager of WB Ohio in Sidney, O., which seats 1,- 250. Bidwell has been with Warners for nine years, coming to Youngs- town from the Ohio In Lima. Par-Selznick Continued from pace S sibility, however, that if the consid- eration is not too great the company may acquire other yarns. In addition to the directors, Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Stevenson, Par is reported interested only in Ingrid Bergman (already on loan'for its currently producing 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'), Vivien Leigh, Gene Kelly, Joan Fontaine and Dorothy McGuire, among players in the Selz- nick camp. Selznick also has Valerie Hobson, K. T. Stevens and Alan Mar- shall under contract to him. Actuating Selznick's interest In dis- posing of all his storied and talent contracts. In addition to his partner- snip in UA, is his desire to go into war activity, either actively In. the service or in a Governmental post, for the duration. He has already been relieved of his contract to pro- duce films exclusively for UA for a period of 10 years. The $1,000,000 which UA had earmarked for Selz- nick, for production of 'Eyre' and 'Kingdom,' reverted back to UA for use In making its down payment to Par on a 22-picture takeover deal. Reported Hunt Stromberg may buy Selznick's ownership In UA, with payments to be made for the stogk from his share of UA dividends on pictures. The propriety of using the same amount of usual entertainment clips In the American newsreels during wartime as before was up for dis- cussion last Friday (25) when editors of the five reels got together at a luncheon meeting. No decision was reached as to whether such material as football games, horse races, bath- ing l>eauty parades and other enter- tainment should be included, or what percentage of a newsreel issue should be strictly news. Claude Collins, representative of the newsreels In Washington where he is liaison man between the reels and different Government agencies, was in N. Y. for the confab. The newsreel executives were mildly en- couraged by a more reassuring atti- tude on the part of Washington and military men In authority. While thus far little or no film has filtered through from the various fighting fronts where U. S. has large contin- gents of troops, there is some indica- tion of loosening up of rigid rule by different base commanders. War Coverage In this regard, the newsreel pool and roto coverage came in for heavy consideration as to disposition of men and desirability of spotting them In more Important spots near the fronts. Unofficially indicated that any change of locating news- reelmen closer to the front would be an improvement Movietone, which was representing the pool of five U. S. reels in the Solomons, actually had a man near when the Marines landed on the Solomon Islands. How- ever, he was on a boat off the islands and did not get on land until most of the flghtlag was concluded. A couple of the reels have had men In and out of new Guinea for months, but thus far little material has been received by the newsreels in N. Y. Question of how the newsreels will be able to stvplant technical men called up to the'colors also was dis- cussed. im MAPS INDIVmUAL PUBUCITY ON FILMS A system of assigning publicity- exploitation men to only four or five pictures per year at the studio shortly will be Installed by 20th- Fox. Understood that the plan is be- ing inaugurated at the Instigation of Spyros Skouras, who feels this is the ideal method for effectual feature publicizing. Under the new setup, one i.ian will follow a feature production from the time the story is set and first story confabs are held up to the time the final version is turned over for distribution. While a unit system is used at 20th-Fox presently, as at many other studios, the setup Is such now that two pictures per week are handled by one studio publicity man. Under the new method, additional publicity men would be needed, since each publicist would be working on a sin- gle production as long as three months. SPG Adds Repoblk And Loew Agcy. in N. Y. Screen PubllcisU Guild. Local 114 or the CIO, on Friday (25) signed t'.vo-year contracts with Republic, crvering homeoffice publicists, •' 1 with the Marcus Loew Booking Agency covering theatre department flacks there. Walte% Titus, secretary of Rcpub- Ur, signed for that company, while C. C. Moskowltz, v.p. of Loew's, signed for the Loew organization. Jonas Rosenfleld, Jr., president of SPG, signatured for the union. Same 10% Increases and other provisions as called for under con- tracts previously signed with eight m»jor homeofflces and the RKO Service Corp. (theatres), are called for. COHSON'S MISSION Dick Condon, 20th-Fox publicity chief on Hal Home's sUff In N. Y., to the Coast for buddies with Harry Brand, studio publicity head. Ac- companied by Max Youngstein, as- sistant to Home. Understood that they will attempt to improve publicity matter coming through from the Coast