Variety (May 1946)

Weilneedar, **** *» 1946 PICTURES 25 Hamrick-Evergreen Holds Post-War Reunion in Seattle; Other Briefs Seattle. ♦ "Posl War Reunion" is tag for gen- eral 1946 convention of Hamrick- Everprecn and Evergreen Theatres which opened this week at the Olym- pic hotel. Managers and executives from Oregon and Washington the- atres are attending. Frank Newman, President, calls it a welcome home for 122 employees who were in serv- ice Only one, Ron Kelley, man- ager of the Music Box, was killed during the war.^ B. & K.'« PUtt U Par Int'l Chicago. Abe Piatt, Balaban St Katz district manager for 18 years, was guest of honor at a supper given by B. & K. employees last week, prior to lus de- parture tor the Coast and a position with Paramount^ foreign depart- ment. Popkln Sells Lincoln Los Angeles. Harrv Popkin sold his Lincoln theatre, a 2,000-seater, to Metropoli- tan Theatres, which will give the house a policy of all-Negro stage shows in addition to regular screen programs. Metropolitan Theatres is partnership of Sherrill Corwin, rincipal and Fox West Coast. Pi Bookers Dance In N. T., May 19 Motion Picture Bookers Club of N. Y. will hold its annual dinner- dance at the Astor hotel, N. Y.. May 19. Oscar Lager, booker for Harry Moses circuit is this year's president of the club. Zeesman Quits BKO in Mpls. Minneapolis. Vernon Zeesman, RKO-Pan thea- tre manager, resigned in order to become an exhibitor. In a realign- ment of personnel, Milton Trochler was transferred from Orpheum to manage the RKO-Pan, while Rob- ert Whclan takes over as Orpheum manager along with his duties as RKO Theatres city manager. Rich- ard York moves up from Orpheum usher to RKO-Pan treasurer. 2.600-Seater Sold River Theatre Corp. has negotiated a 21-year lease for the Delmar, 2.GO0- teater at 138th Street and Broadway. N. Y.. from Jacob Friedus, real es- tate operator. Extensive moderniza- tion being planned, including air- conditioning and television receiving. gefiirbLshing is to begin as soon as overnmcnt regulations permit. Berk & Krumgold, theatrical real estate brokers, handled the deal. Erie, Pa., Exhlb Retires Pittsburgh. Mrs. John Hauer, veteran exhibitor In Erie, is retiring. She's transferring WIN DfatrBwf* Your Predicth CoaMcticot UoaVa. fMbawaaW facta**" STAR FILM DIST. CORP. IU Mm*m $»„ Dm Ham* Cm*. Honoring Sam Rosen Philadelphia, April 30. Local exhibs are raising a fund of $5,000 for erection of an administration building at a children's camp i:i Warren County, N. J., as a memorial to Sam Rosen, late manager of the Monogram exchange here. her 500-seal American theatre to Robert Lee. ex-GI and formerly in the -hotel business. Lund-directed theatres will erect a 900-seat house in Carmichaels, ad- joining, the 400-seat house it now runs there. Fax Lee Williams, proprietor of Triangle theatre, Junior. W. Va., en- listed in the infantry, turning'house over to his aunt. Mrs. Dale Hilliard. She named Bill Williams manager. W. B. Kicag new manager of State theatre, Altoona, succeeding W. K Jacoby, resigned. New scats and floor will be in- stalled in Fulton theatre when the Shea house closes this summer for Us annual warm-weather shutdown. Management planned to add 400 ad- ditional seats, but will have to wait until materials are available. McMalion's Buy m, „„.v Chicago. The 600-scat Revue, northwest filmery, purchased by Leroy Mc- Mahon. former Iowa exhibitor Pre- vious owner was Lake Shore Corp. Walters' New Berth , , Sioux Falls. John Watlers has been advanced from office assistant to the sales staff of RKO at Sioux Falls. Sol Yeager has been added to the sales force at Dcs Moines. Cohn Quits WB in Phillv Artie Cbhn, manager of Warner's Roosevelt. Philadelphia, has resigned due to ill health. He has been 17 years with WB in advertising, pub- licity and managerial posts. Ansells Become Bankers St. Louis. Louis K. and .Joseph C. Ansell, prexy. and veepec respectively, of Ansell Bros. Amus. Co., owners of three subsequent runs in St. Louis and St. Louis County, are now bank- ers. They are members of a syn- dicate, headed by Philip C. Kopitsky, that purchased 5,380 of G,000 shares of slock outstanding in the State Bank and Trust Co., in Wellston, suburb ot St. Louis, for $430,400. Joseph Ansell also was made a bank director. , New picture house is planned for Cape Girardeau, Mo., across street from Fox Midwest's Broadway. Fox Midwest also owns Orpheum there. Davis-Alexander back as manager of Illini, Molinc, III., for Tri-States Theatre Corp. Formerly managed Esquire. Davenport. Ia. William Trites. manager of Illini, resigned to enter Illinois U. Arthur Baldwin, former projec- tionist, bought the American, a 265- seater, Sidell, 111., from business men who kept the theatre in operation during the war as a civic gesture. Clyde and Dale Miner, recently discharged from Army, purchased Strand, Ridgeway, III., from James W. Kerbcr. I Research Blues I 1— Continued from page s II alone how directors and film editors feel when they go to make a final cut of a picture.. They used to pride themselves on that nice sense of judgment that told them what to leave in and what to take out. In a pinch, they might have a sneak preview. Now, 80 people—guaran- teed by the researchers to be an accurate cross-section of all United Slates—turn a little gadget in their hands and a moving pen on a graph electrically determines which scenes stay in and which come out. There's no arguing with that. First public sign that all this is beginning to worry Hollywood's artists and creaters came to light last week on a radio show—"Hi Jinx," in which Jinx Falkenberg and hubby Tex McCrary cavort at the breakfast table each morning for benefit of NBC listeners. Their guests were Burgess Meredith and Paulette Goddard. McCrary, execu- tive editor of American Mercury, asked Meredith: "What's the Hollywood under- ground talking about now?" "Audience research," Meredith quickly came back. "All the un- derground is wondering where it is going to lead. It's becoming a very uncomfortable feeling to think that there is a machine-rriade estimate of us all." Meredith went on to talk about the pollsters even testing titles. "I wonder what kind of response they'd get to Tygmalion'?" he pon- dered. Producer Sidney Buchman. que- ried later in the day, likewise had profound objections to the poll re- sults if taken too literally. Being producer of "A Song to Remember," pic on the life of Chopin, Buchman wondered how the surveyers on story content went about checking that: "Would you go to see a pic- ture full of classical music?" or "Would you go to see a picture about an 18th century composer?" An- swers, he felt, would be largely in the negative, yet the film proved a b.o. sock. As for cutting a picture by means of Audience Research Institute's electric checker on spectators' re- actions, Buchman said he had little faith. A mere drop in interest, he declared, meant nothing, since it might be the necessary buildup for the next smash.scene. New York advertising and pub- licity vets are no happier than Hol- lywood creative talent at the coming of science to pre-test their cam- paigns for them. Their stock-in- trade has always been judgment on what constitutes a selling point. Now they can learn automatically— but most of them pooh-pooh the idea. RKO Managers Guild Wins Over Circuit; Probably Joining AFL 3 Texas Drive-Ins Opened - Dallas. Underwood-Ezrll Circuit opened its 1946 season this month for two drive-in theatres here, the North- west Highway and Chalk Hill. Each has room for 475 cars. Alamo Drive-In opened at San Antonio by Arthur Landsman, C. A. Richler and E. L. Pack. House cost $100,000. Landsman is manager. L. A. Couch named manager of Texas and Azteca theatres operated at Math is by the Talley Enterprises. Couch is just out of the service. He was formerly office manager for Alexander Preview Co.. ot Dallas and before that was with Interstate Theatres in Harlingen. Alfred Pena purchased the 450- seater at New Brnunfcls which he calls the Pens. He formerly oper- ated the Palace. San Antonio. Al C. Reynolds named Norman Schwartz manager of Empire thea- tre at Sajx^Antonio, replacing Rollic Moore, made manager ot Broadway. Qninn Joins-Par Sales Bob Quinn. who formerly managed the Trail theatre. Colorado Springs, joined Paramount as field represen- tative in Denver territory, formerly handled by Bob Blair, who transfers to Seattle. Quinn has managed sev- eral houses in the midwest, New Orleans Ilouse Sold . New Orleans. SI. Charles theatre sold for $125,- 000 to Street Realty Co. The theatre now is under lease to the Folles Ber- gere. Inc.. of N. Y. Provident Invest- ment Co. here sold the house. British Loan Continued from pace 3 were not taking too dark a view of the situation this week. They felt that even if the loan bill isn't given the nod by Congress in its orig- inal form, it is likely that there will be modified approval. Of course, that still might leave the British in a position to cut off part of its dollar returns to this country, but on that basis, U. S. companies wouldn't be deprived of all of their British in- come. Another not-too-dark opinion was that, even if the loan failed of pas- sage completely, Britain couldn't afford to cut off U. S. films, although export of coin no doubt would be blocked. But British theatres are geared to the necessity of having Hollywood product—a need which the English industry is by no means to fulfill. So eliminating U. S. films would be tantamount to putting many theatre-owners out of busi- ness, throwing their employees out of work and depriving the people of entertainment. SMPE Meet Continued from page 5 source will only react on the quality of our own production." On Wednesday night (8) the SMPE is presenting a special citation in the form of a scroll of achievement to Warners for pioneering the com- mercial, career of sound films. Major Albert Warner is accepting the scroll on behalf of his brothers, Harry M. and Col. Jack L. Presentation of the award will be made in addition to the previously announced citation to Thomas Arnaat, inventor of the I projector. The RKO managerial guild which on Friday (3) finally won its long battle with the RKO circuit on top of'a similar victory by the cashier's union, is reported shifting into the American Federation of Labor and shortly will probably apply for a direct charter. Cashier's outfit, known a,s Local B-52, is already in the AFL camp through having hooked up with the IATSE. Originally the cashiers were hooked to the managers, with George Dunn, manager of the 81st St. the- atre. N. Y., instrumental in organiz- ing them but following protest by the IA over jurisdicton, it was de- cided they would go their way sep- arately. Dunn is chairman of the RKO managerial guild. . Stumbling block between the man- agers union covering 41 RKO Greater N. Y. and Westchester county houses, known as Motion Picture Theatre Operating Managers & Assistant Managers Guild, was over maintenance of membership and the discrimination clause. On agreement finally reached, RKO will recognize arbitration of any discrim- ination in matter, of promotions, transfers, discharges, layoffs, etc. Company also agreed to maintain- ing a checkoff system in line with maintenance of membership. Questions of scale, retroactive pay, etc., were previously okayed by RKO. The $155,000 in retroactive pay was offered some time ago by RKO in hopes that further guild action would be called off. It's to be paid after deduction of the with- holding tax -and 5% in attorney fees for Hyman Glickstein, counsel for the. guild. $85 and $4* Mlnlranms Contract, to run for two years, will call for a minimum of $85 for managers and $40 for assistants on a basis of a 50-hour week, as agreed to some months ago. It Is calculated that the retroactive pay will run around a net of $1,250 for managers and $750 for assistants. Aside from raises necessary to reach minimums it was agreed managers would re- ceive an increase of $10, and as- sistants $7.50 henceforth. Other points formally settled in- clude three weeks vacation with pay after five years, severance pay rang- ing from two weeks to total of 10 after 12 years of service, seniority rights and sick leave in line with present policy of company. (RKO retains one manager on the payroll" who has been ill for a year, another for six months.) Two-year contract may be reopened on wage scale alone after one year. Cashier's union, headed by Leona Sosna, cashier at RKO's 23d St. the- atre, N. Y., obtained a contract to Sept. 1 next, under which retroac- tive pay back to Sept. 1,1945, will approximate $15,000 for the 125 cashiers and secretary-cashiers in- volved. Beginner's pay will be $25 and extend to $32 after three years' service for re..ular ' cashiers and range from $27 to $35 for secretary- cashiers. Contract calls for a 40- hour week, two weeks vacation with pay, sick leave pay, banning of split shifts and exclusive union hiring. Following negotiation of the con- tract. Miss Sosna stated that the union she heads will seek to organ- ize some 1,800 cashiers of other cir- cuits in the Greater N. Y. area. Trenet's Click Continued from page I s of Trenet hit a record-breaking mark, over $32,000, consequently the interest from other cafe bonifaces in foreign names. In addition, spot is getting type of carriage trade which it never got before. New York Theatres Dan* CLARK - Jaais PAIGE Zachary SCOTT la Warner Brat, Hit "HER KIND OF MAN" In Tenon CARMEN CAVALLARO AND HIS OBCHKSTBA Plan LENNY KENT BEN ROCHEIXK and JANE BEEBK B'woy at 47* S*. STRAND MUUmJWHCIEi CAPITOL"- Luellle BALL curt* WEBB WIWM Mark BENDIX STEVENS 'The Dark Corner' A 20th Century-Fox Picture PLUS ON 9TAOB-6EOR8E JEBSEL MERRY MACS Eltrt! ROSARIO 4 ANTONIO ROXY m notb St. Farnmount Freffenta Alnh Yrrnnlra William I,.»1>1) - LARK - BKNDIX "THE BLUE DAHLIA" A George Mnrahatl Production In rVrwon DUKE ELLINGTON And IIla Orclirnlra »TI:mI" * HTI'.Ml'V Eilra—TIIK MII.I.H BHOB. PARAMOUNT, Tums rWnre. 0 ' ON Iaarid BKKCMAN Gregory FECK In ALFItKD HITCHCOCK'S 'SKlUOUNtV in rasoN Fatrirla BOWMAN Jimmy E DWON MON RUCK* IUIBLE5 BETTE DAVIS ■a Warner Brae. Hit "A STOLEN LIFE" With Glenn FORD • Don* ClAJtX Walter MENNAN • Chartta tUOGUS Directed by Curtis Bernhardt HOLLYWOOD CODtlnowu B'tror at Slat Stmt ^STAST0-:S 7 5I •Vrarat Paramoaat prevent* PAIIT.KTTK RAT GODDARD • MILLAND "KITTY" A MITCHELL LKIBEN - Froriartloa Doore Open | I U A I j Wwmj * tiMAM. " I f U LI 491b.St. RADIO CUT MUSIC HALL "THE GREEN YEARS" PALACE JOAN FONTAIWB FROM THIS DAY FORWARD •llh MARK STEVENS ROSEMARY DC CAMP Am BKO r' "" ~ DAY I ID I EVENS ■ CAMP ■ net— J