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Opera TV at Denver
'Great Experiment'
Initial .showlnR of Rrnnd
operu on large-screen television took place
there lit the Punimount last week when "Ciirmen"
was taken off the mlcro-wiive as It
jwBS being produced by the Metropolitan
Opera Co. In New York, and the result was
satisfying. The house clo.sed all day. opening
at 5 for free coffee and sandwiches,
which were served until the start of the
opera, 6:30 Denver time. Prices were $2.40.
)|3.60 and $4.80. and the hou.se gro.s.sed about
!$3,500. with half going to the arranging company,
which In turn will settle with the opera
company. The house placed 1,800 seats on
i
sale.
Patrons were generally satisfied with the
show. Many of them hunted out John Wolfberg,
general manager of the Wolfberg Tlieatns,
owners of the Paramount, and told
him they would be back for the next opera
showing, and wanted to know when It would
jbe. The sound was all that could be asked,
•the closeups were fine, but the long shots
left something to be desired, but still good
enough to satisfy all but the most critical.
Wolfberg envisions the event as opening
up an entire new field for the motion picture
theatre, and an experiment that might
very well be the very means to get people
into the film houses for pictures, people
Dec. 23 Deadline Is Set
By Booth Local No. 150
LOS ANGELES—A Tuesday (23i deadline
has been set by the lATSE projectionists
ILocal 150 in its dispute with operators of
the 24 drive-ins in this territory over the
ilocal's request that iw-o men be employed
in a booth during first run engagements,
ner owners have been notified that if
ement is not reached by that time a
Ikout will be called. Such notification
ame from the local's strike committee,
leaded by John Maynard, Charles Venclll
.d George Schaffer.
barter Port Hueneme Firm
To Rebuild Burned House
PORT HUENEME, CALIF.—Capitalized
at
150,000. the Melody Theatre, Inc.. ha.s been
tormed by Melvyn C. Kennedy. Floyd H. Edgton,
Percy E. Smith, William Shoemaker
id Ralph McKeehan. and state approval
being sought to sell 5,000 shares of stock
; a par value of $10 a share.
The company was organized to rebuild the
felody Theatre here, which was gutted by
toe in 1950.
Flat Top' Trailers on TV
DENVER—For the first time. Fox Intermountain
Theatres is using television trailrs
in promotion of "Flat Top," Allied Artists
release in color, which opened at the Denver
ind Esquire theatres. Charles Duer, AA manager
here, obtained full United States navy
ooperation in exploiting the opening.
Amusement industry employes from oil the 48
tates admitted at no cost tor TB core at WILL
tOGERS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL.
80XOFFICE :: December 20, 1952
THK
mountain labored and brought forth
statu.s quo— and Howard HuKhen.
For two to three wpek.H, Perry Lleber
and his studio publicity .staff had been under
orders to ".stand by" to .service a bored prcM
and a far-from-breathlp.s.s public with news
about the future ownership and operatlon-s
of RKO Rodlo. Then, at long laat. came the
momentous announcement.
Out of the welter of rumors, huddles,
minority stockholders suit.s. charges and counter-charges,
appointments and quick resignations
came that colassal manifesto, and revealed
that the status of the time-honored
company would be pretty much the .same as
that which prevailed before the widely publicized
.sale by Hughes of his controlling
interest to the group, headed by Ralph Stolkln.
The meat of the communique was to the
effect that four new directors had been
elected to the RKO board, including Hughes
himself; Noah Dietrich, executive vice-president
and a director of the Hughes Tool Co.,
a director of Trans World Airlines, Inc., the
National Bank of Commerce of Houston,
Texas, and a member of the University of
Notre Dame's advisory board: J. Miller
Walker, who has been with RKO in various
capacities for 21 years, including posts as
vice-president, general counsel and director;
and Maurice H. Bent, a senior partner in
the investment firm of Merrill Lynch, Pierce.
Fenner and Beane. Remaining on the board
—as the only member who was on the directorate
set up by the Stolkin interests— is
Edward G. Burke jr.
From which it is patent that Hughes and
his henchmen are firmly re-seated in the
saddle. True, the Stolkin group still has its
dollars invested in the outfit, but apparently
will have little voice in planning its future.
At the time when Hughes, last September,
first announced disposal of his RKO control,
the move was acclaimed in virtually every
quarter as one that probably would benefit
the company, its exhibitor customers and the
motion picture industry as a whole. That was
because of the doldrums of inactivity, uncertainty
and damaging litigation and pubhc
relations into which the firm had descended
during the latter days of Hughes' generalship.
Consensus opinion held that RKO had
no place to go but up. But that was before
the Wall Street Journal launched its sensational
expose of certain memt)ers of the
Stolkin syndicate and the sources of their
opulence. Then the idea began to grow that,
perhaps, the no-place-but-up starting line
had been too optimistically drawn.
Certainly the weeks of bickering and neartotal
inactivity did nothing to improve RKO's
already shaky position.
But with industry-characteristic malicetoward-none
attitude, those nightmarish days
are down the river. RKO Radio can again
regain the proud and respected place it once
occupied among major fabricators and distributors
of motion pictures. In their frombehind-the-goal-line
start, the members of
the skeletonized organization have one powerful
as.set, an impressive lineup of potentially
profitable pictures—Including Samuel Goldwyn's
"Hanx ChrtxtUn Andcm^n," Walt DUney's
new featu "Prtrr
Pan," Edmund ( ird. the
Pirate." Independ'
Uu-ultiid RuMctl
topllner. "Never V. . WAr " a pair of
Jean Slmmoiii st.ii.-tr., '*" and
"Beautiful But Dungrroas. .n Hartford's
"Face to Face." "Jet Pilot, ullh John
Wayne and Jonet Leigh, "Thr Hra Around
Us," a documentary, and tiict
from other source.s. But t;. .ong
maintain the march toward .solid pay dirt
Thot win need money, manpower, slclltul
production, .smart advertising and publicity,
all in generous and Immediate quantities.
Hughes and hU aa.soclate» are In a pasltton
to make them available For the good of all
concerned, let It be hoped that they will.
Kvrr since the clays of "The flrrat Train
RobbIary Had a Little."
Rosen's disclosure commanded considerable
if lurid—attention in the lay prevs, including
his warning th.it such film names as
Marilyn Monroe and I^na Turner "will have
to look to their laurels a.s far as sex goes—
and with Christine It goes plenty far." Aa
qunte