DECEMBER

I
'T
i
BUFFALO
aging the Cinema in Buffalo. The Buffalo
house has just completed a successful fourweek
run of "The Thief."
The Variety Club cf Buffalo has elected the
following directors for the ensuing year:
M. A. Brown, United Ar ists; John G. Chinell,
RKO: Bob Hayman, Hayman Theatres, Niagara
Falls; Marvin Jacobs, Sportservice, retired;
Billy Keaton. WGR; A:-thur Krolick,
UPT; W. E. J. Martin, drama editor, Courier-
Express; Dewey Michaels, Michaels Enterprises;
Albert Ryde, projectionists union business
agent; Elmer C. Winegar, treasurer,
projectionists union, and Max Yellen, Midland
Properties, operating the Cenury Theatre.
Delegates elected to attend the convention
in April in Mexico City are William
D. Dipson, Dipson Theatres, Batavia, and Ben
Kulick, Faysan Distributors, Buffalo. Alternates
will be Myron Gross, Cooperative Theatres,
and Wally Gluck, theatrical agent.
Carl E. Bell, manager of the Perkins Theatre
Supply Co., has issued invitations for a
buffet supper and cocktails Monday (15)
from 4 to 6 in celebration of the opening
of the new offices and showrooms at 505
Pearl St. The new headquarters is on the
. . . Babcock's
first floor of the Film building in the former
National Screen space
Outdoor Publici y Service of Batavia, N. Y.,
is using the slogan "We Give You the Business."
The service supplies the A-board
trucks, some of them illuminated, which are
used extensively by theatres in the Buffalo
exchange area in advertising coming attractions.
The service also supplies large searchlights
for use at premieres, etc. The Paramount
in Buffalo will use one of the illuminated
A-board trucks on "The Road to Bali,"
a holiday attraction.
More than 40 theatres in Buffalo and
nearby communities are cooperating with the
Salvation Army this year in asking audiences
to contribute to the Army's Christmas gift
programs. Capt. John Waldron of the Army,
is in charge of the theatre program. The collections
will continue tlirough December 25.
Funds raised in the theatre collections are
used to help defray expenses of the Army's
Christmas cheer and gifc distribution.
The Center Theatre will carry the Bendix
teleconference on December 30, at which time
western New York distributors of Bendix
products will gather in the theatre to see
1953 products. This will be the first of the
teleconferences in the Center, which has just
completed the installation of RCA theatre
TV equipment. The telecast of the Metropolitan
Opera produc.ion of "Carmen" in the
Center Thursday night was a huge success.
The house was sold out well in advance of
the telecast. The slogan, "Every Seat a Box
at the Met," was played up prominently in
the Center ads announcing the event. The
Buffalo press was unusually cooperative in
helping to put ihis first Buffalo telecast over
in a big way. It was reviewed by both music
and TV-radio editors and regular news reporters.
The Center will show the widely
heralded Arch Oboler "Bwana Devil" Natural
Vision third-dimension feature-length
film in January.
Manager George H. Mackenna of Basil's
Lafayette returned to Buffalo from New York,
where he attended the Movie Pioneers dinner,
greatly impressed by Cinerama. "The
film industry is tremendously interested in
Cinerama," said Mackenna. "The night I was
there half the people in the packed house
were from the industry. I saw a rollercoaster
film that made me feel as if I were
riding in the thing. Audience reaction is
terrific. The shows are sold out for three
months in advance at $2.80 a ticket and there
are long lines at the boxoffice for every
performance. It will take about five years,"
he predic ed, "before the Cinerama company
can produce enough pictures suitable tor this
process to supply many communities and the
communities themselves won't be ready with
suitable theatres for a long time. It seems
to me theatres would have to be specially
designed. In addi'ion to the huge screen you
have to have three projection booths. Most
theatres are not suited for such installations.
The cost is high, too, with about $40,000 for
equipment, and an operators payroll of about
$2,000 a week."
Murray Whiteman, past chief barker of
Variety Tent, has a table at the annual Ad
club Christmas party in the Statler on Tuesday
(16), at which will be Dave Miller. 1952
chief barker; Charles B. Taylor, UPT; Ed
Hurley, Decca records; Fay Mirti. MGM
records; Wally Gluck, theatrical agent; Warren
Hardy, Emerson radio and TV, and
others. Murray is a former director of the
Ad club.
Jimmy Dorsey's daughter Julie was in to
aid in the promotion of "Million Dollar Mermaid,"
which will be the New Year's attraction
at Shea's Buffalo. Eddie Meade arranged
for full coverage of Julie's visit by
The citizens of
local press and radio . . .
Niagara Falls recently overwhelmingly defeated
a proposed referendum which would
have permitted an additional 5 per cent admission
tax. Pi'ominent in the fight against
the measure were Robert and Richard Hayman
of the Hayman theatres, Al Pierce of
Shea's Bellevue and Richard Walsh of the
Hayman circuit.
Art Bailey has recovered from a recent
operation. While the manager of the Little
Hippodrome was in the hospital, his dad
Jim took over the managerial reins. Jim'
Bailey is one of the real veterans of the
Buffalo exhibition end of the business. He
managed the Little Hippodrome for many
years himself . . . Fran Maxwell, RKO
salesman in the Rochester territory, has
recovered from a brief illness . . . Eddie
Smith, RKO head shipper, is back on the job
after a recent vacation in New York.
Eli Kalish of New York is a student salesman
now at MGM, where Sal D'auria also is
learning the sales end of the business and
Harry Horowitz is s'udying the booking department
. . . Josephine Genco of the 20th-
Fox office force and business agent of Local
F-9, has returned from a union business
meeting in New York.
Members of Variety Tent 7 gathered in tht:
Delaware avenue headquarters Saturdaj;
night to meet the new crew for 1953 and'
to dance to the music of Harry Miller o:
radio and TV fame.
'Cinerama' Leads List
Of Mirror's Ten Best
NEW YORK—"This Is Cinerama," first'
produc.ion in the multidimensional. curved-|
screen medium, was given top place in the'
New York Mirror's first annual list of ten
best films of the year, compiled by Frank'
Quinn, motion picture editor. "Cinerama" wasi
cited by Quinn "for its revolutionary tech-'
nique and for its unprecedented entertain-i
ment quality."
The other nine films selected by Quinr
were: "High Noon" lUA), "Sudden Fear'
(RKO), "Come Back. Little Sheba" (Para)
"The Quiet Man" (Rep), "Hans Christiar
Anderson" (RKO), "The Greatest Show or
Earth" (Para), "Walk East on Beacon" (Col)
"Breaking the Sound Barrier" (UA) and "Thi'
Promoter" (U-D. Of the ten, RKO, United
Artists and Paramount had two pictures each
Two of the pictures were British-made.
The Daily News, the Times and the Herald-;
Tribune will each issue Ten Best lists latei
in December.
Eastman Plans Laboratory
On Stanford U. Grounds
\
ROCHESTER—Eastman Kodak will bull(,
a laboratory on part of ten acres of Stanford
University land at Palo Alto, Calif., accordini
to Alf E. Brandin, Stanford business mani
\
and
\
Happy
I
Merry Christmas
a
New Year
From
CHARLES B. TAYLOR
AI Pierce, manager of Shea's Bellevue in
Niagara Falls, is busy planning a big Santa
Frolic Kiddy show December 20. This Is an
annual event at the Cataract city house and
Al puts on a swell show for the kids . . .
Lou Blumenfeld, for many years office manager
at 20th-Fox here, was a visitor along
Filmrow. Lou now is booker for Jac.t Skirball
in Cleveland.
Charlie Mancuso, booker at 20th-Fox, is
recovering from a recent operation in a Buffalo
hospital . . . Phil Cohen of the Slotnick
& Cohen partnership, which operates
the Cinema theatres in Buffalo and Rochester,
as well as houses in Syracuse, is now man-
ager, and Eastman Kodak officials. !
Preliminary negotiations have been finishK
on a long term lea.se. Tentative plans C8l|
for a one-story structure with landscapei
surroundings.
AF Technicolor Short
NEW YORK—AF Films will release "Im
ages Medievales," a Technicolor two-rec
short dealing with European life at the eiM
of the Middle Ages, in time for Academ'
award nomination. If accepted for Academ
award contention, it will be the fourth sue,
cessive year AF Films has had a short comij
peting.
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48
BOXOFFICE December 13. 195|ji;|jjj,