^«^ To Outline Rank Product At Four EL Meetings NEW YORK—William J. Heineman. Eagle Lion vice-president in charge of distribution, who has just returned from a trip to England to look at the J. Arthur Rank pictures EL will release in America during the next year, will outline this product to branch managers and salesmen at a series of four meetings to be held during May. Heineman and Max Youngstein, vice-president in charge of ad- W. J. Heineman vertising, publicity and exploitation, who accompanied him on the trip to London, was scheduled to preside at the first meeting in New York Saturday and Sunday (15-16), attended by representatives of the ten eastern branches. The second meeting is scheduled for Chicago May 22 with representatives of the nine branches in that area attending. The third meeting will be held in New Orleans May 24 with representatives of the six southern branches on hand. The final meeting will be held in San Francisco May 29 with representatives of the six branches in that area present. Youngstein and Jack C. Schlaifer, assistant to Heineman, will attend all meetings. ELATED OVER 'OLIVER TWIST' While in London, Heineman and Youngstein held meetings with the advertising, publicity and exploitation staff of the Rank Organization to discuss a greater exchange of publicity material between the two organizations and to plan long-range campaigns for the British pictures in the U.S. Heineman is enthusiastic about "Oliver Twist," first of the new group of 12 for EL release, which he predicts will roll up an American gross equal to any of the EL Hollywood product. "Twist," which will be released here in July or August, will have a $250,000 advertising budget, Heineman said. Heineman said that the British have recently made great strides in picture-making with their producers "showing a keener interest in the U.S. market." In addition to "Oliver Twist," Heineman and Youngstein saw "Miranda" and "Broken Journey," as well as rough-cuts or parts of "Red Shoes," "Scott of the Antarctic" and "The Olympic Games." The build-up scenes of the American contestants in the "Games" film have already been made and the first print of the completed picture will be shipped to America within three weeks after the close of the Games August 14. It will have a September release in America. The buildup scenes of the Latin-American contestants have also been filmed and prints with Portuguese and Spanish narration will be shipped to South and Central America direct from London. Although Eagle Lion expects to release the Rank product at the rate of one a month, the company will release an equal number of top Hollywood pictures during the same 12- month period, Heineman said. Yoimgstein has put in a request to the Rank Organization for the services of John Mills, Stewart Granger, Kathleen Ryan and David Farrar for publicity buildups on American exploitation tours. Eagle Lion will have its own distribution setup in Latin America completed by July, according to Sam Seidelman, foreign distribution head. Offices have already been opened in Mexico. Argentine, Chile and Puerto Rico and offices in Cuba, Panama, Peru and Brazil will be opened in the next few months. The company will have sub-distributors in Colombia, Venezuela and Trinidad, Seidelman said. Leonard Gaynor to Handle 'Beyond Glory' Campaign NEW YORK—Leonard Gaynor has been engaged by Paramount for a special promotion campaign on "Beyond Glory," which will be released in July. Gaynor recently organized his own company for the production of 16mm educational, commercial and television films. Scripts are now being prepared for fall production. Republic to Release Impossible Series NEW YORK—Impossible Pictures, Inc., will produce a series of Trucolor cartoons for release by Republic beginning July 1, 1948. The series, which will stress camera animation rather than figure animation, will be called "Jerky Journeys," or authentic travelogs about imaginary places, subtitled "Little known visits to lesser known places by completely unknown people." Leonard Levinson, president of Impossible Pictures, and his partner and vice-president, David Flexer, will produce and deliver four cartoons in the first year of the contract. They are: "Romantic Rumbolia, the Seat of the Rhumba," which has already been completed, and "Glamorous Hanky-Panky," "Jingle, Jangle Jungle" and "The Three Minnies, Sota, Tonka and Ha-Ha." Frank Nelson, radio actor featured on the Jack Benny show, has been signed to do the narration. Levinson collaborated with Don Quinn for three years in writing the "Fibber McGee and Molly" airways show and created the "Great Gildersleeve" show. Flexer owns theatres in Tennessee, Delaware and Mississippi as well as a number of drive-in theatres. They incorporated Impossible Pictures July 6, 1947, after aU of their friends and business acquaintances told them they were attempting the impossible. After Herbert J. Yates, president of Republic, and James R. Grainger saw "Romantic Rumbolia," in New York, Levinson traveled 3,000 miles from North Hollywood to meet Yates. Allied Artists to Hike Output to 13 During Coming Year, Says Broidy HOLLYWOOD—Second industi-y figure to cite increased production as a remedy for the film world's current "depressed condition" is Steve Broidy, president of Monogram and Allied Artists, who announced the AA The mighty Babe Ruth himself paid a visit to the set of "The Babe Ruth Story" to watch Producer-Director Roy Del Ruth film scenes from his career for the Monogram-AUied Artists production. Here William Bendix (left), impersonatng Ruth in the film, shows him the replica of the .saloon where Ruth as a youth worked for his father. The sports idol was accompanied in his tour by Del Ruth and (right) Steve Broidy, Monogram-AA president. schedule for the next 12 months will total 13 pictures at an approximate budget of $13,- 000,000. This represents an increase of $3,000,- 000 over the original budget estimate, Broidy said. The 13-picture slate almost doubles AA's output in its first year of operation. When seven features were distributed under that label. "The best way to meet a depression is with expansion," Broidy said in disclosing AA's plans for the coming 12 months. "Instead of talking about a depressed condition within the film industry and doing nothing about it, we are increasing our production." His announcement came shortly after Jack L. Warner, vice-president and production chief at Warner Bros., had called upon filmmakers to increase the output of celluloid as a means of combating widespread unemployment within the industry and to satisfy a worldwide demand for film entertainment. Broidy declared Monogram Pictures, AA's parent comipany, will adhere to a 41-picture schedule in the coming 12-month period, a pace equal to its last year's efforts. The AA output for the ensuing year will include Roy Del Ruth's "The Babe Ruth Story," "Red Light " "The Last of the Badmen," "Gun Crazy," "When a Man's a Man," "North of Nome," "Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come," "Stampede," "Land of the Sky Blue Waters," "Strike It Rich" and two to be made in England, "The Highwayman" and "The Maze." 18 BOXOFTICE : : May 15, 1948
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