Boxoffice-December.02.1950

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. . Nat
. . serving
. . was
'Yankee' to Premiere
At Four Star 21sl
HOLLYWOOD—The world premiere engagement
of MGM's "The Magnificent
Yankee" will begin Thursday (21 1 at the
Four Star Theatre here, following a starstudded
invitational premiere on the previous
evening. The film biography of Supreme
Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, starring
Louis Calhern. was produced by Armand
Deutsch and directed by John Sturges.
It will open at the Radio City Music Hall
in New Yorlc in January.
LOS ANGELES
T ured here to attend the recent USC-UCLA
grid classic was Sammy Siegel, Columbia
exploiteer, who had been on a trip to Portland,
Seattle and San Francisco . Saland,
operator of the Mercury film laboratories
in New York, was a Filmrow visitor,
renewing his exhibitor and distributor acquaintances
in this area . Bryant,
Republic office manager, is back on the job
again after a short holiday at Palm Springs.
It was birthday number 74 for Bob Beretta,
salesman for the local National Theatre Supply
branch. He celebrated by pouring drinks
for the house—out of a king-size orange
drink dispenser . . . Frank Fouce, operator of
several Spanish-language houses here, including
the Million Dollar and the California,
planed out for Havana in search of talent for
his accompanying stage shows . . . Bill Toplicker,
theatre broker, flew to Kansas City
and New York on business.
Marquee of the week: "The Leathernecks
Have Landed," "Woman on the Run." at the
American Theatre in Newhall, operated by
Barnes Perdue . . . First screening of MGM's
promotional film, "The Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer Story," for southern California exhibitors
was held at the Boulevard Theatres
by George Hickey Pacific Coast division sales
manager. The picture is set for additional
screenings in 14 other territories west of the
Mississippi.
Burl Rogers, new owner of the Saticoy Theatre
in Saticoy, checked in on a booking-buying
spree . . . Herb Turpie. western division
manager for Manley Popcorn, hopped up to
Seattle on a business trip . . . Mrs. Celeste
Gordon, secretary to Izzy Berman at the
Eastland circuit, became the mother of a baby
girl, born November 22 . . . Recuperated from
minor surgery, Jim Finkler of the Finkler &
Smith booking service checked out of the
Loma Linda hospital . . . George A. Smith,
Paramount's western division sales manager,
took off for Denver and Salt Lake City for a
week of huddles with branch managers in
those cities.
Services were held for Alan R. Brake. 43,
head of the purchasing department of Pacific
Drive-In Theatres, who died of a lingering
illness. Before affiliating with the drivein
chain. Brake had been associated with
National Theatre Supply and the National
Theatres circuit. He is survived by the wife,
a son and his mother.
III
RANTING that "Movies Are Better
Than Ever" and submitting the opinion
that such evaluation applies most especially
to the king-size westerns which currently
occupy so prominent a place on releasing
.schedules, it nonetheless is difficult to
justify recent bookings in the two local first
run Paramount theatres, the Downtown and
the Hollywood.
After a disappointing two-week run in
those showcases of Republic's "Rio Grande,"
immediately following came Paramount's
"Copper Canyon."
Both are among the best of the 1950 crop
of superwesterns, but despite the popularity
of such category, there probably is a limit to
the amount of sagebrush that the ticket buying
public cares to absorb in a limited period
of time.
A feature of more general character sandwiched
in between the two gallopers would
have manifested shrewder showmanship.
Seems as though you just can't be sure of
anything in this unpredictable industry.
Alex Evelove announced that Warners
would stage the world premiere of "Dallas,"
starring Gray Cooper, in Dallas—which was
as expected.
But in almost the same breath the Burbankian
blurb chief disclosed that "The West
Point Story" had been set to make its debut
not at West Point, but at the Oriental Theatre
in Chicago.
Further from Anxious Alex, information
that "The Australian Davis Cup champs,
Frank Sedgman, Ken McGregor, George
Worthington and Mervin Rose, got their first
view of picture-making with beautiful Jane
Wyman . as their guide through
Warner Bros, studios."
From one racket to another.
From John (I Can Dream, Can't I?) Del
Valle an ornithological tidbit anent "Vultures
are so scarce now in the Arizona skies that
the prop man on Nat Holt's 'Fort Savage' inserted
ads in the Los Angeles, Phoenix and
Flagstaff papers. He needs four trained vultures
..."
What a waste of advertising dollars when
trained vultures can be picked up at a dime
a dozen on the Strip—within spittin' distance
of Producer Holt's office.
Screen credits for Universal-International's
recently previewed "Mystery Submarine" reveal
that the story and screenplay were written
by George W. George and George F.
Slavln.
A gander at the reviews of the opus gives
rise to the theory that it is not always well
to "let George do it."
A morsel from Blake McVeigh, who titillates
the tom-toms on behalf of Producer
Harry M. Popkin and Cardinal Pictures, informs
that Filmmaker Popkin was "accepting
congratulations of his staff" because heavy
floods in central California recently swamped
the location site which had been used in his
current production. It seems, according to
McVeigh, that Popkin avoided heavy losses
by a previous decision to push the shooting
schedule a month ahead of the original plan.
And that's reaching pretty far to give the
boss a congratulatory "yes"; or maybe Producer
Popkin and his crystal ball should be
moved to the meteorological service.
Someone in Al Horwits' U-I blurb department
broadcasts intelligence that "Bonzo,
five-year-old chimpanzee . signed to a
long-term contract by the studio. Pact gives
U-I the chimp's exclusive services for motion
pictures for its duration. Bonzo himself was
brought to the studio for the signing and
personally scratched an 'X' on the bottom
of the contract under the guidance of Michel
Kraike."
And the desperate publicist who monkeyed
around with that one probably had to put
his "X" on the copy.
>
As Cinemanians now know, Jaik Rosenstein,
Hollywood reporter and publicist, wrote
a book. On the very yellow jacket thereof appeared
a quote from Dorothy Kilgallen, New
York Journal-American columnist, obviously
written before the tome was in print, to wit:
"Many a movie star is trembling at the
news that Jaik Rosenstein is writing a book
'exposing' the film colony."
Miss Kilgallen was more prophetic than she
thought. Movie stars are trembling—but with
laughter.
>
While the tradepress reviews on Producer
Stanley Kramer's United Artists release,
"Cyrano de Bergerac," were unanimous in
singing the picture's praises for its artistry
and productional splendor, the same consensus
opinion held that the feature could do
with a bit of intensive merchandising if it
hoped to become a popular choice with runo'-mill
ticket buyers.
Which situation puts George Glass, veteran
Hollywood press agent and now a vice-president
of Kramer's organization, up against
as tough a chore as has confronted him in
many years. Obviously, Garrulous George
and the know-how he has acquired are
making impressive inroads on the Herculean
task—not the least of which is the selection
of the film as "Movie of the Week" by Life
magazine, and a resultant three pages of
laudatory text and interest-commanding
stills.
Here's an instance where the "let George
do it" routine will pay off.
>
Something of a new high in the wishfulthinking
derby was attained by Arthur Eddy,
free-lance praiser, with an item asserting that
20th-Fox's "I'd Climb the Highest Mountain"
had been selected as "the best picture of the
month" for November by the Protestant Motion
Picture Council.
So far as can be learned, that opus hadn't
yet been screened for anyone's appraisal at
the time Artful Arthur's announcement was
made.
BOXOFFICE : : December 2, 1950 53