Boxoffice-November.24.1951

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CAROLINAS TOA ASS'N ELECTS
BOB BRYANT NEW PRESIDENT
Time for Industry to Stop
Apologizing, Asserts
Ray Colvin
CHARLOTTE—After warning that much
theatre equipment, although plentiful now.
was being manufactured under government
restrictions and some items might run out before
long, Ray Colvin, president of the Theatre
Equipment Dealers of America, asserted
it's time the motion picture industry stopped
hanging "its dirty linen" before the public.
Speaking Monday at the 39th annual convention
of the Theatre Owners of North and
South Carolina in the Charlotte hotel here,
Colvin asserted:
"The industry cries of distress must cea.s?
. . . You
else the public will begin to believe motion
pictures really is a dying business
have nothing to apologize to the public for.
so it is time to quit being apologetic."
BOB BRYANT ELECTED
Bob Bryant, Rock Hills, S. C, exhibitor, was
elected president, succeeding Puller Sams of
Statesville, N. C. Sams and Harold Armistead
of Easley, S. C, were elected vice-presidents.
Named to the board of directors were H. F.
Kincey, Worth Stewart and J. Francis White
of Charlotte; Alfred Starr of Nashville, Tenn.;
Roy Rowe of Burgaw, J. H. Webster of Elizabeth
City, Albert Sotille of Charleston, Howard
Anderson of Mullins. H. E. Buchanan of
Hendersonville, George Carpenter of Valdese,
Harvey of Clover, Harry Cooke of Mount
Olive, Howard McNally of Fayetteville, and
W. H. Hendrix jr. of Reidsville.
The lobby and meeting rooms of the hotel
were gaily decorated with all kinds of Movietime
U.S.A. banners. Other opening-day
speakers included Mitchell Wolfson, Theatre
Owners of America president: Albert Starr of
the Bijou Amusement Co., Nashville, Tenn.,
and Gael Sullivan, TOA executive director.
(See preceding pages in this issue for summaries
of their talks.)
Wolfson related that under plans now
under way, television will be available to theatres
by way of six channels, contingent, of
course, on approval by the FCC. He warned
that theatre television is a long-term investment
at best, from which no immediate returns
can be realized.
President A. Fuller Sams jr. introduced the
speakers.
anxious to serve all exhibitors, Wolf-
one theatre as
well as the owner of a circuit of 100 or more
situations. He pointed out that this service
can be supplied only through regional organizations,
such as the TOA, and not through
one central group.
He hailed the reduction of taxes to permit
relief to children on the lower-bracket prices,
saying that until now the young people from
12 to 20 had been a neglected audience as far
as taxes were concerned.
Scott Lett disclosed he had been appointed
exhibitor chairman for the Will Rogers Memorial
hospital fund drive in the Charlotte
ANXIOUS TO SERVE ALL
TOA is
son emphasized, the owner of
area, and he appealed to the exhibitors to
Presidents of two national organizations and two executive officers are included
in the group posing at the registration desk (top photo) at the convention of
the Theatre Owners of North and South Carolina. Standing, left to right: Jack
Jackson, National Screen Service; Herman Levy, TO.\ counsel; Mitchell Wolfson,
TOA president; Gael Sullivan, TOA executive director, and Ray Colvin, president
of the Theatre Equipment Dealers Ass'n. Seated at the typewTiters are Doris
Strange, Mrs. J. B. Erskine and Ruth Cockrill.
Bottom photo: Howard McNally, Boulevard Drive-In, Fayetteville, N. C; V. D.
Holder, drive-in operator; Jack Reville, MGM Charlotte manager; Jimmy Earnhardt,
Edenton, N. C; Charles Utley, Statesville, N. C, and Bob .Agle, Boone, N. C.
help obtain contributions from all theatre
operators and staffs.
Everett Olsen, publicity chairman for Movietime
in the Carolinas, reported that more than
800 inches of free space, 500 of it on the
front pages, had been obtained from newspapers
and more than 100 hom-s of free time
on the radio in behalf of Movietime. He
cited Bob Saunders and Howard Anderson
for special commendation for their work in
the campaign.
Hundreds of Carolirfa theatre owners came
early to the convention, many arriving Sunday
morning. For the early arrivals the
facilities of the Charlotte Variety Club were
available. At 6:30 p. m. Sunday, the Pepsi-
Cola Co. was host at a cocktail party in the
Charlotte hotel.
The Charlotte hotel lobby was gaily decorated
with pennants and banners of Movietime
U.S.A. Mrs. Walter Griffith, executive
secretary, said it was the first time the lobby
had been decorated for the theatre convention.
Committeemen worked all day Sunday
to decorate the ballroom for the banquet and
dance for Monday night. Equipment dealers,
candy and popcorn dealers and other firms
held open house in their suites in the hotel.
An early arrival was President Wolfson of
the Theatre Owners of America, as were
Herman Levy, the general counsel: Sullivan,
executive director, and Claude Lee of MPA.
The Pepsi-Cola party was attended by 325
who crammed into the hotel's civic room in a
steady stream between 6:30 and 7:30 p. m.
The crowd was so dense that hotel waiters
were forced to place tables in the hotel lobby
to seat all the guests. Peter Warren, New
York, representative of the Pepsi-Cola Co.,
was host at the party with H. B. Fowler,
president of the Charlotte Pepsi-Cola Bottling
Co.
Rumors were heard that Roy Rowe of
Burgaw, former state senator and representative
and prominent in state political circles
for years, soon would announce for lieutenant
governor. Rowe, however, would not
comment on these reports and said that he
would announce his plans at some date in the
future.
BOXOFFICE November 24, 1951
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