Boxoffice-December.20.1952

I
80% of 22,000 Theatres
Now Show Screen Ads
NEW YORK—Film ad companies now have
80 per cent of the country's 22.000 theatre accounts
under contract, according to Tide
magazine which devoted its December 19
cover .story to movie advertising. Screen
advertising volume now totals $20,000,000 a
year.
The report on the future of screen advertising
is on the upbeat. More companies are
learning how to use it. Growth of the drive-in
theatre has been an important factor in making
the medium more attractive commercially
than ever before, it is reported.
The Tide report says that, despite theatre
closings—"many of them fringe ones anyway"
—there are more movie theatre seats available
today than five years ago.
A number of case histories of screen advertisers
Ls presented. The California Prune and
Apricot Growers Ass'n. which markets Sunsweet
prunes, first tested the use of "Minute
Movies" in 1949. with a sLx-week run in Portland
and a 12-week run in Philadelphia. During
the test. Portland was sold out of Sunsweet
prunes and Philadelphia sales showed
a marked increase over other areas where
screen ads had not been used.
The Ethyl Corp.. which started its .screen
advertising two years ago, is particularly impressed
with the use of drive-in screens, because
it feels the drive-in movie "has the
unique advantage of offering a .segregated
market and the exclusive car-owner audience
makes it almost point-of-sale advertising."
Liggett & Myers, which started using theatres
to advertise Chesterfield cigarets two
years ago. got such good results from the 10-
minute institutional film, "Tobacco Land"
that it expects to make another next year.
It will star Bing Crosby. Bob Hope and Perry
Como. Its current Technicolor film which
Louis DeRochemont produced, "How Science
Serves You" is expected to play to about 23,-
000,000 moviegoers in between 8,000 and 9,000
theatres in 1953, Tide reports.
The article lists the big five of movie advertising
as Alexander Film Co. of Colorado
Springs: United Film Service, Inc. of Kansas
City: Motion Picture Advertising Service,
New Orleans; Reid H. Ray Film Industries,
St. Paul: and A. V. Cauger Service. Independence,
Mo.
New Title for WB Picture
NEW YORK -"The La.st Patrol" h,is been
re-titled "Thunder Over the Plain " by Warner
Bros. David Welsbart produced and
Andre De Toth directed the Warner Color
film. It star.-. Randolph Scott. Lex Barker
and Phyllis Kirk
Protestcmts
Honor "Andersen"
HOLLYWOOD Samuel Goldwyn's "Hans
Christian Andersen," starring Danny Kaye
and being distributed by RKO Radio, hiLs
been voted "picture of the month" for
December by the Protestant Motion Picture
Council which appraises It as "perfect entertainment
for the family."
Melchior Tour to Include
Talent Hunt Promotion
NEW YORK—Paramount will combine a
special promotion effort for "The Stars Are
Singing" with a talent hunt to be conducted
Lauritz Melchior explains to Anna
Maria .^Iberghetti some of the details of
the talent hunt he will conduct on his
forthcoming tour.
with the help of the National Federation of
Music clubs in 104 cities.
Local contests will be conducted in each
city where Lauritz Melchior appears on a
concert tour during the early months of 1953
to select a young man and young woman to
appear with him and his company as part
of the concert program. Tape recordings will
be made of the winning couples. These will
be sent with photographs to the judging committee
in Hollywood made up of Melchior.
Rosemary Clooney and Anna Maria Alberghetti.
At the end of the tour in May the names
of the national winners will be announced
and they will be flown to Hollywood, with
expenses paid by Melchior. for a screen test
at the Paramount studio.
Melchior's tour will start at Houston January
17 and will cover 15 cities. With him
will be Shirlee Emmons, soprano: Angeline
Collins, .soprano; Val Valente, tenor; George
Roth and Ted Sadlowski, duo piano team;
Edward Williams, bass: Michael Roberts,
baritone, and Allen Werner, tenor.
Kramer Sets Release Dates
On Six Two-Reel Comedies
NEW YORK— Sidney Kramer, short subjects
.sales manager for RKO. has set release
dates for the six RKO-Pathe two-reelers
recently completed on the coast.
Two starring Gil Lamb, "The Fresh Painter"
and "Lost in a Tmki.vh Bath." are set for
January 16 and January 30. respectively,
while "And Baby Makes Two" will be released
February 27 and "Pardon My Wrench"
March 13. Two Newlywed comedies, starring
Robert Hutton and Elizabeth Frazer, will have
the following release dates: "Three Chairs
for Betty." January 23, and "Half Dres.sed
for Dinner," March 6.
Paramount to Make,
Sell Films for TV
NEW YORK—Paramount Television Productions.
Inc.. wholly-owned subsidiary of
Paramount Pictures Corp., will soon have
films ready for release for TV use.
Paul Raibourn, president, says arrangements
have been completed with Edward J.
and Harry Lee Danziger. independent producers,
for a series of 39 half-hour dramatic
films. The scripts have been completed and
shooting is scheduled to start January 5.
Exploitation and merchandising campaigns
are now being laid out by John F. Howell,
director of sales and merchandising for Paramount
Television.
Raibourn's statement read: "We believe that
television and motion pictures are sister arts
and that each has a constructive contribution
to make to the other."
Burt Balaban will supervise production.
Cheaper Color TV Tube
Shown by Paramount
NEW YORK—A new picture tube described
as the answer to color television at budget
prices was shown here Monday i22) by a
Paramount Pictures subsidiary. The tube,
called a Chromatron, was produced by Chi'omatic
Television Laboratories, owned jointly
by Dr. Ernest O. Lawrence and his associates.
Said to give color pictures w^ith any of the
proposed color TV methods, the tube was an
improved production model of one developed
in 1951 by Dr. Lawrence, atomic scientist, in
his garage during his spare time. A color
reproduction was given greatly improved over
that of the first crude laboratory model shown
here by Dr. Lawrence, director of the radiation
laboratory at the University of California
and winner of the Nobel prize for his
invention of the cyclotron.
The reproduction also compared favorably
with that of a color tube developed by RCA,
as well as that of a revolutionary disk method
employed by the Columbia Broadcasting
System with its color telecasting system.
The demonstration model was a 22-inch
round tube giving about the same size picture
as a 20- inch black and white tube.
400,000 16mm Projectors
Now in Use in U.S.
NEW YORK—There are nearly 400.000
16mm projectors in use in the United States
at present. W. B. Potter, advertising director
of Eastman Kodak Co.. told the Industrial
Audio Visual Ass'n convention in Rochester.
In other words, there are almost 20 times
as many projectors in use for advertising,
educational and nontheatre entertainment as
there are in theatres.
Potter said the advertising use puts the
16mm films on a par with radio, newspapers,
television and other media.
The cost per viewer has gone down the prewar
estimate of $17 to $25 to $3.50. The industrial
audio association includes many of
the leading corporations of this country, including
Aluminum Co. of America, American
Telephone & Telegraph Co.. Dow Chemical.
General Electric, General Mills. General
Motors, National Cash Register. Piudential
Life. Shell Oil. Standard Oil. United States
Steel and others.
2B BOXOFFICE :: December 27. 1952