Boxoffice-March.24.1956

. . . Just
. . Dave
OKLAHOMA CITY
TTniversal booker Don Brown is being transferred
to the Dallas office April 1 in the
same capacity . . . Paramount salesman Tom
McKean returned to work Tuesday (20). He
was in an accident in January and his hip
was broken . . . RKO shipper L. M. Reed is
father of a son born March 9. Baby was named
Barry Lynn . . . Former RKO employe Gene
Hudgens, now in Jacksonville, Fla.. has a
baby daughter, Janet Ann. This is Hudgens'
fourth child and first daughter . . . Proudest
grandfather of Filmrow these days is Eddie
Greegs. Warner salesman, who has a new
grandson, John Winston Humphreys. Father
is Leonard Humphreys of Columbia.
Herb Boehm, Woodward, former exhibitor
at Watonga, has bought the theatres at Dalhart,
Tex., formerly owned by J. C. Parker . . .
Remodeling at Oklahoma City's Villa is almost
complete, according to Manager Bob
Busch. Redecoration in lobby and front has
been finished. New carpets and drapes are
being added in the auditorium . Hunt
has opened his booking office at 700'- West
Grand . . . Leo Cain, Wes-Ten Theatre, reports
fishing is exceptionally good at Wister
Lake. He recently caught 48 crappie there
during a week's visit.
UTOO has set up a tax relief committee
under E. R. "Red" Slocum to seek ways of
eliminating federal tax on theatre attendance
off the press is a complete mailing
list of theatres in Oklahoma and surrounding
. . . Representa-
states serviced by Oklahoma City distributors.
Offered as a special service by UTOO, the
list costs $5. UTOO will bring it up to date
every three months by listing new theatres,
theatre closings and change of ownership.
Cost for bringing list up to date is $1 every
three months, Slocum said
tives from local Allied Artists will attend a
national meeting April 5, 6 at the Blackstone
Hotel, Chicago.
Exhibitors in town included Mr. and Mrs.
Bob Downing, Collinsville ; Cliff Lance, Ringling;
O. K. Kemp, Poteau: Henry Simpson,
Bristow; J. G. Millirons, Snyder; Wesley
Hodges and Leonard White, Weatherford;
Bernard McKenna, Norman; John M. Buffo,
Hartshorne; Mrs. J. E. Holt, Coalgate; Doug
Sanders, Cleveland; J. R. Burns, Granite; Bill
Cleverdon, El Dorado; H. D. Cox, Binger; J.
C. Lumpkin, Sentinel; Creal Black, Cordell;
G. M. Jennings, Comanche; Eddie Jones,
Sand Springs; John Cooper, Antlers; Jess
Cooper, Chelsea; R. L. Rollier, Lamont; Dick
Fryer, Pryor: Earl Raines, Ft. Cobb; Mrs.
C. W. Duncan, Weleetka: E. B. Anderson,
Norman, and J. Rudolph Smith, Mountain
View.
BOWLING
DALLAS—Walter Hansen, Fox, took the
men's single and three-game highs with 186
and 537 respectively. Helen Davidson, Tower,
took the women's single high with 169, and
Joan Seely, Fox, took the three game high
for women with 466. Fox took the team high
single and 3-game high with 662 and 1,945
respectively. The standings:
Teom Won Lost Team Won Lost
Fox 68 36 Rowley S3 51
Metro 62 42 Para SO 54
Evans 60 44 Tower 49 55
Rangers 59 45 Blozcrs 44 60
Rustlers 56 48 Interstate 40 64
Liberty 54 SO Warners .29 75
INDUSTRY PROFILE
Frank Wilke Started in Industry
Running Airdrome at Age of 14
HOUSTON -"Uncle Frank" Wilke started
in the film business when he was in short
pants. His father "took over a mortgage on
the White City Airdrome" in their hometown
of Ballinger and turned it over to 14-year-old
Frank and his brother W. J. to run. "I ran
the machines, ballyhooed and everything
else," he says of that early operation.
Owner of the Boulevard Theatre on Harrisburg
road, the oldest local neighborhood theatre
still running, he still "gets down every
day." Every day, that is, except when he is
hunting or fishing at his "camp" down on
Bastrop Bayou near Freeport. This "camp"
is as modern as the Wilke's home at 6735
Harrisburg, with a 22-foot Sportsman Criss-
Craft anchored outside.
Like most theatre people, "Uncle Frank"
has never done anything else except for 18
months during World War I. He was in 14
camps during that time as a machine gun
instructor in Army ordnance. Before that,
when he was in his late teens, he and W. J.
went to Wichita Falls where they ran the
Plaza Airdrome and Majestic Theatre and
later the Liberty Theatre in Burkburnett.
They also built the Liberty Theatre in Graham.
It was after the war that he met his wife
Myrtle in Burkburnett. They were married
in 1924, came directly to Houston and bought
the old Boulevard Theatre.
It was in an old wooden building, which
he rented, and he and his wife moved into
a little house in back of the theatre.
The young Wilkes were everything from
machine operator to janitor to ticket seller.
And they got along fine. Tickets were five
and 15 cents each. "I bought Metro pictures
for $7.50 apiece, and sometimes made as low
as $1 an evening," he said.
Business soon was such that they hired a
boy to help around the theatre. In 1928, the
old building was completely rebuilt under
Wilke's supervision into the brick and reinforced
hollow tile structure it is now. And
ten years later he bought It.
Before the grand opening after that rebuilding
in 1928. Wilke was approached by the
union. But he and Mrs. Wilke and the extra
boy were managing just fine, he figured then.
The day after the opening, he changed his
mind.
"They burned up six seats and drowned the
front with stench bombs," he said, half
smiling reminiscently. "We took those seats
outside and put them in water, but every
time we took them out they'd start burning
again. And we couldn't kill the stink."
It was no laughing matter then. "I was
whipped." he said. "I called them in and told
them so." And the Boulevard became the
first union suburban theatre in Houston.
Other oldtimers who remember when the
road between Houston and Dallas was dirt
Houston Boulevard Theatre owner
Frank Wilke, left, is pictured in front of
the theatre with employe Dean and sonin-law
Lowell Bulpitt, right, who manages
the theatre and who also is president of
the Houston Independent Theatre Ass'n.
and it took about 12 hours to drive it, will
remember also Wilke's Film Line, consisting
of four Federal trucks, which was the pioneer
film trucking company in these parts. Of that
venture "Uncle Frank" says, "I ran that till
it nearly ran me crazy, and then I quit. Just
closed down. Later I sold the trucks."
After World War II. the Boulevard got
another redoing. "I spent $75,000 completely
renovating it. redressing and air conditioning,"
he said.
It was after the war too that Lowell Bulpitt,
husband of their daughter, an only child,
came to the Boulevard as manager. He's a
very active manager, who is serving his
second term as president of the Houston
Independent Theatre Ass'n, of which Frank
Wilke is a charter member.
He manages also to remain an active member
of the Elks. Optimists, and Variety Club.
With Bulpitt there, it gives "Uncle Frank"
more free time to entertain his two grandchildren,
Donna, who is 11, and J. C, 14,
and more time for hunting. The latest adventure
along that score was a deer hunting
trip down in the Valley—or misadventure.
"A deer nearly ran over me," he said between
puffs on his big cigar. "And I emptied
my gun at him—and missed. But we had a
lot of fun."
Frank Wilke will be 63 years old next
September. He walks with the aid of a
cane, necessary because of a broken hip
which was set so that it remains stiff, since
he preferred that to lying in a cast for a long
time. But retire?
Of the seven children in the Wilke family
of four boys and three girls, only one is not
still active. "That one brother retired." Wilke
remarked, "and died."
HOT DOGS sell like HOT CAKES
when served with America's best-tastin' dressing!
CHILE SAUCE with
MEAT
2921 COMMERCE • DALLAS, TEXAS
l£
mm sauci
»UH Nil'
BOXOFFICE :
: March
24, 1956 57