m

—
Asks Standardization
Of Small Sprockets
NEW YORK— Standardization of prints so
that all will have small sprocket holes is
the goal of the Motion Picture Research
Council, Eastern Section, The proposal now
is being prepared and will be submitted to
the West Coast Section of the Council late
this month. If all companies adopt the small
sprocket prints, it will be necessary for every
theatre to install small sprockets on its
projectors.
The cost, it is reported, will be between
$75 and $100, but it will enable theatres to
play product produced with any type of
sound tracks, up to six-track magnetic.
At the recent Allied drive-in convention
in Cincinnati, Hugh McLachlan, chairman
of the Allied equipment committee, warned
that exhibitors who have not installed small
sprockets are likely "to get caught in the
rush." He revealed that two companies, MGM
and 20th Century-Fox, were starting to make
only small sprocket prints, the first being
20th-Fox's "The True Story of Jesse James,"
.'tarring Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter.
Of 17,591 theatres, McLachlan told the
convention, only 15 per cent have installed
the small sprockets.
WB Appoints Dick Lederer
Assistant Ad Manager
NEW YORK—Dick Lederer,
ad copy chief for seven
years, has been promoted
to the post of
assistant advertising
manager to Gil Golden,
it is announced by
Robert S. Taplinger,
vice-president and director
of advertising
and public relations.
Lederer will assist
advertising manager
Golden on all ad ac-
including
Warner Bros,
tivities,
Dick Lederer
magazine, newspaper,
poster, radio-television and tradepaper advertising.
Geo. Roscoe Named TOA
Field Representative
CHARLOTTE, N. C—George Roscoe of this
city has been appointed field representative
of Theatre Owners of
America by Ernest G.
Stellings, president. He
will assume his duties
Monday (18), maintaining
close liaison
with state and regional
units. He is a native
of Indiana and settled
in South Carolina as
a youth.
Roscoe joined the industry
in 1920. He has
been employed by Columbia
for 23 years as
salesman in the local area, then branch manager
here for seven years and for the last
eiglit years as branch manager in the Atlanta
territory. Before joining Columbia he was
with National Theatre Supply and the Alexander
Film Co.
Memoriam
In
JN THE February 2
BETWEEN THE LINES
issue of Editor & Publisher,
Columnist Ray Erwin wrote:
"Death of a newspaper is a tragedy, personal
and profound, which haunts crew
members of the sunken ship with poignant
sorrow and lingering nostalgia until their
own dying day.
"There are veteran newsmen still working
in the craft who have suffered as many
as three or four such bitter bereavements.
I have undergone the throes of two newspaper
funerals amid sweat and swearing.
"With heavy heart and hot tears, I had
to slay the child of my own creation.
News world, a weekly newspaper in the old
hometown. North Wilkesboro, N. C, a war
casualty. I shall never forget the black
misery of the final banner line: 'Newsworld
Goes to War."
"Then there was the awful day the Sun
went down—Jan. 4, 1950, when the 117-
year-old New York Sun shone and sank
to rise no more. Sunmen, inheritors of a
great tradition, brave and bold, became
within one shellshocking hour bewildered
boys with out home or purpose.
"Syndicated columnist Robert C. Ruark,
deep in the African bush when he learned
of the deaths of Collier's and other magazines,
wrote: 'A paper or magazine has a
personality that is not to be found in ordinary
business ventures. It has heart, personality,
nostalgic reputation—things that
you feel as deeply as if some person you
loved has died.'
"All of us can help see to it that newspapers
which have passed on to celestial
circulation did not die in vain if we do
everything in our power to give such
strength and health to current newspapers
that they will go on living and serving
indefinitely. Let's make every cooperative
effort and sacrifice to keep all segments of
the press among the quick."
Now let's re-read the above. If you are
a distributor, substitute the word "theatre"
wherever the word "newspaper" or "press"
is used. And if you are an exhibitor, substitute
the word "distributor" for the word
"newspaper" or "press."
'Nuff
said.
Another Fable
QNCE upon a time there was an exhibitor
who out-bid all his competitors for
a picture which, he was sure, was just the
kind of entertainment his customers would
like. After booking it, he began looking
over travel folders because he was quite
confident the receipts would be big enough
so he could afford a cruise.
"Shall we get up a street ballyhoo of
some kind?" asked his manager.
"Why should we?" said the exhibitor.
By AL STEEr^
"All we'll need on the street is an extra
force of traffic cops."
"How about a contest?" the manager
suggested.
"Contest, flontest, plontest—who needs
it?" cried the owner.
"Then let's take some extra newspaper
advertising," offered the manager.
"This picture will advertise itself," the
exhibitor replied.
"All right. I'll just order a trailer then.
That always brings 'em in," said the manager.
"This picture doesn't need a trailer," the
owner responded.
On the night that the picture opened,
the sole patron was arrested for vagrancy.
As he was being led out of the theatre,
he glared at the owoier and mumbled,
"That was a swell picture but why did you
keep it a secret? I went in just to get out
of the rain."
MORAL: The only establishment that
makes money without advertising is the
United States Mint,
Pickups from the Papers
pROM The Wall Street Journal:
A quickie motion pictme producer of
Hollywood once tried a different approach
on an actor who asked for a contract before
starting work in a new movie.
"Why do you want a contract?" asked
the mogul. "You have my word and I have
yours. That should be enough for both of
us."
"It's enough for us, " replied the actor,
who was no newcomer to Hollywood, "but
what will we have to show the judge?"
Prom Leonard Lyons in the N. Y. Post:
Dimitri Tiomkin has the most famed accent
in Hollywood. And his mangled English
makes him most popular at dinner
parties. The Academy Award-winning
composer boasted that Sam Goldwyn constantly
seeks his company. "The explanation
is simple." Tiomkin was told, "Goldwyn
enjoys listening to you, because when
he hears you talk he feels as if he'd gone
to Oxford."
Fiom Irving Mack's "Inspiration":
TV Announcer: "We have just received
a bulletin of a catastrophe, the like of
which has never been known to mankind
but first,
a word from our sponsor."
Schlanger in Port Post
NEW YORK—Ted Schlanger, Stanley
Warner Philadelphia zone manager, has been
named commissioner of the Delaware River
Port Authority by Governor Leader. The
appointment was later confirmed by the
Pennsylvania State Senate.
BOXOFFICE February 16, 1957 19