Boxoffice-08.01.1960

—
I
Juliette
Detroit Fox Building
Is New Allied Home
DETROIT—The Allied Film Exchange,
owned by Jack Zide, and the only independent
film exchange still left in the
central business district, has moved from
the Film Exchange Building to the Fox
Theatre Building. This leaves three whole
floors of the 35-year-old Filmrow headquarters
virtually vacant—the fifth and
sixth floors are now empty, while only the
screening room and the buUding office still
remain on the seventh floor. Only three
exchanges are left in the building—MGM,
Warner Bros., and Columbia.
Zide, after moving into his new office,
contemplated the huge sloping roof of the
6,000-seat Fox Theatre, located beneath
his office windows, and promptly announced
he would try to rent it for 24-
sheets for the trade. The big expanse,
although invisible to the general public,
would be very visible to offices in the Fox
Theatre Building, where offices of various
circuits and booking groups are located.
Zide figured he might be able to arrange
a true promotion deal for the advertising
space on the roof by swapping
film rentals with the management of the
Fox Theatre.
Variety Village Boys
Hold Variety of Jobs
TORONTO—Reporting on the academic
or vocational accomplishments of this
year's graduates from the Variety Village
School for Crippled Boys, J. Arthur Robertson,
principal, pointed to the wide diversification
of occupations for which the
youths had qualified and were now employed.
A number of graduates have become
clerk-typists while others come under the
classification of office assistants. Two of
the boys have jobs as watchmakers and do
repairing. This has been a fairly popular
course in recent years. One student became
a draftsman for heating equipment and
Installations, while several of the teenage
graduates were able to engage in sheet
metal work and electric welding in spite
of physical shortcomings.
Jack Elliott Establishes
Industrial Film Company
DETROIT—A new firm for the production
of industrial motion pictures is being
established by Jack Elliott under the name
of Jack Elliott Productions, with offices
in New York City and Las Vegas as well
as Detroit.
Elliott, formerly a song writer with a
screen Oscar to his credit, has been national
creative director for W. B. Doner
and Co., national advertising agency, for
the past two years. The new firm will also
produce radio-TV commercials and have
an operational tie-up in Paris.
Free Shows at Museum
OTTAWA—The theatre in the National
Museum of Canada has opened a summer
season of film shows free to the public,
with performances at 3 p.m., Monday
through Friday, and on Wednesday night
at 7 o'clock.
As It Looks To Me ^S!
By KROGER BABB
A Showma n's Views on Merchandising Motion Pictures
ORGANIZING YOURSELF and your
work is simply an IQ test automatically
determining if you have the energy and
abUities to organize others. It says so
right here in this book that we've just
read. Someone has written that cleanliness
is next to godliness. Perhaps that's
the basis for this author putting neatness
first. Men who have a method, a system,
get more work done and do better jobs.
Yet they have more leisui-e hours on and
off a job. Better have a talk with yourself.
GOOD EQUIPMENT, modern tools with
which to work in this Jet Age are "musts."
Outdated things like old typewriters,
hand-pull adding machines, etc., should
be replaced. They cost more in loss of time
—and today labor is the big item of expense—than
would their replacement with
new, modern, faster mechanical aides. Yet,
give a theatre manager who is disorganized
the very finest of evei-ything with
which to work and he stUl won't get a
good job done. He lacks system, or knowhow.
YOU'LL MEET THEATREMEN who
can't remember. They forgot to get
change, they forgot to get their ad copy
to the newspaper, they forgot to call the
express office. When you meet this type,
watch out. They'll forget half the things
they're assigned to do on a campaign.
Forgetfulness is just like remembering
both are habits. If you can't remember,
write it down. Write so that you or anyone
else can read it. From your local
printer supply yourself with a huge deck
of forget-me-not cards. Ask for "tagboard
weight stock." Get them cut 3x4 inches or
about the size of a deck of playing cards.
Get 1,000 gold cards, 500 green cards, 500
white cards, 500 red cards and 500 light
brown. They'll cost a couple of bucks.
WITH THESE CARDS you wUl start
making notes—one item to each—and
breaking down and assorting your problems
and things to do, automatically, by
colors. For example put everything that is
dangerous unless taken care of promptly
on red cards—such as the roof leaks, the
electric socket on the com popper needs
replacing, new glass for the window in the
ladies' room, etc. Keep all of your red
cards together, secured with a rubber
band, before you on your desk. Use the
gold cards for all items that will make
your theatre money—such as calling the
radio station, getting out advance ad copy
or making a tie-up on a certain film with
the PTA. Use the white cards for all personal
items—such as picking up the son
after school, buying some booze or phoning
your mother. Use the green cards for
reminding you of everything about which
you need to get an okay—or on which you
want a "green light"—such as getting a
cartoon booked for two weeks from Sunday,
asking the office for approval of a
$10 donation to the Boy Scouts, or propositioning
the district manager for a raise.
On the brown cards jot down things you
don't want to forget, but which can wait.
Odds and ends.
YOU'LL MOST ALWAYS find five
"decks" of cards in front of you, secured
by rubber bands. You know the gold are
the most important so keep thumbing
through these and getting these things
done. When you complete an item, tear up
the card reducing your declcs. You also
know red had better have immediate attention,
so it's not wise to go home many
nights with red cards on your desk. Keep
going through deck-after-deck and fighting
the battle to tear up every card. Not
until your desk is without a single card of
any color should you think about going
fishin'.
EACH MORNING AS you begin a new
day, sit down and remove the rubber
bands from all five decks. Spread all
cards out on your desk in color-rows.
Study your notes on each. If something
that could wait (on a brown card^ at last
has become something that must be done
today, transfer the note to a red or gold
card. Reschedule your work. Next, take
each color row separately. Study all of
your gold cards. Put them into a "rotation"
that fits the problems of the day.
Maybe this can be done right now, while
this needs to wait until late afternoon.
Systematically set up your gold deck so
that first things come first, off the top.
Do each row likewise. Now you're playing
today's game with five re-arranged decks.
Nothing can escape you, be neglected or
forgotten.
FINALLY, TAKE four cards of each
color, secure them with a rubber band,
and slip this little deck of 20 into your left
trouser pocket. Carry them with you day
and night. Each time something comes to
your mind, or occurs, make a proper note.
Each time you return to your desk, segregate
the notes and add them to your
master decks. Replace the used cards with
new blanks of the same color. Follow this
system religiously for one year and man,
you're organized. You'll get three times as
much work done any day a lot easier than
you're doing two-thirds less, right now.
Mrs. Rosa L. Poll Estate
Divided Among Daughters
NEW HAVEN—A value of $86,192.01 has
been fixed on the estate of Mrs. Rosa L.
Poli, widow of theatre circuit founder
Sylvester Z. Poli, who died last January
5 at her Woodmont estate.
Her will, dated Nov. 4, 1957. divides the
estate equally among four daughters
Poli Sheahan. Lurina Poli Clare,
Adelina P. Poli and Lillian Poli Gerini>,
with the exception of minor bequests.
Theatres once under the Poli banner are
now part of Loew's Theatres.
BOXOFFICE August 1, 1960 SE-3