Boxoffice-May.31.1971

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NEW ORLEANS
^Imong the exhibitors visiting New Orleans
industry offices were Maurice Basse,
operator of theatres in the Memphis territory;
H. P. Vinson, Murray, Ky.; J. M.
Mounger, Calhoun City, Miss., and Charles
King, who has theatres in Mobile, Ala. . . .
V L. Saxon has announced the opening of
his Lucky Theatre in Meadville, Miss., for
the summer months. First day of operation
was Monday (24).
Ladies of Variety held their May luncheon
and bingo at the Variety Club headquarters
Wednesday (26). the same day the
WOMPI Club observed its Founders Day
at the Rowntowner Motor Inn. At the
WOMPI affair a social hour that began at
5:30 p.m. was followed by dinner at 6 p.m.,
with Gene Goodman of United Artists as
guesl speaker. Charter members of the
WOMPI Club were recognized at the meeting.
Following revival of a Garbo series, the
Toulouse Theatre started a series of W. C.
Fields pictures Wednesday (19) with "The
Man on the Flying Trapeze" and "You
Can't Cheat an Honest Man." The series
continued the following Saturday (22) with
"Million-Dollar Legs" and "It's a Girl";
Wednesday (26), "My Little Chickadee" and
"Tillie and Gus"; Saturday (29), "The Bank
Dick" and "Never Give a Sucker an Even
Break." Concluding the Field series June 2
will be "Poppy" and "The Old Fashioned
Way," plus a short subject "The Fatal Glass
of Beer." The Toulouse was closed Monday
(24) and Tuesday (25) while a convention
held sessions there.
Scheduled to open Thursday (27) were
"The Music Lovers," Gentilly-Orleans; "The
Deserter," Lakeside Cinema II and Oakwood
Cinema II; "Bananas," Cine Royale.
Jacksonville Was Early
Day U.S. Film Capital
JACKSONVILLE—Informing its readers
that Jacksonville was once the film capital
of America before Hollywood took over,
aLOHd!
EXHIBITORS!
IN HONOLULU . .
BEST ON WAIKIKI
BEACH!
(Call your Travel Agent)
THE
INDUSTRY'S
"OWN"
the Jacksonville Journal gave a thumbnail
sketch of the 1910-20 period as taken from
:he records and memories of Glen Lambert,
one of the old-time directors and actors
who still lives here.
Famous architect H. J. Klutho had his
studio at 22 West Ninth St. His stars were
Hilliard Carr, Bert Tracy and Gertrude
Garritson in the Sunbeam Comedies.
Paramount also used this studio to make
the "Regular Fellows" comedies, a sort of
forerunner of Our Gang. Metro made films
here with Harold Lockwood and Pauline
Curley. And artist James Montgomery
Flagg made a few movies of his own.
Harry Myers and Rosemary Thebe had a
comedy series, "Pokes and Jabs." Babe
Hardy, later renowned as Oliver of Laurel
and Hardy, had an earlier partner in comedies,
Billy Bletcher, with Lambert directing.
A Kalem Studio on Talleyrand Avenue
starred a husband-wife team, Guy Coombs
and Anna Q. Nilsson, mostly in Civil War
era films. Victor Moore of later Broadway
fame had a little setup of his own on Ninth
Street east of Main where he was both
producer and star.
On Eighth Street just east of Main was
the Thanhauser studio which turned out the
Billy West comedies. Lubin Studios, later
called Vim, was on Riverside Avenue and
housed the antics of Billy Reeves and a
group of English comics.
The old Dixieland Theatre on Mary
Street was used by Gaumont, an English
firm, with Marguerite Corteau as its star.
Earlier George M. Cohan of New York
had used the studio to make "Broadway
Jones." The Eagle Film Co. sported a
French comedian and the U. S. Film Co.,
:hen out in rural Riverview, made comedies
with Elsie McCloud and Gene Acker.
New Arts in Orange Park made early
color films and a Technicolor crew came
down from Boston with a special railway
car rigged up as a printing lab. It didn't
work out properly. They had to use a local
photo facility.
The movie heyday gradually waned,
helped along by distaste of the local citizenry
for the bohemian lives of the moviemakers
and for their nonobservance of the city's
blue laws. The thespians wanted to work
and play at the same fast pace seven days
a week but the city fathers insisted on a
halt to activities on Sunday.
MEMPHIS
Raymond Abraham, owner of the New
Roxy Theatre in Clarksdale, Miss., has
i-pened the theatre, with booking and buying
operations handled out of Memphis . . .
The Dalta Theatre in Ruleville. Miss., has
temporarily discontinued operations.
'Postgraduate' 500
In Memphis Debut
MEMPHIS— "The Postgraduate" slipped
into the Studio Theatre as successor to
record-grosser "The Stewardesses" and delighted
the management by coming up with
a 500 percentage—and even the mighty
"Stewardesses" could not do much better
business than that. At the Park Theatre,
"Ryan's Daughter" played to outstanding
third week returns, its gross gaining a solid
400 rating. "Wuthering Heights," 300 at the
Village, round out the top trio.
(Average Is 100)
Crosstown Little Big Man (NGP), 8th wk 125
Guild End of the Rood (AA) 65
Loews Pretty Maids All in o Row (MGM) 175
Memphian Women in Love (UA) 125
Paramount— Making It (20th-Fox) 100
Park Ryan's Daughter (MGM), 3rd wk 400
Plaza, Whitehaven One More Train to Rob (Univ) 90
Studio The Postgraduate (SR) 500
Village Wuthering Heights (AIP), 6th wk 300
JACKSONVILLE
(Continued from preceding page)
minutes. Financier Edward Ball, retiring as
board chairman, complimented Kent on the
strength of his larynx and Kent remarked
that
Mrs. Kent would no doubt be grateful
to Ball on the grounds that Kent's evening
conversation would be considerably less than
usual.
Preview Theatre advance screenings for
the week included two from Paramount.
"Friends" and "Confessions;" "Escape From
the Planet of the Apes" from 20th Century-
Fox; "Villain" from MGM and a private
showing of Warner Bros.' "Billy Jack."
Dominating the local film scene during
the week was the return of "Porgy and
Bess," Samuel Goldwyn's screen version of
the Gershwin folk opera, at ABC-FST's
downtown Florida Rocking-Chair . . . Billy
Graham's latest religious message via motion
pictures, "Two a Penny," held forth at
ABC-FST's Regency Rocking-Chair . .
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Charles Brock, newspaper entertainment editor,
termed "Mad Dogs & Englishmen" at
Kent's Plaza Rocking-Chair" the best rock
documentary I've seen to date—handsome,
technically excellent, uncluttered, a goodlimey
display—a
terrific thing."
To Test Airer Ordinance
From Eastern Edition
MARTINSVILLE. VA. — Roanoke attorney
Harvey S. Luttin, representing the
owners of the Castle and Martinsville driveins,
says that if a proposed Henry County
ordinance requiring 50-foot fences for ozoners
is passed, the constitutionality of the
law will be tested in the courts.
A bill in the Tennessee legislature, sponsored
by a Memphis lawmaker, would make
it mandatory that theatre managers refund
admission to any person who attended a
(I or GP-rated film and was offended by
vulgarity or nudity before the film was
two-thirds over.
HARDTOP OR DRIVE-IN THEATRES!
SEE KS FOR EQUIPMENT
HODGES THEATRE SUPPLY CO.
SE- May 31, 1971