Boxoffice-October.02.1978

Less X-Rated Product
uses only 22-line ads to call attention to its
XXX-offerings in the Camden Courier daily
newspaper. The three other houses with an
adult policy on the Jersey side advertising
their film fare all are linked with Budco
Quality Theatres which is based here—Budco
Millside in the Millside Shopping Center,
the Budco Ritz Theatre in Oaklyn, and
the Budco Community Theatre at EUisburg.
Indicative of the losing battle being waged
by the sex-film palaces is seen in the recent
closing of the Route 295 Cinema, with its
"XXX, Erotic, Uncensored" marquee, to
become the Woodcrest Cinema, located in
the Woodcrest Shopping Center, with the
lights on the marquee spelling out "First-
Run, Classic, Quality."
Barney Sackett, who operates the Sackett
Screening Room in center city, admits that
"X-clientele is down and porno has peaked
out." Sackett operates one of the two "male
cinema" operation in midtown and, like the
Sansom Cinema, his to an embellished storefront
theatre. Sansom Cinema, however,
offers "live shows" Tuesdays and Thursdays
to help bring up the gay attendance.
Sackett blames all X-film business is down
because the novelty of explicit sex has worn
off and because of the shortage of novel,
"quality" sex films that might be able to
bring the bored moviegoers back into the
theatres. The manager of Theatre 1812 said
that an X in front of the house "don't mean
nothin'." If the picture isn't good, he added,
"you don't do business." Sackett, who also
has produced several sex films, said the
films which draw must have better stories.
"I mean, how many times can you have
someone get into bed?" Sackett mused. "It
gets tiresome." He said the camera work
and editing is better now, but the stories
still are so incredible, "so asinine," and the
majority of the performers can't act.
Marquees—Signs
LEASING
Horsham, Pennsylvania 19044
Call (215) 676-4444 or 675-1040
Other operators complain that "quality"
films are in short supply to maintain boxoffice
interest as in earlier days. For every
"Deep Throat" and "The Devil in Miss
Appearing on Screens
Jones," there are a dozen of the same thing
(Continued from page E-1) —a procession of couplings strung together
Phiimont Cinema, both in shopping centers by embarrassingly silly story lines and witless
narratives.
—and the other three are in nearby communities—the
Norris in Norristown, Bristol Also hurting the adult operations is the
Art in Bristol and the Boyd Art in Chester, harassment by county prosecutors and police.
The theatres themselves frequently are
all on the Pennsylvania side.
Even among the drive-in theatres in the subject to prosecution. The filmmakers, as
area, where X to triple-X films were the well as their actors and crews, are subject
main staples, only one of the almost two to arrest, as was the case last month when
dozen open-air cinemas throughout the Philadelphia,
southern New Jersey and Delalor
in nearby Point Pleasant, N.J.
police raided an X-film set in a beauty parware
area depends on adult product—the In between are the film distributors, who
Lincoln Drive-In located just across the also can be prosecuted and who are frequently
victimized by print piracy as soon
city border, which operates from dusk to
dawn with five features on the movie menu. as their films are released. Sackett said that
The withering of the letter X for classification
of films also is pronounced much harassment that he's getting tired of
one distributor told him that he has had so
throughout the entire area. Across the river it all and is going to handle Kung Fu movies
in Camden, N.J., the Glassboro Theatre instead.
'B' Westerns Will Be Seen
On Big Screens Once Again
From North Central Edition
LINCOLN, NEB.—Keith Smith of Omaha's
Modern Sound Pictures is hoping all
the moviegoing cowpokes aren't too saddleweary
to sit through another couple of sagebrush
westerns, according to the Sunday
Journal and Star.
This fall Modern Sound will distribute
35mm prints of "Trigger Pals." made in
1939, and "Trailriders," first released in
1943.
"They're very well produced and stand
up well today," Smith said. "They're black
and white of course. We just thought they
made a good combination.
"We thought they might be fairly successful
just as nostalgia, where a father
wants to take the family to show them what
he saw when he was young."
B westerns were the staple of Saturday
afternoon matinees in the 1930s and 1940s.
Usually shot on shoestring budgets, the Bs
provided ritual theatre in their plot line.
Heroes were virtuous, fought clean and
triumphed over evil. On rare occasions a
minor character might be torn between
good and evil but plot subtlety or moral
ambiguity was generally frowned on. probably
viewed with equal disdain by audience,
producer and actors alike.
"Trigger Pals" features Art Jarrett.
Lee Powell (he had the lead in the Lone
Ranger serial) and popular western comic
Al "Fuzzy" St. John. "Trail Riders" stars
John King, David Sharpe and Max "Alibi"
Terhune and his dummy Elmer who would
often kibitz at poker games.
Although Smith has been spending considerable
time readying his B westerns for
release, he says Modern Sound has been
"very busy in nontheatrical" film distribution,
its main business.
Smith and his wife, Margaret, bought
Modern Sound in 1943. The company does
a nationwide business distributing 16mm
of movies by major and independent
prints
film companies to churches, schools and
other nontheatrical venues.
Richard Bittner Is Named
Cornco, Inc., Sales Mgr.
BALTIMORE—Richard Bittner recently
was appointed sales manager for Comco,
Inc., it was announced
by Robert B. Lucas,
C o r n c o president.
Comco is a Baltimorebased
manufacturer of
a line of popcorn
products.
Bittner, a graduate
of Loyola College,
lives in Bel Air. He
held the position of
^- L J »-... district sales manager
Richard Bittner
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before joining Cornco and has had extensive
experience in the snack food industry.
Bittner will be responsible for all phases
of Cornco's marketing operations.
Museum Series Will Trace
History of Motion Pictures
F'om Canadian Edition
CALGARY—AS part of its new special
events programming, Glenbow Museum is
presenting a series of lectures on the history
of cinema.
Each Thursday at 7 p.m.. from September
14 until January 25, Charles Hofmann
will provide historical background and his
own musical scores for silent films prior
to 1930.
The opening lecture at the museum
dealt with pre-cinema experiments such as
optical toys, photography, peep-shows and
magic lanterns. On subsequent Thursdays,
cinema development will be followed
through the films of Georges Melies, Edwin
Porter, D.W. Griffith and Charles Chaplin.
A survey of cinema's golden age in the
1920s follows, with examples from prominent
American filmmakers.
Charles Hofmann, currently lecturing at
the Alberta College of Art. provided the
musical scores for some of the original silent
movies during his high school years.
His background in music and folklore
has taken him from his native Tallahassee,
Fla., to the American Museum of Natural
History, N.Y.; the Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C.; U.S. Department of
State, Washington; the Museum of Modem
Art.
N.Y.. and CBC, Toronto.
The cinema lecture launches a new special
events program at the Glenbow, made
possible by the extension of public hours
to 9 p.m. daily, seven days a week.
Admission to the Glenbow is $1 for adults
and 50 cents for senior citizens, students
and children 12 to 18 years.
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Bl'SLVESS LV IL%WAn TOO,
When >()U come to Walkiki,
don't miss the famous Don Ho
Show ... at Cinerama's
Reef Towers Hotel. f
E-8 BOXOFFICE :: October