SHOWEAST <strong>2019</strong> amount of time and no one stepped up to continue it. But I hope and think that with all the kids that we put through the program—we had anywhere from 10 to 15 kids on the board and they had regular monthly board meetings just like big Variety—I’m hopeful that they all got a little taste and flavor of what it is to be a philanthropist and to give back and help others, and hopefully throughout each of their lives they’ll go make a difference. <strong>Pro</strong>udly, I can say that each of my kids has stayed involved and active, and whoever’s in town goes down to the Variety Boys and Girls Club Christmas party every year and they make a number of trips a year with me down to the club. I don’t know if they have the gene, but they certainly have the appreciation for philanthropic efforts and appreciation that we’re lucky to live the way we live, and if we can help others, great. And there’s been a tremendous amount of industry support to help us accomplish whatever we’ve accomplished. On top of all this, you started the charity auctions at ShoWest and ShowEast. Can you talk about the response you’ve gotten since that began? Again, it takes an army to get this stuff done. And you would be doing an injustice to give me all the credit for it. Mary Beth Garber and Pat Gonzalez were there with me when we created it. It was the idea of how to monetize some of these things that we had access to that because of our corporate responsibilities we couldn’t put on the internet. So we created the ShowEast and ShoWest options with the help of Mitch Neuhauser and the Sunshines—it was basically just going to them and saying, “Look, we run this convention and it’s a for-profit convention. There is not a philanthropic arm to the convention. What if we were to create an auction at these conventions?” And we brought all the materials and they helped us and allowed us space and supported our ability to put on an auction for delegates to bid and help make a difference in kids’ lives. And Mitch, along with the Sunshines, couldn’t have been better about it. We’ve had auctions now at ShoWest/CinemaCon and previously at ShowEast for a decade or so. Would you say that growing up in an exhibition family has given you an advantage in your job at Warner Bros.? I would certainly say I am very proud to be Jerry Forman’s son and to be part of the Forman family and what they’ve meant to the business and what they’ve contributed. Michael Forman and Chris Forman have had very deep philanthropy commitments at Pacific. And my dad’s been keenly at the forefront of running an awful lot of the industry-related conventions and causes for the greater good. So I think if you can get together with businesspeople and do business and have relationships, but also cross over for things like philanthropy and sports and other things in life, it’s gotta be an advantage. We all greatly respect leaders that we’ve worked with. I’m getting the award named after Salah Hassanein, and he recently passed away. I don’t think any of us in the industry don’t know who Salah was, any of us old enough to remember the Salahs, the Bernie Myersons, the Tom Sheraks of the world. It’s hard not to be impressed by the contributions these people have made to our industry and to society. You’ve been at Warner Bros. for 30 years. Are there any secrets to your longevity there? Well, I don’t want to curse myself here. I would have to say that with all the philanthropy I’ve been able to do in my career, I wouldn’t have been able to do it if I didn’t have a boss like Jeff Goldstein who was willing to support the philanthropic endeavors that we’ve been committed to. And prior to Jeff, Dan Fellman. It takes a village to accomplish anything great, and it takes the team to do it. And I’ve been very blessed with having the Warner Bros. family and Jeff as a boss in particular, who not only would get involved but is very supportive. I wouldn’t be receiving this award, certainly, if I worked for someone who wasn’t a champion of charity themselves. As you know, it’s a turbulent time for the business, with new streaming services arriving and Disney and Fox merging. With all these seismic changes, what’s your general feeling about the future of the business? Well, I think we’ve run into seismic changes before with the invention of television and so many other things that have come our way. And every time there’s been a voice out there that said it was the end of what we’ve known, we’ve always reinvented ourselves and thrived. And I think we’ve seen, even with the conversations on windows and streaming and new things that challenge our business constantly, when there’s a movie that comes out that the public wants to see, the public finds it and all ships seem to rise. There has been so much talk over the last few years of where the industry was going and streaming and Netflix and windows, and last year was the biggest year in our industry’s history. And when you have interesting properties that are new, like Black Panther and Wonder Woman and Crazy Rich Asians that are celebrating all people, I think there’s a lot of opportunity out there for us to continue to find great stories and all celebrate an industry that’s been very good to us. During the golden age of Hollywood, every studio was known for its distinctive style, including Warner Bros. Does today’s Warner Bros. have a distinctive style that you can point to? Wow, that’s a good one. Well, for a long time we were based on the tentpole strategy at Warner Bros., and we still like to think we’re tentpole-driven. I think today we’re working harder than ever to be a best-in-class distribution company and the distribution company that exhibition most wants to work with, that gets the most out of their projects, and is a great partner. 54 OCTOBER <strong>2019</strong>
<strong>2019</strong> ShowEast Award Recipients SHOWEAST EMPOWERMENT AWARD Elizabeth Frank, AMC Entertainment HALL OF FAME CLASS OF <strong>2019</strong> INDUCTEES Lane Allen Bobbie Peterson Larry Allen Bruce Taffet Jennifer Amaya Dick Westerling Jack Kline Alan Davy Dan Fellman Show “E” Award Mark Walukevich, National Amusements Bill LeClair, National Amusements Duncan Short, National Amusements Al Shapiro Distinguished Service Award Joe Masher, Bow Tie Cinemas ShowEast Legacy Award Michael Rosenberg, <strong>Pro</strong>motion in Motion FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT We Make The Brands You Love TM
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