Boxoffice-August.11.1975

MEMPHIS
yhe Memphis Film and Nostalgia
Festival
"75 took place at the Albert Pick Hotel
this week. Some of the guest stars of the
"SOs were Leigh Snowden, Jim Bannon,
Kirby Grant and Foy Willing.
Filmrow visitors were exhibitors, Louis
Haven of Forrest City. Ark.. Wayne Beard,
Newport. Ark.. Jack Braunagel. Hot Springs,
Ark., Mart Mounger. Calhoun City, Miss.,
and Bill Kendall and Maurice Basse of
Memphis.
WOMPI's July meeting took place July
28 in the recreation center of Town House
NEW!
Patent Pending
THE HUMMER
Audio Signal Generator
designed for testing
drive-in theatre speakers
"The Hummer" is equipped with a
standard 1/4" plug to be plugged into
booth amplifier in place of usual
intermission
tape player.
• Operates on 9 V. DC supplied by Dormeyer
Charger shown above or may be operated
by 9 V. battery.
• Proper volume at speoker post is a smooth
clean humming signal which should be the
same ot all posts. Defective speaker!, will
rattle, sound distorted or be low in volume.
• Shorts in field wiring con be quickly located
with "The Hummer". Constant sound
level makes it easier to determine defects.
® Not recommended for sound systems
having transistor output stage.
"The Hummer" saves you
time and customers!
SO-day free trial
Reed Speaker Company
7530 W. 16th Ave. Lakewood, Colo. 80215
Telephone (303) 238-6534
Apartments on Central. A delicious dinner
was prepared and served by June Moody
and Lurlene Carothers. The main topic of
the business meeting was the annual International
Convention in Chicago in September.
Lois Boyd of Film Transit was beginning
her vacation and will finish it with
a weekend at Frank Heard's '"Holly Bush"
lakefront home with
12 other WOMPIs who
left Friday (1) for Tupelo. Miss . . .
WOMPI Leone Cooper's husband Jesse is
ill and in the Baptist Hospital, Room 627,
Madison East, Memphis. Tenn.
Lightning Destroys Airer
Screen Tower, Boxoffice
CINCINNATI — Holiday
Amusement's
Woodlawn Drive-In on Springfield Pike was
hit by lightning at appro.ximately 3 a.m.
July 3, the thunderbolt completely destroying
the screen tower and the boxoffice. The
concession stand escaped damage.
Circuit officials expressed .the belief that
a new screen tower and boxoffice could be
erected within a week or ten days.
While many towers have been damaged
by lightning during the years, this is the
first
instance of complete destruction.
Rollerball" was filmed on locations
Munich and London.
Reed
Speaker
Patented Speaker Shutoff (when returned to post)
Heavier front ond
grill. Heavier
back. Unbreokoble
hanger. New
method of anchoring
available at slight extra cost
cable—cannot
be pulled out of
case.
Patent No. 3,836,716
Reed Speaker Company
7530 W. 16th Ave. Lakewood, Colo. 80215
Telephone (303) 238-6534
Miami, Fla.. Theatre Owner
Offers Neighborly Prices
MIAMI—Most theatres have a set format
— first run movies, children's films, Spanish
films, or some other specialty.
The Miller Road-93rd Avenue Cinenu
is in the process of evolving a format and
owner Wilson Elliot is trying several approaches.
"I try to play something I would enjoy."
Elliot said. "1 listen to what my kids, m\
manager, my customers say and watch what
happens with the gross." The audience response
to a film, indicated by the receipts
at the boxoffice, is an important measuring
stick.
The Miller Road Cinema in its past ha-,
been both a Spanish-language theatre and
an X-rated theatre. Elliot is using primarih
R and PG rated films with an occasional \
("but not pornography, just things like
"Flesh Gordon' ") or G.
Elliot started his experimental test run of
films about five weeks ago with "Gone
With the Wind" for $1 a ticket, an introductory
offer.
"It only did fair the first week," he said,
'but I had 1,400 people the second week."
Then he tried a rotation between "Shampoo"
and "Breakout," two newer films
Again, "the second week did abetter."
The theatre tried "California Split" on a
rotation for a while and recently opened
"Six Pack Annie," its first first-run film.
Elliot said ticket prices at the Miller
Road won't go above $1.50 to $2 in keeping
with its personality as a neighborhood theatre.
"I hope to keep first-runs going," Elliot
said. "Right now I'm experimenting a lot.
I may bring in "Dr. Zhivago' or '2001: A
Space Odyssey.' "
Elliot says the important thing is to
"gauge the audience." He intends to bring
back good entertainment and some oldfashioned
gimmicks like women's day and
children's matinees.
"I am sticking to what people want to see,
sticking to whatever the reaction is from the
people in the theatre," he said.
Adult Entertainment Zone
Considered in Fort Wayne
FORT WAYNE. IND.~The city council
is considering an "adult entertainment zone"
to limit the area where adult bookstores and
X-rated film houses, as well as massage
parlors, can operate. Gary Baeten, land use
administrator for the city department of
community planning, said the proposed district
would not interfere with present zoning
but merely show where future enterprises of
this nature may locate. He said that requests
for the establishment of such enterprises in
other parts of the city would have to be
approved by the board of zoning appeals.
Existing adult bookstores and film houses
would remain as legal nonconforming uses.
.'\ recent attempt to open an adult bookstore
in the west central residential iirca
touched off immediate action by the city
council, which unanimously passed an ordinance
banning new adult bookstores for one
August