Clayton Long Trophy

The Clayton Long Trophy was an internal theater-management award given by the Fox Intermountain theater circuit. It was named for Clayton Long, a theater manager who worked for Fox and for Frank H. Ricketson Jr., and was established after Long's death in 1934.

The trophy was awarded from at least 1935 through 1958. Its stated criteria later broadened from safety service to courtesy, maintenance, cleanliness, promotion, public popularity, and general theater management.

Background and naming

In February 1934, The Film Daily reported that Long, formerly house manager of a Los Angeles theater, had become manager of the Imperial Theatre in Alliance, Nebraska, a Fox West Coast house. Variety reported that July that Long, age 30, had died of tuberculosis in Los Angeles on July 23, 1934, having gone to the coast some months earlier for his health. According to the obituary, he had begun as an usher at the Metropolitan in Los Angeles, risen over eight years to house manager, and then managed the United Artists Downtown theater after Paramount acquired it, before going to Nebraska about two years before his death. He was survived by his widow and two children.

Trade accounts connected the trophy to Long's reputation as a manager. A 1946 Showmen's Trade Review item said it honored his devotion to "perfect theatre management". In 1953, Motion Picture Herald described Long as an ideal theater manager and said the award had been established after his death.

Early safety-service awards

The first recipients of the trophy were Fox employees in Missoula, Montana, who won it in a safety-service contest that ended December 23, 1934. In January 1935, The Daily Missoulian reported the award, naming E. K. Taylor as manager and stating that the contest included 76 Fox theaters in six states. The cup was displayed in the lobby of the Fox-Wilma theater in Missoula and bore the inscription "Emblematic of efficiency in safety service to the public". Insurance men and fire chiefs supplied reports to the Fox organization as the basis for the awards. A February 1935 notice in The Missoula County Times reported that the Missoula theaters had received the trophy for safety service and maintained a safety organization with regular drills.

By the late 1930s the criteria described in trade coverage had broadened from safety to general operation. In 1939, Boxoffice reported that the Ogden Theatre in Denver had been named the leading house among 68 active Fox Intermountain theaters and had received a 27-inch loving cup. The judging covered personnel, management, efficiency, cleanliness, safety, courtesy, public popularity, and loyalty.

The Fox Intermountain award system

Through the 1940s and early 1950s, the trophy appeared alongside other Fox Intermountain operating awards, including courtesy plaques, and was described in trade coverage as one of the division's leading awards. An August 1946 Showmen's Trade Review article called it the division's most coveted award, given for the most outstanding operation in the division. Maintenance was the primary factor, though other branches of management were considered, and inspections covered theaters from roof to basement.

Recipients included city managers, theater managers, and theater staffs across the circuit. They included Mike Zalesny, city manager in Las Vegas, New Mexico, whose staffs at the Serf, Coronado, and Kiva theaters received the trophy for courtesy in early 1946; Chet E. Miller, an Intermountain city manager recognized in January 1947; and Henry J. Westerfield, city manager in Trinidad, Colorado, recognized in 1952 for operation during 1951. Showmen's Trade Review described the trophy variously as awarded every six months and as a silver cup given annually by Ricketson, indicating that its presentation schedule was not fixed.

A parallel courtesy-plaque award ran alongside the trophy. The Esquire Theatre in Denver won permanent possession of a courtesy plaque after receiving it three times, and January 1947 recipients of courtesy plaques included Helen Spiller of the Esquire, Robert C. Nelson of Leadville, Tom Brennan of Laramie, and Don Sheedy of Billings.

Helen Jean Spiller and the Esquire Theatre

In 1953, Helen Jean Spiller, manager of the Esquire Theatre in Denver, received the trophy. The Esquire had already won courtesy-plaque recognition in 1946 and 1947. The Exhibitor reported in October 1953 that Spiller had won the latest award of the trophy, which it described as given occasionally by Ricketson for outstanding theater management and housekeeping. Motion Picture Herald reported the presentation as a management award for good housekeeping and general management, with Ricketson presenting and Ray Davis, Fox Intermountain's Denver city manager, present; it added that Spiller and her staff had previously received 17 courtesy plaques. A December 1953 Exhibitor photograph showed Spiller receiving the trophy from Ricketson, with Davis present.

1958 awards

The trophy was still being awarded in 1958. In July, the Deseret News reported that the Villa Theatre had won a Fox Inter-Mountain courtesy award and that Alan Bamossy, city manager in Great Falls, Montana, had received the top award, the Clayton Long Trophy, for maintenance, safety, promotion, and cleanliness. The following month, The Great Falls Leader reported that Bamossy had won the trophy for perfection in theater operation at an annual meeting of managers representing 85 theaters in seven states.

See also

• Fox Theatres
• Fox Intermountain Theatres
• Frank H. Ricketson Jr.
• Helen Jean Spiller
• Esquire Theatre (Denver)

References

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