neither sought nor wanted. Three significant articles were written about him—the largest by Sime Silverman, the founder and publisher of Variety, citing Balaban as "a pioneer years ago in the development of the present day picture theatre. ... For years, innovations and departures in picture house operation and stages have seemed to come out of Chicago ... always new and always starting in Chicago, in a Balaban & Katz house. These innovations remained. They became permanent. Imitated by other theaters. What was created in Chicago usually found itself inserted into the formula of theater running or stage entertainment. ... The vision, foresight and acumen of Marcus Loew and Adolph Zukor have never been denied. Place A. J. Balaban in that exclusive class. If A. J. Balaban has ever made an error in the direction of stage policy or local theatre organization, Variety has no record of it. ... [He] is one of those whom the picture trade historians will dwell upon in time to come, when the real record of the most spectacular industry in the world is placed in type." The remaining tributes are written by Frank Cambria and Morris Silver. Writer Hal Halperin reported on how the issue came about, particularly that Balaban wanted nothing to do with it. The publications displays numerous tribute advertisements from William Morris Sr., the William Morris Agency, the Skouras Bros., Sid Grauman, and a vast number of William Morris artists and others, including Harry Lauder, John Philip Sousa, Ted Lewis, Gus Kahn, Sophie Tucker, Ginger Rogers, and Jesse Crawford. And a separate box, containing Balaban's 1917 predictions for the business (originally published in the Chicago Herald Examiner in October of that year after the opening of The Central Park) is headlined "A. J. Balaban Predicted in 1917 Future Show Business of Today." New York By mid-1929, it was determined that Balaban and his family needed to move to New York, along with Frank Cambria and the entire production department. Vincente Minnelli recalls Cambria delivering "an ultimatum. If I wanted to stay with Balaban and Katz, I'd have to move with them to New York." Now a Vice President of Paramount, Balaban was to supervise the creation and booking of remaining presentation units. He was made responsible for short subjects, which were moving into sound, and radio programs. ("The shorts were made up mainly of Presentations such as we had heretofore used on