Studios Woo Exhibitors With Glitz and Corn : Movies: Companies bring out the stars--and the gifts--to sell their product at ShoWest and National Theater Owners convention.

The names on the giant marquee out front were Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, but deep inside Bally’s Casino Resort, in the Goldwyn Ballroom, the entertainment Thursday night was being provided by X-rated comic Andrew Dice Clay, rap singer Tone Loc and Mr. Las Vegas himself, Wayne Newton.

The unlikely package was put together by 20th Century Fox to promote its coming movie, “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane,” which stars Clay and Newton and features Loc. The audience was made up of 3,000 movie exhibitors and their spouses wrapping up their annual ShoWest convention.

It would take movie people to get Tone Loc and Wayne Newton on the same stage, and it would take ShoWest to find an audience for it. If Las Vegas prides itself on tacky excess, then it can take a little more pride each February when America’s theater operators and Hollywood’s marketing forces converge for this orgy of glitz, corn and hyperbole.

ShoWest, a regional event combined this year with the National Assn. of Theater Owners annual convention, is a pilgrimage for many exhibitors who get a chance to rub elbows with major studio executives, pick up gifts of tote bags, T-shirts and such custom-made geegaws as sterling silver ash trays and maybe even to get a snapshot of the movie stars who show up to help the studios pump interest in coming movies.

The lineup of stars this week was indeed impressive. Don’t stare, but look up there--during the luncheons and dinners sponsored by major studios, the dais included Kevin Costner, Chevy Chase, Tom Hanks, Dan Aykroyd, Jessica Tandy, Jimmy Stewart, Sean Connery, Tom Selleck and Harrison Ford.

At Thursday’s awards dinner, at which the theater owners celebrate the people who draw customers, the dais included male star of the year Jeff Bridges, female star of the year Anjelica Huston, male star of the future Johnny Depp and his girlfriend, female star of the future Winona Ryder, director of the year Tim Burton (“Batman”) and writer of the year Phil Alden Robinson (“Field of Dreams”).

And like manna from heaven to this star-struck audience was the surprise appearance of Bruce Willis, who stopped by to join in the celebration of Joel Silver, whose string of action hits (“Die Hard” included) earned him the organization’s producer of the year award.

The awards show seems to go on as long as a losing streak at blackjack, but there were some great moments (the best footage shown during the week was a superbly edited roast/appreciation of Joel Silver that mixed footage from such films as “48 HRS.” and “Lethal Weapon” with put-downs from stars like Melanie Griffith, Eddie Murphy, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rick Moranis and Burt Reynolds).

The convention began on Tuesday morning with a breakfast hosted by Screenvision Cinema Network, a company that makes and places commercials in movie theaters, a growing trend in recent years. It was a nice breakfast, and exhibitors applauded the subtly stylistic commercials shown to them.

But, on Thursday, a spokesman for Disney’s Buena Vista distribution unit dropped a rare bombshell at one of the usually genteel business sessions by announcing that the studio would not book any of its movies with theaters where commercials are shown.

Until Buena Vista chief Richard Cook made the announcement, Disney had been conspicuous by its absence at the convention. Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal, Orion and 20th Century Fox had all signed on to host expensive events. MGM/UA, even though it has little product to promote right now, popped in with a large hospitality suite. Columbia/Tri-Star had suites and product reels on display. But Disney, with potentially the hottest film of the year to hawk (“Dick Tracy”) was out of sight . . . until Thursday.

Cook’s declaration sent shock waves through the convention and while most theater owners agreed that American moviegoers should not be subjected to TV commercials, there was concern about the studios--by fiat--cutting off potential revenue.

The theater owners were left to square the commercial boycott with Motion Picture Assn. of America President Jack Valenti’s admonitions against rising costs--both of movie production (now pegged at an average of $23.5 million) and theater tickets--and the studios’ tougher rental terms. The issues that dominated conversations at ShoWest four or five years ago--the threat of the video revolution, blind bidding, the encroachment of the major studios into chain theater ownership--were mostly gone this week.

What seems to concern theater operators most now, as the memories of the industry’s first $5-billion year fade and they look ahead, is the growing power of the major distributors. Fewer films are being made while more theaters are being built, giving added leverage to the major studios.

The main reason most theater operators were here was to get a peek at some of the films they will be bidding for during the coming months.

The luncheons and dinners where footage and still photos are projected onto a large screen are dog-and-pony shows of the most elaborate sort. Studio executives pound their breasts with self-congratulatory speeches and stars invariably set the record straight as to who are the real heroes of the movie business--the exhibitors.