∙ Stepping up to the honorary presidency of his huge Rank Organisation Ltd., Britain's shrewd Lord Rank, 73, turned over the chairmanship to John Henry Davis, 55. Five years ago, as Rank's deputy in running Britain's biggest film studios and theater chain (507 houses), Davis, a onetime accountant, decided that increased pay and leisure would lure working-class Britons away from the movies to other and costlier forms of entertainment. Accordingly, the Rank Organisation closed or sold 148 theaters and put the proceeds into dance halls, bowling centers, highway restaurants and a new electronics division. While other British moviemakers languish, Rank's profits...
World Business: Personal File: Nov. 9, 1962
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