Boxoffice (Jul-Sep 1938)

Exhibitor Cooperation Pushes Eye UA's Chances Coast "Drive” Participation As S-I Distributor Encouraged by the enthusiastic reception the campaign has engendered among southern California exhibitors, the Hollywood committee for the nation-wide “Motion Pictures’ Greatest Year” better business drive was working at fever heat as the starting gun was fired. Despite a rapid change of plans over the weekend, the committee scheduled a Tuesday start on “The World Is Yours,” the all-industry short subject which will be made available to every theatre in America as one of the most potent ballyhoos for the campaign. Originally set to feature Lewis Stone, Fay Holden, Mickey Rooney and Cecilia Parker, members of M-G-M’s “Judge Hardy” film family, the short’s cast has been altered, with Samuel S. Hinds, Dorothy Peterson, Anne Shirley, Charlie Grapewin and Johnny Walsh booked for the top spots in the narrative story which will hold the subject together. Flashes of virtually every player of top bracket rating will be included. Basil Wangell directs, Peter Ballbush and Gordon Jennings are doing the montage and special effects and Frank Whitbeck, M-G-M’s studio advertising head, is producing. Writers Are Busy In addition, Gabe Yorke, head of the Hollywood executive committee, has his subordinates busy lining up and delivering the by-line stories being written by the industry’s top executive and creative figures, due to be given nation-wide distribution through newspapers and magazines. At the same time the sixth trailer to be produced for use in the campaign was nearing completion at National Screen Service. Featuring Ed Thorgerson, it will explain phases of the $250,000 Movie Quiz contest to theatre patrons, as have its five predecessors. Trailer number one, announcing the contest, is already being screened at a number of theatres. While this hum of activity was being recorded, Will Hays ended a ten-day northern holiday, during which he visited W. R. Hearst’s Wyntoon ranch in the company of Albert D. Lasker, and checked back at the producers’ association offices to survey the progress being made in preparations for the campaign. Hays consistently has declined to comment on his activities during his annual summer visit to the film capital. Exchange Swamped With Drive Accessory Orders Los Angeles — To prove that the unanimous support and endorsement pledged to the “Motion Pictures’ Greatest Year” campaign by 200 Southern California exhibitors and exchangemen at a mass rally last week was no idle boast, the local Paramount exchange — headquarters for accessories and information — reported itself swamped with orders for quiz books and other necessities early in the week. The initial mass meeting, at which Charles Skouras, Fox West Coast president, was appointed to head the exhibitors’ campaign committee, was followed on Friday by another meeting at which additional details of the drive were mapped out by which machinery to handle the campaign in outlying territories was set up. Over the weekend, Robert H. Poole, general secretary of the Independent Theatre Owners, trained out for Arizona to participate in the organization of a regional committee for that state. By Tuesday afternoon, 1,651,000 quiz books had been purchased and paid for at the Paramount exchange, Carroll Peacock, exchange manager, reported, with 1,100,000 of them going to FWC houses. Peacock was forced to put through a rush call for additional books, with orders for thousands more relegated to the waiting list while the supply was being replenished. Further entering into the spirit of the occasion, the M-G-M exchange blossomed out with banners, bunting and other colorful decorations on which the “Motion Pictures Are Your Best Entertainment” slogans are prominently emblazoned. Other exchanges were set to follow suit, having wired their respective New York offices for permission. It is planned to allocate the job to one man so as to preserve uniformity in the dress-up. Jim Schiller, Metro exchange’s publicist, conceived of the idea. " Honesty " Prescribed by Birdwell for Trade Ills Complete honesty in publicity and advertising and a “new deal” in the relationship between motion pictures and the public are the surest way out of Hollywood’s current ills, Russell Birdwell, publicity-advertising director for Selznick International, told the Advertising Club of Los Angeles in an address before that body. Accompanied by Madeleine Carroll, as guest of honor, Birdwell informed the advertising men: “One of the greatest things that ever happened to advertising was the beginning of a code of ethics, which had a direct influence upon all advertising. Unfortunately, publicity is not governed by that kind of rule.” Urging that Hollywood “quit looking in the movie mirror with smug content at their reflected images,” Birdwell called for the appointment of a public relations counselor to “represent the film industry to the world,” to be appointed for life and to be given “broad powers to fight unwarranted attacks.” “It’s time for us to quit playing ostrich and get our heads out of the sands of million dollar-celluloid and admit, frankly and sincerely, that things are taking place to the temporary detriment of one of the most important industries on earth.” United Artists’ position as the number one question-mark among Hollywood production circles for the 1938-39 season was somewhat weakened when the longstanding debate as to which company was to be awarded the distribution plum on Selznick International’s “Gone With the Wind” was cleared up. Transfer of the releasing rights to the Civil War picture to M-G-M definitely puts UA out of the running as one of the contenders, leaving as the only conjectural phase the question of what allocation will be made of the S-I product to follow during the new season. Here the matter stands as it did when S-I executives announced some months ago that UA would stand “as good a chance” as any other company of acquiring some S-I pictures, UA so far having failed to book S-I to an exclusive distribution contract similar to the one it now holds for the current season. The “Wind” announcement also definitely specified Clark Gable as “Rhett Butler,” disclosed that the film will be made in Technicolor, and left wide open the selection of a “Scarlett O’Hara.” David O. Selznick will personally supervise, with cameras to roll some time between November 15 and January 1. Other UA producers continued their upswing in picture-making activity. Selznick was due to start “Made for Each Other” this week as the last of his 1937-38 release for UA, while Walter Wanger is well into work on “Trade Winds” and Hal Roach has “Topper Takes a Trip” rolling along at full steam. Samuel Goldwyn is polishing off “The Cowboy and the Lady” in order to get “The Last Frontier” into work in September, while Edward Small has transferred his production headquarters from UA to General Service Studios in order to get two pictures before the cameras simultaneously. He plans to get into action before the end of September on “King of the Turf,” starring Adolphe Menjou, and “South of Pago Pago,” with Jon Hall and Sigrid Gurie topping the cast. A location crew went out last week to pick up atmosphere shots in the South Seas for the latter picture. Small must deliver two to UA before January 1. Cantor and 20th-Fox Call It Quits Cancellation of Eddie Cantor's 20th Century-Fox acting contract came this week following conferences between the comic and Darryl Zanuck. Cantor has checked off the lot, having expressed dissatisfaction with "The Average Man/' the story property which was being shaped up as his next starring vehicle. The comedian had been under contract for a year on a three-picture agreement, with “Ali Baba Goes to Town" his only camera work. 36 BOXOFFICE :: September 3, 1938