Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1938)

MAJOR EXCHANGES IN LOS ANGELES ARE SILENT ON RECEIPT OF GOVERNMENT QUESTIONNAIRES Booklet Demand Up Los Angeles — Demand by Southern California exhibitors for "Movie Quiz" booklets and “Motion Pictures Are Your Best Entertainment" campaign accessories registered a slight upturn after two weeks of absolute inactivity when the Paramount exchange, handling accessories for this area, reported delivery of 1,000 “Quiz" booklets — first sales accounted for since early in October. The booklets were ordered by and delivered to the American Potash Co. of Trona, Cal., which operates the Trona Theatre there chiefly for the benefit of its employes, charging a low admission. Paramount reported, however, that no orders had been placed by any other independent or chain exhibitors. With Robert Poole, general secretary of the Inde-> pendent Theatre Owners of Southern California, still in New York attending the distributor-exhibitor trade-practice parleys, his promised survey of attendance and grosses in theatres enlisted in the campaign in this area remains undelivered. Anti-Nazis Turning To New Interests Hollywood — Having experienced what Donald Ogden Stewart, chairman of the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League, termed “one of the happiest and proudest moments in the Hollywood liberal movement” through the appearance of Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes at a mass meeting sponsored by the Hollywood Council for Democracy at the Shrine Auditorium last Wednesday, the film capital’s progressive groups were turning with renewed interest to plans for forthcoming political meetings and social gatherings. Among events to be staged in the near future will be an elaborate fashion show and dinner, to be given November 2 under the sponsorship of the League of Women Shoppers, at which Marie Wilson, Lucille Ball, Whitney Bourne, Gale Sondergaard, Nancy Carroll, Gale Page, Helen Gahagan and Linda Winters will model the newest in fall and winter creations. Ben Blue and Lionel Stander will entertain, as will Faith Bacon, fan dancer; Fred Keating will be master of ceremonies, and Melvyn Douglas and Philip Dunne are scheduled for brief speeches. Affair will be held at the Trocadero. On Friday night the local chapter of the Associated Film Audiences, a nation-wide group organized to combat intolerance and picketing of topical sociological and economic themes in motion pictures, held a membership meeting, with Aben Kandel and Gilbert Gabriel, screen writers, as chief speakers. Secretary Ickes’ visit here aroused considerable interest and enthusiasm among many members of the film colony. Prior to his address at the Shrine auditorium, the national executive was feted at luncheon at 20th Century-Fox, at which he delivered a fervent plea for freedom of speech and of the screen. Flanking the visitor at the luncheon were Darryl Zan uck, and Louis B. Mayer, while other celebrities included Walter Wanger, Sam Katz, Fred Beetson, Sam Briskin, Melvyn Douglas, John Ford, William Goetz, M. C. Levee, Eddie Mannix, Dudley Nichols, Harry Rapf, Gale Sondergaard, Donald Ogden Stewart, Gloria Stuart, Adolph Zukor and Hal Wallis. Ickes’ Shrine address, titled “The Crisis of Democracy,” pleaded for the strengthening of democracy and liberalism in America as a weapon against “the threat of Fascism” and the “spirit of intolerance and suppression that is now a threatening storm on the far horizon.” Following his talk, the audience adopted a resolution to be sent to President Roosevelt again urging him to lift the embargo against the Spanish Loyalists and requesting him to “call upon the other democratic nations to meet with you in a genuine peace conference to plan for collective defense of democracy throughout the world.” Another milestone in liberal Hollywood’s autumn calendar of activities was passed on Sunday when the Motion Picture Democratic Committee held its “Victory Ball” at the Riverside Breakfast Club. Hosts and hostesses included Miriam Hopkins, Gloria Stuart, Gale Sondergaard, while Culbert L. Olson, Democratic candidate for governor, was guest of honor. Monogram Will Handle "Dark Sands" on Coast Los Angeles — Monogram’s Pacific Coast exchanges will handle distribution on “Dark Sands,” English-made film produced by Walter Futter, under terms of a deal closed this week. Henry Wilcoxon, Wallace Ford and Paul Robeson are featured in the picture. Bronstein Will Build New 900-Seater in L . A. Los Angeles — Construction of a new 900-seat house at 73rd St. and Vermont Ave. will be launched here shortly by Ben Bronstein, owner of the Lux. At 20th-Fox and Universal It Is Admitted They Received Them Los Angeles — Apparently under “sealedlips” orders from their home offices, binding them to silence, all but two of the local branches of the major exchanges involved in the federal government’s antimonopoly suit against film producer-distributor organizations refused to expand on reports that they were in receipt of questionnaires anent operational policies sent them this week by U. S. attorneys. That such questionnaires are in their hands, however, was clearly indicated when 20th Century-Fox and Universal exchange operators readily admitted having received them. The blanks in each instance are to be filled out immediately, returned to the exchanges’ respective home offices and then forwarded to government attorneys. The Fox questionnaire, labeled “Form No. 3,” is in the hands of Jack Dillon, exchange manager, and is designed to elicit information concerning operations of those exchanges whose parent companies are affiliated with or who subsidize theatre circuits. Business relationships with every theatre serviced by the exchange are to be transcribed, including such information as: 1. Date theatre opened. 2. Number of changes in ownership. 3. Number of deals consummated in the past two years. 4. Number of pictures played by the theatre in the past two years. 5. Seating capacity of the house and the clearance and zoning protection it is afforded. 6. Admission price and number of price changes since house opened. This questionnaire form, it is understood, goes also to the Warner, Paramount, Metro and RKO Radio exchanges, the parent companies of which are connected in some way with theatre circuits, but whose local operators remained noncommittal. The quiz received by Universal, labeled “Form No. 4,” goes also to Columbia, parent companies of which exchanges do not operate theatre circuits. It asks such questions as: 1. The number of pictures contracted for in houses served by the exchanges in this area since the 1934-35 season. 2. The number of such features so contracted for which were actually exhibited, regardless of date of exhibition. 3. The number of such features not exhibited. 4. Reasons why they were not exhibited. BOXOFFICE :: October 29, 1938 24-C