Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1930)

^ October 4, 1930 EXHIBITORS HERALD -WORLD 19 Sympathetic Strikes Loom as Musician Controversy Goes On Stage Hands and Operators Threaten Action in 2 Cities Attend a Theatre Employing Union Operators RKO Capitol-Orpheum and Garrick Strand-ParkwayEastwood The Eastwood Theatre Is the Only Theatre East ot the Square Employing Union Operators The labor situation in Madison, Wis., came to the point where some of the houses took to running ads such as this one inserted by the RKO circuit. 6 Madison Houses Advertise Hiring of Union Operators (Special to the Herald-World) MADISON, WIS., Oct. 2.— An advertising system sponsored by Local 251 I. A. T. S. E. was undertaken by six theatres here to inform the public that they employ union labor. The theatres carried cooperative display ads with bold type urging theatregoers to attend houses with union operators. Theatres cooperating in the advertising plan were the RKO Capital, Orpheum and Garrick houses, and the Strand, Parkway and Eastwood. The Majestic, Palace and Orton were listed as theatres not employing union labor, according to one of the advertisements. MPTO of Virginia And Pennsylvania To Meet Oct. 20-21 (Special to the Herald-World) PITTSBURGH, Oct. 2.— The MPTO of Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia will hold its tenth annual convention October 20 and 21. D. J. Selznick will be chairman of the meeting, while Fred J. Herrington, secretary of the organization, is in charge of arrangements. Questions to be discussed include zoning, and standard form of insurance. Would Involve About 650 Employees in St. Louis NonUnion Projectionists' Band in Kansas City (Special to the Herald-World) MONTREAL, Oct. 2. — The musicians and the leading theatres of Montreal have buried the hatchet with the signing of new contracts, thus terminating the trouble which started August 31 with the refusal of the Capitol orchestra to accept a new agreement which provided two wicks' notice. The accepted contract has a four weeks' cancellation clause and stage shows will be introduced October 11. At Loew's the musicians have accepted a year's contract without cancellation provisions, and the organist returns to the Palace. The Imperial will continue without an orchestra. Loew's return to pictures and vaudeville October 5. Sympathetic strikes on the part of the projectionists and stage hands are threatened at St. Louis and Philadelphia as the latest development in the controversey between the musicians' organizations and the theatres. At St. Louis, John P. Nick, international vice president of the Theatrical Brotherhood, has announced that unless some agreement is reached by October 9, the walkout probably will be general in the motion picture theatres in the city. In Philadelphia, an ultimatum setting October 7 as the date for a similar possible walkout has been announced by John Colaprete, president of the musicians union. In Kansas City, as a means of combating the calling a strike by the stage hands and prodemands of the local unions, an organization of non-union projectionists has been started. It is called the Sound Projectionists Association and is run along union lines. It might be called a non-union union. Union troubles in Portland, Maine, have caused Lillian Lockwood, owner of the Irvington, to file an injunction against the operators' union there to prohibit picketing after her refusal of a deman to use only union members. No Agreement Reached; Negotiations to Continue (Special to the Herald-World) ST. LOUIS, Oct. 2.— No agreement was reached at a new conference of representatives of the Musicians Mutual Benefit Association and owners and managers of St. Louis motion picture theatres held in the Ambassador theatre building, St. Louis, September 26. At the conclusion of the meeting, Charles P. Skouras, head of Skouras Brothers Enterprises, announced that nothing definite had been accomplished at the gathering. However, the negotiations will be continued. Acting under orders from the New York headquarters of his union John P. Nick arranged for the conference of September 26. He has now assumed the role of peacemaker and it is understood will endeavor to compose the differences if at all possible before 1,270 Replacements of Other Sets Made by Erpi (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Oct. 2.—C. W. Bunn, general sales manager of Western Electric, has announced that replacements of other types of equipment with Western Electric apparatus have reached the total of 1,270. Of this number, 1,055 are in the United States and 215 in the foreign field. jectionists. The sympathetic walkout would be the last move made by the unionists. However, if the motion picture theatre owners refuse to recede from the position they have taken and Nick is convinced that the musicians are right in their demands of the theatre then the stage hands and motion picture machine operators may walk out. Such a strike would involve about 300 stage hands and 350 operators. October 7 Set for Walkout (Special to the Herald-World) PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 2.— Unless the musicians' strike here is settled before October 7, stage hands and motion picture machine operators will leave their jobs. This decision comes from the president of the musicians' union, John Colaprete. The musicians' leader said two weeks notice to that effect had been given the manager of the Fox theatre here, and William Goldman, district manager of the Stanley chain of Warner Brothers houses. Such a sympathy strike, as is proposed, is permitted under an agreement among the three unions as members of the local federation of amusement employees. Seeks Injunction on Picketing (Special to the Herald-World) PORTLAND, MAINE, Oct. 2. —Lillian Lockwood, woman exhibitor, operating the Irvington theatre here, has filed an injunction against the Portland Moving Picture Machine Operators' union and the Central Labor Council to restrain them from picketing her theatre. The pickets had been stationed at the theatre after she had refused to meet a demand that only union members be employed, she charged. Organize Non-Union Union (Special to the Herald-World) KANSAS CITY, Oct. 2.— As a step in combating the demands of the local operators union, an organization of non-union projectionists has been started here under the name of the Sound Projectionists Association. The organization has been granted a charter.