The Film Daily (1934)

THE pday.Aug. 10, 1934 Broadcast from the Set Broadcasting from a studio set while shooting of a feature is in progress will take place for the first time in the east next Tuesday evening at the Biograph studio under arrangements made by Sam Taylor, screen commentator of WMCA, with Select Productions, who are making "Gigolette" at Biograph. The broadcast will go over WMCA from 7 to 7:30 P.M and the scene in progress of shooting at the time will include Adrienne Ames, Donald Cook, Ralph Bellamy, Robert Armstrong and Milton Douglas. The latter, a Broadway baritone, will sing the theme song, "Gigolette." Ten key stations along the Atlantic seaboard will carry the broadcast. 1ICHTMAN OFFERS I 2 ADMISSION PLANS ■ (Continued from Page 1) lis to force theaters to increase pieir scales. ! Quoting theaters' weekly gross as »proximating $4,000,000 at present, jj contrast with the industry's need jj a $6,000,000-a-week take, Lichtttan pointed out that a general 5 [|nt admission price raise would add iout $1,000,000 to weekly box[Jnce receipts. JiThe United Artists executive iised part of his data on information obtained on a recent Mid-WestJn sales trip. Theater attendance I; present approximates only 20,t)0,000 patrons weekly, he said, hile the average admission price 20 cents. i Describing this take as inadejate, Lichtman declared that as a :sult of operating at a loss, exhibits are allowing their houses to jcome shabby. Unless grosses are icreased, he said, producers will be >mpelled to turn out cheaper negaves. Attracted by low price scales, atrons are going to cheap houses, ichtman stated, thereby reducing jceipts of first-runs. He deplored leaters which provide expensive ;age shows at substantially reuced admissions. "The industry is furnishing enirtainment to the public — at a loss," Dserved Lichtman. Growth of the store type of show 'as pointed to by the official, who ^id their scales are averaging 15 ants. Most houses at present have ;hedules calling for 25 and 30 cents, e stated. If the present-day market in Eng,nd did not exist, Lichtman deared, American producers could ot make pictures costing more than 150,000, in view of conditions in lis country. Admission prices in ngland are three times higher than i the United States, he said. In hicago, stated Lichtman, 275 ouses are operating on 15-cent :ales. He estimated attendance at alaban & Katz houses in that city i 650,000 weekly and asserted that irst run revenue is almost extinct" iroughout the country. Twenty-five cents should be the ;andard average admission price ar theaters, "with the exception of DAILV ii The Problem of Original Titles (Reprinted from "Life") KIO mother ever lavished more care on picking a monicker for a firstborn ' ^ than do the movie chieftains in choosing titles for their flickers. The reason is somewhat less tender. — the better showing a picture makes on a marquee the more people will be lured past the box office and the more kale it will make. The output of 15 years of title-thinking-up appears in the FILM DAILY YEARBOOK in a section given over to titles — 13,905 of them. Considered on their merits as a great many queer combinations of words, the list is a panic; considered as the 15-year product of our fifth industry it's hilarious. "Love" is the most hackneyed of all marquee words. The movies have given us "Love Is a Lie," "Love Is a Racket," "Love Is an Awful Thing," "Love Is Dangerous," "Love Is Like That," and, more conservatively, "Love Is Love" — and 170 other titles beginning with "Love." "Hell" got a good play, too, with "Hell Below," "Hell Bent," "Hell and High Water," "Hell On Earth," "Hell's Holiday," "Hell's House," and some others. There was to be a "Hell's Bells," but at the last minute Warners changed it to "I've Got Your Number." "Heart," of course, is very prominent with such titles as "Heart of Romance," "Heart of New York," "Heart of Nora," "Heart of a Fool," "Heart of the Sunset," Hearts Adrift, Aflame, of Oak, and of Flint. "Girl" runs even "Love" a close second with such gems as "Girl at Bay," "Girl at Home," — from Beyond, — from God's Country, — from Chicago, — from Gay Paree, — from Everywhere, — from Nowhere, — In the Dark, In the Rain, In the Limousine, In the Glass Cage, and In the Web. There are also "Girl of Today," "Girl of Yesterday," "Girl On the Barge," — On the Stairs, — Overboard,—Who Came Back, Who Couldn't Grow Up, Who Couldn't Think, Who Dared, Who Lost, Who Ran Wild," Who Won Out, Who Wouldn't Quit, Who Wouldn't Work, Without a Room, and Without a Soul. Under "F" we find "For Heaven's Sake," "For His Sake," "For Her Sake," "For Your Daughter's Sake," and "For You, My Boy." But we've no intention of running through the whole 13,905 of them here and now. Just thought you'd like to know how tough it is to think up an original title. ACTION IS DELAYED ON PARAMOUNT DEALS Schreiber Files Test Suit Against Mich. Cooperative (Continued from Page 1) Schreiber, owner of five Woodward Ave. houses, has filed suit against Cooperative Theaters of Michigan and Ben and Lou Cohen charging them with buying up product to keep it away from his theaters. Code Financial Report Shows $33,833 Balance (Continued from Page 1) have paid $49,700 in assessments and exhibitors $78,570, receipts totalling $128,270. 'Disbursements have amounted to $94,436.75. July expenditures aggregated $23,604.41, says the statement. Report on "British Agent" West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — The six major women's group affiliated with the Hays Office in the reviewing and consideration of motion pictures have filed their reports on "British Agent," First National's co-starring film for Kay Francis and Leslie Howard, expressing a unanimous agreement on the picture's merits. Motions Filed With Court In Fox Met. Reorganization (Continued from Page 1) was filed by William Atkinson, receiver for Fox Metropolitan. A motion to strike out the answer was made by Archibald Palmer, attorney for the minority bondholders. Judge Mack will hear Palmer's motion on Tuesday morning, at which time he will decide Palmer's contention that the bondholders have a right to act for themselves even though they have turned their bond holdings over to the committee. Should Judge Mack accept the new Fox Met. petition, it will mean that the reorganization plan of the bondholders' committee and the proposed reorganization plan of Saul E. Rogers will be discarded. The court will appoint a trustee who may either accept and re-file either of the reorganization plans or submit a substitute. Musical For Joe E. Brown West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — Joe E. Brown, who is working now in First National's "Six Day Bike Rider," will probably return to the musical comedy realm for his next picture. the dumps," said Lichtman. During the boom years industry grossed $800,000,000 annually when admission prices averaged at least 80 per cent higher than now, he estimated. New Film Duties Are Set By Mexican Government (Continued from Page 1) meters, from $2.80 to $5 ; sound film in Spanish, $2.20: other languages, from $9.28 to $12.48. Phonograph records for use with films will have a duty of 28 cents each. The new schedule is intended for the protection of native film production. Louis King Assigned West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — ■ Louis King, having completed the colorful melodrama, "Pursued," has been assigned by Fox to direct the film adaptation of John Erskine's "Bachelor of Arts," with Tom Brown, Anita Louise and Henry B. Walthall already cast for the production. (Continued from Page 1) of Louis Marcus' 50 per cent interest in the Salt Lake, Inc. circuit of 15 theaters for $50,000 was postponed till today at 2 P. M. to permit examination of S. A. Lynch and Sam Dembow, Jr. Special Master Joyce ordered Lynch and Dembow to appear following a protest against consummation of the deal by Malcom Sumner, attorney for a small group of bondholders whose petition for reorganization under Sec. 77 B was consolidated with that of the debenture committee. Sumner said he saw no reason to approve the plan at this time when the option to purchase ran three years longer. Sumner's objections that he had not had time to study the suggested purchase of the $615,000 outstanding debenture issue of the Goldstein Bros, circuit in New England for $307,000, payable, in one year, resulted in adjournment of this matter till today at 2 P. M. also. Hearing on the Paramount Broadway Corp. reorganization was adjourned to Aug. 22 before which time Sumner will file specifications of objections to the plan. Sumner said he was unalterably opposed to this reorganization because it tied in with the Paramount-Publix reorganization, real estate which was no essential part of the business. Special Master Joyce himself raised an objection to the plan for payment of $23,500 to settle rent claims of the owners of the Penn and State Theaters, Uniontown, totaling $250,000 in the case of one theater only, and to a second proposal involving the purchase for $165,000 of $1,340,000 outstanding bonds against the Toledo Paramount Corp. Joyce said he did not know whether he had the right to order purchase of claims when no reorganization was assured. All creditor groups advised approval of these two matters. McEvoy, Jr., a Reporter West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — Giving up college in favor of a newspaper education, J. P. McEvoy's 16-year-old son, Dennis, goes to work as a cub reporter next month on the San Francisco "Examiner," the writer announced at Paramount, where he is writing on "The Pursuit of Happiness." SHOWMAN'S REMINDER How about a Fall Fashion Show as a business builder?