The Film Daily (1935)

THE ■c&m DAILY Tuesday, Dec. 10, 1935 W.-B. STOCKHOLDERS UPHOLD SETTLEMENTS (Continued from Page 1) unanimously re-elected: Harry M. Warner, Albert Warner, Jack L. Warner, Waddill Catchings, Henry A. Rudkin and Abel Cary Thomas. Harry M. Warner is expected to be reelected president at the meeting of the board of directors on Dec. 17. Thomas Garrett of Davis, Polk, Wardwell, Gardiner & Reed gave a full explanation of the facts leading to the settlement agreement. Referring to the recent wave of law suits he said: "Unfortunately there is no way in which we can protect anyone from what we in the legal profession call sharpshooters. If you are involved in a large business you must expect law suits. The sharpshooters are with us always." He declared his belief that legislation should be enacted to protect corporations and individuals from "sharpshooters". Abel Cary Thomas, opening the meeting, explained that Harry M. Warner was absent because of a labor conference in New York. He said the financial outlook, "in the absence of any unexpected labor disturbances, is bright". The comptroller, Thomas declared, had told him that the profits for the first quarter of this fiscal year would be slightly in excess of $1,000,000, or considerably more than the profits for the entire past fiscal year. Thomas spoke of the increased attendance at theaters exhibiting Warner pictures and said there was good reason to believe that this increase would continue. The company, he said, has steadfastly sought to improve and raise the level of entertainment afforded by its productions. "A Midsummer Night's Dream", said Thomas, is meeting with world-wide artistic and financial success, and an enthusiastic reception is expected for such forthcoming productions as "Captain Blood", "The Story of Louis Pasteur", "Anthony Adverse" and "The Green Pastures". Plans the Same Quota For Educational in '36-37 (Continued from Page 1) but is merely closing its studio there following completion of a Buster Keaton picture which is currently in work. The plant will resume about the middle of February, he said. Educational is also suspending production at the Eastern Service Studio at Astoria late this month but will resume operations there about Jan. 15. During the shutdown Al Christie will go to the Coast. The company is making about two-thirds of its product in the East, said Hammons. Korda Signs George Robey London — Alexander Korda, production executive of London Films, has signed George Robey, English stage star, to a three-year contract. A6^* ^PHIL M. DALY ., T T T • • • ONE OF the most encouraging signs of the motion picture times. .... .is the splendid manner in which the directors of advertising of the major companies have charted out brand new slants in presenting the Story of the Picture in their newspaper and trade press ads it is safe to say that in the year now drawing to a close greater strides toward Constructive Advertising have been made than in the previous ten years T ▼ T • • • IN THE field of the trade press advertising this development has been the most apparent to pick out individual examples would be grossly unfair to the legion of other splendid exemplifications of fine copy and art work that stud the trade publications throughout the past months T T T • • • THE OUTSTANDING developments can be summarized however in their broader aspects among which just a few here noted will serve to emphasize the tremendous forward strides that have been made in the realm of the advertising departments which have at last broken away . . . (and may we devoutly hope that it is a permanent improvement?) from the amateurish tradition of the years in the use of Exaggeration, Time-worn Adjectives that Mean Nothing, and Blatant Ballyhoo ▼ T T • • • THE VALUE of the newspaper critics' opinions has been enormously capitalized in the trade ads in some instances these reviews as well as those of the trade papers have been built up in full page ads — a page devoted to each review and that's smart the theater man interested in booking the pix gets the opinion of experts emphasized with selling copy and not just a line of blurb written by the advertising dep't T T ▼ • • • ONE COMPANY has gone in heavy for the Intimate Note with straight man-to-man talks to the exhibitors, talking in Showman language without the curse of Overstatement and Exaggeration and Sloppy Superlatives this new school of film advertising takes it for granted that the theater man is not a sap and that he should be sold with the same common sense that a film salesman must employ in talking to him personally ▼ T T • • • ANOTHER COMPANY believes in Change of Pace in advertising their trade ads are always curiosity-provoking in art layout and catchy catch-lines at the start and it's a cinch that when you get that far you're going to read every word One ad was built around the exploitation and merchandising angles of the pix and that's down-to-earth stuff that any snowman can understand And what the major advertising departments have done with Art Work is too well known to recount here there is no national advertising field that can compare with the gorgeous art work exemplified in the colored inserts in the trade press in the last eight or ten months the Advertising Lads are well up in the vanguard of Industry Progress T ▼ T • • • AN APPROPRIATE Xmas Party will be given at the Hospital for Joint Diseases with Columbia supplying a program of the Scrappy cartoons Mark Ostrer and Arthur Lee were the guests of honor at a reception at the Roxy given by Howard S. Cullman to notable guests IATSE-IBEW DISPUTE ENDED BY COMPROMISE (.Continued from Page 1) E. will now have a closed shop for grips and cameramen in the coast studios. The I.A.T.S.E. and I.B.E.W. agreed to arbitrate the question of which union shall have jurisdiction over sound men within 60 days. Among those who attended the conferences were Nicholas Schenck, Harry Warner, Leo Spitz, Sidney R. Kent, John E. Otterson, Pat Casey, Herbert Bayard Swope, R. H. Cochrane, Barney Balaban, Y. Frank Freeman; George E. Browne, president of the I.A.T.S.E.; Dan Tracey, president of the I.B.E.W., and John P. Nick, Harlan Holmden and Steve Newman, I.A.T.S.E. vice presidents. «t €< « » » » Pittsburgh Trial Opens Pittsburgh — The Anti-trust case filed several years ago by Sam Benjamin and George Friedman, former Sharon and Farrell exhibitors, against RKO distributing, et al, asking $150,000 with triple damages and costs, opened yesterday in U. S. District Court with Judge Nelson McVicar presiding. The plaintiff claims that he was forced out of business in 1928 following a complaint filed by Metro with the local Film Board of Trade, claiming that the exhibitor failed to fullfill the terms of his contract. In the opening session a jury of seven men and five women was selected and it was revealed that Sam Friedman had been assigned all rights as the sole plaintiff. Reed, Smith, Shaw & McClay, local legal firm, with James H. Beale Jr. in charge, is representing the defendants. Ed Rafferty came in from New York in the interests of United Artists. The plaintiff is defended by Aaron M. Jaffee, former impartial member of the Pittsburgh grievance board during the NRA period, and Leonard Krieger. Emmeline Fineberg, former stenographer to Audrey Lytell, secretary of the Film Board in 1928, and Fred Herrington, secretary of the M.P.T.O. of Western Penna., were questioned by both sides as to their knowledge in the case. Sam Friedman was the last witness. Loew Annual Meeting Today The annual meeting of Loew stockholders takes places at 11 a. m. today in the Loew building. Routine business, including election of officers, is on the schedule. Dickens Film for World Theater "The Old Curiosity Shop," an English production of the Charles Dickens' story, will open at the World Theater shortly before Christmas. "Toyland" as Holiday Reissue "Babes in Toyland," Laurel and Hardy feature, will be reissued by M-G-M as a hoiday booking.