Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1934)

The Leading Newspaper of the Motionpl Picture Industry MOTION PICTURE DAILY Alert, Intelligent and \\ ^Faithfuji 1 Service^tlr the Industry in All Branches VOL. 35. NO. 4 NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 1934 TEN CENTS Para. Seeks Closer Field Contact Plan Service Heads, Partners To Meet in Atlanta A tie-in plan designed to bring varij ous Paramount theatre partners into closer contact with the home office will get under way in Atlanta on Tuesday when Ralph Kohn, president of the newly formed Paramount Thetres Service Corp. ; Sam Dembow, Jr., and Y. Frank Freeman, vice-presidents of the company, will confer with Robert Wilby, E. Y. Richards, Jr., Arthur Lucas, William Jenkins and Mike j Kincey. This will be the first step to follow •on the heels of organization of Paramount Theatres Service Corp., which {Continued on parte 6) Los Angeles Passes Ban on Tango Games Los Axgeles, Jan. 4. — After a fight .of several months, an ordinance to ^prohibit "Tango" parlors has been passed. This means a loss of more than $250,000 annually in license taxes to the city, but a saving of several million to the patrons. Pressure was brought to bear by exhibitors to oust the "Tango Game" (Continued on page 4) "U" Moving Soon to Rockefeller Center Universal's home offices will be moved the latter part of March to the 10th, 11th and 12th floors of the RCA Building in Rockefeller Center. All of these floors and lobbies are to (Continued on page 14) Prosperity Gaining \ A Foothold": Neilan Prosperity has gained a foothold, |thinks Marshall Xeilan, president of Associated Film Producers Corp. jnewly-formed company. He says : There is an old axiom, 'Coming (Continued on page 4) New Year Thought "A person doesn't have to be crazy to be in the motion picture business," remarked an industry executive yesterday, "but it helps a lot," he observed. Last Code Signing Date Made Midnight, Jan. 31 CODE OF FAIR COMPETITION FOR THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY The undersigned hereby approves, adopts and assents to the Code of Fair Competition for the Motion Picture Industry as approved by the President on November 27, 1933. Signed this day of_ _, 193 , at_ (Niae ot InJu-iduil or Corporation) Producer O Chak One Distributor . . . . Q Exhibitor D Answer the First and the Appropriate Remaining Question (1) State business address: , , (2) If exhibitor state name and location of theatre. and seating capacity. (3) If distributor state name and address of exchange. (4-) If producer state name of brand of pictures. This Assent Is In valid if Qualified. After signature return to "Code Authority Motion Picture Industry" in the enclosed envelope. Official form assenting signatures on the code. The form, approved yesterday by Code Authority, will be mailed out beginning today — 20,000 of them. Of this total, 13,500 will go to theatres, this figure representing Code Authority's estimate on houses in operation currently. The remaining 6,500 will go to producers, distributors, exhibitor units and any others who desire to qualify under the code. Acceptances must be in the mail by midnight, Jan. 31. lTOA-Union To Talk Wage Scales Today Determination of a basic wage scale for operators in Greater New York independent theatres appeared closer to solution late yesterday when arrangements were made for a committee of 10, five each representing the I.T.O.A. and Local 306, to meet this afternoon at 5 o'clock in another effort to solve the riddle which has (Continued on page 14) Decision Upon Code Expense Is Postponed A method of apportioning within the industry the costs of administration of the code will be held in abeyance by the Code Authority until an accurate estimate of what the costs will be has been arrived at. it was learned yesterday. Present estimates of the cost to the industry of code administration vary as much as a quarter of a mil (Continned on page 4) Extension Agreed Upon By Authority at 2nd Session Midnight, Jan. 31, was set as the new time limit when all code assents must be mailed to the Code Authority in order to qualify under the code, the body decided yesterday at the second session. This gives the industry three weeks' additional time from the original prescribed date. That at least two weeks' extension from Jan. 10, the original date, would be granted, was exclusively forecast in Motion Picture Daily yesterday. It was also decided that midnight Jan. 20 would be the last day on which recommendations by anyone in the industry may suggest nominations for the 32 clearance and zoning and 32 grievance boards. Only those signing the compliance forms will be considered for the posts, it was stated. Headquarters will be established in the RKO building, it was decided, with the 19th and 23rd floors under consideration. In all probability it will be the latter choice. The headquarters will be set up within the next two weeks and Division Administrator Sol A. Rosenblatt will Have an office of his own. John Flinn, whose appointment as executive secretary was affirmed yesterday, will have a private office and there will be a special room for the hearing of appeals. The Code Authority will hold its sessions there. Ed Kuykendall, president of the M.P.T.O.A., and a member of Code Authority, yesterday was unanimously approved by the body as the sixth member of the committee on selections for the various clearance and zoning and grievance boards. The move was decided upon because of (Continued on page 4) Official Recognition of the trade press as the official medium through which Code Authority will make announcements to the industry was made yesterday at the second session of the body.