Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1934)

The Leading Daily Newspaper of the Motion iPicture Industry MOTION PICTURE DAILY Alert, Intelligent and Faithful Service to the Industry in All Branches !L. 35. NO. 30 NEW YORK, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1934 TEN CENTS . A. to Have 36 Features Next Season henck Says 14 Will Be Produced in England Hollywood. Feb. 4. — United Artists scheduled 36 features for next eon, Joseph M. Schenck said on his ival here from New York last Int. ■he list includes 12 from 20th Ceny. four from Samuel Goldwyn, four hi Reliance, 14 from U. A.'s British lliates, London Films and British & minion, and two from an indepen»t source not yet selected, according Schenck. ichenck spoke enthusiastically of iduction progress noted at English idios on his recent European trip, •ing which he negotiated the deals next season's 14 from there. He d "great things can be expected tm English product from now on." ■ affirmed recent reports of a film jjttstry boom in England, brought :k within recent months by Sidney (Continued on page 3) / Lichtman Again Favors Price Jumps Kansas City, Feb. 4. — Recollecns of the "flexible admission" docile advocated by Al Lichtman sevil seasons ago were revived here en the United Artists distribution ef declared while passing through re en route to Hollywood that he II believed in increasing theatre ties wherever they are too low in ation to the merit of product being yed. -ie said he hoped that Loew's would )st the scale of the circuit's local jse, the Midland, which plays U. A. )duct. 'Theatres with less than normal adssions," Lichtman declared, "could se them on big pictures and do the ne volume of business they are now ing at the sub-par scales. Low ces," he said, "do not attract any ditional patronage for the 'turkeys.' " lore Reel Houses If Embassy Clicks S'ewsreel Theatres, Inc., new comiv formed to take over the Embassy a newsreel house beginning next turday on a 45-minute show basis, 25 cents straight and with Pathe :ws clips exclusively, plans other uses along identical lines if the first nture clicks. So states F. C. Wood, (Continued on page 3) Admits Having Nazi Picture; Hazy on Plans Bavarian Pictures Head Talks of "Offers" "S. A. Mann Brand," first of the Nazi films to reach this country, will be handled domestically by Bavarian Films, a company hitherto unknown in the New York trade with offices at 489 Fifth Ave. "It's a fine picture," a Mr. Hermann voluntarily offered on Saturday. "We expect to show it on Broadway and have many offers." Pressed for specific detail as to what those offers were and how the picture will be distributed, Hermann was alternately hesitant and vague, at the same time attempting to create the impression a distribution outlet will not he difficult to line Up. He first denied knowing anything (Continued on page 3) German Industry Is Reported in Bad Way W ashington, Feb. 4. — Reorganization of the German film industry by the government and export losses have put the business in a bad way, reports Trade Commissioner George R. Canty to the M. P. Section of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Ufa barely made running expenses last year, the report states. "It is apparent," Canty declares, "that the existing market for German films is completely out of line with the expenditure of producers leveled on the pre-sound film period." Committees Are Set For Academy Awards Hollywood, Feb. 4. — Committees to have charge of the Academy's annual awards will include : Producers — E. H. Allen, Emanuel Cohen, Harry Cohn, Walt Disney, B. (Continued on page 3) Specifications New Orleans, Feb. 4. — Gordon Kirst, leader of the orchestra at the Roosevelt Hotel, in announcing the arrival of a new member of his family, makes use of this form : Kirst's new 1934 model now is on display. Designer, Gordon Kirst, production manager, Kathryn Kirst. Specifications, boy. Model, Gordon Kirst, Jr. Arrival, Jan. 15, 1934. On display, 4,146 Cleveland Ave. Weight, nine pounds, 12 ounces. Wheel base, 17 inches. Bumpers, rear only. Automatic starter. Free squealing. NRA — "We've done our part." Production Slows; 28 Films in Work Hollywood, Feb. 4. — Studio activity continues below normal with only 28 features and seven shorts in work, as against 22 features, 13 shorts in preparation ready to start within the next two weeks. Already completed and still in the cutting rooms are 47 features and 22 shorts. M-G-M has five features and one short in work. This leads the field among the majors. They also have but one feature and one short in final preparation, while 12 features and two shorts are reported in the cutting rooms. Paramount follows a close second with six features in work, two in preparation and four cutting ; Warner (Continued on page 3) Ohio Exhibitors May Merge to Fight Tax Columbus, Feb. 4. — Plans to merge into one state-wide independent organization in a united effort against the 10 per cent amusement tax recently voted in Ohio were discussed at a meeting of representatives of the Ohio Valley Exhibitors Ass'n., the Inde (Continued on page 3) Key City Grosses Hold on; 135 Houses Do $1,348,51 7 National theatre business, as gauged by box-office reports to Motion Picture Daily from 22 key cities, held its own during the theatre week, ending Jan. 26-27 if it showed no appreciable gains. One hundred and thirty-five houses reported a bulk take of $1,348,517 as against $1,305,267 rolled up by 136 houses the preceding week. Cities currently reporting a gain are Boston, Cleveland. Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Montreal, New York, Oklahoma City, (Continued on page 8) Films Best of Investments, Says Giannini Points Out All Studios Have Stayed Open Hollywood, Feb. 4. — "Film business is the best in the world and will always be a good business for legitimate capital investment," Dr. A. H. Giannini, chairman of the executive committee of Bank of American National Ass'n, proclaimed last night on his return here from New York. "The best and the most recent indication of the industry's stability," he said, "is that every studio carried on uninterruptedly during the depression, while plants in other industries were being dismantled and abandoned. This industry's rewards from enterprise and intelligence are great," he declared. He asked in what other industry it would be possible for a new company, such as 20th Century, to make "such rapid strides and achieve so successfully" within the brief period of a few months. "Years ago, when the industry was growing," Giannini recalled, "I preached against its going into the stock jobbing business and branching out into alien fields. The crash came (Continued on page 3) Loew's Quarter Net Increases Over 100% Loew's, Inc., profit statement for the three months ending Nov. 23 shows a jump of more than 100 per cent over the same quarter for 1932. The company's net profit after subsidiaries' preferred dividends, depreciation and taxes, was $1,594,608. For the same period in 1932 the net was $741,910. Beatrice Lillie to Do Durante 's Stuff Columbia plans to make a series of female Jimmy Durante pictures and has signed Beatrice Lillie to simulate the M-G-M comic. Miss Lillie returns from abroad within the next month and will head straight for the coast where she will make a number of features, and possibly some shorts. Warners to Expand Vitaphone Studios Warners will close the Vitaphone studio in Brooklyn within the next five weeks to erect a new sound stage. Production will be halted for five weeks during the construction.