Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1934)

The Leading Di fews|§j£er| Picture Industry MOTION PICTURE DAILY Alert, Intelligent and Faithful Service to the Industry in All Branches OL. 35. NO. 68 NEW YORK, FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1934 TEN CENTS shifts Await Code Boards In Five Cities immittee Meets Today To Complete Changes 'ersonnel setups of boards in five es were returned to the committee on •ctions yesterday following a meet of Code Authority of the M. P. iustry. The committee will meet in today in an effort to complete rearrange the New York, Philajhia, Minneapolis, Boston and ■Hand boards. u" the five cities New York remains most difficult to evolve. With is already submitted for three sep(Continued on page 6) ide for Burlesque Houses Is Approved Vashington, March 22.— Approval the code for the burlesque theatre ustry was announced today by Adlistrator Hugh S. Johnson. It bejes effective April 2. Vage provisions of the code, Johnsaid, will provide for substantial "eases to employes, but the in•ase in employment is impossible estimate, because the demand for lesque varies greatly with shifting ■lie taste. idies Here Given Warning on Eagles several independent circuits were -ned by Nathan Straus, Jr., NRA lpliance director here, that they j be deprived of their Blue Eagles hey continue to violate maximum 'king hour provisions of the code. (Continued on page 6) 'D. A! Upholds (CA.' Decision of Code Authority that no assents properly executed can be withdrawn has been upheld by Division Administrator Sol A. Rosenblatt. The authority ruled there Iwas "no provision in the code granting permission to any interests which have properly executed the form of assent to withdraw same upon request." From 20 to 30 Allied of Northwest exhibitors requested withdrawals. Warners and Reade Reported After Fox Metropolitan Chain Warners and Walter Reade are understood to have filed bids to take over the remnants of Fox Metropolitan Playhouses, Inc., now in the hands of Simon Fabian, as receiver, and George Skouras, as operator. There are about 79 houses in the circuit, principally in New York and Long Island. Fabian is on record with a denial of the Reade angle. Joseph Bernhard, general manager of Warner Theatres, could not be reached for a statement last night. Stock Values Show Drop of $17,000,000 Book values of leading film stocks decreased approximately $17,000,000 in 1933 as compared with 1932, while deficits in net earnings decreased $1,400,000, a report on corporation earnings just issued by the National City Bank discloses. The report covers only those companies which have published annual statements of earnings for 1933 up to March 1. Amusement companies covered by (Continued on page 6) Nizer Puts Annual Pacts at a Million There are 1,000,000 contracts signed every year by distributors, Louis Nizer, executive secretary of the New York Film Board of Trade, told independent exhibitors the other night. Pointing out the annual number of film shipments from exchanges, Nizer stated there were 10,000,000 deliveries. Stressing the importance of the unaffiliated exhibitor in the local field as (Continued on page 11) Governor Will Make Round Table Award Detroit, March 22.— G o v e r n o r William E. Comstock will present the M. P. Herald Managers' Round Table award for February to Howard Sweet, manager of the State, East Lansing, at next Monday's luncheon of the Variety Club at the Book Cadillac. February Admission Taxes Show a Drop Washington, March 22. — Admission tax collections during February totalled $996,861, compared with $1,089,767 in the same month last year, according fo figures made public tonight by the Internal Revenue Bureau. Revive Plan To Cut Down K. C. Houses Kansas City, March 22. — On the premise that serious overseating has brought Kansas City theatres to the present state of cut-throat competition, exhibitors are reviving a plan to take over suburban houses now dark or operating at a loss and dismantle or convert them to other uses. Chief advocate of the project is W. H. Fulton, operator of three neighborhood theatres. He intends to present (Continued on page 6) Sign Men's Demands Facing Opposition Greater New York circuits are in a tussle with Local Sign Writers' Union No. 230, which is demanding an increase from $13.20 to $14.70 and a decrease in working hours from eight to seven hours in each da^ of the four-day week under which its members function. The current contract to which circuits like RKO, Loew's and others are parties expires the end of this month. The circuits have turned down the proposals and are reported making arrangements to keep their lobbies going as usual in the event a strike is called. Moss Promises Full Enforcement of Law Declaring he will not shirk his duties as license commissioner because of his former affiliations in the business, Paul Moss states he will perform the duties of his office in accordance with the laws and does not intend to tolerate violations. He says he is still a friend of the industry and if exhibitors will cooperate with him he will coordinate the activities of his office with them. Moss states he does not want to work hardships on theatre men, but "every theatre must be made safe." (Continued on page 11) KAO in Shift; Gives Circuit More Entity Drop Proctor Houses — A Meehan Move Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corp., a Radio-Keith-Orpheum subsidiary in which M. J. Meehan, stock broker, is reputed to hold the majority interest, tomorrow shifts its theatre divisions in a plan which provides its divisional managers are to confine themselves to KAO houses only, thereby giving the circuit a greater entity and more of an individualized operation than has prevailed to date. _ The arrangement means RKO divisional managers who have been handling a mixture of KAO-controlled houses, as well as Proctor houses, will drop the latter, which remain part (Continued on page 7) Detroit Scale Jump Has ISO Signatures Detroit, March 22.— Signatures for the Allied plan to raise prices in this territory now total 130. Thirty put raises into effect last Monday without waiting for the general adoption of the plan, and during the week 25 more houses in Michigan Avenue and in the Hamtramck district raised their scales in accordance with the plan. Another meeting is to be held tomorrow, and it is expected that the remaining eight theatres will fall in line. New Compact Made For So. Enterprises A new reorganization agreement for Southern Enterprises of Texas, which is operated by Karl Hoblit (Continued on page 11) No Longer Apply Chicago, March 22.— "The conditions David J. Chatkin cites no longer exist as far as Balaban & Katz are concerned," declared John Balaban today. This was his only comment on the article published in Motion Picture Daily on Tuesday in which Chatkin, former operating head of the Publix circuit under Sam Katz, pilloried circuit operation by remote control from New York.