Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1938)

November 26, 1938 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 9 Anticipation Arnold Wants Congressional Fund For "Business Control" Program Thurman Arnold, head of the anti-trust division of the Departnnent of Justice, on Tuesday disclosed in Washington that he would seek additional funds from Congress to expand the activities of his division, eventually setting up regional offices in leading cities to prosecute anti-trust violations. Mr. Arnold's division for more than two years has had scores of investigators in the field of motion picture practice, resulting, for one thing, in the current U. S. suit against the majors. Also, the Department only recently filed a criminal contempt trust proceeding against the majors in Chicago, and is continuing investigations elsewhere. Mr. Arnold Tuesday told newspapermen that his division will need 150 additional investigators and lawyers to carry out expanded plans, giving further evidence of the United States Government's "business control" program. Mr. Arnold denied that the Justice Department desired to control advertising. Referring to the Ford and Chrysler consent decrees, he said that the anti-trust division did not want to control advertising. This was a purely isolated case, he added. Furthermore, he emphasized that in the movie industry anti-trust action he foresaw no curb of advertising. The program of trade practice self-regulation to be formulated by the distributorexhibitor round table conferences remained in the speculative phases with whatever commitments agreed upon kept secret pending revelation of the complete plans. Representatives of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America are to resume discussion with the distributors' committee on December 8th, but dates for further conferences with Allied and the non-affiliated units have not been set. The government's suit was seen in Washington Wednesday as precluding anti-film legislation in the next session of Congress. See page 18. No Relief No mention was made of the motion picture industry in the trade treaty signed last week by representatives of Great Britain and the United States in spite of the hope of American companies that the negotiations might result in relief from some of the provisions of the new British Films Act. A treaty signed at the same time with Canada, however, granted duty reductions on colored positive prints not made in Canada and on black and white "emergency" positives occasionally imported from the United States. The treaties are discussed on page 14. MOTION PICTURE HERALD Published every Thursday by Quigley Publishing Company, Rockefeller Center, New York City. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address "Quigpubco, New York." Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Colvin Brown, VicePresident and General Manager; Terry Ramsaye, Editor; Ernest A. Rovelstad, Managing Editor; James P. Cunningham, News Editor; Chicago Bureau, 624 South Michigan Avenue, C. B. 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Other Oulgley Publications: Better Theatres, Motion Picture Daily, Teatro ol Dfa, International Motion Picture Almanac and Fame. What Happened Associated Press Wednesday cabled from London that Sir John Simon, chancellor of the exchequer, had told the House of Commons that the British government acted in conjunction with Joseph P. Kennedy to suppress a Paramount newsreel which, the British government felt, might have had "a prejudicial effect" during the Chechoslovakian crisis and that Sir John had said his government believed the newsreel would have hampered Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in his conference with Adolph Hitler at Godesberg on the Rhine late in September. Ambassador Kennedy, told of Sir John's statement, said that it was "inaccurate to give the impression" that he "personally took any action which caused the newsreel to be changed." The ambassador explained, according to Associate Press, that he merely referred the matter to the office of Will H. Hays in the United States and did not know that the Hays organization had taken action in the matter. The Paramount organization received Sir John's praise for their "sense of public duty," but opposition in Commons cried "government cersorship." Barney Balaban, president of Paramount, said the matter never had come to the attention of the home office and that the newsreel sequence referred to, giving criticisms of Chamberlain's policies from the "man-on-the-street" — was intended solely for local British consumption, and would not ordinarily have been sent to the American newsreel. Wanna Bet? by FRANCIS L. BURT in W .lihiii ^toii A representative delegation from Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America is expected to attend the eighth international conference of North and South American states which will meet in Lima, Peru, December 9, according to the State Department. The announced intention was interpreted as an attempt of the film industry to forestall a spread, to this side, of "nationalistic" curbs on American pictures, which have closed or restricted a number of European markets. \t the Hays office in New York it was emphatically denied that any MPPOA representative or home office representative would attend the conference — except newsreel men. Ticket Code Efforts of the League of New York Theatres to make Broadway ticket brokef s -adhere to the code to limit advances to a maximum of 75 cents per ticket are receiving new support, with plans for additional legislation towards that end being discussed Monday by theatrical interests at a meeting with Paul Moss, N. Y. C. license commissioner, and Howard Spellman, city councilman. Mr. Spellman will introduce a bill before the City Council to compel theatre owners to limit the resale price; and Mr. Moss, in January, intends to sponsor a bill before the state legislature to trifisfer the licensing power ovef ticket agencies to cities.