Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

20 .1/ o t i o n P i c t u r e N e w s October 11. 1930 FEARFUL, perhaps, that history might repeat itself, the brothers Warner are said to have safeguarded themselves against adversity to the tune of a $20,000,000 trust fund. The dough is said to be in escrow and to be inaccessible for many years to come. Up to the time of the entrance of John T. Raskob, the brothers are said to have set aside about $8,000,000. but the Raskob deal swelled the bankroll considerably. The national Democratic chairman is said to have purchased 200.000 shares of the common at $40 per share. Whenever you ask Harry Warner about Raskob, he will tell you that after all his company's stock is for sale in the open market and that if Raskob, or any other Wall Street operator, is anxious to buy, the principal requisite is the do-re-mi with which to do so. But up and down the main stem, the query on everybody's tongue is this : "What do you hear about Warners?" Speculation is widespread over the immediate future. The bankers, as represented by Dick Hoyt and Walter Sachs, are pretty much the big boys these days. And what they say is the McCoy in the Warner ranks. Mental Gymnastics Just what inspired Hayden Stone's return to picture financing is another question that is stirring comment. After the Richard Hoyt Syndicate had secured control of West Coast and disposed of it to Fox in the days when the William's phalanx was thundering down the road to theatre supremacy, John Dillon, Hoyt's trusty sidekick, openly declared he and his company were out oi the business. Then, for no reason which seemed apparent, Hayden, Stone stepped neatly into the Warner mix-up. It all seemed contrary to Hoyle and the pattern which the dopesters had worked out. The unexpressed, but persistently reported, interest behind the move is declared to be the Du Ponts. The Wilmington crowd has a neat number of millions on the loose with apparently no place to go. Other bankers found the celluloid haven a comfortable one in which to repose. Besides, the Du Ponts manufacture raw stock and George Eastman for many years has been having pretty much of his own way in that important by-product. From there, you can piece the puzzle together without further help from The Insiders. One extremely important banker remarked the other day and was sorry immediately thereafter that he bad spoken: "Keep your eye on the Du Pont interests. The Wall Street underground has it that they are ready to walk into the picture business with a thud that will rock the foundations of the industry." Beyond that he would say nothing. There's one other angle on the Warner situation that rates attention. Then on to other matters. Hoyt knows Spyros Skouras. Matter of fact, a choice story making the rounds INSIDERS' in limited fashion is that it might have been the gentleman from St. Looey who influenced Hoyt to bring Hayden, Stone into the picture. Later developments concerning Skouras' spot in the Warner set-up may offer Can You Guess — AXfHAT "big" film man was so humiliated over a recent business boner that he made a hurried and none-too-graceful exit for the Coast, after beingtold he had become the laughing stock of Broadway, to stay there until the odor dries up? Exactly what is the nature of the questionable "business" arrangement carried on between two New York companies for the past year and how long it will be before the expose which must come will smite the industry between its surprised optics? Who the leaders in this inside deal are and what the trade will think of their morals once the spotlight is flashed in their direction? The monicker of the independent producer on the coast, known as the money lender of Hollywood, who has plenty of celebs on the cuff for plenty? Why is a "w. k. film man" so interested in ascertaining the details of a paragraph appearing recently in this very spot and involving what appears to be a fellow executive? And what did one of the former's aide-de-camps promise a Motion Picture News reporter if he would supply the lowdown? In what organization some of the inner workings are being unearthed with a minor executive nursing a peeve doing the unearthing? How much consternation his research will create if his findings should ever reach the light of day? proof that this report has a definite foundation in fact. There are those who insist they are right that Skouras will shortly have considerable more to say in the Warner management than the conduct of the theatre chain, although, in these days of asthmatic box-offices, that is enough of a worry. The Hoyt-Skouras association would imply much faith in the latter by the former. Etc., etc. Fortune Gone Astray With wide film being projected into the picture for a test of box office strength, at least, it is interesting to recall the millions John D. Elm would have made out. of it — if it clicks — under his former contract with Bill Fox. That agreement, it is said, called for a five per cent of the gross on all pictures using the process over a period of years, but Fox bought it up. The Grandeur experiment is said to stand General Theatres Equipment $250,000 to date. When first introduced the nut was $100,000, it is said. The cost of designing and manufacturing the machines and cameras is responsible. It is figured that a change over to wide film will cost the industry as much as did the rush to sound, which is said to have been between $350,000,000 and $500,000,000, with the end not yet in sight. That belief has led to a gentlemen's agreement to hold off on the introduction of wide film until cost of sound is absorbed. However, with the novelty of talkers already worn off, the situation seems to be changing. Now comes the interesting test between Grandeur and Realife, scheduled next week in New York. Maybe wide film will click to an extent which some of the big operators figure will justify its general introduction. Fuses, Dynamite, Sparks Everybody seems to be sidestepping wide film these days — that is, so far as published comment is concerned. But there are a few retentive memories which recall the stand-off attitude on sound assumed by the business until a young warbler named J'olson knocked 'em out of their seats with "The Jazz Singer" in the waning days of 1927 and early 1928 Towns like Charlotte ditched dates to hold Jolson for something like six weeks and. before anyone quite realized what had transpired, the industry was off on one of its periodic spells of insanity. Agreements or no, the day a real attraction on wide film begins to wreck box-office records, the stampede will be on to play a return date. Those able to re