Variety (Dec 1939)

Wednesday, December 6, 1939 PICTURES VARIETY 8 EXPOSE EXTRA JOB SALES ■ ■ ■ ■ —»■ -t ■ — ■ ■ — iHammons Gives Up RFC Loan Ideas, A G FI RE I ^^^^ Bankers; Says He II Bow Out of GN If Unable to Land Coin Seems Certain the Anti-Trust Suit Will Come to Bat Between Feb.-May; Film Cos. File Series of Questions Trial of the film .industry's most important litigation, the tioveru- ment anti-trust action, will begin no later than May, 1940, and no earlier than February. On Friday (1), at- torneys for the major film companies, together with Paul Williams and William Farnsworth, for the U. S., decided to postpone their arguments over the starting date of the trial before federal judge John C. Knox until Dec.. 15. During the interim, major counsel will attempt to get together and reach a date agreeable to all. That date will be submitted to the Government for its approval. Should both sides be too far apart for arbitration among themselves, Knox will be asked to decide. Williams Is almost certain to ask for a Feb. 1 trial. On the other hand ttic rnajor&will ask for a June trial, with the hope of delaying matters until the fall of 1940. Since Judge Knox, as long ago a^ September de- clared in open court that he felt the issues at stake should be decided as coon as possible, it is likely that the judge will grant the Government's request, or at the outside, split the difference. The majors themselves have not helped their position in an attempt to delay further, by openly declaring that the new Government questions as rephrased and re-edited can be answered in two months. The Government feels it can an- swer all the questions of the majors In the same time or less. Williams is also expected to take advantage of Judge William Bondy's order granting him leave to answer just those questions he can, allowing the balance to ride until trial. 38 Interrogatories The U. S. plans to answer all of the questions submitted by United Artists. These were some 38 in number with various sub-divisions and deal mostly with an attempt to secure the names of Government, witnesses. Under the Federal rules, Williams feels UA is entitled to the information and will give it to them. Title Tipsy Hollywood, Dec. 5. Warners is having more trou- ble with titles than George M. Pullman who invented the sleep- ing car and deluged the nation with names that stumped the world's greatest linguists. Latest trouble is with 'Mama Ravioli,' which became 'My Son,' and bumped into Eddie Small's 'My Son, My Son.' It was changed to 'Bad Boy,' which happened several years too late. Bad boys are numerous in litera- ture. Production goes on but the Burbank title foundry is still in a quandary. alperson back with skourAs as buyer Edward Alperson, one of the or- ganizers of prand National Pictures, now tangled with 77B, has gone back to work for National 'Theatres, the Skouras Bros, outfit from which he resigned about three years ago. Temporarily, Alperson is making a tour of National's operating divi sion, but later will be assigned as head of the New York film buying department. LEVENE'S INDIES Ejc-GN Auailor Says He Has Finan. clal Backing The balance of the majors with the" exception of Columbia, and Universal also filed their questions either last Friday or Monday (4). Most of the majors sought the same information and in those cases here questions were similar to UA's, it can be taken for grantSd they wiU be answered. It is also understood that recent newspaper articles to the eflect that official Washington was slowing up the suit, has caused a change in plans of the Department of Justice. Thur- man Arnold is understood to have informed Williams to get the trial go- ing as soon as possible, and that prosecutor gladly rose to the chance. Interrogatories submitted during the past few days by the major com- panies propounded questions to the U. S. on every phase of the indus- try. They seek to know, for ex- ample, if competition in production, distribution and exhibition was started before the various corpora- tions were formed. From this it may be deduced that the majors will try to show that they simply made the best of a poor situation, having en- tered a field in which they had to defend themselves against others practicing the same tactics on them. In respect to the alleged violations, the companies want to know the time, name of each defendant in- volved, how the company partici- pated, and the names of each per- son known to the U, S. having knowledge of the particaption. The next question seeks the same knowledge regarding the series of understandings, and mutual agree- ments which led to the monopolistic activities. Identification of all docu- mentary evidence on this subject is asked. Then the Government is a.sked to name each independent exhibitor, who since 1933-34, has been unable to operate his theatre successrully, due to insufficient product. This question, unabashed, seeks the names (Continued on page 18) Julius Levene, Grand National au- ditor until recent bankruptcy pro- ceedings against the company, is go- ing in for picture-making on his own He has obtained backing from groups interested in improved housing con. ditions, and will turn out three or four full-length features. They will be-^socially-signiflcant^without-shaw. ing traces of propaganda, Levene de- clared. Current plan is to 'lake two of the films on the Coast, and the addi tional one or two (number depends on how much is spent on first two) In New.York. Actors to Pres^ Demand for Housedeaning—^Ask 15% Wage Raise for Day Work- ers — Holman in Anger's Producer Spot VIC CLARKE OUT DeMille's Title Change Hollywood, Dec. 5. Definite evidence of job sales to extras has been uncovered by inves- tigators for the Screen Actors Guild. Kenneth Thomson, SAG executive secretary, says former G-men hired by the Guild have found several cases of actual job purchases, in ad- dition to passing of gratuities with such regularity as to constitute bribery. A report now being readied by Ed- win Atherton, -who made the San Francisco graft expose, will be cited by the actors in their demand for a general housecleaning at Central Casting Corp. Expose also may in- volve casting offices of several stu- dios which have been making hun- dreds of preferred calls independent of Central. The SAG is trying to avoid a scandal such as hit Central a few years back. When the data is com- plete it will be laid before Fred W. Beetson, president of Central, with the idea of giving the producers an opportunity to cooperate in cleaning up the situation. It immediate ac- tion is not taken by the producers, the SAG will then proceed to clean up the situation in its own way. Simultaneous with this investiga- tion, the SAG advised the producers a demand for a fiat 15% wage in- crease for extras was being sub- mitted, as well as a request for gen- eral reclassification of all extra wage brackets. If the request is granted, earnings of extras will be increased approximately $500,000 a year. The reclassification would pro hibit atmo s- Hollywood, Dec. 5. 'Northwest Mounted Police- has a new title but you would scarcely notice the difTerence without a microscope. After thorough research by Cecil B. DeMille and his keen- eyed staff, a lower-case w" was promoted to upper-case. Release title is 'North West Mounted Po- lice.' GN STUDIO TAKEOVER BY ERPI IMMINENT Hollywood, Dec. 5. Grand National studio may be taken over this week by ERPI as re- sult of a survey of the Santa Monica, boulevard property by execs of Gen- eral Service, subisidiary of ERPI, which holds $250,000 mortgage on the GN lot. Shift depends bn Earle W. Hammons' ability to re-Qnance the GN outfit. Current revival of indie produc- tion will fill General Service to its capacity through next July, and the GN plant would take care of the overfiow. Deal has already been closed with Dick Pearl, GN studio manager, to handle excess produc- tion on Lee Garmes' 'And So Good- bye,' now working on General Serv- ice sets. It the GN lot goes under ERPI control it is likely to house Howard Hughes' next production, phere players m lowest bracket be- ing called for any work other than mob or crowd scenes. Pay of dress extras would be tilted from $16.50 to $19 day, with minimum check for extras goinn from $5.50 to (Continued on page 8) Ring Me In Hollywood, Dec. 5. 'Night Operator,' story of a small town telephone girl, is Edgar Sel- wyn's next production for Metro, fol- lowing completion of his current chore, 'The Golden Fleecing.' Yarn is by Lucille Selk Edgerton. 'Fleecing' stars James Stewart. Earle W. Hammons, president of Grand National, Indicated Monday (4) that he will give up all attempLi to salvage the company if he isn't able to produce positive proof that he has the necessary coin at a hear- ing before bankruptcy referee Peter B. bincy in Federal C^ourt this after- noon (Wednesday). Hammons also revealed on Monday that he is no longer depending on the Reconstruc- tion Finance Corp. to' come through with the anticipated windfall, but has turned to private bankers. Hammons gave these indications on the status of reviving the com- pany at a meeting of a committee of creditors at the Federation Bank, N, Y. He was instructed by Referee Oincy to report to the committee meeting on Monday prior to the hearing set for today, so that a rec- ommendation could be shaped up for presentation to the general body of creditors at today's (Wed.) session. Latter is a continuation of that of last Wednesday when It wSs voted to give Hammons one mpre week to produce the money. Fighting hard tq prevent the court from tossing him out- as directing head of GN and naming a perma- nent receiver to liquidate the busi- ness, Hammons appe;>red Monday (4) with his attorney, Saul Rogers. They pleaded before the committea of six and its counsel, Joseph Dan- ncnberg, that no vote be taken be- fore this afternoon. No Hope ot BFC Aid Hammond said he had given up hope of getting an RFC loan in short enough time to placate the creditors, who have given him several post- ponements. For that reason, he in- dicated, he had turned , to privata banking sources and still had hopes of bringing GI^ out of the voluntary bankruptcy in which he placed it iu October. Pressed by Dannenberg and Pat Shanahan, chairman of the commit- t«ej-toward-an-ultimatumr-Hammora- gave the group what it considers al- most an agreement that he will asic for no further extensions after this ANNA StETS'TLAY YEN " Anna' Sten arrived east yesterday (Tues.) and is Interested in doing a stage play, having several scripts | afternoon, but will step out of the under consideration. ] affairs of GN. Dr. Eugen Frenke, her husband, ^^^^^^ ^^.^^ ^^^^ ^j^^^^^g here from the Coast. Top Money Pix of ^39 - Best Qrossing Film Stars Leading Directors - The Foreign Situash 0 ^ 0 #• 7 ♦ ? « ♦ 7 ♦ ■ in forthcoming 34th ANNIVERSARY NUMBER To be VMi^edi Late in December USUAL ADVERTISING RATES PREVAIL ADVERTISING COPY MAY BE SENT TO ANY VARIETY OFHCE NEW YORK HOLLYWOOD CHICAGO LONDON 154 West 46th St. 1708 No. Vine St. 54 W. Randolph St. 8 St. Marlins PI. (or several weeks, wailing to take over the company as soon as tha bankruptcy pirocess is completed, ab- solving the new owners of old debts, is still waiting for Olney's final de- cision on Hanunons. It will imme- diately make an offer to the receiver. Among members of this group are Shanahan, who represents Jerome Maguire, president of the Federation Bank, and Franklyn Warner, who is seeking an Interest in the company as release for product of his Fine Arts Pictures. Maguire and Warner have been tied up In financing to- gether before. There are also other interests involved. Employes Out i Grand National employes last j week were notified that the two- I week suspensions under which they i were laid oft could now be consid- I ercd indefinite. If the company is I bought out at once, however, they i will be hired by th» new operators. At the hearing last week Rogers ; attacked Dannenberg viciously, de- i daring that the opposition counsel ' had forced an Involuntary bank- ! ruptcy on the company, which would ' have had its financing now, if this : had not been done. I 'Dannenberg' acLrared Rogers, 'is interested in throwing this company ' into liquidation. It is probable that i lie hopes to pluck legal fees from : its carcass.' r Rogers ended his plea for another , week by pointing out that creditors I whose claims run into- the thou- ! .sands have agreed to the postpone- ; meat. 'If the creditors can do bel- i ter,' orated the attorney, 'let them ; bring In a better offer. We'll "be ! gind to accept.'