The Bioscope (Nov-Dec 1930)

21st YEAR. SUBSCRIPTION : Home 10 '6 per annum. Abroad 30/ per annum. “ Independence and Progress” (FOUNDED BY JOHN CABOURN) Faraday House, 8-10, Charing Cross Road, London, W.C. 2. Telephone : Temple Bar 7921, 7922. Telegrams : “Gainsaid, Westrand London.” No. 1258. Vol. LXXXV NOVEMBER 12, 1930 PRICE 6d. In Brief TfUSION between B.I.F. and B.I.P. is * practically completed. Page 15 A SUB-COMMITTEE of the F.B.I. Films Group is formulating plans for a central publicity bureau. Page 14 EORGE W. Pearson announces that Audible Filmcraft have taken over five theatres, with control of several others. Page 14 A SERIOUS new sound patents war has developed in Germany. Page 16 T\OUGLAS Murray, Roxy production manager , has joined A.B.C., says a New York message. Page 15 A “grand coup” by American interests ** is forecasted by our French correspondent. Page 16 T~) RIT ISH Movietone News secured a scoop in showing scenes of the Ras Tafari coronation in London on Friday. Page 19 1 AT IDE film was given a fair reception ’ ’ only by New York audiences when tried out at the Capitol. Page 15 \ T the annual dinner of the London and Home Counties Branch of the C.E.A. on December 9, the Rt. Hon. Neville Chamberlain will be the principal guest. Page 14 ’I 'HE Ministry of Labour promised that * an inquiry into operators' and cinema staff hours should be held in the next few weeks. Page 30 A well-known American writer argues that Britain has got Hollywood worried. Page 18 A BIG swing over towards human vaudeville shows has developed in Australia. Page 19 A T last week’s licensing session the appropriate L.C.C. committee granted licences to 723 places of amusement. page 30 Sensing the Communal On October 29th — -the week before the British Films Gala Performance— Sydney Hayden, resident British director of Kinemas, Ltd., placed before us the broad outline of a scheme for a Central British Films Publicity Bureau, which we published in The Bioscope. Many months before, The Bioscope had advocated the creation of an organisation of this character, with the same object in view, viz., to ensure that Dominion and foreign film buyers — the former especially — might enjoy at the hands of the British film industry assistance at least comparable to that advanced by American producers in exploiting their product abroad — notably within the British Empire. We have been gratified during the past week to find that certain contemporaries of ours have joined us in urging Better Publicity for British Films. The fact that they have followed our lead merely strengthens our case. Even so, it is unlikely that an elementary establishment such as a Central British Publicity unit will come into effective being unless the idea itself is first kept under the limelight of publicity. We are heartened by the news that progress has been made towards the ideal for which we have striven. There is a definite move within the F.B.I. to form an association separate from the present existing Film Industries Group. Though affiliated to the F.B.I., the new organisation, which would aim to embrace all the units of British film production, would enjoy a large measure of independence and might ultimately be directly responsible for the formation of a joint stock company which would undertake in the fullest sense of the word the exploitation of British films abroad — with a special eye on the Empire. At the moment it is a matter largely for assumption that the new organisation drive will embrace the Empire Publicity idea first mooted by Sydney Hayden through The Bioscope. This, it seems to us, must form the mainspring of any movement which is to advance to any appreciable extent the British front lines in foreign fields. First, the various British producers must put up the initial capital. Next must follow the appointment of personnel, which should be selected for its reputation for hard work, common sense and expert knowledge of the world’s Press and the foreign film markets — -by no means an easy task. The whole situation will at first bristle with difficulties, but goodwill, determination and magnanimity on the part of individual British producers, coupled with the knowledge that America covered this essential lap in the world race many years ago, should provide incentive which will at last give our industry a start in the right direction.