Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1939)

Published Every Saturday by Associated Publications Editorial Offices: 9 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City. Louis Rydell, Advertising Manager. Wm. Ornstein, Eastern editor. Telephone Columbus 5-6370, 5-6371, 5-6372. Cable address: “Boxoffice, New York.” Western Offices: 6404 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, Calif. Ivan Spear, Manager. Telephone Gladstone 1186. Publication Offices: 4804 E. 9th St., Kansas City, Mo. Telephone Chestnut 7777. Other Associated Publications: Boxoffice BAROMETER, Boxoffice RECORDS, Boxoffice PICTURE GUIDE, published annually; THE MODERN THEATRE, published monthly as a section of Boxoffice. ALBANY — 21-23 Walter Ave., M. Berrigan. ATLANTA — 148^ Walton St., N. W., Lee Fuhrman, Southeastern editor. Telephone Walnut 7171. BOSTON — 14 Piedmont St., Brad Angier, New England editor. Telephone Liberty 9305. BUFFALO — The Courier-Express, W. E. J. Martin. CHARLOTTE — The Observer, Mary B. Parham. CHICAGO — 332 S. Michigan Ave., Eugene D. l\ich, Central editor. Telephone Wabash 4575. CINCINNATI — 127 Tremont St., Ft. Thomas, Ivy., Clara Hyde. Telephone Highland 1657. CLEVELAND — 12805 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights, Elsie Loeb. Telephone Fairmount 0046. DALLAS — 210 S. Harwood, V. W. Crisp, Southwestern editor. Telephone 7-3553. DENVER— 319 S. Clarkson St., J. A. Rose. DES MOINES— 1700 Grand, Rene McCluskey. DETROIT— 424 Book Bldg., H. F. Reves. Telephone Cadillac 9085. HOLLYWOOD — 6404 Hollywood Blvd., Ivan Spear, Western editor. Telephone GLadstone 1186. INDIANAPOLIS — 444 North Illinois St., Don R. Rossiter. KANSAS CITY— 4804 East Ninth St., Jesse Shlyen, Midwest editor. Telephone CHestnut 7777. LITTLE ROCK— P. O. Box 253, Lynn Hubbard. Telephone 3-0156. MEMPHIS — 399 So. Second St., Carolyne Miller. MILWAUKEE — 210 East Michigan St., H. C. Brunner. Telephone Kilbourn 6670-J. MINNEAPOLIS— 507 Essex Bldg., Maurice Wolff. NEW HAVEN— 42 Church St., Suite 915, Gertrude Pearson. Telephone 6-4149. NEW ORLEANS — 1509 Bodenger Blvd., J. W. Leigh. Telephone Algiers 1495. NEW YORK CITY — 9 Rockefeller Plaza, William Ornstein, Eastern editor. Telephone Columbus 5-6370, 5-6371, 5-6372. OKLAHOMA CITY— P. O. Box 4547, E. W. Fair. Telephone 7-1038. OMAHA — 4677 Marcy St., Monte Davis. PHILADELPHIA — 903 Manning St., Joseph Shaltz. PITTSBURGH— 1701 Blvd. of the Allies, R. F. Klingensmith. Telephone Atlantic 4858. PORTLAND, ORE. — The News-Telegram, D. W. Polivka. ST. LOUIS — 5149 Rosa Ave., David F. Barrett. Telephone Flanders 3727. SALT LAKE CITY — 605 Utah Savings & Trust Bldg., Viola B. Hutton. Telephone Hyland 4359. SAN FRANCISCO — 1095 Market St., Nathan Cohn. Telephone Market 6580. SEATTLE — 2417 Second Ave., Joe Cooper. Telephone Elliott 8678. WASHINGTON — 1426 G. St., Earle A. Dyer. IN CANADA CALGARY, ALTA. — The Albertan, Wm. Campbell. EDMONTON, ALTA. — The Bulletin, W. A. DeGraves. HAMILTON, O. — 20 Holton Ave., N., Hugh Millar. LONDON, O. — Free Press, Chas. E. Carruthers. MONTREAL, QUEBEC— 4330 Wilson Ave., N. D. G., Roy Carmichael. Telephone Walnut 5519. REGINA. SASK. — The Star, Andy McDermott. ST. JOHN, N. B. — 161 Princess St. D. Fetherston. TORONTO, ONTARIO — 242 Millwood Road. Milton Galbraith. VANCOUVER, B. C. — 615 Hastings, C. P. Rutty. VICTORIA, B. C. — 350 Robertson, Tom Merriman. WINNIPEG, MAN. — 709 Selkirk Ave., Ben Lepkin. EVERY once so often, the business of operating the film business gets far more dramatic than anything Hollywood turns out. This has to do with a professional and personal friendship of years' standing and it concerns two men. One not only has maintained his position, but has heightened his stature. The other carries scars of changing times and is confronted with more. The up man, knowing much and having heard more, recently decided to act. He visited headquarters of the company employing the down man and, in effect, served this ultimatum: " has a long, record of accomplishment in this business. This business of kicking him around is unwarranted and must stop. I'm one of your biggest customers and, if you don't, all bets are off." Unpredictable Demonstrating that you never can tell about a senator or a congressman, there is the current instance of Matthew Neely, persistent father of the anti-compulsory block booking bill in the senate. Because senators and congressmen sponsor a great deal of legislation and regularly keep the government printing office an extremely busy place, circumstance finds Neely the author of a measure to make daylight saving a national habit. Exhibitors, in many sections, now find themselves in a most peculiar position. Particularly so Allied adherents who don't want block booking, and gaze kindly upon Neely for pressing his bill at every session of congress, but who also don't want daylight saving. Note for Barnes Having written lavishly and long about the sort of novel John Steinbeck wrote in "Grapes of Wrath,” Howard Barnes, film critic of the New York Herald-Tribune, prefers to keep his fingers crossed about the outcome on celluloid. "While it offers an unparalleled opportunity to make a really great screen drama, it also raises every ghost of censorship and compromise which has ever harassed film producing," he penned the other Sunday, adding this, "There is no romance in Mr. Stein beck's grim documentation of the plight of migratory laborers . . . The novel is merely a relentless examination of a major dislocation in what we like to think are the roots and heritage of our national existence and the postulating of a question which has still to be answered. "... I would urge Nunnally Johnson, the gifted writer-producer who will have the task of shifting the Steinbeck masterpiece from the printed page to celluloid and sound track, to keep it tough. The screen has gone in strongly for a rediscovery of America and a championing of American principles and ideals recently, but it has not begun to cope with the raw materials of human experience which makes up this nation, this way of life and this particular way of looking at things. Mr. Johnson has it in his hands to really reflect these United States on the screen, with all of the contradictions and human agony which must go into the forging and perpetuation of a nation." There is a word here for Barnes and the extent of his current pessimism. In the contract by which 20th Century-Fox acquired the rights to this important novel, a controlling clause sets it forth clearly that the social implications of the book must be included in its film version. It's in the Editing Archer Winsten, critic of the New York Evening Post, was observing how his reviews, as well as the reviews of all critics, frequently emerged with a strange and unfamiliar ring in newspaper advertising and lobby blowups. By comparison with the originals, he managed to discover how it came about which is something the public will never know unless some of its more diligent readers happen to remember what actually was said. This is an old custom to which this industry subscribes and thereby does itself little honor. It falls into the same division as tradepaper ads singing the dollar song of a particular attraction and, in illustration, shooting the marquee at an angle which eliminates the name of the swing orchestra which actually did the business. There have been instances. (Continued on page 12) 6 BOXOFFICE :: May 27, 1939