Boxoffice (Jul-Sep 1938)

Litigation Involving Film Folk Recedes Litigation involving film folk in southern California was at a low ebb as the week opened, with further action on cases previously filed occupying the center of the judicial stage. Seeking an amendment to the original complaint, attorneys for Walt Disney Productions, Walt and Roy Disney and William E. Garity replied to the action filed in federal court some weeks ago by the Stereoplane Process Pictures Co. and Ivan Melville Terwilliger, in which the latter charges infringement of copyright and seeks $1,600,000 in damages. The plaintiffs had alleged in the original complaint that the defendants infringed on certain photographic processes, patented by Terwilliger, in the making of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” A hearing on Disney’s answer has been set for August 1. Warner also went into federal court, filing a demurrer to the $250,000 conspiracy and slander suit brought by Pat O'Brien, free-lance bit player, against the Burbank plant, its contract player, Pat O'Brien, Louella Parsons, Jimmy Fidler and numerous John Does. The plaintiff charges Warner and the other defendants conspired with other producing companies and persons to keep him from picture work because of the similarity in names between himself and the Warner contract player. The widely-discussed Jackie Coogan case continued to drive slowly toward crystallization in the form of a trial as Superior Judge Ruben Schmidt heard arguments by both plaintiff and defendants, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Bernstein — mother and stepfather of the former child star. Coogan ’s attorneys asked for an early trial, while counsel for the defense contended that the trial date should not be set until a disposition has been made of their appeal from a receivership order. Mary Astor went into superior court this week to appeal a recent decision by the state labor commission in which the Ruth Collier Agency was granted a $3,500 award as the result of a six-year-old litigation between the actress and the tenpercenter. The matter has been fought through virtually every channel up to the state supreme court. Bone of contention is Miss Astor’s asserted refusal to pay the Collier Agency commissions on a short term con-* tract secured with RKO Radio in 1932. Hyman Goes East Bearing with him a print of “The Terror of Tiny Town,” produced by Jed Buell in conjunction with Sol Lesser, Louis Hyman, distribution chief of Lesser’s Principal Pictures, left for New York this week to dicker for a release for the all-midget western novelty. Turns Press Agent Here’s Carole Lombard at work in the midst of her one-week fling at press agentry. She's parked at Russell Birdwell’s praisery desk on the Selznick International lot. La Lombard, who is set to appear shortly in “Made for Each Other’’ for the studio, installed a fire-bell and a siren, placed countless long-distance calls to England and points east, and generally kept the staid studio in an uproar, topping her achievement by being the recipient of an official proclamation from Mayor Arthur F. Segrell of Culver City, naming her the town’s foremost publicist and setting aside July 9 as Carole Lombard Day — a civic holiday — with the blonde star as honorary mayor. Independents Slow In Getting Started Hollywood’s independent producers allowed another week to slip by without getting into their long-delayed picture-making action, despite recent cheering reports of a return to more normal activity for this phase of film production. The immediate future, however, should see cameras whirring at at least one unit, with B. W. Richards’ Standard Pictures setting a July 26 starting date on the first of its projected series of six features starring George Jessel. Titled “7,000,000 Witnesses,” the initialer will be directed by Chris Beute, shooting at Grand National. Also set to begin production within two weeks is Lou Rantz, with his independent feature, “Topsy,” and Ralph Cooper’s Million Dollar Productions, planning an untitled crime picture with an all-Negro cast. Another independent film manufacturer, A. W. Hackel of Supreme Pictures, has returned from New York, where he journeyed to negotiate a new production deal. He had nothing to announce on his arrival. Hackel some time ago wound up a series of Bob Steele westerns for release on Republic’s 1937-38 program. Production Bounds To New High of 48 (Continued from page 29) sical, “Listen Darling,” teaming Judy Garland and Freddie Bartholomew, and “Stablemates,” with Wallace Beery, during the next two weeks. Universal and RKO Radio are bracketed in fifth spot, with five pictures in production at each studio. Universal was to gun “The Last Express,” a Crime Club mystery, to be produced by Irving Starr, this week, and has “Going Places,” “The Sim Never Sets,” and “Adam’s Evening” coming up. RKO Radio shoved Joe Penner in front of the cameras in its annual football contribution, “Mr. Doodle Kicks Off,” and, through Principal Pictures, will have another addition to its schedules next week when Sol Lesser starts filming “Peck’s Bad Boy at the Circus,” with Tommy Kelly. With John Wayne replacing Bob Livingstone as one of the keystones of the triumvirate, Republic okayed the start of “Pals of the Saddle,” a “Three Mesquiteers” western, as the week opened. This, coupled with the weekend start of “Everything Happens to Us,” featuring James, Lucille and Russell Gleason, brings the North Hollywood plant’s production total to four, a gain of one over last week. “The Return of Billy the Kid,” starring Roy Rogers; “Lady in the News,” with Gloria Swanson, and an untitled hillbilly musical are on the slate for early production. Producer Edward Finney sent his first Tex Ritter western for Monogram release before the cameras, with the singing cowboy donning the greasepaint for “Starlight Over Texas.” Well along with “The Circus Comes to Town,” with Marjorie Main and Anne Nagel, Monogram thus has two in shooting stages and, during the balance of July, will turn its attention to “Wanted by the Police,” starring Frankie Darro; “Gang Bullets,” an E. B. Derr production; and “The Girl From Nowhere,” also slated as an Anne Nagel vehicle. United Artists holds its own, Producers Hal Roach and Samuel Goldwyn remaining active with one picture each. Next to get the gun for UA release will be Selznick International’s “Made for Each Other,” co-starring Carole Lombard and James Stewart, starting June 20. Walter Wanger is rushing preparations for “The Illusionist,” Goldwyn is planning an early start on “The Daring Age,” Roach has several lined up for late summer and fall production, and Edward Small is marking time on “The Duke of West Point,” awaiting the recovery of Jack Dunn, slated to star, who is hospitalized with a serious streptococci infection. Sign Legion Mascot Paramount has signed Keith MacKenzie, six-year-old national mascot of the American Legion, for a role in “Sons of the Legion,” now in production. 34 BOXOFFICE :: July 16, 1938