Boxoffice (Jul-Sep 1938)

NEWS AND VIEWS OF THE PRODUCTION CENTER (Hollywood Office — Suite 219 at 6404 Hollywood Blvd.; Ivan Spear, Western Manager) TALK TURNS TO 5-DAY WEEK TO STAGGER LABOR Lubitsch Selznick Tieup Virtually Every Studio May Complicate UA Setup Cral', H°s Aflirmed The possibility of further complications in the United Artists production-distribution setup, final details of which Maurice Silverstone, chairman of the UA executive committee, is trying to adjust during his current Hollywood visit, are seen by local observers in an important announcement, released over the weekend, by Myron Selznick, artists’ representative and head of a talent agency bearing his name. Selznick, according to the announcement, has formed a partnership with Ernst Lubitsch, producer-director, under which the Ernst Lubitsch Productions, Inc., has been incorporated, and which will be the forerunner of a proposed series of producing units in which Selznick will serve in partnership with stars, directors and writers whom he now represents. Each unit will bear the name of the personality involved. All creative talent concerned will share the profits of the pictures produced. Conciliation Efforts Slow Lubitsch’s initial production will be “The Shop Around the Corner,” a play by the Hungarian writer Nicholas Laszlo, with Dolly Haas, foreign star, in the leading role. Miss Haas has been at Columbia for the past year but failed to get before the cameras. She starred in the English production of “Broken Blossoms.” Admittedly the most important factors in Silverstone’s visit has been his efforts to entice Selznick International back into the UA fold by persuading the organization to sign a new and exclusive distribution deal on terms similar to the 193738 pact, now nearly expired. While certain quarters opine that the output of the new Ernst Lubitsch Productions will ultimately go to UA for distribution, those who take the opposite view point out that if Myron Selznick carries out his avowed intention of forming several units headed by writers, directors and Thespians under his management, the combined product would be too much for UA, under its present setup, to absorb— particularly if Silverstone succeeds UA Boosts W anger Budget Over a million and a half dollars will be made available to Walter Wanger to enable him to enlarge his production activity and carry out the most ambitious program of his career, it was announced late this week by Maurice Silverstone, chairman of the UA executive committee. No other detailed information was given. The arrangement follows a series of meetings between Silverstone and Wanger and apparently indicates that the producer will stay in the UA fold. in consummating a new deal with S-I — and in which latter company Myron Selznick is also financially interested. Those adhering to this latter viewpoint lean toward the theory that Lubitsch and the other projected production units, along with S-I, may be the elements from which a new and entirely separate distribution organization may be formulated. While these rumors as to the manifold possibilities of the new Myron Selznick deals were being discussed, Silverstone was awaiting the arrival of Lynn Farnol, recently appointed advertising publicity chieftain for UA, who was due here Thursday. Upon his coming, Silverstone and Farnol were to address a meeting of the publicity-advertising directors of the separate production units in the UA fold, explaining the new UA advertising and publicity setup, with Silverstone planning to return to New York some time during the weekend. Doran Joins Agency D. A. Doran, who previously served as story editor at Paramount, 20th CenturyFox and Columbia, has affiliated with the A. and S. Lyons, Inc., agency as a vicepresident. Of prime importance among studio labor topics is the growing possibility that unanimous action may be taken to push the adoption of a five-day working week in the studios as a method of staggering employment and avoiding peak and depression periods for the rank-and-file of motion picture workers. Virtually every craft has placed its okay on the measure, including the powerful International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes and the Conference of Motion Pictures Arts and Crafts. The expected return to Hollywood on August 1 of Pat Casey, producer labor contact, will find craft leaders presenting their plan to him for scrutiny and possible inclusion as one of the major planks in the coming producer-labor basic agreement conferences to be held in New York within a few weeks. The Screen Directors Guild hearing, originally set to be held before the National Labor Relations Board August 16, has been moved back to August 22. On tap are the bargaining requests filed by the Motion Picture Film Editors, Script Clerks Guild, Society of Motion Picture Art Directors and the Society of Motion Picture Artists and Illustrators. All have been on the NLRB waiting list for a considerable period, marking time while the labor body disposed of the Screen Writers Guild-Screen Playwrights, Inc., tangle. Giving the two organizations in question further time to iron out the situation themselves, Dr. Towne Nylander, regional director of the NLRB, has again deferred action on the request filed with his office by the Studio Utility Employes Local asking that government action be taken on what the SUE alleged to be a jurisdictional encroachment attempt by the IATSE. SUE officials declared that 85 of their members at Republic had been made the targets of an absorption campaign by the IATSE, which charge the latter union denied. Leaders of the two crafts have been huddling on the matter for the past two weeks. BOXOFFICE :: July 30, 1938 H 39