Boxoffice (Jul-Sep 1940)

(Hollywood Office — Suite 219 at 6404 Hollywood Blvd.; Ivan Spear, Western Manager) Looking io October; 19 Set to Shoot Having gotten the fall production season auspiciously under way, the major lots are due to clean up their September schedules with four projected starters and are readying to plunge into an October slate which already includes 19 features. It is almost certain, furthermore, that the total to be gunned during the month will build considerably beyond that total. Heaviest schedules to date are those of Universal and Warner. The former has dated “Trail of the Vigilantes” to roll October 7, followed three days later by “The Invisible Woman.” Also on the docket for later in the month are “Nice Girl,” “Back Street,” “San Francisco Docks,” “The Black Cat” and a serial, “Riders of Death Valley.” Warner cleans up its September slate with “Hard Luck Dame” and “Church Mouse.” “Sergeant York” rolls October 5, while “One Sunday Afternoon” and “Three Strangers” get the gun October 7. “Fifty Thousand Fliers” takes off October 25. Originally pegged for a mid-month start, “The Fabulous Thirties” has been postponed for the time being because of script trouble. Paramount’s “You’re the One” hits the sound stages September 30, to be followed next day by “Lady Eve.” An October 14 date has been hung on “New York Town,” with “Ballerina” going into work October 28. Metro’s “Come Live With Me” starts October 1 and “Ziegfeld Girl” is on the docket for October 16. Republic turns the cameras on “Barnyard Follies,” October 4. RKO Radio’s September slate winds up with “Mr. Pinkie.” “Before the Fact” and “Debutantes, Inc.,” both roll next month, while a November 1 date has been set for “Blood Will Tell.” Sherman Leases Space At Schulberg Studio To cope with a greatly expanded production schedule, Harry Sherman has leased and has started moving his filmmaking unit into the B. P. Schulberg studio, vacating the quarters which he previously occupied on the General Service lot. The Schulberg plant has three sound stages and is completely equipped to handle not only Sherman’s six “Hopalong Cassidy” westerns but also the five “specials” he is making for Paramount. First picture going into work on the Schulberg lot will be “Doomed Caravan,” filming of which was suspended five months ago when Bill “Hopalong” Boyd suffered a leg injury. Supplementing Sig Neufeld’s activities and to speed up Producers Releasing Corp.’s distribution schedule. President Harry Rathner is negotiating to add at (, Republic Entering The Shorts Field Republic is entering the shorts production field, Moe I. Siegel having signed Harriet Parsons to produce, direct and write a series of "HollYwood Highlights." The company will make about 12 abbreviated films yearly, the first to be released November 15. VS least three more production units to its Hollywood setup. PRC now has 24 operating branches and Neufeld is slated to produce the bulk of the company’s program of 20 features and 18 westerns for 1940-41. Sees Great Possibilities In Scientiiic Color Use Scientific use of color is the “great step” that will concern motion picture technicians during the next few years, in the opinion of Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky. The industrial streamlining expert so declared in an address before a special meeting of the Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers. With Loren Ryder, SMPE chairman, presiding, those attending heard de Sakhnoffsky predict a new and hitherto unexplored “realm of picture possibilities.” Pre-Rushes — Edgar Kennedy’s stock-in-trade, the “slow burn,” gets a hearty laugh out of Medora Field (left) and Producer Albert J. Cohen on the set of Republic’s “Who Killed Aunt Maggie?” Film is being produced from the novel by Miss Field, who made a trip from her Atlanta, Ga., home to watch production developments. Report Closed Shop Is Near for SWG Indicating that, after a delay of several months, an accord on a closed shop contract may be reached with producers shortly, the Screen Writers Guild held a general membership meeting Thursday, at which a report of the status of negotiations was presented by the bargaining committee headed by President Sheridan Gibney. The SWG has been aiming, in recent sessions with producer representatives, tg get the contract signed and sealed by October 1, at which time it hopes to have the closed shop in effect in all major studios. An SWG board session was held earlier in the week to discuss developments. The new board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild will hold its first meeting September 30, at which it will scrutinize the new ruling handed down by the Producer-SAG standing committee giving employers the right to cancel or change starting dates on calls for freelance actors. Florence Wix has succeeded Bob Davis, resigned, as chairman of the SAG council at an election meeting held Tuesday. Kenneth Thomson, Ralph Morgan, Lucile Gleason, Pat Somerset, Walter Abel and Dorothy Tree were SAG delegates to the annual State Federation of Labor convention in Santa Monica, September 23. Screen Cartoonists Guild has obtained a closed-shop agreement for employes at M-G-M and has called off the general membership meeting which had been called to take a strike vote. Deal calls for a 40-hour week and minimum wage scales in various working classifications. Aubrey Blair has begun the American Federation of Labor organizational campaign by launching a drive to bring some 400 studio tailors, milliners, fitters, seamstresses and headers into the AFL fold. First meeting of the group was held September 27. Results of the industry-wide election September 26-27 to determine sole bargaining agent for studio scenic artists have not been disclosed. Jurisdiction is claimed by Moving Picture Painters and the Scenic Artists Ass’n, Inc. Katzman to Do Four More With "East Side Kids" Having completed three vehicles starring the “East Side Kids” for release through Monogram, Sam Katzman has been signed to do four more for the current season’s schedule. He has signed Leo Gorcey to an exclusive contract for the starring spot and will gun the initialer upon his return from a trip to New York. BOXOFFICE :: September 28, 1940 23