Exhibitors Daily Review (Jul-Dec 1928)

Exhibitors DAILY REVIEW, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1928 DAI Lliif VIEW RcR. U. S Pat. Off. Published Daily Except Sunday ARTHUR JAMES. Editor \V l< W'll.KERSON Pi.Mi.<hrT Abraham Bernstein, Managing EJitor; Herman I Schleier, Business Manager. Executive and Editorial Offices, 2^ West 43rd Street, Suite -m1*. New Yurk. Tclcrhone Bryant M89. Address all communications to Executive tion Rates including postage paid, per year Umti J States and Canada, $10; ■ . $15; single copies, S cents. Remit by order, currency or postage. Entered isa matter January 4, 1926, at the New York, under the Act of March }, 1879. Published and copyright by Picture Publishers, Inc. Punted by Cline Printing ition, New York City. Most of <ur New York City subscribers :irc furnished their papers by carriers, in order that they will get a more prompt service than that Ku,n by mail. Subscribers will oblige by notifying us about any lapse in service. Blair, V/eS( Coast Representative, 1255 ind Avenue, Los Angeles (Phone Hempstead 15 14) London Office and Correspondent: Samuel II rris, "The Cinema", 80-82 Wardour Street. London . W . 1 . Canadian Office: Canadian Moving Picture Digents, 259 Spadina Ave., Toronto, Canada. "What's Right with the Movies" (Eighteenth of a Series by Industry's Leaders) By SAMUEL ZIERLER President, Excellent Pictures GOSSIP OF ROME llr ANDERSON GREGG ROME— End of October. Being careful to make a fork of the index and fourth finger— the familiar sign of the "jettatura" invented by Romulus himself to ward off the evil eye-devotees of bel canto as it passes through Pucini and Mascagni in its native land and at last condescend to discuss the talkies. * • • This is the first and biggest item of gossip to greet me on my arrival day before yesterday. Who started it? Why, none other than George Tyler. Who is George Tyler? Well, ask Fietro Mascagni, who knows that George can be depended on to meet him down the Bay whenever the maestro visits New York. Pietro will tell you that George is the last word of wisdom on all matters of art in America. So when Tyler deigned to talk talkies as he was leaving Italy for home via Paris and London, the Roman cognocenti literally sat up and listened. It was good listening to the bel canto-ites, for the way George slammed the talkies was as soothing to them as O Sole Mio from the larynx of Tito Schipa. • * « J. H. Duval gave me this choice morsel even before I had seen the Victor Emanuel Monument. Duval is by way of being a Roman-American oracle himself. • • • "Tyler had left before I arrived," he told me, "but the echoes of his talkie slam were still reverberating from peak to peak of the Seven Hills. I gathered that Tyler told Mascagni, and Pietro told all his friends that, the talkies were terrible, and would go to their infernal reward the moment their propaganda value was exhausted." Knowing that Duval had been an early purchaser of stock of the company organized to exploit the De Forest patents.I ventured to surmise that he had not confessed that act Ic his musical friends. "Unfortunately," said Duval, gloomily, "I told them all about it." "And — " I prompted. "They called me 'traditore', and I bad to flee for my life." Tliore are so many things right with the movies that I could not describe them in five hundred words. An Institution that can day after day, week after week and month after after month for two decades and more brine; entertainment, refreshment, diversion and happiness to the millions of poor people as well as those more fortunate all over the world is essentially and basically right or it could not so long exist. The movies are right because they are primarily homespun entertainment for the common people. They are right because they are comparatively Inexpensive to the public. They are right because in large measure they are clean and wholesome and their influences are good influences. They are right because they foster and promote ideals, the love of family, the love of country, the love of the decent and the right thing. They are right because they refresh the weary and the tired. They are of great service to the sick and suffering because through modern devices they are carried to the hospitals so that those stricken may be helped even before they reach the stage of convalescence. The movies are right because they are the great friend of the children and because they stand today as the children's most popular amusement. They are right because they arc educational, broadening and developing to the human mind. They are right because they art the most splendid invention in the history of mankind. Exhibitors in Arms Against Talkies Strangulation (Continued from page 1) get one without the spoken word. In Arms Against W.E. Most all of the independently owned houses are up in arms against Western Electric and their boast that "orders will be filled in the order that they are received" and cite cases of the chain operated houses getting equipment almost any time they desire and on a very short notice, compelling W.E. to shelve, for the time being, orders received prior to the circuit contract. Some of them are asking how it is possible for the Loew houses to get sixty sets in sixty different theatres when it is known that contracts for installation in independent houses were received, even before Loew-Metro decided to use W.E. Price High Many exhibitors are yelling about the price being charged by W.E. feeling that sooner or later they will either be selling for less, or will put out a machine of smaller cost. And still others are buying machines of other makes feeling certain that the distributors will not continue to shoulder the burden of interchangeability for W.E. in not selling a W.E. recorded picture to a house not equipped with a W.E. device. Other Makes There are machines of other makes that, . in so far as quality and the reproduction, are interchangeable with W.E. Many of these equipments can be had on a week or ten days' notice and some exhibitors encouraged by a cheaper price, early installation and the almost certain conviction that the distributors will suddenly give in and furnish the discs to be run on any equipment, are dumping orders into these organizations. Others are buying machines with two turn tables and are cueing their pictures with a Victor, Columbia, Brunswick or Sonora disc catalogue in their hand, buy the records and put a sign out in front of their theatre advertising the picture "with sound". These exhibitors can see no difference, in so far as the audience is concerned, whether the sound has been synchronized for the picture at a studio or cued and played in their own theatres, both are sound and if cued right, both have the same effect. Of course the straight talking picture is another thing altogether. WEISS-GOLDSTONE BIOPHONE 1 YR. OLD Exactly one year ago November tenth Mr. Alfred Weiss and Phil Goldstone decided to start the manufacture of a talking picture machine and also the production of talking pictures. In co-operation with the best engineers obtainable, Weiss perfected the BIOPHONE Machine which is now being offered to the exhibitors and which every exhibitor in every territory will be able to see and hear by December first. Goldstone, assisted by engineers of the Johns Manville Company, built and equipped a large sound studio ir 'he East, for the production of talkng pictures. These stages are no\ n operation and will shortly deliver to the market a line of talking, singing short subjects, features and roac shows. Reichenbach Signs Long-Term "U" Contract (Continued from page 1) With the withdrawal from these enterprises he also gives up the offices he has maintained in the Strauss Building for the last three years, and will make his permanent headquarters with Universal at 730 Fifth Avenue. The approaching release of Universal's more important pictures for 1928-1929 determined Carl Laemmle prior to his departure for California to tie up Reichenbach's full time and energy as a specialist in publicity ideas and campaigns. He is already at work on novel and individual showmanship ideas for "Show Boat," "Broadway," "The Last Warning," "Give and Take," "The Girl on the Barge,' "The Cohens and Kellys in Atlantic City" and Reginald Denny in "Red Hot Speed." WANTED I can use from one to five hundred used Acme projectors . . . must be in fair running condition . . . any model . . . price must be right. State how many you have. Write to box No 13, Exhibitors DAILY REVIEW Classified Advertisement Advertisements in this section, 5 cents per word. Cash must be sent with order. No charge for Box Number line. Minimum order, $1. 10% discount 12 issues or more. FOR SALE WAFILMS, Inc. Walter A. Futter, Pres. for Libray Stock Scenes 130 W. 46th St. New York Bryant 8181 MOTION PICTURE AND "STILL." cameras rented, sold and exchanged. Portable lights for sale and for rent. Keep us advised of your wants. Ruby laraera Company, 727 Seventh Avenue, New York City. LOCAL FILMS MOTION PICTURES MADE TO order. Commercial, Home or Industrial. We have excellent facilities and the best cameramen. Our price, 20c per foot. Ruby Film Company, 727 Seventh Avenue, New York City. BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES WHETHER YOU WANT TO HIRE some one or be hired; buy or sell a theatre; trade or sell equipment, or do almost anythng else in the motion picture business, an ad in this department will get you results. If you want us to word the ad for you, the services of our advertising experts are at your call. Simply tell us what you want to do, and how many words you want used. Exhibitors DAILY REVIEW. AFFILIATED EUROPEAN PRODUCERS, Inc. announce the early release of "The Holy Devil" with Gregor Chmara, of the Moscow Art Theatre, as RASPUTIN