Exhibitors Herald (1926)

September 4, 1926 EXHIBITORS HERALD 27 Exhibitors Stand Firm In Coast to Coast Wage Fight Deadlock in California and Kansas City, Kan. — T. 0. C. C. Members Threaten to Get New Operators — Conferences Start in Chicago and Kansas City, Mo. Demands of operators, musicians and stagehands through their unions for increased pay are being met with flat refusals by theatre owners’ organizations from Coast to Coast. With the new season just opening, exhibitors find the problem of demands and threats from theatrical unions bobbing up with more than usual significance. Preparing to Get New Operators Members of the T. O. C. C. in New York are preparing to man their booths with new workers rather than accept the terms of the operators, which call for a 20 per cent increase in salary. With the agreement on the present wage scale ending September 1, it was reported that some of the new men would be from the Empire Union, who now get half of what New York operators in Union No. 6 receive. On the West Coast the Northern California exhibitors have flatly rejected the demands of the Musicians Union. P. J. Wood, business manager of the Ohio organization. Deadlock in California A deadlock is admitted by both sides in Northern California following a meeting of a committee representing the Allied Amusement Industries of California and a union committee. The latter insisted on a high scale and changed working conditions.. Contracts have been distributed by the operators’ union at all suburban houses of Greater Kansas City calling for 33 1 /3 per cent increase. C. E. Cook, business manager of the M. P. T. O. Kansas-Missouri, says it is time to call a halt. “Business conditions have been unfavorable,” he declares, “and in many instances the operator is making more money out of the theatre for his twenty-odd hours of work than the exhibitor”. Mr. Cook holds that the hour is at hand for exhibitors to “obtain employes who are capable and willing to work for and in the interest of their theatre and a fair and consistent wage”. A compromise is being effected by the Philadelphia Theatrical Managers' Association with Local 307 of the American Federation of Musicians and the Philadelphia Local of Stagehands. A new agreement has been reached on musicians’ wages and playing hours in the larger theatres. The stagehands demand a 40 per cent increase and the counter proposal of the managers has been rejected. The same situation applies to the operators. One hundred fifty theatre owners in Michigan are threatening to close their doors rather than pay the rate asked. In Chicago proceedings are still in the preliminary stage. The terms were discussed here Monday at the first session on this year’s issue. A compromise is being worked out with the labor organizations in Philadelphia. Sentiment of Kansas City, Mo., exhibitors is that there should be a decrease in pay for operators there rather than the 33 1 /3 per cent increase demanded. Exhibitors at Kansas City, Kan., turned down a request for 10 per cent raises. Stage Signs for Increase Chicago Federation of Musicians, through its president, James C. Petrillo, has signed a two-year agreement for increases in the Shubert theatres, including seven houses. The new scale for the musicians in the socalled legitimate theatres is said to be higher than for plasterers and lathers, who are receiving notoriously high wages. What the new scale for motion picture theatres will be, if the exhibitors consent to any change, is to be determined by the series of conferences now starting. Commendation of the action of the New York and Detroit exhibitors in rejecting “unreasonable wage demands of the motion picture machine operators and other theatrical unions” was voiced in resolutions passed by the board of trustees of the M. P. T. O. of Ohio last week. If the increases continue many theatres will be compelled to suspend business, according to Vitaphone Faces Copyright Fight; More Stars Sign Vitaphone will open September 15 in Chicago at McVickers theatre, which Warner Brothers has taken over for an indefinite period, Abe Warner announced in New York this week. Control of the theatre passes to the Warners Sept. 13. “Don Juan” will be the picture. NEW YORK, Aug. 31.— The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is prepared to act to prevent the Vitaphone Corporation from reproducing copyrighted songs without paying royalties, J. C. Rosenthal, general manager of the society, declared last week. Rosenthal holds that reproduction of certain music on disks violated the copyright law, according to an article in the Music Trade Indicator. Rosenthal referred specifically to two pieces by Dr. William Axt of the Capitol — “The Fire Agitato” and “In Gloomy Forests” — and said the copyright on the two songs by Axt, who arranged the musical accompaniment of the picture (Warner Brothers’ “Don Juan”), belongs to his publishers, RobbinsEngle, Inc. The general manager stated also that French publishers own the copyright to six pieces by French composers that were used and that the American Society would act to protect those under a cooperative arrangement. Meantime Warner Brothers announced that A1 Jolson, stage comedian; George Jessel, who has just completed a picture for the Warners, and Reinald Werrenrath, baritone, had signed for a Vitaphone program preceding Syd Chaplin’s “The Better ’Ole,” appearing at the Colony early in October. The “screening” of Miss Elsie Janis and Willie and Eugene Howard for the program has just been completed. Stanley Watkins, chief engineer of the Vitaphone Company, spoke before the A. M. P. A. last week on the operation and possibilities of the invention. W. P. Garyn Appointed Assistant Sales Head of National Screen Service (Special to the Herald) NEW YORK, Aug. 31— W. P. (“Pat”) Garyn has been named assistant sales manager of National Screen Service, of which J. Poliak is president and Herman Robbins vicepresident and general manager. Garyn started as assistant branch manager for Fox in St. Louis, was transferred to New York in charge of sales promotion, and success i v e 1 y became head of the contracting department, assistant to General Manager Winfield R. Sheehan and personal aid to James R. Grainger, general sales manager. He was also at one time division sales manager for Metro-Goldwyn in the Midwest and held several executive positions with the B. F. Keith organization. Sunday Laws Violate Freedom, Says Pastor ( Special to the Herald) FORT WAYNE, IND., Aug. 31. — “Sunday legislation is a violation of the fundamental principles upon which our nation was founded and is a union of church and state,” declared H. W. Williams, evangelist, in a sermon on “Religious Liberty” at the Bible chautauqua here. “A Sunday law is a religious law and it is just as wrong to compel a person to keep Sunday holy, to close his place of business or his theatre, as it would be to make a law forcing a man to be baptized or to pray. “ You can force a man to be a hypocrite, but you can not make a Christian by legislation. Closing places of amusement on Sunday will not drive our young friends to church.” Jess Smith Productions to Make i(The Poor Nut” (Special to the Herald) NEW YORK, Aug. 31.— Richard A. Rowland of First National and Jess Smith, head of Jess Smith Productions, have reached an agreement under which Smith’s company will produce “The Poor Nut” for First National. Production is scheduled for September. To date the cast has not been announced. Both Jack Mulhall and Lloyd Hughes have been named as possibilities for the title role. Golf Tourney Opens in Philadelphia Sept. 22 (Special to the Herald) PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 31.— Scores of film men from all parts of the country are expected to attend the Second Annual Film Golf Tournament at the Green Valley Country Club September 22, the day before the scheduled DempseyTunney prizefight.