Exhibitors Herald World (Jan-Mar 1929)

February 9, 1929 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD 39 Radio Pictures Is Trade Name Selected for RKO Productions President Schnitzer Announces Changed Designation for Product — Sound Has "'Opened Infinitely Wider Field of Dramatic Expression," Declares David Sarnoff (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Feb. 5. — Radio Pictures is the trade name selected for RKO Productions, President Joseph I. Schnitzer announced last week. This announcement, made by the head of the motion picture producing and distributing unit of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation, marks the actual entrance of radio into the film industry. At the same time, David Sarnoff, RKO director as well as executive vice president and general manager of R C A, declared in a statement that "sound has opened an infinitely wider field of dramatic expression for the motion picture." Radio Pictures, perfected dialogue motion pictures, will be produced, distributed and exhibited through the resources of the Radio Corporation of America, RCA Photophone Company, General Electric Company, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, National Broadcasting Company, Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit of theatres and RKO Productions, Inc. End of Censorship Sought by 2 Bills In N. Y. Legislature (Special to the Herald-World) ALBANY, Feb. 5. — Two bills calling for the repeal of the present motion picture censorship law in New York were introduced late last week in the legislature. Also last week an item was put into the annual budget calling for an extra $12,865 for the purchase of equipment to enable censorship of talking pictures. One bill seeks the repeal of censorship of motion pictures on the ground that the censoring of talking pictures restricts the freedom of speech guaranteed by the Constitution, and asks that censorship be repealed on July 1, 1929. The second measure provides that the law creating the censorship division in the department of education be repealed on or before next July. Exhibitors throughout the state will be asked to back the two bills by letters and telegrams to their respective senators and assemblymen. Faculty of Stanford Against Lankford Bill, Say Foes of Bigotry Statements of persons advocating passage of the Lankford bill, which would prohibit Sunday shows in the District of Columbia, belittling the opposition to the bill, have brought a vigorous retort from the first 1929 issue of Liberty, quarterly devoted to the cause of religious freedom. In an article entitled "A Famous Petition," it is asserted that nearly all members of the faculty of Leland Stanford University signed a petition to Congress declaring :heir opposition to the measure. "The action of the faculty," declares the irticle, "is expressive of the sentiment that prevails in other universities and colleges hroughout the land where a similar test )f sentiment has been made." The article also cites the action of the )eople of California in overwhelmingly re>ealing all Sunday laws in that state, as •vidence that tolerance is not only a matter lear to the motion picture industry. °ostpone M P T O Dance; Wastbaum Theatre to Open (Special to the Herald-World) PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 5.— Postponelent of two events of importance in local lmdom have been announced. The annual inner-dance of the local M. P. T. O., schedled for January 27th, has been postponed ntil some time in April. The opening date 3r the Stanley-Warner Company's new UpDwn theatre was postponed from February , as originally announced, to February 16. he Mastbaum theatre will open on Febuary 28. rheatre Block Destroyed ?y Fire at Faribault, Minn. (Special to the Herald-World) FARIBAULT, MINN., Feb. 5. — The >pera House block was destroyed by a re last week which caused a loss of 20,000 and for a time threatened to wipe ut the entire business district. The fire epartment of Northfield helped to bring le flames under control. Film Tells About Heated Steel WASHINGTON'.— "The Heat Treatment of Steel" the latest addition to the library of educational morn picture films produced by the Department of immerce for the mineral industries of the country. In commenting on the entrance of radio into the industry, Sarnoff said: "Radio has traveled far afield since its establishment as a wireless telegraphic service. It is on the ocean, aboard ship, in the home ; it is now entering the theatre through the new development of talking motion pictures. Electrical science has finally synchronized sound and motion on the screen. This has been made possible by the vacuum tube, the photo-electric cell and the loudspeaker. Improving Technique "Again radio stood before the doors of another great industry. And again its reception was chilly, to say the least. Two years ago, most moving picture producers stood aloof from these significant developments in our electrical laboratories. Sound, they said, was an intrusion on the 'silent drama.' Gradually, they began to peep into the backyards of the electrical industry; and finally they stampeded towards the magic word 'sound.' "Nevertheless there are still those who interpret this development as merely sound added to motion on the screen. What has happened, I believe, is that a new and greater art of picture production has been created, in which neither sound nor motion can go forward without the other's co-operation. Sound has opened an infinitely wider field of dramatic expression for the motion picture. Further experience in the motion picture art is enabling the electrical industry to improve greatly the technique of sound recording and sound reproduction for the screen. In the new art it is impossible to separate the studio from the sound laboratory. Now Developing Sound "Thus the Radio Corporation of America has been drawn to the entertainment field. Five years ago, the radio art, through broadcasting, led us to develop a service of entertainment, information and education to the home. We are not strangers to such a service. "Beyond our function in the field of international and other telegraphic wireless communications, it is our business to develop sound reproduction through the latest of the arts of electric communication. Thus the electrical group has established a great nationwide service of broadcasting in the United States ; it has co-operated with the phonograph industry in the creation of new sound reproducing instruments ; it has now come to the motion picture industry to co-operate in the development of the new art of sound motion pictures." J. Blumenthal in New York NEW YORK, — I. Blumenthal, general manager of the Paramount organization for Germany and Central Europe arrived in New York last week for his annual visit. Announce "Radio Pictures" if EH ■ JOSEPH I. SCHNITZER HIRAM S. BROWN DAVID SARNOFF President President Executive V. P. RKO Productions, Inc. Radio-Keith-Orpheum and Gen. Mgr., RCA.