Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1930)

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Hay 24, 1930 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD 17 New Disc Soon May Eliminate Complaint of Express Costs Producers Working on Record To Ship in Cans or Envelopes Micro Disc-Durium Combination Record on Paper Back Would Play 72 Minutes with New Pickup By DOUGLAS FOX NEW YORK, May 20. — Experimentation of Warner Brothers, the Brunswick people and other producers may result, before long, in bringing out an ideal disc record, light and compact and at the same time sturdy and pliable enough to be shipped either in the can together with the film or in a large paper envelope. This development within a few months may obviate even the barest necessity of such a petition as requested last week, which was being considered by Charles Pettijohn of the Hays office en route from California. This request was for a petition to the Interstate Commerce Commission on the possibility of lowering expressage on disc records. Okla. Owners Vote To Join MP T OA; Change Body's Title ( Special to the Herald-World) OKLAHOMA CITY, May 20.— Affiliation of the M P T O of Oklahoma with the M P T O A, was voted by that organization at its 18th annual convention held here last week. The name of the organization was changed to Motion Picture Theatre Owners Association of Oklahoma. Other major business consisted in a resolution condemning unfair competitive practices, a round table discussion of current prices for film and sound equipment, and election of officers. M. A. Lightman, president of the M P T O A, addressed the convention on “Organization.” Other speakers were A. B. Momand of Shawnee, president of the Momand Theatre Enterprises, and E. B. Howard of Tulsa, Democratic candidate for governor, who spoke on “The Chain Competition Menace.” The officers and directors elected were: W. H. Madill, president; Phil Isley of Oklahoma City, secretary ; and Lawrence, W. Z. Spearman of Edmond, Fred Pickrell of Ponca City; Isley, John McGinley of Hartshorne, and L. A. Chatham of Shawnee, directors. Besides a large number of members, many representative of equipment concerns were present. Dog Races Barred In Chicago; Plea To Supreme Court Exhibitors of Chicago see themselves saved from the competition of dog races for the summer, with a supreme court ruling expected in October on an appeal by attorneys of the Hawthorne Kennel Club for review of a decision of the appellate court last week that barred dog racing. The ruling held that the parimutuel system used at the dog tracks is a form of gambling violating both the gaming and the pool laws. Homer Ellis, president of the syndicate operating the Thornton track, said no attempt would be made to operate pending the supreme court ruling, awaited in October. Interstate Houses Sold Outright to RKO, Report ; Hoblitzelle Stays at Helm (Special to the Herald-World) SAN ANTONIO, May 20. — The Interstate Amusement Company, which controls the Greater Majestic in San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth, is reported to have sold outright to Radio-Keith-Orpheum Circuit. Karl Hoblitzelle, according to the report, will continue at the head of the theatres. Opera House Burns (Special to the Herald-World) IPSWICH, MASS., May 20.— Flames starting in the property room of the Opera House destroyed the structure and threatened the entire business section before it was brought under control, wfith $25,000 damage. At the present time there is a phonograph record made of durium on a paper back which retails for fifteen cents, is practically indestructible and, tonally, is called just as good as any record made. It is called “Hit of the Week” and is made by the Durium Company. The record is distributed every week on the news stands. Production now, I believe, is around 300,000 records a week with every week a sellout. By the middle of August a half million of these records are expected to find weekly distribution. Durium is the invention of Professor Bean of Columbia Llniversity, and is a liquid synthetic rosin. “Hit of the Week” records, instead of being pressed, are stamped, and one machine can turn out 70,000 of them in a day. Record Plays 72 Minutes There is also a record called the Micro Disc — a record in which the grooves are so minute that they run several hundred to the inch. A sixteen-inch Micro Disc record will play for 72 minutes. It takes an Edison machine to play it, but a pickup is in the process of manufacture, a simple thing that will retail for a negligible sum and can be attached to any instrument. The combination that is expected to spell freedom from disc expressage in the exhibition end of the motion picture industry is a Micro Disc record stamped on durium. Such a record was exhibited to the HeraldWorld last week. Durium is hard; you cannot damage it. This reporter stamped a heavy heel all over the surface of a durium record, and played again it reproduced a wellknown orchestra’s music without scratches or machine gun static, with its tonal perfection unimpaired. The Micro Disc record was developed three years ago for the blind. It was and still is the intention of its makers to produce a record on which will be pressed the subject matter of a whole book, a 14inch record that will play for three hours and which will be the blind man’s substitution for reading. And it should not be difficult then to stamp a 12-inch Micro Disc record on durium and just slip it into the can with the film or mail it in a paper envelope. Or, until the new pickup is developed, to stamp twelve or sixteen-inch ordinary records on durium and mail them for a few cents in a large envelope. At the present moment the producing companies, of course, have contracts with Victor, Brunswick, Columbia and other makers of records, and there is no reason why the record people who press a disc for something over a dollar should relinquish this business for a new and cheaper process. These contracts, however, will expire in time and then it should be possible for producers to dub their film or disc onto Micro Disc and have it stamped on durium — a process which would cost only a fraction of the present system and should entirely do away with the expressage problem. Space would be saved in the exchanges, shipping costs would be practically eliminated and producers would save themselves the 33 per cent import duty on shipping discs to England or other foreign countries. With the same sort of thing in mind, the Warners are working on a record which probably will be made of casein and which will be lighter and more durable than the one now in use. Sound Patents Peace Is Seen by Zukor At Session in Switzerland on June 8 ( Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, May 20. — Early truce between the various patents groups to make for unhampered exhibition of American sound pictures in Germany is predicted by Adolph Zukor, president of Paramount, following conversations with representatives of the world patent organizations controlling recording and projection, according to dispatches from Berlin. A complete understanding will be effected on interchange of devices and pictures when the conversations are resumed in Switzerland, June 8, Zukor is quoted as saying. Zukor has met with the directors of Siemens and Halske, A. E. G., Klangfilm and Tobis. Three subjects to come before the conference for settlement are interchangeability, adjustment of territorial rights, and standardization of sound equipment. Milton Diamond, American attorney representing Tobis, is credited with Zukor for making the peace conference possible.