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

June 7, 1930 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD 61 Plot to Control Film Industry Is Laid to MPPDA by Georgian Standard Exhibition Contract and Arbitration Clauses Attacked in Federal Action Launched by W. H. C. Dudley, Who Says He Was Coerced into Accepting Pictures He Didn’t Want [By Special Correspondent to the Herald-World] SPARTANBURG, S. C., June 4. — A conspiracy to regulate and control the motion picture industry through the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, “a membership corporation headed by Will H. Hays,” was alleged in a suit fded in federal court in Atlanta last week by W. H. C. Dudley, theatre operator in Americus, Ga. Ten defendants were named in the suit which, brought under the terms of the Sherman anti-trust act, was for $31,500 damages. The case was docketed for hearing the first Monday in October before Federal Judge S. H. Sibley. FILM BUYER This service is being hailed by exhibitors everywhere as indispensable in successful operation of their theatres. The next Film Buyer will appear as Section Two of the June 28 issue of Exhibitors Herald-World Fox West Coast to Spend Millions on California Growth (Special to the Herald-World) SAN FRANCISCO, June 4— A program of expansion involving more than $4,500,000 in northern California is announced by Harold B. Franklin, president of Fox West Coast Theatres. New theatres will be opened in Berkeley and Stockton in August and with Iin a month work will be under way on other Fox houses in Oakland, San Jose, Bakersfield and Porterville. The new construction work will not call for any issuance of stocks or bonds, but will be done out of profits of the chain and funds provided by the owners. President Franklin stated that the earnings of Fox West Coast Theatres during the first three months of the year were three times larger than those of any previous first quarter. The local Fox theatre, opened in June, 1929, ranks among the five best houses in the chain from an earnings standpoint. Since the 1 opening $2,000,000 has been spent in its operation. Quaker State MP T O To Hold Meeting in Philadelphia, June 12 (Special to the Herald-World) PHILADELPHIA, June 4.— The MPTO of Eastern Pennsylvania will hold a convention on June 12, 1930, at the Adelphia Hotel, Philadelphia, for the purpose of discussing problems of the industry. The ranks of the local MPTO have recently been augmented by the membership of Warner Brothers, Fox and R K O. _____ M. S. Epstin Elected United Studios Head (Special to the Herald-World) HOLLYWOOD, June 4.— M. S. Epstin, long identified with various phases of the entertainment world, has been elected president of the United Studios, Inc., in Hollywood, according to Joseph M. Schenck. Epstin was formerly vice president and general manager of the institution, and has been connected with the Schenck enterprises for many years. D. M. Lord, Advertising Agency Founder, is Dead Daniel M. Lord, founder of the advertising agency of Lord and Thomas and Logan, is dead at the age of 86. Lord, who came to Chicago in 1870, lived to see the business he had established on “faith and a shoestring” become an international agency placing a volume of advertising in excess of $20,000,000 annually. The Standard Contract form of the membership corporation headed by Hays is attacked in the suit, particularly the section governing the settlement of disputes, through which the plaintiff alleges he was coerced into accepting films he did not want and into putting up additional bonds to insure his contract with the defendants. The defendants named are the Atlanta Film Board of Trade, Educational Film Exchange, of Atlanta ; United Artists Corporation, Pathe Exchange, Inc., Producers Distributing Corporation, Liberty Film Distributing Corporation, Paramount Publix Corporation, Associated Exhibitors, Inc., Film Booking Offices of America, Inc. St. Louis Aldermen in Favor of Daylight Bill ; Chances of Passing Few (Special to the Herald-World) ST. LOUIS, June 4. — The St. Louis Board of Aldermen has recommitted Alderman Chauncey J. Krueger’s daylight saving bill and there is still a chance that the measure will die in the hands of the legislative committee. The committee unexpectedly reported the bill favorably on May 28 by a vote of 4 to 2 with a recommendation that after a trial from June 15 to September 14 of this year it be submitted to the voters at the elections to be held on November 7 next. After this action and before the bill could come up for a vote before the entire board it was discovered that the Board of Aldermen had no legal authority to initiate an election on this question. Under the city charter the board can initiate charter amendments and bond issue proposals, but not ordinances. The only way to get the proposal on the ballot in November would be either by initiative or referendum petitions signed by a certain number of qualified voters. Louisiana Town Gets It (Special to the Herald-World) NEW ORLEANS, June 4. — At the request of the manufacturing and business interests of Bastrop, La., Mayor C. T. Goodwin has issued a proclamation placing Bastrop on day light saving time. Beginning at 12 :01 a. m. Monday, June 1, all timepieces in the city hall were advanced one hour. Daylight saving time will be in effect there now until September 1. As far as is known Bastrop is the first southern city to adopt daylight saving time since the world war. Aldermen Receive Protests (Special to the Herald-World) ALBANY, June 4. — Exbibitors in Syracuse, N. Y., have been putting up a strenuous fight against daylight saving, and the aldermen have been flooded with protests. One has changed his mind in favor of the exhibitors. The complaints have come from theatre managers and hundreds of persons whom they have enlisted in their cause. Billboard on Curve Cause of Accident; Wants Them Removed The Woman’s Chicago Beautiful association hopes that by 1933 every billboard may have been removed from the city. This was brought up at a meeting of the group in the Hotel Sherman. Besides being disfiguring, they are the cause of accidents, said Mrs. Edward S. Bailey, chairman of the American homes department, adding. “I saw a terrible accident — caused by the obstruction of the view by a billboard at curve in the road north of Chicago. The cars met head-on, because the drivers could not see each other approaching.” Woman Manager to Speak Before Social Workers (Special to the Herald-World) CINCINNATI, OHIO, June 4.— Miss H. Doris Stecker, manager of the Forest theatre, a neighborhood house, will speak before the National Conference of Social Workers in Boston, June 12, in a session devoted to motion pictures sponsored by the division of neighborhood and community welfare of the conference. Her subject will be “Motion Pictures from the Exhibitor’s Point of View.” Introduces Bill Against Exclusive Contracts; Says They Restrain Trade (Special to the Herald-lVorld) NEW ORLEANS, June 4. — Exclusive exhibiting contracts between owners of moving picture films and theatre operators would be declared to be in restraint of trade, tending to create a monopoly and null and void under terms of a bill introduced in the Louisiana Senate at Baton Rouge by Senator William A. Duke of New Orleans. Film owners and booking agents contracting with operators of motion picture theatres for the exclusive exhibition of cinema attractions, under terms of the measure, might be punished by a maximum fine of $500 or a maximum jail sentence of one year.