Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1930)

October 4, 1930 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD 17 Erpi Extends lO Million Credit To Film Industry, Says Otterson Add "Bunk Rumors" (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Oct. 2.— Under the general heading "Bunk Rumors" this week is a report emanating from Chicago that C. C. Pettijohn is resigning from the M.P.P.D.A. There is positively no truth in this report. Entire U Output Is Billed by WB Chain In $3,500,000 Deal (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Oct. 2.— Warner Brothers officials and the Universal sales department have signed contracts covering the booking of Universal's entire year's output of feature productions and short product, which amounts virtually to a solid booking over the Warner chain of theatres. This deal, which for feature pictures alone, v.'ill run well over $3,500,000, follows closely the $3,000,000 deal recently completed with RKO. It will give Universal first run representation in cities in which Warner Brothers theatres are admittedly strong. The short product involved includes all the Universal comedies, its newsreel with Graham McNamee, and its serials. The booking is understood to be as near 100 per cent as prior bookings will permit. Columbia Obtains Long Time Lease on Chadwick Studios (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Oct. 2.— Columbia Pictures has leased the Chadwick studios in Hollywood on a long term as one of the steps in its extensive schedule for the 1930-31 season. The new acquisition adjoins the present Hollywood site of the Columbia producing plant. The Chadwick studios have a sound proof stage and are connected to an office building. Addition of these studios will make Columbia one of the largest studios on the coast, it is said. During the past year it has practically doubled its equipment with the addition of new cutting rooms, projection rooms and erection of several sound stages. RKO May fair Replaces Old Columbia House in N. Y.; Capacity Is 2,300 (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Oct. 2.— The RKO Mayfair is the name selected for the new motion picture house nearing completion on the site of the old Columbia theatre at Forty-Seventh street and Seventh avenue. The building is expected to be ready for dedication on November 1. With a seating capacity of 2,300, the new theatre will run on a policy of sound pictures only. Profit Far Below 20 Per Cent Maximum Set, Press Is Told Program As Public Service Corporation Expanded to Non-Theatrical Fields, He Says (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Oct. 2. — Operating on basis of a public service corporation, Electrical Research Products has extended -credit totaling $10,000,000 to the motion picture industry, according to J. O. Otterson, president, who in an address to members of the press, stressed the significance of talking pictures to industrial, religious, social and educational fields throughout the world. Erpi, he said, operated under a controlled profit plan, as does its parent organization, the American Telephone & Telegraph. "We have set 20 per cent as our maximum profit," Otterson said, "and thus far we have fallen below that mark." Otterson stated that with the inspection of talking pictures it was thought at first that their activities would extend no further than the development of apparatus and the licensing of their patents. However, he said, it became apparent that the audible screen was not confined to the theatre and it was realized then that the company should be organized as a public service corporation so that it might provide continued servicing to its customers, just as A. T. & T. does. Purpose to Develop, Not Produce Erpi, he said, was in the motion picture field only to develop the manufacture and service of sound apparatus. "We are not in the motion picture industry," he said "to produce pictures. Our purpose is to develop talking pictures for use not only in the theatre but in industry, religion and education throughout the world." Otterson said that a recent survey by his company, it was shown that there were only about 14,500 legitimate motion picture theatres, of which 10,000 had already been wired. Of this 10,000, he said, about 5,000 are using Western Electric apparatus. Producers who formerly played their product in as many as 10,000 theatres today book only about half that number. "Yet," he said, "they are receiving greater profits from those 5,000 theatres than they previously were from the 10,000." Erpi, he said, has one price for its ap Poor Printing a Cause Of Bad Sound, Says Knox (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Oct. 2.— One of the great difficulties today in giving the public good sound lies in faulty printing of positives, according to H. G. Knox of Electrical Research Products, who has been transferred to New York from Hollywood studios. Bad sound, he stressed, does not mean faulty recording or reproduction or acoustics. In most instances, he declared, the fault lies with the laboratory which is not sufficiently equipped to turn out positives equally as good as the negatives from which they are taken. paratus and service for theatres of any specific type. This is irrespective, he said, of whether it is a theatre operated by an independent or a circuit. Sees Perfect Sound At 5 Years "Chains will order apparatus for a certain number of theatres without even asking the price," he pointed out, "for they know we have one price for all, depending on the type of theatre in which an installation is to be made. Otterson expressed the opinion that talking pictures would become a potent factor outside of the theatre. To illustrate the possibilities in other fields, medical and instructional films are exhibited following luncheons tendered by Erpi at its headquarters in the Fisk building. Rapid developments in recording are being made, he said, and within five years, at the most, he believes, talking pictures will be presented to the public with nearly perfect reproduction of voice, music and other sounds. Standard Regulations For Film Storage Are Recommended by Cooper (Special to the Herald-World) OTTAWA, Oct. 2.— Standardization of regulations governing film storage and the recommendation that all structures in which pictures are screened, other than theatres, be brought under the Canadian statutes because of the risks involved, were brought up at the annual convention of the Dominion Fire Prevention association of Ottawa by Col. V. A. Cooper, president of the Motion Picture Distributors of Canada. Cooper outlined the wide improvements that had been made, including the new film buildings in Montreal, Ottawa and Calgary. He also declared that nitro-cellulose film could be kept in good condition for 25 years when properly stored in unheated and ventilated vaults. Three Hamrick Houses Book Universal Serial (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Oct. 2.— Universal's serial, "The Indians Are Coming," has been booked to play first run in three houses of the Hamrick chain on the Pacific Northwest. They are the Blue Mouse in Seattle, the Music Box in Portland, and the Blue Mouse in Tacoma. It is understood that other large bookings are pending for the serial, the first ever to play a Broadway first run.