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INDEPENDENT EXHIBITOR
FILM BULLETIN
VOL. 2 No. 4
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1935
PRICE 10 CENTS
This Dispute About Top Hat'
In our issue of August 14th, FILM BULLETIN first questioned the right of RKO to sell "Top Hat" as part of the new season program to those accounts who had presumably bought the picture of their 1934-35 contracts. That editorial has resulted in demands by numerous exhibitor organizations and individuals that RKO deliver the Astaire-Rogers musical to holders of last season's contracts.
RKO officials have denied that "Top Hat" is a 1934-35 release and insist that their company promised only two pictures with these stars and has released both. Harrison's Reports, issue of September 28th, also advises its readers that "it will be difficult for an exhibitor to establish a claim on "Top Hat" as part of the 1934-35 product. Harrison's prints a statement by an RKO official that RKO put Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in "Roberta," which was announced without any stars, because "the heads of the company felt that 'Roberta,' with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers along with Irene Dunne in it would make more money for the exhibitors than the two pictures combined — 'Roberta,' with Irene Dunne alone, and 'The World By the Tail' ('Top Hat'), with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers alone."
We must disagree with both Mr. Harrison and the RKO official. Exhibitors who bought two Astaire-Rogers pictures and "Roberta" on their 1934-35 RKO deals ARE entitled to get ALL THREE!
Examine these facts: In its pre-season year book for the 193435 season, RKO displayed ads on "Roberta", which was to be the "Queen of All Musicals" . . . "Told to the Lilting Melodies of Jerome Kern" — all of which is the usual advertising fluff. But it is important that "Roberta" was to be the film version of one of the year's biggest stage hits, which had run for a year on Broadway.
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