Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (Sep 1935 - Aug 1936)

4 INDEPENDENT EXHIBITORS FILM BULLETIN1 INDEPENDENT EXHIBITORS FILM BULLETIN Vol. 2 No. 16 Dec. 18, 1935 Issued weekly by Film Bulletin Company, at 1313 Vine Street, Phila., Pa. Mo Wax, editor and publisher; Roland Barton, George F. Nonamaker, associate editors. Telephone: RITtenhouse 4816. Address all communications to Editor, Film Bulletin VIerritt Crawford, Publisher's Representative 1658 Broadway, New York City Room 486 — Circle 7-3094 ADVERTISING RATES Write or call us for our Advertising Rates. Weekly circulation 1000 copies, covering every theatre owner in the Philadelphia and Baltimore-Washington territories. in its practical application. Two Philadelphia restaurants are now awaiting trial on discrimination charges. The Doris arrest is the first known attack on movie theatre segregation in the eastern part of the state. Two Colored nurses and an interne from a nearby hospital are the plaintiffs. They claim that when they seated themselves in the center of the theatre, they were requested to move to the side reserved for Colored people. It is said that they were warned that they may suffer humiliation or bodily harm from some white patrons in the house if they persisted in remaining where they were. The incident took place about six weeks before the warrants were served. Universal Option Still Awaiting Standard Take-up With the three months' option to buy Universal half expired, J. Cheever Cowdin and Charles R. Rogers, heads of the Standard Capital Corp, which holds the option, have not yet exercised it. February 1st is the deadline. While little doubt prevails that Standard will take over the film company, there are some indications that Cheever and Rogers encountered more difficulty than thy expected in obtaining whatever they lacked of the #5,000,000 needed to swing the deal. However, it is more likely that the time elapsed since the option was first given has been spent in sizing up U's books and in negotiating with Carl Lacmmle, who is said to be demanding that his old personnel be retained in the new setup. EDITORIAL ( Continued from Page 1 ) Their tactics thwarted to some extent by Cohen's forceful leadership of the independent forces, harassed by impending Governmental interference, the film producers scouted about for someone to oil the troubled waters. From the cabinet of President Warren G. Harding came the answer to their prayers. The shrewd politician, with a deaconesque appearance and a puritanic bent, Will H. Hays, was introduced to the industry as the man who would bring harmony. The archives of film business tell us that it was not long after Mr. Hays entered the scene that the scheduled harmony reigned cheerfully in producer ranks — but what discord was visited upon the organized theatre owners! The long-standing friendship and association of Cohen and Jimmy Walker was shattered. Charges of pay-offs and sell-outs were cast about, and it seemed to make little difference who they fell upon. The seeds of discord were sown with a thoroughness that disrupted the M. P. T. O. A. as an independent body, brought about the admittance of producer-owned theatres into its ranks and their domination of the organization down to this day, and finally sent down into the oblivion of self -exile the able, crusading leader of the independents, Sydney Cohen. What a lesson in the type of "harmony" offered by the powerful film moguls! Mo Wax.