Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (Sep 1935 - Aug 1936)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1936 3 EVENTS on the MARCH ! tf Reporting the Industry's News from An Editorial Viewpoint" ST. LOUIS CASE IS FAILURE FOR GOVERNMENT SO FAR GOV'T CASE IN ST. LOUIS LOOKS WEAK Mistake . . . St. Louis. — As the Government's equity suit against Warner Bros., RKO and Paramount proceeds in its second week, it appears increasingly convincing that the Department of Justice made a tactical error in allowing the criminal action to take precedence over the civil trial. All the steam seems to have been taken out of the Government's case by the acquittal of the five film executives, who were tried on virtually identical evidence as is now being presented in the present action. The defendants have gained confidence by their previous victory and their denials of alleged conversations and actions, which tend to prove conspiracy to "freeze out" the Fanchon & Marco theatre interests in this city, are pronounced with more conviction and less trepidation than were evident during the criminal case. Slow Start . . . The civil suit has progressed very slowly thus far. After the opening addresses of opposing counsel, several witnesses have taken the stand to deliver repetitous testimony and there have been no new and startling disclosures. And, it is just such impressive disclosures that the Government needs if it is to overcome the unconscious influence of both judge and counsel of the acquittal in the criminal case. In his opening speech, Russell Hardy, chief of the Government counsel, declared, "This case is an attack by great wealth on a relatively puny business." He again referred to the defendant companies as "large corporate clusters" of tremendous holdings and power. Witnesses . . . The first witness for the Government was Thomas N. Dysart, president of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce and head of the group that owns the three houses involved in the suit, the Ambassador, Missouri and New Grand Central Theatres. He reviewed the various conferences which he attended and which bear on the case, but there was nothing in his testimony that had not already been covered during the trial of the five executives. Repeated, too, was the statement made by former Mayor Kreismann at one of the conferences of the bondholders' committee to the effect that the latter had heard enough of Warners threats and that the proper move had been made in leasing the houses to Allen Snyder. Hardy asked Federal Judge Joseph W. Molyneaux to bar all witnesses from the courtroom during the hearing, after Louis Phillips, Paramount attorney, had asserted that his client had been indicted on perjured testimony. Other witnesses, including Spyros P. Skouras, revealed little that added to what had been offered before. Only the testimony of J. M. Ulmer, a Cleveland attorney, added anything to the Government's case, and this was ordered stricken out by Judge Molyneaux. Ulmer was called to describe a similar case in Wheeling, W. Va., in which he acted for a client. In that case, he stated, Herman Starr remarked that he should accept Warners proposition or suffer the difficulty of finding anyone else to take the theatre. Ulmer said that Starr told him that his company has a "way" of dealing with such matters and mentioned the St. Louis case as evidence of how they deal. SETTLE PITTS. SUIT AFTER JUDGE GRANTS MAJORS NEW TRIAL $24,000 Award . . . Pittsburgh. — Setting aside the verdict of the jury which awarded $24,000 to Samuel Friedman, former owner of theatres in Farrell and Sharon, Pa., in his damage suit against seven major film companies, U. S. District Court Judge Nelson McVicar last Friday ordered a new trial. Meanwhile, however, the distributors reached an agreement with Friedman and the case was settled Out of court for an unnamed sum. Warner Bros., Fox, RKO, Metro, Columbia, Universal and United Artists had been accused of conspiracy to refuse product to Friedman's two theatres, resulting in his being forced out of business in 1928. ROXY PASSES Master Showman . . . Picture and show business lost one of its most amazing personalities, the master of an era in American theatricals, when Samuel Lionel Rothafel, better known to the nation as "Roxy", passed peacefully away in his sleep Monday morning. He was 5 2. Samuel Lionel Rothai i i Pioneer in the presentation of stage shows in movie theatres, Rothafel became nationally famous with the building of the huge original Roxy Theatre in New York, where he provided enormous and elaborate stage spectacles for natives and tourists during the Golden Era of the '20's. During the depression, Roxy's star dimmed and Ins last theatrical venture, the operation of the Roxy-iVlastb.uim in Philadelphia, ended in failure within a few months. (Con tin net/ on following />",'.,'<■)