The Film Daily (1938)

Wednesday, October 5, 1938 ire DAILY JFILMS "ART" DENIAL DRAWS HAYS' FIRE (Continued from Page 1) speak loftily of 'the lowest common denominator' as a contemptuous referer^.e to movie audience intellige3|y," continued Hays. "Such criticism is a libel of the public, a slander on democracy. "Those who thus indulge themselves indict not the movies but the public, forgetting that in this country alone the average weekly attendance is 85,000,000. I hold no such despised opinion of the American people, whose servant the industry is." Pointing out that "a grateful industry will celebrate its Golden Jubilee Anniversary" next year, Hays expressed the conviction that its development "could have occurred only in the atmosphere of free America." "The screen," he later commented, "must reflect the times in which it exists ... The continued evolution of the screen to higher forms of entertainment may be one of the strongest fortifications of our own civilization. In these things lie the chief significance and greatest social service of motion pictures. Nakken Patents Corp. Sues Erpi; Claims Infringement (Continued from Page 1) Nakken was owner prior to Nov. 1920 of improvements in a means of transforming light impulses into electric-current impulses, and thai infringement of this has been committed by Erpi via latter making and marketing photo-cell amplifier equipment. An injunction is sought from the court by Nakken Patents Corp., together with damages and an accounting of profits. Ivan Simpson Near Death West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — Ivan Simpson, character actor, was reported to be in a serious condition last night after he was found near death from carbon monoxide poisoning. Best wishes from THE FILM DAILY to the following on their birthday: OCTOBER 5 David L. Loew Arthur M. Loew Kathryn Crawford George Irving Louise Dresser James Bradbury, Jr. T T T • • • SENTIMENT plays no part in an exhibitor's life therefore none of the vast army of theater men who make their livelihood through box-offices located in the metropolitan territory, were on hand yesterday morn to witness a ceremony commemorating the FIRST box-office ever put in operation anywhere that of the old Koster & Bial Music Hall on the present site of Macy's department store on Thirty-fourth Street where the first commercial showing of motion pictures was held 43 years ago but its significance was not lost, for the newspaper writers and photographers were there and the event was caught in word and picture and made a part of the history of the indusrty T T T • • • CEREMONIES started at 9:45, on a little platform built on the sidewalk alongside the Thirty-fourth St. side of the department store the speakers were Will Hays, and Paul Hol lister and Jack L. Strauss of R. H. Macy & Co Hollister touched on the old Music Hall which had its main entrance a few feet from the executive entrance of the store Will Hays highlighted the progress of the industry down to the present • • • AT THE conclusion of the ceremonies Mrs. John E. Sloan, daughter of Thomas A. Edison, who invented the Kinetoscope which made possible the first public showing of short silent scenics at Koster & Bial's drew the cords of the American flag and a Motion Pictures' Greatest Year banner, revealing the bronze plaque on the wall of the building, which reads "Here the Motion Picture Began. At this site on the night of April 23, 1896 at Koster & Bial's Music Hall, Thomas A. Edison's motion pictures were projected." T T ▼ • • • THE SIMPLE words of Thomas Edison's daughter as she dedicated the plaque formed a fitting close to a significant event she said "My father had a high ideal for motion pictures. He felt that people might be educated through their eyes, that those who stay at home might travel to far places, and gain in human understanding; that through his work romance and laughter and the lessons which the theater can teach might be brought within the reach of everyone. May the next fifty years see the motion picture steadily advancing toward the ideal he had of it." T T T • • • ON THE platform at the ceremonies were J. E. Brula tour, who started as the agent for Lumiere Film in this country, was treasurer of the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry, 1916-1921 Frank J. Marion, president of Kalem Co., 1905 Percy Waters, president of Motion Picture Patents Co., 1908 Frederick H. Elliott, executive secretary of the National Association of the M. P. Industry, 1916 Will Hays, Paul Hollister, Jack L. Strauss, Kenneth Clark, Paul Gulick, Hal Roach, Mrs. John Sloan • • • IT MAY interest some of you folks to know that Martin Beck was a waiter at the old Koster & Bial's and Percy Waters, president of the old Patents Company, ran the machine on which this first moving picture show was projected so that ought to give him honorary life membership in the union. BRIGHTER OUTLOOK FOR U. S, PIX IN JAPAN « « « » » » (Cnnt:n'i»d from P-qe 1) °nd tb° availamTtv rf funds derived from distribution is said to be nearing a more satisfactory understanding, and that current opposition constitutes the viewpoint of the Japanese public rather than that of the Government. While it is held unlikely that barriers will be more than minutely lifted on the question of revenue fvailabilitv, since the necessity continues with respect to retaining the highest possible balance in foreign pxchan<?e and preventing the latter from fluctuation during: the current crisis, discussions are under way to afford to Hollywood product greater opportunity in the exhibition field via tempering import restrictions. Schenck, Zanuck, Goetz Pare 20th-Fox Holdings (Continued from Page 1) Aug. 30 embraced 142,130 shares of common, 21.946 shares of preferred. Loew's, Inc. reported acquisition of 36 shares more of Loew's Boston Theaters common stock and now holds 99 670 shares. Sam Katz filed a July, 1938, report stating he has acquired two more shares of Loew's, Inc. common and now holds 752 shares. John D. Hertz reported he holds no shares of Paramount Pictures 6 per cent convertible 2nd preferred after disposing of 1,000 of that issue through Lehman Brothers. SAG's New By-Laws Will Eliminate Junior Guild (Continued from Page 1) bracket for bit players and extras. However, they would be allowed to vote for a strike or withdrawal from the Guild. The new provisions provide for an advisory council for the B bracket. Proposals will be ratified at a mass meeting of SAG members on Friday night. GB's Publicity-Ad Plan to be Launched Shortly (Continued from Page 1) be completed next week, with two already picked, it was disclosed. Campaign will expend about §200,000, appropriation which has already been okayed by the company's home office in England. So That's That Sources high in Ascap counsels yesterday characterized as "screwy" recent reports that the Society is about to send out new contracts to film interests. Existing contracts, it is pointed out, have no date of termination, and are consequently of a perpetual nature. They can be abrogated, it is declared, only by mutual consent and there is no disposition on either side to effectuate such a step.