The Film Daily (1939)

(f*\ussi Friday, November 3, 1939 20TH-F0X'S 39-WEEK NET IS $3,152,595 {Continued from Page 1) of $1,202,433 for the third quarter of 1938. No dividends were received from National Theaters Corporation during the first 39 weeks of either year. After allowing for the Preferred dividends for the 39 weeks, there remained a profit for the period equivalent to $1.20 per share on the 1,741,989 shares of Common stock outstanding at Sept. 30. For the quarter ended Sept. 30, after allowing for the Preferred dividend, profit amounted to $0.27 per share on the 1,741,989 shares of Common stock outstanding at Sept. 30. Gross income from sales and rentals of film accessories for the 39week period is listed as $40,145,132.30, with dividend income totalling $87,285.80 and other income aggregating $833,897.88. Operating expenses of exchanges, home office and administration expenses, are reported at $10,521,549.83, amortization of production costs at $23,334,076.73 and participation in film rentals at $3,405,901.48. Rep.'s 14Week Sales Drive Starts with N. Y. Meeting (Continued from Page 1) recently planned 14-week sales drive which terminates Jan. 27. James R. Grainger presided at the conference which was attended by aides and representatives for nine key territories. Herman Gluckman, local franchise holder, and Morris Epstein, manager, represented New York; Jack Bellman, Buffalo; Arthur Newman, Albany; M. E. Morey, Boston; Sam Seletsky, New Haven; Max Gillis, Philadelphia; Sam Flax, franchise holder, Washington; James H. Alexander, franchise holder, Pittsburgh; Max Margolis, Cincinnati; and Nat Lefton, franchise holder, and Sam Gorrel, manager, Cleveland. Best wishes from THE FILM DAILY to the following on their birthdays: NOVEMBER 3 James Dunn Paul Panzer NOVEMBER 4 J. S. Hummel Dixie Lee Don Alvarado NOVEMBER 5 Will H. Hays Theodore von Eltz George J. Schaefer Helen E. Hughes Joel McCrea Eddie Edelson with PHIL M. DALY. • • • THERE'S something gaily Gaelic about the pix industry . . and if you've ever been so adventurous and tactless as to try to separate two lighting Irishmen you'll know just what we mean .for lust as sure as the auld sod is green the best you can hope to gain from your sweet solicitude is to immediately weld the combatants . .against yourself. . T T T • • • BOTH outside of filmland. as well as upon its fringes are certain folks who are deluded by the belief that our average intra-industry tiffs require intercession What the well-intentioned "peace makers" don't seem to savvy is simply that this industry is perhaps more dynamic than any other that it is filled with inherent showmen who enjoy being dramatic even in their dealings with one another and are just as likely to magnify friction as they are to make "much ado" via inflating ballyhoo until it's fit to burst They like to have their private fights without strangers horning-in. T T T • • • ACTUALLY there's a tremendous amount of good-will in this industry cynics to the contrary and not the least is the goodwill twixt distribs. and exhibs. One of the many examples is wha happened when the Warners presented exhibs. with the company's recent new merchandising policy Right back bounded hundreds of letters from exhibs. in all sections of the land (they're still coming). ...... .congratulating WB for taking the initiative We quote a typical missive. . penned by M. W. Lamour of the National Theater, Graham, Texas: T T T • • • "YOUR Merchandising Plan and letter acknowledging receipt of my contract for 1939-40 pictures received Your willingness to live up to this plan under which your pictures were sold although you were not legally bound to do so was not surprising to me Having used First National, Vitagraph and Warner Bros, product in this house continuously since April 21, 1920 and over this period of almost 20 years having found you and your company always willing to be fair to your friends, the exhibitors I naturally felt that in this instance you would be as fair as you have always been in the past And you were! You toere merely living up to your reputation of always shooting square a reputation held by your district manager, Mr. Fred Jack, and Branch Manager Doak Roberts" (a note that will probably never be noted by the outside-the-industry mob) T ▼ T • • • BRIEF but decidedly glittering ceremonies marked the celebration last evening at the institutional Embassy Newsreel Theater where the plaque which was unveiled tells the story "Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of the First Newsreel Theater in the World, Opened Nov. 2. 1929" The unveiling took place in the lobby. . where a bevy of celebs, looked on while other celebs. appeared before the microphone W. French Gith ens, president of Newsreel Theaters, Inc was appropriately introduced by Harry Von Zell. popular radio and newsreel commentator T T T • • • COURTLAND SMITH who as head of Fox Movietone News conceived the Embassy Newsreel Theater delivered an address and Prexy Githens returned to present a life pass for the house to Mrs. Josephine Graff a sweet little elderly lady who has never missed a performance at the house The Anniversary program on the screen included shots from all the newsreels with sequences of the first newsreel ever to play the house CODE OKAY HINTED WITH STIPULATIONS {Continued from Page 1) for further discussion of the Code. The Department will not(ea*jive its approval to the proposed cq ^unless further stipulations are made, Murphy told Brandt. These stipulations must provide that nothing in the Code be in conflict with the Department's policy in the present industry suits, the Attorney General said. This is interpreted to mean that the Department is standing pat on the condemnation of the Code in its present form as announced some time ago by Thurman Arnold, Assistant Attorney General. Asked if he had seen Albert J. Laws, Department special investigator on the West Coast since his return to Washington, Murphy said he had not. He said there was "nothing new" on the West Coast situation, arising from a threefold Federal Grand Jury investigation and institution of criminal contempt proceedings against FWC and the majors. 7-Member Committee Named To Aid Canadian Film Board {Continued from Page 1) central government film distribution service and a public information service in reference to film distribution. The committee will assist John Grierson, newly-appointed Government Film Commissioner, and Capt. F. C. Badgley, director of the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau. Members of the interdepartmental committee are: F. C. Nunnick, director of the publicity and extension branch, Department of Agriculture; R. J. C. Stead, superintendent of parks and resources, publicity, Mines and Resources department; Ray A. Brown, public relations representative of the Labor Department; Baden F. Farrell of the public relations branch of the Post Office Department; H. F. S. Paisley, director of publicity, Fisheries Department; Major R. J. Whitelaw, General Staff, National Defense Department; and D. Leo Dolan, chief of the Canadian Travel Bureau Transport Department. Warner Club to Dance Pittsburgh— The annual Warner Club supper-dance will be held in the ball room of the William Pemr Hotel here on Nov. 12. Who's "L.O.B.9'? At yesterday's meeting of the AMPA someone rushed off with the wrong hat and in its place left Kenneth Clark of the Hays office a chapeau with the initials L.O.B. Ken claims the hat is o.k. but the size is just a bit too tight and would like L.O.B. to return same.