The Film Daily (1923)

sTHE 5fe BRADSTREET >/* FILMDOM ZfcRECOGMZEB Authority )1. XXVI No. 39 Thursday, November 15, 1923 Price 5 Cents )ld Contracts Stand lemies" Situation Straightened Out— Meeting Called by T. O. C. C. on Friday Morning harles L. O'Reilly yesterday ed a meeting of exhibitors holding iemies of Women"' contracts at Astor for Friday at 11 o'clock, which a settlement plan will be ounced. is understood that Nathan Burattorney for the Cosmopolitan p., will attend and explain that company will recognize the old racts closed by Famous Players n it was thought the picture Id be distributed through Parant. This is conditional in view he fact that Cosmopolitan feels exhibitors should make further essions on price. The picture much more than originally ded. Exhibitors will therefore be d to either increase the number f claying dates or increase the lis. ie matter was taken up by Will -lays about two weeks ago, fol ig a visit of O'Reilly to the Hays k when the entire matter was into. It is believed — or hoped, ast — that this arrangement as it be explained by Burkan, will y dispose of the matter. (Continued on Page 4) parade Planned for Saturday ie paradei designed to launch M. ay in New York, will be held aturday, beginning at 2 o'clock. Harder of the march will take the B) along Broadway. A number 4ats will be sponsored by various licers. The Police Band and r us other bands will supply Hayakawa Back in January i sue Hayakawa is expected back r Europe in January to start work series of pictures for Truart. ; now working for Stoll in Hnd. Bataille," which Hayakawa | in Paris for a French company, over here shortly. T M. nitel Adopt Credit System Eastern Zone of the Ass'n of Equipment Dealers has de.fiadopted a credit rating system •arced by the Hoy Reporting ^l-. At present it will include ts in Albany, Buffalo, Boston. laven and New York. The tion at the Astor has closed. Scene showing Douglas MacLean taking a flying lesson in his roaring comedy, "Going Up," one of the year's screen knockouts. An Associated Exhibitors release. — Advt. Favor Wells' Plan At French Lick — Close Co-operation With Hays Also Suggested — 12 States Represented (Special to THE FILM DAILY) French Lick Springs, Ind. — Jake Wells' plan to divide the country according to film zones is looked upon favorably here by the representatives of 12 state exhibitor bodies who have come to French Lick to discuss one subject: ways and means of getting the admission tax off the Federal statute books. Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kentucky, Tennessee and South Dakota are represented here. The more important leaders include W. A. Steffes, Gus G. Schmidt, Charles Olsen, H. M. Richey. H. A. Cole, Frank J. Rembusch and Heller of Indiana No fixed program has been made but the all-important topic (Continued on Page 2) Red Seal Gets Inkwell Series Edwin Miles Fadman, president of Red Seal Pictures Corp. has secured world's distribution rights to the Outof-the-Inkwell Comedies. They will be sold via the state right market. Seek Sunday Closing Lord's Day Alliance Announces Plan — Finds Pews Deserted and Theaters Crowded The Lord's Day Alliance is out in the open as an advocate of "blue" Sundays. It has announced a campaign to bring about Sunday closing. The Alliance has been investigating the Sunday theater situation and declares that attendance at Sunday picture shows is many times larger than attendance at churches. An up-state survey of 573 churches showed a total attendance of 27,727 or an average of 48 people at each church. In one up-state City, on one Sunday evening, two theaters had a total attendance of 14,100. The remaining twenty eight theaters in that city were not even included in the survey. In Washington, a survey showed 7,000 people attending 40 churches and 50,000 at 40 theaters at the same time. Pathe Release in Two Forms Pathe is releasing "The Way of a Man" which George B. Seitz made on the coast in two forms: one as a feature in nine reels and the other as a ten episode serial, each episode in two reels. Leaders Won't Talk Many Important Executives Decline To Talk About Godsol's Joint Distributing Plan There was a general reluctance evidenced yesterday on the part of executives in the distributing end of the business to comment on F. J. Godsol's plan for a joint distributing machine that would reduce operating overhead and as he puts it, "put an end to the dictation of prices by exhibitors." Godsol holds that "if a sufficient number of pictures were in the hands of one distributing agency, exhibitors who persisted in their present strangling methods would soon find themselves facing a shortage of good pictures and they would then be willing to deal on a fair basis." Adolph Zukor, Hiram Abrams, Carl Laemmle, E. A. Eschmann and Samuel Goldwyn, declined to make any comment. Harry M. Warner promised a statement later. At Associated Exhibitors, Arthur S. Kane and Jack Woody were both away. Sydney S. Cohen of the M. P. T. O. said he might talk about it later on, while W. A. True of the T. O. D. C. and Elmer Pearson of Pathe could not be reached at their offices. One executive who is very well posted declared that Godsol was (Continued on Page 2) Kent Due Saturday (Special to THE FILM DAILY) Los Angeles — S. R. Kent has left for the East. He is due in New York on Saturday. John C. Flinn is also bound for New York with a print of "The Ten Commandments." He is due there Friday. New Tourneur Contract (Special to THE FILM DAILY) Hollywood — While in New York M. C. Levee closed a contract with First National for a new series of Maurice Tourneur productions. "Messalina" Here Guazzoni Brings Spectacle With Him — Sees Improvement in Italian Production Enrico Guazzoni, producer of the original "Quo Vadis?" is in New York with a print of "Messalina," a spectacle which he completed _ in Rome before sailing for America. Guazzoni is makinor his headquarters here with Ferdinand Luporini. (Continued on Page 2)