The Film Daily (1924)

IJIIf :9& brAdstreet of FILMDOM Authority VoL XXIX No. 26 Thursday, July 31, 1924 Price 5 Cents Lloyd Unattached No Contract Signed — Listening to Offers from All Sources — Ragland Back (Special to THE FILM DAILY) Los Angeles — Harold Lloyd has signed no contract with anyone for pictures to follow his Pathe series. That can be stated quite authoritatively. Naturally, many propositions have been made to him. Both Lloyd and William R. Fraser have been listening to offers from any and a'l sources, but that is as far as it has gone. The report that Lloyd had signed with Famous is probably predicated on the fact that on several occasions Lloyd, Fraser, S. R. Kent and others were seen at dinner at the .Embassador Hotel. John C. Ragland, Eastern representative for Harold Lloyd returned from the Coast yesterday. He had nothing to say about Lloyd's future affiliation, pointing to the denial wired to THE FILM DAILY by William R. Fraser yesterday. New Theater For Varner (Special to THE FILM DAILY) Concord, N. H. — A new theater will be ereted on a vacant lot in the rear of the Cannon Bldg., and when completed, about Jan. 1st, will be leased by H. B. Varner. J. Archie Cannon, is understood to be interested. Famous Buys "Garden of Weeds" It is understood Famous will star Betty Compson in a picture, adapted from Leon Gordon's play, "A Garden of Weeds," with James Cruze directing. Will Change "America" Title When "America" is released in England, it will be called "Love and Sacrifice." Some scenes will be eliminated. Kaiser A Producer Invests $25,000 In New German Comoany— "Parisifal" To Be The First Production (Special to THE FILM DAILY) Los Angeles — The Times publishc? the following special cable from Ber h'n: For the purpose of cleaning motion nictures of domestic dirt and restoring resnect for old time Teutonic ideals, William Hohcnzollern, formerly Germany's Kaiser, has invested about $25,000 and become the principal backer of a new film company. "The former Kaiser is becoming a film producer as a result of a request from his fourth son, Prince August (Continued on Page 21 Copyright Changes To Engage Attention of New Law Committee — Also Uniform Contract Revisions Saul E. Rogers of Fox has been appointed chairman of the law committee of the Hays association, succeeding Elek John Ludvigh. Two important matters will engage the attention of the committee at once. One concerns changes in the uniform contract. These, as noted, have already been discussed. Until the draft is drawn, distributors will use the agreement originally drawn up. The revisions, while important, are not expected to be startling in their nature. The contract, as indicated on many occasions is working out in a very satisfactory fashion. The copyright situation needs attention, A new bill will be introduced in Congress when the fall session convenes. Modification of the law now existing in this country will be sought in order to give producers a greater and more clearly defined measure of protection. Treaties covering foreign countries wi'l bear changes in them and some sort of uniformity sought, if such a thing can be worked out. „ Four New Theaters in New Unit (Special to THE FILM DAILY) Austin. Tex. — Tl^e International 'Vmus. Co.. of San Antonio, has been chartered with a capital of $10 000 The incorporators are G. A. Lucliese and Hcnrv Tagle. The new comnanv Avas formed to onerate the Pearl. Pike, Liberty and Wigwam. Gleichman Hearing Postponed The liearinff at which contracts betivcen Phil Gleichman of Detroit an'' Famoti'i-Plavers were to be produced ♦o establish the premise of the former in his suit for damages, original' v set for ypsterdav afternoon, has been postponed until this morning. Reeal Has "Chu-Chin-Chow" (Shcrinl to THE FILM DAILY) Toronto — Reeal Films has secured "Ch)i-Chin-Chow," for release in Canada. Would Censor All Posters (Sl'ccial to THE FILM DAILY) Madison Wis.— Censoring of all noster advertising is urced hv Hcnrv A. Staab, of the M. P. T. O. Doug and Mary Leave Soon Douglas Fairbanks and M.'irv Pickford leave for the Coast the early part of next week. Detroit Buying "Agency" Planned; Gleichman to Fight Kunsky Move George W. Trendle Calls Scheme a Protective Measure Against Overseating — Says Producers' Sanction It But Doubt is Expressed Here — Gleichman Threatens Counter Move If Kunsky Plan Develops Gary on Business Judge Elbert H. Gary, chairman of the board of directors of the United States Steel Corp., gene'"ally considered the most powerful industrial corporation in America says of business conditions: "* * * if I were giving advice, I would say, have confidence in the United States ; be patient and courageous and rely upon the opportunities which are presented to use for a fair amount of prosperity that is coming to the world, and is sure to be larger and larger as the years go by. "What every reasonable person desires is economic progress and prosperity, because comfort and happiness depend upon them. At the same time, we must remember that some people talk and act as though they would like to see adversity and failure. It is not necessary for us to heed or place any reliance upon that class of individuals. "Personally, I am very hopeful of the future. I believe in the country, in our institutions, in the sentiment of the people and in their intelligence." Los Angeles Open No Trouble in Securing First Runs For Warner Pictures, Manager Testifies At Hearing (Special to THE FILM DAILY) Los Angeles — At the resumption of the Federal Trade Commission's investigation into monopoly charges against Famous Players, Hulling, of George Oppenheimer, Inc., Warner distributors in Southern California refuted the previous testimony made by the local Fox manager, regarding the ability of producer-distributor owned theaters shutting out independent booking.o Hulling testifie<l that since 1921, every Warner picture has had first run representation in Los Angeles, (Continued on Page 2) Charnas Here Harry Charnas of Cleveland is in New York. Reports reaching New York concerning the formation of a booking combination in the City of Detroit by the Kunsky interests were confirmed yesterday when, in response to a telegram sent by THE FILM DAILY, George W. Trendle, general manager for Kunsky replied : "A co-operative buying agency is being formed with sanction of the producers to protect the town against possible over-seating. This action was planned many months ago". Particular interest was aroused over that portion of the telegram that declared the move was contemplated with the "sanction of producers". In view of the fact that many of the mak>r companies are on record as op'^ing dealings with booking combinations, the opinion was expressed yesterday that Trendle had perhaps over-stated the situation. Important sales managers declined to discuss the matter for publication. Informally, however, several stated they could figure no basis for Trendle's assumption that the producer(Continued on Page 2) Novelty Films Only Red Seal's 1924-25 Program Deals With Short Stuff Completely— May Have 150 Reels Red Seal Pictures will have a complete program of novelties for next year. The organization is confining its activities to the production and distribution of novelty releases alone. Of the total of 120 to 150 reels, over seventy-five per cent of them will have comedy predominating. There will be 22 new single reel Out-of-the-Inkwell novelties by Max Fleischer, released one every three weeks. There will also be 13 Song Cartoon (Continued on Page 3)