The Film Daily (1929)

10 ~W* DAILV Monday, September 23, 1929 AND THAT'S THAT By PHIL M. DALY WE HAD the pleasure of comparing notes with a Twin Soul the other day. Did you ever meet somebody who thought pretty much as you did about a hobby that lies close to your heart? And then you ger started talking about the fine points of the matter. Oh, boy, ain't it a grand and glorious feeling? Well that's what happened to us when G. R. O'Neil, advertising and publicity director for Pathe, started us looking — " his current advertising cam I I he whole plan is based on the ■a of building a definite institu'onal atmosphere about each separate ad. They are all distinctive and different, yet all bear that indefinable hallmark which identifies them and sets them apart from any competitive copy. The result is achieved through a definite system in planning art work and copy to combine in a layout that is stamped with this illusive quality of "personality advertising." If the Pathe name did not appear on it, and you were familiar ivith these layouts, you woidd immediately associate it with Pathe. And that, brothers, if you ask us, is the Big Secret of stamping your name and product on the consciousness of your advertising prospects * * * Colonel G. R. O'Neil has hit on something. And we don't mean maybe! * * * Art Note Our confreres and connoisseur companion in matters esthetic and esoteric, known to the trade as Harry Rathner, has now gone "color conscious." Also artistic and what not. He is now production chief of Photocolor. . . . How times change. . . . It was not so long ago that he was selling Jackie Coogan to the world. * * Empey Club Chatter (By Charlie Schwartz) Every time A. T. & T. stock moves upward, the boys sing "HelloHello-Hello. THEIR FIRST JOBS L H. HAYS law clerk i l * WIL a Along The Rialto with PhilM. Daly, Jr. /GORDON (Educational) WHITE is back from a visit in Tennessee, but we're not asking him to prove the fishing stories. Only, we hear he'd tried to garner a stock flotation for a ginseng farm Dewey Bloom, veteran screen publicist, just back from Yurrop smilingly recalls a sign announcing that the Shakespeare theater is "The Home of Talkies" It's just too bad for "blue-noses" of Noo Yawk, for the courts won't remove those eye-compelling gals who are doing their stuff on "The Great Gabbo" flash "Say It with Songs" is the first attraction, fillum or legit, to ever get a second week at Zanesville, O.', B. J. Mechling will tell you Richard Carle in "The Grand Parade" has his first Pathe role 'since 1915. How many other companies then going are now non-existent? Jack Sullivan, doughty Turk, who does the buying for Fox West Coast Theaters, has left for the Coast after a sojourn of several months in Noo Yawk Radio-Keith-Orpheum broadcast a special program for Commander Byrd and his Antarctic crew on Sattiday Seriousness is the keynote of the new Southeastern exhibitor unit It was Donald Calthrop who did such a good job of the blackmailer role in "Blackmail," and not John Longden, as the editorial of Sunday stated, but the latter rates special mention for his work as the detective in the pitcher M. Van Praag, Universal's sales chief, has a birthday today, congrats. That Universal complete service plan should make the day a happy one Ernie Mass' hobby is the J. P. Morgan collection of Chinese porcelains 44 American inventive brains and genius will not be satisfied until sound reproducing equipment of first-rate standard quality can be manufactured and sold at price ranges within the proper economic limits of all types of theaters. J J LEE MARCUS No.48 Industry Statistics By JAMES P. CUNNINGHAM Statistical Editor, The Film Doily No.48 .Approximately 175 film laboratories are scattered throughout the United States with the state of New York having 29, followed by California which has 28. In the city of Los Angeles, there are 19 labs while New York City has 15. Lists compiled by THE FILM DAILY as appeared in the 1929 Year Book show the number of laboratories in each state as follows: New York, 29; California, 28; Illinois, 16; Ohio and Pennsylvania, 12 each; New Jersey, 8; Missouri, 8; Massachusetts, 6; Florida, Michigan and Texas, 4 each; Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Minnesota, Washington and Wisconsin, 3 each, with Georgia, Indiana 2 each. The states of Connecticut Maryland, Montana and Utah have one film laboratory each. Timely Topics A Digest of Current Opinion — ©— I Film Buying Declared Based on Mutual Trust TRADING between the exhibitor and film man is based almost entirely on mutual confidence. To destroy that confidence is to knock the props from under the entire trade structure. No exhibitor pays any attention to the dozens of fancy clauses in the Standard Exhibition Contract. It would give him a headache to merely read them, let alone try and understand them. The exhibitor buys Paramount or Metrcj or Fox because his experience has taught him that Paramount and Metro and Fox have always made the kind of pictures he needs and should continue to do so. He pays the price he does because, based on the business he has been doing, that price will permit him a profit on his investment — to which he is entitled. If Paramount or Metro or Fox fails to live up to its usual standard, or if the exhibitor's business collapses, then a revision of his price schedule is in order. A picture's value is determined not by the exchange man or by the exhibitor. It is determined by the box-office. That fact must be recognized by both buyer and seller. The solution is still straight percentage — without the guarantees. "The Exhibitor" * * * Says British Will Support Talking Films, If Good THE English people do not object to the modern talking films in which the American language is spoken, and will continue to patronize the Hollywood product as long as it seems to them to be good entertainment. Also in England the making of audible films has taken on a fresh, ambitious pace, and the coming year will see more pictures made there. "The N. Y. Morning World" TEN YEARS AGO TO-DAY IN 2fr NEWSPAPER o/FILMDOM , 2:9inz 0 A> Alfred S. Black gets eight more houses in New Hampshire and Vermont. * * * Ricord Gradwell out of World Film; Milton C. Work in charge.