The Film Daily (1929)

,0* NEWSPAPER •/FILMDOM mm ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME PL. L No. 15 Thursday, October 17, 1929 Price 5 Cents \jittle Likelihood of Code of Ethics Revision jtEVISIONOF CONTRACT PROVISIONSSLATED ontinental Accessories Starting Activities r> A Season of Successes —By JACK ALICOATE = EXPERIENCE has taught us that we will soon be faced with the usual and asonal crop of fall and winter chibitor ailments. Usually, )out this time, the theater ownstarts squawking about the lediocrity of product offered Km, and his press agent wails either silently nor discretely ker the fact that poor pictures jffer meager exploitation fare br the robust and raging pubcity representative. At times, n years past, we have agreed rith this conclusion, sometimes assively and sometimes with a pilitancy that vent itself in the [rilited word. This year, howver, we are thoroughly and conlusively in accord with ouron one point. Whatever he well meaning and commerially artistic exhibitor may sufer from during the coming cinma calendar it won't be the pck of an unusual and excepionally fine string of gold-geting pictures. This, of course, >rovided that his house is ade[uately and efficiently wired to ransfer sound and dialogue in he same true and undistorted orm in which it originally left he production studio. The Horn of Plenty Personally we have seen more lonest-to-goodness screen enter:ainment during the past few weeks than is usually offered for public inspection during an en (Continued on Page 2) New National System of Supply Houses Opening Link in Chain (ontinental Theater Accessories, Inc. this Saturday will open the first office in a proposed national chain of theater supply houses, when headquarters in the new Warner building in N. Y., begin operation. Joe Hornstein, of Continental, who formerly was National Theater Supply New (Continued on Page 2) non-theaIcaTcase arbitration opposed Declaring his opposition to arbitration of a non-theatrical case by exhibitors, Sam Sonin, yesterday declined to sit on a case brought by First Division against the Fall Hills public school at Fall Hills, N. J. Consideration of the case, however, was postponed at the suggestion of the board (Continued from Page 11) FOX METROPOLITAN TO CONTINUE STEADY GROWTH Expansion of Fox Metropolitan Theaters in the Greater New Yorkarea is being continued at a steady and gradual pace states President Joe Leo. No set number of theaters is sought as the circuit's goal, however, he states, the company being (Continued on Page 4) Distributor Counsel to Get Together With U.S. Attorney to Omit Any "Illegal" Features Speedy revision of features of the standard contract and arbitration agreement considered by Federal Judge Thacher as in violation of the Sherman anti-trust law is indicated by Edwin P. Grosvenor, of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, chief of counsel for ten distributors, the Hays organization and Film Boards of Trade, following granting to the government of an injunction restraining any of the alleged illegal practices. Under the procedure,, the next step is a get-together of defense and government counsel, to seek to reach an accord upon provisions of the contract and arbitration agreement. If this accord is reached, it then will be submitted to the court for approval, after which a decree will be entered. Following, entering of a decree, decision will be made as to whether any appeal from the ruling of Judge Thacher will be taken. Judge Thacher's decision in the arbitration was the second of two within a month, the other being in the credit case, which resulted in a clean cut victory for the defendants, who were the same as in the arbitration case, both actions were defended by Grosvenor. The arbitration case decision em(Continued on Page 4) U. S. Studies Decision Wash. Bur. of THE FILM DAILY Washington — Decision of Judge Thacher in New York, granting the government's application for an injunction restraining ten distributors, the Hays organization and Film Boards of Trade, from enforcement of any unlawful phases of the standard contract and arbitration agreements, is under consideration by officials of the Dept. of Justice. Comment is declined pending a study of the case. Jay Emanuel, Publisher of 3 Regional Papers Philadelphia — Jay Emanuel, Philadelphia theater operator, and treasurer of the national M. P. T. O. A., (Continued on Page 2) German Dialogue Cut into English Version of Talker McCook, Fox Sue to Void 3 Leases Sold to Publix Omaha — Suit has been filed by the McCook (Neb.) Amusement Co. and the Fox Westcoast Theaters Corp. to (Continued on Page 2) NO NEW PARLEY SLATED .» Fox Films Would Star Al Smith in "Up to Now Al Smith has been approached by Fox for the film rights to "Up to Now." The film company is at the same time trying to induce the former governor to play the hero in the film version of his life story. Washington Bureau of. THE FILM DAILY Washington — There is little likelihood of any revision of the Code of Ethics adopted by the film industry at its Trade Practice Conference in New York in October 1927, although there are a number of proposed provisions of which the commission held (Continued on Page 11) First step in multi-lingual talker production by the company has been completed on "Lummox" by United Artists, with completion of a German version of the picture. Fred Zelnick, German director, handled (Continued on Page 2) J. J. HARWOOD RE-ELECTED CLEVELAND ASS'N HEAD Cleveland — J. J. Harwood has been elected president of the Cleveland M. P. Exhibitors Ass'n for the fifth term. Other officers elected at the meeting here are: George Paulda, (Continued on Page 2)