The Film Daily (1933)

THE Thursday, Aug. Zf, 1933 DAILY 17 FULL TEXT OF EXHIBITION CODE Draft of Fair Practices Covering the Theater Field Submitted Yesterday by Charles O'Reilly to the NRA CODE OF FAIR COMPETITION FOR THE EXHIBITION DIVISION OF THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY PREAMBLE This Code is submitted by the Motion Picture Industry in conformity with the provisions of the National Recovery Act. The object of this Code is to provide for increased employment ; to create a shorter working week and to improve the standards of labor ; to eliminate the waste and burden of unfair trade practices to the interests ot the public, the employes and employers ot the exhibition branch of the Motion Picture Industry. PART I ARTICLE 1. Labor — General. 5. Employees shall have the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and shall be free from the interference, restraint or coercion of employers of labor, or their agents, in the designation of sucht representatives or in other concerted activities for the p— -po=e of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection. 2. No employee and no one seeking employment shall be required as a condition of employment to join any company union or to refrain from joining, organizing or assisting a labor organization of his own choosing. 3. Employers shall comply with the maximum hours of labor., minimum rates of pay and other conditions of employment, apnrovfd or prescribed by the President. 4. No emnloyee shall be required to join any organ:zation to secure or retain employment or to secure the benefits of this code, and the right of every individual to refrain from joining any organization, and the right of employer and employee to bargain together free from interference by any third party, is hereby recognized. Maximum Hours of Employment in Connection With Theater Operation. Ten (10) days after approval of this Code by the President : No person under sixteen (16) years of age shall be employed. No employee of any department shall work for more than fifty-two (52) hours in one week. The maximum hours prescribed in the foregoing paragraph shall not apply to contract labor, to professional persons employed in their professions, or to employees in a managerial, executive or supervisory capacity. Whenever it may be necessary because of an emergency, overtime and extra shifts beyond the limitations herein set forth shall be permitted. Classifications of Employees. Employees shall be classified as follows: Class No. 1 — Operators. Class No. 2 — Stage Hands. Class No. 3 — Musicians. Class No. 4 — Ticket sellers, doormen, apprentices and office help. Class No. 5^Ushers, office boys, cleaners, matrons, watchmen and attendants. Class No. 6 — Other employees such as electricians and carpenters (not stage hands), painters, show card writers, sign painters. Class No. 7 — Professional persons and persons in managerial, executive or supervisory capacities. Minimum Wages. Classes No. 1-2-3 — Contract labor. These classes are matters for local autonomy and no minimum is fixed for them, other than 40 cents per hour as prescribed in the President's agreement for mechanical employees. Class No. 4 — 25 cents per hour in towns or cities having a population of 250.000 or less ; 30 cents per hour in cities having a papulation between 250.000 and 500,000, and 35 cents per hour in cities having a population in excess of 500,000. Class No. 5 — 25 cents per hour. Class No. 6 — This c'ass shall be paid at hourly rates prevailing in the community in which the theater is located, provided, however, no less than 40 cents per hour shall be paid. Class No. 7 — The foregoing hours shall not apply to persons embraced in this class. ARTICLE 2. Right to Buy. It is an unfair trade practice to deny to any theater operator the right to buy in free and open competition whatever run of pictures he or it desires ; provided, however, that the seller shall have the right of selection based upon bona fide consideration of the character, responsib:lity, prior performance, prestige of theater or theaters, and potentiality of income. ARTICLE 3. Standard License Agreement. The optional standard license agreement already negotiated and used by a majority of the distributors shall be used exclusively by all distributors, except as modified by this code. ARTICLE 4. Allocation of Certain Film Rentals. If feature pictures are licensed by a distributor under a license agreement by which the distributor has the right to assign pictures at a later date to different price groups, or classifications, or in which pictures are not described or identified, permitting the distributor to assign pictures not so identified to various film rentals, then the distributor shall, at the conclusion of the contract, provided the exhibitor is not in default thereunder, and provided the percentage of the total number of feature pictures contracted for in each price group has not been released by the distributor, adjust the total film rental on the basis of the average price of pictures for the total number of pictures contracted for. ARTICLE 5. Dating Restrictions. No distributor shall refuse to date feature pictures because of a delinquency in the dating of short subjects, nor refuse to date short subjects on account of a delinquency of the playing arrangement of the feature contract. ARTICLE 6. Unreasonable Discrimination. It is an unfair trade practice for a distributor to unreasonably withhold prints to which a theater is entitled under its contract of exhibition. ARTICLE 7. Threats and Coercion. No distributor shall threaten or coerce or intimidate any exhibitor to enter into any contract for the exhibition of motion pictures, _ or to pay higher film rentals by the commission of any overt act evidencing an intention to build or otherwise acquire a motion picture theater for operation in competition with such exhibitor, but nothing in this article shall in any way abridge the right of a producer or distributor in good faith to build or otherwise acquire a motion picture theater in any location except as herein prohibited. ARTICLE 8. Distributors' Employees. No distributors' employee shall use his position with the distributor to interfere with the free and competitive buying of pictures by an exhibitor operating a theater in competition with a theater in which such employee may have a direct or indirect financial interest. ARTICLE 9. Offer of Gratuity. No exhibitor or distributor shall give any gratuity or make any offer, or promise of gratuity, to a distributor or exhibitor, or any representative of any distributor or exhibitor for the purpose of procuring advantages that would not otherwise be procurable, or as an inducement to influence such distributor or exhibitor, or representative not to deal with competing or other exhibitors or distributors. ARTICLE 10. Inducement to Breach Contracts. No exhibitor or distributor shall seek to induce or induce a distributor or any representative of any distributor, or any exhibitor, to breach any contract licensing the exhibition of motion pictures. ARTICLE 11. Selective Contracts Any exhibitor entering into a contract for the exhibition of motion pictures which permit the exhibitor to select from the total number of pictures licensed, less than eightyfive per cent (85%) of the total number, and to reject the remainder shall by written notice to the distributor, reject each of such motion pictures not to exceed the number which may be rejected within twenty-one days after its date of availability in the exchange territory wherein is located the exhibitor's theater, and failing to give such notice of rejection, each of such pictures shall be deemed to have been selected. ARTICLE 12. Overbuying. No exhibitor shall contract for a license to exhibit more motion pictures than such exhibitor reasonably shall require for exhibition in any theater or theaters operated by such exhibitor, with the effect of depriving a competing exhibitor from contracting to exhibit such excess motion pictures, provided however that nothing herein contained shall be deemed to prohibit any exhibitor from contracting for a reasonable number of motion pictures in excess of the number which are actually to be exhibited in the theater or theaters of such exhibitor in order to reasonably protect such exhibitor against nondelivery of motion pictures. ARTICLE 13. Transfer to Avoid Contracts. No exhibitor shall transfer the ownership or possession of a theater operated by any such exhibitor for the purpose of avoiding uncompleted contracts for the exhibition of motion pictures at such theater or theaters. ARTICLE 14. Elimination. (a) If the total number of feature motion pictures offered to the Exhibitor by the Distributor, at one time, shall have been licensed by the Distributor under a contract of exhibition, and the rental of each thereof averages less than Four hundred ($400.00) Dollars, the Exhibitor shall have the right to exclude from the license, first not to exceed five (5%) per cent of the total number of feature motion pictures licensed; thereafter to further exclude not to exceed five (5%) per cent of said total number; and/or lastly to further exclude not to exceed five (5%) per cent of said total number, the aggregate number of feature pictures so excluded in no event to exceed fifteen (15%) per cent of the total number licensed ; pro^ vided that the Exhibitor is not in defaul, under such contract and shall have fully co plied with all of the provisions, if any sc forth in the Schedule for the exhibition of one or more of said feature motion pictures at specified intervals ; and provided further that the Exhibitor shall give to the Distributor written notice of the Exhibitor's election to exclude any of said feature motion pictures not later than fourteen (14) days before the date or dates fixed for its exhibition under such contract and at the same time: (1) as to each feature motion picture excluded in the first five per cent of the total number so excluded to pay to the Distributor the rental therefor specified in the Schedule; (2) as to each feature motion picture included in the five per cent of the total number thereafter so excluded to pay to the Distributor one-half of the rental thereof specified in the Schedule; and (3) as to each feature motion picture included in the five (5%) per cent of the total lastly so excluded there shall be added to the rental of the motion pictures then remaining to be delivered under such contract an amount at least equal to the aggregate of the rentals of the motion pictures so lastly excluded, apportioned equally to each or to any one or more thereof, selected by the Exhibitor upon notice to such effect given to the Distributor, and the exhibition period specified in the Schedule of each of such motion pictures so selected may be, at the option of the Exhibitor upon written notice to such effect, ratably extended for such number of days as the rental thereof specified in the Schedule plus the amount added as provided in such contract, permits ; provided that if there shall be no motion pictures then remaining to be delivered under such contract, the Exhibitor shall pay to the Distributor the rental therefor specified in the Schedule. In computing such number of days fractions of more than one-third shall be deemed one day. For the purpose of determining whether or not the average rental of any of the motion pictures, the rental of which is to be computed in whole or in part upon a percentage of the receipts of the Exhibitor's theater, is more or less than $400.00, the rental of each such motion picture shall be deemed to be the average amount of the license fees paid by the Exhibitor to the Distributor for each feature motion picture distributed by the Distributor and exhibited at said theater during a period of one year prior to the term of such contract and of which the rental was computed in whole or in part upon a percentage of the receipts of the Exhibitor's theater. (b) On or before the fifteenth (15th) day after the end of each three (3) months period of the term of the license, the Distributor shall repay to the Exhibitor a sum equal to the amount paid by the Exhibitor to the Distributor as rental of the feature motion pictures first excluded by the Exhibitor as provided in Paragraph (a) of this clause, during such three months period provided that during such three months period the