The Film Daily (1920)

ly, October 1, 1920 jM** DAILY »x Warns Stanley tinued from Page 1) , the season 1920-1921, in the Pen ritorj consisting of the State una ami adjoining states, ex . !i companies controlled, owned, or managed by you. ecent years investigation reveals that adually built up an organization button which consists of a com ibuting and booking com which arc cither owned, controlled or (1 by your company or in conjunction jrtain film producing and rental com with » lioni >ou have made booking combinations and also by icting a booking tee from the or all film service furnished to such irdless of whether or not you Mtrumental in furnishing the service, icrations have been carried on ol dominating the distribu „l I ; hip of motion pictures in the territory so as to practically product of any other distributor iter except those in your organization ibination. We now discover that up present vou have used the product of so long as you deemed it advisbuild up your monopolistic Orion and now that you feel that it has irpose you arc prepared to disand to refuse to deal further with us distribute or exhibit our pictures m ■rritorx. and to exert unlawful influ> exclude our product from that ter er been the policy or the desire iany to assist in the formation of dies; on the contrary, our policy has a free field for all, free and open and unrestricted trading. That iolicy that can make for a healthy this industry and the freedom itor to book, exhibit and present the best product in the market whom produced, exploited, dis 1 or 'booked. Under your policy the :>rs in the Pennsylvania territory are :ilb compelled to limit themselves to u of only such product as you e them and are intimidated into ing themselves to your arbitrary con v fear of being boycotted and driven ' business. In other words, it is the of cither taking such films as you will liein or being deprived of any booking er. statement has been made by your reptives or our representatives that you unable to deal with us because you i much material on hand that you will prepared to make any arrangements its until after January, 1921. It is 0 us that this statement is not made 1 faith, but is merely a subterfuge that g used by you for the purpose of keepr product out of that territory. There outstanding open contracts beour company and yours for a numengagements for pictures to be played, contracts will be fully performed by will, however, not consent to further tonopoly controlled or projected by r anybody else. Wish to make our position quite clear, icli as you refuse to deal with this intend to enter the market in una territory and will deal with or in that territory directly, m open, honest manner and to compete with the product which you or any:lse intends to release in that territory, re shall expect you to respect our to deal in this manner and to refrain in any manner influencing any exhibit that territory not to deal with us, tly or indirectly, and we shall e respect your legal rights and your o free, honest, open competition. Ins connection, we wish to give you ig that if you indulge in tactics of Og, directly or indirectly, any thent places of amusement owned, operconducted or booked by you, or in you may in any manner be interested, < not to have any business rela.vitli ns. or n. by any conduct on your irectlv or indirectly, you cause a boyf our i product in that territory by reive exhibitors with the film you or release or are interested in if exhibitors deal with the product of impany, or if you directly or indirectly an) owners of theaters or exhibitors introlled by you to refuse to deal with impanv and refuse to use our film serhrough fear of refusal on your part nish them with films which you control >k, or if you exact or attempt to exact king fee from any exhibitors without d of your association or combination, wm m any other manner restrain lawtde and competition in the exploitation, lotion and exhibition of motion picture film, we shall most assuredly avail ourselves of every legal right and every remedy at our disposal to maintain a free and open market and free, healthy, open competition. Very truly yours, FOX FILM CORPORATION, By S. E. ROGERS, General Counsel. Fox Film Corporation, West 55th Street, New York City, Attention of Saul E. Rogers, Esq. Gentlemen : Your letter of September 20th, addressed to Stanley Company of America, has been handed to us for answer. The letter contains certain statements of facts and certain declarations of intention on your part. The statements of fact, we are informed, an incorrect. The Stanley Company has not refused to negotiate for contracts for film service, except with companies controlled, owned, hooked or managed by it. It has done what we suppose every exhibitoi does, namely, picked out from the very large supply of pictures these which were besl suited to its houses and which it could obtain on the most advantageous terms. In the present state of the industry, no one can use all the pictures which are offered, and the Stanley Company of America selects those which it wishes to have. This, we understand, you agree that it has a right to do. On the other hand, you certainly have a right to sell where you please. We deny emphatically that exhibitors in the Pennsylvania territory are interfered with in any way in dealing with you. The Stanley Company is perfectly willing that exhibitors here shall buy their pictures wherever they please, and we are told to state that the Stanley Company has not the slightest objection to having any exhibitor who wishes, deal with you, nor will his dealing with you make any difference as far as his relations j with the Stanley Company of America are concerned. | Please do not misunderstand the attitude of the Stanley Co. of America. Is has abso | lutely no feeling against you. There is a cieat over-supply of pictures at this time, and it just is not possible to take all the pictures which are for sale. The Stanley Company selects those which suit it best, and will be very glad indeed to have those whom your pictures suit best buy them from you. If there is anyway in which you desire the Stanley Company to evidence this sentiment, it will be happy to do so, if it is at all possible for it to. Yours trulv, (signed) MORRIS WOLF, For Wolf, Block and Schorr. Eve Balfour in Fox Serial Eve Balfour, the English actress, has been signed by Fox, through George L. Clarke to appear in the new Fox serial which is now being made. J. Searle Dawley has started his first production for the Fox organization. It will be a special. Coming East Allan Holubar, Sydney Franklin and Al Kaufman are expected in New York in about three weeks. Holubar will see the local presentation of "Man, Woman and Marriage," which may be made into a stage play with Dorothy Phillips in the leading role and Franklin is to bring with him a print of "Parrott and Company." Rembusch Hit (Continued from Page 1) hearing, and were thoroughly impartial in their deliberations and findings. One of your Indiana exhibitors is apparently backing up Mr. Black in his very questionable methods of securing theatres from the very small exhibitors in New England, and we only wish you knew the pathetic side of these cases presented to us. The Indiana exhibitor that we refer to is Mr. Rembusch and for your information we want to state that while he was made a member of the Executive Committee of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America, he has not co-operated with us and does not seem to be inclined to lend either his moral or financial support to the National Organization. For instance, a check given at Cleveland for $325 * * * was returned and this check was charged to our account (by the Cleveland bank where it was deposited) "account no name of bank given." Mr. Rembusch has been written to with regard to this check, several times, but up to the present time our office has had no reply. At first, we thought it was because our Executive Committee declined to pay Mr. Rembusch the expenses incurred by Ins Committee of Seventeen which he said amounted to about $3,200, but after Mr. Whitehurst of Baltimore advised us that five producers had given Mr. Rembusch a thousand dollars apiece, or $5,000, we then thought he would see that the check for $325 was taken care of. (Editor's Note. — At the Indianapolis convention this check was taken care of by the signers, who. stated that Rembusch had requested them to withhold making it good.) When your Committee called on Mr. L. J. Selznick several weeks ago with regard to arranging a uniform contract, Mr. Selznick asked us to pay him hack the $1,000. which he loaned .Mr. Rembusch before the Cleveland Convention. Our Committee advised Mr. Selznick that tins was a personal matter between Mr. Rembusch and himself, and he replied by saying that he had been taken advantage of. Mr Cohen has been working untiringly ever since he was elected President to make the Motion Picture Theater Owners of America, a hundred per cent, organization and. in our opinion, he has accomplished wonders up to the present time, and we have given you the above facts about Mr. Rembusch so that you may not be misled by any propaganda which he might attempt to spread in your state. The independent exhibitors in all of our states have been intensively organized, and we are writing you this letter with the thought in our minds that where you knew these facts that you would not allow anyone who has an "axe to grind" to throw "any monkey wrenches into the machinery," as possibly you know by this time what a wonderful institution for the exhibitor our Organization is. Very truly yours, MOTION PICTURE THEATER OWNERS OF AMERICA. E. T. PETER, Dallas, Texas. W D. HURFORD, Aurora, 111., F. C. SEEGKRT, Milwaukee. Wis., C. H. BEAN, Franklin. N. H., 1. T. COLLINS, Rutherford, N. J., H. B. VARNER, Lexington, N. C. "Kismet" Showing Delayed Robertson-Cole has postponed the special showing of "Kismet" in the grand ball room of the Astor until Monday, Oct. 25. Sig Samuels Here Sig Samuels, owner of the Criterion, Atlanta, is spending a few days in New York. Samuels is now building a new theater in Atlanta, the Metropolitan, which will open in March. Although Rembusch failed to answer this letter on the floor of the convention WID'S DAILY wired him for any statement he cared to make. By wire he replied attacking Cohen's attitude regarding Black and saying that if "Black perpetrated all the things and in the way Cohen has alleged, then Black should be boiled in oil." He adds that for over a year and a half the trade journals have been filled with 'volumes of criminations and recriminations,' Cohen vs. Black, etc.," and suggests for "the sake of harmony" to have one big invest igatiom The Harry Levey Service Corp. and Harry Levey Prod, are moving from 1664 Broadway to 230 W. 38th St. AT LAST! Ready to talk business on u RANCH" Write, wire or call immediately STATE RIGHTS BERT LUBIN Suite 1111 1476 Broadway, N. Y. Tel. Bryant 3712 Mats, Electros and Stereos for the Motion Picture Trade I. Rubin & Co. 23 E. 4th St., N. Y. Phones Spring 8303-8304 The fastest stereotypers in N. Y. C. PHONE BRYANT 6558 When you want service UNITED SOCIETY CINEMATOGRAPHERS Suite 1603, Candler Bldg., N. Y. OKE IDIVEfflTi dm i 'THE MIDNIGHT RIDERS" A 5 Reel SuperWestern Roberts, Idaho — Roberts, C. Anderson, opened. $20,000. 300. B. <.,_„ For TERRITORY Ask Kipling, 516 5th Ave., New York .*