The Film Daily (1930)

THE HE NEWSPAPER )F FILM DON AND WEEKLY FILM DIGEST fOL. LIII No. 4 Sunday, July 6, 1930 Price 25 Cents Sidney Kent Urges Support of 5-5-5 Decision NEW ARBITRATION SYSTEM TO START SOON Paramount Adds To Criterion Site on Broadway lay Build Skyscraper on Times Sq. Plot After Present Leases Assembling of a site by Paramount >r a possible new Times Square cyscraper on the Broadway front dw occupied by the Criterion and oew's New York has been reveal 1 with the filing of a transfer in mnection with the purchase of the enox property, 149-151 West 44th on which Paramount held an >tion. This gives the picture com iny a parcel measuring 204 feet on roadway, extending from 44th to th Sts.; 256 feet on 45th, and 218 i 44th. No definite plans for the sembled site have been made yet, some of the present leases run to out 1936. ITISH TALKER IN COLOR IADE MINUS PROCESSING ondon (By Cable) — An eight reel king picture in natural colors, ng ordinary panchromatic negative ordinary positive without procing, has been completed by RayBritish Corp., of which Maurice irey is managing director. The n is recorded on Western Elec: system. ttaluga Studio, Rome, I Producing Sound Shorts tome — Sound shorts now are beturned out by the Pittaluga studio e. The first subjects, recently nonstrated at the International m Institute and declared to be hnirally excellent, included a rade of 25,000 fascists in the unity of Rome, the speech of Mustini on this occasion, and a musical 'Tiber by 20 harps and three pianos. Musical Minus Music Some film producers take stage dramas and put them on the screen with a lot of musical numbers injected, whether apropos or not. But Columbia has done something different by taking a stage musical comedy, Joe Cook's "Rain or Shine," and making it into a talker without music. Guarantees, Disc Fees Stir Boycott Threat in England London (By Cable) — A boycott policy, termed a "booking holiday," has been decided upon by independent exhibitors as a protest against guarantees and disc charges. To this end the following resolution was passed at a General Council meeting: "That the General Council recommends that no film be booked to play on or after Sept. 1, 1930, with any renter who stipulates that any guarantee be given or any disc charges be paid by the exhibitor." The meeting recommended the acceptance of Adolph Zukor's recent suggestion for a round table conference on the issue, but urged that the exhibitors go to this conference armed with the ultimatum that unless booking terms in future are going to be upon equitable lines, booking of films would be suspended. Frank Prendergast Appointed Fox Public Relations Chief Frank Prendergast, secretary to the Commissioner of Public Works, has been appointed Director of Public Relations for Fox, to take effect July 15. Prendergast was for many years secretary to Joseph Johnson, now executive secretary for Fox, when Johnson held the position of Commissioner of Public Works for New York City. Support of 5-5-5 Decision Is brged By Sidney R. Kent Ice Cream Week Folks attending the afternoon shows at the New York Paramount this week are being served free ice cream. All elements of the industry have been called upon by Sidney R. Kent, chairman of the 5-5-5 conference, to rally to the support of the meeting's decision and work it out in the same spirit that led to its adoption. Kent, expressing extreme gratification at the enthusiastic response given on all sides to the success of the 5-5-5 deliberations, has given out the following statement: "Although the conference has been over only a few hours, the flood of messages that have come in shows the great satisfaction which all phases of the industry feels in the work of the men who met at Atlantic City. "However, all of this effort, all of the wonderful spirit of conciliation and co-operation which was manifested at the meetings, (Continued on Page 2) Hess, Myers and Walker Will Meet to Draft Regulations Although it is impossible at the moment to fix the starting date of the new national arbitration system, devised at the 5-5-5 conference in Atlantic City, every effort will be made to put it in operation as early in the current sales season as practical. A committee comprising Gabriel Hess, Abram F. Myers and Frank Walker will meet within a few days to draft the language of the (Continued on Page 2) RKO SHORTS ARE INCLUDED IN WARNER BOOKING DEAL Under the terms* of the booking deal whereby RKO product will be played in all the Warner-Stanley theaters, first reported exclusively in THE FILM DAILY more than two weeks ago and now officially confirmed by Lee Marcus, the RKO short subjects as well as feature releases are included. Charles Rosenzweig, Jerome Safron and Cleve Adams acted for RKO in the negotiations, while Edward Alperson, Clayton Bond and George Skouras represented Warners. ZONING PLAN COMPLETED FOR KANSAS CITY AREA A zoning plan for the Kansas City territory is understood to have been agreed upon by delegates representing distributors and exhibitors. Its text will be announced soon. Hot Issue Baltimore — Five out of six local candidates for the State Senate have Sunday picture shows as their campaign keynote.