The Film Daily (1930)

THE IE MWSI VI 1 1, ff FILM DOM -yy-^ AIL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME VOL. LIII No. 7 Wednesday, July 9, 1930 Price 5 Cents 1 ,1 00 Out of 1,500 Publix Theaters Now Wired BIG 6JAVE LESS THAN 20% 0F~H0USES Capt. Auten To Handle 30 B. I. P. Films in U. S. The Mirror — a column of comment LXHIBS HAVE spent at least £3,000,000 on inferior sound re>roducers which they have had o replace, estimates C. W. Bunn. A deplorable wastage his, plus undetermined thousands of headaches. Especially it the present moment, with unrertain business conditions prevailing, theaters which install ly-by-night and other unknown origin equipment are toying vith dynamite. Only equipment which has a record for delivering the best calibre sound is vorthy of consideration. Equipnent which will be serviced tonorrow as well as today. On rther nondescript brands, a theater nay economize a few shekels at the ime of purchase. Genuine economy, lowever, looks further into the fuure — over a period of years. This conomy ought to be figured not >nly on the initial purchase price nd servicing but also on the basis >f consistently good reproducing. Vith audiences fast becoming more liscriminating, quality of sound helps •ring 'em in or turn 'em away. * * * 'WO MAJOR companies are conentrating short subject production n the East and a third has simiar plans under way. Back of this rend is the fact that New York in hese talkerized days constitutes a fenerous source of acting supplies. }ne way of reducing shorts producion costs, already too high, is to lave players within studio reach. * * * THE INDUSTRY displays an inTeasing tendency to annex execuives who have important contacts vith the outside and frequently offtial world. It's smart showmanihip — an invaluable method of opening doors and generally clearing the j channel for the good ship Better Business. 24 All-Talkers and Six Synchronized Productions Among List Under his appointment as U. S. representative for British International Pictures, formerly distributed through Sono Art-World Wide, Capt. Harold L. Auten will handle 30 of the company's features here in the coming season. Of that number, 24 will be all-talker and singing and six will be synchronized. Some will be part-color. FRENCH AUTHORS DROP DEMANDS FOR ROYALTY Paris (By Cable) — Following refusal of American producers to negotiate with French authors under their recently proposed royalty basis, a group of members of the Authors' Society, headed by Henri Bernstein, noted dramatist, held a meeting and decided to withdraw the royalty demands. Censorship Note Ottawa — What is considered the limit in censorship deletions has been made here in the slicing from "Bouncing Babies," Our Gang Comedy, of three scenes showing a kid breaking electric bulbs in order to stop auto traffic. Ohio Sheriff Issues Strict Blue Law Order Steubenville, O. — Strict enforcement of Ohio blue laws in Jefferson County will begin next Sunday, according to Sheriff Yost, following arrest of William Henricks and George Delis for operating the local Warner houses last Sunday. All stores, golf links, gas stations, etc., will be closed, Yost says. VITAPHONE SHORTS FIGURE IN PUBLIX BOOKING DEAL Vitaphone shorts, as well as the Warner and First National feature product, figure in the booking negotiations now under way with Publix, according to announcement yesterday. Publix buyers have been called to New York for conferences on the deal, which is expected to be closed in about 10 days and involves several hundred houses and several million dollars' worth of product. Theaters Controlled by Producers Number About 3,800 Despite steady theater-acquiring activities of producer-owned chains, and the more recent scramble for houses, considerably less than 20 per cent of the theaters in the United States are controlled by the "Big 6" producing companies, a survey made by THE FILM DAILY indicates. Calculation is made that about 3,(Continued on Page 2) de foresttoTevelop home talkers on g0ast H est Coast Bureau, THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — Dr. Lee De Forest plans to establish his headquarters here for the development of talking pictures for home entertainment. Warner-Schine Deal is Reported Held Up Sandusky — Consummation of the Warner-Schine deal is reported to be temporarily held up. Earl Seitz continues to operate the Plaza, State and Star here. Other houses involved in the Warner negotiations included the Schade here, the Ritzlar houses in Tiffin and Lima, and the Pekas houses in Elyria. 75 P. C. of Publix Houses Now Have Talker Equipment Juveniles Hit Sacramento, Calif. — Talkers have caused a decrease of 39 per cent in the use of child actors in the past year, according to the number of theatrical permits issued to minors in the last five months compared with the same period in 1929. Approximately 1,100 houses of the 1,500 odd comprising the Publix chain are now wired for sound. Theaters remaining in the silent class are principally houses recently acquired in which reproducers are not installed, but which will soon be wired, and theaters whose leases ex(Continued on Page 2) Columbia Will Broadcast Radio Versions of Films Radio versions of Columbia features are to be broadcast each Tuesday night at 7:30 over WLTH, Brooklyn, under the direction of Harold Davis Emerson, in charge of the company's broadcasting activities. Professional actors will be used for the programs, which start July 15. Free Canadian Entry For Sound Film Trucks Ottawa — Because of the government demand for more Canadian scenes in sound newsreels, it has been decided to class sound film trucks as tourist vehicles, thus permitting their free entry into Canada. All-Nut The story for Fox's "Soup to Nuts" is by Rube Goldberg, nut cartoonist; theme song of the picture is "Say It in a Nutshell," and star of the production is Ted Healy, famous nut comedian of the stage.