The Film Daily (1931)

THE IE NEWSPAPER OF FILM DOM ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME VOL. LV NO. 18 NEW yCCI\, TfiUPSDAT, JANUARY 22, 1931 <5 CENTS Wm. Fox Property Holdings Block Radio City Project THE TEN BEST PICTURES OF 1930 31 Holdovers in Four Broadway De Luxers Last Year Roxy and Strand Top List with Nine Each Held More Than Week Thirty-one features were held over by the four Broadway de luxe weekly-change houses during 1930, a checkup by The Film Daily indicates. The Roxy and Strand each played nine pictures more than a week, topping the list. With four continuous weeks at the Roxy "Common Clay" held the individual picture holdover record. Holdover pictures are as follows: Roxy, "Hot for (.Continued on Page 3) M. L FINKELSTEIN DIES IN SUAUL, AT 62 St. Paul— M. L. Finkelstein, 62, of Finkelstein & Ruben died last night. He had been in the picture business for 20 years, associated with I. H. Ruben, building up the F. & R. Circuit to one of the most important independent circuits in the country. His son, Leonard Finkelstein, is on his way from New York by plane. The funeral will be held Friday. More Poster Advertising Advocated by Lee Balsly More liberal use of poster advertising is advocated by Lee D. Balsly, Fox ad accessory manager, just back from a tour embracing Charlotte, Washington, Atlanta, Memphis, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. The public today are outdoor fiends, he says, and the most effective advertising campaigns are those bal(Continued on Page 2) Top for "Lights" United Artists is getting record top money for Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights." Deals are understood to be made on a SO per cent and percentage basis. THE TEN BEST Picture Votes All Quiet on the Western Front 271 Abraham . Lincoln 1 67 Holiday 166 Jon mey's End 151 Anna Christie 141 The Big House 141 With Byrd at the South Pole 121 The Divorcee 94 Hell's Angels 91 Old English 87 65% of Pictures Shown Abroad Supplied by American Producers Washington Bureau, of THE FILM DAILY Washington — Despite upsetting of the foreign market by the talking pictures, American-made films represent approximately 65 per cent of all pictures shown abroad. In the silent days American productions occupied about 80 per cent of the world playdates. Decline in U. S. films is principally in the European field. In Latin America the decrease is figured at 5 per cent. American producers are (Continued on Page 3) AFFILIATE WITH ALLIED Nebraska Theater Owners' Cooperative Ass'n has been formed under sponsorship of Lester Martin. The unit is affiliated with Allied States Ass'n. Election of officers and a board of directors will take place soon. Refusal of Fox To Sell Site Delays Radio City Project Failure to get-together with William Fox on terms for property he owns bordering on Sixth Ave., between 48th and 49th Sts., New York, is understood to be the principal reason for delay in further projecting plans for Radio City. This parcel is included in the site announced by RCA for its massive structure which is to include theaters, legitimate and picture, and radio broadcasting studios. GRANT L. COOK SOCKS THE BIG RUMOR MARKET Asked point-blank yesterday by The Film Daily for the honest-togoodness man-to-man lowdown on all these Tiffany rumors being ped (Continued on Page 5) Opinions of the Nation's Leading Critics Shown in Film Daily Poll Taking first place with the un precedented vote of 271, a margin of 104 over the next on the lis and representing the highest fig ure ever scored in this series o annual contests, "All Quiet on the Western Front" heads the par ad of winners in the poll for the "Te Best Pictures of 1930" conducte by The Film Daily as a featura of The Film Year Book, which comes off the press next month. ' This year's vote was the largest! to date, reflecting the greatly in-\ creased interest that has been built! up by the poll. Further evidence of '. the enthusiasm aroused over the \ selection of the year's ten best pic \ tures is shown in the fact that nearly 100 newspapers, magazines, educational organizations and various public bodies, both in this country and abroad, conducted "Ten Best" contests of their own. Motion picture critics on some of the daily papers put it up to their readers to pick the "Ten Best," and these selections were in turn submitted as the respective critics' choices for The Film Daily (Continued on Pane 8) Stimulating! Newspaper, magazine and other publicity resulting from the annual selection of the "Ten Best" has grown to the point where it is one of the greatest stimulators of interest and builders of prestige in the service of motion pictures. About 2,000 clippings dealing with the "Ten Best" were counted last year. Indications point to an even greater number this year.