The Film Daily (1931)

Intimate in Character International in Scope Independent in Thought The Daily Newspaper Of Motion Pictures Now Fourteen Years Old VCL. LVI NC. 1 Ncwyccr,>vEi:)NcsE)Ay, JULT i, 1931 <5 CENTS Bi'Monthly Field Tours Planned by Lee Marcus FOX WARNS AGAIN^ 'ECONOMYTlOOM' Publix To Go Easy on Further Building, Says Katz Cut-outs — on a string -ByJACKALICOATE BELIEVE it or not, business IS picking up . . . Keeping working newspaper men off Hollywood lots while allowing bootleggers, gambling runners and pets to run at large don't make SENSE to most editors . . . Now it is ADMIRAL Sam Morris, for he is sporting a new 50-footer . . . As the result of "SMART MONEY" we will now have 60 or 70 gambling pictures. And if they are all as SMART as "Smart Money" we are going to like it. There's a laugh explosion in this one that's a tornado . . . Everybody seems to be worrying about Walter Wanger except WALTER WANGER . . . "Daddy Long Legs" is GRAND entertainment . . . Nobody is ever disappointed with the show at the NEWSREEL theater. Our favorite KIBITZER says Imi.m Daily is a 1st class newspaper using 2nd class mail . . . EMPEY Club is all dressed up in new summer clothes . . . TWO big executives in ONE big company are engaged in one GRAND battle ... It looks like the BUY NOW movement will gain the decision over the buyers' strike . . . There is a ROXY theater in Pans ... My daughter's FAVORITE actors are "Sooky," Mickey -Mouse and Charlie Chaplin . . . Radio •^ity will have TWO theaters, a 6,000seater and a little one with a capacity of only 3,600 . . . ROXY gross can iind DOES fluctuate 30 grand a week. I'ool TOURNEY at MOVPIX • MJB demonstrates that some of the boys did not get their start in pictures . . . Artie LOEW is a fullHedged aviator . . . This NO HAT "'ovement is a great thing for cut ■T?i,?°,T,'\ "'^ ^=i''y overhead . . . THE VIKING" in spots out-Bvrds \^nv^Tt°P"^ • ■ • Don't sell" the MOVPIX mdustry SHORT ... It 's still ,n its swaddling clothes. Construction Plans Not Mapped Out Beyond Present Jobs I'nblix's theater building program will come to a standstill upon completion of projects now under way, it was stated by Sam Katz yesterday'. No further plans for new houses are being made at present, he said. Four theaters, each averaging 3,000 seats, are under construction in Great (Continued on Page 10) Columbia Reports Sales Ahead of Previous Years GANG HLMS WASHED UP IN S. A.,JAY8 WaiNER Latin-American audiences have soured on underworld and gangster pictures, said George Weltner, assistant to J. H. Seidelman of the Paramount foreign department, yesterday, following his return to New York after a two months' tour of South America. Talkers in English, (Continued on Page 12) 4 Massachusetts Houses Figure in Merger Deal Hyannis, Mass. — United Cape Theaters has been formed to take over the Modern in Harwichport and the Chatham in Chatham. Carl Myshrall of Harwichport, president and general manager of the new firm, will (Continued on Page 12) Buying on the part of both circuit and Independent exhibitors is going ahead at a lively pace, and contracts to date are ahead of the same period In previous years, according to a statement by Columbia yesterday. BLOCH PREDIC^ROMANCE AS NEXT TREND^IN STORIES The next trend in picture stories is likely to be romantic tales, in the opinion of Bertram Bloch, M-G-M scenario editor. Gangster pictures, he believes, are definitely on the wane. Bloch does not share the oft-expressed anticipation that story costs (Continued on Parte 12) Maryland Exhibitors Protest Substitutions Baltimore — Substitutions in story, star, director or cast are protested ii a resolution adopted bv the members of the M.P.T.O. of Maryland. Exhibitors signing these contracts are doing so under protest and duress, the resolution states. A motion also was carried placing the organization on record as opposed to pictures be(Confinued on Page 10) Marcus Plans Bi-Monthly Tours To Keep in Touch With Field Theater Used as Church During Rebuilding Period Pittsburgh — While workmen are engaged in razing the congregation's old church and erecting a new $3,000,000 building, members of East Liberty Presbyterian church will worship In the Regent theater each Sunday. A trip around the country every two months, for first-hand contact with the film situation in the field, will be made by Lee Marcus, president of RKO Pathe, he told The Film D.mi.y yesterday. These journeys will include conferences at various points on general sales matters and production plans. Marcus leaves today for Toronto, (Continued on Page 11) Don't Turn Theater Into Funeral Parlor, Says Oscar Oldknow A warning against carrying theater operation economy to the extreme that it will create an atmosphere of gloom has been issued to Fox theaters majiagers by Oscar S Oldknow, executive vice-president. "Penny wise and pound foolish methods of economizing are apt k turn a theater into a funeral parlor." says Oldknow. "If slicing is carried (Continued on Page 12) FAVOR PART^TIMTcLOSING St. Louis — Operation of about 50 neighborhood houses on a basis of three nights a week during the summer, as a means of cutting expenses during this period, was discussed at a meeting yesterday. The plan is to close the houses from Monday to Thursday, inclusive, until fall. De luxe houses would not be included. Leto Hill, general manager for Warner theaters, has talked over the (Continued on Page 12) Gov. Rolph Dedicat<^s Fanchon & Marco Studio tVest Coast Bureau. THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — Governor James Rolph officiated at the dedication of the new Fanchon & Marco studio, with speakers also including Mayor Porter, Sid Grauman, Mae Murray, Myrna Loy, George Sidney, Groucho Marx, Rosco Ates, Joseph Scott, (Continued on Page 12) Chief of Police Books Gang Film for Benefit Ellensville, N Y.— Chief of Police Al Ross of this locality indicated his sentiments regarding gangster films by booking "The Secret Six" for showing at a police benefit Monday night. ^