The film daily year book of motion pictures (1934)

company appealed to the Court of Civil Appeals, which reversed the trial court. The advertiser thereupon appealed to the Commission of Appeals, the opinion of which is herein digested. The question before the Court was whether the transaction was one in interstate commerce or whether it was intrastate commerce. The Court held it to be the latter and, accordingly, decided in favor of the advertiser. It said : " *** had the transaction between the company and Ligon contemplated the doing of nothing by the company except to manufacture the films accord'ng to contract requirements and to ship them to the theaters at Lubbock, for the use and benefit of Ligon, the transaction would have been one of interstate commerce exclusively. It is perfectly plain, however, that the contract between the film company and Ligon contemplated, as the main object of the company's entire undertaking, the public exhibition of the films in the theaters at Lubbock. The matter of publicly exhibiting the films was essentially intrastate business. . . ." "The matter of manufacturing and shipping the films was but incidental to the accomplish ment of the essential purpose of the contract ; namely, the advertising at Lubbock, by the use of the films. The circumstance that interstate commerce was invoilved in the manufacture and shipment of the films does not alter the intrastate character of the public exhibition of the advertising matter contained in the films." Miscellaneous Silberman vs. Skouras Theaters Corporation (11 N. J. Mis. R. 907— Union County Court of Common Pleas. Nov. 20, 1933). New Jersey has a statute against gambling and allows an "informer" $2,000 for every offense to be forfeited by the gamer. In September, 1933, the "Act to Prevent Gaming" was repealed. An exhibitor conducted a lottery cf a free automobile to the lucky holder of the winning ticket in one of its theaters. Plaintiff sued to recover the statutory penalties. The court held that the complaint set forth a good cause of action because the statute which repealed the act to prevent gambling was unconstitutional under the New Jersey constitution, and the law against gambling was therefore still in effect. LEGITIMATE STAGE STATISTICS Reprinted frcm the "Billboard Index," Season 1932-33 COMMERCIAL PREMIERES— It is in this category that the weakness of the 1932-33 season can be most clearly seen. To arrive at the number of commercial premieres, the figures above are further reduced by the six shows that were left running when the new season started ; three of them dramatic and three musical. One of the left-over dramatic shows, however, was c'assed as a stock revival, and has already been deducted. Therefore, there were 115 commercial dramatic premieres in 1932-33, compared with 150 the previous season, and 23 commercial musical premieres as against 26 in 1931-32. As may be seen, the dramatic shows experienced the huge slash of 35 while the musicals went down three more from the low level established the year before. The previous low for commercial dramatic premieres — set in the season of 1930-31 — had been 135. ESTIMATED PERCENTAGE OF FAIL I' RES -Figuring on the arbitrary basis of 100 performances for a hit, 82 per cent of the total number of new productions were failures, the actual figure being 116. Due to the lower Dumber of new plays, this was, of course, a drop from the previous season, when the number of failures stood at 151 ; but more important, it was also a drop in the percentage of failures, even though slight. In 1931-32 the percentage of failure was 83. The change in percentage of failure brings it to the same level as that set in the season of 1929-30. just after the depression set in. In 1932-33, as usual, the musicals fared better as a class than did the dramatic offerings. 17 of them, or 68 per cent, being c.assed as failures. Ninety-nine of the dramas, or 85 per cent, stopped short of 100 performances. It should be borne in mind, however, that there were probably a number of dramatic productions here listed in the failure class that broke even or made a slight profit, while several of the bit musicals failed to show black. NUMBER OF THEATERS USED— 57. six less than the preceding year. Toward the end of the season there was the spectacle of several Hroadway theaters with the plaintive sign. "Theater For Rent." displayed on their marquees. TOTAL SEATING CAPACITY — 59.930. a healthy drop of just over 4,000 from the previous season. . TOTAL NUMBER OF PRODUCTIONS — There were 212 productions shown in New York during the season, which was a drop of only 13 from the year before, an insignificant dip compared with the relative success of the season, but one which is explained by the increased number of reperto-y, stock and other non-commercial productions, 180 of the 212 offerings were dramat'e. which is a gain of one from the previous year, explained in the same way. No less than 63 of the plays were repertory or stock revivals, leaving the number of commercial dramatic productions at the low mark of 117, 40 less than in 1931-32. when there were only 22 repertory offerings to be deducted. There were but six musical repertory productions in 1932-33, as against 16 the season before, which leaves 26 commercial musical productions for the year, as against 30 the previous ■eason. The total number of musical productions including repertory, dropped by 14, totalling only 32. (m