Motion Picture News (Apr - Jun 1927)

//>/•;/ S . 19 27 1_'51 Kent Not to Leave Famous Players Si^ns New Contract; Remaining With Firm Six and a Half Years Sidney R. Kent CIDNEY K. KENT this week issued a '^ formal statement emphatically denying rumors that he was to resign as General Manager of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. He announced that he had signed a newcontract with Famous by wliich he will remain with tlie company for six and a half years. His present contract still lias eighteen months to run. The statement issued by ^Ir. Kent said: "I have no intention of leaving Famous Players,'" said Mr. Kent. "My present contract with the company has eighteen more months to run. Proof of the fact that I do not contemplate severing my connection with Famous Players can be found in the fact that I have just signed a lU'w five-year contract which becomes operative on the expiration of my present agreement. Thus for the next six years and a half I shall continue with Paramount those plea>ant relations which have marked mv career for the last nine year>. I hope this formal statement will set at rest for all time any rumors of my departure." Loew's, Inc., Will Continue to Expand in South GOMMENTIXC; on a report published in Charlotte to the eflfect that I.oew's. Inc.. is planning to build up a circuit in small towns of the South tor vaudeville and a twice weekly policy of pictures, E. .\. Loew. of I.oew's Inc.. intimated that his company will continue Southern expansion although no definite programme has been decided upon by I.oew's. Inc., reiiardinc the development of the chain. The company has reestablished its Southern otiice at Atlanta. United Artists in Hays Organization; M.P.P.D.A. Officers Re-elected AT the sixth annual meeting of the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America, Inc.. Will H. Hays, President, the following directors were re-elected : Messrs. G. McL. Baynes (Kinogram Publishing Corp.), Charles H. Christie (Christie Film Co.), R. H. Cochrane (Universal Pictures Corp.), William Fox (Fox Film Corp.), D. W. Griffith (D. W. Griffith. Inc.), E. W. Hammons (Educational Film Exchanges, Inc.). Will H. Hays (Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. Inc.). Joseph P. Kennedy (Film Booking Offices of America, Inc.); Marcus Loew (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp.), Frederick C. Munroe (Producers Distributing Corp.), J. Homer Flatten (Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc.), Richard A. Rowland (First National Pictures, Inc.), Joseph M. Schenck (United Artists Corporation), Albert Warner (Warner Bros.), Adolph Zukor (Famous PlayersLasky Corp.). The members elected United Artists Corporation to membership, the roster of the Association now being twenty-four members. At the regular quarterly meeting of the Board of Directors of the Association immediately following. Will H. Hays, Carl E. Milliken and J. Homer Flatten were re-elected president, secretary and treasurer respectively. In his annual report. Will H. Hays noted the development of the organized industry's program of enlarged usefulness of the motion picture as an instrument for entertainment and instruction and indicated that the only possible limitation to the scope of the industry was its need for executive, technical and artistic ability of the highest degree, now becoming available in greater measure than before. Plan Road-show Protest as Controversy is Revived Play in f^ in "Le^if Houses Opposed; J. J. McCarthy Gives Views IT is expected that one of the chief features of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America convention will be the exhibitor opposition to presentation of road-show productions in legitimate theatres. A protest against this practice may be forwarded to Will H. Hays, it is understood. Theatre owners claim they are entitled to play road-show pictures in their theatres declaring that bookings in legitimate theatres arc depriving them of profits which are rightfully theirs. They stress the fact that, in most cases, legitimate houses are not projjcrly ecjuipped for picture presentations and also that these houses have not contributed to the building up of picture Ijusiness. Key city theatre owners contend they arc willing to turn over houses for roadshow ]>resentations. believing there are to be a greater number of these productions for which the increased admission must be secured. One exhibitor in a key city where business is below normal, reports a decrease of business Avhich approximates the net takings at a legitimate house playing a road-show production. J. .T. McCarthy, who is handling the road-showing of '"The Big Parade" and "Ben-Hur." states that, until exhibitors can furnish a circuit of houses covering key cities, the only practical way to book these attractions is in legitimate houses. For the first-run theatre owner in a key city to discard a season's bookings in order to take on a road-show picture is dangerous, he claims. It means an entire change of policy and building up of a new ))atronage and what, queries Mr, McCarthy, is the exhibitor going to do with his regular patrons in the meantime? According to McCarthy, there only have been about six legitimate road-show productions in the last 12 years — an average of one every two years. These pictures represent a specialized field which cannot very well be handled through showing them in regular picture houses for the reason stated. His experience proves that the road-show production presented in the legitimate theatre for a long run at top ])rices builds patronage for the jiicture house when it finally books the film at • "•pular prices, according to McCarthy. Road-showing does not tap the popular price patronage, which automatically troes to the picture houses, and these eventually show the production. The road-show l).>nefits the picture houses also by <reating new pati'onage. and buildine a prestige for the motion picture in sreiieral tli.it directly helps every exhibitor bf)x-otTice. he believes.