Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1927)

D e c c in b c r 16, 192? Woodhull Will Address North Carolina T. O. NATIONAL President R. F. Woodhull, of the M. P. T. O. A., leaves the latter part of this week to attend the annual meeting of the North Carolina M. P. T. (). at Charlotte, December 12 and 13. Charles Picquet, president of the North Carolina body, has announced that the convention will start at 10:30 A. M. next Monday with an opening meeting. Mr. Woodhull and C. C. Pettijohn will address the gathering. The meeting of the Film Hoard of Trade will follow in the early afternoon and the banquet will take place at 7:30. The second day will consist of social activities and business meetings with a speech by Mr. Woodhull at one of the Charlotte service clubs. In the M. P. T. O. A. president's party will be Mrs. Woodhull, William M. James, head of the Ohio exhibitor association, and Mrs. James; Frank J. Rembusch, secretary of the unaffiliated exhibitor group at the recent Federal trade conference, and A. Julian Brylawski, chairman of the national board of directors of the M. P. T. O. Warners Set January and New December Releases The first five Warner Bros, releases to go to exhibitors after the new year and a newrelease for the current month have been announced by the company. On January 14, Irene Rich's newest starring picture, "Beware of Married Men," will be issued to be followed, on 28th, by Rin-Tin-Tin's "A Race for Life." The February releases will start on the 11 with "The Litle Snob," featuring May McAvoy; Monte Blue in "Across the Pacific" will come from the Warner exchanges beginning February 25. " Powder my Back," another Irene Rich starring vehicle, will be released on March 10. The new release scheduled for December is "Hani and Kggs at the Front," which has been set for December 24. ft is a comedy revolving around the colored troops in France; Tom Wilson, Heinie Conklin and Myrna Loy are the principal players. Rosson Will Direct "The Escape" for Fox Films After staying in New York to see the premiere of his Fox Films picture, "The Wizard," Richard Rosson is now en route to the Fox lot on the West Coast to begin work on "The Escape," a modernized picturization of the Paul Armstrong play adapted by Paul Schofield. The story deals with bootleggers and hi-jackers. So far, no one has been chosen for parts in the picture, which, it is said, will probably be started about December 10th. Kenneth Hawks will supervise. Loew's Boston Theatres Report High Net Income Loew's Boston Theatres Company reports net income for the year, after depreciation and taxes of $190,020, which is equal to $1.24 a share on the l'y.\,27't shares of capital stock. This compares with a net of $123,450 or 81 cents a share in 1926 and .$103,121 or $1.28 a share in 1926, Goldwyn Issues Warning Declares Combination of Vaudeville and Pictures Is Ruinous to Picture Industry SAMUEL fiOLDWVX is the latest to come forward with the assertion that the mixing of vaudeville with pictures will eventually bring disaster to the motion picture industry, lie is most emphatic in his statement that the two do not mix, and that it is only a question of time when the exhibitors of the country will come to a full realization of that fact. According to Goldwyn it is practically impossible to have both good vaudeville and good pictures on the same bill, and as a consequence both the picture and vaudeville will suffer, with the public eventually refusing to extend patronage. As Goldwyn puts it: "The public is simply being fooled, for under such an arrangement it is not getting either good vaudeville or good pictures. Furthermore, the motion picture fans will resent this poor quality because they have already been exhausted by an hour of cheap vaude ville before tlw picture starts." Continuing bis argument, Goldwyn says that t lu-re is room for vaudeville separately and for pictures separately, but that both should stand on their own bottoms. If the combination continues, be says, the film industry will be forced to make poorer pictures because of the heavy vaudeville cost burdens borne by theatre owners. Not only will this condition affect the patronage of pictures in the United States, according to Goldwyn, but it will also have a deplorable effect upon t he foreign market. Because of the quality of the pictures that have been made in the past, American product has been extremely popular in foreign fields and financial returns from foreign markets have been tremendous. Goldwyn figures that if the quality of American films is lowered we will lose our supremacy abroad, and once lost it may be a difficulty matter to regain it. New Color Process Due Inventor Says Cox Multi-Color Lenses and Projectors Will Be on Market Shortly HAROLD X. COX, inventor of the Cox Multi-Color Process, has announced that marketing of the process will start in the near future. The process is said to enable both filming and projection of pictures in natural colors. The inventor claims that through this new method all colors of the spectrum, including true blues and purples, are shown on the screen simultaneously, with red, yellow, green and other colors, and entirely free from "fringe," which has detracted from other color processes. Makeup will be eliminated, if all that is claimed for the invention is true, since the colors are said to appear on the screen naturally as the eye sees them while being photographed. The lack of contrast between subject and background is also said to be eliminated. As explained by Cox, the effect is accompolished purely optically by use of a panchromatic negative and by means of a single unit lens attachment which can be placed on any camera and removed with the same ease as the regular tense, with which it is interchangeable. The negative is then said to be processed by regular developing process. Prints are made on black and white stock, and are not tinted, toned nor otherwise treated differently from black and white. Another feature, according to the inventor, is that, being black and white, it is a single emulsion film, and no more subject to scratching than the ordinary picture film. For projection, a similar single unit attachment, which is also interchangeable, is used on any projector with the regular lamp house, screen and mechanism. Lillian Gish Joins United Artists Under Two-Year Contract UNITED ARTISTS has signed Lillian Gish to a two-year contract, and her pictures henceforth will In released by thai company. In making the announcement, Joseph M. Schenck, President ol United Artists, said thai Miss Gish will make hut one or two pictures B year, the fust of which will be read] for release in September, 1028. It is likely that 1). \V. Griffith, who discovered Miss Gish, and made her famous through '"The Birth of a Nation." will direct her in her first picture under the new contract. This has not been definitely decided. however, nor has the first story. \ vehicle 18 now being sought that will suit the talents of both. Among the most popular successes of Mi- Gisfa in the pasl that were released through I niied \rtists were "Broken Blossoms," "Orphans of tin Storm" and "\\ a\ Down Fast."" D. W. Griffith i« again making film lor tin company he founded in 1919 w ith Mar> Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. His latest. "Drums of Love, has jusl been completed.