Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1933)

L The Leading Daily Newspaper of the' Motion Picture Industry MOTION PICTURE DAILY Alert, Intelligent and Faithfur Service to the Indifstry in Ail Branches VOL. 34. NO. 92 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1933 TEN CENTS New Company To Take Over Poll Circuit Halsey, Stuart in Move For Reorganization Following the public auction of Fox-New England Theatres assets in Hartford and Springfield on Friday a new corporation shortly will take over operation of the former Poli houses. S. Z. Poli and Halsey, Stuart & Co. will be in control. John A. McNaughton and W. B. F. Rogers, New York attorneys, were acting for Halsey, Stuart & Co. on Monday when they purchased for $650,000 a block of first mortgage bonds with a face value of $3,326,000 at a sale held by Special Master iff (Continued on page 5) File Receiver Suit Vs Midland, K. C. Kansas City, Mo., Oct. 17. — A suit in equity was filed in Circuit Court here today seeking an accounting of profits and a temporary receiver for the Midland Investment Co., which owns Loew's Midland and the adjacent Midland office building. The plaintiffs are Herbert M. Woolf, M. B. Shanberg and F. H. Reid, all of this city, owners of half interest in (Continued on page 5) Sound Improvement Hailed by S. M. P. E. Chicago, Oct. 17. — Erpi's Wide Range and RCA-Victor's High Fideb ity sound mark another epoch for the industry, declared Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith at the second day's session of the Society of M. P. Engineers' convention here today. "Despite the depression, this development has been seized upon by theatres and is introducing greater programs," declared Dr. Goldsmith. "It (Continued on page 5) jNo Reorganization Date Fixed— Zukor No estimate can be made yet of the time required to complete the reorganization of Paramount Publix and bring about the discharge of the company's bankruptcy, Adolph Zukor (Continued on page 5) Code on Last Stretch; 3rd Draft Looks Final Views Vary on Maximums Washington, Oct. 17. — "I do not believe under this act that it is legal to fix maximum salaries," declared Administrator Hugh S. Johnson at a press interview today. He was referring, of course, to the NRA. Whether or not the cash penalty clause for encouraging unreasonable salaries will remain in the final code, although it is in the third revision, remains to be seen. Johnson thinks it is "incompatible with the law." The NRA legal division can't agree either and already has handed down several varying opinions, the General said. Pickup Holds Steady Gains In K. C. Area Kansas City, Oct. 17. — Business improvement which first became evident several weeks ago is maintaining a steady pace in the Kansas-Missouri territory. The upsurge is concretely reflected at box-offices of first runs here, where weekly grosses have increased from 70 to 100 per cent over the low point of last summer. The gloom which held suburban exhibitors for three years is giving way to an assured optimism. Profits (Continued on page 5) Agents' Issue Is Hollywood Job Via Code Washington, Oct. 17. — Hollywood, which has been complaining about unethical agents, today got the right to handle them on home grounds through code authorization for the appointment of an agency committee of 10, made up of production factors. This removes any direct check on agents by code authority itself, as provided in the second NRA code draft, and marks one of the most significant revisions between that and (Continued on page 4) Zukor Asserts Theatres Are Help for Producers The obligation of large producers to protect investments in their corporate owned and affiliated theatres by delivering to them a consistent supply of good pictures throughout the recent years of business depression saved the world motion picture industry from collapse during 1932, Adolph Zukor, Paramount Publix president and head of its active operating subsidiaries, told Motion Picture Daily yesterday in reaffirming his belief in both the advisability and the necessity for circuit theatre ownership by large producers. Unhesitatingly declaring his conviction that theatres are a necessary adjunct of large production organizations, at least "as the industry is now constituted," Zukor said that had pro ducers been free of theatre ownership in the few years past they would have been free, likewise, of the obligation of delivering the best pictures of which their facilities were capable. In the circumstances that existed from 1929 through last year, Zukor said, producers consequently would have limited production activity to only sufficient pictures to keep studios open, and those pictures would have been of indifferent quality, he intimated. The necessity for protecting the huge investments in theatre empires, however, resulted not only in the efforts of major producers to maintain a steady flow of good product from studio to affiliated theatre but also in keeping the film market open and vir(Cotitinued on page S) Shifts Agency Control — Many More Points Clarified By RED KANN Washington, Oct. 17.^The industry will have a code ahead of the expectations of many of those who participated in formulating it, for today the final stretch was entered upon when a third revision came out of the overworked NRA mimeograph room on its way to members of the Recovery Administration's advisory boards, then to General Hiigh S. Johnson, who knows pretty much step by step what has been going on, and finally the President. The third draft, it is a dead certainty,' will undergo few changes. As a matter of fact. Deputy Administrator Sol A. Rosenblatt contemplates issuing no more even if various of the NRA advisory boards insist that revisions are necessary. In the event that happens, the changes will go to Johnson plus the code in its present form, which is close to the finish line. The next immediate step in carrying the document through its successive (Continued on pane 4) Mrs. Bryant Given Assurance on Code Chorus Equity Ass'n. has been assured by Deputy NRA Administrator Sol A. Rosenblatt that a clause will be added to the code giving the code authority power to fix penalties for theatre operators who transact business with an independent contractor of (Continued on page 4) It's ''Separable" Washington, Oct. 17. — Under miscellaneous provisions in the third code draft appears this: "Part 4. — The provisions of this code shall be separable." This is what is known as a "saving clause," current in much legislation, and is designed to protect a law — or in this case, the code — in the event one section, provision or clause may be adjudged unconstitutional at some future date should a test case be instituted.