Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1933)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Saturday, December 16, 1933 Detroit Showing Pick-Up Now '33 Ahead of '32; Lots of Ground Left (Continued from page 1) herd is the one that gets the money while all other houses take it on the chin. Here, as elsewhere, and because money is being spent where the best in values is to be had, price ranks in importance with the attraction. Detroit liked "I'm No Angel" and kept it thriving at the State, long dark, for four weeks. Everybody's looking for angels, but not enough "Angels" happen along. There are new elements in the downtown situation here now. A handful of weeks ago Nate Blumberg, general manager of the RKO circuit, did some talking to Spyros Skouras about the amount of red ink consumed in these parts. Out of it developed a theatre pool tying in the huge 5,100seat Fox with its unexplored acres of balconies, promenades and rest rooms and the more modest 2,7S0-seat RKO Downtown. Capacity, the determining factor, elected the Fox as the ".\" house and made available for it first call on Radio to tie-in with the Fox Film line-up. The Downtown became the "B" house, the home of catch-as-catch-can policy including doubles, first and second runs, stage shows and no stage shows, as RKO booking policy elected. Thus, where he had one house and two competitors, David Idzal now has one competitor and two houses to nianage, sweat over and dope ideas for, with the faithful Freddie Schader constantly the right hand power. The Return of Trendle The competitor is George W. Trendle, president of the United Detroit Theatres, which is a new corporate boutonniere for the Publix houses which "Izzy" Halperin and Nate Piatt had in tow this time last year. This is the group that almost tore asunder the Paramount theatre organization some months ago because of Steve Lynch's refusal to let John Balaban run them. It is the same string for which Trendle made a better oflfer and found the Paramount trustees agreeing. They gave him the operation for 10 months. Whereas, the bad news was once divided weekly among Publix, RKO and Fox, it goes two ways only now. While the dope sheet on grosses could be much, much better, it, nevertheless, isn't quite so terrifying as was the case this time last year. Since hope continues to spring eternal, the first-run operators are following the theory to the letter. Individual takes at the Michigan, United Artists, Fisher and now the recently re-opened State may be all right, but collectively the Publix losses are piling up. Maybe it's another case of too many downtown seats; many believe that. Maybe it's another instance of the real stuff on celluloid coming along too spasmodically and the lack of cash to make box-offices swollen but happy. One of the first of Trendle's actions upon stepping into the Publi.x spot was to place himself on the spot with his brother exhibitors around town. His pledge to the Detroit public that henceforth his shows would be clean ; that tinsel fronts were coming off theatre facades on the theory the place for the show was on the inside, followed by a city ordinance banning cut-outs and limiting displays to lobby cards, has trained guns in his direction. They are spouting comment that Trendle undoubtedly won't like. The charge is being made that, whereas the sleeping dog policy had been successful in keeping pictures and picture theatres away from the attention of the city council, Trendle's widely publicized new show policy has brought about the reverse. Some of the neighborhood operators, in particular, are bitter over the limitations on advertising display, maintaining they need that sort of thing to get themselves by. sentative of the best in our home and national life" and "to do all . . . to influence friends and neighbors to follow. . . ." Theatre men are concerned over the development. In so far as the situation bedeviling the Fox is concerned, there is some reason to believe the disturbance traces back to a booking of the late Te-xas Guinan. The "nudies" in the unit aroused objections from the Catholic committee of the whole on cleaner shows, resulted in protests and decision of the theatre to play the show regardless. That was the touchoff and since then, when opportunity has arisen to point to objectionable elements either on stage or screen or both, the Fo.x has taken it on the chin. Much shadow-boxing and some real blows have been struck in the exhibitor situation. Arrayed on one side of the embattled parapets are fl. M. Richey, Allied of Michigan and the Mid-States Theatres, local buying cooperative which finds all major ex Straw in the Wind Detroit. — Certainly it's tough, regardless of the NRA. But because theatres don't stay open unless there's a reason for it, official Film Board figures covering the exhibition checkerboard tell an interesting, on-the-plus-side-of-the-ledger yarn. It's this: Of the approximate 546 houses in Michigan's lower peninsula, which is all the territory Detroit exchanges cover, only 53 are closed. Last year it was 72; in 1931, it was 99 and in '30, two less than 50. Between the latter year when business had shrunk, but still was not too bad, and this, when the depression is still kicking around, the difference in darkened theatres, therefore, was only five. That's something. An early action on Trendle's part was to order a large cut-out of Mae West, adorning the State, whitewashed so that some of the curvacious features of La West weren't quite so bulging. It was part of his new plan for theatre operation on the outside, but it had no bearing on the inside, for the West picture continued to play at the house for four weeks, objectors like to use as their argument. Reports in circulation that the Catholic Church was bearing down on the Fox and that Trendle had fanned the move are also among the things heard around the town. Trendle, however, denies any of his actions had a bearing on that. As a matter of fact, he expresses surprise and a disbelief that such a movement is under way. Regardless, it is a fact that the Catholic dignitaries are much aroused over salacious pictures and the same type of advertising. Their point of view finds reflection in almost weekby-week editorial and news comment in The Michigan Catholic and a barrage of letters that has been well nigh deluging Idzal and the Fox Theatre management, to its embarrassment and consternation. Tile Detroit Catholic Students' Conference was first to take action as the result of a plea by Bishop Michael J. Ciallagher. This was followed by the Detroit Diocesan League of Catholic Wcimen and the Catholic Order of l-'oresters through resolutions calling upfjn members to become a "committee of one to patronize only those pictures known to be decent and repre changes, with the exception of M-G-M, willing to sell their film for ultimate parceling to its approximate 70 theatre members. On the other is Adrian Rosen, young Detroit lawyer, as representative of a group of exhibitors, some of them once members of Mid-States and some who are not. Both sides, naturally enough, claim justification for their stand. Crowded out of film service, as they are, Rosen's group, including Al Ruttenberg of the Iris, Lew Kane of the Mayfair and the Krim boys who run the Kramer, are yelling loud and long for pictures in the possession of Mid-States. Ray Moon, general manager of the cooperative, maintains the pictures are his by purchase and that's that. In its essence, the question as it concerns Mid-States poises itself on whether or not the combine, through its massed buying power, has intimidated exchanges into contracts for service. Rosen, of course, insists this is so; Mid-States is equally as fyni in its denials. Typical as an example of the situation is the case of the Mayfair, which is the old Bonstelle stock house. Kane, who runs it, claims he can't get enough film to keep his theatre going. Mid-States asserts his opposition, which is the Senate and the Colonial, requires 416 features a year between them and that obviously Kane is out of luck. Another — Ruttenberg's Isis, which runs now on M-G-M, RKO and Columbia, but needs more. His competitor is Joe Krull at the Home. Krull runs doubles and maintains his Duals Flush; Most Houses Still Use 'Em needs are 208 features per annum. He lias bought up 235 and asserts the overage is necessary by way of protection on the theory producers only deliver 80 per cent of their promised schedules anyway. Through a long-winding series of circumstances which have been reported in Motion Picture Daily as tliey broke, the opposition to MidStates, which is pretty much the opposition to Allied of Michigan as well, has taken form in the development of an opposition exhibitor unit, at present confined in its operations to the city with the state lurking somewhere in the plan for crystallization later — perhaps. Allied makes the charge that the Hays ofifice is behind the step, sinking the hooks of its argument into the possibility that the Independent Theatre Owners of Detroit, as the new group has dubbed itself, will become an M. P. T. O. A. affiliation. As a matter of fact. Allied is considerably more burned over its embryonic competitor than it cares to admit. It assumes the stand that the Michigan unit has been getting along pretty well for almost 15 years; that it has been successful in keeping battered down inimical legislation, not only for its own members, but for all of the film industry within the state's confines and doesn't understand t1ie why or the wherefore of this new competition. Believed Taking It to Heart Indicating in some minds that it is taking the fuss over Mid-States to heart is the general understanding that the board of directors of the combine will soon be shuffled about to eliminate from its personnel the men who are also directors in Allied. That's supposed to set up a line of demarcation between the two organizations and to indicate they are separately constituted. It won't fool anybody. In Detroit, the double feature situation, despite an earlier agreement to rule it out, is back to its old status, wiiich means twin bills are the rule all over the city. When the pact was fixed up, there was coupled with it a simultaneous effort to step up admissions to the tune of five and 10 cents, as each situation saw fit. At the same time came the realization, the explanation goes, that exhibitors couldn't cut the entertainment quota and get more money in one joint action. Duals won out and have stayed on top ever since. Whenever the question of duals or no duals comes up, it's practice now to turn to the RKO Downtown, which changes its jxilicy from first to second runs to duals to stage shows as often as it likes. "Why pick on us?" the subsequents ask, but get no answers. The first runs may have the seats (Continued on page 8)