Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1934)

The Leading Daily ^ Newspaper . i 111 If of the ^ Motion|| Picture Industry MOTION PICTURE DAI Alert, Intelligent and Faith fut 1 1 Service' to the Industry in All Branches VOL. 35. NO. 1 NEW YORK, TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1934 TEN CENTS Thalberg Sees Program Rush Knell of Type Predicts 1934 Success For "Attractions" Hollywood, Jan. 1. — A splurge in program pictures which will end prog r a m pictures is what Irving Thalberg of MG-M sees in the crystal for the new year. "I believe that 1934," he said today, "will see an attempt to make a tremendous amount of program pictures, and, as a result of that pressure, it will mean the end of the program picture because the difference between {Continued on page 12) Irving Thalberg Authority Finance Problems Up Today Methods on financing Code Authority will come up today when S. R. Kent, Charles L. O'Reilly, H. M. Warner and Nathan Yamins, the committee, discuss various plans. It is understood several proposals already have been advanced to the committee and the best will be agreed upon and sent to the authority for approval. Second session of the Code Author (Continued on page 2) Authority to Move Into RKO Building Headquarters of the Code Authority are set in the RKO Building in Rocke feller Center and the committee, con sisting of Charles L. O'Reilly, H. M. Warner and R. H. Cochrane, will report favorably on this spot. Two offices are under consideration, one on the 18th floor and another above it, and it is likely that the higher exposure will serve as the background for the board. New Chicago Union Claims 100% Lineup Chicago Jan. 1.— Unionization of janitors, ushers, and ticket takers is 100 per cent complete here, according to Jerry Moran president of the {Continued on page 2) — 1933's Story, Told Day-By-Day Day-by-day happenings in the industry, as told in the headlines of Motion Picture Daily for the complete year of 1933, are presented on pages 4, 8, 9 and 12 of today's issue, the first of the new year. The story of the headlines reveals that 1933 ushered in some of the most significant developments that have come to the industry in any single year of its history. Foremost among these, despite the fact that its results are not yet manifest were the arduous negotiations which resulted in placing the industry under an NRA code, with its accompanying important changes in trade practices, employment and wage scales. The further economic adjustment of the industry, begun in 1932, attained stable proportions during the past year, although leading production, distribution and exhibition concerns were forced to resort to receivership and bankruptcy proceedings in order to adjust themselves, in some instances, to the new order. Federation to Set Producing And Ad Codes Production and advertising codes of ethics for independent producers and distributors will be drawn up by the committee on standards of the Federation of the M. P. Industry, independent trade organization, within the next few days. The codes will be designed to impose standards for improving the moral tone of independent productions and advertising, and constitute a rejection of a recent offer of the M.P.P.D.A. for independents to avail themselves of the advertising advisory services of the new department headed by J. J. McCarthy. The standards committee which will set up new rules of self regulation for independents consists of Eddie Golden, Herman Gluckman, Charles {Continued on page 2) Free Parking Up as a Code Board Issue Whether or not free automobile parking offered to patrons of many metropolitan theatres comes under the code ban on premiums is expected to be one of the first questions requiring a ruling from local grievance boards. Numerous requests are being made by exhibitors for an interpretation covering this question, it was learned yesterday. All queries point out that the code clause covering rebates does not mention free parking specifically, while providing that admission scales shall not be lowered by "giving rebates in the form of lotteries, prizes, reduced script books, coupons, throwaway tickets or by two-for-one admissions, or by other methods or devices of similar nature which directly {Continued on page 2) Dr. Lowell Declines By MARTIN QUIGLEY CERTAIN undesirable consequences have followed in the wake of the refusal of Dr. A. Lawrence Lowell to accept the President's invitation to serve as a government representative on the motion picture industry code authority. Because of Dr. Lowell's distinction as an educator and as a citizen his interest in and contact with the industry would have been welcomed had he seen his way clear to accept the President's invitation. The selection of Dr. Lowell, however, was a puzzling one due to the fact that he professed little or no familiarity with motion pictures and the affairs of the industry. The correctness of this profession is attested to in the announced reasons for his refusal to serve. Dr. Lowell's interest in the motion picture question, presumably, would have had to do with those phases of it which affect the public welfare. His objective, it is supposed, would have been to exert an influence for the betterment of the moral character of pictures. He has predicated his refusal to serve largely on the grounds that {Continued on page 2) More Majors May Restore Salary Cuts M-G-M, Loew's and Fox Expected to Act More companies are ^expected to follow the lead of United Artists in returning cuts to employes. M-G-M, Loew's and Fox are reported to have discussed the situation with the probability official announcement reinstating the slashes, or part of them, will be forthcoming shortly. Last week Columbia played Santa Claus to its non-executives and distributed Christmas gifts in the form of a bonus. United Artists was the last to institute the cuts and now is the first to return them. More than 600 workers throughout the country will receive part and whole pay cuts this Friday, which is pay day, and the first under the new order of things. Former Pathe Men In Liquor Concern A large bloc of the former Pathe executive organization headed by Joseph P. Kennedy is now operating the liquor importing and distributing company known as Somerset Importers, Ltd., at 230 Park Ave. Reliable reports have Kennedy as the "silent" controlling factor in the enterprise, although this was denied by the Somerset offices. E. J. O'Leary, former general sales manager of Pathe, is president of Somerset ; Thomas Delehanty, former {Continued on page 2) Censoring of Stills No Worry, Say Some Holly woou, Jan. 1. — Local representatives of fan magazines handling leg art and off-color stills say they are in no way alarmed over the Hays edict to eliminate that type of material. Some take the order very nonchalantly, declaring that the home offices of their publications have enough leg art in their files to keep the magazines filled for more than a year. New Fox Met Plan Looked for Feb, 18 Reorganization plans for Fox Metropolitan Playhouses are expected to be completed by Feb. 18, the date on which the present six months' receivership term expires. If the plans are {Continued on page 2)