Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1934)

wesday, January 23, 1934 MOTION PICTURE DAILY 3 Government Expected To Contest the Allied Suit Study Future Of Industry's Two Disputes (Continued from page 1) lot be said to be non-existent when le urgent public need demanding such Bief is produced by other and econImic causes." Newspapers throughout the country id many legal lights here agreed that i this decision the court not only :cognized the existence of a national nergency at present, but also gave l indication at the same time of its :titude on the whole NRA legislative i.bric. President Acts on Complaints Over the week-end the President :ted on complaints that NRA codes ere oppressing small businessmen and jnding to promote monopoly. Investiitions of these complaints have been jin.er on for some time, as was incated in a story published in t.OTiQN Picture Daily on Jan. 3. In ■ executive order covering this point, e President rules that complainants iho feel they are not being justly eated by NRA officials can take eir cases to the Federal Trade Commission and to the Department of jstice. "Under such a method, grievances ising out of codes of fair competi>n or based upon violations of those rtions of the anti-trust laws of the nited States that prohibit monopolispractices, can be adequately aired j.d settled by disinterested governl^nt agencies in accordance with the anciples set forth in the recovery jislation," read the President's order. This order happened to come a few l urs after the filing of Allied's suit I Federal court in New York. It vers many of the points raised in ; Allied complaint, it is held by i Tie here. iperstein for Full 3-'34 Cancellation ('Chicago, Jan. 22. — While admitting it the ruling allowing cancellation, provided in the code on product reI sed after Dec. 7, is a great help and l"ves to clarify the situation, Aaron jperstein, head of Allied Theatres of Binois, declares this ruling does not Irirely satisfy him. It is Saperstein's 'night, and one which he is prepared battle for, that the code cancellation mid be made retroactive to cover ; product released on the 1933-34 )gram. Saperstein says local exchanges initely promised exhibitors any iiefits incorporated in the code when jling the 1933-34 program. At that :ie, he says, he warned his organizah not to "just take their word for i with the result that some exhibitors e a rider on their contract cover. the code cancellation ruling on jir entire program. Those who accepted in good faith assurance of distributors that they uld get any benefits incorporated in code are finding their cancellation yileges curtailed by the Rosenblatt ing in which cancellation applies 'y to pictures released after Dec! 7. j 2 company, he states, has released I illy 10 pictures prior to Dec. 7. Code Is Held To Govern on Cancellation (Continued from page 1) inconsistent with any provisions of the code "shall be deemed amended to conform with such provision of this code, it being the intention that the provisions of this code shall govern." Furthermore, it is explained that the very last paragraph of the section provides that "the optional standard license agreement referred to in Part 1 hereof shall be deemed amended by substituting in place of Article 15 of such contract the provisions of this part." Code Group Members Ethics Draw Attack (Continued from page 1) participate in deliberations involving companies with which they are connected was today vojced here following the receipt of complaints. Charges that at certain hearings members of committees connected with companies against which complaints were being considered for violations of the code have participated in the decisions have led to the issuance of instructions that while such members may, with propriety, make statements in regard to the facts, they should absent themselves when the vote is to be taken, or at least refrain from participating in the decision^ As a result of the complaints, it is anticipated that general instructions will be issued to committee members on all codes in order that their deliberations may be above reproach. Feist Heading West Felix F. Feist, general sales manager of M-G-M, is en route to the coast and is making a number of stopovers before reaching Hollywood. He arrived yesterday at Atlanta where he met Alan Cummings, manager of exchange maintenance and operation. From there Fejst and Cummings will travel together as far as Los Angeles where the former will head for the studios and the latter continue his tour north. Feist will be gone six weeks. Rodgers Returns W. R. Rodgers, eastern sales manager for M-G-M, is back from a vacation in Hollywood, Fla., and E. M. Saunders, western sales manager, leaves the end of the week for a brief rest. Schenck to Coast Nicholas M. Schenck plans to leave for the coast shortly. Due to his recent illness, he has not definitely set his date for departure for an annual production pow-wow. (Continued from page 1) a complaint of the kind filed by Allied. Allied's complaint against unqualified assents to the code, it was said, involves a code requirement which provides that the code must be duly executed "in its entirety" in order that signers may share in its benefits. This provision, it was pointed out, can be changed only by the President after a public hearing and on the recommendation of the Administrator. Authority Adds 61 To Code Board List (Continued from page 1) omitted in the national check-up. Sidney E. Samuelson, president of the New Jersey Allied unit, and several officers of that organization are represented. Although the final day for sending in suggestions was midnight last Saturday, several more lists from far west points are expected to dribble in today and tomorrow. The 896 names so far submitted will be presented to the authority at today's session at the Astor. No action on them is expected to be taken. Yesterday's batch of recommendations follows : Albany— Tony Ryan, Victor Bunz. Buffalo — Milton Guggenheimer, Henry Seilheimer, Emma Abplanalp. Boston — A. D. Rudenstein, Francis Lydon. Dallas— M. Laura Roberts, G. A. Luchesse, Raymond Willie. Des Moines — Lester F. Martin, N. C. Rice. Detroit — E. S. Kinney. Indianapolis — Monty Solomon. Kansas City — June Medcalf. New York City— Robert Wolff, Arthur Mayer, David Loew, William Scully, Edward Schnitzer, C. C. Moskowitz, Walter Reade, Harry Arthur, J. Louis Geller, William A. Landau, Lee A. Ochs. Edward Rugoff, George Skouras, Charles Steiner, Harmon Yaffa, F. Thomas Murray, Arthur Abeles, Sidney E. Samuelson, Lee Newbury, David Snaper, Reuben L. Haas, I. A. Roth, Harry K. Hecht, Fred W. Falkner, Julius Charnow, Miss Lillian Silver, Charles Moses, Irving Dollinger. Omaha— A. W. Person. Pittsburgh— Harry Goldstein, Robert F. Klingensmith. Philadelphia— Earl W. Sweigert, William Heenan. San Francisco— Charles A. Caballero. St. Louis — M Schweitzer, Ben Cammack, Joseph Garrison, C. T. Lynch, Lou Elman, C. D. Hill, Miss Lila B. Schofield. Seattle— John Danz, Ed Lamb, George Endert. Washington, D. C— Jerome Cohan, Herman Hable. Arbitrate Wage Row St. Louis, Jan. 22.— The local operators' wage dispute is to go before Oscar Kleintops, business agent of the operators' union, and Fred Wehrenberg, head of the M.P.T.O. If they are unable to agree, Division Administrator Sol A. Rosenblatt will appoint a third man as arbiter. Rosenblatt on Coast Los Angeles, Jan. 22. — Division Administrator Sol A. Rosenblatt and Harold S. Bareford, alternate for Harry M. Warner on Code Authority, accompanied by their respective wives arrived here tonight from the East. Partial Code Consents Hit By Kuykendall (Continued from page 1) Authority, by approving an official form for signature, has in effect ruled that a qualified assent is invalid, and exhibitors are on notice that such is the case. "There is no obligation on the Code Authority to reject a qualified assent. But if you have not signed the code in its entirety, relying on such irresponsible advice, at some later date you may have a complaint to bring before a local board or the Code Authority and find you are disqualified to appear before them. Unfortunately, you cannot hold such irresponsible advisers financially responsible for misleading you into such a false position. "The Allied prepared reservations make a futile attempt to (1) withhold assent to parts of the NRA code relating to unreasonable clearance and at the same time give qualified assent to other parts, (2) tie the hands of President Roosevelt in administering the code, (3) reverse and amend the act of Congress creating the NRA and (4) at the same time agree to conrpjy with all of the act. The only thing actually accomplished is to mislead exhibitors to their own detriment and record a little chiseling at the very beginning." Business Picking Up Widely, Levy States New Orleans, Jan. 22. — The south is not the only section experiencing a revival of business. Theatres throughout the nation are showing improvement, according to Jules Levy, general sales manager for RKO. Levy bases his observations on a recent tour of all the RKO exchanges. "I find business conditions generally much better than they have been and theatres of the nation playing to an encouragingly large patronage," Levy declared. "People in New York are hopeful that the present improvement will continue. All the film companies, particularly my own, RKO, are turning out consistently better pictures now than two years ago, and this in itself is contributing to the return of normalcy. "The picture industry will benefit by the code in the long run, although it is taking considerable time to set the Code Authority and its machinery into motion," he said. Musicians May Take Dispute to Wagner Members of the musicians' union who have tried unsuccessfuly to get Mrs. Elinore M. Herrick, acting chairman of the Regional Labor Board, to take up their complaints that they have been forced to pay "kick backs" on salaries for temporary pasiitions are reported to be planning to take their complaints to Senator Wagner, head of the National Labor Board. Mrs. Herrick claimed she had no jurisdiction.