Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1934)

The Leading d|Jy ~~ sNewspaper" <*the MoticM Picture Industry MOTION PICTURE DAILY Alert, Intelligent and ;i Faithful Service to the Industry in All Branches L. 35. NO. 59 NEW YORK, TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 1934 TEN CENTS >eny Friction )ver Cuts By Cansas Board change Heads Decry Film "Strike" Talk ansas City, March 12. — Denying any serious friction has occurred ittn distributors and the Kansas or board, representative exchange :utives here say they know of no erted move by distributors to hold films from the state, thus preating a general theatre "strike" irotest against the censors' dele rther, it is said no knowledge exthat Governor Landon has inted the state board to use scison scenes showing excessive use (Continued on page 3) eviews Starting Many Coast Triples ollywood, March 12. — Comneti for previews is becoming so ■us among neighborhood exhibitthat a total of seven within the limits of Los Angeles are now ing and featuring triple bills. ators of the "triple" houses take attitude that if the larger neighDods are now running double bills * with previews, they too must this competition by going triple o keep their customers. G-M to Sell U. A. List in So. Africa G-M and United Artists have Id contracts whereby the former distribute in South Africa all of Jitter's product next season. The s were signed by Arthur Loew I-G-M and Arthur W. Kelly for The deal includes Walt Disney fete. Attenshun! Cincinnati, March 12.— It's )lonel James R. Grainger >w. He arrived here a civilit today and found a commission from Governor Ruby iiffoon awaiting him at the niversal exchange. Paul ,'ieger, local manager, was i blame. The Sam Brown belt and tties will have to wait until gets back to the home n tailor shop at Belle rbor, L. I. 28 Impartial Men Will Be Named Today 6 of Last 10 Boards Also To Be Announced Impartial members for 28 clearance and zoning and grievance boards and the personnel of the San Francisco, Boston and Washington boards will be announced today by Code Authority. This will leave New York and Philadelphia set-ups as well as the Minneapolis impartial members to be approved at the next authority meeting, March 21, when George J. Schaefer will preside. Complete boards including impartial representatives have been made public for Albany, Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Denver, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, Charlotte, Detroit, New Orleans and (Continued an parte 3) Philadelphia Union And Warners Dicker Philadelphia, March 12. — New wage contract negotiations between Warner theatres here and Local 19,190. Theatre Ushers and Doormen's Union, are scheduled for discussion here this week. Possibility of a general strike order being issued by the union in the event of a refusal by the circuit to negotiate a new contract was voiced by John J. Slavin, president of the local. The new union, affiliated with the A. F. of L., claims 600 members in Warner theatres in this territory. The (Continued on parte 3) Mascot to Make 20 Feature Productions Mascot Pictures Corp. plans to go in for feature production in a big way during 1934-1935, it was said yesterday by Nat Levine, president. Twenty are scheduled. Included are eight (Continued on page 3) Who? What? When? Sixteenth instalment of the biographies of the men who make up the code boards appears on page 6 today. Los Angeles Getting Set For MPTOA Los Angeles, March 12. — Both Los Angeles exhibitors and distributors have swung into action to lay plans for welcoming and entertaining visitiner delegates to the forthcoming M.P.T.O.A. convention next month. Committees under the general chairmanship of Ben Berinstein have been appointed and work has already begun to make this one of the mpst pretentious exhibitor conventions yet to be held in this city. Committees appointed are : General — B. N. Berinstein. chairman; R. D. Whitson, George F. Brcmlev, Arnold Shaak, H. W. Chotiner. George L. Hanes. Harrv H. Hicks. Russell (Continued on parte 7) Fox Lining Up Six Musicals Next Year Hollywood, March 12. — Despite the impression that musicals would be reduced in number by major producers next season. Fox has six planned for the 1934-35 program. These include : Winfield Sheehan's "Follies," now nearing completion : Jesse L. Lasky's "Red Heads on Parade" ; "Gypsy Melody." starring Charles Bover : "Scram," starring Toe Cook; "Music in the Air," and a Harlack-Romberg all-star original. St. Louis Protests On Any New Houses St. Louis, March 12. — Formal protest has been sent to H. M. Warner against any new theatre construction (Continued on page 3) David Harum " Big Draw Of Week in 3 Key Spots "David Harum" was the big noise last week in some of the principal key centers. In Cleveland, Detroit and Indianapolis it took a total of $37,500, doubling and tripling averages. "Spitfire" stirred up some excite ment in Chicago with $27,000, and "Queen Christina" gave a good account of itself in Detroit. "It Happened One Night" continued to be outstanding, doing a fine business in De(Continued on page 8) Buying Co-op For New York Bruited About Independent Men Talking About 300 Houses Attempted several times before in local affairs and reminding of the cooperative fostered by Aaron Sapiro several years ago, Greater New York independents are discussing again the advisability of massing their buying power. The move is aimed at Loew's and RKO, the two most powerfully entrenched local circuits, but this time takes another angle as well. While any such step would be construed by the majors as a move against the two big New York circuits, independents interested declare their primary interest is to be enabled to buy first run pictures which will take care of their needs. If, (Continued on page 3) Silent Film Rights Up in Coast Court Hollywood, March 12. — Whether or not the purchase of a story for motion pictures before the era of sound entitles the buyer to produce the plot as a talking picture was a question that reached Superior Court here when Sol Lesser named Harold Bell Wright defendant in the case of (Continued on page 3) Vancouver Picture Concern Collapses Vancouver, March 12. — With liabilities of $52,000 and negligible assets Commonwealth Productions, Ltd., film company which some months ago set up studios near Victoria, and there produced two pictures, has gone into bankruptcy. Among creditors is Kathleen Dunsmuir Humphreys, formerly of the London musical comedy (Continued on page 3) Ifs Oatmeal Now Children will get their serials mixed. After Julius Charnow, vicepresident of Allied of N. J., took his six-year-old daughter to a show, he asked her what films she had seen. She answered: "Take a Chance and oatmeal." The oatmeal referred to was "The Perils of Pauline."