Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1934)

Friday, March 16, 1934 MOTION PICTURE DAILY Ohio Showmen Impatient for Boards' Start {Continued from page 1) W. A. Keys in J. Real Neth's place is generally approved. Under this shift Keys becomes the unaffiliated first run member and Neth becomes unaffiliated subsequent run member. _ Comments on the naming of Irvin Rosenbaum and Joseph Marx as impartial members of the grievance and clearance and zoning boards, respectively, is impersonal. Many wonder whether their lack of familiarity with the business will be a handicap. Some feel this will be a help in reaching just decisions on controversial problems. Most commentators are pleased that the appointments have been made, as they regard it as a step nearer to actual operation of the boards. Frisco Operators' Pay Scales Revised San Francisco, March IS. — The long standing dispute between independent theatres and operators has been settled, according to F. M. Billingsby, vice-president of the union, and a committee from the Theatre Owners' Chamber of Commerce, comprising Robert McNeill, George Nasser, Ben Levin and Aaron Goldberg. The settlement is a compromise. Operators receive an increase of from 15 to 18 per cent of their present wage scale. The present wage is $54 per week. The new wage will approximate $63 per week. This, however, is still short of the $84.60 which operators had before the depression, and which they had asked. The settlement does not affect operators employed by major circuits, who are working under a special agreement. Who? What? When? (Continued from page 1) Organization of Albany from 1928 to 1932. He is now a member of the national executive committee of the American Jewish Congress representing Albany, and of the Zionist Organization of America. He is also at present president of the Hudson Valley Zionist Region, president of the Jewish Community Center here and a member of the executive committee and of the Rabbinical Council of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. Baum was former chairman of the Rabbinical Association of Yeshiva College and of the Federation of Orthodox Congregations of the capitol district of New York. Boston Boston, March 15. — George R. Farnum, impartial member on grievances, is a native of Melrose, a suburb of Boston. He graduated from local schools there, attended Boston University and its law school. Farnum established his reputation in these parts as a trial lawyer and entered the service of the government as an assistant attorney general under President Harding, continuing in that office during part of the Coolidge Administration. He later resigned to resume the private practice of law here and is now a resident of Boston. First Board Refusal Sent by Allied Man First official instance of an Allied member turning down a post on a local zoning board because his unit refused to sign the compliance form was made known yesterday by Code Authority. The exhibitor is Fred Holzapfel of Minneapolis. When informed by the authority he was being considered for a post on the Minneapolis clearance and zoning board and that his unqualified assent was necessary before he could be eligible, Holzapfel wrote back that he was in sympathy with his unit and would not sign the assent form. Cincinnati Cincinnati, March 15. — Irwin S. Rosenbaum, impartial member on grievances, is a native son and was born here on Nov. 21, 1901. He is a lawyer, who received his A. B. degree at the University of Cincinnati in 1920 and his LL.B from the Harvard Law School four years later. Rosenbaum spent one year in research at the Harvard Business School and has been practicing before the local bar for about 10 years. He is unmarried and the author of numerous works on the legal and economic phases of public utilities and a contributing editor to Ohio Jurisprudence, published by the Lawyers' Cooperative Publishing Co. of Rochester, N. Y. He has had no experience in the film industry. Wittenberg Code Counsel Philip Wittenberg has been named special counsel of the legitimate theatre code authority, to work on a redraft of the theatre code and formulate plans for control of ticket brokers. "C. A." Meets March 22 Because Division Administrator Sol A. Rosenblatt has another meeting scheduled for next Wednesday, Code Authority will meet on Thursday, March 22, instead. The session will get under way at 10 A.M. Cleveland Cleveland!, March 15. — Jerome Friedlander, impartial member of clearance and zoning board, is a young attorney who specializes in business law. A native of Cleveland, he attended the local public schools and for one year attended Case School of Applied Science, planning an engineering course. He soon discovered his greater interest lay in the legal profession and so switched. In 1921 he was graduated from the law school of Baldwin Wallace College, and has practiced law in Cleveland ever since that time. From 1923 to 1926 he was the legal representative for the Building Contractors' Exchange, and, for a time, edited the local Builders' Magazine. Friedlander has no experience in the industry. and two years in high school. He came to Detroit, completing his high school course at Central. Later he entered Detroit College of Law and switched to the University of Detroit Law School, from which he graduated in 1922, after which he entered private practice. In 1925 he entered practice at Howell, Mich., with Francis J. Shields, brother of Edmund C. Shields, present public works administrator. The next year he returned to Detroit and promoted the Michigan Broadcasting Co., which established Station WMBC. He was vice-president of the organization. He remained in private practice until 1929, when he was appointed assistant prosecuting attorney by James E. Chenot, now circuit judge. In 1931 Weber returned to private practice and was special counsel for the Federal Radio Commission. He is single, never has had any association with the film or theatre business, and is a member of Delta Theta Pi, legal fraternity. Harry A. Harrington, impartial member on clearance and zoning, is 68, and was born in New York, where he attended Sacred Heart Academy, later going to Magill College, Montreal, and graduating with a law degree in 1887. Returning to New York, he entered the legal section of a real estate business. Five years later his father died, whereupon Harrington spent three years traveling in Europe, after which he went to Pittsburgh, where he saw service with the King Construction Co. as paymaster. His next move was to Buffalo, where he was associated with another construction company and then with the Thorne Cement Co. Sent to eastern Canada because of his knowledge of French, he remained with his firm until it was taken over by the Canada Cement Co., which was organized by Lord Beaverbrook. He then became manager of the coal division of the Retail Merchants /\ss'n of Canada. During the war he served as fuel controller for Ontario. In 1921 Harrington came to De troit in his present capacity, as as sistant secretary of the Board of Com merce and secretary of the arbitration committee of that organization. He is married and has two sons. Roxy London Plan Arouses Competition {Continued from page 1) city a theatre to vie with American houses like the Music Hall and Roxy in New York. He did not specify the site, nor did he divulge the promoters, emphatically disavowing any association with the project of the WheatleyMc Alpine group. The house, on which construction is expected to start this year, will have 6,000 seats and charge an average admission of 75 cents, as compared with the $2 top prevailing at present at West End houses. A stage show, with ballet and symphony orchestra supplementing the screen entertainment, is contemplated by Rothafel. Films will be chosen from British and American product. Rothafel, who sails for America tonight aboard the Manhattan with the promise of returning to England later, asserts the house will be "the finest in the world." Detroit Detroit, March 15. — Kenneth Weber, impartial member on grievances, is 33 and was born at Brighton. Mich., where he attended grade school Compromise to End St. Louis Dispute Washington, March 15. — Conditions for the settlement of the St. Louis labor controversy were decided upon today at a meeting between Division Administrator Sol A. Rosenblatt and Fred Wehrenberg of the M.P.T.O. of Western Illinois and Eastern Missouri and Oscar Lehn of the St. Louis Exhibitors' Ass'n. Hearings initiated by Rosenblatt in a review of the local decision were suspended in order that an amicable settlement might be sought. At the conference exhibitor representatives announced their voluntary agreement to give back pay to Sept. 1, amounting, it is estimated, to between $17,000 and $18,000. A new agreement has been worked out to become effective March 24. Sees U. S. Talent Aid To European Studios A great advantage can be derived by the industry in Europe, in England particularly, by creating a wider field for American talent abroad, it was said yesterday by Frank Joyce of Joyce-Selznick, just back from a seven-month European trip. The Hollywood agent said that by putting American players of box-office strength in their productions on a royalty basis the producers in England and on the Continent would find it easier to make money with their product in this country. He declared the practice of exchanging talent would aid the industry on both sides of the Atlantic. Joyce said he had signed considerable talent while abroad, including Elizabeth Bergner and Flora Robson, both of the cast of "Catherine the Great," as well as Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., whom he said, will be presented in a play yet to be completed, with a 12week run in New York to follow a similar run in London. Comedy talent was found by Joyce to be in chief demand in Europe. He declared his firm had decided to adopt a policy of "fewer and better" clients. Para. Distributing Two Trailers Gratis Paramount is distributing gratis to all its accounts two trailers, one announcing seven new releases and the other heralding a group of new players being groomed for star billing. The "lucky seven trailer" announces details on "Bolero," "Death Takes a Holiday," "The Trumpet Blows," "It Ain't No Sin," "Scarlet Empress," "We're Not Dressing" and "You're Telling Me." The "new personality list" includes shots of Buster Crabbe. Evelyn Venable, Frances Drake, Ethel Merman, Toby Wing, Ida Lupino, Carl Brisson, Kitty Carlisle, Dorothy Dell, Barbara Frietchie, Helen Mack, Lanny Ross and Henry Wilcoxson.