Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1934)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Attorneys' Delay Stirs Ire of Grievance Board Overbuying, Protection Curb Widens (Continued from page 1) damage suits, anti-trust actions and official investigations. Those are the views of several distribution executives with no affiliated theatres to consider, who profess a willingness to give -the small buyer a break, but have not been in a position to accord him equal treatment with the large circuit buyers because of the latter's ability to dictate the situation. Where relatively small buyers have felt themselves discriminated against, the distributors' explanation has been that the circuits are entitled to first choice of product, long protection or other preferential treatment because of buying power and because of higher rentals than the small exhibitor has been willing or able to pay. How Circuits May Be Affected Now that grievance boards have the authority to delve into contracts, it is argued circuits may find themselves in a less fortuituous spot since investigation may reveal that, generally speaking, the chains are not paying the high bracket rentals commonly supposed. Reports from the field indicate that in instances circuit heads are already evincing a readiness to grant second runs shorter protection. One specific example is cited wherein an exchange manager called to a circuit head's attention the unreasonableness of six months' protection in favor of a first run, whereupon the latter agreed to cut the clearance in half. Once circuit contracts are laid before the grievance boards and their terms become a matter of record, it is pointed out there will be more such evidences of voluntary compromise and concession, and in the end this cannot but help the "little man." Expect Details on Union Check Today Results of the Department of Labor checkup on the percentage of service employes in Loew's and RKO's metropolitan theatres who are members of Local 118, Theatre & Amusement Employes' Union, are expected to be made known from Washington today. The checkup was completed Wednesday. If the report shows a majority of the service employes to be members of the union, local exhibitors are expected to recognize the organization and negotiate new wage scales with it. Lack of a majority would be sufficient to continue an "open shop" for service employes. K. C. Meetings Are Set Kansas City, May 10. — Local boards have announced their meeting schedule as follows : Clearance and zoning, Tuesdays at 1 :30 P.M., whenever there is business to transact. Grievance, Wednesdays at 1 :30 P.M. Indications are the grievance board will meet weekly as scheduled, while the zoning board will meet only on call after zoning matters now in hand are disposed of. Several members of the New York grievance board are disturbed over the agreement arrived at by Louis Nizer and Robert R. Rosan to postpone the adjourned hearing of the Rogowsky Brothers' overbuying complaint against Skouras and seven major distributors without their knowledge. The grievance was heard Tuesday and put over to yesterday by the board when it found that additional evidence was necessary. Rosan, attorney for the Rogowskys, and Nizer, couhsel for the exchanges, on Wednesday got together and postponed the adjourned hearing until next Tuesday because Nizer had to go to Washington yesterday on another case. Board members were notified by mail yesterday of the agreed upon delay, but some of the appointees claim the right to put off cases from one day to another rests with the board and not the defendants or attorneys. Campi Is Expected To Delay Decision {Continued -from page 1) Ashley Amusement Co., from a decision on April 19 of the Milwaukee grievance board. The Milwaukee board has ruled that 30 Warner pictures must be turned over to Saxe Amusement Co. The board has 15 days in which to hand down a decision after hearing the appeal. Ben Koenig, secretary of the Milwaukee board, has already submitted minutes of the hearing in addition to exhibits. Attorneys for Saxe, Vitagraph and Ashley will submit briefs today, which will take some time to study. Up for discussion at the morning session today is a report on the Hollywood situation as a result of Executive Secretary John C. Flinn's and S. R Kent's visits to the coast. A report will be made on all assessments received from exhibitors. Three code board members who resigned recently will be replaced. Walter Vincent will act as alternate for Ed Kuykendall, Edward Golden for W. Ray Johnston and Neil Agnew for George J. Schaefer. Schaefer, who was in Chicago yesterday, returns today. Leslie E. Thompson will preside. For the May 18 session, two appeals are scheduled. One is that of Fox West Coast which was ordered to turn over to the Garfield in Alhambra, Cal., 20 pictures. The second is that of a case tried in Boston earlier in the week. Asks Clarification For Cancellations Buffalo, May 10. — Clarification of the cancellation clause is being requested by Jules H. Michael, chairman of the Western New York zone, MPTO. Distributors should be required to notify exhibitors of each release date, he holds, since exhibitors who live outside distribution centers have no way of knowing and thus cannot give notice within the required 14 days. One of the board members who came from Washington to sit on the case did not receive the mailed notice and went to the grievance quarters prepared to sit on the session when told of the postponement. He was so upset about the delay, he stated : "Who is running this board? The attorneys or the members?" In Philadelphia on Tuesday, Charles Stieffel, attorney for the Venice, So. Philadelphia, asked for a postponement of the case brought against a theatre by Jay Emanuel. The board insisted on hearing the evidence, but later adjourned the hearing. At the same time the board issued a "no-postponement ruling." A similar situation developed in New York Tuesday when attorneys for Skouras and the seven major exchanges involved in the Rogowsky Brothers' complaint asked for a delay. The board insisted the case be heard, and it was. Chicago Case May Be Initial Appeal (Continued from page 1) obtaining a Paramount contract the company failed to deliver. James Coston, Nate Wolf, Irving Mandel and Jack Osserman, acting for Charles Reagan, members of the local grievance board, gave no reasons for their iection of the case Friday, May II, 1934 Report Delay Brings Threat To Quiz NRA (Continued from page 1) Commission and Recovery Administration for digesting because of its length, declaring that it consists of but 6,000 words, according to information given him by Darrow. Underground gossip at the Capitol today was to the effect that the Darrow report was much stronger even than anticipated and that its publication would give Republicans better ammunition for their attack upon the administration than they have had at any time since President Roosevelt assumed office. The report is rumored to hold that self-government of industry has been a failure and to recommend much stronger governmental control with equal representation for the government and for large and small business. Even this, it is said, is much less virulent than the original draft of the report but is still too strong for the pleasure of administration officials, and the "digests" which will return from the agencies to which the document has been sent, unless Nye's threat is potent, will gloss over some of the outstanding charges and recommendations of Darrow. Protests on New K.C. Clearance Indicated Bartlestein also has an overbuying complaint against the Schoenstad Bros, which has been set for a hearing next Tuesday. The board is waiting advice from Campi on this. There is a possibility that Bartlestein will delay his appeal to the national board pending a decision on the overbuying charge, since the thought prevails here that both cases have dovetail angles, with the overbuying decision possibly clarifying both. Clearance Case Hits Frisco Second Runs San Francisco, May 10. — Granting of Fox West Coast's demand for extension of protection from 56 to 90 days over major second runs which are playing duals will affect all second runs, including the Golden Gate and Nasser houses, it is claimed. The case is scheduled to be heard next week. The clearance and zoning board has already decided that the Modesto at Modesto, operated by Midland Theatres, Inc., shall have seven days' clearance over the Turlock, operated by E. P. Lawes, provided the Modesto theatres commence exhibition within 35 days of the opening day in San Francisco. The complaint was filed by Lawes. E. W. Stokes, Eastmont Theatre, Oakland, has filed a complaint against Golden States Theatres' Capitol and Granada charging violation of the clause relating to price cuts and premiums. Lawes is defendant in a complaint filed by Dan R. Nunan of the New Turlock Theatre, Turlock. Nunan claims Lawes is overbuying. Kansas City, Mo., May 10.— Excitement over the new clearance is in high pitch. Inquiries by independents at the code board office today regarding the period allowed to file protests indicated protests from that source will be forthcoming. The I.T.O. at a meeting today briefly discussed the new plan but deferred its opinion because exhibitors are still unfamiliar with all provisions of the new schedule, copies of which were being mailed to them today. Zoning board members hold the plan is not a new setup, merely a revision of the old clearance. They say they had full authority to make revisions as price changes since the old clearance went into effect constituted revision in themselves. This view is challenged. Schwartz Asks Rule On Advertising Date A. H. Schwartz of the Century circuit has submitted a petition to the New York grievance board asking for a general ruling on the number of days required before a subsequent run can advertise a picture. This is expected to be heard next Tuesday in addition to the adjourned grievances of the Roxy against the Mayfair for cut rate ticket distribution and the Rogowsky overbuying complaint against Skouras and seven major distributors. Zanft Partner of Lesser Hollywood, May 10. — John Zanft has become a partner of Sol Lesser in the production of the series of six George O'Brien features for Fox release.