Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1934)

Friday, May li. 1934 MOTION PICTURE DAILY Joint Action On Play Dates Is Considered Eastern exhibitor groups campaigning against next season's unannounced sales policies may consolidate their protest campaign with an Allied-sponsored one which will single out designated play dates as a principal grievance, it was learned yesterday. The move may materialize at Allied's two-day meeting of directors and regional vice-presidents which opens tomorrow at the Congress Hotel, Chicago. Also to be discussed at the Chicago gathering are methods of financing an independent production deal to be sponsored by Allied. Sidney Samuelson, Allied president, stated yesterday that offers from six independent producers had been received. It is understood that no action will be taken unless the Chicago meeting develops a plan of financing. Scheme Held Favored Consolidation of the sales policy protest campaign with Allied activities is understood to be favored by the eastern exhibitor groups as the best means of giving the movement a national aspect. The decision to concentrate protests on designated play dates and percentage terms is reported to have been made with realization of the futility of campaigning against sales policies before distribution companies have formulated and announced them. Samuelson declined to comment yesterday on the joint protest probabilities, while Harry Brandt, president of the I.T.O.A., merely made the admission that several of the exhibitors who attended the initial protest meeting at the M. P. Club earlier this week would also attend the Chicago Allied meeting. A number of Allied representatives from New Jersey and Maryland attended the meeting at the M. P. Club, although the bulk of the attendance was comprised of members of ' the M.P.T.O. of Eastern Pennsyl vania, Southern New Jersey and Delaware and the I.T.O.A. Samuelson, Walter Littlefield, Nathan Yamins, Abram F. Myers, Herman Blum, Edward Ansin and Arthur Price comprise the eastern Allied contingent leaving for Chicago today. Who? What? When? Three advisory committees assist the main code boards for New York. One covers Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island and Westchester. Another covers Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. The third covers New Jersey. Biographies of members of the latter follow. Strike in St. Louis Puts House on Duals (Continued from pape 1) Lowry as master of ceremonies, has resulted in inauguration of dual bills, effective today. George Tyson says a two-week notice was given to musicians on April 20 when it was planned to drop stage shows May 3. It was found that Lowry could not arrive until the week starting May 4 and a new notice was given on April 26. The musicians wanted to be paid until May 17. DeMille on Film Jury Hollywood, May lO.^Cecil B. DeMille has been named a member of the jury for the International Film Festival to be held in Vienna from June 16 to July 2. Ernst Lubitsch is president of the jury. Joe Lee, representing affiliated national distributors, made his first contact with the business about 25 years ago touring with the Joe Lee _ Stock Co. and talking behind screens in picture houses as off-screen voice which accompanied silent films in those days. Later, he spent several years in the independent field, selling and producing. • In 1915, Lee joined Paramount as salesman for New Jersey and continued with the comnany for nine years before he left to go over to Fox, where he has been for the past 10 years as New Jersey sales manager. He has held the title of sales manager for the New York exchange since 1932. His new post embraces sales for Greater New York. Edward Schnitzer, representing unaffiliated distributors, started in the industry in 1922, when he was associated with Sam Seidler. He then worked for Commonwealth Pictures Corp. for one year and joined Producers Distributing Corp. for one year. This was followed by a post with Fox, where he remained eight years as branch manager for New York and Brooklyn territories. In 1932, Schnitzer joined World Wide as New York sales manager and continued until Fox took over distribution. On March 20, 1933, he joined Columbia as head of the New York exchange. Don Jacocks, representing affiliated first run exhibitors, was born May 2, 1896. He began in exhibition as an all-around man at the Garden, New Haven, where he was usher, bill poster and utility man. From this job he trekked to New York to become poster clerk for General Films. Later he returned to New Haven to join M-G-M as shipping clerk and rewinder. His next position was with Paramount in New Haven as shipper, assistant booker and projectionist. A short time after, he rejoined M-G-M in his home town as booker and office manager. Jacocks then decided to return to exhibition and lined up with the Hoffman Brothers circuit in New Haven as general booker and assistant general manager, a post he held for five years until Warners purchased Hoffman's interests. On July 4, 1931, he was transferred to Warners home office as booker. He left to become assistant to George Skouras in New York. Shortly after he was sent to the Fox West Coast office in Los Angeles as assistant to Charles Skouras. He quit Skouras to rejoin Warners, where he was made assistant to B. E. Hoffman, general manager of the New England group the latter had turned over to Warners. On Oct. 14, 1932, he was appointed zone manager for Warners' Newark theatres and holds that job todav. He is married and has three children. Harry K. Hecht, representing unaffiliated first runs, was born in Gal licia, Austria, in 1882. When he came over to this country, he bought a restaurant and continued in this business Church Drive On Bad Films Hits St. Louis until 1906 when he added exhibition to his food disnensarv. He took over the Nicolette in Paterson as his first house and then became a theatre builder. He erected the Majestic, Paterson, in 1908, with his brother-in-law, Max Gold, and when the outlook became brighter the Hecht & Gold circuit was formed. In 1914, the company built the Garden, Paterson, now leased to Warners. So much for his experience in Paterson with the exception of the fact that the Plaza, Paterson, also is one of his situations. The scene now shifts to Passaic where in 1907 he opened the Nicolette, which was followed a year later by completion of the Pleasant Hour. In 1912, he built the City and in the same year the Garden. In addition to these houses, he operates the Rialto and Palace in this city. Hecht owns the Ritz restaurant in Passaic, reputed to be the largest there. Other theatres owned by Hecht include the Rivoli, Rutherford, which he built in 1920 and leased to RKO in 1930 under a 21 year lease ; the Regent, Kearny, which he built in 1916 and in 1930 leased to RKO for 21 years. He is a director of the People's Bank, one of the largest in Passaic ; a member of the National Corp., a holding company in Passaic ; he is active in Jewish organization work and local social activities, is a Shriner and an Elk and has three children, Florence, Sidney J., and Harold Llovd Hecht. All theatres are under separate corporations of which Hecht is president. Adolph J. Rettig, representing unaffiliated subsequent runs, attended Seton Hall College in South Orange, N. J., and left there to play professional baseball with Connie Mack's Athletics. A short experience on the diamond and then Rettig became chief of the sales tax division of the U. S. Internal Revenue, Fifth District of New Jersey. He quit this job to take over the management of the Strand, East Orange, N. J., and later dropped the managerial duties to open his own house, the Ormont, on Dec. 1, 1931. He is a member of Allied of New Jersey and is better known around as "Otto." Leon Rosenblatt, second exhibitor representing unaffiliated subsequent runs, dates his start in the picture business as far back as 25 years ago when he acquired the Star on Staten Island. He subsequently acquired the Plaza and Lyceum in Bayonne, N. J. ; the Empire, Port Richmond, L. I. ; the Orient, Jersey City ; Hightstown, Hightstown, N. J. ; Maplewood, Maplewood, N. J. ; Richmond, Stapleton ; Westwood, Westwood, N. J. All of these houses are operated by him now. He is a graduate of the Vasila Alexandra College in Galatz, Roumania, and has A. B. and B. S. degrees. He is a member of Allied of New Jersey and the ITOA. (Continued from page 1) to overseating. They believe the falling off in receipts is a reflection of a substantial segment of the public's dissatisfaction with the type of pictures being turned out in Hollywood. As proof of this fact they point to the growing sale of tickets at places offering other forms of entertainment, such as the St. Louis Municipal Opera. The Third Order of St. Francis, Catholic organization, is circularizing its membership to join the "Crusade of Decency." Members are urged tomail their pledges in support of the movement to their local theatres or to the M.P.P.D.A. in New York. One exhibitor is said to have received at least 50 of these cards. The signers not only pledge themselves to stay away from theatres showing undesirable pictures but also to do all in their power to arouse public opinion against their exhibition. Fred Wehrenberg, president of the M.P.T.O. of St. Louis, Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois, said he is personally answering protests as they come in. Catholic Periodical Bans Five Features Buffalo, May 10. — The Queen's Work, Catholic periodical, edited by Father Daniel A. Lord, has blacklisted five features and will continue to ban others "until the producers abide by their own moral code signed in 1930." The five listed to date are: "Riptide" (M-G-M) ; George White's "Scandals" (Fox) ; "Glamour" (Universal) ; "Finishing School" (Radio) ; "The Trumpet Blows" (Paramount). Others will meet Catholic displeasure nationally each month by students of the Sodality's Spiritual Leadership movement, the Rev. Alfred J. Barrett, S.J., moderator of the Student Sodality Conference of Western New York, states. Father Barrett also has requested exhibitors, who, he said, are "compelled to exhibit pictures which are railroaded to them through the monopolistic system of block-booking and blind-selling," to send their protests to him under their own letter-heads. Such letters he said will "be added to a file being collected by Father Lord for presentation to President Roosevelt, in an effort to break the producers' selfish monopoly." Protestants also are taking up the battle against what are termed evil influences in pictures. The Rev. Frederick D. Raymond, pastor of Roland Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church in suburban Lackawanna, declared: "The time has come when, in spite of the fact that there are many clean, honorable people engaged in the industry, and some clean pictures arc being produced and shown, Christian people should determine the juestion of their patronage of the motion picture house — not upon the quality of a few decent pictures shown at intervals—but upon the probable results of the activity of the industry as a whole upon the youth of our day and nation."