Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1934)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Friday, November 2, I9i'< MOTION PICTURE DAILY (Registered U. S. Patent Office) Vol. 36 November 2, 1934 No. 105 Martin Quigley Editor-in-Chief and Publisher MAURICE KANN Editor JAMES A. CRON Advertising Manager Published daily except Sunday and holidays by Motion Picture Daily, Inc., subsidiary of Quigley Publications, Inc., Martin Quigley, President; Colvin Brown, Vice-President and Treasurer. Publication Office: 1790 Broadway, New York. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address "Quigpubco, New York." All contents copyrighted 1934 by Motion Picture Daily, Inc. Address all correspondence to the New York Office. Other Quigley publications: MOTION PICTURE HERALD, BETTER THEATRES, THE MOTION PICTURE ALMANAC and THE CHICAGOAN. Hollywood Bureau: Postal Union Life Building, Vine and Yucca Streets, Victor M. Shapiro, Manager; Chicago Bureau: 407 South Dearborn Street, Edwin S. Clifford, Manager; London Bureau: Remo House, 310 Regent St., London, W. 1, Bruce Allan, Representative. Cable address: "Quigpubco, London"; Berlin Bureau: Berlin Tempelhof, Kaiserin Augustastrasse 28, Joachim K. Rutenberg, Representative; Paris Bureau: 19, Rue de la Cour-desNoues, Pierre Autre, Representative; Rome Bureau: Viale Gorizia, Vittorio Malpassuti, Representative; Sydney Bureau: 102 Sussex Street, Cliff Holt, Representative; Mexico City Bureau: Apartado 269, James Lockhart, Representative; Glasgow Bureau: 86 Dundrennan Road, G. Holmes, Representative; Budapest Bureau: 3, Kaplar-u, Budapest, II, Endre Hevesi, Representative; Moscow Bureau: Civtzev Vrazhek, N. 25, Apart. 146, Moscow, U. S. S. R., Bella Kashin, Representative. Cable address: "Samrod, Moscow." Entered as second class matter, January 4, 1926, at the Post Office at New York City, N. Y., under Act of March 3, 1879. Subscription rates per year: $6 in the Americas, except Canada $15 and foreign $12. Single copies: 10 cents. Upstate Spots Gain, States Wm. Smalley Business is not bad upstate, William Smalley, operating 14 theatres in and around Albany, stated yesterday. "Business has picked up quite a bit, especially where we put on special attractions like 'Singers' Midgets' and name orchestras," he said. "We are not adding any theatres at this time, but are ready for some acquisitions," Smalley concluded. FitzPatrick Here Month James A. FitzPatrick leaves for Hollywood the first week in December to start production, on a feature founded on the love affairs of Franz Liszt. FitzPatrick is making the picture on his own and will negotiate distribution after completion. He is now trying to decide whether to make the film in color or black and white. Nathaniel Shilkret is preparing the musical score. Metro-Goldwyn Dividend Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp. yesterday declared a regular quarterly dividend of one and three-quarter per cent on the preferred stock, payable Dec. 15 to stockholders as of record Nov. 30. "Limberlosf to Criterion "A Girl of the Limberlost" will go into the Criterion for a run, starting Nov. 8. Insiders' Outlook CAYS Marion Davies : ^ "I feel very happy over my new arrangement with Warner Brothers. I am confident that they will give me every co-operation in the production of my pictures and that I shall have greater individual opportunity." That, you may regard as the usual perfunctory statement which attends shifts such as the break between Cosmopolitan and M-G-M and the former's new hook-up with Warners. . . . T In this case, however, there seems to be a lot more to it. Miss Davies, it is more or less common gossip, has felt for some time that her talents were not being accorded the fullest of bloom under Leo's aegis and that, placed in the same rarefied atmosphere with such stars as Garbo, Crawford, Shearer et al, she was not faring as well as she might. The obvious conclusion to draw — and events bid fair to make it obvious — is that Marion will be the big noise around the Warner lot when the new deal gets going on January 1 next. . . . T The flirtation between William Randolph Hearst and the Warners which now reaches its climax is not new. Not by a long shot. Four, or perhaps as many as five, years ago, a contract was as close to signing as any contract possibly could be. In other words, merely a matter of dripping pens and signatures. This corner had something to do with exclusive publication on another paper of the impending deal at the time. When the first page blasted the yarn on the particular morning in question much happened. As a matter of record, so much happened the deal never went through. . . . T Thereafter and popping up now and then with a fair degree of regularity were the same overtures hitting it off along the same line. For instance, this, dug up from handy, bound volumes of Motion Picture Daily : Hearst to Warner Rumor Stirs Laugh Aboard Westbound Sante Fe Chief, Needles, Cal., April 9, 1933 — Hollywood reports that William Randolph Hearst is about to sever his production affiliation with M-G-M to join Warners met with loud laughs today both from H. M. Warner and Nicholas M. Schenck. Schenck said : "It is perfectly ridiculous." Several years ago, Jack L. Warner almost had Hearst with Marion Davies slated for top rating spot on the First National list and International Newsreel on the Warner program, but Hearst renewed the M-G-M contract. Your attention is directed to the date. . . . T The latter day phases of the Cosmopolitan Warner hook-up go back to on or about the day that Hearst returned from his recent European trip. The whole proceedings, made familiar by this time through several early efforts over the same ground, were renewed. There developed a lapse of two weeks, a revival of the dickers and the signatures, finally, to the contract in Hollywood on Wednesday. And so it comes about that the vast publicity and advertising resources of the 26 Hearst dailies throughout the United States now will swing from M-G-M to Warner. Those resources, of course, will be brought into play principally on behalf of the Davies vehicles, first, and the Cosmopolitan attractions, no matter what they be, secondly. But just as the Hearst editorial attitude was friendly to M-G-M product aside Consolidated Stocks Rise on Big Board High Low Close Columbia Pictures, vtc 3554 35 35 Consolidated Film Industries 354 354 3% Consolidated Film Industries, pfd 1554 15^5 1554 Eastman Kodak 105 105 105 Fox Film "A" 12% 12 12% Loew's, Inc 30 29 29% Paramount Publix 4 3% 4 Pathe Exchange 1% 1% 1% rko 1% m 1% Warner Bros 4% 454 4% Trans Lux Climbs % on Curb Net Change + 54 + 54 54 + % + % High Low Close Technicolor 12% 12% 12% Trans Lux 2% 2% 2% Net Change Trading in Bonds Light High Low Close General Theatre Equipment 6s '40, ctf 6% 554 554 Loew's 6s '41, ww deb rights 10344 103% 103% Paramount F. L. 6s '47 5554 55 55 Paramount Publix 554s '50 55 55 55 Pathe 7s '37, ww 98% 98% 98% Warner Bros. 6s '39, wd 57% 5754 5754 Net Change + 54 + % 54 Sales 300 100 100 200 1,200 3,200 4,400 100 3,400 1,100 Sales 400 100 Sales 3 2 5 3 3 4 from Cosmopolitan's own, so may it be expected to be as cordial where the Warners are concerned. . . . T Shedding light in dark corners : Dr. F. B. Jewett, vicepresident of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, told the S.M.P.E. I banqueters that if it hadn't been for the years of experiments in telephone sound transmission talking | pictures would not have been possible. "That's how we telephone men got into the picture business," was the way he expressed it. "After all, there are only three elements involved — pick up, transmission and adequate loud speaking devices," he said. "Synchronization has never been a problem." . . . T In 1907 or 1908, he said, coils were put into use for transmitting sound over increasing distances. "We told the backers of the San Francisco Exposition then that we would have telephonic conversation across the continent when the exposition started in 1915, and we did. Vacuum tubes made this possible. Your radio and your sound pictures are based on these fundamental devices." Jewett overlooked the commercial landslide completely. As a scientist, he rates forgiveness, but, as a commentator, he glossed over a slightlv important point. . . . KANN M-G-M, Loew's at Ampa M-G-M and Loew's yesterday tool the feature spots at the Ampa lunch eon. The distributor had seven girl who are finalists in the Daily Mirro; tieup for a new player, and Loew's through WHN, had a number o amateur radio performers on hand The affair, toastmastered by Majo; Edward Bowes, was broadcast ovei WHN. Comptroller Joseph D. Mc Goldrick, Herbert Rawlinson anc Shirley Grey were among the guests Sophie Tucker Greeted Sophie Tucker was greeted by i delegation of the American Federatior of Actors when she arrived yesterday on the Manhattan. She was escortec to the Park Central by a squadron o< motorcycles. She will be guest of honor at a beefsteak dinner tomorrow night at Meccs Temple. Among the guests expected are Joe Penner, Jack Benny, Harry Hershfield, Sam Harris and Jack Lait. Tellegen Rites Today Hollywood, Nov. 1. — Private funeral services will be held here tomorrow for Lou Tellegen, who committed suicide last Monday. Arrangements were made by Mrs. J. P. Cudahy and approved by Eva Casanova, his fourth wife. Tellegen's ashes will be scattered on the Pacific. Stir Over Ellison Fight Film circles here are displaying a lively interest in the candidacy of Millard H. Ellison, brother-in-law of Felix F, Feist, for Supreme Court judge.