Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1934)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Monday, December 3, 1934 MOTION PICTURE DAILY (Registered U. S. Patent Office) Vol. 36 December 1934 No. 130 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-des\oues, Pierre Autre, Representative; Rome lureau: 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. Extend RKO Listing The governing committee of the N. Y. Stock Exchange has given an extension of two years from Dec. 1, 1934, to Dec. 1, 1936, to RKO for listing a balance of 1,740,000 shares of common stock. First authority for the listing was granted under application A-9855. Meyers an Associate Hollywood, Dec. 2. — Zion Meyers, who left Columbia recently to become assistant to Pandro Berman at Radio, moves up to associate producer following completion of "Roberta," which Berman is supervising. "Ahoy" Showing Tonight "Jack Ahoy," the G. B. musical starring Jack Hulbert, will be shown tonight for charity at the Ritz-Carlton with tickets selling for $10 each. The showing's proceeds will go to the Travelers' Aid Society. Pert Kelton to Tour Hollywood, Dec. 2. — Pert Kelton will take a leave of absence from RKO on Dec. 15 to make a series of personal appearances in various key cities. Opening for Charity London, Dec. 2. — The opening performance of "The Iron Duke" at the Tivoli Friday night grossed £7,285 (approximately $36,425), all of which went to charity. Insiders' Outlook CIGNS of the times: The Wall like Selznick. who get four thou^ Street Journal predicting sand times one dollar a week in better financial statements, mean salary and yet the company's ing profits, are well up on the earnings record is what it is. horizon for 1934; there's a paper This, it, therefore, seems, is as that usually knows what it is good a time as any to recall what talking, and writing, about. Nick Schenck said in a handEarlier: Loew's statement, sans ful of words many months back: comment with the figures provid "There is nothing in this busiing their own sensation, how ness which good pictures cannot ever, and telling even those who cure. . . . scan quicklv that the year to ▼ Aug. 31, 1934, was better than Pokings into the recesses of the previous twelve months bv this department's memory recall almost $2,500,000. Later: Uni the yarn, some weeks old now, versal Pictures for the nine of Philadelphia, its houses and months to July 28 showing a net a denial of Harry M. Warner of $77,077. Not much black, vou that he was talking a theatre deal might point out but compare there on a personal basis. The what's happened with a loss of company had no comment to $728,747, same period previous make when asked at the time if fiscal year, for the real slant. Still the palavers tied in with corlater : Warners, those musical Porate expansion. Now comes a boys, cutting their loss for the court hearing on the advisabilfiscal year to Aug. 25 by °f se hn£ four houses owned $3,761,234 and exactlv 78 cents, ^y the William Freihofer and or from $6,291,748.46' to $2,530, Fred Nixon-Nirdlinger estates 513.68. A loss, yes, but also t0 Prove that the Warners— what a gain' corporation, not brothers— were and are interested in such a pur ▼ chase. Facts, or many of them, , have a way of asserting them The Loew eye-dazzler. of selves Sooner or later. . . . course, is the standout. Current ^ profitL off/,79'897 com,Pare John S. Roberts, associate su with $4,034,289 last year and are perintendent of schools in New half of the five-year record of York, has been delving into the '3"*n the net touched $14, film probIem with those untold 600,032. This is the company, thousands of children who attend let it be told once again, which the public sch00ls verv much in has a producing arm that spends mind As ;s custornary in mat_ and spends com of the realm on ters 0f that sort. Roberts finished its attractions by virtue of what up with a rt It doeg a nice apparently is a pipe line from see-saw and divides the blame the mint in Washington to the equallv with the schools them_ cashiers wicket in Culver City. selves> the producers and that Metros starring personnel, as nebulous butt of most reports: everyone knows; is the most ex societv at , When Roberts pensive m the industry. It has states> as he does> thj it is men like Mayer and Thalberg to with him. and Ruben cutting in on the ,<T, , , „ , , , profits: stars like Garbo who get ^IZ^l \ ? Vr°?T K , 4.-7^ nnr. & , confronting the schools and the f™lere between $2a0.000 and public generaiiv is the problem $300,000 a picture; producers. (.Continued on page 8) Five New Highs Set on Big Board Net High Low Close Change Sales Columbia Pictures, vtc 4054 3954 4054 +114. 2,100 Consolidated Film Industries, pfd 1854 17?i 18J4 4 ^ 3,100 Eastman Kodak 11354 112J4 11354 +lVs 500 Fox Film "A" 14% 1V& 14 — 54 3,700 Loew's. Inc 37 36*6 36^6 + Ys, 11,700 M-G-M pfd 2754 2754 2754 + 54 100 Paramount Publix, cts 354 354 354 -4 J4 1,800 Pathe Exchange 1% iy% iys 300 Pathe Exchange "A" 1454 1454 14J4 + 54 200 RKO 1% 154 154 -14 1,400 Universal Pictures, pfd 40 40 40 +3 20 Warner Bros SVS 4J4 S +54 14,900 Warner Bros., pfd 21?4 17 21$4 +6% 910 Trans Lux Up % on Curb Net . , . High Low Close Change Sales Technicolor K54 1454 1454 200 Trans Lux 2 2 2+54 100 Warner Bonds Gain Point and Half Net _ , _, High Low Close Change Sales General Theatre Equipment 6s '40 954 9 9 9 Loew's 6s '41, ww deb rights 105 104 105 +'54 13 Paramount Broadway 5%s '51 4354 43 43 +1 7 Paramount F. L. 6s '47 6054 59J4 60 +1 11 Paramount Publix 5%s '50 6054 5954 6054 +2 28 Warner Bros. 6s '39, wd 60J4 58$4 6054 +154 86 < Purely Personal ► TOE HORNSTEIN will hold a «J housewarming tomorrow to inaugurate opening of his own office in the Film Center Building. The free meal ticket starts at 12 noon. Jack Lyons, former secretary of state, today throws open the doors of his new chop house in the West Fifties. The film and stage fraternity know him well. Booth Tarkington's "Rennie Peddigoe" and Herbert Gorman's "Suzy'' have been purchased by M-G-M. Gene Fowler and Sidney Skolsky have arrived in town from the coast by plane. Saul Bornstein is due in from Hollywood on the Smita Paula tomorrow. Duals Bad Business, Declares Brylawski Washington, Dec. 2. — Double featuring is just "bad business," declared A. Julian Brylawski, M. P. T. O. president, speaking before a luncheon meeting today of the committee on photoplay appreciation of the National Council of Teachers of English, now in convention here. Brylawski briefly sketched the development of double featuring from the time when film theatres went in for big stage prologues. When some 1,100 features were made each year, this practice was not so bad, Brylawski stated, but with the advent of sound feature production has fallen off to such a point that to double feature is bad business. Short subjects, Brylawski said, have in part paid the penalty for double features, for with twin bills the necessity for a supporting program has been minimized. For example, he said, there were 1,262 shorts made in 1929, but only 741 in 1934. And not all of these were screened, for an astonishing number of short subjects are purchased but never used. Block booking was ardently defended by Brylawski. He termed the practice the film counterpart of what in other industries is just wholesale buying. Shearer in Supply Post B. F. Shearer of Seattle has succeeded Joe Hornstein as vice-president of the Independent Theatre Supply Dealers' Ass'n. Hornstein resigned when he left Warners' subsidiary, Continental Theatre Accessories. W. J. Katz has been elected to the board. Cullman's Second Year On Dec. 15, Howard S. Cullman celebrates his second year as receiver and trustee for the Roxy. He held the receiver's post for a year and a half. About five months ago, the house went into bankruptcy under Section 77B of the bankruptcy law, when he was made trustee. May Go Third Week Roxy officials today will decide whether to hold "Imitation of Life" for a third week. Indications on Saturday were that the picture would go a third stanza, but yesterday's business was the deciding factor.