Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1934)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Monday, December 24, 1934 MOTION PICTURE DAILY (Registered U. S. Patent Office) Vol. 36 December 24, 1934 No. 148 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 Lite 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. Custom Rebates on Film Set in Canada {Continued from page 1) able to secure a refund of duty on releases which are not retained for distribution in the Dominion. The Government requires the payment of full duty on all film shipments from any foreign source, but the concession of a refund has been granted in the case of prints from the United Kingdom which are returned without public presentation. The two large importers of British films are Regal Films, Ltd., and Empire Films, Ltd., both of Toronto. They have followed the practice of having new pictures previewed by representatives in London, and those considered unsuitable for Canadian consumption have been rejected on the spot. Even under this plan, some features have been sent back after inspection in Canada and the distributor has been out the amount of the duty, plus shipping charges. Ohio Tax Starts Jan. 1 Columbus, Dec. 23. — Although collection of the retail sales tax will not start until Jan. 10 to 15, the three percent on gross theatre admissions is to be computed from Jan. 1. Exhibitors are to make remittance for the tax on or before the 10th of the month following the 30 days in which the admissions are paid. Insiders' Outlook ANY time Dave Selznick tires of production, a discriminating employer could do worse than take him on as a first-class propagandist, sometimes known as a public relations counsel. For Dave, facing expiration of his M-G-M contract in February, has turned in a swell job for himself and his cause. Those stories, planted around, about (1) a tieup with "Jock" Whitney and Pioneer (Technicolor) Pictures and (2) a memorial company perpetuating the name of Lewis J. Selznick, have worked out eminently well. Which is another way of saying Leo will renew with Dave at the same, or a bigger, fancy weekly stipend. It's $4,000 now, you know. . . . T A fact or so about John Boettiger, a new assistant to Will Hays. Long a Chicago Tribune ace and for the last two years, the fellow who has been whipping his paper's editorial excitement against the New Deal into leading questions for the President to answer or no at those famous White House press conferences twice a week. Yet by way of noting how these matters often go and according to Westbrook Pegler, Boettiger and the President are close friends out of the political arena. Boettiger also is the chap whose name has been linked romantically with Anna Dall, Roosevelt's daughter. Some Washington correspondents have wired their papers the engagement leading to a wedding is approaching. A President's sonin-law in the Hays office would be something new. . . . T Perhaps getting ready early for his Christmas, a make-up man succeeded in misplacing a paragraph in this department last Wednesday with results misleading and somewhat embarrassing. The inadvertent prank made it appear that the Paramount stockholders' committee, which is championing the appointment of more company and industry men to the board of the new company, is taking that position because, to quote from the wandering paragraph : "A heavy representation of company men (on the board), they contend, would make of it a 'rubber stamp' body, inclined to give unquestioning approval to anything bearing an executive recommendation." . . . T Had that paragraph appeared in its correct place in line, it would have explained, as was intended, the objections of the creditor factions opposed to the election of company men to the board. These factions hold that the specialized advice of company executives will be available to the new board, whether or not those executives are members of that body. It is those groups frowning on the election of company men who entertain the apprehension that a board of company executives might become a "rubber stamp" group, which, they feel, thus might give approval to policies which led Paramount into financial difficulties in the past. . . . ▼ The view of the stockholders' committee, like that of most others within the industry, is that a board top-heavy with bankers and economists strange to the ways of filmdom, is more likely to stumble into pitfalls which ordinarily would be sidestepped by a board of industry executives, familiar with the paths that must be traveled. The danger from the uninformed, this committee holds, is more immediate than that from company "cliques." In the meantime, as is its habit, time moves on and December 27, as important a M-G-M Pfd. New High on Big Board High Columbia Pictures, vtc 37/ Consolidated Film Industries 6J/£ Consolidated Film Industries, pfd 20/ Eastman Kodak 111/ Fox Film "A" 12$i Loew's, Inc : 34/ Loew's, Inc., pfd 104 M-G-M, pfd 28/ Paramount Publix. cts 3J-6 Pa the Exchange 1/ Pathe Exchange "A" 13/ RKO 21<t Warner Bros 4/ Net Low Close Change 37J4 6 20 37/ 6/ 20 110?| 111 12*6 12H 337/8 104 28/ 3/ 1 mi 4/ 34 104 28/ 354 1 13*4 2Vt 4/ + 'A / v» Trading Light on Curb Market Net High Low Close Change Technicolor 12?^ 12^ 12H Trans Lux 2% 2 2V& Keith Bonds Rise Two Points High General Theatre Equipment 6s '40 8/ Keith B. F. 6s '46 70 Paramount F. L. .6s '47 6134) Paramount Publix 5/s '50 6134 Warner Bros. 6s '39, wd 58/ Sales 100 2.400 1.000 1,000 300 2,900 100 100 4.100 500 100 1.100 600 Sales 300 400 day as any in Paramount's history, nears. It's worth keeping an eye on. . . . T William Randolph Hearst continues to wave the editorial baton at Red propaganda which allegedly crimsons part of the Hollywood output. One line in the latest effusion, to wit: "People do not want propaganda of any kind thrust into their entertainment" is true enough, however, and might well be taken to the film colony bosom. Beyond that, poof. . . . Charles E. Richardson, now a Paramount trustee, may stay there, but as a vice-president. Some talk Eugene Leake, also a trustee, will figure in the new management. . . . KAN N Purely Personal ARCHIE FEIN BERG has taken over the N«sw York office of International Seat Corp. His brother J. George Feinberg, in charge of sales will be transferred to the factory al Union City, Ind., after the first of the year. Peter Masucci, installation engineer, will go with him. James O'Brien New England rep resentative for International Seal Corp., has also been appointed New England representative for the U. S Air Conditioning Corp. Irving Browning addressed the Film & Photo League on "The Camen and Its Present Possibilities" last night. Joe Friedman, Columbia'* genera representative in England, is ii New York for talks with Foreign Sale; Manager Joseph H. Seidelman. Paul Sloane has delayed his de parture west and now will be in towr for Christmas. Bill Frank is in New York for ; week. Then back he goes to his Para mount post in Boston. E. T. Dawson has taken charge oi sales promotion for Cosmopolitai Studios. New Tax Hits Funds Sent Out of Mexici {Continued from page 1) died with another tax. This is thi absentees' impost, a levy ranging fron two to four per cent on all mone; sent abroad that is earned in any wa; in Mexico. The impost nicks divi dends, profits and any other earning in this country that are sent beyom its borders, but does not affect fund importers send to foreign lands fo the purchase of goods that will b distributed in Mexico. In the case 0 distributors and others in the industr who send funds abroad, the absentee; impost is two per cent. Net Low Close Change Sales 8/ s/ 2 70 70 +2 2 61/ 6P/ y* 7 61M em —i 1 58/ 58/ 3 Roxy Premiere Set Philadelphia, Dec. 23. — Prominer New York film men were among thos who attended an invitational per formance at the Mastbaum tonigh The theatre formally opens its door Christmas Eve with a stage show cor ceived by Roxy and "Sweet Adeline on the screen.