Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1935)

14 MOTION PICTURE DAILY Monday, January 28, 1935 i Purely Personal ► Availability In Code Terms To Be Defined {Continued from page 1) working on a definition for an amendment to the code. The definition will be made in the form of a recommendation to Cartipi which will submit the proposal to Washington for a public hearing. The interpretation of the legal body will have no bearing on Code Authority's recent decision in the Kutinsky-Schwartz selective issue. In this instance, Campi held that unless Schwartz decides within three weeks whether he will book pictures after they play Broadway, the undated films become available to Kutinsky for negotiation. This is the only amendment before Code Authority at the present time, all others having been given public hearings at the Capitol. Clearance for L. A. Up Again Thursday (Continued from page 1) days, members of Code Authority discussed the coast plan, but were stymied on the basic principle of admissions governing clearance. At the last session, the contract dispute between Jack Bellman of Hollywood Exchanges, against Ken Goldsmith and Mascot on "Little Men" did not come up, the committee hearing the complaint not having reported on its findings. Austin C. Keough, Paul Burger and Joseph Seider acted as the committee and are now studying the evidence and testimony. C. C. Burr's protest against Mascot regarding the services of Ken Maynard is on the docket for Thursday. Papers from the litigants were received after the last Campi session with the result that John C. Flinn turned them over to the legal committee, comprising Keough. Willard C. McKay and J. Robert Rubin. Rubin is slated to leave for Palm Beach today for about two weeks and this may delay action by Code Authority. Appeal hearings resume today after a week's layoff necessitated by the two-day Campi session last week. There are about 40 cases on the docket and they are expected to be cleaned up by the end of next month. Code Authority is anxious to wash up the appeals as quickly as possible. During the last two sessions, 56 were decided. la Htff '* Cabem II A chop house 1 || of exceptional 1 f merit 156-8 West 48th St., N. Y. C HENRY GINSBERG is crowding his days with shows, afternoon and evening. He's been out of New York so long, company to trail along is not especially easy to get. His friends, to a man, have seen most of the plays Ginsberg is catching up on. • Lynn Farnol is in a stew and so is his wife, Nell. He has just signed a lease on a house in 62nd St. Gradually now painters and decorators will be creeping up on them with the usual results — and expense. • Merle Oberon gets in from the coast today. She plans to attend the opening of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" at the Music Hall before returning to her home in London in about two weeks. • Bob Goldstein didn't get away for Chicago Saturday as he planned. Business held him in town. Harry Goetz made the train, however, and should hit the coast tomorrow. Quip of the Day Victor Mansfield Shapiro, all the way from Hollywood: "Headline in the A.F.A. Reporter wrges unemployment insurance for the actor, does it? "A lot of fellows out here are asking how about a little employment assurance." Arthur Bromberg and Claude Ezell, Monogram southern distributors, left over the week-end for their homes in Atlanta and Dallas, respectively, after a week's conferences here at the home office. • S. Charles Einfeld is already thinking about that next trip to the coast, what with all the cold weather around here. He is scheduled to leave for Hollywood in about three weeks. • Ben Verschleiser, of the Monogram production organization, left for Hollywood over the week-end after visiting his father in Mt. Sinai Hospital. • Julius Klein remains faithful to those week-ends in Washington. And this in the face of all the Paramount angles and tangles. See Little Hope of Deal by RKO-M.&S. Little likelihood of a settlement of the Meyer & Schneider breach of lease charges against RKO involving film playing policies at the Apollo and Hollywood is seen at this time by RKO representatives, who are preparing to resume arbitration hearings on the complaints tomorrow. Max D. Steuer, counsel for M. & S., lessor of the houses, is reported to have asked $225,000 for a settlement of the charges, which are seen as having a bearing on the September agreement by which Loew's released Fox, Columbia and Universal product to RKO. Representatives of the latter company term the proposal "ridiculous" and said Saturday they would be unwilling to discuss a settlement "at anything like that amount." PHIL HURN, co-author of "Wings in the Dark," has just returned from the gold mining country in Northern Ontario where he has been gathering material for a new yarn, "Gold Flight." He is at the 44th St. Hotel and expects to leave shortly for Hollywood. • Sam Hoffenstein and Dorothy Parker, both known in Hollywood and elsewhere, are working on "Two on a Tower," legitimate show piece in which Mary Ellis and Tullio Carminati are booked for the leads. • Bill Shiffrin, formerly with Leland Heyward in the east, and now studio contact for Holks-Volcks in Hollywood, is pining for New York and plans to see his eastern friends shortly. • Tallulah Bankhead, as Sadie Thompson in the stage revival of "Rain," is due to arrive at the Music Box on or about Feb. 11. Can't ever tell about exact dates. • Trem Carr, who prefers Hollywood climes to New York's snow, is staying on a few more weeks to complete production conferences with W. Ray Johnston. • Dorothy Arzner, Columbia director, arrives in town from the coast this morning. She's on a vacation and wants to see some shows here. • Joe Brandt sails Feb. 4 on the long-deferred Mediterranean cruise. Mary — Mrs. B. to you — goes along. There'll be eight weeks of it. • Louise Beavers, who starts a personal appearance tour in St. Louis this week, is booked into the Roxy for late next month. • Paul Muni is digging into William Beyer's dramatization of the life of Nijinsky. The play may find Muni in the lead. • Howard S. Cullman delivered a talk on the ratification of the ChildLabor Law last night over station WOR. • Norton Richey, Jr., is off, "Rolling Down to Rio" tomorrow, to handle Monogram product in Brazil. • R. E. Anderson of Erpi is on the sick list. One Missouri Bill Has 3% Sales Levy Jefferson City, Mo., Jan. 27. — Among several sales tax bills introduced in the Missouri legislature, one providing for a three per cent levy has been brought in by Senator Shotwell of St. Louis County. This measure is almost all-inclusive in its scope, and would apply to theatre tickets. The bill recommended by Governor Park to hike the present levy of onehalf of one per cent to a full one per cent has been introduced in the House. The measure also would extend the life of the sales tax to Dec. 31, 1937. Under the present law the tax would expire Dec. 31, this year. Legislative circles predict the administration will ask the rate be fixed at two per cent. Injunction on ASCAFs Fees May Be Asked (.Continued from page 1) collected and to act as a repository for all fees to be paid by exhibitors. The court will be petitioned to hold the collections in escrow until the Government hands down its decision in the anti-trust action. If A. S. C. A. P. is found to be a monopoly and dissolved, the funds would be returned to exhibitors. In the event of a ruling favorable to the composers' organization, the court would hand the collections over to it. Lawyers who are studying the matter doubt that A. S. C. A. P. legally has the authority to collect fees on behalf of all music composers. Fight Expected on Operators' Scales Fireworks are expected at the public hearing in Washington on Feb. 1 on the basic operators' wage scale for metropolitan New York. Representatives of the fact-finding committee, which has been holding a series of meetings with Compliance Director Sol A. Rosenblatt during the past few weeks, will oppose the plan on the present basis. The I. A. T. S. E., acting for Local 306, is understood to be against the 30-hour week provided in the schedule, preferring to continue on the present 40-hour basis. The T. O. C. C., representing a number of small theatres, is opposed to the 75 cents minimum clause as well as the $60 a week low for booth costs. The contention is that many exhibitors are now paying from $35 to $45 a week for booth operation and cannot stand the increase. Century circuit and Springer & Cocalis are also prepared to fight the scale, both circuits having Empire State operators under long-term contracts which are considerably lower than the proposed schedule. Both circuits also are against Empire becoming a part of Local 306, a provision for which is contained in the new booth agreement. According to officials of these circuits, they are prepared to go to the courts to prevent an amalgamation of membership. Reports current over the week-end had it that a basic plan for the local territory will not go through. Three bus loads of independent exhibitors are understood ready to go to Washington Thursday for the hearing, which from all indications will last more than one day. Chicago Operators' Scales to Continue Chicago, Jan. 27. — Wage scales for local operators will continue on substantially the same basis here for another year. Aaron Saperstein, president of Allied Theatres of Illinois, has signed a new working agreement with the operators' union for 120 houses in his organization. Deal between the operators' union and circuit and other houses represented by Jack Miller, head of the Chicago Exhibitors' Ass'n, has not yet been completed.