Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1935)

The Leading Daily MOTION PICTURE DAILY Alert, Intelligent the In in All Branches VOL. 38. NO. 26 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 1935 TEN CENTS Russians Say They May Buy From the U.S. Declare Soviet May Take Raw Stock, Equipment A Soviet market for American raw stock, studio and laboratory equipment and for an increasing number of American made films was suggested yesterday by Boris Z. Shumiatsky, president and general manager of the Soviet film industry, on the eve of his departure for London after more than two months in this counts Shumiatsky, witi>nFriedrich Ermler, president of th A*1 T" „n M. P. Directors' an<5 > Ass'n, and Vladimir 1... . , president of the faculty of Cinema Technique, State M. P. Institute, have just returned here from a six weeks' study of Hollywood production methods. The party stated it had been most impressed by America's film laboratories and the high technical development of production. It was stated that the impression had been gained by the Soviet visitors that "art" was {Continued on page 8) ITOA to Get Plans For Booking Today Plans for the formation of an independent booking circuit in New York will be presented to members of the I.T.O.A. at a special meeting scheduled for the Astor this afternoon. Milton C. Weisman, attorney for the unit, yesterday met with John Benas, Maurice Fleischman and Bernard Barr, the committee working on the circuit, when it was decided to call the special session. Weisman has been working on the plan for some (.Continued on page 8) Seeks to Arbitrate "Cellini" Objection Refusing to date "The Affairs of Cellini" because he had been requested by the St. Boniface Rectory in Jersey City not to play the film, Louis Geller of the Palace, Jersey City, today will (Continued on page 8) Skouras Will Stay In 2 Jersey Houses _ Skouras Theatres Corp. will continue to operate the Palace, Bergenrield, and Dumont, Dumont, N. J., under terms of a new lease with the (Continued on page 8) Academy's Council Favors Use of 2,000-Foot Reels Hollywood, July 30. — Adoption of 2,000-foot reels for use on all pictures released after Jan. 1 was recommended tonight by the Research Council of the Academy. The recommendation was the result of months of study and is intended to save the industry approximately $250,000 a year. The research work on the problem was conducted by the council's reel length sub-committee consisting of J. M. Nickolous, superintendent of the M-G-M laboratory, chairman; A. J. Guerin, J. J. Milstein, Sidney J. Twining and Gordon S. Mitchell, manager of the council. * At present film is shipped to theatres from exchanges on 1,000-foot reels and is rewound onto 2,000-foot reels by theatres. In the splicing the tail end leader from reel No. 1 is cut and the head end leader from reel No. 2 is also clipped. This applies also to reels four, five and six and two frames are cut from each reel in the process. In the course of several of these operations considerable damage is done. Under the recommended plan laboratory processing will be the same. (Continued on page 8) Para. Fees Again Cited in Congress By CLARENCE LINZ Washington, July 30. — Declaring that evidence had been uncovered during the investigation of protective bondholders' committees indicating collusion between brokers, bondholders' committees and the owners of equity (Continued on page 8) Decides Kohn Must Accept Suit Papers Ralph Kohn, former Paramount treasurer, will have to accept service in the suit brought by trustees of Paramount to recover from former officers and directors of the company (Continued on page 8) Stepping Bucyrus, O., July 30.— Fast on the heels of reports the Schine circuit plans a wholesale expansion in Ohio is a deal for the Hoover Theatre Building here for $15,000. The Limo Corp., a Schine subsidiary, was the purchaser. Overrule Demurrer In St. Louis Case St. Louis, July 30. — Federal Judge George Moore has overruled the demurrers to the government indictment filed on behalf of the RKO Distributing Corp. and its president, Ned E. Depinet, in the alleged conspiracy in restraint of trade charged against RKO, Warners and Paramount and their subsidiaries and six of their executives and has set Sept. 30 as the date for the trial. The court, however, granted the defendants' request for bills of particulars and directed that attorneys for (Continued on page 9) Rockefeller Center Claim Case Delayed A hearing on RKO's exceptions to Special Master Thomas D. Thacher's report recommending the allowances of Rockefeller Center's claim against RKO in the amount of $8,270,000, which was scheduled for hearing Friday, has been postponed to Sept. 30 to permit Federal Judge William Bondy (Continued on page 9) Local 306 Members To Share Operation Members of Local 306 will be given a voice in operation of the union under the new administration, Joseph Basson, newly elected president, has decided. The first general meeting of the members since the local di(Continued on page 2) Lightman Takes Film Test Hollywood, July 30. — M. A. Lightman has taken a screen test. He started out as a civil engineer, then became a distributor, later an exhibitor and exhibitor leader, and now he may become an actor. Stranger things than that have happened in the film industry. Many people don't know it, but he is a prime mover in the Memphis Little Theatre. He knows something about acting. Some time ago Carl Laemmle sent out an appeal to film editors (Continued on page 9) Kent Declares Fox Is 'Proud9 Of Its Merger Will Meet Stockholders For Talks, He Says Declaring that Fox Film Corp. is "very proud" of the arrangements for the proposed merger of the company with Twentieth Century Pictures, Sidney R. Kent, president of Fox, said yesterday that the company was "prepared to meet any stockholders' committee of any kind that wants to talk to us." "We have nothing to hide in this deal," Kent said. "We are very proud of it and we are prepared to battle it through on its merits." Referring to the stockholders' committee organized by L. T. Pidwell to study the effects of the merger on Class A stockholders of Fox, Kent said : "We had the same thing to contend with when we reorganized the company and saved it from bankruptcy. If it had gone into bankruptcy there would not be any common stockholders. We are proud of what we have to defend. We have nothing to apologize for." Meanwhile, Pidwell's committee met last night to discuss possible courses (Continued on page 8) Justice Department Gets Allied Charge Washington, July 30. — The Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice has been given material gathered by Special Agent Paul Williams anent a case to be brought in the near future by the Allied Theatre Owners of the District of Columbia against four major distributors for alleged violation of the Clayton Act. The material which Charles H. Olive, president of the Allied unit, has been collecting and turning over to Williams, has been worked into ap(Continued on page 8) Reich Again Attacks Films' "Non-Aryans\ Dispatches from Berlin, signed by International News Correspondent Pierre J. Huss, yesterday revealed that the Third Reich had renewed its campaign to drive Jewish members out of the industry in Germany with the suspension of Willie Zeyn, a director, from the Reich film chamber for working with a Jewish director. At the same time, however, it was denied that Emil Jannings, Angela Salokker and Otto Gubuehr — all (Continued on page 8)