Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1936)

Tuesday, November 24, 1936 MOTION PICTURE DAILY Giveaways Increase In K. C's Theatres Kansas City, Nov. 22. — Twentyfive Kansas City subsequent runs, or 68 per cent of the total, are giving away some form of premium one or more nights a week. This is said to be a new high, both in number of theatres and frequency of use. The past year has seen a shift in extra theatrical promotion from money giveaways to dishes, glassware and the like. Only about seven now have money draws, of which two or three are Bank Night. Representatives of premium companies here report both their volume and the number of theatres up over a year ago. Most premiums are given away with a double feature program, inasmuch as the dualling policy is practically universal for most nights in the week here. In Kansas City, Kan., neither the double bill nor the giveaway practice has much of a foothold. Only the Fox Granada is doubling on an allweek basis. Independents are dualling very little, or not at all. Radio Sponsors Flood Air With Prizes and Giveaways Sued Over Football Chicago, Nov. 23. — Edward Herman, for WIND, has filed suit in the U. S. district court against the Chicago Cardinals Professional Football Team, the Chicago Bears, the Standard Oil of Indiana, and WGN of Chicago. The action alleges that last June WIND purchased the exclusive broadcasting rights for the home games to be played this season by the Chicago Cardinals ; that subsequently, WGN, Standard Oil and the Bears advertised that they were going to broadcast part of the Cardinals' schedule. The suit asks specific performance of the contract made between the Cardinals and WIND, and that the Bears, Standard Oil and WGN be enjoined from broadcasting any of such home games. The suit specifically requests that the Cardinals be restrained from playing their scheduled home games with the Bears at Wrigley Field on Nov. 29, if they are unable to deliver the exclusive broadcasting rights allegedly sold for this event. While theatre owners have run afoul of various municipal and state laws in their attempts to give audiences something for nothing via Bank Nights, Screeno contests and similar games, radio sponsors are giving away prizes ranging from a ton of coal to $1,000 in cash, without meeting objections from any source, including the strict Federal Communications Commission. The plan employed by air sponsors is simple. By merely inducing their listeners to expend a bit of effort in order to make them eligible to win a prize, games of chance are automatically converted into games of skill. There is no law which can halt, or interfere with, a game of skill. At the moment, at least 20 sponsors are conducting contests on the networks and there is little doubt in radio circles but that the list will double itself before Christmas. Sundays, over NBC, the Hudson Coal Co. is giving away free coal to listeners writing letters about the product ; the International Silver Co. is offering sets of silverware for descriptions of incidents deemed suitable for dramatization on the program and the Fitch Co. is awarding wrist watches for jingles subsequently offered on the program. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, over NBC, the "Voice of Experience" in the interest of Wasey drug products, is offering cash prizes of $500 each for best letters on the subjects discussed on the program. Mondays through Fridays, over NBC, the "Mary Marlin" program for Kleenex, is offering prizes totaling $10,000 in U. S. bonds for letters on baby uses of product, in addition to 3,000 merchandise prizes. Also on NBC, Mondays through Fridays, Procter and Gamble's "Pepper Young" program is offering a grand prize of $1,000 a year for life or $12,000 cash for best compositions on product. There are also 201 additional cash prizes in each of five prize zones. Over CBS, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, Ted Husing, for the Atlantic Refining Oil Co., is giving away an automobile and cash prizes each week for guesses on football scores. There are many others, including the "Hit Parade" program, the football roundups with Eddie Dolley and Red Grange and the General Shoe "Portraits in Harmony" program offering automobiles as prizes for the best ending given to sentence read on the program, but the list already offered herein is sufficiently well documented to show that radio sponsors are succeeding where some theatre owners have failed. Now an All-Colored Bill In the sole expectation of ultimately selling the unit as a stage show, NBC's artists' bureau has completed arrangements to place on the air' radio's only all-colored program. The program, to be known as "Good Time Society," begins Friday, Dec. 4, from 10:30 to 11 P. M., E.S.T., over the NBC-Red network. The show will feature Chick Webb's orchestra, Ella Fitzgerald and Charles Rubinoff, Inventor It's here at last — a collapsible or folding violin that really works. The inventor is none other than Rubinoff, and he played his brainchild at the "Patented Dinner" in Washington last night, which commemorated the centennial of the American patent system. It should be a hit in vaudeville, but the next step should be a collapsible bass fiddle. Lynton, the Four Ink Spots, and the Juanita Hall choir. Juano Hernandez, negro writer and actor, is writing the script and will portray the chief role in the weekly episodes. WSPD Goes to NBC Station WSPD, Toledo, will join NBC's basic Blue network on or about May 1, 1937, it was ascertained by Motion Picture Daily yesterday. A formal announcement will probably be forthcoming soon. The addition of WSPD, owned by the Toledo Broadcasting Co., will bring the total of NBC outlets to 109 stations, 90 more than when the company was founded in 1926. WSPD operates with 5,000 watts power in the daytime and 1,000 at night. At present it is a CBS affiliate. The addition of this unit is one of a number of NBC acquisitions in the recent past. Stations which will join the NBC network on Jan. 1 are WEAN, Providence; WICC, Bridgeport; KFBK, Sacramento; KWG, Stockton; KMJ, Fresno, and KERN, Bakersfield, Cal. The four latter are owned by the McClatchy newspapers. On March 1, WFEA, Manchester, N. H., becomes an NBC affiliate, and WOWO, Fort Wayne, Ind., joins up on May 1. Swing to Minstrel Show After seven years of the same routine, Amos 'n' Andy, radio's black-face team, will change their Friday night broadcast into a minstrel show, beginning Friday, Dec. 4. In addition, a prominent guest star will be presented each week. The change will affect only the Friday night routine ; throughout the week the comics will offer their standard act. The first guest artist will probably be Frank Parker. Announcement of the change in policy will be made on this Friday's broadcast. "Salem" Broadcast Dec. 4 The postponed "Maid of Salem" reenactment on the "Hollywood Hotel" program, will be offered a week from Friday. Dec. 4. Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray will portray the parts they play in the picture. Muni Cast Hits Peak Last nisrht's Lux Radio Theatre offering. "The Story of Louis Pasteur," with Paul Muni in the lead role, featured the largest cast ever assem bled for any one radio program — 76 actors. All told, there were 23 speaking parts. Braddock Takes Air James J. Braddock, world's heavyweight champion, has been engaged for a new script series beginning Dec. 1, 7:15 to 7:30 P. M., E.S.T., over either the Red or Blue NBC network. The new program will offer a dramatization of Braddock's personal career, tracing his rise from a WPA dock laborer to the world's heavyweight champion. The program will be sponsored by Tastyeast candy, and will be heard on Tuesdays, Wednesday^ and Thursdays. J. P. Muller & Co. is the agency. Lederer, Fay to Vallee Francis Lederer, and Frances Fay, both on vacation from the studios, have been signed for the Thanksgiving night broadcast of the Vallee Variety Hour. Lederer will be cast in a dramatic sketch, while Miss Fay will sing. Tom Howard and George Shelton, heard frequently on the Vallee program, will offer a comedy routine Strouse, Chapman, Et Al Short Shots: Four new members have been added to NBC's publicity staff. . . . Irving Strouse, of the J. P. Muller ad agency, detailed to handle exclusively the new Jimmy Braddock series. . . . Frank Chapman, husband of Gladys Swarthout, will be heard on his wife's new ice series. . . . The Beaux Arts ball will be broadcast over WMCA and the Inter-City network from 12 midnight on Dec. 4 Cheerio, NBC program feature, has completed the autobiography of his life, which will be published. . . . After a showdown with his sponsor and Young & Rubicam agency, Ed Wynn has been granted permission to write his own script without interference. . . . Frank Healy, NBC press, temporarily transferred to conduct NBC-RCA contest. Azinsky Goes to KDKA _ Pittsburgh, Nov. 23.— For the last nine years concert master of the Stanley orchestra and assistant concert master of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Harry Azinsky has quit to become the concert master of station KDKA's staff orchestra. Charlie Riley has been named to succeed him at the downtown house and Frank Apter, former concert master at the Penn, will take over Azinsky's violin duties in Dave Broudy's Stanley outfit. Azinsky will join the KDKA staff Monday. Seattle Bank in Broadcast Seattle, Nov. 23. — The Seattle Trust and Savings Bank has joined the nationwide group of banking institutions sponsoring the weekly broadcasts of the Philadelphia Symphonv Orchestra by CBS. Cebert Baillargeon, president of the bank, is conducting a personal publicity campaign by mail and newspapers calling attention to the broadcasts, released locally by KOL. Take Control of WIRE Indianapolis, Nov. 23.— Control of WIRE will be taken over by Eugene Pulliam of Lebanon, Ind., and Central Newspapers^ Inc., a chain of small city dailies, if an application filed with the F.C.C. is approved. At present the station is operated by Indianapolis Broadcasting Co. under the management of P. E. Kendrick. Infringement Case Reopened Wilmington, Nov. 23. — A motion to strike out a certain portion of the defendant's answer was held before Judge John P. Nields in U. S. District Court here todav in the patent infringement suit filed by RCA and A. T. & T. The DeForest patent, which was adjudicated as valid in the suit some time ago and on which General Electric Co. had secured preliminary injunction, against the same defendant, is the patent which the Collins Radio Co. is charged with infringing. The argument todav was on a special supplementary bill in which Collins is allesred to have manufactured sets and infringed on the patent after nrevious preliminary injunction had been handed down against the company involving the same patent. Ates on Auto Show Program Portland, Ore., Nov. 23. — Roscoe Ates and 16 girls from Paramount, headed bv Belle Richards, are broadcasting their personal appearances at the Northwest Automobile Show here, over KGW, under the supervision of Leroy Prinz.