Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1937)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Friday, January 8, 1937 MOTION PICTURE DAILY (Registered U. S. Patent Office) Vol. 41 January 8, 1937 No. 6 Martin Quigley Editor-in-Chief and Publisher MAURICE KANN, Editor J. M. JERAULD, Managing Editor JAMES A. CRON, Advertising Manager H Published daily except Sunday and holidays by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., Martin Quigley, president; Colvin Brown, vice-president and treasurer. Publication Office: 1270 Sixth Avenue at Rockefeller Center, New York. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address "Quigpubco, New York." All contents copyrighted 1937 by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc. Address all correspondence to the New York Office. Other Quigley publications, Motion Picture Herald, Better Theatres, Teatro Al Dia, International Motion Picture Almanac and Fame: The Box Office Check-Up. Hollywood Bureau: Postal Union Life Building, Vine and Yucca Streets, Boone Mancall, Manager; Chicago Bureau: 624 South Michigan Avenue, C. B. O'Neill, Manager; London Bureau: 4 Golden Square, London W 1, Bruce Allan, Representative. Cable Address "Quigpubco, London"; Berlin Bureau: Stuelerstrasse 2, Berlin W 35; Joachim K. Rutenberg, Representative; Paris Bureau: 29, Rue Marsoulan, Pierre Autre, Representative; Rome Bureau: Viale Gorizia, Vittorio Malpassuti, Representative; Australian Bureau: Regent Theatre Buildings, 191 Collins Street, Melbourne, Cliff Holt, Representative; Mexico' City Bureau: Apartado 269, James Lockhart, Representative; Budapest Bureau: 3 Kaplar-u, Budapest, II, Endre Hevesi, Representative ; Tokyo Bureau : 880 Sasazuka, Ichikawa-shi, Chiba-Ken, H. Tominaga, Representative; Prague Bureau Uhelny trh 2, Prague 1, Harry Knopf, Rep resentative; Shanghai Bureau: Rooms 38-41. Capital Theatre Building, 142 Museum Road, /. P. Koehler, Representative; Rio de Janiero Bureau: Caixa Postal 3358, A. Weissman, Representative; Buenos Aires Bureau: Corrientes 2495, N. Bruski, Representative; Montevideo Bureau: P. O. Box 664, Paul Bodo, Representative; Moscow Bureau: Petrovski Per 8, Beatrice Stern, Representative; Vienna Bureau: Neustiftgasse, 55, Vienna VII, Hans Lorant, Representative; Amsterdam Bureau: Zuider Amstellaan 5, Philip de Schaap. Representative; Helsingfors Bureau: Fredriksgatan 19 C, Charlotte Laszlo, Representative. 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, and foreign $12. Single copies: 10 cents. Cullman for Use of Controversial Films Howard S. Cullman, trustee of the Roxy, speaking at New York University last night, deplored the avoid ance of controversial subjects on the screen. Calling attention to financial apprehensiveness on the part of producers and lack of audience interest, he analyzed the problem from the two viewpoints. He offered the two-reeler as a proving ground for new "ideas and methods, due to the lessened cost in volved and the minimum risk. Cull man concluded, "If through this medi urn or some other, the public shows a tangible interest in the vital issues of the day, as entertainment material we may find the producers of million dollar features probing more deeply into our social ills. Until that time, however, I am afraid we must resign ourselves to a continued diet of moonlight and roses on the screen, with row and again a well coated pill of satire or realism. Apparently this is what we want. In any event it is what seventy-five million of us pay our money for, at the box-office each week." Insiders' Outlook By RED KANN ALL of the funny business is not on the screen. Which might induce the remark that this is one of the difficulties. There is, for instance and too good to pass up,_ the newlyformed company in which Amedee J. Van Beuren and George J. Hirliman are principals. Condor Pictures they call it. Remembering something ever so slightly about our dips into nature studies in the days when, we turned to the dictionary in search of definition and an early 1937 check on our memory. The research resulted in this : Condor — A very large American vulture found in the most elevated part of the Andes ; head and neck are bare, the plumage is dull black with a downy white neck ruff and white patches on the wings. The condor is one of the largest and most powerful of flying birds, but though it sometimes attacks living animals, it feeds preferably on carrion." There's a name for a picture company. . . . T This led into other and similar fields. It recalled how, in the early days of Fox Movietone •News, a prize of $100 was .offered employees for the best design of a screen trademark for that newsreel. One of the bright young men in the advertising department drew a picture of the globe balanced on clouds with North America and South America in the right positions and with a fox running from left to right as though followed by the invisible hounds of the competition. William Fox's office was in the Roxy in those days which was a good thing for the home-office staff. They heard what happened from the pale and shaky Roxy attaches. And nobody ever won the $100. . . . T The third choice one in the triumvirate carries the scene of the exploit to London. C. M. Woolf was out as managing director of Gaumont British and knee-deep in the pains and excitement of his new company, General Film Distributors, Ltd. He wanted a trademark. Metro had one named Leo and it was doing all right; pattings along the collar daily from Si Seadler and red meat, too, from Louis Mayer. Woolf, then, conceived his own. It was a wolf, snapping, snarling and dripping from its wicked jaws well nigh into the main title. That is, into the main title for two releases. Then someone put Woolf wise. . . . T T Rob Wagner, who should know better, went whole hog, which is to say a full page, in a recent issue of his Script. It had to do, all of it, with Will H. Hays, his job and Jim Farley. You know, that old wheeze about Farley succeeding Hays. Wrote Wagner : Naturally all eyes are turned toward Jim Farley, twice the a successful campaigner for President Roosevelt, a master politician on the winning side who has won not only the confidence of his own dominant party but the respect of the losers (as expressed in John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s letter to him). Jim, of course, is the ideal person for the job. He has announced that he is tired of his Washington job, and he certainly is entitled to a handsome wage. With due respect and honor to Will Hays for what he has accomplished in the past, we firmly believe that it would be the height of business acumen to secure Jim Farley's services during the next four years. Lest we be suspected of playing favorites let us hasten to say that both Will and Jim are Script subscribers. No one may suspect Wagner of playing favorites. He might, however, be suspected of taking a stroll on his usual perspicacity and judgment. Rather tired with it all now, we should like to repeat once again where no repetition should be necessary that: 1. — His principals are all for Hays. The job he has done and is doing tell why. 2. — Hays has a contract which runs until 1941. He is just as unlikely to relinquish it as it is that he would be asked to. Now, does this settle it? . . . Loew's to Pay $1.62y2 Holders of Loew's preferred stock as of record Jan. 29 will be paid $1.62^ a share on Feb. IS. The regular dividend was declared by the board Wednesday. Whitney on Coast Today Hollywood, Jan. 7. — John Hay Whitney will arrive here tomorrow. He plans to stay a month. Sponsors Film Opening Mrs. Cobina Wright will sponsor the opening night performance of "The Robber Symphony" at the Venezia, Jan. 25, with proceeds being donated to the Social Service Auxiliary of the Cancer Institute. Friederich Feher, who composed the music and directed the picture, will conduct the "Robber Symphony" operatic suite at the opening night performance. Twickenham's Upset May Affect Quota By BRUCE ALLAN London, Jan. 7. — Impending receivership for Twickenham Film Studios, Ltd., may result in forcing adoption of the Moyne committee suggestion of a commission to control financing of films, and the new C.E.A. attitude in favor of the Moyne proposals will also work in favor of Government action. The C.E.A. is definitely against joining the K.R.S. in the proposed association unless the right of appeal to a Government arbitration board is secured. Receivership for Twickenham has not been officially recorded as yet, but it is understood two of the "Big Five" banks have refused further to finance films because of losses allegedly sustained by the smaller insurance companies on earlier advances. Dixey Company Sets $1,000,000 Capital London, Dec. 31. — The Independent Exhibitors' Distribution Co., Ltd., headed by Captain A. C. N. Dixey, will be floated as a public company early in February. The total capital will be £200,000 ($1,000,000) divided into £100,000 of six per cent preference shares of £1, £60,000 in 600,000 two-shilling ordinary snares and £40,000 in £1 "franchise" shares, held by exhibitor members. The current exhibitor membership of the I.E.D.C. is declared to represent 300 theatres. The franchise holders, including a number of prominent officers of the Cinematograph Exhibitors' Ass'n, are said to control among them 1,000 theatres. Although they have, in the first instance, only taken franchises for 300, the extension of their membership to all their properties would make I.E.D.C. the biggest circuit in England, it is declared. A production plan is expected to accompany the I.E.D.C. prospectus. Will Open Clubrooms M.P. Associates will open a clubroom at the Lincoln Hotel next month, Joseph J. Lee, president, stated yesterday. It was originally planned to take quarters at Sardi's, but this plan fell through. New officers will be installed next Thursday at a luncheon at Sardi's. Universal Board Meets Universal's board of directors yesterday held a routine meeting at the company's home office with R. H. Cochrane, president, presiding in the absence of J. Cheever Cowdin, chairman, who is now in Europe. Mayer Arrives Today Louis B. Mayer was in Boston yesterday and will arrive in New York today. Howard Strickling, publicity director of the M-G-M studio, who accompanied him east as usual, is in town. ITOA Expects 1,000 From 800 to 1,000 are expected to attend the I.T.O.A. annual ball at the Waldorf-Astoria on Jan. 16. Warners to Dance Feb. 20 The Warner Club will hold its annual ball at the Waldorf on Feb. 20.