Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1938)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Wednesday, February 23, 19; MOTION PICTURE DAILY (Registered U. S. Patent Office) Vol. 43 February 23, 1938 No. 43 MARTIN QUIGLEY Editor-in-Chief and Publisher A-MIKE VOGEL, Editor J. M. JERAULD, Managing Editor JAMES A. CRON, Advertising Manager 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 1938 by Quigley Publishing Company. Inc. Address all correspondence to the New York Office. Other Quigley publicaUoiis' MOTION [PICTURE HERALD. BETTER iSmS TEATEO AL DIA. INTERNATIONAL MOTION PICTURE ALMANAC and HOLLYWOOD: Postal Union Life Building. Vine and Yucca Sts. : Boone Mancall. Manager. CHICAGO: 624 S. Michigan Ave.; C. B. O Neill. WASHINGTON : Albee Building; Bertram F. Linz. Representative. . „ , AMSTERDAM: 87 Waalstraat; Philip de Schaap. BERLIN^ Steulerstrasse 2. Berlin W. 35: Joachim K. Kutenberg. Representative. BUDAPEST: 3 Kaplar-u. Budapest II; Endre Hevesi. Representative. BUENOS AIRES: AvaUaneda 3949; N. Bruskl Representative. . COPENHAGEN: Vesterbrogada 20; Kris Winther HELSINKl1tiFredriksgatan 19C; Charlotte Laszio Representative. LONDON: 4 Golden Square. W. 1: Cable address. Quigpubco London; Hope Williams. Manager. MELBOURNE: Regent Theatre Buildings. 191 Collins St. : Cliff Holt. Representative. MEXICO CITY: Apartado 269; James Lockhart. Representative. MONTEVIDEO : P. O. Box 664; Paul Bodo. Rep resentative. . „ „ MOSCOW: Petrovski Per 8: Beatrice Stern. Rep resentative. PARIS: 29 Rue Marsoulan; Pierre Autre. Rep resentative. „ _ , PRAGUE: Uhelny trh 2. Prague 1; Harry Knopf Representative. _ , „_.„ T _ RIO DE JANEIRO: Caixa Postal 3558; L. S. Marinho. Representative. ROME: 54 Via Delia Mercede; Joseph D. Ravotto Representative. SANTIAGO de CHILE: Casilla 13300; A. Weiss mann. Representative. SHANGHAI: Rooms 38-41: Capital Theatre Build ing, 142 Museum Road; J. P. Koehler. Rep resentative. „ STOCKHOLM: Kungsgatan 36; Ragnar Allberg Representative. ,. _ TOKYO: 880 Sasazuka, Ichikawa-shi. Chlba-Ken; H Tominaga. Representative. VIENNA: Neustiftgasse 54 Vienna VII: Hans Lorant. 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 Americaa. and foreign $12. Single copies: 10 cents. "Buccaneer" Is Near Para. Weekend Mark] "The Buccaneer," now current at the Paramount, has just drawn the second largest weekend gross in the history of the theatre, Robert M. Weitman, house manager, stated on Monday. The record is held by "Wells Fargo" for the weekend which included last New Year's Eve. Weitman predicted a $60,000 gross for the first week of the film's run. 4 Purely Personal ► BARNEY BALABAN, Paramount president, who has been vacationing in Florida for the past three weeks, will return to New York tomorrow to attend the monthly meeting of the company's board of directors. Stanton Griffis, chairman of the Paramount executive committee, will leave on Friday for Florida for two or three weeks of fishing. Y. Frank Freeman, Paramount theatre head, who is now at the studio, is expected back shortly after the first of the month. William A. Scully, Universal sales manager, is due back from a three-weeks tour of western and southern exchanges the first of next week. • Irvin Shapiro left Monday for Rochester, in connection with the opening at the Regent there of his film "The Life and Loves of Beethoven." • Frank Phillips, Warner executive in charge of labor relations, left yesterday for Florida to recuperate from a recent illness. He will return the middle of next month. • Joseph P. Kennedy, Ambassador to Great Britain, and Arthur Houghton will sail for England today on the Manhattan. • Whitford Drake, Erpi president, spotted at the Universal home office looking much improved after his recent illness. JOSEPH N. WEBER, president of the American Federation of Musicians, is prolonging his Florida vacation and is not expected back in New York until the end of the week. His plans for leaving for ' Hollywood to discuss proposals for increased employment for studio musicians are indefinite now. • Soltan and Laszlo' Vidor, Austrian producers ; the Earl of Warwick and Betty Balfour arrived Monday on the Queen Mary. • • Jack Cohn, Abe Montague and A. Schneider are expected back from the coast this weekend. . . . Houston Judy Garland's brief visit to Hous ton bore fruit — one of the city junior high schools has a "Judy Garland Club." Paul Hochuli has been made amusement editor of The Press. Richard Barnes is now manager of Will Horwitz' Iris and Oren H. DeFord is manager of the Ritz. . . . New Haven Al Bookspan of the Fishman The atre office is the father of a baby girl Marilyn. B. E. Hoffman planning a West Indies cruise, while his brother, I. J. probably will go to Florida. Edwin Parks of the Yale Art School has been called to Hollywood to join the Walt Disney staff. Eureka Wins Plea to Appeal Film Actio Eureka Productions, Inc., w; granted permission by Federal Jud; William Bondy in the U. S. Distri Court on Monday to appeal to t! U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals frc an adverse ruling of a threejud statutory court which dismissed suit against Gov. Herbert H. Lehp Attorney General John B. Be Jr., Frank P. Graves, N. Y. Commissioner of Education and Irw Esmond, director of the censor boa Eureka contends that the censorsl by the state of the film "Ecstasy" unconstitutional because the pictt i was passed by customs authorities af inspection. The statutory court, wh considers constitutional questio ruled that censorship by a state i not interfere with the exclusive jut diction of Congress over foreign o cerns. Transfer Warner Action The infringement suit brought Hollywood Hotel Revue. Inc., agai Warners was transferred from N. Y. Supreme Court to the U. District Court here on Monday. The plaintiff alleges that it o\ exclusive rights to the use of title Hollywood Hotel Revue and used the name for a stage preset tion in many film theatres. It claimed that the Warner picr "Hollywood Hotel." infringes. D; ages of $50,000, a permanent injv tion and an accounting of the pre are sought. Emanuel Cohen sails on the Rex, Saturday, for Mediterranean ports and Paris and London, to be gone about two months. • Gus Schaefer, former Universal foreign manager, leaves today on a j month's visit to key cities throughout the country. • Victor Saville, British director now under contract to M-G-M, will sail for England today on the Queen Mary. • Charles E. Ford, new Republic producer, left for the coast yesterday with Moe Siegel. • Lou Hyman is in town on behalf of the new Bobby Breen picture, 'Hawaii Calls." . . . Pittsburgh Bill Walker, Al Weiss and William Wheat, all independent exhibitors, are vacationing in Florida. John Goring has installed a driving range in the basement at the Fulton to polish his golf. Joe Feldman and Sid Jacobs are back from a week's inspection of Warners' West Virginia theatres. Harriet Pettit has returned from Miami and her boss, Harry Kalmine. will get in from Hollywood shortly. Paul Moss, former screen writer for Warners and Paramount, has returned to the coast as a prize fight manager. Kap Monahan, the Press film critic, was a minstrel man in the Pittsburgh sports writers' annual show. Mayer to Be Honor At Dinner Tomorn Hollywood, Feb. 22. — As a s bol of his long service as presi' of the Association of Motion Pic Producers, Louis B. Mayer on Th day night will receive the gavel used during his tenure of office, ' a suitable gold inscription. Joseph Schenck will make the presents at the dinner in Mayer's honor at Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Included among the sched speakers will be George Jessel, m: of ceremonies; Will H. Hays, ( B. DeMille. Gov. Frank Mern and Jack Benny. The dinner wil broadcast over the NBC-Red work, starting at 9:15 P. M.. E. Among the entertainers will Allan Jones, Bob Burns. Edgar gen. Fanny Brice, Sophie Tu Jeanette MacDonald and Don Wi who will act as announcer. "Dwarfs" Strong in 2 Spots Saturday and Sunday business for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" at the Palace, New York, and Albee, Brooklyn, was greater than the average for a full week at each of the houses. Churchmen at Ampa "The Church in Relation to Motion Pictures" will be the general subject for discussion at the Ampa luncheon today at the International Casino. Among the speakers will be Rev Michael J. Ahearn, narrator of the film "Monastery": Dr. Everett R. Clinchy, director of the National Conference of Jews and Christians, and Dr. Jonah B. Wise. Rabbi of Central Synagogue. Tack Alicoate will introduce the speakers. Circuit Is Sold to Griffith Affiliate Frederick. Okla., Feb. 22. — All holdings of the Frederick Amusement Co., including the Ramona, Ritz and Grand, have been sold to Consolidated Theatres, Inc., affiliate of the Griffith Amusement Co. Kenneth Blackledge of Wellington, Tex., will come here to assume management of the three theatres, according to Edward G. Kadane. Kadane made the sale in order to give his entire time to management of his oil holdings in the KMA field near Wichita Falls. The Griffith interests in Enid have purchased a building there and will convert it into a new theatre to replace the Mecca. The amount in volved in the transaction was about $30,000. Plan New House in Ohio Hillsboro, O., Feb. 22.— Work on a new 850-seat house, to be known as the Colony, which will be constructed here by Chakeres Theatres, Inc., will be started within 30 days, and will be ready for opening Aug. 1, according to present plans. Carl Niesse to Build Indianapolis, Feb. 22. — A contract has been let for the 1,000-seat neigh borhood to be operated by Carl Niesse on the far North Side and the house ''s expected to be ready about May 10. No name has been selected for the theatre to date. Cubans Honor Dis Hollywood, Feb. 22.— For the ond successive vear, Walt Disne been honored by a group of I newspaper cartoonists of Cuba voted his "The Country Cousin best cartoon film exhibited in during 1937. Last year a si award went to Disney's "Mk Grand Opera." Three Tie in Contet San Francisco, Feb. 22.— A t 1 way tie for first place was the «i of the contest for the best handli * exploitation campaigns, disclos* » the managers' convention of the ' vey Amusement Co. here. The ; ners were Ken Udall, Ed Coff *! Paul Jorden.