Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1939)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

8 Motion Picture Daily Tuesday, September 12, 1939 Banner Radio Lines By JACK BANNER WBT, COLUMBIA'S STATION IN CHARLOTTE, N. C, is engaged in a stunt that could be copied by others. The station's news department makes recordings just before the 7 o'clock and 9 o'clock intermissions at Charlotte motion picture houses and these news bulletin recordings are rushed to the theatres and are played over their loudspeaker systems. Theatres in turn are publicizing the service in their lobbies and in newspaper ads, with patrons notified that they won't be missing the news when they attend screen performances. Each news summary takes three minutes. THE WORLD'S FAIR MILKMAID OF 1939 will be selected in a television contest next Wednesday. However, there'll be nary a cow visible in the television screen, and not for the reason one might suppose. The reason no cows will be employed is due to the rivalry between the Sheffield and Borden milk companies. It seems that the Sheffield company thought up the idea for the contest, and the television angle. The company even obtained NBC's Clay Morgan to serve as master of ceremonies for the contest. But when the Borden company learned of what had been planned it announced that it was the only World Fair concessionaire allowed to display cows on the Fair grounds. So Sheffield and NBC are proceeding without the cows, only the milkmaids. KING WHYTE, WLW ANNOUNCER, wrote a war poem the other day and included it in his midnight broadcast. In the mail the next morning Announcer Whyte received a notice from the Canadian consul to report to his regiment immediately. He is a native of Montreal. THREE OF THOSE who were on the liner Athenia when it was torpedoed, and who are among the rescued, are identified with broadcasting in the Dominion. They are Judith Evelyn, CBC artist; Andrew Allan, announcer and commentator for CFRB, Toronto, and Harry Bramah, account executive of CBC. Miss Evelyn and Allan are engaged to be married. "r^OOD NEWS" no longer bears the stamp of the M-G-M studios, VJ Culver City having dropped its affiliation with radio when the program signed off the air for the Summer. Except for some cast changes and the absence of studio plugs, it is essentially the same program as when it was being produced by the motion picture company. In place of M-G-M players the series now features free-lance players. Fannie Brice and Meredith Willison's orchestra are retained. The new vocalist is Connie Boswell. Format of the program continues unvaried — first half variety, and final half-hour devoted to a dramatization. Frank Morgan's absence is sadly missed, for his comedy in last season's "Good News" was a high spot. Roland Young's efforts seemed feeble in comparison to the laughs Morgan drew. Walter Huston is a definite asset to the hour. Here he is given more opportunity to display his versatility than any picture studio would dare afford him, and he made the most of his chance. He is an affable emcee. Fanny Brice's "Baby Snooks" continued to afford refreshing laughter while Miss Boswell again served notice that she is a top songstress. Maxwell House Coffee commercials were repressed and not unduly long. The series is a Thursday night Red network feature. ANNOUNCERS ON WHOM have been forbidden by management edict to mention Adolph Hitler by name in news commentaries. For the duration of the war he is to be referred to as "the German Chancellor." Other stations and the networks have prohibited the mention of Germany or of any of the heads of the warring nations, from being used in song parodies, comedy skits or dramatic productions. HERBERT MARSHALL, has been signed to take the place of Charles Boyer in the Jergens-Woodbury dramatizations, which are to come back to the air shortly. Boyer now is in France. IEITH STEVENS has won the orchestral assignment on the Edward G. -J Robinson "Big Town" series. Jacques Renard has won a similar assignment on the forthcoming Joe Penner series. WOR WILL AGAIN BE THE NEW YORK OUTLET for the college football games to be broadcast under the sponsorship of Atlantic Refining. The schedule is for 10 games, including all the Yale contests except the Yale-Harvard game, and the games between Colgate-NYU, Pittsburg-Penn State and Penn-Cornell. In previous years Bill Slater handled the play-byplays, but this season the choice is expected to be Al Heifer, currently assisting Red Barber in broadcasting baseball over WOR. Film Stocks Show Loss; Others Gain (Continued from page 1) Preferred dropped SY2 to 41, debentures 6's '48 dropped lYi to 81, and common was off Y\ to ZYa Columbia Pictures preferred was off 1% to 18 and common lost Y& to close at 6^. Loew's common slumped VA to 31^2, preferred was off \Y& to 102 but debentures 3^'s '46 were unchanged at 97. RKO was unchanged at \l/2. Paramount 1st preferred lost 3 to close at 73, common lost Ys to 6Y2, and 2d preferred dropped % to 7%. Consolidated Film Industries common dropped % to \Y%, and preferred closed at 8, off YaPathe Film lost Ys, to close at 8%. Other issues were : American Seating, 10, unchanged. B. F. Keith 6's '46, 99^4, off YA. Sonotone, 1%, off Ys. Technicolor, I0y2, off Ya Universal Corp., 2YA, off Ys Warner Managers Meet Here Today Warner theatre zone managers will meet today at the home office to discuss new season product and policy matters. Joseph Bernhard, general manager of the circuit, will preside. Attending the meeting will be James Coston, Chicago; Nat Wolf, Cleveland; I. J. Hoffman, New Haven; Don Jacocks, Newark; Moe Silver, Albany; Ted Schlanger, Philadelphia; Harry Kalmine, Pittsburgh; John Payette, Washington, and Herb CopeIan, Atlantic City. Among home office executives who will participate are: Clayton Bond, chief film buyer ; Ed Hinchy, Leonard Schlesinger, Harry Goldberg, Willard C. Patterson, Frank Phelps, Nat Fellman, Abel Vigard, W. Stewart McDonald, Harry Rosenqucst, Louis Kaufman,, Herman Maier and Frank Cahill. Dr. Hugo Riesenfeld Dies in Los Angeles Los Angeles, Sept. 11. — Dr. Hugo Riesenfeld, music conductor, died here yesterday at the age of 60. Funeral arrangements had not been completed at a late hour tonight. Dr. Riesenfeld was noted particularly in screen circles for his work as managing director of the Rivoli, Rialto and Criterion on Broadway from 1917 to 1925. Born in Vienna, Riesenfeld came to this country after a connection with the Imperial Opera House there. In 1927 he was managing director of the Colony Theatre, and from 1928 to 1930 he was general musical director at the United Artists studio. In recent years he was engaged in composing and arranging music for various pictures in Hollywood. Summer Theatres Fail to Yield Stars This year's crop of Summer stock productions failed to reveal any acting talent of noticeable star caliber, according to film talent scouts who have returned from their annual tour of "barn theatres." Form RKO Subsidiary Dover, Del., Sept. 11.— RKO Radio Pictures Malaya, Inc., has been incorporated here with a capital of $10,000. Shares have a par value of $100. George Muchnic, Gordon E. Youngman and W. S. Savage were the incorporators. Cleveland Museum Films Cleveland, Sept. 11. — Free public showings of outstanding films from the screen of 1917 to 1928 will be presented here, starting Oct. 6, by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with the Museum of Modern Art Film Library. $75,000 Set For Skouras Drive Prizes National Theatres managers, by the end of this year, will have received! an available maximum of $75,000 in cash prizes for business increases under a system whereby the tf^e 'it shares profits with employees. «.... A total of $25,000 was distributed, in the Sypros Skouras Showmanship 1 Campaign which ended July 5. In the fourth annual National Theatres drive which started last week, $25,000 will be distributed to district and theatremanagers and another $25,000 has ' been set aside as bonuses for exceeding quota. Last year the circuit gave away $15,000 in the Fall business drive. The present campaign started Sept. 3 and will continue 16 weeks to Dec. 23. Thirty districts in the six divisions are competing, and prizes will be awarded to the 12 high ranking districts and their house managers. The bonus money will be distributed if the circuit average reaches a stipulated figure. The quotas to be met vary and have been set on a basis of past performance, with the nature of the territory, business capacity of each house and other factors taken into consideration. The annual drives are timed to start with the beginning of the release sea I son, the idea being that managers "go I to town" in selling the new product to their patrons and boost business. Up to this year National Theatres conducted its business increase drives on a divisional basis. It has been found, however, that campaigns conducted on the smaller district unit basis are more effective. Intensive supervision is applied from the home office and a committee in contact with the field. ■ During the Spyros Skouras Showmanship Campaign, a committee of home office executives and divisional film buyers supervised progress. The same committee is functioning in the present drive, fixing quotas and deciding the rules. The committee includes H. C. Cox, treasurer; Sumner Gambee, vice-president ; Edward Zabel, William T. Powers, J. J. Sullivan, Milton Hossfeld, Irving Barry and Aubrey Schenck. Associates to Open Fall Meetings Today Motion Pictures Associates, Inc., will open its Fall meeting today with a luncheon at the Hotel Astor. Chief business slated is a discussion of the annual dinner and dance. The affair, M.P.A.'s sole source of revenue, is usually held on Thanksgiving Eve, but since that day has been advanced one week by President Roosevelt, complications have arisen. Italian Theatres Lead Rome, Sept. 11.— Of 831,000,000 lire (valued at about 5% cents each) taken in by various amusements in 1938, 587,000,000 lire went to the motion picture theatres, according to data announced by the Italian Society of Authors and Editors. The attendance rose about 30 per cent from 1936 to 1938.