Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1940)

Saturday, January 20, 1940 Motion Picture Daily 9 Big Campaign Gives Impetus TVBlueBird' The Blue Bird" [20th Century-Fox] The national advertising, publicity and exploitation campaign on "The r**e Bird" is the largest in the hisof the 20th Century-Fox organization, according to Charles E. McCarthy, advertising and publicity director. Stress has been laid on radio exploitation, with the first important broadcast being the Christmas eve Screen Actors' Guild program on CBS in which Shirley Temple was featured for the first time on the air, creating nationwide interest in Darryl F. Zanuck's production of the Maurice Materlinck fantasy. Among other tieups, Johnny Russell, who plays opposite Shirley Temple as Tyltyl, was brought to New York last week for a series of air appearances. He was featured on the Coast-to-Coast "We the People" program and was featured feuest on Adelaide Hawley's "The Woman's Page," a nationwide broadcast. Last night just before the premiere, Russell was on Uncle Don's show on WOR-Mutual. On Kostelanetz Program In addition, the Andre Kostelanetz program Feb. 2 will be dedicated to "The Blue Bird" in which music from the film will be featured, with the high spot being Tony Martin's rendition of "Somewhere I'll Find My Blue Bird." A congratulatory telegram from Shirley Temple will be sent the night of this broadcast to be read on the air. The national magazine campaign includes full color advertisements in Life, Liberty, Ladies Home Journal and Parents Magazine, in addition to the back cover of Scholastic. Full page ads were also placed in the March and April issues of all fan magazines, appearing on the newsstands beginning March 10. Arch Reeve is in charge of the advertising features of the campaign. Newspaper, Billboard Campaign The newspaper campaign in New York opened last Friday, 140 lines on five columns, for the world premiere. Art was used sparingly in the metropolitan newspaper ads. The New York campaign is to be followed exactly for the reserved seat dates in San Francisco and Detroit, among others. Lineage on the New York campaign runs approximately 2,800 lines in each metropolitan paper. The billboard campaign includes 200 24-sheets. Large displays on highlights from the picture, tieing up with the book, have been sent to libraries throughout the country. Window displays have been arranged wtih Macy's and other large department stores in New York as well as in Detroit and San Francisco for the two-a-day engagements in those cities. Four special editions of the Materlinck book are being issued at popular prices and will be sold in department, drug and book stores. Dodd, Mead & Co. is issuing two editions, and the others are being published by Grosset & Dunlap and Whitman Publishing Co. (.Continued from page 1) leader, and such dependable names to adorn the marquee as Spring Byington, Nigel Bruce, Gale Sondergaard, Eddie Collins, Al Shean and Laura Hope Crews. But this is not, as has been so often true in the past, Shirley Temple's picture. It is Maeterlinck's "The Blue Bird," brought to the screen with infinite artistry. The story must be familiar to all. Shirley is Mytyl, selfish, always unhappy in her lot and always wanting more than her portion. She and her litle brother, Tyltyl, played by Johnny Russell, dream of a visit from a fairy, who sends them in search of the blue bird, symbol of happiness and contentment. Guided by another fairy, Light, accompanied by the dog and the cat which have been transformed into animallike human form, they start their dream search. Collins and Miss Sondergaard, as the dog and cat, respectively, offer delightful performances. In turn they visit the past, finding their dead grandparents in a flowerfilled garden ; Mr. and Mrs. Luxury in their ornate palace, where there is no happiness. They are lured into the woods by the cat, who seeks to have them destroyed by a forest fire. The latter scene provides the high spot of the picture's sound and color. Then they are led into the future, there to find the unborn children of tomorrow. It is only upon their return to their home that they find true happiness, and the little bird in the cage at home is blue in their eyes. Her selfishness gone, Mytyl helps her little friend, and finds her contentment at home. Running time, 81 minutes. "G."* *"G" denotes general classification. Zanuck Urges Contracts With Longer Play Clause (Continued from page 1) largest negative cost in the history of the organization, Zanuck said. Fourteen films on this season's program are budgeted at a million or more, he continued, and next year's budgets will be comparable. "Jesse James" and "Alexander's Ragtime Band" were the biggest grossers the company ever had, both doing about the same business. Next season's program will continue to feature historical and biographical material, with a sprinkling of musicals. The "Charlie Chan" and other series films will be continued. Zanuck said that the big films have been given longer playing time by first runs and a number have been played as single bills, citing that "Alexander's Ragtime Band" was played singly in 95 per cent of the country. Radio contracts of all 20th CenturyFox players have been purchased by the company, except that of Don Ameche, said Zanuck. While the company opposes the indiscriminate air appearances of its stars, its policy is to make full use of radio to exploit selected films, said Zanuck. Air programs will continue to feature players in highlights of their films unless production schedules prevent. As an example of the policy, he cited the "Little Old New York" exploitation on the "Good News" program next Thursday night. Meeting the Hollywood party at Grand Central station were Sidney R. Kent, 20th CenturyFox president ; Herman Wobber, general sales manager : Spyros Skouras, head of National Theatres ; Joseph Moskowitz, Eastern production representative ; Charles E. McCarthy, advertising and publicity director; Harry Brand, stu dio publicity chief, and Rodney Bush, exploitation manager. The arriving group included Gene Markey, associate producer of "The Blue Bird;" his wife', Hedy Lamarr, and Mrs. Zanuck. A crowd of several hundred persons were in the station lobby awaiting the Twentieth Century from Chicago. The train, which was due shortly before 9 A. M., was more than two and a half hours late because of the weather. War Costing $7,500,000 A Year to 20th Century-Fox The war situation in Europe is reducing the 20th Century-Fox gross at the rate of $7,500,000 a year, according to Joseph M. Schenck, 20th Century-Fox board chairman. In the last few weeks the domestic gross has improved, he said. Schenck said that the producers would not be averse to breaking the ranks and permitting some of the companies to ask for a reduction when the 10 per cent increase granted studio unions last Fall comes up for arbitration Feb. 15. However, Schenck said he did not know whether this would be possible under the labor regulations. The unions have agreed to rescind the increase if the companies can show it is unwarranted. The company's British production is scheduled to resume in March when Robert T. Kane, production executive, will return to England, said Schenck. If the weather is favorable, Schenck plans_ to leave next week for Miami to visit his brother, Nicholas M. Schenck, president of Loew's. Otherwise he will leave for the Coast next Friday. Majors Attack Vineland Writ, Brand It Illegal (Continued from page 1) hibitors would be first to place the industry on a public utility basis and secondly, to control the entries of exhibitors into the field. Judge Fitzpatrick's decree, he argued, is predicated on the business being a public utility which it isn't. "The decree is a mandatory decree designed to regulate the picture business in Vineland," said Schnader in attacking its constitutionality, "and is not an injunction. The decision deprives distributors of the right to choose its customers and under the Sherman act, the only time when it is not lawful to choose customers, is when they would conspire with one another to hurt another customer." For an answer to the case, Schnader urged the jurists to read the distributor contract with Warner Brothers. "The only thing the same in them," he said, "is that they all sell motion pictures and that they all sell to Warner Bros., but all the agreements are so different that it is a distortion of fact to deduct from them a nature of conspiracy." Denies Coercive Powers Pointing out that while the Landis was being built, Paramount was the only distributor to increase the licensing of pictures for first runs at Warner's Globe and Grand in Vineland, and that Universal gave the Landis more first runs than to Warners, Schnader argued that "If Warner Bros, has coercive powers over distributors, there is no evidence to indicate it here." Schnader further contended that Judge Kirkpatrick's decision was predicated on the false premise presented by the plaintiff that distributors sell to theatres and not individuals. "It is an independently-arrived at policy of selling," he said. "If it is a conspiracy, then all the directors of the distributing companies are perjuring themselves." Injunctive, Not Mandatory Relief Wolf, for Warners, also charged the decree of the lower court was unconstitutional, arguing that the anti-trust act permits only injunctive relief and not mandatory relief. Further he claimed that the decree was so ambiguous and indefinite that it is impossible to enforce it. "From the decree," he said, "you can't tell what the distributor should do or should not do. Anything either side might do or not do could be a violation of the decree. The Sherman act says an injunction must be exact and specific and must tell what act or acts must be restrained. Besides, there was no evidence of injury to the Landis that would cause a preliminary injunction to be granted." Senator Shapiro, in his arguments for the Landis, went back to the days of the Motion Picture Patent Corp. and General Films Co. in reviewing the structure of the motion picture industry as a monopoly. He urged the court to "destroy that monopoly as the courts did in 1916."