Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1940)

DO NOT. REMOVE Alert, tion Picture Industry MOTION PICTURE DAILY First in and Impartial 47. NO. 46 NEW YORK, U.S.A., WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 1940 TEN CENTS Writers Seek Ouster of Dies In 'Red' Probe Guild Charges He's Biased Against Hollywood Hollywood, March 5. — Charging that by his actions and statements regarding alleged Communism in Hollywood he has constituted himself "a political censor of motion pictures," the Screen Writers Guild today called upon the Speaker of the House of Representatives to remove Congressman Martin Dies from the House unAmericanism probe committee. Copies of the telegram sent to Speaker William Bankhead were sent to President Roosevelt, Vice-President Garner, Senators Johnson and Downey of California and California Congressmen. In a message authorized by the Guild membership, the S.W.G. board recommended the appointment, in Dies' stead, of "a member of the House who will conduct aforesaid investigation in accordance with established rules of fair inquiry." The Guild board charged Dies with acting improperly in writing two articles for Liberty Magazine and further said : "In making statements to the press in which he gave opinions, he made comments and revealed prejudice and bias upon matters relating to the motion picture industry which are later (Continued on page 8) SWG Drafts Agents Franchising Plans Hollywood, March 5. — The Screen Writers Guild is drafting a plan to franchise agents similar to that of the Screen Actors Guild which went into effect several months ago, it was learned today. A committee has been appointed by the board of directors to prepare a plan for presentation to the entire membership. However, it will be some time before a proposal is in final form. Guild leaders are surrounding their moves with secrecy to prevent a recurrence of agent opposition such as that which sprang up when the S.A.G. license plan was in its preparation stages. The same procedure as that of S.A.G. in requiring that each agent obtain a license from S.W.G. in order to represent Guild members will be followed. Witness Coercion Doubted by Court; U.S. Loses Appeal After ruling that the Government had failed to substantiate its claim of the danger of intimidation of its witnesses in the New York anti-trust suit, Federal Judge Goddard yesterday denied the Government's application for an order regulating interviews of its witnesses. Judge Goddard declared that he was not going to decide that the majors will coerce witnesses merely because the defendants have the power to do so. He pointed out that Federal statutes define the intimidation of witnesses as a crime and that under its provisions Government witnesses are protected. In denying the application after prolonged argument, the court granted the Government the right to renew it if it could show attempts by defendants to influence the testimony of possible witnesses. Judge Goddard was careful to say that he was anxious "to scrupulously protect" both witnesses for the Government and the majors. He assured Special Assistant Attorney General Paul Williams that he could "tell independent exhibitors that this court will do its utmost to protect them." Judge Thomas D. Thatcher, supported by a group of attorneys for the majors, argued that no evidence had been presented by the Department of Justice to support its claim. The number of instances of alleged intimidation, he continued, were based on "the flimsiest of evidence" and dated back many years. Federal rules guarantee parties free access to witnesses to afford them an (Continued on page 8) LAW TO SUPPLANT NEELY BILL URGED Vaude Talent Agents Take A.G.V.A. Pact Vaudeville talent agents accepted the terms of a new franchising agreement with the American Guild of Variety Artists at a meeting which ended at 1 A.M. yesterday. Although several alterations in the agreement were requested, these amendments are acceptable to A.G.V.A. and the contract is expected to be signed tomorrow. The Artists Representatives Association, whose membership includes about 85 per cent of the agents who represent performers in the vaudeville, motion picture presentation houses and allied fields, voted unanimous acceptance. Other agents are permitted to obtain franchises individually, but no A.G.V.A. member may employ an agent who is not franchised. Revealed in the draft agreement was the intention of A.G.V.A. to start a drive against booking offices which book talent for film and vaudeville houses. A.G.V.A. will seek to eliminate the five per cent charge now levied by the booking offices, but until this charge is eliminated by the union, the agents are permitted to add the five per cent to their customary 10 per cent charge. A.R.A. members will file applica (Continued on page 3) 'My Son, My Son!" [ Small-United Artists Howard Spring's best selling novel of two years ago has been skillfully woven into a moving and highly dramatic picture, brilliantly enacted by a splendid cast. The essence of the lengthy novel, dealing with a tangled skein of twisted lives and loves, has been capably extracted in the screenplay by Lenore Coffee. Incident and situation have been culled to maintain a swift and telling pace. Dealing with the play of diverse characters one upon the other, Charles Vidor, the director, has told his story with force and clarity, never permitting the continuity to lag. The picture has two phases. The first concerns two young men in the slums of Manchester, England, in the closing years of the 19th Century, and their dreams of success, their marriages and the growth of their children. Each centers his life in his son. The second phase, after they have attained success, concerns itself more particularly with the (Continued on page 2) MPTOA Makes Proposal; Urges Six Concessions By Distributors A proposal for a Federal statute to supplant the Neely bill, basically aimed at correcting block booking inequities but eliminating some of the drastic features of the present bill, is suggested by the M.P.T.O.A. in its current bulletin to members. The national exhibitor organization, in the bulletin, also advances a sixpoint program of trade practice concessions which it urges distributors to include in their new season license agreements. The bulletin asserts that in this way immediate trade reforms may be put into effect without danger of conflict with the anti-trust laws. The alternative to the Neely bill, according to Ed Kuykendall, M.P.T. O.A. president, has been advanced by members of the organization who are convinced that if Federal regulation of the industry is inevitable, it should be by way of a law in the drafting of which exhibitors who will have to live under it have had a voice. The proposal is for "a simple statute providing that no license agreement for the exhibition of five or more copyrighted films over 2,000 feet in length shall be valid and enforceable at law unless it provides an option to cancel upon reasonable notice one picture out of each group of five (Continued on page 3) 'Street of Theatres' Proposed for Fair Proposals for industry participation in the New York World's Fair were presented yesterday to advertising and publicity directors of major companies and will be submitted to company presidents for action at a meeting at M.P.P.D.A. headquarters tomorrow. At that time decisions are expected to be made on whether or not the industry will participate and, if so, which of the several proposals advanced will be utilized. The principal proposal under consideration is for a "Street of Theatres" at the Fair in which there would be four small theatres devoted to the showing of films depicting the progress of the motion picture from 1900 to 1940, each theatre being devoted to a separate decade. There will be no admission charge. In addition, the exhibit would include a (Continued on page 7)