Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1940)

Alert, InteWigei and V •M0XION PICTURE DAI VOL. 47. NO. 64 NEW YORK. U.S.A., MONDAY, APRIL 1, 1940 First in and Impartial TEN CENTS . SrJF StSmos Ready To Talk Again On Pay Boost Freeman, Buzzell to Fix Negotiations Date Hollywood. March 31. — Producers and the studio unions over the weekend indicated that they were ready, after weeks of postponement, to resume negotiations over the dispute on the 15 per cent wage increase question. Frank Freeman, president of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, will meet with J. W. Buzzell, vice chairman of the Conference of American Federation of Labor Unions, early this week to set a meeting of their respective negotiation committees. This was decided upon Friday at a meeting of Freeman and other members of the producers' committee with Fred Pelton and Pat Casey, labor contact officials. The unions, granted the 15 per cent pay boost when they threatened a nation-wide strike, have served notice that they will not relinquish the increase as requested by the studios. RKO's Sales Chiefs Meet Here May 27 George J. Schaefer. RKO president, and other high ranking executives of the company will be speakers at RKO's annual sales convention to be held May 27 to 30, inclusive, at the Waldorf-Astoria here. The speakers' list includes Ned E. Depinet, vice-president and distribution head ; Cresson E. Smith, Western and Southern sales manager; A. W. Smith, Jr.. Eastern and Canadian sales manager; Harry J. Michalson. short subjects sales manager; Herb Mac[ntyre, Depinet Drive captain; Walter Branson, last year's drive captain ; Harry Edington and other studio ex(Continucd on page 6) Bronston Affiliates With J. Roosevelt Samuel Bronston's new production company has closed an affiliation with lames Roosevelt's Globe Prod., involving financing the latter company by Samuel Bronston Prod., according to Wall Street reports. ~~ Under the deal, it is said, Bronston Prod, will collaborate with Globe Productions in its activities. Globe Prod, releases through United Artists. Arbitration Board Dispute May StopTrust Settlement Government Must Open Files to Majors Who Call Case Weak A delay in the scheduled start of trial of the Government's New York anti-trust suit on May 1 appsared inevitable as the Government experienced its second consecutive setback in pre-trial skirmishes before Federal Judge Henry W. Goddard on Friday. Judge Goddard directed the Government to furnish the defendant film companies with detailed information and to "open its files" in Washington, if necessary, to defense counsel. Paul Williams, trial lawyer for the Zukor Under U. S. Probe Thursday Scheduled to appear in pretrial examinations this week in the Government's antitrust suit are Adolph Zukor, chairman of Paramount Pictures, and William Kupper and William Sussman, Western and Eastern sales managers of Twentieth CenturyFox. Zukor will substitute for Abe Montague, originally slated for Thursday, while Kupper and Sussman take the stand on Wednesdav. Government, in response to the court ruling, stated that he would comply with these instructions by Friday. His .tatement was made after Judge' Goddard declared that the Government had not complied with a stipulation in which it had promised to furnish details as to acts of alleged discrimination in addition to the names of witnesses. In the course of the argument, Williams was forced to admit that the Government lacked detailed information as to (monopoly claims in the production field. No investigation had been made of the situation in production since 1936, Williams said, and reports from Government agents dating from that year did not supply the Department of Justice with more than a general statement of conditions. The Government was charged with prosecuting the suit without sufficient evidence to back its complaint after Williams had conceded that his information was limited. Unless the Department of Justice (Continued on page 2) 'Million Dollar Legal BatteryGoes in Action A preview of the industry's "million dollar" legal battery in action was afforded spectators in Federal Judge Henry W. Goddard's courtroom on Friday during hearings of oral arguments on several pre-trial motions. "Judge" Joseph Proskauer of the law firm of Proskauer, Rose and Paskus, one of the city's outstanding corporation lawyers, made his first appearance in the case as counsel for Warners, having been retained only the day before. With him was Robert W. Perkins, Warner general counsel. Also on hand were Thomas D. Thacher, former U. S. Solicitor General, of counsel for Paramount. Appearing with him were A. C. Bickford of the Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett law firm ; Austin C. Keough, (Continued on page 2) TMAT Strike Hits 11 5-Boro Theatres Motion Picture Division of the Theatrical Managers, Agents and Treasurers Union is on strike at 11 theatres of the Five Boro circuit as a result of repudiation by managers at the houses of the union. The union obtained an agreement last year in which it was recognized as collective bargaining agency but no formal contract covering wages and hours was signed. Two weeks ago managers and assistants at the circuit signed a letter in which they stated that they had resigned from the union and asked the management not to recognize the T. M. A. T. as bargaining agency. The union, claiming that it had a closed shop contract, asked the management to dismiss the managers and called a strike Thursday when this request was refused. Houses being picketed include the De Luxe, Freeman, Vogue, Dover, Fenway, Ace, Metro. Tower, Zenith and Lido, all in the Bronx. Picketing will be extended today to the Granada, Manhattan, according to the union. Any Consent Pact Must Guard Their Interests, Companies Feel Washington, March 31. — Regulations governing the establishment and functioning of arbitration boards may prove fatal to the current efforts to reach an out-of-court settlement of the Government's New York anti-trust suit, it was learned today. Certain conditions sought by the Government on the settlement, defendants feel, might require enabling legislation before they can be accepted. The boards will be vital industry factors under any consent decree which may be reached and the defendants, as well as the Government, may be expected to guard their interests jealously in determining their set-up and functions. Personnel of the boards is of first importance to both sides and an agreement on this point alone is regarded in (Continued on page 2) 'Pinocchio' Center Gross at $240,000 "Pinocchio's" gross for its run of seven weeks and five days at the Center Theatre is estimated" at $240,000. This compares with a gross of $530,000 for the five weeks' run of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" at the Music Hall in Januarv-February, 1938. The indicated RKO-Disney net share of "Pinocchio's" $240,000 gross at the Center is $125,000, after advertising and premiere costs ?re paid. The producer's-distributor's share of "Snow White's" five-week gross was approximately $150,000. The gross rental on "Pinocchio" was approximately $168,000. Raise in Minimums Demanded by Equity Actors Equity members by resolution demanded a raise in minimum salaries in legitimate theatres from $40 to $50 weekly at the first quarterly meeting of the year on Friday. A central casting office from which actors earning between $40 and $100 weekly could obtain employment was also asked by the membership. Other resolutions passed included one supporting a national subsidized theatre (Continued en page 5)