Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1931)

12 MOTIONPICTUREHERALD May9,193]!5 ACADEMY AND S.M.P.E Disc Recording MAP COORDINATION $500,OOo"Yearly] Boards of Both Units to Meet on Coast May 21 to Effect Close Cooperative Tieup The initial steps for cooperation and coordination between the Society of M. P. Engineers and the Technicians' branch of the Academy of M. P. Arts and Sciences are being taken with a meeting of the board of the Engineers and the Academicians in Hollywood on May 21. The two related, but distinct, technological sectors of special interest to the organization are, for the engineers, the making of the tools of picture product, for the Academy technicals the use of the tools. Some weeks ago, feeling that what with the span of a continent between their head(luarters and various other factors, there was the possibility of conflicts of purpose and destructive confusions, the editor of AIoTioN Picture Herald addressed a letter to J. I. Crabtree, president of the Engineers, saying : We have been observing with interest the rise and development of the Technicians' Branch of the Academy of Arts (Continued on page 23) Tiffany-Educational Sales Session Set The Educational -Tiffany -World Wide combination will not hold its sales convention until July, when, it is expected, all physical phases of the merger will have been effected. A convention city has not yet been determined. The new combination continued this week with the merging of exchanges and sales forces, discontinuing either a Tiffany or an Educational branch in each key city and establishing two separate sales forces, one to handle feature and the other short subject material. In practically all cases. Tiffany managers, where they have not already resigned, have been placed under supervision of Educational branch heads, with the majority of Tiffany division and district managers not provided for. E. W. Hammons and Grant L. Cook, executives of the new Educational-Tiffany combination, having completed reorganization of studio forces at Hollywood, have arrived in New York to inaugurate the merged unit's sales season. Swimming Stars Signed for "Sportslan+s" of Vitaphone Helene ^Madison and Georgia Coleman, swimming champions, have been signed for the second of Ted Husing's "Sportslants" for Vitaphone. Harry T. Morey has been signed for the two-reel comedy, "Rough Sailing," starring Joe Penner. A Hot One San Francisco — Bernard F. Smith, comedian at the El Capitan Theatre, where a stage act is offered in connection with pictures, stopped the show recently but this brought him no happiness. As a climax to the act in which he takes part he is whammed with a slapstick In which a blank cartridge is inserted. An over-generous supply of powder in one of the cartridges caused him to yell and leap and sent him to the emergency hospital for powder burns. The audience gave him a curtain call but he failed to take it. Preview Is Given For U's ''Mother's Millions'' in East Universal's "Mother's Millions" was shown before the regular Friday night audience of Proctor's theatre at New Rochelle, N. Y., in an Eastern application of the Coast plan of previews of Universal pictures. Carl Laemmle attended the New Rochelle preview of the first May Robson picture, and was accompanied by R. H. Cochrane, Sol Lesser, Phil Reisman, P. D. Cochrane. Fred McConnell, Sig Wittman, Paul Gulick, Joe Weil and Dave Werner. In his comment on the Coast showing of the Liberty production, which Universal will distribute, Edward Churchill said in the February 28 issue of Motion Picture Herald : "This Liberty product is a masterpiece of acting, and a highly entertaining performance. Miss Robson's supporting cast has been well chosen and adds to the lustre of her portrayal of the crabby mistress of millions who wins her financial battles and, at the same time, whips manhood and womanhood into her son and daughter." Klangfilm-Tobis Wins Suits; Forces Kinoton Users -l-o Buy Berlin — Klangfilm-Tobis has won its suits against exhibitors who installed Kinoton equipment and then refused to abide by the terms of the agreement between Tobis and Kinoton, which noted that exhibitors must buy costly parts from Klangfilm. Kinoton has lost all suits and therefore cannot protect its customers, it is stated by Tobis. Dedicated to Knute Rockne Hollywood — Dedicated to the late Knute Rockne will be "The Spirit of Notre Dame," which Universal will make for 1931-32 release with Lew Ayres featured. It is estimated that the industry would " realize a saving of approximately $500,000 a year if the preparation of disc versions of| feature productions were eliminated. The figures, from authoritative pro1 duction sources, are derived on the basis of the usual method of preparing the disc prints of features, which is the re-recording! = on disc after a film has been completely pro! duced. The cost of recording on the master' I disc is estimated at about $2,000. Theatre [ records cost in the neighborhood of $3 per \ set, and with the addition of express charges' ' and the like on several thousand such rec-* ' ords, it is figured the discs, to supply thei i accounts having only disc equipment, would \ i run to something like $20,000 per film, or^ $150,000 per year. 13,500 Theatres Are Equipped r A most recent survey of the country's; theatres has resulted in the following; figures : Total Sound Equipped Theatres.... 13,500 Disc Equipped Only 5,042 Sound-on-film and Disc Equipped.. 8,458' The general opinion among both equip' ment and production men is that the disc is rapidly going out, though a great many of the theatres are equipped with both sound-on-film and disc apparatus, in a com ' bination equipment. One official closely in ; touch with the equipment situation has said ; that there are less than half the number of ! "disc only" equipped houses there were in the country last year. In the New York State territory, for example, figures indicate a proportion of about five to one of sound-on-film installations to disc. Only one of every 10 con-|( tracts, it is estimated, calls for a disc attachment. There is a certain amount of "bootleg" disc equipment in the country but not enough to be considered a factor in the , situation. One company official calls it es ; sentially "uneconomic" to make and use disc, and describes the estimated cost cited above as "probably low." It is understood that in the near future, Paramount will produce its newsreel exclusively on film, eliminating entirely the disc. All pictures are made in combination by , most of the major companies, with the disc equipped houses for which that form is made, noted as only the smaller theatres. Disc Accounts Are Decreasing One company official estimates that 2,000 , "disc only" accounts in January, 1931, have i already decreased to about 1,500, indicating an average conversion to sound-on-film of 500 in every six months period. He says, however, that, in his opinion, there will, after the final conversion is made, still remain some 1,000 to 1,500 small houses i which will retain disc until they close their doors for one reason or another. Compiled statements and reports from , various sources would seem to indicate that ; the disc, rapidly fading from the picture as | a reproduction medium, is looked upon, particularly in production circles, as an unsatisfactory condition, which is decidedly expensive on the one hand, and not nearly \ as satisfactory as sound-on-film.