Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1931)

m ay 9 , 19 3 1 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 19 i Radio in Competition with Makers of Current I For Egg Beaters, Bread Toasters and Washers I Hollywood — Two billion watts of electric current! Ri Enough to operate 80,000,000 average-sized lights. Or, 10,000,000 homes. I Reduced still farther down the dizzy scale of statistics, this vast annual power I consumption of the Radio lot will nightly light a city of 33,300 homes, or of i 100,000 population. I A mathematical genius — only a genius could do It — might translate this tre I mendous equation into terms of bread toasters, washing machines and vacuum I cleaners. However, this current has a more romantic usage. I Under the eye of William Johnson, chief electrician, it feeds into the studio's I six gigantic generators, turns camera motors, projection machines and lights sets. I It takes a lot of power to burn a single incandescent lamp — from 500 to 2500 I watts — and there have been times when 300 lamps on a single set were insufficient. I Actual power Input metered into the studio Is actually 2,003,610 kilowatts for I the year ending March, 193! — a kilowatt hour corresponds to 1,000 watts of I current measured over a period of an hour. The studio's ranch, near Encino, con I sumes an annual power consumption of 6,730 kilowatts. I Handling this immense power Is a man's job. In normal times 150 electricians I are employed. At peak times, when production Is at its highest, 280 operators I are engaged. The average for the coming year will be about 220 men. [Paramount and United Fail \To Iron Out Australia Tilt Each Opens First Runs to Secure Representation After Circuits Continue to Hammer Rentals Sydney, Australia — The competitive tilt between the two big circuits. United Thejatres and Hoyt's, has been complicated by the entrance of a new factor in the person pf United Artists, which, not satisfied with prices offered for its product in Melbourne and Sydney suburbs, has decided to turn pxhibitor. As the first step in U. A.'s fight tor representation, a hall was hired in St. Kilda, seating 1,000 and Western Electric pquipped. The theatre is being run as a United Artists house, the Australian office baking full responsibility. Paramount, feeling the same about conditions as did United Artists, now joins the latter and the scrap becomes four-cornered, or rather, three-cornered with Paramount and United Artists in the same corner. The trading result of Hoyt's for the first Isix months under Fox control, showed a loss of approximately $50,000. Other companies were in the same condition. J. C. Williamson, Ltd., showed a loss of $400,000 bn the year, as against a profit of $75,000 por the previous year. Union Theatres publish no balance sheet. I The recent disastrous earthquake has hurt lousiness in New Zealand badly. Kemball's rheatre in Hastings was destroyed, and the iFuUers are said to have lost $125,000 lihrough destruction of their Majestic in iKapier. Brown Wins Facial Suit San Francisco — Joe E. Brown, film star, ,ias won his fight to keep his pictures from |:he advertising of the Al G. Barnes Circus. The $100,000 damage suit was settled out bf court. National Board Party 1 ,200 players vied for prizes awarded by screen luminaries at annual bridge party of National Board of Review, at Hotel Pennsylvania on Saturday. Prizes were distributed to winners by Sidney S. Lenz and Mrs. Oliver Harriman (sitting) and (left to right standing) Anita Loos, Wilbur C. Whitehead and Irene Delroy. Freuler Due in New York John R. Freuler, Big 4 president, is due at the home office this week. W. A. Aschmann, central division manager, is visiting Midwest exchanges. "Wes" Ruggles Better Hollywood — Wesley Ruggles, director, has recovered from his recent illness and is now at the Radio studios preparing for a new talker. Tube Companies Ask 40 Millions In Suit vs. RCA Wilmington, Del. — Attorneys for 15 radio tube companies are gathering forces to bring early action in U. S. District Court here in suits for triple damages against Radio Corporation of America, charged with having either ruined or curtailed their radio tube business because of R.C.A.'s famed clause "9." These companies claim damages totalling about $40,000,000. Action of the companies has been precipitated by the recent decision of the U. S. Supreme Court which denied the petition of Radio for review of the lower court decisions holding the company had violated the Clayton anti-trust law. The 15 tube companies that have filea suits for triple damages in the local U. S. Circuit Court are : Gold Seal Electrical Co., Sunlight Lamp Co., Universal Electric Lamp Co., Diamond Vacuum Products Co., Continental Corp., Arcturus Radio Tube Co., Northern Mfg. Co., Meletrone Tube Co., Vesta Battery Corp., DeForest Radio Co., Howard W. Ivins, receiver for Van Horne Co., Schickerling Products Corp., Supertone Mfg. Co., Raytheon, Inc., and Marvin Radio Tube Co. No definite action is in view as yet in the government's anti-trust suit against R.C.A., charged with patent monopoly. Court Hears New Patents Argument Washington — Arguments have begun in Supreme Court of the U. S. in the case of the De Forest Radio, petitioner, vs. General Electric, a patent infringement suit of importance to the radio industry. The suit was brought in Federal District Court of Delaware by General Electric against De Forest alleging that the radio vacuum tubes made and sold by De Forest were an infringement of the Langmuir patent issued Oct. 20, 1925. Judge Morris in Delaware court held the Langmuir patent was invalid on three grounds, because of anticipation and want of invention, because of prior invention and because of prior public use. Appeal was taken to Circuit Court of Appeals for the 3d Circuit and that court at first affirmed the district court, but later, on rehearing, reversed it. The result was a victory for General Electric, and De Forest brought the case before Supreme Court on certiorari. Et¥ect of the decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals, as made on rehearing, was to adjudge the Langmuir patent to be valid and infringed. Warners to Have 100 Houses On Coast by End of the Year Plans of Warner Bros, call for the expansion of Coast holdings to 100 properties before January 1.