Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1931)

May 3 0. 1 9 3 1 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 13 QUIGLEY TO ESTABLISH DAILY IN WORLD FILM PRODUCTION CAPITAL More on That Gang Cycle The New York "Daily Mirror" wonders "what the new theme, if any, will be In the movies, the magazines, the newspapers and the stage. • . . And when the cycle will switch? . . . Something about to be done about the endless gangster series. . . . The Broadway audiences are commencing to titter at 'em, which is as it should be. . . . The whole mess is strictly one re-write after the other. . . . The surest way to be artificial, as the sages had It, Is to try to be natural according to some other feller's recipe." Dual Bills Are Not an ''Evil/' Says Freuler Despite the hectic battle now being waged in various industry quarters against the so-called double bill "evil," John R. Freuler, president of Big 4 and a circuit operator in the Midwest, states that "double-billing ii an old practice which exhibitors are finding profitable, and its gain, far from 'overfeeding' the public, is satisfying the demand for diversity which a single talking feature has failed to deliver. "The situation at the beginning of the talkie era was such that even one feature, per theatre, was unprocurable," he says. "Now, however, the supply is reaching a normal level, with the output meeting the double-bill demand. "Even first-runs find, by the simple method of a check-up on box-office receipts over the past several years, that doublebills have the effect of filling empty seats. And when a policy fills seats — there is no argument. First-run theatres, with general conditions touching bottom, have, in many instances, found it necessary to substitute an extra feature for an expensive stage show. That grosses should hold up and even better themselves under such circumstances proves that double-bills are the solution of the theatres at the moment. Though shorts help to balance a program, the advertising value of two features must be conceded to be greater. RKO Salaries Will Remain "S+e+" RKO theatre and picture units will not cut salaries, this decision having been arrived at following a series of organization meetings which took place when Paramount Publix chiefs conferred to discuss the same subject. William A. Johnston to Edit Publication Leo Meehan Chosen General Manager of New Addition to Group Of International Papers On June 8, Martin Quigley, publisher and editor-in-chief of Quigley Publications, will launch The Hollywood Herald to "promote, defend and preserve the best interests of motion picture production and all persons identified with motion picture production, seeking to serve alike, from the office boy to the star and the production chief." The Hollywood Herald, which supplements the Quigley group of international motion picture papers, will be published daily at Pacific States Life building, Hollywood, Cal. William Johnston Editor William A. Johnston, former editor of Motion Picture News, and conversant with all problems confronting the industry, will be editor of the new journal. Leo Meehan, journalist and film director, will be general manager of the publication. In announcing the new project, Mr. Quigley said: "This journal enters the field with the substantial background of 16 years of the successful operation of the Quigley Publishing Company, which in its array of periodicals of the screen combines and preserves and vivifies all the heritage of motion picture business publication from the day when the first issue of the first number of the first journal, The Film Index of 1906. went to press. "An experienced and expert staff made up of personnel of high status in the field of publication and of wide experience in the world of the motion oicture and Hollywood has been assembled to attune the new dailv journal to its task and its community. "The repertorial staff will be made up of aggressive young men and women alert to the interest and news interests of this industry and of Hollywood. Linked With Quigley Group "Meanwhile, the whole of the facilities of the entire group of Quigley Publications will be at the service by air and wire toward the making of The Hollywood Herald, assisting it in presenting in swift summary the day's developments and important news events wherever they may occur in the world map of the motion picture. "The Hollywood Herald is thus linked with Motion Picture Herald, the national weekly of the industry with its tremendous, complete and unparalleled coverage of exhibitors, the exhibition field, and the departments of distribution and administration which center about the crossroads of the world in Times Square, and with its bureaus of representation in Hollywood, Chicaeo. London, Paris, Berlin and Sydney. Ancl linked, too, with Motion Picture Daily, {Continued on page 44) Figuring Ahead One of the sponsors of an Illinois state censorship bill presented at Springfield is said to have other interests In Its passage than the safeguarding of public morality. The story is that he is a silent partner In an independent Chicago film business, and is laboring under the Impression that If exhibition permits were Issued by the Illinois department of education they would be harder for the major producers to obtain. The result, he is said to believe, would be that his Independent product would have a greater chance for major theatre bookings that are now denied him. More Exchanges For P. D. C Unit In Europe Keys By W. H. MOORING, London T. S. Delehanty, RKO Pathe chief, in London to look over the P. D. C. organization in Europe, is preparing to visit the Continent where he will open exchanges. He says he is not, however, sufficiently impressed by the prospects in the European market to open his own company's offices there. Distribution arrangements are to be developed as far as possible through agencies. Delehanty declares that the P. D. C. unit in England will continue to operate entirely separately from the Radio organization, and although the two are under the same parental control, they will remain distinct entities. Meantime Radio and P. D. C. are both using the new RKO theatre on Leicester Square jointly as a show house. Following "Cimarron," "Beau Ideal," "Born to Love" and "Lonely Wives," supplemented by Reginald Smith's British productions, "Never Trouble Trouble" and "Other People's Sins," elaborate stage shows are contemplated under direction of Basil Dean. Keeping Wardour St. Out of the Red No secret in the news that several executives in London's Wardour Street are getting "stiff" letters from New York. And this fact is feeding the gossips who like to look forward to trouble. Following Arthur Clavering's sudden departure from the managing directorship of Warners British, and his succession by H. Bandy, former general sales manager, stories are going the rounds that other well known executives are marked for similar experience. D. E. Griffiths, general manager of First National-Pathe, London, has been appointed to the Warner board and will be Bandy's right-hand man.