Motion Picture Herald (Sep-Dec 1933)

26 MOTION PICTURE HERALD October 7, 1933 UNFAIR PRACTICE DEFINED IN DRAFT secutive weeks employment at not less than the minimum salary; which shall follow immediately two weeks or less of rehearsal. The chorus shall not be required to rehearse for more than forty (40) hours a week and rehearsal shall be considered to be continuous from the time the chorus is called on the first day of rehearsal until the opening day. For each additional week of rehearsal there shall be an additional week's consecutive employment. 4. MAXIMUM HOURS AND MINIMUM WAGES a. Principals. Owing to the peculiar nature of the stage presentation and vaudeville business and the unique conditions prevailing therein, the necessary policy and variations in the operation of such theatres, the changing nature of the entertainment and the fact that such entertainment is of a character requiring the services of artists of unique and distinctive ability who cannot be replaced, it is recognized that it is impossible' to fix the minimum hours per week of artists appearing in such theatres. For performers with more than two years' theatrical experience, there shall be a minimum wage of forty ($40) dollars weekly net. For performers with less than two years' theatrical experience there shall be a minimum wage of twentyfive ($251 dollars net weekly. The minimum wage of performers employed on a per diem basis shall be seven dollars and fifty cents ($7.50) per day net. b. Chorus. No singing or dancing chorus person shall be required to work more than forty (40) hours in any week and there shall be one day out of every seven during which the chorus shall be released from work with pay. Working time shall include the entire time of a performance or presentation in which the chorus appears in one or more numbers as an integral part of the presentation, and all^ rehearsal time excluding dressing and undressing time. No chorus person shall be required to report at a thetre before nine o'clock in the morning. On the day a chorus person is released with pay such chorus person shall not be required lo reheaise or report to the theatre or perform any service. This provision for a free day shall not apply to travelini; companies. There shall be a minimum wage or thirty ($30) dollars per week in any de luxe theatre. There shall be a minimum wage of thirty-five ($35) dollars per week in traveling companies. There shall be a minimum wage of twenty-five ($25) dollars per week in other than de luxe theatres Wherever a theatre augments the chorus by employing additional chorus persons, no chorus person shall rehearse more than three (3) days. It shall be an unfair trade practice for. any exhibitor to engage any chorus person under any agreement which would reduce the net salary below the minimum wage through the payment of any fee or commission to any agency, (whether such fee is paid by the exhibitor or by the chorus) or by any other form of deduction. After the first two weeks of consecutive employment if a lay-ofl is necessary, the exhibitor shall pay each chorus person not less than three ($3) dollars per day for each day of lay-off. In connection with a traveling unit, after the first two weeks of consecutive employment if lay-off is c.aused on account of traveling, the exhibitor shall be allowed two days' traveling without pay for each four weeks of employment west of the Rockies, and one dav's traveling without pay for each four weeks of employment east of the Rockies. Wherever on August 23, 1933. any theatre paid a rate to chorus persons in excess of the minmium wages or employed chorus persons for a number of hours per week of labor less than the maximum hours, said higher wage and lesser number of hours shall be deemed to be and are hereby declared to be the minimum scale of wages and ma.ximum hours of labor with respect to such theatres in this section of the code. 5. GENERAL PROVISIONS a. Where, under any law, Sunday performances are prohibited or the performance of particular classes of acts is not allowed, no performer or chorus person shall be required to perform in any theatre in that or in any other city on the Sunday of the week for which the performer or chorus was engaged. b. Wherever any unit, travelling company or artist is required to give more than the regular number of performances established for said unit, travelling company or artist, all artists and chorus persons shall be paid for said extra performances pro rata. 6. CHORUS TRANSPORTATION a. Transportation of the chorus when require'd to travel, including transportation from point of organization and back, including sleepers, shall be paid by the employer whether exhibitor or independent contractor. b. If individual notice of contract termination is given, the chorus shall be paid in cash the amount of the cost of transportation and sleeper of the chorus and baggage back to the point of origin whether the chorus returns immediately or not. 7. WARDROBE a. Principals. The exhibitor or independent contractor shall furnish to every artist receiving less than ($50.) fifty dollars a week, without charge, all hats, costumes, wigs, shoes, tights and stockings and other necessary stage wardrobe excepting street clothes. b. Chorus. The exhibitor or independent contractor shall furnish the chorus, without charge, with all hats, costumes, wigs, shoes, tights, and stockings and other necessary stage wardrobe. 8. ARBITRATION a. Arbitration of all disputes under this section 2 of this article of the code shall be in accordance with the arbitration provisions of this code as hereafter generally provided. 9. CHILD LABOR a. On or after the effective date of this code, no person under sixteen years (16) of age shall be employed as a principal or chorus person in connection with the exhibition of motion pictures, provided, however, where a state law provides a higher minimum age, no person under the age' specified by said state law shall be employed in that state, and provided further, however, where a role or roles are to be filled by a child or children, an exhibitor or independent contractor may utilize the services of such child or children upon his compliance with the provisions of state laws appertaining thereto. ARTICLE V-A UNFAIR PRACTICES AND REGULATORY PROVISIONS A. PRODUCERS 1. It shall be an unfair trade practice for any producer to aid, abet, or assist in the voluntary release or dismissal of any author, dramatist or actor employed in rendering his exclusive services in connection with the production of a "legitimate" drama or musical comedy for the purposes of securing the services of such author, dramatist or actor. 2. It shall be an unfair trade practice for a number of producers who, in the usual and ordinary course of business, rent their respective studios or studio facilities to producers (other than their affiliated companies), to conspire, agree, or take joint action to prevent any responsible producer or producers from renting such studios or studio facilities. 3. It shall be an unfair trade practice for a producer to knowingly employ as an "extra" any member of the immediate family of any employee or any person who is not obliged to depend upon "extra" work as a means of livelihood, imless the exigencies of production require an exception to be made. B. PRODUCERS-DISTRIBUTORS 1. Where any contract granting the motion picture rights in any dramatic or dramatico-musical work specifies a date prior to which no motion picture based upon such work may be publicly exhibited, it shall be deemed to be an unfair trade practice fcr any producer or distributor to permit the public exhibition of such motion picture prior to such d^te. 2. (a) It shall be deemed to be an unfair trade practice for any producer or distributor, or any of its employees or persons who have a direct • i indirect interest, whether financial or otherwise, in any such producer or distributor, to knowingly ond intentionally, directly or indirectly interfere with existing relations between an outside or associated producer and a producer or distributor, or to do anything to alienate or entice any such outside or associated producer away from a producer or distributor, or to do anything which would tend to create discord or strife between such outside or associated producer and a producer or distributor, or foment iHssension between them, for the purpose of inducing such outside or associated producer to breach or attempt to breach any existing contracts between it and any producer or distributor, or to secure a change in the ' terms and conditions of any existing contract between any such outside or associated producer and a producer or distributor. (b) To effectuate the foregoing, no producer or distributor shall negotiate with or make any offer for or to any such outside or associated producer at anv time prior to sixty (60) days before the termination of any existing agreements between such outside or associated oroducer and any other '^reducer or distributor, or not nrior to sixty (60) days before the date when such outside or associated producer shall fulfill its delivery commitment to the producer or distributor with whom it has contractual obligations, whichever date is earlier. C. DISTRIBUTORS 1. No distributor shall threaten or coerce or intimidate any exhibitor to enter into any contract for the exhibition of motion pictures, or to pay higher film rentals by the commission of any overt act evidencing an intention to build or otherwise acquire a motion picture theatre for operation in competition with such e.xhibitor, but nothing in this article shall in any way abridge the right of a producer or distributor in good faith to build or otherwise acquire a motion picture theatre in any location. 2. No distributor's employee shall use his position with the distributor to interfere with the free and competitive buying of pictures by an exhibitor operating a theatre in competition with a theatre in which such employee may have a direct or indirect interest, whether financial or otherwise. 3. (a) iSTo distributor shall substitute for any feature motion picture described in the contract therefor as that of a named star or stars or named director or named well-known author, book or play one of any other star or stars, director, author, book or play, nor substitute any other feature motion picture for one which in the contract therefor is designated "no substitute." (b) Nothing in_ this article contained shall be interpreted to prohibit any distributor from changing the title of any motion picture contracted for, from making changes, alterations and adaptations of any story, book, or play upon which it is based and from substituting for any such story, book or play another story, book or play, or from changing the director, the cast, or any member thereof of any such motion picture, except as herein above specifically prohibited. (c) If for any such author, book or play there is substituted another author, book or play, reasonable notice (i. e., before the release date in the particular exchange territory) of such substitu,tion shall be given by announcement in a trade publication. 4 (a) It shall be an unfair practice for any distributor to license the exhibition of its motion pictures for exhibition by any so-called nontheatrical account, where such exhibition shall be determined by the local grievance board provided for in this code to be imfair to an established niotion picture theatre at which the exhibition of the same motion pictures has been licensed. (b) Nothing in this article shall be interpreted to prohibit the licensing of motion pictures for exhibition at army posts or camps, or on board ships of the United States Navy or ships engaged in carrying passengers to foreign or domestic ports or at educational or religious institutions or at institutions housing "shut-ins," such as prisons, hospitals, orphanages, etc, 5. No distributor shall require as a condition of entering into a contract for the licensing of the exhibition of feature motion pictures that the exhibitor contract also for the licensing of the exhibition of a greater number of short subjects, in proportion to the total number of short subjects required by such exhibitor, than the proportion of the feature pictures for which a contract is negotiated bears to the total number of feature pictures required by the exhibitor. 6. No distributor shall divulge or authorize or knowingly permit ^ to be divulged by any employee or checker any information received in the che'cking of the receipts of its motion pictures, except that such information may be divulged in any arbitration or grievance proceeding or litigation concerning such controversy and for any government or code authority report. 7. No distributor shall convey or transfer its assets for the purpose of avoiding the delivery to any exhibitor of any feature motion picture license for exhibition by such exhibitor. 8. No distributor shall refuse to make a fair adjustment of the license fees for the exhibition rights of a number of pictures licensed in a group for a stated average sum per picture and so stated in the license agreement, if the total number of pictures so licensed by any exhibitor are not delivered by such distributor provided such exhibitor shall have fully and completely performed all the terms and conditions of such license on the part of the exhibitor to be performed. Any dispute or controversy concerning any such adjustment shall be detymined by the local grievance board provided for in this code. 9. (a) No distributor shall require any specific day or days of the week for the exhibition of specified pictures or class of pictures the license fee for which is a fixed sum only. (b) Where under an exhibition contract which provides that the rental to be paid by the exhibitor for any feature motion picture specified therein shall be determined in whole or in part upon a percentage basis and that said picture shall be played by the exhibitor upon a designated day or days of the week and the exhibitor seeks to be relieved from the obligation to exhibit such motion picture upon such designated day or days for the reason only that the subject and character of the motion picture so designated is unsuitable for exhibition at the exhibitor's theatre on such day or days, the claim of the exhibitor shall be determined by the local grievance board provided for by this code, and the distributor, if the local board so determines, shall relieve the exhibitor from the obligation to play the motion picture upon the day or days designated by the distributor; provided that the exhibitor makes such claim within three days after receipt of the notice of availability of such feature picture. In such cases the said local board shall pro