Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1934)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

November 24, 1934 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 35 Pathe Exchange Nets $78,165 in 39 IVeek Period A net profit for the 39 weeks ended September 29, 1934, amounting to $78,165, after all charges, was reported this week by Pathe Exchange, Inc., through Stuart W. Webb, president. Profit before interest on the funded debt — amounting to $110,621 — was $188,787. According to the Pathe statement, the $188,787 figure compares with $508,881 for the same period of 1933, but the 1933 figure included an extra dividend of $441,000 received from Du Pont Film Manufacturing Corp. There were also received from the Film Corporation during the first nine months of 1934 and 1933 regular dividends of $147,000. Profit for the third quarter of 1934, before interest charges but after deducting all expenses, taxes, amortization and depreciation of properties, was $72,353, as compared with $64,463 in the second quarter and $51,971 in the first quarter. Pathe's total assets are listed as $7,086,789. Comparative statement of profit and loss : ^39 Weeks Ended-^ Sept.29,1934 Sept.30,1933 Net Sales $480,464.04 $ 6,286.35 Less : Operating expenses $394,157.91 $ 33,340.62 Depreciation 10,131.35 10,145.58 $404,289.26 $ 43,486.20 Gross Operating Profit or Loss* $ 76,174.78 $*37,199.85 Income from Other Operations (after deducting depreciation of properties other than the Laboratory: in 1934, $10,263.38; in 1933, $9,842.04) 46,642.59 27,948.18 $122,817.37 $ *9,251.67 Deduct selling and general administrative expenses 100,762.13 99,089.39 Profit or Loss* from Operations $ 22,055.24 $*108,341.06 Non-operating income: Interest earned $ 19,731.78 $ 6,095.98 Dividends received from Du Pont Film Manufacturing Corp. Regular dividends 147,000.00 147,000.00 Extra dividend 441,000.00 Discount on ten-year 7% Sinking Fund Debentures purchased for retirement, less unamortized discount and expenses applicable thereto 23,125.60 $166,731.78 $617,221.58 Profit Before Interest $188,787.02 $508,880.52 Interest on funded debt $110,621.89 $119,592.02 Amortization of debenture discount and expenses 20,000.72 $110,621.89 $139,592.74 Profit Carried to Deficit.... $ 78.165.13 $369.287.78 STATEMENT OF DEFICIT Deficit December 30, 1933 $4,971,405.61 Profit for the 39 weeks ended September 29, 1934 78,165.13 Deficit September 29, 1934, Carried to Balance Sheet $4,893.240.48 STATEMENT OF CAPITAL SURPLUS Capital Surplus December 30, 1933 $7,572,805.29 Deduct: Depreciation for the 39 weeks ended September 29, 1934, applicable to appraisal increment of properties 2,818.53 $7,569,986.76 Add: Proceeds from the sale of treasury stock in excess of $1.00 per share 3,500.00 Capital Surplus September 29, 1934, Carried to Balance Sheet $7.573,486.76 "The earnings of Du Pont Film have continued at a rate considerably in excess of regu Exhibitor Protests Limiting of Press Books to Order on Each Film '7 have just found out soniefhing that I think is so very funny, that if more like it come out of the tveirJ distributing layouts of this industry, you should add a regular colored comic section to your magazine, for the various jokes," writes Herman J. Brown of the New Majestic and Adelaide theatres at Nampa, Idaho. "You perhaps are not aware of the enormous and senseless waste of the producing companies' money on leaflets, booklets, circulars that range from a foot square to the size of a 12 sheet, enormous circulars that can't be opened and read in an ordinary room for lack of space, huge handbills that fill the whole jvaste barrel in the post office, where of course the exhibitor throws them without reading the silly nonsense on them. "We are swamped with inane and quite useless house organs; we receive armfuls of "surprise" and novelty "postcards" and "ticklers" and similar tripe which is usually so silly and noncommittal that it can't be figured out as having any meaning at all. "Well, take my ivord for it, we are now deluged with such stuff that it is a real handicap and a nuisance in the mail. "Now, Mr. Editor, what do you think — while this battle of the boneheads is going on, to see who can waste the most on circulars, the exhibitor is being shut off on actual press books unless he specifically orders each, one by one. If he missed on this strange and incredible duty he gets none and on the date he is to run his picture finds that fact out with a start of horror. "The reason given for this, Mr. Editor, is that press books cost money and can't be — of all things, get this — wasted. "You perhaps are not aware of the extraordinary change in our press books in the last six months. They are now so huge that to store them or use them recfuires an auditorium. The press stories are not as good as they were and they were and they always were so puerile no editor would run them, and they never told much about the picture — 1 mean the big scenes — and they seldom have had decent mats, and that is true now. But they have been made so huge they are almost impossible. I have noticed several exhibitors have complained of this. The exhibitor should now know that they are so huge they cannot be given the exhibitor at all unless he takes diplomatic action. "Can't the producers give us press books of a sane size, and with mats and Information to sell our pictures, and can't they send them when pictures are dated, and can't they stop deluging us with such quantities of circulars that the post office officials complain that they must buy bigger garbage cans to hold what we dump on the spot. "Can't the producer advertise in the trade press where it will be read, and keep the balance of his money} "What 1 say above does not apply to the one company that really knows how to run an organization, who knows so tvell fx)w that it is unnecessary to name it as all knoiv who it is. That company has sanely sized press books and gets them to its customers as soon as it is possible to get them there, and so sells its merchandise." lar dividend requirements," said Mr. Webb. "The Bound Brook laboratories during the first nine months of this year processed over 30.000,000 feet of positive fihn for various motion picture producers and realized a satisfactory profit, after absorbing the full depreciation and overhead of the laboratories, in spite of the low rate of operation — only 20 per cent of capacity." Mr. Webb said a number of new contracts had been entered into by Pathe the past few months, but that as yet the effect of these is only partly reflected in the earnings. "The outlook is encouraging," Mr. Webb said, "and, when the plan of reorganization is effected, it may be expected that the company will be able to take advantage of new opportunities as they present themselves." Shortly after the first of the year a special meeting of Pathe stockholders will be held to reorganize the company. Represents French Paper Jean Lenauer, formerly on the Paris statY of La CiiicmatograpJiie Francaise, has been named American correspondent for the publication, making his headquarters at the DuWorld Pictures offices in New York. Colonel Hinton^ Noted Agent^ Dies Colonel George Frederic Hinton, retired theatrical manager and war veteran, died this week in the United States Military Home in Sawtelle, near Los Angeles. Colonel Hinton, who was 70, underwent an operation for a stomach ailment two weeks ago. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Washington. Born in New York, and following an education there. Colonel Hinton became a newspaper man, then the agent of such theatrical stars as John Philip Sousa, Lillian Russell, Elsie Janis, Blanche Ring, Fred Stone and others. He once estimated he had traveled 1,000,000 miles, which included 44 trips across the Atlantic. Until recently he had been connected with United Artists in production work.