Motion Picture Herald (July-Aug 1935)

14 MOTION PICTURE HERALD July 27, 1935 SPOOR TO RETURN TO PRODUCTION AND EXHIBITION WITH OWN CIRCUIT Founder of Essanay Will Supervise Pictures Using 70mm. "Third Dimension" Process and Other Spoor Patents George K. Spoor, who four decades ago stepped gingerly into the business when he financed — for $65 — the launching of a newfangled contraption for projecting motion pictures and went on to the heights and to millions with Essanay, thence into Chicago lake shore real estate, is returning to exhibition and production. Within a few weeks a new producing and exhibiting company will open negotiations for long-term leases of key theatres in six large cities, according to announcement. In these cities will be shown productions made under Mr. Spoor's supervision and employing several patent features developed in the Spoor laboratories in Chicago but which are said to have been rejected by the large producers because of the cost that would have been entailed in substitution of new equipment. The pictures will be made on large size film, a part of the "third dimension" process which Mr. Spoor has been developing for a decade or so. They will be projected by Spoor's special projector and the sound will be thrown to the audience from Spoor's patented sound board. The project was made known by Edward H. Barron, personal attorney for the Spoor family, in Chicago. Mr. Barron at the same time said he expected that a trust agreement which has controlled the major Spoor properties for the last three years would be concluded and dissolved in about six weeks. In the past week the following "Legal Notice" has appeared in the trade press : "George K. Spoor, Chicago, Illinois, under date of November 1, 1932, conveyed all his real estate and personal property to Albert W. Malone, Trustee. Any negotiations for the acquisition of stories, plays or any of said conveyed property must, therefore, be with or through said Trustee." — The notice carried the name of Lowell M. Birrell, Esq., as attorney for Mr. Malone. "Friends of Mr. Spoor will be pleased to know that he is in better circumstances today than at any time in the last six years, and has associated with him in this new project some of the most able and influential men in the business," said Mr. Barron. He did not name Mr. Spoor's associates in the enterprise. Placed Patents in Trusteeship It was at the instance of the Continental Bank of Chicago and on the advice of friends, Mr. Barron said, that Mr. Spoor in 1932 had placed his patents and other properties, except such personal holdings as his home, bank account and personally owned effects, in a friendly trusteeship, with Mr. Malone, his one-time bookkeeper and certified public accountant, as the trustee. Mr. Barron estimated the assets at $3,500,000 and liabilities at $80,000. "It was just too much for an individual to handle," said Attorney Barron. "There were accrued taxes on real estate and some foreclosure proceedings. John J. Berggren had an interest in the third dimension process which was not definite. J. F. Lindberg had a 25 per cent interest in the sound board. We let the State street leaseholds go and also the Fort Dearborn hotel. The major part of the realty holdings have been kept, however, and everything is just about straightened out. I expect that it will be wound up in from four to six weeks." The sound board, Mr. Barron said, is a device to eliminate distortion by throwing the sound to the side and then the rear and thence back to the audience, instead of directly to the audience. Cites Radio Parallel A situation parallel to that which radio faced after it had been perfected today is being confronted by Mr. Spoor and his inventions, Mr. Barron said. Radio had to wait, he said, because the banks had millions invested in the phonograph business — hence the stop-gap introduction of the crystal set. Application of the Spoor patents, he pointed out, would require an expenditure of millions in new equipment, from the camera through to the projector, as well as expensive remodeling or abandonment of hundreds of theatres with proscenium arches too small to accommodate the larger screen. Mr. Barron said that in England there is more of a possibility of immediate utilization of the patents and that Mr. Spoor could get between eight and ten millions outright, but that he believes a greater return is to be had eventually in the United States, as he has patent protection meanwhile in England, France and Germany. Mr. Spoor's original plan was to establish his special theatres in twenty cities, but on protests from production and distribution companies he had decided to limit the initial activity to half a dozen cities, said the attorney. The new company is awaiting a charter and approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Entered Business in 1895 It was in about 1895 that George K. Spoor first ventured into the motion picture business. He was operating a one-night roadshow at the Opera House in Waukegan, 111. — he had a newsstand and lunchroom at the Northwestern Station in Chicago — when a certain Edwin Hill Amet came to the ticket window, in search of $65 to finance a projection machine he was inventing. Out of his decision that night Mr. Spoor went on to an accumulation of seven to ten million dollars. From his exhibition of pictures with the Magniscope came contact with George Kleine and William N. Selig, — and the birth of Essanay. From Vitagraph had gone G. M. Anderson, to join Colonel Selig. Mr. Spoor had the Kinodrome Circuit, showing motion pictures in Orpheum vaudeville theatres, and became proprietor of the National Film Renting Company in Chicago. Anderson and Spoor organized Essanay Film Manufacturing Company in February of 1907 and started production. There followed a decade New Company Will Negotiate for Leases of Key Theatres in Six Large Cities as Starter, Says Attorney of warfare, with Spoor, Kleine and Selig standing shoulder to shoulder, with Edison, in defending the Patents Company, formed in the winter of 1908-09. Then William Swanson, Chicago exchangeman, and Carl Laemmle precipitated the rebellion that changed the entire scene. The Chaplin Episode On October 5, 1910, came announcement of The American Film Manufacturing Company, with 20 production experts, all called "formerly of Essanay." An injunction was obtained by Mr. Spoor to stop further raiding. Essanay took Charles Chaplin away from Keystone, only to lose him later to Mutual. Now Essanay began to fade. Mr. Spoor bought out Anderson, but an ill-fated attempt of the KESE combination — Kleine, Edison, Spoor and Essanay — to build up Max Linder to compensate for the loss of Chaplin, met its end with the suicide of Linder in 1925. However, Mr. Spoor had made his millions, which he placed in Chicago real estate. Mr. Spoor continued with his interest in inventions in the field of the motion picture, however. One outstanding effort was with the socalled "third dimension" pictures, entailing use of 70 millimeter film. In 1929 at RCA-Victor's Gramercy studio, with the Spoor-Berggren process was made a fulllength feature, "Danger Lights," starring the late Louis Wolheim. The project, and the experimental production, immediately ran into the obstacle of costs that would have been necessitated in making over studio and theatre equipment. Now Mr. Spoor hopes to solve that problem with a circuit of his own. No Cultural Depression, Declares David Sarnoff "There is no cultural depression in America," declared David Sarnoff, president of the Radio Corporation of America, in an address at Atlantic City last week to RCA Victor distributors, in which he discussed the increasing demand for those devices which contribute to cultural progress. "Great economic upheavals may actually stimulate cultural progress," he said. "This has happened in America." He noted the marked advances in the appreciation of music in the past five years as indicative of the nation's cultural growth. He called the radio a contributing influence. Allied Regionals Planned A series of regional meetings will be held by Allied States Association through New England, beginning August 4 at White River Junction, Vt. Nathan Yamins is expected to accompany the group of national officials on their trip through the territory.