Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1939)

8 MOTION PICTURE HERALD January 14, 1939 This Week Bright Promise Production executives are busy with pencils and memo pads and transportation lines between home offices and Hollywood are loaded with officers hurrying to and from studio conferences, signs of exceptionally early concern with busy plans for the 193940 season. In many cases such projections have passed beyond the nebulous stage and titles and stars are set down in black and white ready for discussion at sales meetings for which dates have been set. An early look at the specifications discloses significantly that action pictures will be emphasized and that not a single glamour girl musical or lunatic comedy is scheduled so far. Starting on page 13 w a summary of company committments to date. Film Pages An attack on poorly conducted, careless and slipshod motion picture departments on daily newspapers by Arthur Schmidt, advertising representative of the Loew's, Inc., advertising and publicity department is published in the current Editor and Publisher. The article advances arguments for editors to accord at least as much journalistic attention to the motion picture page as is given sports and other departments, cites the reader interest value of the film pages as recorded by various polls and surveys, and shows how both theatres and newspapers could benefit by more careful conduct of the department. Theatre managers of all classes should benefit by employing the ideas advanced in the article on page 29. Radio Millions Year end reports of the broadcasting networks show that national advertisers during 1938 spent $68,808,076 for time on National Broadcasting Company and Columbia Broadcasting System stations. The cost of talent and material for the radio shows is believed to have brought the total to over $100,000,000. Procter and Gamble, soap manufacturer, was the ranking space buyer, having spent $6,170,862 with Standard Brands and General Foods in close order. The statistics are on page 30. uNot for Sale" The Twentieth Century-Fox holdings in Gaumont British are not for sale, Joseph Schenck, chairman of the board of directors, said in Hollywood Sunday. Weekend reports from London indicated that British financial interests had heard that Twentieth Century-Fox was willing to sell its 4,900 shares in Metropolis and Bradford Trust, GB holding company, at a suitable price. Advertisers Object Radio advertising agencies do not oppose the unionization of radio artists, but they cannot cope with "ruinous" and "unreasonable" wage demands, according to C. J. La Roche, chairman of the Advertising Agency Conference Committee, which has been meeting with representatives of the American Federation of Radio Artists. The wage demands of the union would discourage daytime programs, and might even prevent the use of radio by advertisers, Mr. La Roche asserted. {Also see page 28). Television Again The investigation by the Federal Communications Commission into charges of monopoly in broadcasting continues to be, in effect, a sounding board for statistics about television emitted before the commission. Major Lenox R. Lohr, president of the National Broadcasting Company, last week declared that networking of television is not possible at present, without exorbitant expense. In new year statements by leaders in the television industry, warnings were given against "too much publicity," lest the public be misled into expecting too much. The article is on page 38. MOTION PICTURE HERALD Published every Thursday by Quigley Publishing Company, Rockefeller Center, New York City. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address "Quigpubco, New York." Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Colvin Brown, VicePresident and General Manager; Terry Ramsaye, Editor; Ernest A. Rovelstad, Managing Editor; James P. Cunningham, News Editor; Chicago Bureau, 624 South Michigan Avenue, C. B. O'Neill, manager; Hollywood Bureau, Postal Union Life Building, Boone Mancall, manager, William R. Weaver, editor; Toronto Bureau, 366 Adelaide Street West, Toronto 2, Ontario, J. A. Cowan, representative; London Bureau, 4, Golden Square, London W I, Hope Williams, manager; cable Quigpubco London; Berlin Bureau, Berlin-Tempelhof, Kaiserin-Augustastrasse 28, Joachim K. Rutenberg, representative; Paris Bureau, 21, Rue de Berri, Paris 8, France, Pierre Autre, representative, cable Autre-Lacifral-8 Paris; Rome Bureau, 54 Via Delia Mercede, Rome, Italy, Joseph D. Ravotto, representative; cable Ravotto-Stampestera, Rome. Melbourne Bureau, Regent Theatre, 191 Collins St., Melbourne, Australia, Cliff Holt, representative; Mexico City Bureau, Apartado 269, Mexico City, James Lockhart, representative; Budapest Bureau, Szamos-utca 7, Budapest I, Hungary, Endre Hevesi, representative; Buenos Aires Bureau, Avellaneda 3949, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Natalio Bruski, representative; Shanghai Bureau, 142 Museum Road, Shanghai, China, J. P. Koehler, representative; Tokyo Bureau, 880 Sasazuka, Ichikawa-shi Chiba-Ken, Japan, Hiromu Tominaga, representative; Rio de Janeiro Bureau, Caixa Postal 3358, Rio de Janeiro Brazil, L. S. Marinho, representative; India Bureau, K. G. Gidwaney, Post Box 147 Bunder Road, Karachi, India; Uruguay, P. O. Box 664, Montevideo, Uruguay, Paul Bodo, representative, cable Argus Montevideo; Amsterdam Bureau, 87 Waalstraat, Amsterdam Z., Holland, Philip de Schaap, representative; Vienna Bureau, Neustiftgasse 54, Vienna, VII, Hans Lorant, representative; Chile Bureau, Casilla 13300 Santiago de Chile, A. Weissmann, representative; Copenhagen Bureau, Rosengaarden 14, Copenhagen, Denmark, Kris Winther, representative. Member Audit Bureau of Circulations. All contents copyright 1938 by Quigley Publishing Company. Address all correspondence to the New York Office. Other Quigley Publications: Better Theatres, Motion Picture Daily, Teatro al D(a, International Motion Picture Almanac and Fame. Reopened Paris cinemas reopened Saturday after a three day strike when Vice-Premier Camille Chautemps intervened. He asked the industry delegates to consider the problem nationally and its effect on Paris life. Mr. Chautemps said the exhibitors agreed to reopen pending the result of an investigation into the tax situation which caused the strike. "Quiz" Judging With an estimated "two million and more" returns received thus far at the Movie Quiz contest headquarters in New York, the judges met Wednesday at luncheon in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, and decided to judge all entries by key numbers, rather than by signatures. The judges, Mrs. Ogden Reid, Dr. James E. West, Homer Fickett (representing Congressman Bruce Barton) and Hendrik Willem Van Loon, visited contest headquarters and there saw an estimated 500 mail bags still unopened. Harold B. Franklin of the committee said another two weeks will be required to handle the entries. Trade Practices Representatives of organized distributors and of exhibitors resumed conferences this week on the companies' 16-point "tentative draft" of trade practice overhauling. While objections have been raised on four grounds by various exhibitor groups, the distributors' proposals are expected in some quarters to be the basis of the program eventually to be adopted. Allied States Association's position will be determined Tuesday in Washington at a "Founders' Day" dinner commemorating the tenth anniversary of the organization as at present constituted. Ticket Code The possession of "choice seat" tickets by certain ticket brokers who are not signatories to the code governing distribution of New York legitimate theatre tickets, impelled the board of governors of the League of New York Theatres to announce its decision last week to call a meeting to reexamine the code. Decision was expected this week by Supreme Court Judge Louis A. Valente, on the suit for a restraining order brought by the Acme Theatre Ticket Office, 170 West 44th Street, against the Actor's Equity Association, and the league, charging that enforcement of the code was "illegal restraint" of trade.