Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1929)

October 19, 1929 Motion Picture News 29 How Fox Plans To Instruct Via Films The plan which William Fox will sponsor to make talking pictures a vital force in secular, religious and scientific education, will be worked out on broad plans to cover all branches of instruction. Under three main classifications its plans calls for: Schools Equipment and facilities in schools which will bring talking pictures carrying instructions on all subjects to 1,000,000 school rooms throughout the country. Visual and oral instruction by the foremost teachers of the subjects, it is anticipated, will reduce the present school day by one-half, thus furnishing the solution to two problems: congestion in class rooms and confinement of children indoors for long periods. Under the plan the greatest teachers will be brought into the classrooms everywhere. Churches There are 75,000,000 seats in churches and parish houses of which only 15 per cent are occupied on the average, according tcFox. He plans to stimulate interest in religion and church attendance by bringing into all of the edifices the greatest preachers and religious leaders through the medium of talking pictures, through which every pulpit would be occupied by a "Fosdick cr a Cadman for Protestants, a Kraus or a Wise for the Jews, a Hayes or a Mundelein for the Catholics." Science Talking pictures will be used to further the study of surgery and medicine. The new hospital being built in Chicago for Dr. Nelson H. Lowry, specialist in cancer surgery, is being equipped with apparatus for the making of talkies c-f operations — the gift of a wealthy Chicagoan. A film showing Dr. Lowry operating on a cancer case with a radium knife has already been filmed. This work is held to be an illustration of the more extensive use to which talking pictures will be put in the future in connection with the surgical demonstrations for practitioners and students. Surgeons Demonstrate And Lecture To Fellow Doctors Chicago. — Talking picture records of surgical operations for cancer, appendicitis and hernia created widespread interest among the 3,000 delegates who attended the 25th annual convention of the American College of Surgeons here. Through the nifdiuin of picture* the delegates viewed actual operations performed by eminent specialists who accompanied the demonstration with leoftures. Laemmle Fails To Persuade Remarque To Adapt Novel Berlin, — Erich Maria Remarque, author of "All Quiet on the Western Front" which Universal will film, is reported to have refused an offer from Carl Laemmle to scenarize his work for the camera and to play the chief role. $5,000,000 Profit For Fox Houses Expected By 1930 New York Papers Praise Fox Move "The Evening t-Vorld" said in part: Any plan for the extension of the use of the movies and especially the talking movies is important, and when surh a veteran as William Fox, the producer, submits a definite plan it cannot he dismissed lightly, . . . He has a vision of a revolution in educational methods that will solve the problem of congested classrooms and release students to greater freedom in the out-of-doors; that will fill the empty pews in churches and serve the ends of medical science, . . . "The Sun" said: The plan of William Fox to develop talking movies for instruction in schools embodies the germ of more than one important idea. The producer's preliminary announcement did not attempt to go far into details; he is experienced enough in picture production to understand that these must develop according to needs and opportunities. Nevertheless his determination to contribute to the enterprise a considerable share of his personal fortune is sufficient evidence of his confidence in the soundness of this new method of instruc "Thc Graphic," m part: There have been previous efforts to apply the movies to classroom work. Efforts that have somehow failed of complete success. The rcson undoubtedly was lack of the vital spark of imagination that has made such a spectacular success of screen dramatizations. Now, however, comes Mr. Fox. Comes with him the imagination, the experience and the genius that have built the movie industry to its present towering position in American life, Editorial Writer Praises Fox's Rise In Business Herbert Kaufman, noted editorial writer, in commenting on the Fox plan to spread education, religion and a greater knowledge of surgery via talking pictures, said in the "New York Evening Graphic." His parents weren't on calling terms with the Astors — but his grandchildren will be. . . . The Fox theatre chain. Fox production units and Fox realty holdings sprang from a dank basement shop and the conviction that there were just as good fish in the future as any the past had caught. He didn't brood over sour-grapes, or meagre backgrounds. . . . Instead he explored possibility. ... He did nothing you couldn't have accomplished, and accomplished it under the noses of a million contemporaries immeasurably better financed and trained for the same job. 1,000,000 The Goal Fox officials expect patrons of their theatres throughout the nation to absorb the 1,000.000 shares of Fox Theatres A stock recently issued for this purpose. Picture fans in every city where there is a Fox theatre are now being acquainted with the financial history of the Fox organization through an address delivered in Movietone from William Fox and read by Lawrence Chamberlain, financial advisor to Fox in connection with the stock selling plan. No figures are available as to shares subscribed for by fans as a result of the Silver Jubillee drive since an attempt is being made to cover the nation. The stock, traded in New York on the Curb is showing stimulated activity; the turnover for Monday being 15,100; Tuesday, 12,300; Wednesday, 4,600; and yesterday 2,700 shares. Sale of the additional 1,000,000 will make a total of 5.000,000 shares of this stock outstanding. Fox Theatres Corp. net earnings for the year ending Oct. 31, 1930 will reach a total of $4,500,000 or $5,000,000, officials estimate: This figure, if reached, will increase returns by $1,500,000 to $2,000,000 over the net for the current fiscal year, which ends Oct. 31; and for which net is estimated to reach $3,000,000. These forecasts are revealed in the personal message from William Fox delivered in Movietone at Fox theatres throughout the country in connection with the Fox Silver Jubilee celebration and sale of 1,000,000 shares of Fox theatre stock. The message is delivered by Lawrence Chamberlin from the screen. Following are some quotations from the address: "Today more than 1.000.000 people will listen to these words. This week more than 7,000.000 people —a number equal to one person in every eighteen in the United States. Twenty-five years ago I started in the amusement business with a capital of a few hundred dollars. ... In the meantime the motion picture industry has grown tremendously. . There will be over 350.000,000 paid admissions this year to the American theatres in which we are inu-fjte. , °1 ,he avera8= every man, woman and child in the United States will see our performances this year at least three times. ... Our management, which serves amusement as a necessity, prefers to look now and in the future to our customers, our patrons, for a substantial part of the capital with which to enlarge and improve our service." Lengthy Fight In France Brings 25% Tax Reduction Paris (By Cable).— The French Government contemplates a 25 per cent reduction in the theatre tax, thus bringing to a close an extended fight conducted by exhibitors and the industry at large to bring this about. The growth of night 'clubs and revenue therefrom obtained is given as the reason. Exhibition in France has long been held impractical as a business proposition because of the various forms of excessive government levies, such as the state and poor taxes. /Vent York Expects Film Theatres To Be Included While definite word is awaited in New York as to provisions of the proposed French tax cut, it is generally hoped that the plan includes reduction of imports on picture theatres as well as legitimate houses. 50 Per Cent Tax Increase Plan Killed In Australia Prospects of a 50 per cent increase in taxes facing the 1,400 theatres in Australia are over and the Bruce-Page proposal to increase levies to $3,750,000 a year killed, according to cables received this week by Millard Johnson, New York representative of Austarlasian Films, Ltd. At a special election, proponents of the plan were defeated. 24 In Schwartz Chain The addition of the Empress Theatre, Empire Boulevard and Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y., brings the A. H. Schwartz circuit up to a total of 24 houses. The 25th will be the opening of the new Rockville Centre, L. I., house, the Fantasy.