Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

N o v c in bar 29 , 19 JO M o I i o n Picture News 1? OUTLOOK Report that Loew's is in the red during recent weeks is without foundation, according to Barron's, financial weekly. Based on figures for the 12 weeks ending Nov. 23. earnings for the new fiscal year, which started Sept 1, will be only slightly behind 1929, the publication states. It is safe to estimate, the publication stated, a maximum shrinkage of but 15 per cent, with net for the 12 weeks of about $2.600,000 as against $3,078,184 for the 12 weeks ended Nov. 22, 1929. Net for the year ended Aug. 31, 1930, was $14,600,322, equal after preferred dividends to $9.90 a share on 1.378,352 average shares of common and to $9.65 a share on 1.413,573 shares outstanding at the end of the year. As a result of the profit increase, dividend rate is expected to be increased to $4 from $3 a share at the November meeting. Roxy-Clarke to Talk Turkey S. L. (Roxy) Rothafel and Harley L. Clarke have a heavy date a few days hence, when they are expected to get together on the former's future. Roxy is seeking release from his $3,000-a-\veek contract which has a coupla years to run, since he wants to join RCA in conjunction with the newRadio City in which he is slated to Inmanaging director of a theatre larger than the Roxy. While that project will not be completed for a score or more months. Roxy plans to devote his time to broadcasting in the interim. When Roxy went to Europe, this Insider pointed out in the face of denials that the veteran showman did not plan to return to the Roxy and had so informed his staff. His RCA contract calls for a two grand weekly hoist, or $5,000. ( Ine of the big points of discussion between Roxy and the Fox president will be over use of the Roxy name. Fox probably will try to prevent him from using his famous monicker in the new project on the ground that it will be injurious to the Roxy theatre The Case of Billy Prosser One of the real tragedies of show business is the case of William J. I "Bill/') Prosser, for 20 years manager of the old Keith theatre at Columbus, Ohio. Physicians say that death was due to cerebral hemorrhage, but his friends say that it was due to a broken heart. Billy Prosser lived show business, and when the Keith Palace was being built at Columbus, he had every expectation of being its manager. However, almost on the eve of the opening he was let out. Maybe age. maybe not. Who knows. Prosser never did get over that shock. He tried selling life insurance so he would continue to meet people, but it was no use. As William James, a big time operator himself before he sold his Columbus houses to Loew's, puts it: "Billy was a man without a home when he was out of his theatre. He couldn't do anything else because his heart was in the theatre." Don't Gag on This One of the town's funsters says there's a new gag line resulting from Sam Katz's economy and "service 'till it hurts" program. It's "Publix Pallor." Time, the Healer IT'S all one happy family in the M-G-M household once again. In the closing days of 1930 what happened in the early days of 1929 has been forgotten and the differences between Nick Schenck and Dave Bernstein on the one side and Louis Mayer, Irving Thalberg and Bob Rubin on the other have been cleared away. When Schenck, in conjunction with Bernstein and Arthur and Dave and their mother, decided to sell their holdings to Fox Film, history will recall that the news sounded like an explosion of the entire western front to Mayer, Thalberg and Rubin. They didn't believe at the time and openly said so. This Insider knows. But facts were facts and, once established, served to develop the greatest schism ever known in the entire career of the Loew and M-G-M organizations. It had to be healed and now has been — completely — but the procedure was slow. It took the recent trip westward of Schenck and Rubin to finally cement the cordiality of relationship that prevailed before the sale to Fox. They sat around the same table and virtually clasped hands. The family was reunited once more. LONG distance theatre operation at its j silly best : The circuit is a big one. Has houses everywhere. Recently a deal running into several millions added to the list a chain built up by a well known independent operator who figured he could pull all the showmanship gags any producer-owned string could pull and a few which the executive line-up in New York didn't know about. He, therefore, held on until the pot was so sweetened he no longer could refuse to sell. So it was the theatres changed hands. Then the System moved into line, flanked by rules on one side and precision on the other. And this is what is happening: On Monday, an expert on projection tells the manager what and how to do it. On Tuesday, the last word on lobby displays expounds his ideas and the manager, dutifully enough, takes the tip. On Wednesday, it's newspaper advertising and tie-ups and again the manager does as he's told. On Friday, the divisional manager makes the loop and raises hell because the booth isn't being run properly, the lobby looks terrible and the keynote of the newspaper advertising is all wet. What's the answer? The houses, smooth running and efficient under individual ownership, are now hotbeds of unrest and chaos. Nobody knows which way is the right way, least of all apparently the distinguished representatives of the brainstormers in New York. If you conclude that profits are dwindling, you conclude directly. If you imagine that morale is a thing of the past, that, too, is correct. Maybe It's Temperament On the set she's a love, is a certain Hollywood headliner. The whole studio is commenting on her meekness, her desire to do all that her director tells her she must do. But after the studio gate closes behind her — that's different. For instance : The other night this fair damsel visited her director. The neighbors for long stretches around the house found sleep impossible what with the wild shouts and the choice miscellany of the King's English that rent the night air. Then doors slammed, a motor purred and around and around the block went car and star, sometimes on two wheels and sometimes on less than that. It didn't take long for the outburst to peter out. the atmosphere to quiet down and the neighbors to resume their slumbers— until the next time. Perhaps it's temperament. Maybe a protest against the studio that bids fair to ruin the clever player unless some judgment in selecting her pictures is displayed. You can't tell. THE INSIDERS