Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

12 .1/ o t , P i c t ii r e X e is.' s December 6, 19 3 0 IT looks like a victory for Hollywood. The hue and cry on overhead, passed on by the bankers to the gang in New York, who, in turn, passed it on to the boys on the Coast, has been passed right back to New York. By the same successive stages through which it reached the studios, it now returns itself to the bankers. And those who know Hollywood and its operating methods find it all very funny. The story should really be told as it happened, although some of the detail may sound like old stuff. Nobody worries much about negative costs wdien the business gets a year, like 1929. Boom times, plenty of profit, big grosses — everything is swell. But, as the years have a habit of doing, 1930 followed 1929, the picture changed, and what you had was something like this : poor pictures, poor box-office grosses and mounting costs. That which came in wasn't doing so well by comparison with that which went out. So in came the hankers. They insisted upon this and that ; said expenditures must be trimmed — slashed is more like it — in keeping with the times. They also made it quite clear that room for quality was very considerable. Then the downtowners sat back to await results. Bad Boys Turn Good There ensued much agitation within the fold, all of which you may have read about in this very column. Promises were made and, in fact, in some directions the slashings so dear to the hearts of the bankers became fact. Most of the verbal barrages cooked up in New York were, of course, let loose on Hollywood. It was a sad blow and travail was rampant up and down studio land. So it is today that the Coast slogan is ''Death to Waste." or the same idea in other words. Wherever duplication of effort exists, someone is going to catch plenty. The personnel of various departments is being checked again and again to see if any loophole has been overlooked ; every $25 saved is for the cause. Or. at least, that's a rough slant on the idea. INSIDERS' But it also appears that production plans for next year involve the same number of millions as this despite the talk about conservation and that the money saved through the elimination of waste will go into the making of better pictures. The old Hollywood wheeze, but never too old for New York to swallow. That's why The Insiders ask you to cast your optics again at the opening line of this tale. It should be easier to understand if you've gotten this far. A Surprise Package Sweeping decision of the United States Supreme Court in the arbitration and credit cases was about as big a surprise to exhibitors generally as it was to distributors. The independents who aided the government in its actions against the credit and arbitration systems had little idea that a double-barreled victory was in progress. When the cases were called for trial in the Federal District Court, the government sought to have them tried together. The contention was that the cases were so closely interlocking and allied that they were in reality one suit. However, the court decreed otherwise, ordering the actions to be heard separately ; the credit case being called first on the calendar. The credit case was presented, so far as the government was concerned, entirely on documentary evidence. Immediately after it opened, government counsel introduced a voluminous collection of exhibits, consisting chiefly of records and correspondence obtained from files of Film Boards of Trade, and rested its case without calling a witness and without argument. Considerable time The Insiders Hear It Said — THAT, unless the management scheme in one of the big companies rights its uneven keel very soon, the bankers will step in and tell the men in charge how it can be done — without them. That a certain big shot's demotion is attributed to his part in a pussyfooting attempt to discredit an exhibitor. That a projected theatre alliance — important, too — went on the rocks because one of the principals talked out of turn. That a w.k. executive is about to slide the skids because a man higher up is blaming his own mistakes on the skidder who, after all, merely followed orders. That the Major — John Zanft — will figure in that chain of newsreel theatres which Courtland Smith may start some day. That a chap you all know is laughing plenty up his sleeve because the very men who advised him against a certain move are now on the spot themselves. was spent by the defense introducing evidence and testimony of witnesses to disprove the government's contention that the credit system was an illegal restraint of trade. In the arbitration action, around which the government had built its stronger case, several days were consumed introducing witnesses. This was the more bitterly contested of the tw-o, and opinion of some observers who followed the trial was then that the government w-ould lose the arbitration suit, although it was hinted that distributors might expect an adverse decision in the credit case. The Thacher decisions occasioned considerable surprise when handed down, with arbitration declared illegal and the credit system okayed. However, this twoway decision insured speedy appeal to the Supreme Court, which might not have been the case had the decisions been the same in both actions. A Battle Looming All is not quiet along the WarnerParamount front, for the former is setting itself for an assault on Paramount Publix-Comerford at Scranton. This Pennsylvania sector, where Paramount is so strongly entrenched that few competitive efforts have been made against the stronghold, has been yielding very little in the way of revenue for Warners, who are determined to do something about it. That something is a battle in Scranton, home city of the Comerford circuit. A long term lease is being signed Friday on the Gaiety, only burlesque house in the city. The house will drop its policy December 13 and renovations will be made at a reputed cost of $150,000. Then Warners will move in. The erstwhile burlesque theatre will serve merely to introduce Warner product to Scrantonians. The plan is to invade the city in force, options on three other buildings in the center of the city having been obtained. Out of School Quotes Rub Keel of Harry Richman in the Chicago American: "Studio politics is to blame for most of the poor pictures these daw In my own case. I struck a snag at the United Artists. I didn't get along with John Considine, who was at that time the supervisor of production. I tried giving presents to every one on the staff, from tin directors