Motion Picture Times (1931)

:^°TiON PICTU^® V. W. CRISP, Editor and Manager 313 South Harwood Street Phone — 7-3553 DALLAS, TEXAS H-F Disbanding 9 Rnmor Richards Planning Texas Circuit? Return of Stage GRIFFITH EXPANDS Shows by Publix in the Southwest Announced; Reports Contend Publix Official May Take Back Dent & Saenger Houses From Publix. Plans Circuit of Houses in New Mexico A circuit of representative towns in New Mexico and adjacent territory is the goal of R. E. Griffith, an individual theatre operator'in his own right but also still an important factor in the Griffith Amusement Company, of Oklahoma City. Both Mr. and Mrs. Griffith, and son R. E. Griffith, Jr., were in Dallas last week visiting friends before returning to their home in Denver, headquarters for the new circuit. The R. E. Griffith towns in New Mexico include Roswell, Gallup, New Hobbs, Clovis, Carlsbad and one or two others. The New Mexico chain is said to be separate and apart from any other Griffith affiliation. Fanchon Marco Route Mapped. Stage shows are practically assured in Publix Theatres of the Southwest starting January 1, according to an announcement by JoTin J. Friedl division manager, who admitted that a flesh and blood policy had practically been adopted. Publix says that a satisfactory agreement between stage hands and managers is all that is in the way, but it is more commonly believed that “Frankenstein,” which (Continued on page 8) Although no one in Dallas is prepared to confirm or deny the rumor, report is that this division of Publix will free its&lf of sOme or all of the Dent theatres and some or all of the Saenger chain which only a few months ago was bottled up into one booking combination under the generalship of Sam Katz soon after he became national director of the Publix chain. Richards, a high Publix official, will either take over a number of towns in his own right or in behalf of the original Saenger Amusement Company, of which he also was head man. (Continued on page 9) Superlatives By G. LESTER SOUTHWELL in New England Film News o~ Another Webster Job R. Z. Glass of Public Address Service Co. made installation Sunday of X-Cell Mellaphone sound on film equipment with Webster A. C. amplification in the Victor Theatre at Van, Texas, owned by S. G. Fry. This makes a total of twenty-five installations of X-Cell equipment in this territory. o New A. C. Amplifier The A. C. Masterpack Company of Duncan, Okla., announces a new A. C. Amplifier being manufactured and ready for marketing to the theatre trade. This unit is said to eliminate completely all batteries, head amplifier and fader. Descriptive bulletin wdll be sent upon request. WJ HILE riding in town the other night on a street car * * a mixed group of young folks were sitting near us discussing what picture show they were going to attend and using a daily paper as a guide to what was currently playing at the local houses. Suddenly one young ladj’' excitedly spoke up and said, “Gee, this one sound great,” and read off a highly enthusiastic description of the picture as exploited by the newspaper advertisement. She had no more than finished when one of the group spoke up and said, “Don’t pay any attention to that bunk. If the picture was any good they would not have to use all those adjectives to describe it,” and continued with, “If you would only notice it is only the poor pictures that they boost by heavy advertising, the good pictures advertise themselves by people talking about them to one another.” As further proof she mentioned a current picture that a friend had advised her to see. And so they unanimously decided to go to that theatre. We were much interested in the discussion and made (Continued on page 8) Robb & Rowley Circuit May Revert to Former Owners; Rowley and Associates On Top. A startling rumor reached Dallas Tuesday to the effect thpt Hughes-Franklin theatres are disbanding and ' that recently-acquired theatre circuits would rjevert back to former owners. | The old Robb & Rowley circqit looms under the persisting rumdr, but one thing is almost certam, in that the former head man, HB. Robb, retired from thq theatre game in full, will have nothing to do with the R. & R. houses in ease they revert back. He^out of the game with plenty of cash and tangible assets and does not choose to re-enter the business, his friends say. j 'E. H. Rowley, original partner of Robb and at the present time southwestern manager of HughesFranklin, is said to be willing to again take over the R. & R. holdings in case they are turned back, along with former associates, including W. G. Underwood. These men will be close to a million dollars to the good in case the houses are returned, it is claimed. D. Bernbaum, former R. & R. financier, of course will figure heavily in the revision of Hughes-Franklin theatres in the southwest, in case such a shake-up takes place, which appears imminent, according to authoritative persons. Harold B. Franklin, head of the chain which bears his name, is through with the line-up and is now directing certain United Artists and Paramount theatres on the west coast, it is said. Howard Hughes, Houston millionaire, is all tied up and interested in multicolor; therefore the rumor is persistent that the H-F theatres will not exist much longer in their present status. o Wallace Walthall of National Screen Service reports business very brisk on Christmas and New Years trailers.