Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

Last Minute News From Everywhere MOVING PICTURE WORLD Vol. 84 New York, February 19, 1927 No. 8 a. b. c. Means many things, ineluding Audit Bureau of Circulations, and their report on Moving Picture World, out next week, will prove interesting to the intelligent advertiser. MIX MONTH Is not a celebration for old time bartenders or new reefxies for for bidde n refreshments. March has been se lected to honor Fox’s famous FIRST. star, TOM the Chicago Leads? According to the newspapers, there are 113 movie theatres advertising their programs in the Chicago papers, the largest number in any city in the country, they say. The Balaban & Katz circuit and their subsidiaries have thirty theatres in the daily advertising pages, the Ascher circuit has fifteen, the Cooney circuit six, and Dubliner & Trinz has 'Jtheatres in their daily line-up for the newspapers. So far there has been no agitation about reduction of rates in this territory. United Artists Theatre Announced For Chicago Exactly $12,255,000 is the sum that United Artists Theatre Circuit, Inc., has invested in the United Artists Theatre that will be opened in September on the site of the Apollo Theatre, Randolph and Dearborn streets, Chicago, according to Joseph M. S’chenck, chairman of the Board of Directors of United Artists Theatre Circuit, Inc. The sum represents $2,175,000 erection costs, plus cost of the purchased Apollo Theatre and the existing lease on that theatre, and $11,080,000 rentals contracted for between the Dander J. McCormick BlUg. Corporation and the Chicago-United Artists Theatre Corporation, on a longterm lease. Dou Anger, operating vicepresident of the circuit, will be in charge of construction of the newest United Artists Theatre. It will have 1,800 seats. F. P. Signs Boasberg A1 Boasberg, one of the outstanding humorists among the writers of the film industry, has been signed to a long-term contract as a member of the scenario staff at the Paramount West Coast studio. Benefit Films A committee of actors and authors plan to produce a series of 24 tworeel films, to be released through the regular channels, for the benefit of the Actors’ Fund and the Authors’ Dengue. They will be made in New York next summer and the players will work without salary and the scenarios will he donated^ Backers Get No Publicity Break In Fashion Show Film Stars’ Gowns Not Properly Exploited Gorgeous gowns and lustrous, sloe-eyed models delighted the eye at the Biltmore on Tuesday afternoon and again on Friday evening, where Peggy Hamilton, fashion editor of the Dos Angeles Times, this week staged her “Fashions of Filmdom.’’ The costumes worn by the mannikins were the originals designed by the studio experts of all the larger companies and were said to have been worn by various screen stars in recent and forthcoming attractions. Needless to say. the gowns were striking and original and the display attracted many fashionables, film fans and a number of professional costume designers from Fifth avenue's exclusive houses. Among these last the writer noted Miss Ally Doew, head of the theatrical department at Russek's, who dresses many Broadway shows and is well known to motion picture people. The expense of the stunt is shared by the various film companies represented, and while it has distinct newspaper and roto publicity possibilities, the manner in which it was handled indicates that Miss Hamilton should have the services of an experienced press agent. {Continued on next page) William Fox has just placed with Vitaphone and the Western Electric Company an order calling for the equipment of the playhouses of the Fox Theatres Corporation with Vitaphone apparatus as quickly as the manufacturers, the Western Electric Company, can turn these machines out. The equipment that will be installed in Fox Theatres as a result of this, the largest individual order for talking pictures machinery yet placed, is designed to reproduce sound on the screen, whether recorded by the photographic method or by the phonographic method. The Vitaphone machine is adapted for both of these processes. The former will make avail Van Praag in N. Y. Morton Van Praag, who has been Washington exchange manager for Universal during the past two years, has been promoted to head the big ‘‘U” Exchange, Universal's New York distribution center, to fill the vacancy caused by Joe Friedman's appointment sis European supervisor for the Uaemin le organization. Earl Kramer, eastern sales director for Universal, announced the change. \ an Praag recently yvas elected president of the Film Board of Trade of Washington, D. C. Sterns Plan 2 Comedies From Paper Comic Strips Gus Meins has been selected by the Stern Brothers to handle' the megaphone for the new comedy series to be made from Pop Momand’s newspaper cartoon comic strip, "Keeping Up With the Joneses.” The Sterns also are introducing another cartoonist to the screen for next season. They are making screen adaptations of “Mike and Ike, They Dook Alike,” the popular strip from the pen of Rube Goldberg. A Staggering Figure Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1927 alone will use more than 50,000,000 feet of raw film for domestic distribution. The Culver City laboratory will turn out 165 prints of each completed picture for home consumption alone. able to the patrons of the Fox theatres the product of the FoxCase Movietone, which records sounds photographically upon the film containing the picture: the second or phonographic method will make available to these houses over the same machines any product which their managers might book from the Vitaphone Company which uses the phonographic method of recording and reproducing sound for the machine. One of the first theatres to be equipped with these projection machines will be the Fox Theatre in Philadelphia, one of the largest theatres in the United States, which in the past has bui'lt up a nationwide reputation for its motion picture and stage presentations. Indiana Complains About Activities of Credit Committee New Owners Made to Use Predecessor’s Films Charges that the Credit Committee of the distributors in Indiana is assuming “full authority” over old contracts and insisting' that new owners play pictures booked by their predecessors, are made by Frank J. Rembusch, president of the M. P. T. O. of Indiana, in a telegram to C. C. Pettijohn of the Hays organization. Gabriel D. Hess, general attorney of the Film Boards of Trade, replied that “Credit Committee functions are limited to investig'ation of bonafides of transfers of theatres and fixing rating of new owners.” Mr. Rembusch’s wire follows: “b'ix cases lately on change of ownership. Credit Committee assumes full authority over old contracts, insisting that new owner play and refuse to arbitrate. Former practice of Credit Committee was only to investigate if sale was bonafide. We have always maintained that change of ownership relieves old contracts. “Advise immediately what your position is on the matter. We have experienced so much grief lately that in order to protect our members we must take drastic action. ‘‘Case today involves a proposition where a film manager on Credit Committee is vitally interested through his company in a big theatre in a certain locality: therefore, insists on old contracts being accepted by competition theatre owner, who is greatly injured as a consequence. “Sorry to say, despite every de( Continued on next page) Buys 17 Theatres (From our Loudon correspondent. ) A. E. Abrahams, London theatre man, has purchased seventeen suburban music halls owned by London Theatres of Varieties, Ltd., for about $2,500,000. Most of the music halls, which are England’s vaudeville houses, will be transformed into motion picture theatres. It was one of the biggest deals ever recorded in London. Fox Orders Vitaphone Equipment For Installation in His Houses