Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1927)

6 MOVING PICTURE WORLD December 17, 1927 MOVING PICTURE WORLD The Showman’s Business Paper FOUNDED BY J. P. CHALMERS. 1907 HERBERT KX1GHT CRUIKSHAXK, Editor Published weekly by CHALMERS PUBLISHING COMPANY, 516 Fifht Avenue, New York. N. Y. Telephone: Murray Hill 1610-1-2-3. Member Audit Eureau of Circulations. John F. Chalmers, president: James P. Chalmers. Sr.. Tice pres i dent ; Allred J. Chalmers, vice-president; Eliza J. Chalmers, secretary and treasurer: Ervin L. Hall, business manager. Managing Editor — Epes W. Sargent. Advertising Manager — James A. Milligan. Equipment Manager — Gus FauseL Circulation Manager — Dennis J. Shea. Branch Offices: Jones & Sale. 64 West Randolph Street. Chicago; Tom Waller. Taft Building. Wine Street and Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Cal. Subscription price: $3.00 a year to countries where stamps are not necessary for posting. $$3 .50 to Canada; $6.00 to other countries requiring stamps for postage. Copyright. 1026. Chalmers Publishing Co. Copyright throughou Great Britain and Colonies, under the provisions of the Copyright Act of 1911. (All rights reserved. Other publications: Cine Mundial. Published in Spanish and circulating in all Spanish speaking countries of the world. Spanish and English books. VOL. 89 NO. 7 Butterfield Circuit Will Expand to 85 The W. S. Butterfield Theatres, Inc., the parent company which operates the theatres in Michigan under W. S. Butterfield’s management, will construct and complete in 1928 new theatres in Jackson, Battle Creek and Muskegon. This circuit with the new theatres completed and the acquisitions that are now being consummated will consist of 85 theatres, all of them within the boundaries of the State of Michigan. “Man, Woman and Sin,” Record Capital Gross Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “Man, Woman and Sin,” starring John Gilbert with Jeanne Eagels in the feminine lead is claimed by Major Bowes of the Capitol Theatre, New York, to have drawn one of the biggest weeks’ receipts in the history of the theatre. <1 f S \ * v ’ t / Arthur Loew, head of M-G-M’s foreign department, who returned Wednesday after attending to distribution problems abroad. F. Nat. Completes Anglo U.S. Combine; P. T.C. Chain In Deal Clifford B. Hawley, president of First National, officially announces that the three-cornered alliance, which had been in negotiation for several months and agreement signed Nov. 29, involving First NationalStanley and British film and theatre enterprises controlled by Lord Ashfield, Lord Beaverbrook and their associates, has finally been ratified by the First National’s Board of Directors. In this deal, First National and Stanley enter a combine with assets exceeding $150,000,000. The three-cornered contract was entered into by the Standard Film Company, Ltd., and the Film Investment Company, Ltd., controlling Pathe Freres Cinema Ltd., First National and the Stanley Company. Thus, the product of First National is assured special consideration in the theatres of P. C. T. the theatre circuit controlled by the British interests. One plan for the immediate future is the building of a four to five thousand seat first-run theatre in the West End of London. By the terms of the contract, the Stanley Co. will supply forty-nine per cent, of the necessary funds. The theatre will be under the control and management of P.C.T. This calls for the consolidation of First National and Pathe Freres Cinema, Ltd., the controlling stock of which is held by the Standard Film Company, Ltd., and the Film Investment | Company, Ltd., into a new British distributing unit. This will be known i as First National Pathe Company, Ltd., with 51 per cent, of its stock j owned by British interests and 49 per cent, by First National Pictures, [ Inc., controlling First National Ltd. This new company will also control the distribution in Great Britain of the German films of Deutsche Film Union, g.m.b.h., half of whose stock is owned by J. von Lustig and Richard Weininger, prominent German investment bankers, and the other half by First National Pictures, Inc. A new producing company known as the First National Pathe Producing Company, Ltd., will be formed. Productions will be made in England and distributed throughout the world. The company will start with an original capital of $1,000,000, 51 per cent, of which will be owned by British interests and 49 per cent, by First National Pictures, Inc. Control of the Standard Film Company, Ltd., and the Film Investment Company, Ltd., the British parties to the agreement, is held by Lord Beaverbrook, prominent London publisher, Lord Ashfield, London capitalist and railway executive, Major Andrew P. Holt, Canadian capitalist and son of the Governor of the Royal Bank of Canada, and William Evans, managing director of the Provincial Cinematograph Theatres, Ltd. The Provincial Cinematograph Theatres, Ltd., is also controlled by the Standard Film And Film Investment companies. It operates a chain of 100 motion picture theatres in the United Kingdom. Directors of the new British companies will be William Evans, managing director of P. C. T., E. Bruce Johnson, vice-president of First National Pictures, Inc., and Major Rox L. Benson, head of the London banking firm of Robert Benson & Company. “Z7” Forms Vaude Booking Exchange Because of the growing number of houses in the “U” Chain working under a vaudeville policy, the Universal Chain Theatrical Enterprises, Inc., has decided upon the formation of its own vaudeville agency. William Stephens, who has been handling all the Gus Sun Vaudeville Agency, will head the new agency which will commence operation immediately under the name of the Chain Vaudeville Exchange, with offices in the Colony Theatre Building. Paramount Earns $ 9 Share For 9 Months In its consolidated statement, which includes earnings of subsidiary companies, Paramount reports net profits of $2,118,101.85 for the three months and $5,650,427.34 for the nine months ended Oct. 1, after deducting all charges. The nine months figures include $698,214.32, the undistributed share of earnings of the Balaban & Katz Corp. The “per share” earnings were $9. for the nine months. 18th Anniversary] For Herb Brenon Herbert Brenon celebrated the eighteenth anniversary of his start in picturemaking in California yesterday when he arrived at the MetroGoldwynMayer studios to prepare for directing Lon Chaney in “Laugh Clown Laugh.” Eighteen years ago Brenon made one of the first pictures filmed in California, a film version of the stage play “The Heart of Maryland,” starring Mrs. Leslie Carter. Chaplin Date Changed Charlie Chaplin’s “The Circus” will come to the Mark Strand Theatre, New York, on January 7th. instead of on January 14th. j as was originally announced. The same day it will have its European premiere at the Salle Maravaux, Paris. The first week of March “The Circus” will be ; seen by Londoners for the first time, at the New Gallery Kinema. Owen Davis Renews Owen Davis, the dramatist, will write screen plays exclusively for Paramount for the next eighteen months, states Jesse L. Laskv. Watterson R. Rothacker, Vicepresident of First National and Managing Director of the Company’s Burbank Studios. BOB KANEiTO JOIN WITH DE MILLE STUDIO A report has it that with the completion of two more films to be made on his contract for First National, Robert T. Kane will definitely sever his connections with First National and allign himself with the Cecil DeMille studio. Officials at that studio, upon being questioned, refused any details as to his new capacity, but admitted that he was coming into the organization. First National, on the other hand, professed entire ignorance of any new move on Kane’s part. MITCHELLI, COAST ‘U’ SALES HEAD DIES Donald S. Mitchell. West Coast sales manager for Universal, died Sunday in the Dante Sanitarium, San Francisco, following a sudden heart attack. Although only 33 years old, he was a veteran Universal sales figure and one of the best beloved men in the organization. His wife was in Honolulu on a holiday trip at the time of his death, but now is rushing back to San Francisco. This Week at Roxy "The Girl From Chicago.” an underworld melodrama, is announced by S. L. Rothafel for presentation at the Roxy next Saturday. December 17th. Billy Bitzer Re-elected LocH No. 644 of th° I.A.T.S E. has elected G. W. “Billy” Bitzer to the office of President. Among the other officers elected for the ensu'^g v«ar were: Walter Scott, 1st Vice-Pres.; Frank Zucker, A. S.C., 2nd Vice-Pres.; Marcel Le Picard 3rd Vice-Pres.; Frank Gordon Kirby, Treas., and Al. Ansbacber, Sec.