Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1927)

12 MOVING PICTURE WORLD December 31, 1927 GREETINGS BILLIE DOVE & k L W IRVIN WILLAT FIRST NATIONAL PICTURES UNIVERSAL PICTURES WE WISH YOU A HAPPY AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR Sunday Close in Kansas — Mo. in Critical Showdown Stanley 1927 Earnings Well Above Requirements Earnings of the Stanley Co. for 1927 will exceed dividend requirements of $4 a share by a considerable margin, Irving D. Roscheim, treasurer, told directors at their regular monthly meeting. During the past year the number of theatres under the control of the Stanley Co., has increased three-fold The Board was unanimous in its opinion that continued improvement could be anticipated next year and increased earnings were predicted for the first quarter. F.N. IN SUIT FOR $100,000 Samuel Cummins and The Public Welfare Pictures Corp., of 723 Seventh Ave., New York City, through their attorneys, Hava, Podell & Shulman of 1440 Broadway, New York, have served papers on First National for an injunction in a suit to restrain First National from releasing “Her Wild Oat,” featuring Colleen Moore, on the grounds that it conflicts with the motion picture controlled by the plaintiff called “Some Wild Oats.” The plaintiff asks for one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) damages. New Sales Co., Changes Mark Sterling Co. Activity Kansas City, Mo. — Never has the Sunday closing menace in Western Missouri and Kansas been so serious. A genuine blue law war in Pittsburg, Kas., a town of 25,000 population, is causing widespread interest in that exhibitors have sworn out complaints and caused the arrest of more than 250 business men of the town on charge of operating their business on Sundays. The arrests included druggists, garage owners and men in all walks of industry. As a result the police courts in Pittsburg were doing a standing room business. Prior to last spring Pittsburg motion picture theatres had been closed on Sundays for about twelve years. Last spring, however, they opened and at first there was*no opposition forthcoming. Then the ministers and many laymen got busy and the city council passed an ordinance prohibiting Sunday shows. Several exhibitors were arrested. Glenn H. Taylor, lawyer, was retained as attorney for the exhibitors, who contended that the city ordinance did not repeal the ancient Sunday labor law of Kansas, which is a state, and not a city, law.. It was under the latter law which exhibitors had business men arrested. The advance announcement of the exhibitors that they would file complaints against business houses which operated on Sunday, caused fifty places of business to remain closed, but hundreds remained open. Joplin, Mo., a city of 60,000 population, which has Sunday shows, and which is only a few miles from Pittsburg on a concrete highway, has been a mecca for Pittsburg movie fans in the past. At Warrensburg, Mo., a town of 8,000, Nick Bradley, prosecuting attorney, announced this week he would close motion picture theatres on Sunday under the ancient Missouri labor law. R. M. Shelton, manager of the Star theatre in that city, came back with the announcement that if his theatre was closed he would file complaints against all business houses which remained open on Sundays, making it impossible for a person to buy a box of matches or obtain change for a church collector. GILDA WITH “DEVIL DANCER” IN EUROPE After her tour of the principal cities, of which her present engagement in “The Devil Dancer” at the Rivoli is the first stop, Gilda Gray will accompany her first Samuel Goldwyn picture with a personal appearance in London, to be followed later in Paris, Berlin and other continental cities. M-G-M Acquires “Iris” M-G-M announces it has acquired the screen rights to Pinero’s tragic romance, “Iris.” The close of the year finds Sterling Pictures in a most advantageous and successful position in the foreign market, according to the statement of Irving Briskin, head of Sterling’s foreign department. New sales in hitherto unexplored fields, radical changes in organization for the distribution of the product, are the outstanding developments, he says. Among the more important sales in the past few weeks a deal with the Establissement Roger Weil, negotiated through M. Jean Vanderhyden, Sterling representative in Paris, calling for a distribution of ten productions in France and the northern French colonies, are: “Men of the Night,” “Wolves of the Air,” “The Checkered Flag,” “The Phantom Express,” “Brooding Eyes,” “Wreckage,” “Whispering Canyon,” “Before Midnight,” “Big Pal,” and “A Desperate Moment.” Sterling has severed all business connections with the Helios Film Co. of Berlin, and has turned over to A. Fried, representative of the company with headquarters in London, and to Jean Vanderhyden of Paris, operations in a territory comprising Germany. Austria. Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia. Roumania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Poland. Russia, the Balkan States. Finland, Egypt. Syria, and Palestine.