The Moving picture world (March 1923-April 1923)

March 17, 1923 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 307 } First Arbitration Proceedings Under Uniform Contract Is Held in New York THE first official co-operative meeting held under the new uniform contract, as announced several weeks ago, was held Wednesday afternoon, and resulted in the organization of the Joint Arbitration Board representative of the exhibitors in the New York territory and exchangemen. The meeting, which was held at 1540 Broadway, New York, was conducted under arbitration rules adopted recently and similar to those of the American Arbitration Society. The complete arbitration agreement will be published in Moving Picture World next week. The arbitration board, which will handle all disputes between exhibitor and exchanges, includes six members, three representative exhibitors and three representative exchangemen. The exhibitors officially inducted to office Wednesday include William Landau, present head of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners' Chamber of Commerce; Sol Raives and J. Jame. The exchangemen are represented by Louis Rosenbluh, manager of the New York Fox Exchange; Sam Zierler of Commonwealth Pictures Corporation, and Bill Ray nor of the New York Pathe Exchange. The Arbitration Board lost no time in organizing, and when its organization was perfected, it proceeded immediately to take action on a batch of complaints that demand adjustment. The Arbitration Board will meet at regular intervals when all aggrievances — those of distributors as well as exhibitors — will be acted upon. Considerable interest is prevalent in exhibitor circles throughout the country regarding the outcome of these joint arbitrary proceedings which are provided for in the new uniform contract as announced recently by both the Will Hays and New York theatre owners* organizations. The arbitration agreement, which embraces nineteen rules governing procedure, was adopted last week by a committee representative of the exhibitors and the F. I. L. M. Club of New York. The arbitration agreement was drawn up with the advice and suggestion of Judge Grossman of the Arbitration Society of America and harmonizes with provisions embodied in the uniform contract. The meeting on Wednesday of this week was the first held since the promulgation of the uniform contract. The arbitration agreement was adopted by the following committee: Bernard Edelhurtz, Leo Brecker, William Brandt and S. A. Moross, representing the Theatre Owners' Chamber of Commerce, and Joe Unger of First National, Louis Rosenbluh of Fox, W. C. Herman of Universal, Arthur Abels of Metro and Sam Zierler of Commonwealth, representing the F. I. L. M. Club. Meetin gs of the arbirtation board will be held every Wednesday. Sawyer Calls Good Stories Chief Requisite of Pictures By T. S. da Ponte THAT the story is now the real motivating power in pictures ; that a good star is a worth-while addition, but is of secondary importance ; that a well rounded supportin.sf cast is, of course, also a great help to making a film a winner; that magnificent or artistic sets of a surety have their place in pictures whose stories call for them — but that star, cast and setting-s must all play second fiddle to the story, is the opinion of Arthur Sawyer, who, after a short visit to New York, left Sunday for the West Coast to make eight big pictures during this year. These pictures will all be made in accorflancc witli Mr. Sawyer's ideas as to what he helieves the public wants, and what he thinks, therefore, will make most money for cxhibitors. "'Your Friend and Mine' will be finished in about two weeks and tlicn we'll start on The ."^hooting of Dan McGrcw.'" said Mr. Sawxcr. "These two jjictures will wind un our contract with Metro, after which S-I. Pictures will make other distributing arrangements. "We have all the money necessary to get worth-while stories and to make pictures that will be a credit to these stories, as S-L is owned by Associated Pictures Corporation, of which Marcus A.' Jacobowsky is president. Mr. Jacobowsky also is one of the country's foremost financiers and a leading banker. I "Big pictures arc now the thing in the industry. The public wants the big story strongly produced and that's what we're going to give them. We will have two directors working, one of whom will be Clarence Badger, and another wliom \vc have not definitely settled on. "Willard Mack, the noted playwright, from whose short play 'Your Friend and Mine' is being scenarioized. is at present writing a play for Willie Collier which >.vill be ■ihown first on Broadway and then put into screen form. Mr. Mack is aJso dramatizing the Jack Boyle story, 'No Questions Asked,' and after a stage run this also will be shown on the screen. Then there are a number of other of Mr. Mack's plays, all of which have the dramatic 'punch.' which we have the option of filming, as well as any others which he may turn out in the next few years." Speaking of the two productions which will be S-L's last to go tlirough Metro, Mr. Sawyer said they have all the rec|uisi(es to make them winners. Not the least of these are the stars, he said. In "Your Friend and Mine" Enid Bennett has the principal role. She has been heard of a great deal recently because of her portrayal of the chief feminine character in "Robin Hood." Tn "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" T,on Chancy will have the chief part. and. said Mr. Sawyer, "we will pay him the biggest salary he has ever received." "We pin great faith to Barbara T,a Mar. who will star in several of our pictures." Mr. Sawyer stated. "She has already amply demonstrated her abilitv, and her name in a cast is recognized as having great pulling power at the box office. "We are putting un a four-unit stage studio in Hollywood," Mr. Sawyer said, "vvlr,ch is being hastened to be ready for occupancy within the next month. This will greatly facilitate us in the making of our pictures. At our Hollywood office Margaret Ettinger has been installed as director of Coast publicity for the various S-L productions." "Quincy Adams Sawyer," one of the S-L productions, has only been out six weeks, but is "already on velvet," according to Mr. Sawyer. "That largely demonstrates the power of a good story," he said. Vote Against Sunday Shows At a special election held in Mechanicville, N. Y., the past week, a proposition for Sunday shows in that city was defeated by a vote of 614 to 1,697. Seldom has there been an election in Mechanicville which attracted as much interest and attention. The churches of the city were united in opposing the proposition, and Just before the election a parade was staged in which hundreds of Sunday School children marched. No sooner were the results of the election announced, than the bells in every church pealed forth the zmnouncement. This is the second city in the Capital District, in which Sunday shows have been attempted to the extent of sounding out public opinion, within the last month. Rensselaer went solidly against it.