The Philadelphia Exhibitor (1936)

The Philadelphia EXHIBITOR VOL. 18, No. 1 JANUARY 1, 1936 TERRITORIAL HIGHLIGHTS SUNDAY MOVIES Ministerial Ruling Not from an exhibitor but from a clergy¬ man, last fortnight, came a request for a ruling on Sunday movies to Attorney Gen¬ eral Margiotti. Lewisburg’s St. John’s Reformed Church pastor H. H. Rupp wants to know if show¬ ing picture slides in churches Sunday nights violates the state’s Sabbath observance laws. Lewisburg theatremen maintain that show¬ ing scenes from a motion picture in church on Sunday night violates the law inasmuch as the town voted against Sunday movies. The Reverend Rupp desires the state to clarify the issue to determine whether show¬ ing slides would be an exception. Blues Except that no miracle had yet taken place, with business depending on the pic¬ ture, Philadelphia’s first contact with Sun¬ day movies continued unchanged. Just as unchanged is the Monday morn¬ ing trek to Vine Street, at which time downcast independents each week agreed that unless things got better they would probably close Sunday, Mt. Carmel Loss Just as moviemen thought the Sunday show issue had won out in upstate Mt. Car¬ mel, the official recount also showed that the second precinct, second ward, had 97 more movie votes than the total vote cast. With the only solution to this oddity be¬ ing throwing out the entire second precinct vote, the final result will show 2963 for Sunday shows, 3017 against. ORGANIZATIONS Exhibitor Peace At 11.13 A. M., December 19, when 72 film men representing the MPTO of East¬ ern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey and Delaware, Inc., the Independent Exhibitors Protective Association, independents as¬ sembled at the Broadwood Hotel, for a peace meeting, but two exhibitor organizations (MPTO, IEPA) were in the field. When the meeting ended at 1.45 P. M. it was be¬ lieved the two groups had been succeeded by one, a new body, the Independent Motion Picture Theatre Owners of Eastern Penn¬ sylvania, Southern New Jersey and Dela¬ ware. At 5 P. M., however, it was defi¬ nitely apparent that once again there were two exhibitor bodies in the territory, the MPTO and the IMPTO. for at that time MPTO president Lewen Pizor, who had attended the meeting earlier MPTO president Pizor . . continued unchanged that day but had left shortly after it began, issued a statement to the press. Said the MPTO leader: "The MPTO is not affected one bit by any meet¬ ing held today. It shall continue as it has been, serving its members, pursuing its constructive poli¬ cies. The annual election of officers will be held soon.” Thus, confused as ever rested the local exhibitor picture. However, several points were definite: (1) A new body, the IMPTO, has been organ¬ ized. It included members from the MPTO, the IEPA. Its officers were: President, Charles Segall (MPTO), who defeated IEPA man Ray O’Rourke; vice-presidents, Ray O’Rourke (IEPA), Harry Fried (IEPA); treasurer, David Milgram (IEPA), who defeated Marcus Benn (MPTO) ; secretary, George P. Aarons (MPTO), who defeated Miss Jeanette Willensky (IEPA). Board of managers, Chairman, Morris Wax (IEPA); Bill Butler (IEPA); Mike Lessy (MP¬ TO); Abe Sablosky (MPTO); Columbus Stamper (IEPA); Herb Elliott (IEPA); Luke Gring (MPTO); Milton Rogasner (MPTO); Ben Fertel (MPTO); Harry Fried (IEPA); David Barrist (IEPA); Ray O’Rourke (IEPA); Dave Milgram (IEPA); George Gravenstine (MPTO); Lee Posel (IEPA), David Shapiro (IEPA); Joseph Conway (MPTO); Ed Jeffries (MPTO); Samuel Somerson (IEPA); Ray Schwartz (IEPA), Harold D. Cohen (MPTO), in order of votes received. The IEPA elected 12 men out of 21. Not present were Messrs. Gravenstine, Conway. (2) The IEPA, born more than a year ago, was passing out of the picture. Organized following the turmoil over the double feature test case (on appeal now for more than a year), the organiza¬ tion merged into the new IMPTO. (3) The new IMPTO had practically an allPhiladelphia line-up, including many important IMPTO president Segall . . . elected MPTOites, left observers asking how many IMPTOmen would stay with the MPTO. (4) MPTO secretary George P. Aarons was also the IMPTO secretary. ( 5 ) Efforts were being made to effect a peace between MPTO leader Lewen Pizor and IMPTO leaders. (6) Because first preliminary meetings between MPTOmen, IEPAmen had led everyone to believe that an amicable basis for a merger between the two groups had been arranged, some hitch had apparently occurred somewhere. (7) MPTO spokesmen declared that inasmuch as certain state legal provisions for merging corpo¬ rations had not been followed, the entire meeting was illegal. However, this charge bears no weight if the IMPTO is a new organization not a merger. (8) Affiliated theatres (Stanley-Warner, others), now MPTO members, can join the IMPTO with¬ out any restrictions. Whether they will is still a question. As The Exhibitor went to press the sit¬ uation was unchanged. What the future would bring rested with MPTO president Pizor, IMPTO president Segall, IMPTO di¬ rectors, Wax, Fried, Barrist, who seemed to be most prominent in all organization goings-on.