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Universal Weekly
October 15, 1927
Carl Laemmle Buys “Br
Signing the contract at the Savoy Hotel, London.
ivLr. Laemmle puts his signature to the photoradio contract purchasing “ Broadway ” with Carl Laemmle, Jr., Frank Ditcham and James V . Bryson, of the European Motion Picture Co., as ivitnesses.
THE New York to London Photoradio and Radiophone played the principal roles in a theatrical and motion picture deal involving the purchase for a world-record figure of the motion picture rights to “Broadway,” Jed Harris’ outstanding play success by Philip H. Dunning and George Abbott, and an entirely new departure in contracts.
Negotiations over a period of months by the Universal Pictures Corporation for the purchase of the motion picture rights to “Broadway” were concluded last week for the unheard of price of $225,000.00, which is more cash than was ever paM for moving picture rights before. In the Universal offices Jed Harris, producer of “Broadway,” communicated by radiophone with the president of the corporation, Carl Laemmle, at the Savoy Hotel in London. Atmospheric
conditions rendered the conversation as audible to both parties as though a mile instead of an ocean separated them. Mr. Laemmle’s enthusiastic approval of the purchase brought to a close the greatest theatrical-motion picture transaction of the year.
This is believed to be the first time the radiophone has been put to such use by the motion picture business, and is definitely the first time the trans-Atlantic photoradio has ever been used to transmit a contract for signature. When the device was first perfected by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Radio Corporation of America and a definite toll announced, there was a rush of theatrical celebrities to obtain the publicity attendant on its early use. The conversations as reported were merely exchanges of personal good will. This most recent perform
ance indicates that it will come into more general use in the motion picture business in transactions involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, where the cost of its use becomes a very minor item.
In this case, photoradio was also called upon for the first time in history to transmit a legal contract. For, in order to have the president of the company sign this most important contract of sale in the history of the company, it was necessary to have the Radio Corporation of America transmit a photoradio of the eleventh page of the contract to the Savoy Hotel, London, where a banquet was being given by the staff of the European’Motion Picture Company to Carl Laemmle. This contract in turn was signed immediately by Mr. Laemmle, his signature witnessed by Sam Harris, editor of Cinema, and one cf the