Variety (Oct 1931)

Tuesday*! OBtober .6, 1931 P I cm RES VARIETY STOCKS DROP TO NEW Fox 1931 Half Year Net 5c a Share, West Coast Chain Also Near Red - FoJt Film reported, for the six months to June 27 net proiita be- fore federal taxes of $120,162 vs. 16,786,897 .for the same period of ;i..930. The half year represents less than 5 cents a share on the oi4t^ ^taiidln? 2,426,6'60 shares of A stock and 100,000' shares of .voting ' B etock, the B stock being owned in its entirety by Oeneral Theatres Equipment besides a large block of the A stock. ' Understood even the West Coast tinlt nearly went into red. Iiosses were looked for In the east, but It was confidently predicted the coast properties would show a profit. . Income statement shows a de- cline of $6,000,000 in theatre gross and film rentals, compared to pre- vious year, added to an increase of about $1,000,000 in financing, inter- est and amortization charges. The trade and the market was not ^prepareia for such a slump Ixi earnings, although the ticker price for Fox of 7% had gone a long way to discount the bad news; . With the Fox statement was Is- sued the report of Oeneral Theatres . for the same period, revealing net profit of $883,363 after all charges, «qual to $1.27 a share on the $3 <!onvertible preferred stock. This result Includes $2;447',393 received as dividends . on- the company's holdings of Fox securities.. : Fox paid one quarter's dividend -of $1 a share, and second quarter payment was reduced to cents/ Dividend meeting of the Fox board is due at this time and the market performance of the Fox Film stock 'indicates that a disbursement will be-omitted. Without-the Fox divi- dends for the first half year. Gen- eral Theatres would have shown a deficit of $1,664,000 on its present capital setup. Two items of increased expense revealed in the income statement of Fox are'Interest requirements of $1,968,972 for six months of 1931, against $966,431 for same period of 1930. 'This is in addition to a reg- ular interest charge of $1,036,938 compared to same item, for 1930 of $675,431, increase of $360,600. Bond Interest Default Two properties of the Fox string last week defaulted on the Interest of their realty mortgage bonds in- volving a fiotation of $6,400,000, put out some time 'ago by Halsey- Stuart & 'Co. as underwriters. Bonds oover the! Fox,' St. Louis, and the Fox, Detroit St. liouls house was under fixed charges amounting to $11,000 a week before operating ex- penses such as show and film rental. Detroit house pays carrying charges of $14,000 a week exclusive of film rental and other operation costs. Bonds bear interest at 6H% and the default occurred .on the semi-anpual payment due Oct 1. ■ Fox statement for six months to June 27 and comparative figures for same months of 1930 follow: INCOME _ 1980. 1»31. wMa Income from fllma. and the- -atres $4B.T'i0.8e7 $00,037,846 Other rents. l,a'>0.884 1,041.330 piva. from Loew'a 493,678 405.678 Other Income JBO4,04O 374,114 Total Income.... $47,870,373 $E2,848,07B BXPENSBS Operat, expenaea.. |3S,0S8,I18 $27,264,247 Amortization 14.S32.82S 14,B.12,3S4 Depreciation 2.047.360 . 1,069,466 Interest 1,030.038 67B.341 Ulnorlty intereats. 107,003 636.230 Totals 840.781,248 $40,007,646 income available 'tor Intereat of parent: company «nd ted. toxea.. 2.08S,12S 7,761,820 Wt. requirements. 1,068.072 060,431 pront befors 'federal taxes.... 120,152 6,765,807 Fliesler with Tobis Joe Fliesler has Joined Tobis as 'dea man. His job is divided ber tween the Tobis home office and its theatres. Although attached to neither the publicity nor theatre department, he'Il.work In with both. Plliesler last year was lessee of Tjie. Fifth ovcnue and Eighth Street ■Playhouses. • Eloquence Tryouts More try-outs of, talking re- porters for newsreels are be- ing made than,, comparatively* ' speaking, bit parts for major productions and announcers for radio broadcasting.. The actor, according to Fox- Hearst, is more desirable for the job than any other in the eloquence field. TALK OF COMBO BILL FOR STRAND/B'WAY '. Wamer^s renewal of'its lease: on th.e Broaidway Strand has revived InsJde talk, of possible change in house policy on that spot . Ciir- rently straight films but inside of- fice talk leans to coihbo bills and has for sometime. When last broached, it.was reported vetoed by the operating heads in the WB the- atre division. The new lease is for five years after 1932 and until 1937. Question involved if the combo program be taken up by Warners at any time is the Warner booking office's connection with the B. S. Moss's Broadway, lately opened that .way. The Broadway is booked through Warners for stage talent For a time and also announced some months ago, the Warners had contemplated a new house on the Strand site. letter was to have been constructed iii combination with a tall office building. These plans are admitted to be indefinitely put ofC now with the signing of. the new lease. RKO-Patbe Releases According to revised releasing schedule of RKO-Pathe,. the com- pany will release only one picture next May and a singleton, a west- ern, in July,' skipping the entire month of June. Availability of prod- uct will be bunched tip to and in- cluding April. October will have three releases, November two, December three, January two, February and March three each, and April two, product including six westerns added to program this season. Foreign Film Houses Battle with Sausages Newark, Oct. 6. With the rebpenlng of the Carl- ton with UFA pictures and a UFA sign on the hOuse, something of a German war is under way. The Carlton gets 36c and 60c. It was the intention of the Little to meet these figures. But now 60c and 66c have been decided upon by the Lit- tle. Carlton expects to play |Zwei Herzen'. but the Little has it an- nounced for Oct 31 and can show a contract for it Carlton expects the. pick of the Tobis line as does the Little, which has a Tobis sign for .the house coming. Little has signed for the. product of the Capitol Films and the As- sociated Cinema. Carlton olTers read Imported Vienna sausages, etc.. In sandwiches at 10c per and beer from Mindlin's old coffee bar at 16c a bottle, but you can starve so far as the Little is concerned. No one denies that the Carlton will play all the UFA product. Buddy Rose's Six Hollywood, Oct. 6. Buddy Rose, who organized fan clubs throughout the country, has turned producer. He'll make six features for Talk- ing Picture Epics. Belle Bennett and her husband ^ted Wlndemere are probably set as. star and direc- tor, respectively, of the first. lOEW UNDER 28 FOR LOSS 13^ Nothing in News to Explain New Weakness — Steel Breaks to 62*4Par Close to 10 and Fox m Wide Open Crasli to 5 BONDS DO BETTER The stock market oraek'ed again yesterday (Mon.), alt leadinji com-, m.oh stocks touching new low levels. Amusements' went with the rest, with special weakness breaking out in the unexpected quarter of Loew which showed the ..big turnover of around 17.000 shares and steady pressure that wore \t down from better than 30 to close on the bot- tom at 279^. U. 8. 8t««l went to 62f4. Volume among the theatre stocks except Loew was moderate and they showed but minor recession, al- though in nearly all cases touching new bottoms tot the t>ear market ' An exception was Warner Bros., in which there are reported buying, orders on the scale down Increasing in size until they go Into more than 100,000 shares at 6.- Stock was hammered to 6^ early yesterday and closed theris, although- efforts were made all day to break It through. The. day's news had no Influence either way, the budget being- sin- gularly lacking in positive Informa- tion either of bearish or bullish Im^ port Last week's statement of the Fox company showing only 6 cents a share earned in .the first six months of this year, may have had a bad effect on trade sentiment, since the figures showed falling off of $6,000,000 in theatre receipts and film rentals. Nervous holders might have taken the Inference that de pression was also having a similar effect on the other companies. Not thiat holders seemed to need any logic to Inspire the dumping of stocks. Calling of bank loans and margin calls from brokers shook enough stock out to open the whole market below Saturda>y's low clos- ing, and in the present state of traders', nerves was enough to start a selling movem6nt Apparently it took the week-end to carry the Fox news to holders not in close touch with the ticker, for there were rather heavy offer- ings from the opening and the de- cline continued throughout the day. Picture company bonds showed no such panicky feeling as that dls' closed among stocks. Dealings were generally qvlet and prices un- changed or fractionally off. Keith loans were in new low ground at to. Another Rally Falls' Traders came to the opening yes- terda.v (Monday) In a frame of mind dictated by adverse happenings of last, week, chiefly among them the failure of the mid-week rebound to carry through, a new disappoint- ment to the constructive side fol- lowing a long series of like occur-- rences. As ^o the picture stocks, there were other bearish factors, chiefly the surprisingly bod half year in- come statement of Fox, showing net profit before Federal taxes of tl20,162 and gross business for the first six months off something like $6,000,000 compared to same period of 1930. Market had been fed on optimistic hopes for Fox and the actuality of the business picture was a. blow. Cecessatlon of heavy pressure, of course, does not mean that the dis- tress selling is all over here, for should the list go lower, new bot- toms would automatically oi>en up new margin calls and probably cause further dumping of stock. On the record, up to Saturday, however, former' bottoms had not been pene- trated. Even In Fox the announce- ment of the half year operations brought out no important new liquidation, apparently the demand for stock for covering piisposes bal- ancing what long stock was ottered , by discourage holders. ' ' The really sore spot In the picture group was the behavior of the bond (Continued on page 27) Fulton, 1,700-Seater in Ptsbgh„ Gete Big Break with %d (Srl^ LYMAN'S BAND AT FOX FOR YR.? Fox and Abe Lyman negotiating whereby the coast's fav bandmaster and his tuhesmiths hit Into the Fox, Brooklyn, for maybe a year with subsequent options. It's the longest agreement that way at any time. Usual contract with bands, here or elsewhere has been much briefer periods with or without options. Likely opening is week of Oct 23. Lyman , is intended as a per- 'manent fixture, at ■ the Fox house. ,The Callfomian recently put In two weeks at the Palace, New York. He has been considering one-night stands for an indefinite tour. -That looks to . be out now. In addition Lyman's eastern connections since his return to New York include CBS broadcasts on the Phillips Magnesia Hour. Lyman at the Fox, Brooklyn, will hook.in -with the pit aggregation on some basis and may be fixed there as the regular house leader to tic in with F. & M. stage unit aggre- gations spotted at the theatre. Lyman's connection with Fox, If and when okayed, may bring a change In' his broadcasting provid- ing it can be made whereby the band win take its radio hour direct from the theatre. This is yet to be worked out with CBS. Extras Waidng Hollywood, Oct 6.' Eztras\ averaged 773 Jobs dally last week,' a slight drop from the previous week, despite a jump from 29 to 35 features in production. Big sets missing, -largest of the week being 114 people )n a; -Beno casino scene for 'Peach o' Reno' at Radio Friday. Previous day 106 worked on a .ship for 'Forbidden' at Columbia. Production curve Is on an upward trend, and 16 new pictures^ scheduled this week. 'Dover Road' Too Light Hollywood, Oct. B. Wllilam DeMllle's remake of 'Dover Road' which he silenced for Pathe, has been abandoned by Para-- mount. Story held too light. DeMllle's new 'assignment Is to work on a New York story-with Bon Qlazer. Lesser With Henley Hollywood, Oct. S. Having tendered his resignation as executive assistant to Carl Laemmle, efCectlve Oct. 10, Sol Lesser is joining Hobart Henley. They will produce Iridic features. Pittsburgh, Oct. 6. Liooks. like four weeks for 'Bad Girl' at the Fulton, giving this site- Its biggest break since it opened a year ago, and also establishing a modern run record for a small- seater of this sort. ^ A break fOr 'Fox, Inasmuch as filni had originally been booked into the Penn, where It would have got- ten only a week and no morfe. Switch sent it Into the Fulton, where it threatens to get around $35,000 on its month's run. First fortnight better than $22,000, and then everybody, including house it- self, got set for a sudden decline. Beginning of third week, first day, last Thursday, claimed around $1,700. It's considered phenomenal for these times, especially with a site like the Fulton, which hasn't been getting niuch of a play of late. House seats 1,700 with a scale rang- ing from 10 to 60c. Average weekly grosses here in recent months ha-ven't been much above $4,000. A. Sunday midnite preview foUr. days before-'Bad. Qirl' opened Is be- lieved to have had a lot to do. with getting the word around, these spe- cial Sunday showings having been Instituted by WB- and proving. highly successful. And then again maybe It's just a case of a good picture getting the biz anywhere and at any time, even In times of. stress. PATHE'S TOUGH TLEET ENDS 85 G'S OVERBOARD Culver City, Oct 6. More than $86,000 over the budget. 'Suicide Fleet' (Bill Boyd) wound up production, except for minor takes; last week. The RKO-Pathe special has been a financial menace to the studio since Its start with nearly every writer on the lot having a crack in its assembling. Chief trouble was the Navy's re- fusal to okay original script because It contained material not considered dignified to the gobs. With only a short time to prepare another script as Navy was to move ships and equipment wanted by the studio. Pathe had to rush the second try. Blowing up in San Diego harbor of one of the two sailing vessels In the story was another tough break. Studio <could not rebuild the blown- up section tj match with previous shots, so had to rearrange the story again. Last week of filming had At Rpgell, director, with a seasick writer on board ship creating' the dialog Just one scene ahead of Us cameralng. Big name cast and six weeks of production helped boost the 'Suicide' budget. 'Mystery Ship' was a studio working title for the story, but writ- ers referred to it as the 'mystery script' because of the hash of scrib- bling brains that worked on it. WARNERS DROPS KID STORIES AS DEADWOOD Hollywood, Oct. 6. . Edge has bieeh taken off the box office for kid pictures, thinks War^ ners. Studio Is giving up the idea of making further juvenile stories It had in niind. One of the reasons is the high price wanted by Metro for loan of Jackie Cooper. Kidnapped Man Offered For Picture Role . PlctUte ofllces in New York hav» received > proposals to star Charles Rosenthal in a talker. He is ..the kidnapped youth, with his five alleged kidnap]'?rs on trial for 'hiding him away^ They collected $50,000 befora releasing Rosenthal. Tho letter making the starring offer is signed by I. Olmbel of n4 Union avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.