Variety (Jan 1932)

Tuesday, January 5, 1932 PICTURE S VARIETY 7 The Coa$t Agency Clique Menace A first and imperative reform in the operation of the picture studios on the Pacific Coast has been overlooked. It is the coast agency clique menace. Nothing .will have been really accomplished in the lowered cost of production .until this coast,agency evil has been reme- died. Cut salaries for talent, are but at the best temporary and insignificant vrhile unscrupulous agents in Hollywood can con- nive with the Lord-only-knows-who to boost prices, misplace talent, juggle contracts and all of the other matters, large or small, these stand in agents have done, are doing and will do while they are left alone. Thefe are too many 'connections' for, with and among agents in Hollywood. The agents out there who could and would do the best agenting work have had hardly a look in. The'connection'iagents are hogging it. Just why a 'connection' should prefer $100 as side money in addition to the chances he takes' of exposure and the large salary he is under as well is never understandable. But 'side money' has brought rulh to more than one show concern or business in the past. And 'side money' always will repea;t, because it is illicit. These stand-in agents of Hollywood are running the studios or seem to in the talent engaging end. They place and mis- place from their contracted talent. Often it seems the agent ^ places the pfeople from whom he receives the largest piece of salary. Or else knowing who may be called for from his list and receiving this information in advance through the 'con- nection' he sends the salary up, coaching the talent what to say. Cut salaries won't affect these agents for very long. The only difference will be that they will separate the talent from a larger 'commission' when the time comes to again boost a salary. For these agents seem to have a stranglehold on the Hollywood studios. The studios have not effected any cor- rection of the situation, if they have'tried. So it looks that if the whip is at hand, the lashing must come from the east. There is no 'connection' between the coast agents and the east. Agitation against the coast picture agents by 'Variety' is not new. The coast studios and the trade were warned three years ago in 'Variety' of the growing dominance and inenace of the stand-in coast agency. Some meetings were called by coast producers but nothing came of them. J. J. Murdock and Pat Casey were present at those meetings by invitation. One or two producers said they wanted the benefit of the. Murdock- Casey advice through their former handling of the Keith agents in New York and the strict supervision exercised over the vaude agents by Murdock when Murdock was running the Keith Circuit. But nothing came of this either. Everything just became a stall. So it has remained. Quite recently some attorneys in Hollywood notified 'Variety's' coast office their agent-cliejits had instructed them to bring libel actions against 'Variety' for charges made sim- ilar to these against the stand-in and conniving coast agencies. The attorneys failed to name their clients. 'Variety's' Holly- wood office informed the lawyers that the identity of at least one agency threatiening suit was suspected; for the attorney to say to that agency 'Variety' would welcotnie the damage action and be prepared to prove upon trial that the same agency was splitting its net five or six different ways in Hollywood. The agency has not that number of partners or sharing employes. The offer still stands. Could anything be plainer? _ And other agencies without as many splitting the net, but enough always standing in. The conniving coast agency is a deadly menace to the studios and their proper direction, besides the waste of money the agents cause. These agencies can and should be broken down. Studios have permitted them to become too domineering and dictatorial with talent. Why this has been allowed to become a fixture is anbther matter, but that it is so is too commonly known, at least in the west if not the east. With the film industry trying to correct its faults from within at this moment and in these times, the coast picture agents that boast of their enorm6us weekly earnings and their tremendous influence had better be looked after. They figure hugely in the high cost of production; they have cost and are costing the picture business plenty. These agents tie up their talent by term contracts. Whether these contracts made by the agencies are binding is much in doubt, in California or any other sjate where equity rules. Talent as here employed covers film actors, actresses, direc- tors, and writers. DUE ON PIGIURES NEVER RELEASED Reatal Studios, Labs, Film Manufacturers and Others Stuck by Indie- Promoters Who Forffet Pictures .When Chump Money Runs Out PRODUCT WORTHLESS ■ . Hollywood, Jan. 4. Rental studios, laboratories, raw film manufactUrera and distributors, prop houses, eoBtiime companies and picture, equipment houses are holding, the bag for over $16,000,000 in bad debts which have accrued during the past year through hav; ing made wrong guesses en inde- pendent producers. There isn't a business connected with the production of independent pictures which has not been bitten in the last decade.. That's the main reason why indie producera, recog- nized or shoestWngers, find it al- most impossible to get credit for their productions. Possibly one third of the total bad accounts Is .held by raw stock com- panies. One company alone, late on entering: the field, Is reported to have around ^3,000,000 In bad ac counts on its books. Unlimited Credit Finding the business more or less cornered by one American and one German company, the new outfit extended credit to almost eyeryone wlio walked Into Its office. After three years of this, the accounts payable but not colIecta.bIe made (Continued on page 18) RICHARDS ACCEPTS NO POST IN RKO CIRCUIT E. V. Richards, of New Orleans, is due In New York early this week to liave a confab with Hiram Brown and David SarnotC of iRKO. There had been some talk of Rich- ards Joining RKO in an advisory ca- pacity to Brown, but it all fell through. Richards has an Inactive contract with Paramount. It is said he will not tie himself up with' any chain. Richards engineered the Saenger Circuit south into its sale to Para- mount, after Richards had spread it all over the southern states. The Kohl-Castle faction of RKO minority stockholders from Chicago Is said to have recommended Rich- ards as the RKO adviser. Publix and RKO Agree to Do Away 3 Stage Shows Only, with 2 at Nite Fox H. O. Claims Fox home office claims the organization is rapidly get- ting Into excellent shape and- that considerable !ot its worries during 1931 will be erased be- fore the end of the new year. As an Illustration; the Fox foreign department during De- cember is. reported to have ac- complished the greatest vol- ume of: business of Its record. SUBURBS DROP DOUBLING BY AGREEMENT Chicago, Jan. 4. Having finally decided that dou ble features were hurting, rather than helping, their business, the group of indie exhibitors in the flock of suburban towns Just west of Chicago last week got together on a. round-table agreement to re- turn to single programs today (4) This move to singles takes in about 12 independent houses in such towns as Maywood; Barrlngton, Crystal Lake and Woodstock. This is the first concerted step on the part of the exhibitors them selves to slough the two-bJU notion, and is looked upon locally as the beginning of a thorough clean-up of the double-feature disease. In dropping double films, these (>xhibitprs drew several protection benefits from Publix-Great States, whose theatres in Elgin and Aurora hold 14. days' protection over the majority of these indie houses in the so-called 'Aurora-Elgin valley district.' Great States has agreed to reduce protection over all the- atres returning to single pictures, the ,reduction ranging variously from seven days lo as low as one day in several Instances. Publix-Great States houses, the Crocker and Rialto in Elgin,-and the Paramount and Tlvoll in Au- rora, have stuck steadfast to single features in spite of the recent epl demic of doubles among the Inde- pendents. How Much Can You Cut? Only Query Spoke During Hays' Report Reading Only one question was able to be interposed at the final quarterly meeting of the Hays directorate for 1931, Will, himself, taking up the rest of the period with the reading of his annual report. The question was to Hays directly on whether he could effect further eccJnomy within his own organiza- tion. It was put over until another session after it was made known that Hays resorts to such thorough check-up Vlth his Haysltes that all are prepared to be called in at the end of a day and dictate a memo detailing every move made during the previous eight hours. Assurance that any economies efr fected in the future will not con- sider the Film Boards of Trade was made after the meeting. This, if Cor no other reason, it was pointed; out, than that the boards represent only a drop in the well of the Hays expense. Only a tew of the boards' secretaries are on regular salarler It was brought out, most of those functioning being loaned for mis- cellaneous occasions by various of the exchanges. The arbitrators themselves serve without pay. Worthy. Depts. No other department could be considered unimportant by those who were called to vote. The copy- right check-up work conducted by Gabriel Hess, along with contract difficulties, Is, to several of the Hays payees, one of the most valuable de- partments fn the organization. All other departments. Including Charlie Pettljohn's, Gov. Milliken's, Frank WUstach's, etc., were viewed as worthy oC continuance. Expense of maintaining the. codes departments, additions during the past year and a half, was held up as the same when they didn't exist— departments meaning only extra work at no Increase In pay for Col. Joy on the coa.xt, and Wilstar-h In Vew York. Dallas, Jan. 4; It is In Texas where the first ellm*; Ination of: the early theatre open- ing or milkmen's mditinee, as shows, before 1 p.- m. are called, will oc* cur. This through an understand^ Ing reported reached by Publtz and RKO, both chains having resumed stage shows In the keys of this state. The stage, show playing policy In each of the RKO and Publix. the- atres In TexsLB. will bie three stage performances daily, with one in the afternoon and two at night None of the theatres will. open before 1, that stopping the present 11 o'clock morning opening. Publix houses in this section play^ the Fanchon and Marco ideas; RKO*^ plays its intact vaude units. Bob .O'Donn'ell, divisional director for Publix and taking in this dis- trict, and Charlie Freeman, RKO booking . head, are said to hdve- reached the agreement for a mutual playing policy besides tossing the cheaper scale from 11 to 1. Both are all-around showmen and neither Is reported to I>e in favor of the milkman's mat at the low figure. It fills the house before the first show appears with the same people who would visit the theatre after one at the higher scale. It Is claimed. This belief about the early show in all theatres except main thor- oughfare daily grinds has been growing more prevalent It Is sel- dom openly expressed by house' managers. . Early prices, before 1, have dropped as low as 10 and 16c. The . customary early (before 1) price in the better houses Is. 26 or 35c. ' ■ . Admish Scales Back as Panic Is Controfled Chicago, Jan. 4. Price-cutting scare locally haa subsided. Exchanges . and exhibit- ors, who a few weeks .ago were bit- ing their fingernails, are calming down once more. Situation is un> der control, having taken' care of Itself. Houses which were gelting in on the epidemic of rate-slashing Are right-side up once more, and have returned prices, generally to their proper levels. This was due In many ways to the quick action of the distributors here in putting the clamps down on. houses which were breaking their admission standards as Written In their contracts. But even those theatres which re- sisted the exchanges have returned to their old prices since they have learned the lesson that reckless clashing of prices doesn't help the final gross of any theatre. Busli\£aj| In many houses naturally Jumped ' an far as attendance was concerned, but in every instance It was not enough to touch the grosses nor- ■ mally drawn under the higher .tariff. In every case the attendance might be boosted, but. never the flnal take. This great lesson the local exhlba Rould have learned gratis from the bad mistakes in price-cutting made by Publix in Detroit, and by the Essaness circuit here. But people never learn such lessons from others; they've got to get burnt themselves. . Kennedys in Palm Beach Joe Kennedy with Mrs. Kennedy will spend the rest oC the winter at Palm Boach. Thoy leave New York tomor- row (6J.