Variety (Sep 1933)

«'^TtacBday, September 5,' 1933 EDITaRI AL VARIETY 75 V TradA Marli Reeletered •^hilahiid Weekly by VAKIETI, Inc. Sid Bllvepman. President yyeat 46tb Street New York City SUBSCRIPTION 1 ' ...I Foreign |7 Vol. Ill 120 No. 13 WC DO OUR PART 15 YEARS AGO (Fr<m VARiBTTT and 'Olipper') After a mess "oT denials, contra dictions, arguments and viewing -with alarm the huge sum involved, First National got Mary Pickford's gig to a contract for eight pics. •Vfere to cost around $200,000 each. The Hattons had done 'The Walk Offa* for a Chicago premiere. Took tioine sort of a record -with no fewer than 13 love scenes, Louise Groody became an almost .cvemlght star In 'Fiddlers Three' ^ playing opposite Hal Skelly. Henry Miller teasing 'em. Would pot announce Ruth Chatterton's new vehicle. Just said she would :open. * Picture producers were writing •trade papers asking them to ignore items from players' personal reps. Annoyed at premature publication Of plans from this source. Louis B. Mayer was taken into Firbt National with approval of Gor- «|pn theatres, which held the New ..jBnglaind franchise. They wanted Anita Stewart, whom he managed. Undercurrent fight in ^First Nat. •j iWestern men had 60% of the ex- . 'change stock and easterners wanted control. Had offered $150,000 and ^betin refused. Inside Stuff-Pictures Induotrles are able mm buslnees. Scemlnsly the other ^ri.ii" ^'^P*''^- Anybody applying himself to the rimTaraloTaVrrf ts' fo^ S^ow^? ^^^'^^^^-^ -n^ relations between both fictions ''^^^''^^ to'b'e iTS.^t^no^'-^f^'f .''''^t' ^^^^^^^'•^ reported in this issue, seems getting Its tale told and then, if having any intra-lndustry sauabbies keepmg them within their fleld-and not on the record Through the National Assoc atlon of Broadcasters, the code as proposSTuhough ltci'Jij^^''^^^~^\^'^^ t«<^h"i<=^l intra-trade woes which have been aired by the film people. nin^*!!fp*° '^^f publishers on the other hand are tlp- Publi.hor?. Srnti"H*''^'A """^ ^^^^"^ ^he Mus^C Pubhshers Protective Ass'n has formulated a revised proposed code ot trade practice. It embodies all the principles already set up in their own trade association articles but, as is felt by the .film men, it becomes more official when the Government steps in. It's one thing to breiich a trade association practice; another to know that the Government's dele- gates win be after you if it's not enforced. Manner in which expected labor trouble was averted at the splash Grauman Chinese opening of 'Dinner at Eight', is one of the most inter- esting insides from the coast. With inside of the house being manned by lATSE men and IBEW members slated to handle the sun arcs on the outside, report was that on the night of the opening the lA men would walk. The walkout, it was stated, was to include the musicians, pro- jectionists and stagehands. Two days before the opening IBEW officials threatened the musicians that If they pulled a demonstration they (IBEW) would have ready a non-union combination. Carpenter union had a reserve crew of stage- hands ready to take the spots of the probable walking stagers and IBEW supplied a reserve crew of projectionists. Then to make doubly sure of no trouble the job of searchllghting, generally handled by the studio whose picture is previewed, was let to Otto Olescn, Independent electrical merchant, who in assemblying a crew for the outside jobs hired men who held cards in both IBEW and lATSE On the night of the opening an lATSB inspector asked every man out- side for his card and was shown satisfactory credentials from lA, and in turn were able to show the IBEW Inspectors a card of that union. Dailies In New York Sunday (3) carried cable stories from Berlin to the effect that German film folk, stars or otherwise, working' abroad, have been officially warned to return or lose their citizenship. Warning was printed couple days ago In thei 'Film Kurler", official Nazi film trade paper and mouthpiece for the Nazi government to the film Industry. In Germany. VARiETT printed the same story first early In August. In the 'Film Kurier* of Aug. 19, VARiEfrT Is given a terrific panning for printing the story, supposedly untrue. Now, two weeks later, it Is printed In the same German paper, as an official notice. Three weeks ago Deputy Administrator Rosenblatt told picture busi- ness • he had received Innumerable complaints from exhibitors against unfair trade practices. Some understood ho said 22,000, others 2,200. Whatever it was then doesn't make much difference. It's more likely 30,000 now, and. In addition to that, Rosenblatt Is now listening to some of the stories face to face. —Mostly the complaints referred to the Hays office. ■.'Fed men nosing around agents' of flees In the Putman building -where the Paramount theatre now stands BQV^e ot them were really cloaks for iM^kmakers. . Pat Rooney and Marlon Bent went back to a two act when managers Refused to pay $1,260 for their sketch.. 50 YEARS AGO (From 'CUppci-') Minnie Maddern Flske switched from 'Foggs Ferry' to 'Juanlta,' a step up from the rough soubret parts she had been doing. ' . Charles Bortell, a cop in Saratoga, quit the force to go with the HI Henry minstrels. He wont on as in- terlocutor in a pinch and did so well he got the job. Sells Bros, announced an enlarged «li:cuB for the coming season. Added ttey had not had a losing season In the 12 years they had been on the road. Bull man on the Barnum show •^'as squeezed against a wagon by .^>ie^n, one of the elephants. He flled a few hours later in a Cincln- .*»tl hospital. St. Louis fair took a half column aa. Big space for those days. ■Premium list ran to $60,000, Also plenty. Pat Harris, who had opened - *™e museum in Pittsburgh with Kohl, who later dropped out, ^ad made so much money he was opening one In Cincinnati. ^celslor' a French spectacle, wought over by the KIralfys, was 8«ch a success at Niblo's Garden Wat the specialators upped their "CKet prices 100% and got it. Latter was unusual then. Threatened acute shortage of prints as a result of the recent sound men's and laboratory workers' strike on the coast, has been iaverted, with film deliveries being turned Out in sufficient quantities to take care of all current demands. Only distributing organization handicapped through lack of prints was Metro, which for a time was faced with some difficulty in supplying its accounts. This sltuatlonr however, has been cleared up, and practically normial conditions now prevail. Coast distributing agencies have anywheres from three to seven features currently available for the first runs, and plenty of prints of past re- leases are on hand to take care of the subsequent runs.^ Hepry E. Abbey was readying for •JJ®. season in the new Met. Op- j-^ "^®! but he clung to the manage " Si w ^STand Opera house. H "pid"" -. *H^r<5 "was money ^^ayed dramatic' attractions, Opera was mohey He there. Indications now are that the claim of the 12 New York, Chicago, Phil adelphla and Los Angeles banks against Par for over $13,000,000 on the March, 1932, hocking transaction, will be filed with Par and lay in status quo until the question of preferred credit is settled by the court. Though the Paramount trustees filed their suit early last summer against the 12 banks for a surrender of preference. It appears the suit will not be heard until later In the fall. Paramount itself has stalled on an answer required from Film Productions Corp, and the distributing production departments. It jsn't expected to be in until later this month, if then. President Roosevelt Is not only the most photographed Chief Execu- tive, and one whose poses already are breaking all White House records, but he is himself the most enthusiastic picture fan. In four months Roosevelt has appeared in the newsreels more than Hoover totaled after his first two years In office. As an exhibitor, the President is showing such pictures as 'Power and Glory', and 'Cavalcade' on one night bookings. Ho has them exclu- sively In his zone—Hyde Park. The only policy that regular exhlbs wotjldn't like is that the President has no box office. Admissions are Annie Oakleys, limited to his family and friends. Reopening of the deluxe Fox in San Diego, Cal., by FoxVest Coast, after house virtually had been dumped back to the landlord several months ago, is In the nature of an experiment, and in the hope of shut- ting out competition at the now dark Orpheum. . ^ . . Agreement under which circuit has. resumed operation is for a short period lease, with merchants having brought pressure because of a heavy 'Tslde f^omTe^d^ng'S^elf m^^^^^^^ support, merchants .hied on taking any display space to greet the r elighti ng. LOS Angeles Z^:'^^S^tr^' SstVt'tSerwlt?^^^^ for Corliss Palmer and broke t?e Sg of he? divorce action against Eugene V. Brewster in the morn- ing editions the day *il«^^^^f J^^'/^f^t a step farther and announced Kaege show girl, a day before it happened. . . ■x!^„^^^^r in New York on a business survey for his Fuller's Sir Benjamin Fuller, in New xorK on a front-of-the-house Theatres, Australia. dlscZt fn box office patronage, r^Th.1ame—"^^^^^ above-normal ..public reac rbr rr^-" ^hr^^^^^^^^ — Metro IS Insistent It be given credit for the stars or lessors that studio loans to other ProJ"cers. ^^^.^^^ ,^ ^^^^ ^ the linf'bVco?r\osrof Met^^^^^^^^^^ '^^^ '^^'""'^ Durante in 'The Palooka* and Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper in 'The Bowery'. Both are forthcoming UA releases with actors In question on loon from MG. So far UA has not been crediting Metro in any way. RKO theatre department, paradoxically, under the NRA schedule, works an hour longer than heretofore. It figures 40 hours now as against 39 hours before. At Warner Bros., the. time maximum of 39 hours is very strictly, ad- hered to. Overtime isn't paid for extra, but instead the employees who work late some nights find themselves in position to leave Thursday afternoon and not return until Morday. One of the busiest of the producers of the smut 16mm films complains that masculine self-consciousness holds down his product. He can get, he claims, almost any woman to pose .for one or more films, but halt the time Is unable to secure a leading man. They don't mind the pictures but they feel they're making fools of themselves and some of them quit even after they have promised to pose. One of the current fan magazines in its review of Paramount's 'Three cornered Moon' carries a cast of players, only two of which played in the picture. Evidence that the review was written even before the pic- ture was filmed Is seen in a line in the review which states, 'Jack Oakie steals the show.* Oakie wasn't In the picture, having been withdrawn from the suggested cast two weeks before production started. 'Pink Chemise,' recent Paramount buy of a 'Liberty* magazine storyr will carry the title of 'Come on Marines,' Studio has tried for five years to get a story out under this handle and on various occasions has set starting dates for such a picture only to have the plans abandoned. At least a dozen stories have been written at various times by Par scribblers for a yarn to fit the title. George W. Trendle, who has a deal to take over operation of Par's Detroit houses, is not lining up a staff on any promises until he has ob- tained approval from co\urts of his partnership. All parties mentioned for Trendle's probable" return to active theatre operation are guesses so far. Trendle has made no official announcement other than that which covers his deal, recently aproved by trustees of Par. After Par made the short, 'Madhouse Movies,' last week at the Hlalto, New York, the company didn't care for the idea and put the one-reeler on the" shelf. Arthur Mayer, operating the Rialto, happened to see It and had to fight for the privilege of showing it. Turned into about the best laugh short house has shown and getting comment all around. Now Par is going to make a series along the same line. Oh the Culbertson bridge short series being made by Radio, it was found necessary to have special playing cards printed to pick up the difference in the coloring of the red diamonds and hearts from the black clubs and spades. since red photographs black, it was necessary to get a color on the red cards that would photograph lighter than ordinary red does. As a result of the narrative style in Fox's Tower and 'Glory', screen writers are trying to develop new forms of story-telling for pictures. All are trying for anything that's different, som^ telling their stories back- wards or starting from the middle and then working both ways. Any trick formula that's new is likely to. interest the prodlicers. •Moulin Rouge', starting this week at Twentieth Century, will be a remake of an early First National picture, 'Her Sister From Paris', which starred Constance Talmadge. It was produced in 1926. Story is much changed, although based on the Talmadge picture. Con- stance Bennett stars in the present film. •Consistent use of Hitler propaganda scenes In Fox Movietone News- reel is beginning to revive the previously scouted report of a deal be- tween one of the American reels and the Hitler crowd for propagandiz.* ing Hitlerism. Fox Movietone, some time ago, officially denied such a deal. For his four-day job as fight referee In 'Broadway Racket' (Prize- fighter and the Lady') which Is little more than a bit. Jack Dempsey. will ^receive $15,000. Inside Stuff-Vaude It was the uncertainty of a sufficient supply of film product, more than anything else, that seems to have kept the Palace, Broadway, as a vaude house. Although the RKO people were favoring vaude, the three changes weekly film policy which Syd Cohen, new operator for the spot, was thinking about, looked tp be the future policy. Palace presently on Its film supply plays day and date with the rest of the RKO circuit, and after the Radio City Music Hall. Product available includes certain Fox pictures, regular Radio program and Columbia. Figured not enough on that thrice weekly change thing and Par product was looked for, through the split which RKO has with Loew's' In New York and Par pictures, after the Broadway and Brooklyn Paxataiount showings in New York. With the Palace aimed to have shoved in on that three changes weekly policy, the Par films could only become available after Loew's New York, a daily changer which has the Par franchise after the spilt choice by RKO and Loew's, This would have thrown the Palace offside, as at the Palace, the same Par films spotted one day at Loew's New York on the next block, would then have followed Into the Palace for a two-day showing or more, according to the way the days were split. Loew's, of course, protecting Its own New York, wouldn't let the Palace have an edge. Extra shows for the vaude houses In Chicago have brought the pro rata system into being to take care of the additional salary for per- formers do more than the number of performances contracted for. Regular contracts with performers now call for six shows dally at the B. & K. Chicago. Where the acts are called upon to do seven on week- ends thoy are being paid for the extra shows on a pro rata basis. RKO Palace, now doing five shows dally, has not yet Indicated what step It is going to take in this matter of extra performances. Fire which recently destroyed Rose's Midgets' 'bus In Bennington, Vt,, cost Ike Rose about $25,000. The car and Its contents were insured, but the company failed three weeks before the fire. Troupe lost all its prop- erties and the midgets' personal belongings all went up In smoke. The bus. owned by Rose, was destroyed. In adflltlon to actual lows by fire, delay coHt the act five wocks' book- ings.