Variety (Mar 1939)

PICTURES Wednesday, Much 29, 1939 FmalChapter to N. D. Dnrorcement In D.C: Other Antt^ow Biz Bilk Washington, March 28. Paramount, and two associated chains scored over the North Dakota attorney .general Monday (27), when the U. S. Supreme Court not only dismissed the anteal involving the erased divorcement 3tatute, but re-^ versed the special district court which held the law constituUonaL Litigation was remanded with in- structions to wipe. it off the books, leaving the question of costs to .be settled. Although willing to drop the con- troversy, now that the matter has been made moot by repeal of the act, the state authorities begged the Su- ■preme Court to let the original ver- dict stand. Reversal would be cited by the producers and chains, brief said, as a ruling on the merits, and would be used to fight the Federal antirtrust suit. ' In a seven-line order, the tribunal disregarded the state's objections and -granted the motion by Paramount to leverse the decree below. The case was sent back to the special trial court with directions , to dismiss the «ntire. proceedings, without p:^e]udlce t«'an-application by either party for .ain award at costs in the first round. The' final umpires assessed no costs gainst either for the appeal. semblyman Alex Nicol, a Sparta (Wis.) Pcogresslve. Violations would be punishable by fines up to $10,000, and up to one year imprisonment. This is the third bill introduced so far at this session of the state legis- lature here. . iUnn/s Mystery Bin Mtaineapolis, March 26. 'Se^Tlyed mystery , attaches' to the .q>onsorshi^ of a theatre divorcement bill 'belatedly introduced into the 'Minnesota state legislature. Presi- dent W. A- Steffes of Northwest Al- lied asserts he had nothing to do with ihe .measure's introduction and dedAres he doesn't know whether or not the OEganization would get be- hind it He says that, before com- , mitting to the body, he wishes to in- ' vestlgate 'the sincerity of the spon- sors' purpose.' Previously,' SteSes, who was in Chicago when the present bill was introduced, had announced that Northwest Allied had abandoned ibr plans to push through such a law at this legi^tive session. The reason tor -tiie ctaai^-of plans, he explained, was the North Dakota law's repeal. It was poiiited out by SteSes that fully three years would elapse before a Minnesota divorcement law's pro- visions, reguiring the Paramount Northwest circuit to relinquish its 85 . theatres, could become effective. The delay would be . caused; he said, by the year's grace given' the circuit and lUie court fight which would 'un- doubtedly ensue. In the meanwhile, Steffes believes, the issue undoubt- edly will reach the U. S. Supreme Court sooner because divorcement Is one of the .Federal government's anti-tnist suites objectives. The bin Introduced into the Min- nesota state legislature secte to avert an attack on its constitutionality by providing that if any of its provisions ■aro' declared invalid the remainder of the act shall not be aSected. All theatre owners would be required to ffle an affidavit annually, swearing that no producer or distributor had any direct, or indirect, influence in the ownership or operation of their showhouses. Penalty for violation would be a $10,000 fine, or one-year imprisonment, or both. The law would be ellecUve a year after 'en- actment Also Giveaways Another bOl just introduced Into tiie legislature is designed to define cash gift nights as lotteries and make them illegal. SteSes declares its passage would force a large number of theatres out of business. -Many bouses, especially in the smaller communities, require the help of.casih glftrnights to Iceep them in existence and they could not operate in the 'black without them, he .avers. The state supreme court already has ruled that 'Bank Night,' properly conducted, does not violate the state .aati-lottei^ law. St. Paul now is the only town in the state prohibiting theatre cash - gUt nights and many exhibitors there wish there Was no such ban, accord- ing to Steffes. With only approximately /three weeks of the present legislative ses- sion remaining, neither the divorce- ment bill nor cash gift night meas- ure Is believed to have any chance for passage. PhOIy's Xax Bllh Philadelphia, March 28.. • Two tax bills were in the forefront of film interest this week in Harris- burg, where the state legislature is meeting. Of principal concern to indies Is the 4% amusement tax measure, which the last administra- tion allowed to die last year, and which many Republican legislators are now trying to revive as a source of new revenue. Tke tap, which raised $7,000,000 in tbe two years it was in force, is seen as a solution to the crisis in school in small districts. With a strong- lobby ..at work, film industry is at present in- clined to believe that the measure won't be revived. Other Important tax action affected the chains. It was an appeal filed by Attorney General Claude T. Beno with the Supreme Court, aaUne it to review the action «t lower couct In invalidating the chain store and the' atre tax. Argiimpnt will be beard in May. Taxes range-from $1 a year on a single theatre to $500 for each one in a chain of 500 units. Antl-SMoodliig Boo.m St Louis, March 28^ An anti-standing room bill directe'd at film houses .and other places of amusement in the state has been dumped into the legislature hopper at Jefferson City by Representntive' J. C. Woodsmall of Scotland County. The bill provides that every theatre having a 'width of 25 feet or more must be provided with a center aisle. The measure also stipulates thait no ducat shall be sold unless there is a seat immediately available. The pro- vision against selling standing room is under the .cloak of keeping the aisles and exits clear at all times. P. A, Crack Down Add: ' DIvoroement Madison, Wis.) March 28. Bill to bar distributors or produ- cers from owning or operating pic- ture theatres was proposed by As- (Tsnada's BUI Smgs Montreal, March 28. Bill to set up a national film board of eight persons whose job would be to coordinate motion picture activ- ities of the various government de- partments ran into a snag Tuesday (21) in the Canadian Senate when opposition leader Meighen voiced criticism that the board would merely increase the number of civil servants and add to the expense of the government He urged taking of pictures by commercial companies and thus encourage private business instead of adding to the burden of taxation by creating another commis- sion. What had at first promised to have an easy passage through the Senate resulted in a full-dress debate and was eventually -adjourned 'without decision. Bayid, McFaol h M, For Par Theatre Meets Harry David, operator of the Pub- llx-Salt Iiake houses for Paramount, and Vincent McFaul of the Shea- Publix .'group in Buffalo, reached New'York during the past week to discuss theatre problems, plans and other matters with some Par office executives. Leonard Goldenson, h.o. theatre executive, returned late last week from Deteoit after conferring with the (Seorge W. Trendle people. Hollywood, March 28. Harry Sherman starts his 1939-40 program Monday (3) by rolling 'Lawful Outlaws,' first of a new Hopalong Cassidy series. 'Argentine' will be second of the series and The Double Dyed De- ceiver' third. CoI.'b New Eastern Shorts Max Cohn and Harry Foster have t-dken over eastern shorts production for Columbia Pictures, succeeding Ben Schwalb, resigned. Columbia is making two series of shorts in New York, 'News World of Sports' and 'Washington Parade.' Schwalb Intends to produce Inde- pendently In the east ((Continued from page. 5) period. If the actor is satisfied with his representation, the contract may be renewed for a period of three years. Current contracts will be modified to expire in five years from date the SAG announced its licens- ing pact making present tickets terminate in 1943. GolM to Haadto ««uwhs Favorable report has already been made on an amendment to the State Labor Code, whkSi when adopted by the State Assembly, wUl give -tije SAG authority to arbitrate diqmtes between agents and actors. Pact be- tween two Guilds win not be Inked until favorable actian has been taken on this measure and other Ieg«a de- tails of contract iiave been 'wwked out by attorbeys. Metro executives have turned thumbs down on demands «f the Metro-Goldwyn-BSayer Stodio Office Employees Guild for a U% wage tilt two weeks vacation with pay and ImpMved 'woridng cemtttlons. Committee wiU be named by Guild to sedc support ficom 4rthcr studio crafts in effort to force producer action. Society of Motion Picture Film Editors has refused to sign new pro- ducer agreement unless a 'flve'.day wedc protection, clause - is wdtten into contract Editors said all indi' cations point to early adoption of five-day week in the industry, and that members want assurance they will be permitted to partiotpate with out having to accept a w«ge.«ut Proposed agreement with the edi- tors calls for 54 hours, witt reserva- tion providing for seven-day wedt in an emergency. Effort lo Iron out situation will be made this we^ at a conference between producer labor contact and Society negotiating com- mittee. Editors have employed Leonard S. Janofsky, counsel for Screen Writers Guild, to represent them in negotiations with the pro- ducers. D. A. Bits lA Assessments Announcement that his office would do everything possible to stop further salary assessments by Inter- national Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees was made by Dlst Atty, Huron Fltts. 'I must say that the assessment ismacks of methods employed by eastern racketeers,' said Fitts. "To my mind, it is a gross injustice on men .and women working for a liv- ing to be compelled to pay 2% of their salaries each month in addition to their regular dues for the privi- lege of working. This office 'wiU stop such practices if it lies within our power.' Fitts questioned Frank Sticking and John Gatelee, lATSE interna- tional representatives now in charge of Studio Technicians Local 37. He also talked with Jeff Kibre and'other leaders in fight to retain local autonomy for Studio Locals of the lA. National Labor Relations Board has called a conference of autonomy leaders, producers and lATSE tops for Thursday (30). William Wal^ senior counsel for NLRB, said every effort would be made to. work out some agreement, that would end various court tilts and restore harmony to the .ranks of the 12,000 workers who are members of the lATSE. Dr. Towne Nylander, recenUy sus- .pended as regional director of the National Labor Relations Board, has been restored to duty .and will pre- side at Thursday's conference. Sus- pension was lifted when James £. Brenner, law professor at Stanford, reported to the NLRB that Dr. Ny- lander should be restored to duty immediately. -Brenner conducted in- vestigation of matter at -request of the NLRB. NLRB director had been quoted as stating in a speech that an em- ployer 'hasn't got a chance' before the Labor Board. Brenner reported that Nylander in his speech 'did not intend to convey the impression that the procedure of the National Labor Relations Board does not provide a full and impartial hearing for em- ployers against whom formal com- plaints have been filed.' Joseph Stoefel, head of the con struction department at 20th-Fox, has been placed in charge of all stages on lot He will act as a con- tact between the art department and William Koenlg,. studio manager. He will be charged with duty of seeing that all sets .are ready for shooting when production calls are Issued. N. Y. Strike Call (Continued from page 2) jamming the exchanges Monday (27) pointec out, there is nothing to stop them from calling for film them- selves, if there's any to be had. Should there be no early settle- ment of the strike situation, exhibs will also pick up film from each other in an effort to keep going. Just [how long the supply will last how- ever, and how far runs may be stielched is a question of grave Inv- port Mean part about the situation is that, while the 306-IA move against distributors is aimed at between 75 and 100 theatres which do not em- ploy lA oi>erators or stagehands, all the theatres in the N.Y.-New Jersey zone of the N. Y. exchanges that do «midey lA men stand te suffer equal- ly as much as tbe others. There are around AM theatres in Ihe Greater New York area, but it isn't just this number of houses that ase affected, ne rtdiangiw In New York, in addi- tion to the Toetropolitan area, service an «f Long Island, Staten Island, New York state, vp to -wifiiln a lew miles of Albany and the upper half «f New Jersey. The Century circuit [late A. H- Schwartz] in Brooklyn and Long Is- land, numbering 30 theatres; the Co- calis chain of the same number in New York and New Jersey, plus scattered very small Individual in- iies, are the cause of the present 308UA. campaign. With the excep- tion of a few houses Cocalis Enter- prises operate in northern New Jer- sey, . aU employ operators who are members of the Empire State union. Local 306 has been trying to either unseat tills N. Y.-chartered union or effect a deal absorbing it Century and (Cocalis have contracts with the Enq)ire union which have seven years to go and -are not dis- posed to change, even after the xlras- tic measures that have been taken the distributors to force them into 306. Sam D. Cocalis, who said he was going away-last night (Tues.) for a rest in the south and wasn't worrying about anything, refused to say whether .distribs had sought to get him to oust Empire men in favor of 306 or whether he would consider any such appeal, it made. CHaimlng he pays Empire operators a^ much as 306 men in comparable booth jobs, Cocalis indicated that he has a con- tract with Empire that must be lived up to the same as any other contract One report in inside union circles was that liOcal 306 is not only basing its walkout in exchanges and home offices of distribs on the ground that union-handled film Is being shipped to non-IATSE theatres, but also be- cause of unkept promises by the dis- tribs concerning such .operators. It is claimed that last fall the distribs promised Increases to boothmen in exchanges and home offices but have been stalling on it since then. 306 Picketing the Home Offices and Branches Local 308's men not only started picketing exchanges Monday (27), which include screening rooms,' but also the few branch offices which do not have their own projection quar- ters,, such as 20th-Fox and Para mount. There is no explanation why operators are picketing where they never were employed, but this action indicates a move that was necessary in such branch offices in order to-get the exchange workers to walk out' Tliere had to be picket lines at such branches before the exchange em- ployees could go out Moreover, this means toward an end, in order to cripple operations on a widespread scale, suggests the. lengths to which the imion batUe may be carried if no compromise measures are in- stituted. In union circles the strike is being referred to as a 'slow-motion strike' and one which may be _like a slow fire, inferring that the picketing by ops and . the action of exchange and laboratory , workers, may be only the first step of the campaign. Local 52, Studio Mechanics; Local 54, Camera- men; Local No. 1, stagehands and others affiliated with the LATSE, have taken no' action as yet The only studio of distributors in the east is the . Warner Brooklyn plant, but •testing is done at various places in New York by the major producers, including the. old studio quarters at 20th-Fox. These operations can also be tied up. Twentieth-Fox also pro- duces shorts in New York and RKO releases shorts product that Is turned out at the Eastern Service. studios, Astoria, L. I. So far as any scratching for film may be concerned in the event of a strike lasting longer than 10 days or two weeks. Monogram Is in a peculi- arly promising position because of its ability to continue operations in a normal way. Unable to get regu- lar film supply from the other com- panies, exhibitors may take every, thing Monogram has on its shelves in order to keep screens alive. The ultimatum to distributors to stop servicing film to non-IATSE theatres was received in the form of a telegram March 6. A week later the membership of 306 voted author- ization to oall a strike at any date deemed advisable by the executive board of the local Following in- ability to make any. headway with the distributors. Local 306 late Satur- day night (26) advised the distribs the operators would be called out Monday morning (27) unless there was a settiement. The meeting of sales managers,'chain theatre execu. tives and attorneys of the major companies was hurriedly called for Sunday morning (26) at 10:30 and lasted until past supper time. lA's Coast Suit Hollywood, March 28. Superior Judge Emmet Wilson Monday (27) 'took under advisement the application -cif lATSE interna- tional reps to restrain the deposed Officers .of Technicians LiOcbI 37 from interfering with operations of the organization. A temporary restraining order against interference remains in force. Court raised « moot point whether the disputed section of the lATSE bylaws were not so drastic as to ' render it invalid. Examine Breiitaiio4Upp h Suit flarokl Uoyd Lowell Brentano and William Jordan Rapp, authors, were ex- amined before trial by counsel for Harold Lloyd last week in New York Interrogation was in connection 'with $75,000 plagiarism suit by Brentano and Rapp against Lloyd Productions over the picture, "Professor Beware.' The writers allege they submitted an original script to Lloyd, which was rejected. Lloyd's defense will be that basis for the picture was an original story written for him .by unnamed scenarists. Lloyd's New Co. Hollywood, March 28. Harold Lloyd has formed a new Harold Lloyd Productions, capital- ized at $25,000. with William K Frazer and Robert C. Gardner as as- sociate -directors. Articles of incor- poration were filed In Sacramento. 'Sto-waway' Salt The copyright infringement suit by Stephen Tamas against 20th Century- Fox, over 'Stowaway,' has resulted in a N..Y. supreme cpurt order that the refugee Hungarian author fur- nish a bill of particulars. Indicating wherein lie the similarities between his story and the Shirley Temple script Tamas had already twice be- fore lost .a* similar siiit in the Buda- pest courts, including an appeal, but he's taken it to a still higher Hun- garian court Meantime, he also started an action in the N. Y. federal district court Main allegation is that 20th-Fox's British representative had commis- sioned him to write the Temple original, which allegedly was incor- porated, but not compensated for, in 'Stowaway.' Application by Columbia Pictures Corp. to dismiss the. $250,000 action by (herald K. Rudulph for failure to state a cause of action was postponed until April 4 in N. Y. federal court Plaintiff seeks an injunction and damages, claiming Columbia's pic- ture, 'Exposed,' is a plagiarism of his play of the same name. ST(«Y BUYS HoUywood. March 28. CJolohy Pictures purchased 'Dead- man's Island,' by Anthony King. Neville Schute sold his novel, 'Or- deal,' to David O. Selznick. RKO bou^t Lester Koenlg's story, 'All Night Program.' - Republic acquired Louis Welt- zenkom's yam. "Wolf of New York,' based on the James HInes trial TITLE CHANGES Hollywood, March 28. •Island of Lost Men' is new titie for Paramount's 'North of Singa- ' pore.' Uni'verisal switched from 'Back- stage Phantom' to "The House of Fear.'