Variety (Aug 1939)

30 RADIO SCREEN STAGE l-iibllshed WoBljty nt 154 West 4Cth Street. New York, N. T.. by Variety. Inc. Annual BUbacrlptlon. HO. Slngl. mpU, 25 ci-nU Biilorea as becoud-glasa matter Ueceniber 22, 1905, at tho I'ost ptllce at New York. N. Y.. under the act ol March 3, ISTS. COrYRIUIlT, Itt39, m VAIIIKTV, INC. ALL RIGHTS KKSKRVED Vol. 135 No. 12 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1939 48 PAGES WAR JITTERS CUP SHOW BIZ Films a Big Hazard in London London, Aug. 29. The British government has asked American distributors to get their Alms out of London, because of the potential hazard of negative stock, in case of bombing by enemy planes. Arrangements have been made to stor« in nearby smaller city exchanges for the time being. Trend towards bombproof shelters in London is forcibly shown by the fact that the new exchange Metro recently started to build there is thus protected. All new apartment houses erected in London now have bombproof protection. Heavy Coin to Irving Berlin, Colman On Straight % Deals Lure for Others Hollywood, Aug. 29. With the returns that have accrued on^percentage deals made by Irving Berlin and Ronald Co'^an, it is likely th?t plenty of the creative tal- ent in picts will go strong to get deals of this sort instead of flat sums. Both Berlin and Colman made their respective deals with. 20th Cenlury- Fo^ and Columbia on gross picture intake. Berlin, as result, is set to get at least $400,000 as his 10% of the gross on:'Alexander's Ragtime Band,' and probably another $50,000, as the pic- ture niay reach the $4,500,000 figure. He has a similar deal for providing the musical score to 'Second Fiddle,' with indications that picture will get around $2,000,000 gross or $200,000 for him. On both, however, he gets • basic $75,000 guarantee regardless. Colman's deal at Columbia was on •Lost Horizon,' his take already reaching $340,000 on a $3,400,000 gross, and likely to run at least an- (Continucd on page 39) N. Y. Fair to Rely On Film Tieup, Stunts, Etc., To Hypo B.O. Henceforth With more than 525,000 paying customers on the last Saturday-Sun- day weekend, the New York World's Fair management has decided on the requisite type of showmanship to draw. Formula, as represented by ■widely ballyhooed reduced - price days, such as the N. Y. Daily Mirror day last Sunday, and carnival weeks subsequently will prevail for the ro- niainder of the exposition. Paid gate for the two-day weekend topped any previous weekend period. First week in October will be mo- tion picture week at the Fair, idea being to get Hollywood support for a big festival week. It ties in with the picture business' Golden Jubilee hoopli. Tentative plans call for previews and premieres in the Hollywood style. Another elaborate stunt is a talent search, tied in with 20th-Fox. The name-band policy is not ac- tually attracting unusually good at- tendance, and the concessionaires fail to see where it is bolstering midway business. Fold of several shows near (Continued on page 47) D.W.Griffith's Comeback Hollywood, Aug. 29. David Wark Griffith comes back as a producer in '1,000,000 B.C.,' prehis- toric film slated to roll in NoVimber on the Hal Roach lot. Originally mentioned as director, Griffith will pick his own pilot. He handled the adaptation himself. Fan Clubs Spread To Radio, Bands; Fat Sucker Lists Cleveland, Aug. 29. Fan clubs, social offshoot of spooled celluloid and standby of the stars, as- cendant and vice versa, is Wool- worthing many an organizer over the financial breakers. Some 500 organ- izations the country over, by meager contributions of nicklcs and dimes, manage to keep staffs working and sound a hasty retreat for that raven- ous four-footer who curls up on door- steps. Fan clubbing is an old practice and has provided considerable income for those heading the groups with mem- berships over 1,000. Several run as high as 3,000. Initiation fee runs from 50c to $1 and there are occa- sional assessments of nickels and dimes for pamphlet printing, mailing and incidentals. All the member gets out of his monetary contribution is the news of his favorite and per- haps an autographed picture. And if he misses one of his idol's pictures he's liable to be missed on the next mailing. Fluctuating fortunes of the play- ers who have clubs named after them have little effect on the members. Some that passed from marquees years ago are still going strong. New I ones spring up every time a star is born. The president of the club is the guy or gal who thinks of it first and starts driving for members. Occasionally a picture star con- tributes to the coffers of the club (Continued on page 31) Bl, P IN U.S., Radio NeWs Bulletins Keep- ing 'Em Home—Mobiliza- tion's Effect on Hollywood, London and Paris Film Production WIDE EFFECT Production, exhibition, dented box- office conditions, panicked world travelers from all walks of the stage and screen, fell under the Martian hex with Europe's renewed war jitters. People staying home to listen to the radio depressed the b.o. Film production plans in Holly- wood, London and Paris are subject to revision and realignment. Americans are rushing back to the safety of U. S. shores. Points as distant as Australia, In rallying to the standard of the Brit- ish Lion, interpreted themselves in diminishing b.o. Montreal's concern over radio censorship (page 26) was another facet. These and other aspects are de- tailed in this issue. Outbreak of a European war would be a blow to American* picture dis- tribution in the foreign field. Great- est threat to profitable operations in warring countries would be the clamping down on coin restrictions. Typical of what might be expected in many European countries was the action Monday (28) of the Austra- (Contlnued on page 18) Hays Asks F.D.R. For U.S. Ease-Up On the Film Biz Waship'''on; Aug. 29. The undersloc json for Will Hays' q.t. call oii A-rcsident Roose- velt here on Monday (28) was to ask executive intercession in hav- ing Thurman Arnold, of the Attor- ney General's office, taken off the trail of picture people. Hays is of the opinion films should come under jurisdiction of the Dept. of Com- merce and wants that agency, un- der Commerce Secretary Harry Hop- kins, to draft a fair practice code for pictures, as is being done for other industries. Arnold has been" adamant that film companies must divorce themselves from theatre operation. Widespread Union Battle Looms As N.Y. Peace Parley Falls Through Gotta Work to Strike Group of actors 'Sn Shubert alley were discussing the smoul- dering warfare between the Four A's and the lATSE. ■ 'If there's going to be a real fight with the stagehands,' one legiter cracked, 'I'll hava to hurry and get a job 'so I can go on strike.' First Workout For Commercials On Tele vision The potentiality of television as a commercial agent was given its first rehearsal Saturday (26), when RCA- NBC televised the doubleheader be- tween the Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn. In its importance to the trade, the base- ball game itself was secondary, even though it was the first major league game ever to be televised and the best eye-and-ear broadcast" of a sports event yet achieved in the U.S. The commercials were injetfted by Red Barber, WOR-Mutual sports- caster, who did the play-by-play for television on a special deal between NBC and WOR. Latter has the ex- clusive on the Brooklyn games and, in televising 'em, RCA-NBC had to take Barber and the commercials [Procter & Gamble (soap), Wheaties (cereal) and Socony (oil)]. Al Hef- ner, nominally Barber's assistant, as a result switched over to the radio broadcast, with his boss calling 'em strictly for the 500 odd television sets in the metropolitan, N. Y., area. The cameras didn't always follow his chatter, but then, it was just an ex- periment. Two commercials were Injected into the first five innings of the first game when the cameras panned into Barber sitting at a table in a lower box. It was not a very clear image pictorially, probably due to the over- cast skies, but there was sufficient visibility to get a good idea of how commercials may be framed for tele- vision. Illustrated Plugs For Procter St Gamble, Barber had the soap trademarks prominent on the table. He waved a wad of stage money to illustrate the first prize in a contest—and he picked up a minia- ture house (which could be had for the down-payment of $1,000), or an automobile that could be bought out- right for the same amount of coin. Later, for Wheaties, he actually pre- pared the cereal for his own con- sumption, adding sugar, cream and banana. It was the obvious type of (Continued on page 30) A disastrous union war, possibly embracing all show business, looms again as result of the breakup of negotiations between the Asso- ciated Actors and Artistes of Amer- ica and the International Alliance, of Theatrical Stage Employees yester- day (Tuesday). Four A's executives had come east with a 'peace plan*. Hostilities may break out with the scheduled reopening of 'Leave It to Me' at the Imperial, N. Y., next Monday (4). Stagehands have indi- cated they'll walk out if Sophie Tucker is kept out of the show by Equity's suspension. However, with the lATSE actively backing the American Federation of Actors against the American Guild of Va- riety Artists, an open fight may occur elsewhere before then. A virtually complete entertainment 'industry shutdown seems highly possible as rcs.ult of such a union jurisdictional war. Yesterday's conferences between the Four A's and lATSE representa- tives collapsed when the stagehands refused to budge from previous de- mands for the reinstatement of the AFA by the Four A's, and that Ralph Whitehead, AFA executive- secretary, be taken back into the picture. The actor heads, who from the first have refused to accept Whitehead, again turned down that suggestion. With no further attempt at peace conferences planned, that brings the long-threatened fight even nearer than before. 'It means the warfare we all had hoped to (Continued on page 4) Radio's European Coverage, So Far, Ontpacing "MonicV NBC and CBS expect that the cost of covering the present European crisis will be considerably over the bill that they met at the end of the Sudcntenland excitement last year. In the instance of both NBC and Columbia Broadcasting, the expense for the first week's coverage of the present furore is at least 30% more than it was for the closing week ot the Czech-Nazi imbroglio at Munich. Since last Wednesday (23), all net- works have gone in for four and five-way hookups at the least provo- cation. Average cost of such facili- ties comes to $500, and that's ex- clusive of salaries for special cor- respondents. Columbia estimates that its out-of- pocket costs for the' initial week of the Polish crisis will come to around 520,000, while another $15,000 went by the board as result of sequester- ing commercial time. NBC figures that its coverage bill for the same period will reach at least $30,000, while its loss on commercial revenue won't be more than $10,000, the lat- ter mostly due to the time.breaks it (Continued ori page 24)