Variety (Oct 1940)

FIGTURES 13 film Biz Appraising ower Redeem 2 Saeiiger Bond Industry executives are checking to learn how severely thfeir opera- tions would: be affected by the na- tional conscription law. GonceiisUs is that the aim business will be harder hit than many other, like industries because of the large num- . j,er of young men on the theatre end. ' Where the peacetime draft regu- lation willhit about 4% of the able- bodied" in numerous lines of busi- ness, it IS estimated that the picture buslneiss will witness about 6% of total male .manpower being called to the colors imdep the l21-to-35-year . stipulation in the lawV This would mean that about; 15,000 men would be taken away froni their posts In the picture industry. ; • However^ ■ only . about .one-thii|d Of ; the original total called out Under ihe . conscription sietup would be taken from working rank? in ; the next few niohths.This would mean the loss Of about 5,000 from all •l^riancKes of the film, business before Jan. i, 1941, with 10,000 to be called subsequently. ' Check this week revealed about ^ 250,000 -men; workers; in aU lines of the film trade. Picture, bfi for the flrst call in the draft to hit men of 24 to 26-years of age. This likely would most drastically affect males, iri theatre operations, ..tesultf Ing in material changes within the exhibition, fleld even by the end of ' the present;year. ^ " v;;. -' - -V ■ Few Players , • V Fe\w male picture stars fall ,with-_ in the draft- limits, With : only a Oom-" paratively jsntalV number ambrig youthful.: coming stellar players like- ly, to ; CQme , under the , registratipni scheme.^ Producing end of the pk-- , ture business Would feel the; pinch ; worst in the technical end. Logical development anticipated in the trade wiU be the picking of certain studio tiechhiciaris : for .training in aerial photography work of the. air service',' Conscription . law^registration, of . course, will show these up instantly^ ' Cameramen,; electricians, narxator^ iind carpenters Would be affected to the. greatest extent;. V '.'Survey. indicated; that there will . V«' no:''pccupationaii- exemptions for t"he .film business. Majority of; cpm- pahies have ■ indicated they . would give positions back .:tb:. .those Acalled to the colors. ' So EfxIiibs^Meel ■.• Chicago, Oct. 8. Southern Illmols: exhibitors, mem- bers of the United Theatre Owners of Illinois, will meet in Mount Vernon this week for a general dis- cussion of exhib problerhs. Priesiding will be Edwaird G. Zorn, president of the UTOI. Among the problems to be discussed will be free pictures, tax and other legislation, unionization of small town pro- jebtionists and the' consent decree rulings. \V ■ Bond issues of two Saeiiger the- atres have been officially called for redemption, Both are listed as obli- gations of the Saenger Realty Corp., 6%s due in 1945, for the Saifinger the- a'tre. New Orleans, and the. same corporation's. 6%3 . due for* payinent the same yfear, for the Saenger The- atre, Mobile, have been set for: call Oct. 21. ■ :■ : Bioth issues are redeemable at $103. Stymies l^orda's Yen To Roadshow 'Thief Bagdad' Detroit, Oct. 8. lietroit-^which has seen its, heavi- est ■ theatre building in:, the last 15 ;yeai:'STT-will have two rnevf houses built here by United Motion Theatres Co. One .of the pair will be a 1,500- Seat key-run hpiise at Seven Mile and Greenfield Roads, in the boom- ing northwest sectioni It Will be called the Alpine—a name picked for an east side house now abandoned by the same company. The other, the Apex, Will be an BOOrseat: thea- tre located in the north end; ' The two new houses will iSnhance cohsiderabiy the booking: of the Mu- tual Theati es, the : combine which, will book them. Mutual, managed by- Raymond E; Moon, had gathered considerable strength in this area recently-making four other additions. Amon.i; the houses which it has taken over is the 400-seat Alden, operated by Joseph Miskinis, and the new 1,000-seat ; Parkside, operated by Moss Bros,, , which opened Oct^ -3; The other pair of bookings are 2,000- seat Carnien, operated by Phil Goi: elick, ahd^the :i,500-seat Civic^ which Jdseph; Stop will open; shortly. 5 Houses Near S.A. San Antonio. Oct. 8.' • There are a total of five houses On .military reservations in and about .thiSvcity. At the army post there is the recently opened Ft. Saiti Houston ; theatre with a seating capacity. of 1,204. Randolph Field, home' of the Army Flying school, boasts of 900 seats, Kelly Field, 700; Brooks, 350, and Camp Bullis, 998, :: According to Sergeant Simon, in ; charge of the Ft. Sam Houston the- atre, each house is playing to ca- ; pacity crowfis daily and with the / proposed. additioh of troops in thi s area, a new house is being planned for Ft. «am Houston. Each house has ffve changes .a week, duals on Sunday and Monday, and Wednesday isnd Thursday. Npm-^^ inal admission charges are-ft all the- • atres, 25c being top. . <" Two New Memphis Nabes . Memphis. Oct. 8; Two new nabe houses preemed last weelc. .'• :■ ■:'\ '; T-■ J. A- West; former Mississippi showman, unveiled his - ■: 900-^seat Hollywood. He : has been. - out of the : business for couple : of years after owning houses at Louis ville and Philadelphia,- Miss. Culjins & Evans, former operators of the Orpheum before its acqulsi tion by- M. A. Lightman and change to New MalcOj opened their new Idlewild, 950-seat spot in the heart of choice residential section. ' ' Brownweed's Boon • Brqwnweed, Texas; Oct; 8. • With the U.: S., moving an en- campment of 14,000 troops here, local , theatre, men' are expecting a. Sudden, biz boom. ' ,'■ L. D. Brown, ♦ operator of the Queen and the. Gem, in an/arrange- mfeht with 'Interstate will build,, a new. 1,000-seater, to get under way pronto. . The Queen has been com : pletely remodeled and seating iri creased to 575. Other house h*ere is ■ the recently: opened Texas, operated- . .by R. A. Weller. ^ Phil Isley has already secured a : p.uilding site andVpur^^ equip- ment, for a house which is expected to be ready in a month. ; This city will be the home; of the •Texas National Guard groups in the nation's defense plan. Gbrellck's Two Additions ; .Detroit. Oct 8. A new house is planned: for De: ti'oits growing. northwest section with the announcement of a theatre by Philip Gorelick. He also is build ing a new theatre in Dearborn. . Jack Broder keeps building up his chain here, • He has takeri over the Oakman, formerly operated by Krass circuit. Now makes four the- atres for Broder. : Elan; to roadshow Alexandeir . Kor- da's 'Thief of Bagdad' in, key cities throughout the country inay have to be abandoned. Technicalities^- of Korda's contract with the Radio City Music Hall by which the. picture was originally booked into that house for its New York preem may upset the scheme for two-a-daying it in Man- hattan, which would be followed by a general cancellation of the plan. Roadshow idea came up after the M.H. pact was signed, Agreenient, however, provides for automatic can- cellation if the prbducer desires to roadshow the picture in some other house—provided admission charged is at least twice that prevailing, at the Music . Hall. United Artists, which releases Korda product, on that basis made, :a tentative agree- ment for the film to two-a-day at the Globe, Brandt house on Broad-way. • Now UA attorneys are pondering whether or not the $2.20 top which would be charged for the roadshow is twice as much as the Music Hall's 'prevailing - price.' They neither want to leave Korda open to a lawr suit by the Radio City house nor cause any hard feeling in that quar ■er.,. ''^ Problem results from the fact that M.H. regularly sells 900 reserved oge seats at $1.65, although . its top for orchestra locations is only 99c. Globe has fewer than 300 more seats in the entire house than, the Music Hall has. in the loge. . .Which brings up the question of whether $1..65 or 99c is the 'prevailing' price in this situation. • Original reason for taking 'Bag- dad' oiit of "Radio City and road showing - it still exists—the picture will have to. vTait until arounc Thanksgiving to get a date at the Music Hall, because the house is so glutted with product. Film in a couple weeks at the M.H. could earn the same rental as during a lengthy roadshow at the Globe, so the prm cipal reason for desiring the change is to speed up the New York preem Other selling is being held up pend- ing a decision oh this date,, the only other engagement being the Carthay Circle, Los Angeles, where it will be :ginToadshowing-OGt.-l-7amder_plAni made before the Music Hall angle appeared. AbrOTsIeav Leo Abrams, Universal's short sales manager for the last. 18 months, fe- sgned last week. He had been in charge of U's New York exchange fox 10 years beforia becoming short sales chief.: He was with U 25 years. Abrams states he will take a brief vacation before announcing future plans now under discussion. Abfams post ovbr : shorts 'sales iprobably will hot be filled. '40- SUES TO DISSOLVE THEATRE ; ; V , Hollywood, Oct. 8. ; Monogram Productions,, a sujbsidi- ai:y of Monogram Pictures,, goes intb' ah ihactive .state!-with little likelihood of filming any pictures for the 1940- 41 program. Company is depending almost entirely on. product , by: in- dividual units to fill the coming sea- son's distribution quota. Last picture made by Mono was "the Bat,' recent- ly completed Bbris KarlOff starrer. Suspension of production: and con- cehtratioti: on distribution is in line with Mono's new economy plan, which cuts down the personnel arid lops off a big slice of overhead. The production incorporation continues to exist, in skeleton'form, in case, it is decided to resuriie picture-making later. Change means that Scott R. Dun- lap, v.p. in charge of production will make films with his own organiia tion for distribution by the parent company. He has .completed one Marcia Mae Jones-Jackie Moran fea- ture and has three more lined up. Golden's Mono Swing . ' Eddie A. ,- Golden, general sales manager for- Monogram, is leaving his New York headquarters this week ort an extended swing through the middle-west . which ■. will carry him to the Coast He probably will not return until sometime in Novem- ber. ' Golden plans to visit Buffalo, Tor- onto,: Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago; Kansas City, Dallas, Houston and Los Angeles.:' WISPER & WETSMAN'S 17TH JOUSE IN MICH. . Hollywood, Oct. 8. Immediate /elimination vof thou-. sands: of film-struck casual players, •. selective hiring of extras and central- . ization of casting have been recbm- , mended to the Association of Motion ■ Picture Producers.: A probationary menibership in .the Screen Actors Guild for protriising youngsters also was urged by the. Producer-SAG : •Standing Committee last night • : (Mori.) in its first report to the As- • •' sociation. This move would nbcessi- tate the SAG reopening its member- . " ship' to extras, but It is claimed that , work of; the probationers -would be; so regulated as. not to take any po-: tential coin a-way frpm the regular extra' who depends upon the indus- try for a living. ■ r Adoption of the amendment would- at brice remove apprqxiriiately 2,0pp^ from the mernbership rolls of the SAG, .'The: current paid-up Class B nieriibership of the- .Guild ' •6,501.! While 2,900 Guilders are included in the list of extf as who earned $10 br?. less in. 1939 and whbrn the cbmmit- tee has recoiAnended :be dropped, many of them have already; been .. eliminated for nbni-payment of dues.; , The committee^. which; has just , completed an exhaustive study of the. , extra situation; y-was apppintef?, by the producers and the. SAG to recom?- mend a permanent cure for the/ex- tra problern. It is composed xk Stew- art McKee, chairrnah," business rrianr WiUiam : S; Holman, general manager of ;Warners;. ; and Murray / Kinnell, of the SAG.:the committee has spent more, than a year : inter- viewing extras, ; studying . economic . conditions, etc. Oldtimers See Handwriting ;;. Regular players are certaih-to ap- prove the elimination of Casuals. But they may. take a different view of the recommendation that a proba- tionairy :membership /be established for youngsters; Some of them are. skeptical this is. a move to eliminate the. 'oldtimers,' many of whom have been with the industry since it started and: are now protesting be- cause ypungsters are taking much of their work. In summing .up the casual situa«;.. ^ tion, the committee reported: 'Our- records show that- 9,849 in- ; dividuals were placed through Cen- tral Casting Corp, ' , 1939. Of thiS" number therie were 5,285 persons who worked 1 dayc or more and 4,564 persons who worked 10 days or less. The 4,564 extras who worked 10 days or less thorough 'Central. Casting, however, represent bnly 30% of the estimated total of 15,000, extras who worked sometime during 1939, This estimate of the total num- ber of extras employed in 1939 iri- cludes those who we; e hired directly by the studios arid through the in- dependent casting agencies. Of the 4,564 who worked 10 days or less through~Ceritr,alXa5tingrdurTrig She Got the Call Hollywood, Oct. 8. .. Paulette Goddard was'signed .by .iJariies: Roosevelt fbr. a cbrstarririg role with James Stewart. in 'Pot o' . Gold,' to be produced at the RKO- Pathe studio for: United" Artists re- ; lease.., :•: George- Marshall directs the pic- ture, built around the Horace/Heidt - radio program, -with the band leader in • featured role. DENATURED 'REMOUS' (FR.) PREEMS IN N. Y. . 'After, nearly two years of litiga- tion, New York got its first glimpse of 'Ilemoiis,' French-riiade .picture, when, it opened the new Art theatre in Greenwich;vyjllage under the tag of 'Whirlpool.' N. Y. State, censors okayed-it, in present version. Pro- duction, a 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' theme, originally .Avas; released : in Franc.€! early in 1935. N. Y-:cerisors objected to the:theme, with resul^^ thH. the- present :versibn is consider- ably scissored and objectional pas- sages covered by mild English titles. Others are slashed out of. the stor/.; . New theatre is 60d-seater, located iri a store-apartrribnt house taxpayer structure ' just off . University Place. Irving Ludwig, formerly /assistant manager at the Rivoli, N. Y„ is. man- aging the operation . for. Herman Weingarten, owner. . Policy is single feature, with foreign-made films used whenever available. ■ ■ Louisville, Oct 8. -Suit was filed here Friday (4) in. Jefferson circuit court by William Rosenthal, Indianapolis, against George Settos, Indianapolis,, . and Frank M, • Krapj), LaJolla, Calif.,, aU: partners and exhibitors operating at Settos Theatres. '■ Rosenthal asked that the partnership owning the Vogue, Sf Mathews. . (suburb of Louisville), and Strand and. Shelby theatres, Shelbyville, Ky., be; disr solved. . Suit: further requests. the court to appoint a receiver, require Settos :to accou.ri.tfor the firm's funds, and: warits property or pro.c.e.eds:to be distributed among thC; partners..; • Rosenthal asserted, business rela- tions have been strained,, and stated it was impossible for the partners to continue iri the' operation and manr agement of their properties. Further stated.that Settos 'has taken control of money .accounts' aria iirbperty, of the firm and converted .sari:ie . tb; his own use,' and Krapp has 'failed to account for about $23,000 belonging to. the partnership.' Rosenthal's suit charges firm is indebted to him for about ~$3,6qO. Suit; states plaintifl owns half interest in two houses in Shelbyville, arid drie-third interest iri the Vogue, with asset value of $23,000. Detroit, Oct 8. Wisper & Wetsriian Circuit here continues to enlarge. . The/latest ac- quisition of the bhain is the Oakman, large, nabe, taken over .frorri; Jack Krasi- Jt gives • W, & W, 17 .theatres now, making, it the largest independ- ent circuit in Michigan. At least three of the additions have, been made this year. The bakman was closed after its addition to the chain to undergo $30,000 worth of remodel- ing, : The Oliver in the North IJnd, has. been taken over, by Moule &: New- man Circuit Al Rutteriberg, who was: running the Oliver, will con- tinue to operate the iris. ^ Another chain addition was the .adding' by the Ashman Bros., bperr ators of an upstate chain, of, the Gar- den hodse: at-Frankfort, Mich;, which was formc'rly: owned, by Mrs.; Custer Garland, ■; • - The Cactus jQets 'Em ,. Hollywood; Oct' 8.. Ken Maynard is returning to pic- tures , when he finishes, his current job with Cole Bros, circus; Western actor plans to produce and star in a series of sagebrushers, • IN THE TIPPER BEBTH Hollywood, Oct. 8- Top femme ;sppt In 'Sleepers;iJast,*; a Sol M. Wurtzel production at 20th- Fox, goes to Lynn Barl; •Lou Breslow is scripting remake of the silent film, based on a novel by Frederick Nebel. 2,942 were members of the Guild.' A new move by studio unions to force steady employment of their members is seen in >.th demands' t© ' be submitted to Producers this week by Moving- Picture Painters Local 644 in behalf of industry title-artists. The artists are asking for a five-day, 40-hour. week, based on 52 weeks, consecutive employment. Herbert Sbrrell,. .■ business" repre- sentative of Local 644, who -will handle negotiations for. the Artists, also has offered to kick back a 10% wage increase given the: Studip Painters if the corripariies ■will guar- aritee. them 42 weeks' work each: year. / ^-^'/. •'., ... •/;■,'.:; Cliff Nazarro ; has beeri nominated as candidate for president of Los Angeles ;Ghapter . of the American / Guild i of ■ Variety . Artists. Eddie Davis, Jauquin Gray, Frank Mitchell and Mead Sigle.r .will fight it out for the. vice.--presidency;: .Helene Heller is the only nbrniriee for treasurer, and Princess Wynemah is: the" only nominee; for recording secretary. Nominees for the AGVA. board ' of directors are Harpo Marx, Roger Imhof, Lucile Gleasbrii Jariies Burke, Jack :,Frost, Jade Rhbdore;. Lyrin Mayberry, Sugar Geise, Fred Scott, Phil Arnold, Cantu, Ala Leiha Reed, Eddie Anderson, Laurel- Graves, Sareta Raye, Peggy , Robbins;; arid George Stewart. ■ : Producers have . turned thUnibf down on the request of the Sbciety of Motion Picture Film Editors that editors on call who receive $150 per week be included in the 10% wage (Continued on page 22)