Variety (May 1926)

Wednesday, May 12, 1926 PICTURES VARIETY EXHIBIT HELPLESS MOVIE SCHOOLS DOOMED BY DRIVE OF CAL OFFICIAL Being Fleeced, Claims Labor Commissioner— Improper Advances Toward Women Mentioned in State Investigation Los Angeles, May 1L Declaring that the 76 schools of toorie acting located in Hollywood are a menace. Deputy Labor Com- missioner Charles E. Lowery has declared that he will make arrests and close them. He claims that pupils of the Schools were fleeced invariably and that in some instances, they were "taken" for several thousand dol- lars. In another Instance statutory •barges will be preferred against the head of a particular school on the ground that a girl of 16 was ails treated by several men. Women detectives employed by Lowery to investigate the cases have been approached for "booze parties," as well as having im- proper advances made to them. Lowery, who is set on quick ac- tion, has declared that a week will see everyone of these "institutions of learning" closed and the owners taken into custody for violation of the labor and other laws. Rowland & Clark Deny They Are in Merger Pittsburgh, May 11. James B. Clark, president of the Rowland &. Clark theatres, has denied that the Stanley-Mark- Fabian theatrical merger involving his company's chain of theatres here had been consummated. "Aa far as we are concerned the .whole matter is purely conver- sational," Mr. Clark said. "We have discussed the proposals from time to time, but so far no definite action has been taken." He admitted that such a merger "tay be made and that negotiations have been in progress. The Rowland & Clark chain in- cludes the Liberty, Regent. Manor. Beimar, Strand, Blaekstone. Capital, Arsenal and Colonial theatres. Construction of two new theatres, one in the downtown district and the other in Wilklnsburg, a resi- dential suburb, by the Rowland & J-'ark company has been started. «r Clark said that these new uieatres would be included if the merger goes through. Rock iffe Fellowes Hurt In Mysterious Crash Los Angeles, May 11. Mystery surrounds the possibly 5" n *;' , | n ; nt f <^al disfigurement of i ffe Fe,lowe «. actor, severely ». k?, Ut the head when hI * auto- mobile crashed Into a parked car in *»ntn Monica, Fellowes is at Martin's Hospital *na claims that he was not driving *u 4 Y as a?,0 °P beside the driver at jne time of the crash Sunday morn- vi.?', declined to s-iy who was driving. •Will Hutchlns. secretary to Fel- jowes and who lives in Von ire, said "ie actor 1, ft his homo la«t Satur- day with 1.100 in his pocket, but wnen taken to the hospital, 91 cents *as all th.rt could be found. New Treatment Passed For 4 American Tragedy 9 A new treatment, radically altering the story, but consid- ered okeh for passing by the Hays organization, has been prepared for the filming of Dreiser's "An American Trag- edy," which Mai St. Clair has been assigned to handle for P. P. It is understood that the se- lections for the roles of Clyde Griffiths and Roberta Alden, the leading parts, are Charles Emmett Mack and Dorothy Mackaill. Miss Mackaill is a First Na- tional featured artist. STANLEY'S AND ROXY'S LATEST B'WAY RUMOR Hitch Reported Over Opera- tion—Otherwise Each Side Reported Favorable Miss Short's Short Contract T Los Angek-i, May 11. ^Tho f ontraet recently signed be- tween Gertrude Fhort an ! F. H. O. ■tudlos was dissolved by mutual •onsor.t. Miss Short express* d her- as dissatisfied with the story :«£leetf«d for her first picture under the nf.y eon tract. SUMMER SUBSCRIPTION to "VARIETY" $1—3 Month* s «nd remittance with name and address A late Broadway rumor this week was that the new Roxy's theatre might find its berth In the lately organized Stanley-Mark-Fabian theatre combine. A hitch is 3ald to have arisen through the Stanley combination expecting to operate the now build- ing Roxy should it align wnlle S. F. Rothafel, promoter of the house named after him and who holds a long term contract as its director at a rcputod annual Balary of $125,000, is insistent that he alone shall pilot the new project Should the Roxy be added to the newest theatre chain, it would give the combine an ultra-Important Broadway theatre (6,000 capacity) at the same time clearing the mat- ter of picture service for the Roxy. Through the Moe Mark associa- tion, if the Roxy passes to the Stan- ley circuit under agreeable terms, Mark no doubt would pass along his First National service franchise, exclusive for New York city, to the Roxy. Such a move would permit the Mark people to rebuild on the Mark-Strand Broadway site or place that theatre of around 2,800 ca- \w ; Ity on another policy. Up to yesterday none of the In- terested p-irties would comment. Each admitted the lined-up deal had its advantages, with the pivotal Boxy the Gibraltar center. NO DISTRIBUTOR IS PROTECTING SINGLE HOUSES Not Over 6,000 Purely In- dependent Theatres Left in Country — Others in Circuits of More Than Two Theatres—Eventu- ally Will Be Forced Into Opposition or Out of Picture Business — Small Towns No More Secure Than Big Cities—Oppor- tunity at Present to Find Salvation—Later May Be Too Late CHAIN COMBINES "TAKE A CHANCE WEEK" AT RIVOLI, ON B'WAY Two additional Frank Cambria units are slated for Publlx The- atres routes bofore July. They are to be known as "Take a Chance Week," opening at the Rlvoll May .10, and "Circus Days," June 13. Each of tho attractions will be routed for 15 weeks. "Pacific" Thriller 1,08 Angeles, May 11. Warner Prothers will produce ''•oorge K. Planey's Spanish Amer- ican War story. "Across the P.iriile," with Monto Blue starred. The picture will be a thriller. It wlM not bf> pliototrr.'iphrd as a cos-! tun e picture but will be a modern 1 version of the story. Lone picture exhibitors, opera tine one or two theatres throughout the United States, axe helpless under present conditions. It is the opinion of disinterested film men that unless steps are taken for their salvation, that the one-two house exhibitors must suo- cumb, either to the ever increasing opposition or pass out of the pic- ture business. Salvation for the little exhibitor can only be accomplished through a guarantee of picture service. It must be a service that neither the opposition nor chain circuit oan steal away, either through pressure upon the distributor or paying a higher rental for single or bulk bookings. There is no American distributor at present systematically protecting the smaller exhibitor who most needs that protection, while at the same time the distributor, in view of current conditions, will Just as badly need the detached film houses. Of the 17,000 or 18.000 picture houses in the country, not over 6,000 are under the control of really in- dependent exhibitors, those who have one or two theatres at the most. This takes in all of the big cities, sticks and tanics. Of the 6,000 there can not be figured over 4,500 individual exhibitors. With the other 11.000 or 12.000 picture theatres there may be 1,000 exhibitors operating over two the- atres, with some of the chains Tun- ing into the hundreds. Maybe Not Over 2,500 At the present rate of absorption of single holdings the current gross number of small exhibitors, 5,500, may be reduced within a compara- tively .short time to not over 2,500. It is said that there is not a day that Famous Players has less than 100 deals on for theatres. These are deals In the main outsiders never hear of, nor are there statis- tics on how many or what percent- al of those deals go through. Within the past week there has been feverish activity in the vicinity of New York as far as the inde- (Continued on page 18) Anita Loos on Story Selling for Films Chicago, May 11. "The psychology of the movies is that if a thing has been written before. In a book or play, it has been done bet- ter than a scenario writer could do it." Speaking to a group of news- paper writers. Anita Loos gave that as her reason for quit- ting the scenario business. "I can sell my stuff somewhere else first and then let them buy it," she explained. With her husband, John Emerson, Miss Loos came to Chicago to see how her "Gen- tlemen Prefer Blondes" was coming along at the Selwyn. They returned to New York Saturday. EXPORTS FELL OFF IN MARCH UNNE GRIFFITH WILL GO TO 1ST NATIONAL Present Contract Bought Up —New Sliding Salary Scale to $12,000 Weekly Los Angeles. May 11. B. M. Asher, Edward Small and Charles Rogers are to receive a large sum from First National for turning over to that organization the contract they have with Co- rinne Griffith. Negotiations, It is said, will close for the transfer this week in New York with Asher and Miss Griffith present Miss Griffith has a contract with Asher, Small and Rogers whereby she has two more pictures to make before December. Clauses in this contract also provide that for the next five years the trio has the right to meet any offers that other producers are willing to make Miss Griffith for her services. Her pres- ent contract calls for $5,500 a week. It is saJd that First Na- tional is prepared to give her $7,500 a week for the first year con- tract and then raise this amount $1,500 a week each year until it reaches $12,000 a week. When Richard Rowland, general manager of First National, was here last month he had several con- ferences with Miss Griffith and her producers. It is said that Miss Griffith was endeavoring to get away from her producers, as she was having trouble from time to time with one or two of them. Rowland suggested that First National take over the contract. Miss Griffith favored that idea. The Griffith pictures were not among the biggest money makers for First National, but were prof- itable. It is figured by First Na- tional that the amount paid A. S. R. will be easily made up for with the distribution of her future pictures. Drop of Nearly 8, Feet in Month 1:1:1x11:1 Washington, May 11. Following the recent report from the Department of Commerce that the "Invisible Exchange" in pic- tures disclosed exports of $300,000,- 000 in the last fiscal year of the Government, comes another from that department disclosing a de- cided drop during March. 1926, as compared with that month last year. Film exports for March, 1926, to- taled but approximately 18,800.000 feet compared with 24.500,000 feet in March of last year. This Includes negatives and positives. In face of this drop in the ex- posed films, however, the raw stock discloses an Increase of approxi- mately 100,000 feet March, 1926, totalled 1.966.0C0 feet cf the unex- posed film compared with 1,892.06* feet In March, 1925. Australia again led In the foot- age of negatives and positives se- cured from this country during March of this year, the total ex- ports in that country exceeding 2,590,000 feet This also was a drop from March of last year, when the footage reached 1.091,000 feet Canada was second during the current March with 1,922,000 feet Argentina next with 1,672,000 feet while Mexico with 1,020,000 feet and Brazil with 1.108,000 feet were next in the order named. All were de- cided drops from March of last year. Skouras' Prefer "Names" And Acts to Presentations ALICE BLUE SEES RED Chadwick's Inde. Deal With Sax, Kahn, et al. Los Angeles, May 11. A deal per.ds whereby I. K. Chad- wirk wj!1 distribute, annually the iiukin n 1< nt productions of Sam Sax, (;<'iirt?« Kahn and Henry Gins- berg. Ch idwi: k is now en route to .\'< w York for k conference with the .Messrs. Sax. Kahn and Ginsberg. If the drril should go through, it will piac e Chadwkk In the position of hen-ling the minor independents. About 40 features a year, a large number of remedies and short sub- jects including westerns that Joe !b.(k is under contract to turn out f <>r Kahn are Included In the nego- tiations. Los Angeles, May 11. Alice Bjue, screen actress who married Charles Laughlln eight years ago in Tennessee, has brought suit in tho Superior Court here for divorce, alleging desertion. Mrs. Lnughlin said that her hus- band had a sweetheart in Tulsa. Okla., and that she found letters and telegram.! from "the other woman" among his effects. They have been separated for three years. $1 to Hit Manager Don Moines, May 11. Ludy Poston. employe of a fllrn distributing corporation here, paid a fine of SI and costs in Mun.-'vul court for assaulting Mannie Gott- lieb, manager of tho Universal Film '•i''h;i nge lioston alleged that (Juttlb b bad slandered him and offered that as tho provocation which ' :iu: f<l birn to strike the first blow. '!'/:<• cn irl rb- clnred both w<,e to b\ipi" f-»r the fight, und made the hue nominal. Chicago, May 11. It Is said that since Mike Shea insisted that something he done to fill those holes in his house that presentations don't seem able to fill, the same demand Is being voiced by Skouras Brothers of flt Louis, who also have been playing; only the Publlx theatres presenta- tions as the stage attraction. Last week the Skouras tried to strengthen the show by putting la Ruth Etting. but this action created so much hard feollng that they were forced to withdraw her. NO PATHE-K-A DEAL A report this week that Keith - Albee Is In negotiation with Pa the for the purchase of the latter was denied In quarters believed to hare proper information. The story said Fathe had set a price, with K-A countering at one half of the amount asked. Pathe is a maker and distributor of what are known in picture circles as "shorts:" films of two reels or less. Ulmer Breaks Contract Los Angelas, May 11. Edgar Ulmer, assistant art di- rector for Universal, has broken his contract. He is said to have be- come dissatisfied with the agree- ment he signed when brought over from fJermnny as a protege of Carl Laemmle. The instrument stated that Charles Hall, nrt director, was to be mentioned on all credit lines for Ulmcr's creations. Another sore point was that Ulmer was farmed out, doing that work in addition to his own deigning without receiving anything additional. Ulmer may go with Metro-flold- wyn-Mayer or Cecil P». De Mllle. COST U"M E S F^OR HIRE PRODUCTIONS KXIT.OITATIONS PRESENTATIONS BROOKS 1437 B'way. Tel. 8680 Pen.