Variety (Jun 1928)

Wednesday, June 13, 1928 PICTURES VARIETY 23 Unions' Detroit Convention Handles New ''Sound" like a Hot Potato L A. Making 18 FOms For the New Season Three Resolutions on Subject Reserved—Salary Increase for Executives at 29th Annual Detroit, June 12. Subject, of talking pictures was handled like a; hot potato at the 29th annual convention of the I. A. T. S. E. and M. P. M. O, of the United States and Canada which wDund up Saturday after six days. .Three resolutions dealing with the matter were not concurred In and were reserved for future discussion by the executive board in spite of the wishes of many to have the Issue disposed of on the spot. In substance, the resolutions were as follows: (i) that all maintenance of talking picture equipment must be done by I. A. members and that all installation of such equipment must be by I. A. men; (2) that all toad shows equipped with syn- chronized aijparatus should employ, not less than three men, each at a minimum salary of $125 per week. Attitude of the alliance on the topic Is clearly seen ■ in the third resolutioK which reads: Whereas, to . date .there has been no . solution of- fered that will be beneficial, to the small local and a protection foir the big local, and whereas, It has been demonstrated . that one man ' canr not successfully operate and main- tain, the equipment necessary for the projection of synchronized and non-synchronized motion pictures, aiid. whereas, a,t this time if the delegates in convention assembled would enact a i-w regarding a limited number of men to operate such equipment and refer the-mat^ t^r of the so-called Installation en- £:ineers employed by the Electrical Kesearch Corp. to the incoming ex- ecutive board for solution at a time, perhaps In the near future, when in their opinion their places. coulu be competently filled by members of the Alliance; therefore, be.lt re- ""aolved that where any attachments are made to the picture projector Of any theatre, which will transmit, or cause to be transmitted, any fipund vocal or musical that there Shall be one member of the Alliance at each projection machine, or that during projection of synchronized or non-synchronized pictures . there shall at all times , be two members of this AlUahce in the projection room. Two Factions At the outset two factions devel-; oped, the east forcing the issue and the western delegation opposing and Stalling for time. That the attitude Those Coast Pre-Views It Is said that the AMPA of New Yor-k, ■ acting in concert with' the Wampas of the coast, both societies containing the publiqitj^: and advertising' men of the film business, may attempt to correct the evil of' the pre-review criticisms on picturies. in the Hollywood sec- tion. These reviews have been so manifestly . unfair, full of ob- jectlves,' mostly ulterior,' and expressed oh incomipleted films, merely, shown for pur- poses of further editing and re-cutting, that; the producers believe somethins- should be done to place a period to It. Biesides the coast trade sheets, some dailies consider the . inexperienced or biased prfe-critlcisms as "news." In a couple of instances ijiational fan magazines have gone after the same thing, erring like the others but with the mags not doing it iritentionally. ' of the westerners finally came out on top was probably due to the un- certainty in the ideas expressed by President Canavan on the topic. It was openly charged that the eastern operators included in their memberships a sufficient number of men to install and operate the new film device, In the west, there is but one local with a group of op eriators skilled In this type of pro jection. An alternative w:ould be to accept the electrical engineers, already working on. the sound equipment, into the union. But this is just what the alliance Is fightfng against. Re-election of Wililiim F. Ciana van as international president was practically a certainty as soon as it was known he would run; With Canavan, the entire "execu tive family" of the past two yeatiS will be retained. The lineup still reads: Canavan, president; Richard J. Green, general secretary-treas- urer; .Harry Dignam, assistant president; Fred J. Dempsey, WJl Ham P. Covert, WUHam C. Elliott, Cleve Beck, George E. Browne, John P. Nick and William J.: Har rer, vice-presidents. Only Canavan and Nick had op- position at the ■ election. WHHam E. Monroe, Local No, 1, New Tork, opposed Canavan, while Felix Snow of Kansas City aspired to be sixth vice-president. Both were de- feated.. In his formal report the presl dent evaded prominent, ihention of "synchronized pictures," but went into detail on several other sub' jects. He dealt with conditions in bur lesque and severely panned mem bers of the alliance, who work in that field under scale, calling them the "degenerate element." One of the outstanding topics in his re- port was the suggestion that all burlesque crews should be placed directly by the General Office. It Is . expected this ruling will becbitie effective in the near future* Officers' Salary Increases It was resolved and adoplted that the piresident's salary be increased from $200 a week to $20,000 a year. THE JESSE CRAWFORD ORGAN CONCERT PARAMOUNT, NEW YORK MRS. CRAWFORD AT THE STAGE CONSOLE PEOGEAM WEEK BEGINNING SATUEDAY, JUNE 9 "HIGH HAT" Published by Forster "LAUGH, CLOWN, LAUGH" Published, by Remick Big Mid-West Houses Lose Plenty; Only Chi and St. Louis Doing Biz United Artists will release 18 pic- tures next season, according to an announcement Issued today (June 13). This Is an Increase of three pictures over last season. Produc- tion cost is estimated at over $10,- 000,000, figuring that none of the U. releases cost under $400,000. The only new producer on the line-up will be Rex Ingram; Norma Talmadge.. will appear In The Woman Disputed," from the stage play by t)enison Cllft. Henry King directs, with scenario by C. Gardner Sullivan. Gilbert Roland is leading man. » Gloria Swanson's production, "The Swamp," is an ori^ihal by Eric Von Stroheim, to be directed: by the author. Dolores Del Rio is to star In '"Re- venge," directed by Edwin Carewe. Story Is by Korirad • Bercovici* and adaptation tly Finis Foi, Vilma Banky's first starring pic- ture is entitled "The Awakening." Victor Fleming is directing. Story by Francis Marion and adaptation by Carey Wilson. Charlie Chaplin Is to produce City Lights." Douglas Fairbanks Is to make a sequel to one of his pictures, "The Three Musketeers." Title so far un- decided, , Mary Pickf prd has not yet decided on a story. : • D, W. Grlffitii ha^ completed 'IThe Battle of the Sexes" from the story by Danier Carson. Goodman. Gerit^ Lloyd adapted for the screen. The Tempest," with John Biarry- more, will be generally released. Barrymore will also appear In an- other production so far unnamed. Ernst Lubitsch will direct. "The La.st of Mrs. jCheyney," announced as Barrymore's next, will not be made f6r next season's release. Ronald Colman's first starring pic- ture will be "The Rescue," from the story by Joseph Conrad. Herbert Brenon directing. "Two Lovers," the last film In whicii Vilma Banky and Ronald Col- man were co-starred, will be re- leased generally; "Steamboat Bill, Jr.," with Bustei Keatbn and Ernest Torrence, will be released. . ' "Lummox," from the .story by Fannie Hurst, produced by Samuel Goldwyn. Boyd and Velez William Boyd and Lupe Velez will appear in "The Love Song." Santi Taylor will direct. This picture Is based on "La Palva," by Dr. Karl Vollmoeller. •Nightstick," by John Wray, will be directed by Roland West. The Nugcnts and Elaine Sterne Car- rlngton will appear In the cast. "Hell's Angels" Is slated to be produced by Howarji Hughes, Jr., at a cost of over $1;066,000. Ben Lyon, Greta Nissen and Thelma Todd are to be In the cast. Rex Ingram will make "The Three Passions," based on the novel by Cosmo Hamilton. Alice Terry and Ivan Petrovitch will be in the cast According to the announcement three or more pictures will be movie toned with sound eftects, "scores and voices." "The Awakening," with Vilma Banky, Is to be movie i;oned, while the Boyd-Velez picture. The, Love Song," will also have sound effects. Dick Green, now getting $185 week, will also receive $20,000 year. One resolution increased the secretary-treasurer's income to $17,- 500, but Tom Maloy of Chicago add ed to the resolution- by $2,600, hav- ing Green's salary equal that of the president. This was wildly acclaimed when Introduced; With Increases^ salaries of Ificom Ing executives will amount to about $55,000 a year, assistant president receiving $150 weekly, a^nd each of the seven vice-presidents $1,000 i year. . . It wias resolved to establish a de fehse fundj • similar to- that of the American Federation of Musicians, for use In strike periods. Theatre mergers were given as the motive for this, and the musicians tossed a bouquet by handing Bill Canavan a life memt»ershlp In the A. F. of M. It was resolved by the alliance to return the compliment to Joe Weber. The 29th bonventloh, just ended, was the largest ever staged by the stage hands and operators. It was attended officially by 800 odd dele- gates, representing 638 stage hands, "SperStWiT'and ~ c^ all thfre were approximately l.S'OO In town for the convention. H.arry Griffin was chairman of the reception committee, with locals 38 (stage hands) and 199 (operators) of Detroit as hosts. • Stirring Up W^stwood E. Alan Meyer, picture the- atre operator and justice- of the. peace in Westwood, N. J., town of 6,000, hit the front: pages of all of tire New York dailies for the. first two days t>f this week, through invoking his police .. power . in. reprisal Sunday for the local cops closing his theatre. Meyer, as a justice of the peace stopped everything Sun- day in Westwood, from stores to automobiles and even pre- vented a railroad train bound for New York from proceed- ing through the village. The stir-up lasted two hours. Meyer was fined $16 for at- tempting to show Sunday pic- tures; He says he'll fight that too. : Publicity on the affair, prob- ably sent out by the news serv- ices, should be excellent propa- ganda for the open Sunday anywhere. Danz Gets Break After 5 Months' Union Dispute Portland, Ore., June 12. Joe panz, owner of the Embassy and RIalto theatres, has emerged partly victorious after a hectic five month's scrap with local musicians, stagehands, operators and janitor's unions. A new contract has been signed between Danz and this unions which goes into effect June 28. Under the new contract, original demands by the musician for a house Orchestra at the Embassy Is out. This alone means a saving of. over. $500 weekly to Danz. Neither will stagehands be employed at. the house. Four organists at the union scale, averaging around $60 for each man, are to be put on Immediately and the two Danz houses will be 100 per cent union from now on. Squabble was supposedly over midnight shows at the Embassy,, Loew-Keith on Par Splits Between Keith and Loew circuits has been a mutual understanding tiia;t there shall be an equal split on the Metro. and Paramount pic- ture groups. Where a blo'ck of 40 pictures was designated 20 would be taken by Keith's and 20 by Loew's, with Keith making the split last year. This year It Is the Loew turn for the spilt, but up to this week no choice had been made by Loew, with Loew reported holding uP until after the Metro pictures had been sold. Under this plan Paranlqunt Is prevented from selling until after the two, Keith and Loew, have de- cided upo'n their, split lists. Along the film RIalto this is re- igarded as giving Loew a better break and making sales a little better from M-G-M at this time. There appears to be no great hurry on the part of Keith to desig- nate a lot of pictures, pending the readjustment of film bookings in the Keith offices. Chicago, June 12. Business in de luxe picture houses is completely shot, thi'oughout the middle west. The only theatres os* caping the severe slump "are those in Chicago and St. Louis, West Coast-Fox Is claimed to be losing pionty In Wisconsin territory, especially Milwauifee, "The Blank Circuit Is also runnlrig slim. Unlversal's chain in Wisconsin is aggregating an imposing weekly loss, with the Alhrirnbra, Mil- waukee, reported to have dropped to rock bottom several weeks, ago at an $1,800 total' for the seven days. ^■ Great States, subsidiary of Pub- lix-B. & K., operating over 100 the- atres, is, closing some of its housesJ In shutting up theatres in Peoria, Jollet and several other spotSj Great Statejs has even refused tq sublease for' summer runs of stock though assured of profit in the rental. Ben Pieriiiont Loaned As Talking Expert Ben Picrmont has been engaged by Electrical Resea.rch Products, subsidiary of Western Electric, to) assist Loew's in the installation ol) tho talker eqiiipment, also with iad-i vice as to the talkers in.general. V Piermont Is the first expert selected of the, direct show busii ness as a supervisor. Previously, the engineers Of th^ electrics haVe acted as ajdvlsors, * Piermont got his experience with Warners'. Vltaphorie, later moving to the Fox establishment. He is ah expert In selection of talent and booking of talking shorts, besides his wide knowledge of the talker, in production and in the theatre. Before going with the talkers, jpier- mont was a proficient vaudeville booker. ', Zorn Becomes a D. M. , Poughkeepsle, N. Y., June 12. Ed Ward Zorn, : manager of. the local Bardavon theatre, is now dis- trict manager for Publix. His place Will be filled by iHeriry, Hof, now at the Stratford. J. A. Hartung, formerly with Loew in New York, will manage the Stratford. Delayed Finance Chicago, June 12. j Although Ihe building has beeb completed and occupied for .several months, Harry Englesteln has Just financed his Regal theatre buUdlhg through the National Bank of the Republic. . Structure Includes the Regal the- atre. Savoy ballro^mi and two flpors. o^tores. Building cost was $3,000,- Met's New ;^75,00d Cooler Los Angeles, June 12. - Local .Metropolitan has thrown out its old cooling system! and Inr stalled a new one costing $76,000. Mr, Exhibitor: You can't go wrong with General Motors on Automobiles Sterling on Silver AND Alfred E. Green PRODUCTIONS Distributed by FOX