Variety (Sep 1928)

Wednesday, September 19, 1928 P I C T U R E S VARIETY 23 Merger of 3 Cos. in Film Accessories Includes Former Fox Film Men Albany, N, T., Sept, 18. The merger of* three concerns (Jealing in manufacture of photo- graphic and motion picture film products and accessories was made known with, the Incorporation filed here of the Graves Holding Corp., of which George B. Graves, assist- ant and secretary to Governor Smith, is the president. The new company will have control, of 87 patents in photographic and film field. The bfilces of the new cor^ poration will be at 1776 Broadway, New Tork. Graves will not retire from his political position as his ofiicial ca- pacity with the new corporation win not. Interfere with the duties git the Capitol, The three merged companies are Khe Consumers Photo Products Co., of Mars, Pa.;^ Ortho Photo Products Corp./of New York City, and the Artpho Co., Delaware corporation. These control the principal patents in commercial photogi-aph industry in. the United States and abroad. Directors include: Gustavus A. Hogers, New York attorney, for- mer general counsel for the Fox; Frank P. Dolan, Albany realty op- erator; Frederick W. Hochstetter, Inventor; Morris Schutte, president of Ortho company; Elverton Wickes, Pittsburgh attorney; Arthur S. Somers, president of the American Phototure Co. and vice-president of the board of education of Kew York; Jos6ph C, Trees, of >PItts- ' burgh, financier and owner of the Benedum Trees Corp.; John J. Dauer, Pittsburgh, banker and president of the Bloomfield Trust Co.; John O. Wickes, corporation lawyer, of Pittsburgh. Officers include: ; Douglas N. Tauzig, formerly treasurer of Fox; Thomas W. Lamb, theatrical archi- tect, and Jacob Shapiro, builder and contractor.' First-cnis^nonMjnTor^featur? organist, permanent, for a large 3 manual 170 stops. Average man not wanted. Canadian City. State Wages. ADDRESS BOX 65, Variety, New York c A R B N A DIAMOND (DAKCINO HARPIST SUPREME) Featured with Fanchon and Marco's "RIVER" Idea Now 1,o«w'b State, Iioa Angeles Direction; IVoIter Meyers, of Wm. Morris Ai^encr BILLY SNYDER THE JUVENILE PRINCE DOING TIME FOR FANCUON and MARCO Openlnff Boulevard, I>Ofl Angeles, Sept. 21 Plrection; WM. MORRIS ETHEL MEGUN'S FEATURED WITH FANGHON AND MARCO Wisconsin Indes for First Time Get M-G-M's Fox and RIetro-Goldwyn-Mayer failed to get together on terms in the Wisconsin territory, with the result that no M-G-M pictures wi'.l play the Saxe (Mldwesco) chain this year. Fox declined to nego- tiate with M-G-M for second runs after M-G-M sold its first runs to Fox's opposition; the independen- donts. Offlcials of both companies deny any strained relationship or that the failure to do businesig in the Milwaukee sector has other signifi- cance. M-G-M product has always ijntll this season been booked solidly by the Saxe chain and has been avail- able to opposition only at certain points under special, local cond^"- tionsi Li. K. Erin; Ind exhlb. of Milwaukee, Is the benaflciary In that town. Fox has three downtown houses In Milwaukee, the Strand. Merrill and Wisconsin. Through the Saxe pwnership they have the Paramount product to alternate with their own, but with three houses to book will probably have to draw upon the smaller independent producers. With Fox having rejected M-G-M second runs. Universal has booked the follow-ups foi- its chain, lo- cated mostly in 'neighborhoods and small towns. MANY CHANGES IN STANLEY OPERATION Clean Out in Staff; Head- quarters Under War- ners in N. Y. Photophone in Chicago Chicago, Sept 18. Marks Brothers; have installed R. C. A.'s Photophone in. their, Granada. and Marboro theatres, in additiori to Vitaphone and Movie- tone. "Hit of the Show" , is to be the opening attraction on the new de- vice. 3 B'klyn Houses for Sale Three Brooklyn houses, Shubertr Teller, subway circuit legit stand, and the DeKalb ahd Halsey, 2,300- seat picture houses, are for sale. The Teller seats 1,800. A blind a.d by T. A. Clarke Co., the owners, in. the New Tork "Times"' disclosed It. Movietone Trade Mark Washington, Sept. 18. Fox has been granted , a,, trade mark on a new arrangement of the word "Movietone." In the latest mark, serially numbered 270,326 By the Patent Office, the word is In tall hand-drawn letters with a drawing of an eye in the first "o" and an car for the second "o." It was filed July 31, 1928, with use claimed since May 25, 1928. Any nuipber lot changes in the operation- of the Stanley Company chain by the Warnera ore antici- pated, after the Warner Brothers shall have assumed controL Clean puts ajriong the Stanley staff are reported to be among the first Warner moves, with a se- lection of an operator for the chain the next. Politics In the Stanley headquarters in Philadelphia will cease with the changes, from ac- counts, and the Warners will move the headquarters to New York- Harry M. Warner will automati- cally becorne the president of the Stanley Company with the control, ousting Irving D. Rosshelm, present Stanley head. RoSsheim is also president of First National, a tem- porary post for him, wiUi some doubt as to whether he will con-- tinue to hold it after passing put of the Stanley directorate. While no. selection la reported having been made by the Warners for a Stanley chain operator, it is. said that Joe piunkett has been considered. Piunkett la a practical all-around showman, alUgned with the Moo Mark forces of Stanley. Moe Mark is also rumored to remain at the head of what are known as the Stanley-Mark houses, a,nd may go into an iexecutlve position, on the Stanley . end with the Warner acquisition^ With the Warners reported mov; ing their Hollywood talking short division to New York,, for freerer scope, Piunkett, through his Inti- mate knowledge of both atage and screen, is said to be favored by Jack Warner as the eastern produc tion head for the Warner New York talking short studioa. Sectional Operation Report is that the sub-circuits under the Stanley heads, like the Fabian of N. J.* will continue in operation at least for the present with their respective sectional oper- ators, such as the Fajbians In New Jersey and Mark for hla New York and New England theatres. On the Stanley chain are about 10 de luxe houses, but any number of Class B theatres. It Is understood that the Stanley In Baltimore, lately pooled with Loew's, will not be dis- turbed In the new direction of Stan- U Only Sells Lemons; Keeping Theatre Chain Recent .sales of ITnivcrsal Iho- atres, signifying the. company's- iti- toht of .eventually with (Ira Wing en- tirely from the exhibiting end of the business, are discountod by U executives. They say Universal is merely getting its chain, of about 200 houses; , into more, compact form. To do this they concede the com- pany will have to prune its the- atre tree of its lemons. H. J. Corbett,, Ass't. Geh. Mgr. Chicago, Sept. 18.. James ID. Coston, chief factotum of the National Playhouses (form- erly owned by Cooney Bros.) has appointed Harry J. Corbett as as- Asistant-general manager of the cir- cuit. . . ■ Corbett will be in charge of op- eration. DONNA DAMEREL "THE DARLING OF SONGS" With "MELODY A LA MODE" A Publix Unit Produced by LOU McDERMOTT Playing Balahan & Katz Theatres Direction: WILLIAM MORRIS OFFICE Tiffany's Color Talking Shorts Exclusively for Wired Houses "Patriot's" Chicago Break . Chicago, Sept. 18. Opening week gross of $43,000 drawn by "Wiiigs" at McVickors was so sensational that B. & K. at- tempted to rush another print into the Rop.sevelt for slriiultaneous showing. Contracted opening of "The Pa- trlo.t;' in the Roosevelt Friday nec- essitated discarding the plan. No picture has ever played two first-run Loop houses at the same time. ley, LiOew operating the Baltimore house. Rossheim's Denrals Rossheim was Stanley's treasuirer when promoted to Its head. He ad- mitted, no show experience but satd he "could buy brains.". At the same time Rossheim requested the picture trade papers to consult with, him before printing reports on. the Stan- ley Company while he was presi- dent. In return Rossheim pledged himself to properly answer and re sp'ect any trade newspaper man's question. During the Warner-Stanley nego- tiations, Rossheim repeatedly de- nied the deal was on, albeit simul- taneously the Warner people either admitted it or declined to commit themselves. This kept up with Rossheim until almost the day be- fore the transaction was virtually closed, leaving the Inference that If Rossheim was faithful to his pledge, he didn't seem to know, what his own company was doing. Other matters in connection with Stan- ley during the Rossheim regime also suggested as much. SJhe trade newspapers were de- barred from making the.positive re-! port of the Warner-Stanley merger through Rossheim's vehement de- nials. In trade newspaper work that kind of stuff gains no good will from the deceived papers. TifTany's Color Classics, heretofore a silon't standard picture market short, have boon renamed TiTf.any • Color Symphonies as sounded talk- ing shorts and will bo held exclu- sively for wired housp.s. Once sounded these Tiffanys will not be doubly roloasod as silcnta. The Tiffany-Stahl Symphonies will oniploy the. R. C. A. rhoto- phone talking process and the. cur- rently proposed series by Tiffany for this season is now set at 10, Thoy will be supervised by Rudolph Flothow, in general charge of shorta for T-S. The T-S color talking shorts, the. only ones so far an- nounced . for immediate delivery, rank with other talking shorts em- . ployed as substitute acts in pre- sentation or other houses using a stage show additionally to the fea- ture film. T-S promises music, sound and dialog in Its'color talkers. The first is "In a Persian Market;" with the song of that title as Its musical theme. Betty Boyd and Raymond Keane are In the leads. Each of the first Tiffany color series will bo built around a theme song of the/ same title. T\vo of the 10 have been coin- pleted. Ofllcially trade mai'ked as Tiffany Tone, they are "The Tollers" and. "The Gn-valler," each with a Hugo RIesenfeld musical score with Dr. Ricsenfcld supervising the syn- chronization. Among other, i'lffany. talkers, other than those of the Technicolor di- vision, will be "The Ghetto" with George Jessel, and "Thei Rainbow," the latter a Reginald Barker pro- duction. In regular length talkers. Tiffany Tone will do 10 or more. Talkers Too Cosdy for SmaD Houses, Southwest Convention Informed for NEW YORK OFFICE: 1560 BROA )RK OFFICE: ' ' "~ ' — ^¥ iTTY'scirARY ijr>i I vwnnn ( LOG. HOLLYWOOD, GAL. HEMPSTEAD 3594 . SL Louis, Sept. 18. Only a course of the very strictest neutrality in political matters. is safe for motion picture exhlbitora— giving one party the same break as the others—especially during the heat of a presidential campaign, was the warning to 235 picture the- atre owners assembled here at the annual convention of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of eastern Missouri and southern Illinois. Thfe advice was vouchsafed to the con-: vohtlon by Fred Wchrenberg, . of St. Louis, president of the associa- tion. . The talkers also came up lengthy discussion, the consensus of oinnion in the convention being that immediate installation of,sound de- vices in' the smaller picture hou.sc3 in this section of the country is too costly at this time to be practlca- Ijlo. "They are out of tho question now for the small theatres," Weh- r.enljcrg tbld tho convention. "Dc- Kpitf; that we do not know.how the public will ultimately judge these I>i(;lure.s, an adf-quate sound instal- laLi^TnJofTf."3" tT^o15stmd's^^of "do1 lars=^ loo much for the small theatre to risk on a dfjvolopme.nt still In the realm of experiment." Wehrenberg and the other oillcers were re-olocted and eiglit delegates were ehor?en to the natifinal conven- tion in Toronto in Oclobea. EGNEB FEOM M-G-M TO U. A. San Francisco, Sept. 18. R. !P. Egner, formerly traveling out of the Mctro-Goldwyn-Maycr home offlcp, has been appointed San Francisco ' excliange " m^'ha ^fof United Artists, replacing Kenneth Hcdklnson In that post. CharlesAlthoff "Variety" "AS PERFECT A CHAR ACTHRIZA- TION A 8 W A S RVEat PORTRATBaj ON ANT BTAOE.'* Oakland "Tribune" "CntARI-BS AI-T- HOFF, T O G O E D OUT AS AN OCTO- GENARIAN RUUB FIDDLER, AND T.R UE TO TH ■ TYI'E IN EVERY C I R C U MSTANCB ROMPED AWAT ^\lTIt THE TOP LINE HONORS OV THE OltPUEUM HILL WITH LIT- TI.E OII'OMITION, ETC., ETC." Addreu Core Jsrry Carglll, 1360 Broadway, N. Y. DORIS WHmORE World's Youngest Prima Donna Toe Dancer and Violinist No^ WltJT — FANCHON and MARCO'S "UP IN THE AIR" IDEA Alert, Experienced Manager for Large Neighborhood Picture Theatre Upstate GIVE REFERENCES AND EXPERIENCE Box 11, VARIETY, New York