Variety (Dec 1929)

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UNEMPLOYMENT HITS THEATRES INAUSTRAUA Sydney;, Dec. 10. The new Labor Government of Australia is expected to make a drastic moVe. to force theatre man- Dipldmacy Prague, Dec. 10. - First Czech language talker, short news subject in which Paramount interviews Jaroio- . mir Novak, Czechoslovakian ConsulrGeneral in New York, has reached here. Th© envoy makes a brief ad- dress on the friendly relations between the two nations, and the subject has been present- ed by Paramount to the Tech- nical Museum here with formal ceremonies. ( London, Dec. 10. John Maxwell, shut out on West End pre-releases for British Inter- na:tiohal product, has taken the Al- hambra from Stoll beginning Dec. 23. Lease is for 12 months with op- tions for four years. Price is un- derstood to be a clear 25% on ex- isting capital stock of the Alham- bra on which up to now 12^4% a yeiar has been paid. Change of management will in- volve the dismissal of the orchestra and most of stage crew. Executive staft may remain. If they do not, other jobs will be found for them. General Manager George Reynolds is now'' in the States scouting for vaudeville material for the circuit, and.^lL.Ri'-QMldy, bg ass igned-ig jL booking berth in the StoU office on his return. It is understood Reynolds' report on his Inability to obtain American acts at suitable prices was a fac- tor in the decision to dispose of the Alhambra. Maxwell will start his regime on De6. 23 with "Atlantic" if the Al- hambra vaudeville bookings can be switched. If that Is not practicable opening will be Dec. 30, as no vaudeville bookings exist for that date. Contracts for Alhambra dates all carry a clause permitting a switch to the Coliseum and vice versa. Transaction Is another slap at the waning variety business here. StoU was unable to obtain sufficient nov- elty headllners and the Alhambra trade has been on the decline lately. Under the new order Stall will have ho worries and may be able •to pay his stockholders dividends up to double the former rate. PAR'S FOREIGN VERSIONS Schulberg Orders French-Spanish Troupe Assembled for Jan. Work Hollywood, Dec. 10. B, P. Schulberg, since returning from Europe, has authorized Geof- frey Shurlock, head of Paramount's foreign department, to lay plans for foreign language ver.slons. Shurlock will assemble a Spanish- French organization, Schulberg de- siring to get started on Spanish ver- sions of Par product In January. ENGLISH BAN RELAXED London, Dec, 10. All new cinemas which, install. talker apparatus have engaged full orchestras, while 12 other orchestras let out from picture houses iti the capital have been; reinstated. This new move has had the ef- fect of musicians'' union relaxlner Its activities against the "foreign Invasion*" Connrmatlon of the ' changed policy comes in the fact that Qua Arnhelm, who.finishes three months at the Savoy hotel on Jan. 1 would have been retained , and could have obtained an extension of his labor permit, but instead must return tO' the states. He sails Jan. 4 on the "Bremen.'^ : _ ', _ DORIS NILEff LIKED London, Dec. 10. Doris Nilc'3 opened nicely at the Plaza lipre an part of the .stnj^e pres- entation. She win remain two week.s. Aft-f/r that si 10 gocf. to Paris to tiike part In the spoclal Christmas presentation at the I'aramount, Wednesday, December 11, 1929 FOREIGN HLM NEWS VARIETY CigClS . , I — nslng a prohibitive tax on synchro- nized pictures to gain its point. There are said to be 2,000 musK dans unemployed at this time with, probably lOO" theatres in Sydney alone using canned music. The Labor -minister has already said that "We cannot, allow Amer- ica to take away our employment," presumably giving the cue to some legislative method of correcting the Bltuatibn. The Labor, gqvernment is grand- standing its attitude that 4t will not let foreign influenceis affect domes- tic employment. This attitude Is emphasized becausei the; country Just now is in the midst of a trade slump, with unemployment In many lines outside the theatre. The labor situation is reflected in theatre grosses. Many houses show- ing expansive dialog pictures are doing less business than they did a year ago with cheaper silents. Faced with this- condition many theatre chains are cutting down on payrolls, adding their bit to the jobless. So -well is this condition jrecog- nlzed in the trade that United The- atres may soon replace long-run tjifi&rs at'the St. j;ames, Sydney, with musical comedy. .Situation plays into the hands of indispensable workers. Operators on talking apparatus have delivered an ultimatum demanding a wage Increase from $35 to $60 a week with the alternative of a strike. RCA Gets Own Title in S. A.—26 Houses Wired Buenos Aires, Dec. 10. RCA Photophone appears to have surmounted the difficulties marking its first ventures in this territory when apparatus went wrong and screen reproduction generally was jammed. RCA's field man here, Milton "Mailman, has installed nine equip ments in Argentina and 17 in Brazil, These general flgrures came out at , a banquet given by a group of ex- hibitors, and others in the trade, to Kallman previous to his departure on thp steamship Wfestern Prince In Argentina RCA has finally ob- tained title to the name "Photo- phorte" for the territory. The word had been registered by a native corporation,, which now has Ceded it to RCA on payment 6t a nominal sum although the home company first demanded large considerations for rights. Films in World League Paris, Dec. 10. George Canty, .United States film €phimissloner for Europe, arrived yesterday (Monday) on the "Roose velt," en route to Geneva. He will attend the international conference on educational films Which opens tomorrow (Wednesday) tinder the auspices of the League Of Nations. Enterprise Havana, Dec. 10. A Paramount sound nexys unit shooting here got rush orders from New York headquarters to hop by plane to get sound record of the troubles In Haiti. -._--Unit;-took--^ff-lmmediat€iyf^-^ Hutt. and George Westbrooke in Charge. Capetown Likes "Fool" Capetown, Dec. 10. , -^'liambra opened Dec. 2 with Thfe Singing Fool," It is drawing capacity nightly. Kinemas, Ltd., is building a new deluxe house in (Capetown. GAUMONT DENIES DEAL WITHFOXiNENaAND London, Dec. 10. An official statement carhe from British Gaumont this week, furnish- ing the trade with the laugh of the week, to the effect that the Gau- mont British Corppration is' not as- sociated with William Fox in any deals or in any enterprises involv- ing Fox and any other concern. • . Statement further, Fox has not contracted to buy. any Gaumont stock. Trade journals arid, the news- papers publish the statement with- out any comment, ignoring pr not knowing that any "deal by Fox for Gaumont stock would be| carried on through nominees.' Final payment for the stock is due Dec. 16. Fox's option on the site of the Haymarket stores expired Dec. 7 and it is believedr'here was allowed to lapse. Reason for the denial by (gaumont is that the Board of Trade on re- ceipt fronj^,New York of cable news abo^t the Fox trusteeship, in which it is stated that one of the uncom pleted deals the new trustees will handle will be that involving Brit Ish Gaumont. Thereupon the Board' searched the registers at Somerset Houde for recent transfers of any large blocks of Gaumont stock. Belief here. Is that any Fox deal was made through nominees with Gaumont Trust iand Provincial Cinema Theatres con structional company in order to avoid a clash with Gauirioht articles of association which forbid stock being held by forelgrn interests or their nominees. Fox men in New York seem to understand that Fox ha,s purchased an interest in British Gaumont amounting to $17,000,000 or more, The amount named is said to be among the Fox liabilities placed with the recently appointed board of trustees "to handle the Fox finances. Whether William Fox made the B.-G. purchase through a dummy is not known here, but since the Famous. Players-Canadian people could not secure positive knowledge whether Fox held the English inter est, it is presumed Fox made the British Gaumont buy through a third party.. It was under the conviction that the power behind the B.-Gr. offer of $75 a share for F.-P.^Cari. was Wil Hani Fox that Adolph Zukor of Paramount by virtue of the voting trust he had formed for F.-P,-Can and himself blocked the B.-G. buy of the Canadian chain but recently Bucher's Survey Paris, Dec. 10. Elmer Bucher, vice-president of Radio Corp. of America, is making a general European survey extend- ing for three- months and covering all the old world capitals. Inquiry, is in behalf of all divi- sions of RCA activity, Phoriophone, Victor, Radio and that concern's communication division. Bucher's Interest is particularly in the Phonophone-and--phonograph=direc tlon, it Is. said. ' • AJrs. Bucher will arrive in Janu ary. Films for Piccadilly London, Dec. 10. The Piccadilly returns to pictures Dec. 30 opening with "Evangeline." Revival of "The Student Prince" closes Dec. 28. 1i FILMS U. 5. Producers Start Inves- tifi^ation Many Reasons for Cutting Puzzle—Dia- log Responsible for Driop- ping Features in Entirety CANADA — AUSTRALIA Hojlywood, Dec. 10 With mora than 150 Hollywood made pictures thrown out in their entirety by Canadian arid Aus> traiian censor boards within the last 60 days, the Motion Picture Pro- ducers' Association has dispatched Jason Joy, its censorship represen- tative here, to Canada to nieet rep- resentatives of the Canadian boards to get the whys and wherefores and endeavor to stem the tide. With 40% of. American grosses coming from foreign countries, (Continued on page 21) u. s. Fnitts VS. FRENCH WINES Paris, Dec, 10. "If Americans refuse our wines, let's refuse to buy their talking pic- tures." This declaration by a deputy of the French Chamber which repre- sents the American House, was greeted with applause during a speech in which the legislator de- plored American talking pictures a!nd attacked American Intellectual colonization as a menace to French art and thought. Incident came , up yesterday (Mon.) in connection with a budget debate, . the item t|hder discussion being the appropriation for the Ministry of Beaux Arts. Super- vision oi government's film regula- tions are under the Ministry's ad- ministration. BERUN'S AUDIENCE FADER Sudfilm Cameraman Regulating . House . Volume at Pi"emioret Berlin, Dec; 10. Schwertfuhrer, cameraman for Sudfilm, is now regulaiting theatre tone volume of talkeris from the audience. "Atlantic," (fcrst all-Ger- man talker, is distributed by this firm and Schwertfuhrer is attending all premieres In leading provincial cities. Results have been so far superior to those achieved even in Berlin, where the director, A. E. Dupont, was in the booth at the opening, that Sudfilm is considering triainlng a . group of men to go but with all dialog specials. No crime to buy American pic- tures. Crime in U. S. to drink wine. Won't someone please tell the French there's a Prohibition law over here, even if there's no Pro- hibition. U.S. PRODUCT PLUGS W.E. EQUIPMENT IN EUROPE Belgrade, Dec. 10. Five cinemas in the capital of Serbia are going- talker and con- tracting for the Western Electric equipment. Among them are the Caislno, Coloseum and Keralac. Last named establishment starts with "The Singing Fool," and the other two later on, with product not yet specified. The three houses named have made release arrangements for First National-Warner program and negotiated blanket booking of Fox prog;ram. It was in tht latter he gotiation that Fox insisted that houses use the Western Electric equipment. That position had its effect, but what really sold the " American equipment was the fact that two other Belgrade picture houses, Corso and Luxor, were installing cheaper German apparatus and' the new trio sought a competing device. Zagreb, Jugo-Slavia, Dec. 10. Experiments with cheap repro- ducing devices here and elsewhere in the state had ludicrous results. The Blophone was used . at one house for 17 days, although it broke down on the third day, forcing re- funds to the audience. i Apparatus was mended, but con- tinued to give unsatisfactory sery-. Ice, being kept on because of the general interest and curiosity In the audible screen. ' This town's music hall used Gau- mont's equipment for "Lady of the Pavements," but defective syn- chronization spoiled the effect and aroused the natives to laughter. Word of these experiments has spread through this territory and considerable damage has been done to the low priced devices. ROUGE ROWON Alhambra, London, Goes From Vaude To Talkers-British Int. Leases It Paris, Dec, 10. After three nights of disorder at' the showing of Fox's "Movietone Follies" In the Moulin Rouge, Pierre Foucret, manager, has partly solved the difficulty by billing the pictur* a.s .a talker in English, Instead of exploiting the dialog without men- tion of its language. Third demonstration Sunday night was the worst of the series, with the mob tearing up carpets and seats and demolishing everything break- able about the place. Musicians, left jobless by the ad- vent of talkers, were first blamed for inspiring the disorder, but now a hint is put out that a rival cinema circuit may ■ have lurked In the background as well. The violence of the last demonstration Is taken as conOlusive evidence that the hos- tility was inspired by the same In- terests. Foucret acknowledges It was a mistake not to pre-advertlse the picture as in ^nglish, and has posted a placard to that effect. Fojt exchange avers the trouble was pumped up by enemies of talkers, declaring that 1,000 feet of dialogr were eliminated for the Moulin Rouge date. Fox oflflce adds that at the pre- miere of "Follies" last week In Nelms, provincial town that Is much more intensely French than cosmio- polltan Paris, there was not a, trace of antagonism and the booking topped "Jazz Singer" and ''White Shadows." L,ack of Tact Foucret, aftVr the first trouble, issued statements that he would have preferred to exhibit French- made talkers, but there are none, instead of tactfully pointing' out that French talking subjects were not yet available. His- statement- .created further 111 feeling' In the trade. The Moulin Rouge is situated la the Montmartre section and not on the grand boulevards. It drawq rather a hard-boiled clientele, the same element that hissed Tiffany's "New Orleans" off the screen at the nearby Cllchy Palace. After mild disorders at the open- ing of "Follies," the second night brought a disturbance that necessi- tated a riot , call at the first show. The police couldn't quiet the audi- ence, which called for refunds and made a show of antl-American feelr Ing against the English dialog of the picture. Police thereupon cleared the the- atre of an audience of 1,600. ALL ORCHESTRAS BACK;