Variety (Dec 1929)

Wednesday, December 26, 1929 PICTURES VARIETY 9 FILM STOCKS' BETTER TONE £5-70 or What? Riv Delay,losses Wide film situation is quickly .narrowing to the point where the producers must concur on stand- ardization or else heave, the picture business into a costly tangle. Latest report is that Radiov which has tieeh experimenting with the Spoor de- vice, may ally, with Paramount and Warner on the basis of the latter's 66 Dim. film. If this comes about, Fox, which recently announced that It was go- ing ahead with its TO mm. (Gran- deur), may And Itself alone on this width. There Is also a report that Para- inount is set to go on the big film )h several locatioris here and abroad. Tentatively selected teirrltorles for the installation of 65 mm. are New Tork, Chicago, . San Francisco,. Lon- don and Paris. The?itres have not been designated bpt,tbe plans, ac- cording to the atory; call for Instal- Jation. by Feb.'12 In at least one theatre in each of these localities, w:ith probable premier^ use by March 1. Paramount*s objection to 70 mm. pim is said to be that IS. is too wide to permit smooth projection and that greater width than thehrs is .unnecessary. , Meanwhile, the various activities of both Pox and Paralmount in wide 4lm are going ahead; Fox already has a print in New Tork. Fox's Grandeur Is being handled by E. 1. Sponable, while Dr. N. A. DeLaporte . is Paramount's chief of research on this subject. F. N. on Warner Lot Hollywood, Dec. 24. With the Warner studio slated to resunie production around Jan, 15, plans have been changed to pro- duce the biggest pictures of the First National-Warner program on the Warner lot Instead of at First NatlpnaL Seven features are now prepar- ing to start. Including the first .Rcreen musical now being written by Oscar Hammerstein and Sig mund Romberg.-. Vivienne ^egal and Alexander Gray will be trans flerred from First National for the .ifeads in this picture. Ist Runs on Broadway (Subject to Change) Week Dec. 27 Capitol—"Dynamite" (M-G- M). ■ ' Colony—"Hell's Heroes" (U). Giobe--"Rio Rita" (Raclio). P a r a m o ii n t —"Glorifying American Girl" (Par.). Roxy—"Hot for Paris" (Fox). Strand—"Paris" (FN). Week Jan. 3 Capitol—'^Jynamlte" (M-G). Paramount—"7 Days' Leave" (Par.). Roxy-7-"Sunriy Side Up" (Fox). ' Strand—"No, No, Nannette" (FN). $2 Runs Feb. 9—"Vagabond King" (Criterion), MORE MYSTERY Par Calls in Cbrmack for lt~ Mendes on L. I. Hollywood, Dec. 24. Liothar Mendes will not direct "Benson iMurder Case" for Para- mount Studio has given script to Bcirtlett M. Cormack with a requisi- tion for more mystery. Xiouts Gaa-- nler will direct It when completed script is ready; Meanwhile Mendes is on his way to New York to direct "Dangerous Nan McGr,ew" at Paramount's Long Island studio, replacing Alfred E. Greeuj who is ill following a serious operation. Mendes returns Feb. 15 to direct Clara Bow in "The Humming Bird." Fox Stationary Around 23-^ No Sign of Covering Over Holiday—Loew and Para- mount Act Best of Group QUIET TO FEBRUARY? One of the quietest sessions of weeks yesterday reflected the usual custom of the Street to. make the day before Christmas a semi^holi- day. Brokerage forces were more interested in distribution of bonuses than ticlicer prices. Customers' rooms downtown and around Times Square were deserted. Session opened with a fairly im- pressive willy oh : small volume. During the day dealings dropped off until in the last two, hours the tape was standing still for long intervals Total for the day WEug well under 3,000,000 shares. Only activity was the covering of shorts In scattered sections of the list. .The amusements showed a better tone, with distinct improve- ment in I<oew, which got out of low ground around 40-41 for the past 10 days, ruling above 44 most of the afternoon. . Paramount lUso took on a better outlook as the day wore on.. Opened at 47, compared to Monday's lovr of 46% and held near 48 In the late trading. Making Brutal Shorts Worse : Among the shorts recently preceding "General ^Crack" at Warners, New York, was one which stood out. Not because there was any- thing special about it, other than it was in color, held some move- ment and about a BO-foot comedy interlude. But it pointed out how the average short is making it a set-up for the isound cartoon. As regards this particular house,' the site which publicly in-. . augurated sound, the booking of the one and two-reelers has been and remains atrocious. So bad as to chase the early comers to the lounge for a smoke. Degree of boredom to which those who stick, are subjected can be gleaned from the uncomplimentary re- marks floating all over the auditorium. House: management; • with very little trouble, could spot it by standing in the back and listening, or taking a peek into, that lounge while the shorts are on. Those smokers teU a silent tale. Three successive singing shorts on the bill' caught. First a sister team, plenty bad, then the colored reel folioW:ed by an opera name In one of his less' interesting efforts. Song barrage had the audience nuts and is simply making it that much tougher for the feature to get over. That goes for $2 or 60c. It's obvious there has been no attempt to install a change of pace in the classiflcatlon of the lineup. Starved for comedy, there . were but a few laugh fOQt for the house to pounce upon. And pounce they did. It didn't, last. long. Houses using shorts , are .flirting with trouble when they don't give them the opportunity by screening something on the bill which, at least, Is supposed, to be funny. If this Warner theatre can't find enough comedy In the product , being turned out, it's logical to dig back into the flies. And If ■ there's any .reason for reviving the John Charles: Thomas-Vlvlennis Segal "Maj^lme" short on a. $2 program (moved down to the Central with "Disraeli") It's certainly ' oppprtun^ to .again un- wind Vitaphpnd No. 2664-66, probably the best dramatic short that's been : made. As beihg tymed out and generally booked, shorts have turned Into the handicap the all-sound policy house must overcome, and are the instigator of a returning demand for vaudeville of which the vaude boys are trying to take advantage. That shorts, as a whole, are brutal ia no secret In the trade! ' Warners, New York, seems to have a mania for emphasizing the point. MarioirDavies' Tlorodora^ Hollywood, Dec 24. Marion Davies' next for M-G will carry the flavor or "Florodora," with a gay nineties setting and a sex-: tet featyred as in the famous muslr cal comedy. The picture will go but under different title, probaibly "The Floro- dora Girl." Gene Markey and Paul Dickey are writing the. newest version and Harry Beaumont is slated to direct It Miss Davies, now in New York, is expected back here New Year's. Judgments Lousam Productions, Inc.; D. Spe- vack; $1,493. .. Michael Mindl.in and Rob Roy. S. Converse; C, C. Jewett; $7,893. Walter Reads; Rudolph Wurlitzer Co.; $5,200. Bamboo Inn, Inc.; Claude Neon Lights; $271. Glynne Theatres, Inc^; Michael Glynne and George R Roe; B. Ture- camo; $2,654. Gaynor^Farreirs Next . Hollywood, Dec. 24. Next co-^tar picture for Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell will be "High Society Blues, David Butler is slated to direct from script by Howiird J. Green. "Playmates" was scheduled but is being deferred. COSTUME DEPT. ADDED Hollywood, Dec. 24. Tec-Art studio is making its ser- vico to independent producers more complete by adding a costume de- partment. arrangement for each picture. 4-Change ?ublix Week Dover, N. H., Dec. 24. Operating shift of local Publix houses has Lyric playing one day a week, Saturdays only, and the Strand, on a four-change-day policy broken up as follows: Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and 1' nday, and Saturday. Caddo's'30 Four Hollywood, Dec. 24. Howard Hughes plans to make four pictures in 1930 for United Artists release. Hopes to have "Hell's Angels" flnally oft his hands by February and then will begin the production of "Front Page." Year's plans also call for "Women to Blame," by Howard Tremaine. and "Titanic," a story by Wilson Mizner based on the famous sea disaster. Another story yet to be bought. INSTALLATION SUIT In a suit against Simptone and the combined Sound and Color Films, Inc., in New York, brought by Samuel Marcus and the Etch- craft Film Studios; Simotone con- sented to a Judgment against it for $2,100 in City Court. Case was dis- continued as against Combined Sound and Color Films. PlaintiflC sued to recover an ad- vance payment of $2,000 for the in- stallation of a sound recording and synchronizing unit at $4,000. Instal- lation was never made and the plantlffs demanded their money back. Federal Trade Change Washington, Dec. 24. Martin A. Morrison, formerly of the^-EederaL_.Tjia<ie^=CcminLas^^^ staff of trial attorneys, has been appointed assistant chief counsel in charge of court work to succeed Adrian F. Busick, resigned. Morrison handled the govern- ment's case in the Paramount pro- ceedings before the commission. He will now handle the court side of it when the long delayed case in volving block booking is finally heard. Yesterday's Prices Leading Amusements. . ■. Net fiatea. HIsh. IiOW.Xost. chf. 400 Con F...... 16% 16 15 28400 rox ....... 28% 22V4 23% + % 6100 lioew ..... 44% 41% 44 +2% 0800 Par ....... 48% 47 47% — % 1000 fatho 2% 2% 2% + % 400 do A B% 6% 6% — % 72600 RCA ..... 40% 38% 88%+ % 8100 RKO 18 17% 17%+ % 2100 Shttb ...... 11 0% 10 % , 12000 W. B...... 89% 88 89 — % 60 Unlv P prt. 80 20% 29%—*% BONDS $6000 Path* 7'8.. 88 87 88 +5 8000 Shut! 0'6.,. 48 48 48 —2 CUBB ■ 1000 Fox T..... 6 6%, 8%— % 800 0. Equli>..28% 27% 28% + 96 Fox continued within narrow range in the absence of anything more In the news. Day's range was scarcely more than a point from 22% to fractionally above 23. Trade reports reflecting the efiCort to reacli a settlement of the complicated sit- uation within the company found no ticker movement to discount better.r ment. If reports of an overcrowded short Interest In the stock are to be believed, the complacency of the bears would be ominous at this time. But It Is likely that In the precipi- tous drop of the stock shorts have covered at Intervals, and the out- standing contracts may now be much less than . generally believed: Trading view for the near future has undergone modifications since the break of last week. Almost unanimous Idea that the turn' of the year would witness ,a renewal of liquidation and further recessions is giving way to the more optlmlstiG expectation that from now to per- haps the end of February the mar- ket will go through a series of minor dips and bulges while the Street gets a better line on the probable course ojf general business as a re- sult of the November crash. Events thereafter will shape themselves on the country's commercial status as revealed during January and Feb- ruary. Fox Pauses at 22 After two weeks of sensational decline, during which it was a de- pressing influence over the whole market, For Monday halted in its drop.^seemMg feLthe, tljne_^ reach a resistance point above 20 and there for the first time it moved out of the center of the amusement group picture. By that time It had lost pretty much all its following of bargain seekers testing for ^, bottom and its narrow movements apparently represented only technical opera- tions, such as covering lAovements of short lines put out higher up and now taking profits. Bven covering failed to move It far'up, probably counter-balanced by tax sales and new bearish maneuvers. In Its amazing, descent from a November high of 74, and higher previously, to last week's low of 19% Fox had drawn the other amusements Into the whirlpool of. market calamity, just at - a time when the general trading situation of itself was plenty of weight for even the strongest. Issues on the Board to carry. Successive bear attacks in the na- ture of testing thrusts found a vul- nerable spot in Pathe and success- ful hammering at that point extends ed to all the btiiers. By deigrees Paramount- was hammered down from better' than 60 to Monday's bottom of 46% since Dec. 13. Utoew came in for bearish attention, like- wise breaking sharply to 40 once last week, and ruling not much higher through Monday, but moving up yesterday. Warner Bros, stood off assaults until mid-week, but Thursday gave way sharply from above 40 to 37% under a skillfully managed bear maneuver. It was. Thursday that Fox was forced "down through Its old bottom of 34, during a day of bad news from half a dozen direc- tions. Bear-ammunition came from the receivership for Sonora Products, distantly related to the amusement group, and the appointment of a re- ceiver for Internal Combustion, an old Durant pet, these two coming on the heels of a similar receivership for American Piano. Three crashes in the list in one day was too much and everything slumped. Warner Cracks For a. moment the bear crowd abandoned Fox and around 2 o'clock concentrated on Warners in a swift sally that carried it from 41 to 37% in 20 minutes. Stock snapped back in 10 minutes, but the thrust had carried through and Jef t its impres- sion. Thereafter on any general de- cline the same maneuver was re- peated and generally successfully. Paramount's retreat seems to be a horse of another Color. Story is that one old pool member walked out on his clique and liquidated as an Individual, while a new pool came into being and took his ofTer- ings on a scalis down. Whether the story is true or not, behavior of the stock seemed to lend _color to some^BucK" slfij^^ reported in the same gossip with being ready to give, plenty of sup- port at 45. Low on the movement Monday was 45%, from which there was a late recovery to 48. R-K-O Radio-Keith gave a good account of itself, all things considered. There are all kinds of stories about what (Continued on page 12) SONORA GOT NO CHANCE BEFORE RECEIVEitSHIP Sonera's negotiation for the Duo- graph, home talker which it demoh- Btrated in New York, has been held tip as the result of three creditbi^Sf all supply comptinlej, throwing the phonograph-radio Interests Into a receivership for bills aggregating an approximate ^10,000. Creditors met with the firm's ez- edutives Tuesday (24), but the meeting next week when the Irving National Bank, as the receiver, will preside, will probably settle Sone- ra's future policy. Sonora executives are bitter at the .sudden call, the treasurer, Wil- liam Barin, stating, the ciompany was i^lven no opportunity for an ad- justment prior to the receivership. Sohora Phonogfraph Company, is the parent of a small radio unit and its other subsidiary, Sonora Prod- ucts Corporation, Latter sub be- came known to the film Industry as Acoustic Products through negotia- tions falling to niaterialize, but ex- tending over a year, 'to take over the now practically .defunct Bristol- phone Indie talker system. Company offlclals are not inter- ested In giving details or figures as to the company's assets. They pass this up with: "It is Incoipo- rated for 1,500,000 shares;" The creditors asserting themsfeives ■ are Arrow, Hart, Hegeman; Gavin Mfg. Co.; Harvey Hubbel. Kespee^ tlvely, they claim debts approximat- ing $3,900, $4,000, $2,600. Poverty Row Passes Hollywood, Dec, 24. Moving Jan. 3 of James Cruze from the Chad wick studios to Edu- cational marks the passing of Pov- erty Row. With this move there will be no production in the studios along Sunset Boulevard and Beeph^' wood, which housed ' hundreds 'of small independents In the past Migration began with the advent of sound. Chadwick studio will be left vacant, owners waiting for a rise in real estate value. =^"Other WSnV^Wipes'' IVrtTIm^^ Hollywood, Dec. 24, "Other Men's Wives," stage play, bought by J. L. Warneir on Its Open- ing night in New Tork, will be Billie Dove's next for First Na- tional. Forest Halsey was put on the adaptation as soon as Warner ar- rived here, and Clarence Badger assigned to direct