Variety (Jul 1930)

Wcdacs^y* Jnly 30, 1930 l-E€ITIMATE VARIETY 89 FILM METHODS FOR LEGITS CARROLL WINS A JURY TRIAL ^iarl Carroll and co-defendants were granted their peUtlon for trial ty Jury m the "VanlUes" case by Judg* btto Bosalsky. The court decision takes the case out of the Court of Special Sessions lor which Carroll, producer; Jimmy Save, Faith Bacon and Kay Car- joU'had been held on charge of paAiclpatlng In an Indecent per- -lormance—after.- -liearlng—belflte. Magistrate Gottlieb In Essex Mar- ket Court. With charge of court jurisdic- tion in the case it will be neces- sary for the defendants to be in- dicted by the Grand Jury which will probably delay actual trial un- til next October. Oarroli and bis cast members Vere arrested after the perfonn- anc* of "Vanities" several weeks ago. with cases against four other members of the cast dismissed after hearing in Magistrate's court. "SAFEINVESTHENTrON WITHOUT SALARY ROND ' "Safe Investments," comedy by Gilbert Ridell, has gone into re- heatsal. It win be spotted at the President, New York, next month with author figuring as producer. . Cast has waived Equity security with understanding that bond will be posted later If additional finances can be interested in the produc- Uon. Acting in Maine! Skowheg^, Me., July 29. Susanne wlUa has had a hectic time since her arrival at the Lakewood Dramatic stock. Her score includes two blis- tered heels caused by her first day at golf; caught her arm on a rusty nail and got a nice gash; got a lot of bruises when hit by a golf ball; fell down a' flight of stairs and received a bump on the head; Jumped off the float and caught her bathing suit on a spike and was held under water until her trunks gave way and saved her life. VanLoan's Headaches Los Angeles, July 29. . Along with H. H. VanLoan's cur- rent marital troubles less he has just been sued by an assienee for the Cenbry Play Company for $12,125. Ten grand of this is a levy on $60,- 000 Vanlioan is allieged to have earped recently, and |365 is claimed front the sale of picture rights to "Cooking Her Goose" for $1,260. and to "State Trooper" for $626. The remaining $1,750 is a balance claimed due on loans. Harvest Workers Kansas City, July 29. When several small stocks closed In and around this section several of the healthier members of the troupes started to crash the harvest flelda. Plenty of work there and hard work too. freights lately bound for the wide open spaces have been packed with men bumming their way to the flelds. Combing Repertory and Bowl in Hollywood Hollywood, July 29. First step to throw the two-Vear- ow Civic Repertory theatre into Eear with the nine-year-old Holly- wood Bowl organization Is the fab- «h „ of an intermediate called uio Bowl Theatre Association. incorporation papers issued at oacramento name the association's erectors as E. N. Martin, Gretchen «• Copper, James J. McBride, Mot!. ^' Copper and Lallah B. hiHM Association is formed to "uua a theatre on Highland avenue Bttwf ^ leased from the Hollywood thJ'v^"'^ to create an art center in dedl ^^^"^^ ^° "ii^*^^ to symphony concerts under the stars." Upon the thea- ^„„J°;;"PletIon the Civic Repertory "»'a be made its producing group. "Artists, Models" Deferred Chicago, July 29. torn/. Models" slated to helfl Garrick Aug. 2 will be he«» .*u ^ ""^'^ A"e. n. Excessive neat the reason. Chi Houses Blah on Cheap Repairwg Chance; Fihn Palaces Spruce Up Chicago, July 29. With only one legit house open In the Loop and labor at its lowest figure in many years In Chi, none of the dark liouses is making any eHort to renovate. On the other hand picture houses are grabbing at the cheap prices and sticking up new marquees and flash signs. As far as known, none of the dark houses Is planning any- thing beyond the usual opening cleaning. CIO ART GROUP OUT TO SATISFY SHOW FAMINE Chicago, July 29. Civic Arts theatre, local amateur group on the near northside, taking advantage of the slump in Loop legit houses has billed the city heavily for "Grub Street Virgin." Cast is offering the show hungry town two hours of amusement at 50 cents a seat with a sip of tea after the last curtain and dancing after the show. Doing well. Young Stilfanan Quits "When "Tattle Tales," now in Bos- ton, cut out one of his numbers. Jack Stillman, of the banking Still- mans, handed in his notice, effective Immediately. Stillman went into "Tales" following his ap- pearance with "JonicA." "Tales" management gave a num- ber of the cast "notices." Among them were Priscilla Gumey. She's related to the rich Gurneys, of Gur- ney elevator fame. Group of Adiers About eight of the Yiddish legit Adiers are coming to Broadway In Chekov Yiddish legit for a limited season under George Jessel-Shubert sponsorship. The late Jacob P. Adler's the- atrical family numbers about 15, in- cluding Francine Larrimore (Adler), herself a Broadway star, all known on the Blast Side. COAST PBODUCniG TEAM Hollywood, July 29. "William P. Trumbell and George Sherwood, teaming to produce "A Cup of Sugar" with Dorothy Mac- Kaye starred, have opened an of- fice here. They have two other play scripts for production. COAST "LYSISTEATA" Los Angeles, July 29. Belasco and Curran start casting Aug. 11 for a Coast production of "Lysistrata," 4ii.r. HOUSES FOR TRY William Brandt, Picture Theatre Operator, Takes Over Theatres—Booking From Erlanger and Shu- herts—-Film System, From Promotion to Ushers $1.50 TOP—5pc MATS Janette Gilmore III Janette Gilmore, legit actress. Is critically ill with pneumonia at Osteopathic hospital, L.os Angeles. William Brandt has taken over four New York suburban legit thea- tres, to operate with the new sea- son for weekly legit plays from Broadway, incoming or outgoing, with picture house showmanship methods. Top in all of the theatres will be $1.50 throughout the week, with the two matinees weekly, 50c top, made possible through capacities. As the real night's top will he %\, the legits will compete with the neighborhood film houses that charge 75 or 85c. The Brandt theatres are the Windsor (Shubert), Bronx, seating 1,674; Boulevard (Fox), Jackson Heights, 1,963; Jamaica (Moss), Ja- maica, 1,900; Flatbush (R-K-O), Flatbush, 1,800. They will book plays from Erlanger and the Shu- berts, the Broadway legit hits going out and the legit break-ins coming in. On Sunday Brandt will play an all-sound picture program on a grind that will compete with any house in the section In price. »The Sunday possible gross in any of the theatres with pictures is $1,000 or more. -The film theatre showmanship as applied to legit theatres is new. It includes promotion and exploitation, ^king in everything in the way of service picture houses have had and the legit have not, to the ushers. As with picture theatre operation Brandt will have a special exploita- tion and publicity staff, selected by himself. Brandt is to be his own general manager. Associated with him In an executive capacity will be Louis F. Werba. Werba ran some legit suburban houses around New York for a couple of seasons. Brandt is looked upon as one of the best independent picture oper- ators of the country. The Brandt Brothers' string of eight Brooklyn film houses was sold to Fox early in the year. With Fox establishing the Fox Metropolitan Theatres, Brandt became general manager of the 145 Greater New York picture houses of that group, under Joe Leo. With the departure of William Fox from his leadership of Fox, Brandt fol- lowed him, he having been looked upon as "a Fox man." Brandt Confident Brand it confident of his legit out- line, especially the $1 top and 60c matinees. The %1 top wUl be ob- tained through holding out but a couple of front rows at $1.50. The promotion department is expected to keep interest excited in each neigh- borhood, as with the film houses. Brandt's argument for the low scale for the suburbs is that that scale, if bringing in the locals, also makes them Broadway patrons if they do not wish to waJt for the Broadway hit to reach their own locality. Two of the Brandt legit theatres are now being wired. The others will be. Brandt is said to have obtained the theatres upon agreeable leases, and his franchises with Erlanger and the Shubcrts call for favorable terms, it is said. Brandt Is pretty wise to all of the legit angles through his long association with metropolitan thea- tres. His booking is not limited to the syndicates; he can book inde- pendent attractions. The official start of the new try In the legit will be around Labor Day. The Flatbush is playing straight pictures at present. Jamaica is known as the Hurtlg & Seamon house. It last played Mutual Wheel burlesque shows. Windsor and Boulevard have been suburban legit stands. New Tallies in Ticket Plan; Relasco and Chanins Join h; An for McRndes, Says White With the League of New York Theatres, which was formed to limit prices on tickets sold via agencies at 75c premium, but a week old In operation, the Broadway ticket slta- ation has provoked complaints from managers outside the League and brokers within it. Expecta- tions were" that" with a mere~~few" hits around this summer the League will slide Into action easily. Ob- servers are now wondering what will happen when the season really starts, with the tangles already evi- dent. The League faces at least two legal actions, one by the Independ- ent brokers and the other by George White, producer of "Flying High." Orders were sent the 16 "accredited brokers" early last week that only those agencies with a buy could sell tickets for "Flying High," limiting such sales at 75c each above the box office price. The buy for the former show was for 20 weeks with a ^renewal for 12 weeks, the show to exercise the option. The renewal called for 80% of the original buy. White made it 50%. but the Sulli- van, Tyson-United and Tyson & Co. did not have the option in their contracts and apparently were not permitted to further buy by the League. The League made good a promise to bring the Chanins (Mansfield) into the fold. Monday when Frank Gilmore and H. D. Savage of the League conferred with H. I. Gbanin and Roland Stebbins, sponsor for "The Green Pastures," It was an- nounced that the Mansfield was In the League. David Belasco, previous holdout, also swung into the League with Belasco theatre and his new pro- duction, "Dancing Partner." Belasco came In after a conference between the producer Savage and Gilmore. White's Stand White expressed indignation In more ways than one. McBrlde's had not made a buy for "Flying High" and with the three other agencies ordered not to sell bis tickets, that eliminated all hotel stands from handling "Flying High." The producer Inserted an extra space adv In the dailies calling at- tention to the availability of tickets at the Apollo box office. The re- sponse was noticeable and even porters from several hotels pur- chased tickets for guests. The League was sent a letter by White in which he termed its ac- tion as virtually having placed his show on the blacklist. While be did not question the League's right to make allotments for shows and managers within the organization, he questioned Its right to tell agencies not to sell for his show, believing that to be conspiracy. White stated: "I will sue the League for every dollar it may cause me to lose." White charged: "This whole League Is an attempted ticket grab on the part of McBrlde's. If the other brokers are forced out of business It will mean that much more for McBrlde's. I'd like to change places with McBrlde's. The whole thing is their plan. I can hazard $200,000 on a production but they want the privilege of throwing tickets back unsold in my box of- fice without taking a chance of losing a dime. "I will never give them a ticket that they do not buy. The League scheme is wrong In principle. It Is attempting to control brokers' prices. I am for selling at the box office, and If ticket speculation is to be eliminp.tcd the only way it can be done is to eliminate the agencies." Indies Buy at B. O.'s With the independent agencies putting their case directly up to New York'.s Attornpy (Jeneral Ham- ilton on the grounds that the League vlol.He.s the anti-monopoly act, the (|uestion of whether such agencies could buy tickets was ap- parently settled for the time being at least. They were refused tickets by phone order at several theatres. That brought a protest from pro- ducers. An order to the Shubert box of- -ficesr-and-reputed to oome from the Shubert headquarters, was that no money should be refused. The in- dependents thereupon sent to the box offices and put the money for the tickets on the line. While that was regarded as an evasion of the league rul6s, it was a showdown, with the theatres following the axiom not to turn away money. Another Situation Another problem came when an Independent agency called the Haer- lis theatre and was turned down for "The Last Mile" Uckets. The broker replied it was okay with him because he could switch his cus- tomer to "Green Pastures." Her- man Shumlin, who produced the show, became steamed up. He said that If the box office (Shubert house) would not sell tickets to all comers, he would sell them himself. Orders ^ sent to his office thereafter by inde- * pendent agencies are said to have been taken care of, with Shumlin stating he could not be denied tick- ets to his own show. Shumlin has also objected to any participation in the \% deduction by the accredited agencies on tick- ets sold for his show. He is in a position to do so. In addition to ob- jecting to the league, he is not eli- gible to . membership in it, being merely a prodncer and not a theatre owner or lessee. His contract for the house specifies no deduction on agency, tickets. Other independent producers, howevePr will find such provision in their contracts for next season, the house actually having the control of tickets and their dis- tribuflon. • , The league regards clubs (exclu- sive organizations around 6th ave- nue) and preferred customers as the public. It is this monied class of patrons that principally demands good ticket locations and does not care about the prices charged. The leading ticket brokers, having been the source of supply of the clubs, are now wondering if. because. of reduced allotments,' it will not be harder for the class patrons to ob- tain tickets. If so, it will tend to chase those customers away from the theatre. The league's idea of the class trade would indicate that the benefit of the uniform 75c pre- mium will mainly concern people who can afford to pay any price for desired locations. Must Change Rules That the rules must be changed Is also evident. One agency having sold its allotment for a show of only moderately good draw eought to se- cure additional tickets for a per- formance three days later In the week. It asked for the tickets and was told that under the rules the tickets could not be had until 24 hours before the performance. The house suggested it send the cus- tomer to the box office, with the result that the sale was lost Signs of funereal black are on display In the 16 accredited agen- cies, calling attention to the fact that all tickets are sold at not more than 75c advance. The independent agencies planned to use sandwich men advertising themselves as "ac- credited members of the Federal League of ticket brokers" and offer- ing tickets at 50c advance. During these dull times the agencies are glad to got any sort of premium. Gallons Operas I^of) Angeles, July 29. Fortune Gallo is expected here shortly with a batch of light operas and operettas, such as "Barber of Seville" and "Chocolate Soldier." While not known, it is believed hero that the Krlangcr office is iinuncing the vfcnlure.