TALKIES COMING

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 598, 26 February 1929, Page 13

TALKIES COMING

OPENING in WELLINGTON STRUGGLE with combine

is announced that the first lima f»*m to be screened before I Zealand audience will open I *, Paramount Theatre, Wellj ** ‘ c n Friday, March 8. It b ; ‘-The Street Angel/* with j Gaynor and Charles Farrell. * this Fox production will be 1 '*rt the much-discussed Him -inter- | ‘ lo w jth Mr. George Bernard Shaw. I 'tj-cussing the latest talking film I 'Ttion with a Sun man this morn--1 i Mr. Henry Hayward, of Fuller- | Theatres, said that uneeri a «-y had existed up to the present j ; aufle the demands of the tremeni ;^ s i v powerful Western Flee trie comIf J w -ere opposed to the requirements M , N * evv Zealand exhibitors. H T * he position was that Western Flec- ■ chad banded together important film I '.’rDorations, electrical concerns, and f'l on telephone companies in an enjl ;^ voU r to control the market for tnlkH Z picture machines and the films too. ■ installations of the combine were I .need at £5.000, whereas their real I was a few hundreds of pounds fi t ach. I Furthermore, certain arbitrary conh {ions were imposed. These included || demand that only pictures associated li -vitii the combine he shown, and that P ier installations be secured from the P „ ;im e source. | ! "This meant that no British pictures ! he screened,” said >lr. Hayward. I [n effect it was an attempt to crush fjM , British film industry. We were not and exhibitors throughout the 5 vorld felt the same. Finally the pres,are became so great that the combine | ;u j to give way. We received advice 1 ta that effect only last week. The fact of the matter was that the (jmbine has not had a sufficient amber of theatres in which to place 1 the talking film it has been producing. In the whole of England only 11 theaji :re s contracted with Western Electric, I and these are controlled by American j| capital. II On the other hand English exhi- | bitors equipped SOO theatres with their I own installations. fl "So it is that free trade and inter--5 rhangability has been permitted. This leans that any film may be shown on 1 ;.ie machines installed. "In view of the altered outlook we ill sre setting about the business of installing talking film machines immedirely, and we shall have a choice of :Im. We are determined to equip at >ast 20 of our leading theatres, and .•ive opened a special technical depart- § menu with Mr. Clifford Black, late of Western Electric as its manager. h A machine as cheap as 5.500 dollars ''as been promised, »and Warner Bros, are producing a disc machine at a cost of £r>o#. We expect to secure two out of three of the talking films shown in Sydney.