"TALKIES" IN JANUARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 262, 5 November 1928, Page 8

"TALKIES" IN JANUARY.

INSTALLATIONS FOR N.Z.

TRADE "'.7AR» IN AUSTRALIA.

MILLIONS IX MOVIES,

"Talkies," that marvel of modern invention by which theatre audiences will not only see motion pictures, but will hear them, should be heard in New Zealand in January next, according to Mr. Stuart F. Doyle, managing director of Cnion Theatres, Ltd., Australia, who is a through passenger by the Aorangi. Twenty equipments have been bougnt at a cost of 1100,000 by Mr. Doyle, who is returning from a business trip to America. No preference will be granted by the Western Electric Company, who own the patents, to any one firm. Already this company has received orders which it cannot hope to fill for eighteen months; "talkies" are the rage everywhere; equipments have been installed in theatres of any size all over America. But whether they will last is a moot question; it is discussed on every hand in the States, and opinion is divided as to whether the public will not tire of' them. That by the time the novelty of talking pictures has gone, the producers will have caught up on the production value which will hold them permanently, is Mr. Doyle's personal opinion. He thinks that the most popular picture will be that in which the '"highlights" are synchronised and the less dramatic sequences titled as at present. To the producer and to the, showman, "talkies" are going to mean much expense. In producing pictures, two distinct films, one for the city theatres equipped and licensed for the reproduction of sound and another, silent, for the thousands of country and suburban houses which will not have installations, must be made. To the exhibitor, "talkies" mean an expenditure of at least £,3000 for fitting each theatre. Undoubtedly the profits from talking pictures are going to the patent holders. It is well known that Mr. Doyle's firm and Hoyt s Theatres, Ltd., are engaged in a trade war. Periodically this Homeric fight is renewed; huge aggregations of capital are involved; big deals are dramatically made and remade; in fact, the picture industry in Australia is one of the few in which a parallel can be found for those stupendous battles of capital which are a feature of American financial life.

Although there have been sundry skirmishes previously, the fight reallv started when Hoyt's decided to build Regent Theatres in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. L nion Theatres replied with the Capitol Theatre, Sydney, and the State Theatre Sydney, which is at present being built, the cost being £800,000. The State, which will seat 3000. is part of a building containing fourteen floors of shops, fed by eight express elevators. It will open shortly after the New Year' Hoyt's came again by launching the Regent Theatre in Melbourne, and Mr. Doyle's response was the construction of the State Theatre in the same city. It will open next January. It will seat 4000 and will be the' sixth largest tfeeatre in the world. Altogether, £5.000,000 is being spent on Union Theatres' lniilcliii*r programme. It was in July last that the most sensational coup of this battle was staged. Within 48 hours Mr. Dovle bought over 1500 pictures for 1929—practically 90 per cent of the American film availfor Australia for next vear. British pictures, too. were booked.* and the whole deal involved hundreds of thousands of pounds. Not to be outdone. Mr. F. \\. Thring, managing director of Hoyt's, turned his attention from America to England, and a few days later he had booked £100,000 worth of British pictures. Although Mr. Doyle is a director of Australasian Films (N.Z.). with which the r uller-Havward organisation is connected , his company has no direct theatrical associations in Xew Zealand at present, but is contemplating representation m the Dominion.

According to a cable received a short time a pro, Doyle was reported to lia-\c said that British pictures were not popular; this he denies, contending that Ins statement was that "the "more British pictures improve, the more popular thev will become, even though American Films improve at the same time.