Fixer on the Warpath

Like few Californians, Alfred Cleveland Blumenthal prefers to live in the East. Born 41 years ago in San Rafael across the Bay from San Francisco, he grew rich before he was 30 as a real estate and theatre promoter. In 1924 he went to Manhattan for a rest, sold West Coast Theatres Co. to William Fox, was retained as Cineman Fox's chief fixer. He was mainly concerned with accumulating properties for Fox Theatres Corp. A shrewd, able negotiator, Fixer Blumenthal piled chain upon chain. He it was who negotiated the famed $50,000,000 Loew's deal for William Fox. Natty, chipmunkish Fixer Blumenthal boasts that after months of dickering he was finally able to close the deal because he correctly interpreted scraps of a conversation he overheard between two foolish daughters of a cinema tycoon who did not know what they were talking about. Wall Street thinks that it was Fixer Blumenthal who arranged the compromise by which William Fox was ousted from his company (for $18,000,000 plus $500,000 annually for five years) in favor of the bankers. The Press knows him as a good friend of Mayor James John ("Jimmy") Walker of New York who week-ended at the Blumenthal estate in Larchmont last fortnight between sessions of his trial at Albany (see p. 14). Though more at home in a hotel than a courtroom, Fixer Blumenthal made news last week because of his law suits. As owner of $25,000 of Paramount Publix Corp. bonds. Fixer Blumenthal sued that company to set aside an agreement by which Paramount last March had pledged 23 of its films as the chief collateral for a $9,500,000 loan. Because Paramount transferred the films to a subsidiary, strengthened the loan with other promises. Fixer Blumenthal charged violation of the bond indenture, thought the position of his and other Paramount bonds had been jeopardized. Company officials pooh-poohed the charges as unfounded.* Last December Fixer Blumenthal sued Fox Theatres for a past due note. It was settled for $520,000--$50,000 down, the balance in weekly instalments. When Fox Theatres went into receivership the payments ceased. Last week Fixer Blumenthal sought to have the company removed from receivership so he could enter judgment for the full amount of the original note less the sum already paid. He scored the receivership proceedings as "collusive, sham, fictitious, in bad faith and of ulterior motive." No sooner had fixer Blumenthal taken to the warpath last week than he was sued JOT: $4,485, allegedly due as profits on a $5,000 investment in his show Girl Crazy. Suer was a Philadelphia firm headed by Mr. Blumenthal's friend Albert Monroe Greenfield, shrewrd banker-promoter. Promoter Greenfield, too, once fixed for William Fox. He it was who negotiated the sale of Fox holdings in First National Pictures to Warner Brothers in 1929.

*Last week Paramount bonds were selling at 40-c- on (he dollar, up 30-c- from their depression low.

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