The major studios took turns on a rotating schedule of producing these annual appeals, to aid the Will Rogers Memorial Fund, to the movie-goers of the country. This was Hollywood's version of radio/television PSAs...except these featured star-studded casts who also donated their services. The craft unions waived their compensation rules regarding the Will Rogers Memorial Fund shorts.
The finished shorts were supplied free to the theatres of the country, and after each showing of the short, the ushers would pass a bucket through the rows(closely supervised by house management)to gather donations from the patrons.
And, since these shorts were intended to play in as many theatres as possible during the "Will Rogers National Theatre Week," usually in late April, the number of release prints far exceeded the number usually struck...for any kind of short or feature film.
On "Auld Lang Syne," Major N. Levinson, head of the Warners' sound department, made 13 sound negatives simultaneously and electrically as the basis for 4,000 release prints to be made at various processing plants through the US. The 13 sound negatives were shipped to the key points (distribution and printing) where the release prints were struck off, one at a time. The 13 sound negatives and 4,000 release prints were, at the time, a record.
The finished shorts were supplied free to the theatres of the country, and after each showing of the short, the ushers would pass a bucket through the rows(closely supervised by house management)to gather donations from the patrons.
And, since these shorts were intended to play in as many theatres as possible during the "Will Rogers National Theatre Week," usually in late April, the number of release prints far exceeded the number usually struck...for any kind of short or feature film.
On "Auld Lang Syne," Major N. Levinson, head of the Warners' sound department, made 13 sound negatives simultaneously and electrically as the basis for 4,000 release prints to be made at various processing plants through the US. The 13 sound negatives were shipped to the key points (distribution and printing) where the release prints were struck off, one at a time. The 13 sound negatives and 4,000 release prints were, at the time, a record.
