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Show WILDCAT MOVIES 1 FLIMFLAM MANY More Than $250,000,000 in Worthless Stock Sold to Gullible Persons Ni:V ITORKi Deo, 6. The annual offerings of worthless stock In wildcat motion picture companies amounts to mors 'b.m 1260,000,000, the vigilance committee .r the National Association of the .Motion Picture Industry announced an-nounced here last night The committee declares thai the people of this country have actually bought dinin the past year between J2r..000.00n and B0. 000,000 of stock Issues, none of which are worth tho paper on which the certificates are printed It should be borne in mind that the.c figure do not refer to stock IS-.suc IS-.suc offered tor business expansion by wen eatablished companies with big assets and bl earning power. Most of the money invested In wildcat wild-cat companies has come out of the pbokets ol small tradesmen, clerks, stenographers, waitresses, boot -blacks and oIIpm wage-earners struggling tt.Mi Ihe high living cost problems .... eminent employes in Washington ari declared to have boughi considerable consider-able stock In one company floated i" that citv Pemona in straightened olr opmstances, crediting the extravagant rcorts of slock salesmen is to the jgreal fortunes made In the mov b s. havg axohanggd their Liberty bonds for movie itock certificates which will ! never pov a cent of dividend. HI m 'ivir mi a in ki Offiolali "f legitimate film produc- I Ing companies, main- oi thepi pioneers in the Industry who have devoted theli j lives to the development or the mov ies, feel thai ncl to the victims of the wildcat companies, they are the worst SUffgrers, because of the 111 repute the operations of fake concerns cast on the whole motion picture field. i n!y two or three of the -evenly jenntpnntes investigated had any assets or proven earning rap.ict when their stock wai offered to Ihe public. inl abOUl half a dnr.ep could boast officers off-icers or promoters who had any real experience In any branch of the motion mo-tion picture tndustrv. GIRL IS It TIM Th" committee's Investigation disclosed dis-closed ' some interesting methods of finance, nnd some pitiable storlen of Individuals who had put their trust i in the tle told by the promoter-. r motion picture companies. It found that among the victims of the. un scrupulous promoters were ooot- blacK wa i'i.'v government cm-ployes, cm-ployes, and even a few government .officials fine young woman wrote the COmmlttea that nhe had Invested $3.-I $3.-I 000, her whole fortune, in n company 1 promoteil b- a former Instructor in a dancing school. This young woman, ; the- sole support of an aged mother and an inulld aunt, believed the glowing !ta!es of vast returns to be made l.v the Investment of comparatively email sums in a film producing company, The dancing master Induced a half 8 do i n Of his former pupils to invent ;il'.".a apiece m his company, promising j to make them film stars. He made islmllur promisea to several waitresses i and chambermaids employed! n a 'dg j New York hotel, celling aacta of these women stock to the amount Of from llieO to $300. Finally one of the WO-j WO-j men victims complained to the district dis-trict attorney, and the promoter was arrested charged with grand liv,-'The liv,-'The treasurer of his companv Is a fng-lltlve fng-lltlve from Juslico. |