Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1929)

18 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD October 12, 1929 Boston Public Urges New Deal On Censors; Suburbs Make Hay Quincy's Merchants Wax Fat on Showing of "The Strange Interlude" When Mayor of the Hub Bars It — Newspapers Deride Action [By Special Correspondent of the Herald-World] BOSTON, Oct. 8. — Public sentiment against existing censorship of pictures, plays, books and magazines has readied a high pitch and it is believed that drastic changes will be made within a very short time. While the present situation has been brought about by the banning of a legitimate stage play, "Strange Interlude," by Mayor Malcolm D. Nichols of Boston, the public is including motion pictures, books and magazines in itclamors for sensible censorship regulation or no censorship at all. Refused the right to present the play in play, deleted lines and all, and Bennett took Boston, the Theatre Guild was invited by the mayor and city council of Quincy, a suburb eight miles south of Boston, to prevent the play at the Quincy theatre in that city and the offer was accepted. The advance sale of tickets was so heavy that the theatre practically was sold out four weeks ahead, with every mail bringing in demands ior tickets. Manager Murphy, for years prominently identified with the management of motion picture theatres, was unable to say how long a run the play will have. Great for Quincy Merchants Meanwhile Quincy merchants were making the most of the forthcoming visit of thousands of Bostonians and out-oftowners, starting a campaign of advertising in the Boston newspapers and expecting to wax fat on outside trade during the weeks the play is showing. Richard Bennett, starring in "Jarnegan," denounced Boston's censorship in a curtain speech. "It is my last appearance here,'' he said, "and I shall not appear here again until your censorship is changed. Don't think T don't love Boston. I love two cities, London and Boston. What you peopleneed is another Boston Tea Party." Neither the police nor -theatre management interfered with the continuance of the the midnight train for New York without any interference from the authorities. It marked the first occasion of open defiance of censorship in any Boston theatre. Chief Editorial Topic Bennett referred to the order of Mayor Ralph S. Bauer of Lynn, Mass., banning stockingless girls from the streets of Lynn, declaring it to be an example of the extreme to which censorship is being carried. Censorship, which has been the chief front page topic in all the newspapers and has been the occasion for scores of editorials, a vast majority of which are pointedly against censorship as practised in Boston and throughout the state, will undoubtedly come up for drastic changes at the next session of the legislature. Headquarters of North America Corp. Are Moved (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Oct. 8.— The North American Sound and Talking Picture Equipment Corporation, manufacturers of Tone-OGraph, have moved headquarters from 565 Fifth Avenue to 729 Seventh Avenue. The Corporation is located in rooms 301 and 302. Says British Must Drop Idea Picture Is Good Simply Because It Is Made by British {Continued from preceding page) scending anything which America may hope to have for a hundred years or more, with its theatrical talent, with a scenic beauty peculiarly its own, its glories of architecture, is there any good reason, providing there are men with brains, vision and initiative, why the British shouldn't make good pictures, pictures that would be box office hits in America as wrell as in the United Kingdom? Go to See Imported Pictures There is no place in the world in which the foreign label is so much (and often needlessly) admired as in America. The well dressed man must have British clothes, his shoes must come from London as must his pipes, tobacco and neckwear. The woman insists on the mark of the Parisian coutouriere. The American artist finds no market for his wares. The New York Galleries, with few exceptions, devote their wall space and their selling efforts to the works of Englishmen, Frenchmen, Czechs and Italians. British literature is hailed as something finer than the product of the native mind, the British play is an immediate success and few but Englishmen lecture here. In other words the imported article is de rigeur. On the same premise Americans will go to see imported pictures (and do) rather than the product of the Hollywood movie mills. Ninety per cent of the films shown in the socalled art theatres there are of foreign origin. People go to these little places week after week hoping to see something good. Occasionally they are rewarded with a "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," a "Potemkin," or a "Passion of loan of Arc." But this is rare, for the simple reason that the pictures are in these smaller houses because they are not good enough to be on Broadway. Which is not a statement to the effect that Broadway is the home of only good pictures. We've seen more tripe on the socalled "Alain Stem" than we have anywhere else in the world. But the average is fairly high. It has to be. Good British Film Can be Sold What I am getting at is that a good British picture can be distributed in the States as easily, if not more easily than a good American one, that American audiences are more than willing to see and hear something from across the water — a fact which has already been demonstrated without the shadow of a doubt and which many Europeans are now (and have been for some years) capitalizing astutely. It remained for an American company to turn out a first class British talking picture, "Bulldog Drummond," and then another one, "Three Live Ghosts," one of the most delightful pictures (the cast is predominantly British) that we have seen in a long time. Warner Brothers came along with "Disraeli" starring Mr. George Arliss, a British actor, in a beautifully acted talker. Neglects Opportunities Why weren't these pictures made in England? Why, before the days of the talkies, were "Robin Hood," "The Connecticut Yankee" and other classics made in the States? For the simple reason, and I'm ashamed to say it, that the British motion picture industry has not availed itself of its opportunities. Americans in London, with new ideas, men who could (and have) done wonders for the British trade, were scoffed at as hopeless visionaries. . I know of one case where a man who has done as much for English pictures as anyone living was libelled in the trade press, was called by the trade a scoundrel, thug and thief about a matter on which no one was able to bring any proof and which had no bearing at all on his activities in the British motion picture field. Ignored Visionary's Studios When this hopeless visionary had his studios built the British trade refused to admit their existence. They hadn't seen them, didn't know anything about them, preferred not to discuss them in spite of the fact that there, possibly, with a new leadership, lay the road to something different which might put England on the map as a production center. This same man now has another scheme, entirely practical, which, if it receives any encouragement, will be the making of the British talking picture industry. Perhaps, now, the gentlemen who scoffed before wTill stop to consider a moment. But I rather doubt it. There is another factor to the British situation which has never before received attention simply because it is rather a delicate subject. I refer to the indifferent reputation of certain persons in the trade who are not qualified by brains, deportment, disposition, or general moral culture to produce or assist in the production of motion pictures. Their presence may account, to a certain extent, for that disfavor with which financial interests have been known to regard the British motion picture industry. Must Overcome Prejudice Let England make a Morte D'Arthur. With all its tradition of the sea, let it make a good sea picture. Let it make a good hunting picture, something which has never been made and can only be produced properly in England. Let it overcome its blind prejudice against anything new. America has no aversion to novelty. England complains that America buys British talent. True. Let England, if it hasn't got them, hire competent engineers and directors. Let it make a native product that is good without copying American ideas which are rapidly going out of date. Talking pictures are still in their infancy. England has everything with which to make them. What it hasn't got it can buy — except a state of mind which makes that purchase possible. If we get out of the rut, if we forget our prejudice and propaganda, if we give up trying to put over pictures because they are British instead of pushing pictures because they are good entertainment, we can and we will turn out a product which is as good or better than anything else in the world. But our biggest battle will be with ourselves. Talbert Named Publix Manager COLUMBIA, S. C— R. B. Talbert has been named city manager of the Publix theatres, according to an announcement from the Publix headquarters.