Motion Picture News (Jul - Sep 1930)

16 Motion Picture News July 5, 1930 The Insiders' Outlook RKO is washing up as fast as possible on the franchise plan entered into with Allied States Ass'n, according to the railbirds. There is to be no sudden dropping of the axe, the company figuring exhibitors have the franchise sewed up for five years if they want to hold out and insist that it is carried out. The gag now is said to be a quiet campaign to secure cancellation. The company is willing to make concessions on the current output to secure release. Franchise holders, wise to the racket, are reported as insisting upon a contract for this year's product as the price of tearing up the franchise. If the company refuses to lay it on the line, so The Insiders hear, the exhib assumes an indifferent air and says in effect, "Let's go through with the franchise agreement." Remember Chicago? That franchise enterprise on the part of RKO has been somewhat of a burden from the start, according to dopesters. It will be recalled that the RKO sales force found itself on a sleigh ride when the subject was first presented them at Chicago. At that time, Lee Marcus, distribution chief, came to the Windy City with a rider which asked the franchise holder to endorse arbitration and to abstain from any attacks upon the Hays organization. It seems that something had happened between Hays and Hiram Brown subsequently to the enthusiastic reception given the plan some time before by the big moguls of RKO. Presented to the Allied group at Chicago, Marcus' rider was given the haha, whereupon he is said to have given the franchise plan a severe lacing before the RKO sales force. There followed a communication by Abe Myers, Allied chieftain, to David Sarnoff, and the latter is declared to have given prompt and firm instructions to Marcus to go through with the plan as scheduled. This placed Marcus in the predicament of having to resell the franchise plan, after previously unselling his men on it. Enthusiasm The RKO force, so it goes, has blinked considerably, wondered what it was all about, and then went home undecided upon just what to do. The natural result would have been apathy in peddling the franchises, and that is exactly what is reported to have taken place. At least RKO did not evidence any enthusiasm over the barnstorming campaign to sell them, as did Tiffany. Now the company is reported pulling up stakes, definitely swinging over to the other side of the fence, for it doesn't take a lot of observation to know that other distributors Misery Note WHEN the auditors finished and mopped their perspiring brows, a certain national chain discovered, with a groan, that its loss last week was exactly $480,000. The week before, the same chain broke even. Two of its first rank executives haven't gotten over the remarkable achievement yet. And that was over two weeks ago. were plenty peeved over that franchise arrangement. Possibly some of the first runs that RKO and Tiffany didn't get have a bearing on this. Mebbe so. When Brains Reel Hot weather is no time to start a crusade, but this particular Insider has a pet aversion that he's got to get off his chest, regardless of the season. The other day, in looking through a dictionary (not for adjectives) he came across this definition : "Selfish or unfair utilization." And the industry is guilty of it every day. That sounds like muckraking, but the word defined thusly is exploitation. It also means "to profit illegitimately" and "to draw an illegitimate profit from." Common usage of the word in -this business has given it a lily-white meaning, but Noah Webster differs — and he's the final authority. If we can get a coupla converts we'll start the crusade against exploiting the word exploitation. We'll even go so far as to suggest the word "promotion" in its place. Neckers and the B. 0. "People are getting tired of talkers," is the cryptic manner in which a promi nent exhibitor leader sums up what he says is one of the principal reasons for the present state of theatre business. Independents, he says, are being killed off at a rapid rate because of the reaction he declares has set in and, being unable to stand the gag of dwindling box office receipts, are being forced to throw up the sponge. The sacrifice of action in dialogue pictures he ascribes to the feeling on talkers which he declares exists. Patrons also are finding that talkers impose restrictions which they resent. If they carry on any kind of conversation, he declares, "an usher taps them on the shoulder and warns them to desist or take the air." Talkers also have put a crimp in necking in the theatre, he states, "and whether we like it or not, neckers have an important bearing on box office receipts, which are dropping due to the loss of this business." Every Knock a Boost A knock, alleged (of course) by the Hays association on a picture evidently is considered a boost out Minneapolis way, judging by the way "White Cargo" is knocking 'em over this week. Played at the Shubert, stock house, which is off the picture house street, and unrefrigerated, the film is clicking big despite the opposition of the Byrd film at Century and Will Rogers in person with "So This Is London." The theatre is playing up the claim that the picture was banned by Hays as screen material. Newspaper critics are not so hot for the film, but independents recall that they weren't for "Ingagi" either, although that film, declared frowned on by the Hays office, seems to be hitting in the Northwest sector. What price knocks now? The Reason Why A w. k. press agent about town, harassed and verbally mauled by the eccentricities of the man who pays his salary check, talking about Empeenews: "Know what I like about your sheet?" he said to this Insider. "No. What?" was the quavering reply. "Fact that you say in print all the things about this 1— — y company I work for, but can't afford to say." THE INSIDERS Published weekly by Motion Picture News, Inc. I ded in September, 1913. Pub lication, I J^nal and General Offices: ^.f'^nil^venueN^Y^k Ctt* »[•«£ mond h. Gallagher, Aavi Michigan Avenue, Harry E Foreign, $10.00. Copyright