Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1934)

MOTION PICTURE HERALD Vol. 117. No. 6 OP November 10, 1934 THE REAL BOSSES ADDRESSING the workers of General Motors, Mr. Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., president of the corporation, has written a letter renaarking: "We have got to make products which the public will buy and we can do it only by all working together with the same idea in mind. The buyers of our products are the real bosses. . . . We must satisfy them or lose our jobs." That's perhaps a bit obvious, but it seems that it has to be said in many industries over and over again. Everything important has to be said over and over again. Also, to say it again, it is quite as true of the motion picture as it Is of motor cars — probably truer. AAA EFFICIENCY ENGINEERS are supposed to be dusty fellows of facts and slide rules and tabulations. So just fancy the thrill of discovering, in an article for the next issue of Better Theatres, that Mr. J. T. Knight, Jr., engineer in charge of maintenance for Paramount Publix, says: "Motion Pictures have definitely established themselves as the means of distributing the greatest amount of pleasure to the greatest number, at the lowest unit cost, of any method or medium of creative expression in the history of the world. If motion pictures cost twice as much the world could not do without them. ..." AAA STEPHEN DECATUR'S PAPER WITH its usual genius for misunderstanding The Chicago Tribune last week presented a page one cartoon plaint by the venerable Mr. John T. McCutcheon, wanting to know why Chicago "never gets the first run movies until long after they appear in most other American cities?" The answer is that Chicago does get them, but that the Loop Is "first run" and the neighborhood houses are subsequent runs, even In glorious Chicago. Mr. McCutcheon and the Tribune have been misled by scattering returns from a few outlying precincts. AAA THE Administration Is proud of the fact that part of its reconstruction program looks ahead 120 years — the time it will take the walnut trees In the reforestation projects to mature. Even Washington will agree the answer Is nuts. NO AMATEURS N a statistical moment the other day we sent for the employment records of the Motion Picture Herald's editorial staff and engaged in some profound tabulations and calculations. When we emerged and verified the results with a comptometer we found that the average editorial worker on this journal is 40.1 years old and has had 15.7 years experience In the world of the motion picture. The longest term of service to Motion Picture Herald and publications merged therein is twenty-seven years, and the newest member of the staff has been on the job for two years, with some years of the stage and studio behind him. AAA ALL TIED-UP WHILE It Is true that "The Silver Streak" by RKO Radio Pictures Is not one of Its most pretentious addresses to the box office, it is none-the-less a scheduled dramatic release. And that, to those who can remember the days of "sponsored pictures" and the hostility of the screen to what they represented, causes one to raise at least one eyebrow at the publicity element of this train picture project. The Burlington streamlined Zephyr is the star of the piece and has been the focus of railroad publicity from the RKO ranch all through the late summer. Now the Burlington is to put the train In service November 20 in sequel to the release of the picture, according to RKG -publicity copy labeled "Trade News 11334." In addition, to add, one may suppose, to the aromas of the event there is a Camel cigarette "tie-up," promoting traln-cigarette-plcture. No one can properly decry endeavours for the promotional support of motion pictures. But If pictures are to be made around publicity campaigns they are likely to prove of the same quality as other products which consist entirely of selling points. The box office can be served only by production which shoots first at a good story and thinks about how to tell the world it is good afterwards. When tie-ups start at the camera they are likely to show on the screen. AAA RAW MATERIAL THE market price of the chemical components of the human body, iron, carbon, hydrogen, calcium, etc., averages about 70 cents. At a Massachusetts Institute of Technology dance last week the girls were subjected to electroanalysis meters as a basis for the admission prices paid by their escorts. The girls assayed from 55 to 85 cents. Maybe they run that way In Cambridge — in Hollywood they rate higher. MOTION PICTURE HERALD MARTIN QUIGLEY. Editor-in-Chief and Publisher X '[l^?oS?''^*L"^,-^?*^'^'*°'''^ tf"^'^,' founded 1915; Motion Picture News, founded 1913; Moving Picture World, founded 1907; Motography, founded 1909 The Film Index founded 1906 Published every Thursday by Quigley Publishing Company, 1790 Broadway, New York City. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address ■■Quiqpubco New York " Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Colvin Brown, Vice-President and General Manager; Terry Ramsaye, Editor; Ernest A. Rovelstad, Managmg Ed'itor Chicago Bureau, 407 South Dearborn Street, Edwin S. Clifford, manager; Hollywood Bureau, Postal Union Life Building, Victor M. Shapiro manager London Bureau Remo House 310 Regent Street, London W I, Bruce Allan, cable Quigpubco London; Berlin Bureau. Berlin-Tempelhof, Kaiserin-Augustastrasse 28, Joachim K. Rutenberg representative Paris Bureau, 19,^ Rue de la Cour-des-Noues, Paris 20e, France, Pierre Autre, representative, cable Autre-Lacifral-20 Paris; Rome Bureau, Viale Gorizia, Rome, Italy, Vittorio Malpassuti, representative, Italcable, Malpassuti, Rome; Sydney Bureau, 600 George Street, Sydney, Australia, Cliff Holt, representative; Mexico City Bureau, Afjartad'o 269, Mexico City] Mexico, James Lockhart representative. Member Audit Bureau of Circulations. All contents copyright 1934 by Ouigley Publishing Company. Address all correspondence to the New York Office. Better Theatres, devoted to the construction, equipment and operation of theatres, is published every fourth week as section 2 of Motion Picture Herald. Other Quigley Publications: Motion Picture Daily, The Motion Picture Almanac, published annually, and the Chicago-=in.