Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

MsQ&Mi IlMlBSJMg^S Vol. XLII NEW YORK CITY, OCTOBER 11, 1930 No. 15 THE PENNY IS MIGHTIER THAN THE DOLLAR WHILE Hollywood's mahogany chairwarmers and New York's affirmative executives continue to sit in repose, the slashing of microscopic salaries continues without interruption. The payroll shrinks in proportion to the rising satisfaction of the pygmy brain that sponsors the cut and the business ship of state assumes even keel. Perhaps. It's hard to believe that seasoned film men who profess to know their business can blind themselves so completely to the light. They know, or they should, how sensitive a product they deal in. They know, or should, that the value of a picture fluctuates like the wind ; that what the salesman, for instance, can get in price depends on his ability, plus his enthusiasm, to put over his deals. Ant Hills Bucking Mountains YET, overlooking the mountains in waste, they permit annihilation of the ant hills, and, by their very actions, allow the stamina of their men in the field to face disintegration. How can a go-getter salesman be expected to knock 'em dead when in the back of his mind he wonders when the price-slashing farce enacted in the home office will reach him? How, conceivably, can the rank and file be expected to keep that shoulder to the wheel when the reward is either discharge or salary reduction the moment bad pictures or economic depression throw the tremors of panic into the front office? And why, will some enlightened soul inform us, should it be necessary to remind the great brains of the industry how basically unsound is a business precept so obviously founded on lack of vision? The Rally of the Penny-Savers THIS column touched on the situation when the penny-savers first got their bright idea. An important man, who agrees with the writer that the procedure is wet and thereby stamps himself as a lone wolf among his executive compatriots, suggested the other day that it might be well to repeat what was published at the time. Here it is: "The gladiator play boys of ancient Rome never supplied their toga-bedecked citizenry with a more entrancing, if .not quite so futile, spectacle than is being unfolded today in some of our best film circles. Spotlight on Some Truths 44' I^HE bankers are looking the other way I when flotations of new issues are broached. Cash is consequently hard to get. Theatre grosses, until two weeks ago, were more low than high, while here in New York circuit managers looked glum, felt that way and didn't know what to do about it. "So from the high places came the word and picayune retrenchment was started on its smallish way. Publicity men were fired. Also advertising men. Clerks were dismissed, stenos let out and some consciences thereby eased. "In New York there are high-priced incompetents tenaciously holding their fat jobs. Thev are relatives, political henchmen of the man in the saddle or they know where the body is buried." When the Wash-Up Comes WHEN the adding machines stop clicking and grosses are finally tallied, the outfits that squandered morale to save a few thousands might well take mental inventory. If they are honest and at all penetrating in their diagnosis, the conclusion will be inevitable. In this business, money has to be spent to bring money back. Rant against it, scoff at it, or even pooh-pooh it. Thirty years of motion pictures have demonstrated this to be the truth. It's inescapable. K A N N Published weekly by Motum Picture News. Inc. Founded in September, 1913. Publication, Editorial and General Offices 729 Seventh Avenue. New York City William A. Johnston President and Publisher; E J. Hudson, Vice-President ; Maurice Kann. Editor ; Charles F. Hynes. Managing Editor; James P. Cunningham News EditorKoymond E. Gallagher. Advertising Manager; Los Angeles Office: Hotel Roosevelt. Hollywood; William Crouch, Western Representative. Chicago Office 910 ?„' i\"X!ga%-"""i.Hi'r.ry £■ Holqust. Central West Representative. Subscription Prices: $3.00 per year in United States, Mexico and all U. S. Possessions' Canada $5.00. Foreign, $10.00. Copyright. 1930, by Motion Picture News. Inc., United States and Great Britain. Title registered in United States Patent Office and fe™. Entered as second class matter at the Post Office, New York, April 22, 1926, under Act of March 3. 1879. "