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November 27, 1926 MOVING PICTURE WORLD i 197
^^Qive a Thought to Broadway^^
You Cannot Corner the Market
jyTO regional convention these days is considered complete without a warning against l\ the growth of the chain theatre, which is a process somewhat akin to locking the stable door after the constabulary has examined the cross marking the spot where the horse used to be.
The auspicious time to object tO' combination is before the combination is effected. Five years ago refusal to do business with producer-managers, and the support of nontheatrical producers might have been effective. Today the producer-owned theatres are too firmly established to be combatted by any such procedure.
In every line of industry there is the tendency to profit by the savings possible only on gross buying, and this applies to amusement enterprises as well as commercial propositions, though in a lesser degree. The chain theatre originally was the result of such combination on the part of non-producing managers. The producer absorption of many of these chains is merely an after result. The booking strength of such combinations made them formidable. Producers absorbed most of the combinations by the simple process of admitting these chain managers into the inner ciccle.
But the dire prophecies that all houses will presently be absorbed are incorrect, unless, at last, History has stopped repeating itself. If we learn the future through the study of the past, too close a monopoly will defeat its own ends.
It is within the last ten or fifteen years that the vaudeville kings sought tO' gain a monopol}^ of that business through the purchase of the Percy G. Williams interests. With Williams out of the way, it was felt that they would have a clear field. Today the net result has been to lift Pantages to greater heights than he ever dreamed of and to give the Loew houses a superior brand of vaudeville. Both are the direct products of the monopoly. The United offices could utilize only a certain number of specialties. The others had to find an outlet. They did.
A quarter century ago Klaw and Erlanger ruled the dramatic roost, save for the "tanks." From their own power they made the Shuberts possible. Today, were there room for more dramatic houses, the Shuberts, now largely in control, would be making great their competition.
Whenever picture theatre monopoly reaches a point where it throws into the market too many stars, producers and would-be investors it will write its own obituary.
There is no monopoly possible that cannot absorb the entire product. It may be hard for the independent manager for a year or two, but these matters have a habit of adjusting themselves. Read history and you can approximate the future.