The Moving picture world (November 1926-December 1926)

December 4, 1926 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 333 M. H. Hof f man . . . The Tiffany Man Super-Showmanship and Upbuilding of Exhibitor Confidence Secret of Rapid Strides Made by His Company During Past Two Years — Topliners as Attractions, Tiffany Pictures Blaze Way for Other Independents By M e r r i 1 1 Crawford NDEPENDENTS, who have fought and found it tough going, in the grim struggle which has marked the progress of this industry in recent years might do well to take a page from the record of M. H. Hofifman, vice president and guiding genius of Tiffany Productions, Inc. Not that Mr. Hoffman is the only independent showman, who has found an adequate solution of his production and distribution problems, in the face of the intensified competitive conditions which exist, and which will always be present in the film business from now on. Anyone at all familiar with the field doubtless can mention plenty of ■others offhand. But Mr. Hoffman's personality is especially worthy of note because his entrance into the independent market was just at the cru■cial time, when the "battle of the giants" had really begun in earnest, to wit, just two years ago. Mr. Hoffman set out to establish Tififiany Productions as a factor in the list of independent offerings, with a definite and well laid plan. Aside from the big question of sales and distribution, he had two major problems. For several years Tiffany Productions had been welt known — as a Metro release, starring Mae Murray. When anyone thought of Tiffany they thought of Mae Murray — and Metro in those days — but not Tiffany. So problem No. 1 was to get exhibitors thinking «f Tiffany Productions in terms of Tiffany quality. Did Missionary Work Problem No. 2 was to make Tiffany Productions of such outstanding box office attraction value, that theatre owners would book them in spite of the tremendous competition existing. That meant a lot of missionary work and a sure loss for the first year at least. Any cheapening of producing costs, in the Hoffman plan, while it might have meant a profit at the time, in the end would surely have defeated his main objective, which was to make the Tiffany brand compare favorably with the biggest and best productions made by any company in the field. Wise ones shook their heads when he first placed Tiffany productions in the staggering State Right market. They said, with perfect correctness, that with his production costs ranging from $75,000 to $130,000, the last figure being' that which the fine picture "Souls for Sables" cost him, "Hoffman can never get his money out of the independent exchanges." They were in this quite right. But so, too, was Hoffman, who was thinking just about two jumps ahead. He was willing to give the exhibitor about a quarter's worth of picture value for a dime, merely to get him to demonstrate to himself and his audiences the intrinsic box office qualities of Tiffany pictures. In this Mr. Hoffman more than succeeded last year. No theatre owner now needs to be told what the brand of "Tiffany" stands M. H. HofFman for, whether he has run the pictures or not. He knows that their standard of quality will match picture by picture, with the best. M. H. Hoffman has long enjoyed a reputation as a master showman. He has handled the biggest sales campaigns. He has planned and "put over" numberless box office successes. Hoffman Proves Worth Now he has proved that his production brains are of the same superior quality as his selling gray matter. He has demonstrated that he can plan and inject the box office quality into an attraction just as surely as he can efficiently distribute and market it. A combination as rare, as it is hard to beat. This year Tiffany has its own string of exchanges, thanks to the Hoffman foresight. Right now there are some twenty-seven of them covering all this country and Canada, except for three or four territories which together total little more than ten per cent, of the whole. By Spring there will be thirty-two Tiffany exchanges, handling Tiffany pictures exclusively, with no open spaces on the map. A full sized national distribution in less than a year and by reason of good pictures solely. This year Mr. Hoffman expects to spend $2,000,000 on twenty Tiffany productions. He also has plans already drafted and the ground purchased for a studio, the future home of Tiffany Productions in Hollywood, work on which will be begun immediately after his return to the Coast shortly after the first of the year. Which is by way of being a record for a concern as recently in the independent field as Tiffany. Specialization is the secret of Hoffman's — and Tiffany's — success. Specialization and hard work. As he puts it, "we have no nonproducing executives, no waste motion or wasted money on scenes or effects that don't show in Tiffany pictures and we do have team work." That means planning, constant supervision of details, both in the selling and the making of Tiffany pictures and above all showmanship. All of which is another way of saying that M. H. Hoffman is the hardest worked man in his high powered organizaton, himself. It is needless to say that the Tiffany executive is numbered among the pioneers of this still infant industry. He is all of that, having been in the business just seventeen years, come next Washington's Birthday. Before that time he was a lawyer, a "portrait and monogram artist," to quote from a sign he once used, and a good two handed fighter. The last he is yet, it is unnecessary to add. Otherwise, neither he nor Tiffany would be where they are today. Mr. Hoffman came to New York from Chicago, when a mere youngster. He graduated from the College of the City of New York and from the New York University Law School and practiced law in this city for ten years before fate brought him into the picture business. Found He Was Showman This was in 1910. A combination of circumstances made it necessary for him to take over the management of the Grand Theatre in Indian Orchard, Mass., a house in which he had become part owner a few weeks previously. The rest was easy. He suddenly found that he was a showman and that show business was really more intriguing than the law, and in six months he owned and managed no less than seven houses in that territory Walter E. Greene, then running the W. E. Greene Exchange, in Boston, had watched Mr. Hoffman grow from small beginnings with interest, and hired him to run his Springfield, Mass. office in connection with his theatres, at the same time that the late Hiram Abrams was running the Portland, Me. office and Harry Asher, the Boston exchange, for the same employer. Later when Universal bought the W. E. Greene Exchange, Mr. Hoffman remained with that company for several years as general sales manager. In 1920 he started Tiffany Productions, Inc. with Mae Murray as the star and with Metro as his distributor. This arrangement he continued until two years ago, when he decided to place Tiffany pictures on the market on their merits as attractions, without (Continued on page 336)