The story of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation (1919)

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CORPORATE HISTORY September i to August 31 is known in the motion picture industry as the "show year." In the show year ending August 31, 1918—874 motion picture features were produced in the United States, of which Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was credited with 126, or 14.4 per cent of the total, while the next largest producer brought out 104, or n.7 per cent. The point of special interest in this connection is not merely that Famous Players-Lasky Corporation is the largest producer of motion pictures in America, and, therefore, in the world, but that it also produces the features which earn the largest profits. For the 14.4 per cent of features produced by this concern earned from features released in the United States that year #15,615,000, which was 24 per cent of the grand total of #65,000,000 paid for film rentals by the nation in that period. The reader must bear in mind, as will be shown in its proper order, that this was not the corporation's total income, but only film rentals from the United States for the show year of 1917-18. For the show year ending August 31, 1919, three-quarters of which was ended when these lines were written, the program of Famous Players-Lasky Corporation provided for 156 features, an increase of 30, or 23 per cent over the preceding year; and enough short subjects (one and two reels) to make a grand total of 364 productions, or one for every day in the year save one. The supreme test of merit is to be found in the fact that the corporation's products, released under Paramount-Artcraft trade-marks, are now earning 30 per cent of all the money paid for film rentals in the United States, as compared with 24 per cent in the preceding year. It seems logical to assume that the increasing popularity of Paramount-Artcraft pictures must be due to their demonstrated earning capacity; and that this earning capacity must bear some relation to film rentals. On this premise the box-office ratio of efficiency may be expressed as ico for Paramount-Artcraft pictures as compared with an average efficiency of 69 for all other features in the show year ending August 31, 1918, decreasing to only 55 per cent in the show year ending August 31, 1919. In other words, any other average feature earns only #55 for the average exhibitor to each #100 earned by average Paramount- Artcraft features. In the light of the foregoing it is not surprising to find that Famous Players-Lasky Corporation stock is the only motion picture security of any kind listed and traded in on the New York Stock Exchange, nor that this stock is selling at #115 a share. Securities of some other motion picture concerns are traded in to a limited extent in the outside market, known as the "curb," the highest priced being quoted at #1.50 per share. All these things together explain why Famous Players-Lasky Corporation has been obliged to increase materially the capacity of its Lasky studio at Hollywood, Cal.; why it has placed a rush order for the construction of a #2,000,000 studio and laboratory at Long Island City, N. Y., and why it has formed a British producing organization with head- quarters in London, capitalized at #3,000,000, as related in preceding pages. Such achievements by a corporation barely three years old, stamp it as an organization decidedly out of the ordinary. Its brief history may, therefore, be worth reviewing. Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was organized under the laws of the State of New- York, July 19, 1916, for the purpose, duly carried out, of acquiring all the capital stock of the Famous Players Film Company and the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, Inc. Of its component parts the Famous Players Film Company is older, having been incor- porated under the laws of New York, June 1, 1912, with an authorized capital stock of [ 65 ]