Variety (Jan 1949)

Weddesdayv Janwary 5, 1949 forly'third P^Hi^nr Annitertary ncmiBS The Picture Business Must Mpt For the Amus. DoUar On Its Merits Once A^ain, As ItHas In1he Past - And UsuaDy SuccessfuDy By NED E. DEPINET (President, Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corp.) Politicians, professors and cor- poration presidents may be ponti- fical and emit profundities like a Texas well spouts oil. They may have on the tip of their 10 h g U e s tile One :tr u e ant sWer to all the problems ' that torment the world: or plague t .h^e i r particular cornet of- it- I haven't. I do It n 0 w, U <j w- ever, that the motion picture Ned pepln^t Industry isn't suffering from any one major malady. It hasn't lost its sight or its voice and its financial back'isn't broken. It's just dislo- cated. It isn't ready for the last rites, the embalmer, the black hack and a dirge. It is, though, suiter ' ills anc ^ _ and, soine from being hit' on the head | j with bricks when the house of feTr ship in the theatre became almost obsolete, an atrophied and useless organ in the opinion of many, ex- hibitors who told their house man- agers, "Open the dooys and jump out of the. way so. you don't get Tun over by the crowds." . As both optimism and pessimism are contagious, it is only natural that much of this philosophy should find its way to, and take root, in Hollywood. Scarcities in materials and manpower sent 'pro-' duction costs soaring, extravagant- cies were acquired, as they are by all industries and individuals in fruitful times. Excess weight re- result in suicidal malnutrition of the industry and public revolt. The motion, picture is still a creature of the artistic imagination of men that defies slide rules and produc- tion line techniques. The gap be- t'ween success and failure is but a hair's breadth, just as the touch of the chisel and mallet in the sculp- tor's hands can turn a block of marble into a masterpiece or an atrocity. ' The motion picture is, and al- ways has been, in competition for the diversion hour and entertain- ment dollar,, whether these rivals be reading, radio or romancing, gin placed hard muscle—and many of rummy or television, books or base our Critics say fat grew iij two places, the belly ahd the brain. In the ;past yeat or;so the iniJus- try has taken stock gf itself, lots of the/vt'eiglit caUse^ by eating too freely has been taken oft by com- mon sense/ dieting and 1 think we I are in better physical and financial ... ing from a thousand ills and i shape to battle with the problems I gUtYerlng toys ito b^^ bruises, many self-inflicted, ^and I of 1949. 1 game money. Actually, the national boxoftice is 1948 the Year of 'Transformation;' Biz Gears to Domestic Marl(et By HERBERT J. YATES {President, jRepublic Picture^l, ball, alcohol or automobilesjToi^ any of the thousand other claimants to the leisure time and excess dollars of the people. You can't legislate | desire; in people,, it can only be nurtured and sold. You can't make them buy dull , or cheap:,movies when there are-so many, bright and Some '48 Memories "Nature Boy." Toni and Air* wick gags. Petrillo. The New-^ Look. Capital gains. . Pump!- kin papers. Calvert switch jokes. Bill Paley and MCA. Winchell and Kaiser-Frazer. "'Communism" in Hollywood.; Divorcement. Howard Hughes and RKO. "Citizen of the World" Garry Davis. Dixie- crats. Bobo and Winthrop Rockefeller. ''The contemptu- . oua 10." Rita and Aly. Lana and' Topping. L. B. and Lo- renav Orson Welles. Hollywood . Rover Boys on the Riviera. Television. ;LP records; Be- bop. Hollywood bad boys. Billy , ;RQse and Moss 'Hart. Boyer, sans toupee. Pre.suiant Truman reelected. Herbert J. .Yates Problem Not Hollywood's 100% eign markets crumbled. One ^na- jor operation isn't indicated, as the doctors say, but'rather it needs many pills, potions and plasters, of .common sense and good merehanT dising, which, in our business, we call showmanship, .' However; anyone who thinks the stiir pretty healthy. In many eases problem is entirely Hollywood's is badly mistaken. Any Utopian who dreams of cheap pictures and high boxoffice returns is simply delud- ing himself into the hands of the sheriff and the bankruptcy courts. Motion pictures can never go back- That the patient is still able to i wards and survive. They have al sit up' and take nourishment is demonstrated by the amazing suc- cess of "Joan of Arc." Here is a picture produced at perhaps the it is still getting its normal, or al most normal, expectation on pic- tures designed and produced at a cost intended for a world market. In reality this is a case of living off someone's fat. The^ big. question is, would .the boxoff ice be as healthy if it were doing business with pic- ^ 1948 will go down in motion plc^ ture history as the year of "trans- formation." The American motioa,- picture business, sincd its ince^ tion, designed ""■ its product for world markets. When s o u n d became a realf ity the'Ameri- can motion picture w a s quick to weld this great new medium of en^ tertainment to the silent film- Quality talk- ing pictures J began to roll out of th^ Hollywood studios "Which were the wonder of the entertainment world. With the world market at our command, the cost control of pictures became taboo conversation. : We forgot,; however, that the motion picture; business on a worldwide scale is tied up to political and economic : Conditions, even mote so that many other industries. In 1948 the del- uge of restrictions against American product hit hard. Great Brltain:s currency restraints and new quota were body blows. Insttiad of less: restrictions in 1949, in foreign mar- kets, possibly there will be more. No doubt the few countries which haven't imposed some sort of road block on-American product will do so. Whatever, we get from here on- out of our former productive for-- ways: gone forward, and must, to | tures cut down in size and cost to compete for the entertainment j the present market? I doubt it. , dollar. One basic thing that all of [The answer, I think, lies; in the I Mulvey, Goldwyn Decry Distribs 'Stranglehold' By JAMES A. MULVEY (Pres., Samuel Goldtoj/n Pictures) All of us who say we love good'| ygn"ma7ketrwrwiU W^^^^^ pictures make a mistake when we I f , ■ ■ separate a devotion to better pic-1 tures from the practical considera-1 us must remember is that the mo- greatest negative cost ever, giving ition picture, regardless of how we definite signs of turning into one of the largest grossers in his- tory. In a receding market, the American movie know-how. ha,s- turned out a boxoffice picture, and the producer's courage and daring has lit a lamp of confidence in the would like to think so, is not a necessity. -It is bought only be- cause it is desirable. Erzatz" can be substituted.; for meat and wool and brick houses when necessity dictates; because there is no other recourse, but for joint effiorts\of .producer .and ex- hibitor, the former to reduce waste 'and cut costs without deterring tions of making and showing them, They are part of the same thing, I think it is wrong to give lip service to th': argument that we dark halls of our industry. There I things Of the mind and the emo- are other encouraging signs/ Many pictures from the various; studios are- doing excellent business and there are indications that the pub- lic is regaining its belief that mo- tions there is always a iree mar- ket. The producing branch of our business can whittle costs, elimin- ate extravagance, tighten its belt ' and work like heU for its own salva- progress, the latter through his ef- need better pictures, that belter forts to maintain a high boxoffice pictures must be made, and at the level. In the margin between there I same time, deny to the producers may be profit for both, or there Ljf better pictures the free market may be need for a different, dm-| to ^hich they are entitled. It has sion of the boxoffice dollar. It is , always been a mistake, an inequity, self evident that one cannot pros- ; lo place arbitrary limits and re- per at the other's expense; the pro- j strictions in terms, in playing time, ducwon cow cant be starved and !„ advertising arrangements and tion pictures are good entertain-i tion, but the margin of savings be- ment even after the kicking the in^. tween sensible economy and current dustry took from its critics (many | costs it not great enough to carry of whom make their living from it) jt.ie load alone; Exhibitor lethargy or when it was _on its knees, punch refusal to face the facts cannot but i drunk from; domestic maulings and ' foreign beatings. : Jn my opinion the industry is get- ting its second wind after the jolt of the crumbling foreign market and the diminishing domestic box- office. That this business was caught with its costs up was not surprising^ It, Ukc all industry, was in. the inflationary spiral, but to lind itself with the necessity of liquidating its most expensive in- ventory in a declining market was serious. , ■ still give milk. In many ways the motion, picture theatre, in the lush days, got, away as a local and prideful institution from both the people and the own- ers. It depended on the migratory crowds and the new crop of young (Continued on page 247) participations,, for quality enter- tainment on the .argument that pic- tures, good, and bad, have to aver- age out; and that the good ones have to support the poor ones.- .■ The major exhibition monopolies are in conflicting and contradictory (Continued on page 58) It is politically fashionable in most countries to belabor and cas- tigate American pictures, to silence : the masses who plead for them. It will take years to recapture-a siz- able portion of our world markets —if we ever do. The effect on Hollywood has been cataclysmic. Retrenchment and ecor omy drives are one thing; but trying to make quality pictures that wiU hold and sustain the interest of our domestic customers for one-third to one-half; of our former budgets is going to be a task that will tax the most capable'' producers and.- economy^ minded creators. Set That Nut Down 1 I Where the Film Biz Differs | Most industries manufacture sep- arate units of the same article, aufompbiles for instance, and in- .J^entory. can be controlled, supply geared to demand. But the motion picl-ure industry makes but one unit of its article—a motion picture --and. its eggs are all in one basket. When that single article, represent- ing qnywhere from $500,000 to $5,- 000,000, and made to. meet the de- mands of a lush domestic and a hegltliy foreign market, finds a quarter or more of its anticipated revenue cut off suddenly, is there any wonder there was temporally panic and frantic search for a life preserver? . ' In this period of panic and self analysis, the producing and distrib-1 uting branches of the industry took inventory of itself, sought out the weak and flabby portions of its anatomy. In wartime, when there were few hard things that a dollar could buy, and there were a lot of dollars in pockets unaccustomed to their company; motion pictures •found themselves in the tempo- farily happy position of being less m competition for the dollar than ever in its history. This, plus the fact that mass migration was taking Place all over the country with mil- lions of people uprooted and tran- sient and seeking diversion, filled theattes from early. morning to inidnight and after; America; was vfopking around the clock and going to shows the same way. Salesman- GEORGE SIDNEY One of Hollywood's leading directors, whose latest release, "Hie Three Musketeers," Is breaking boxroffice records aU over the country, is now preparing ''Stoirm Over Vienna" for Metro-GoIdwyn-lVIayer. where he is under contract. Labor, Management and Artist* must get together on a new re- duced cost pattern for American pictures if we are to ride out the storm. At present it is almost im- possible to produce a picture and earn a reasonable return on its in- vestment, no matter how careful and frugal the producer is with his budget. It is obvious that, what happen» to the domestic market in 1949 will^begin to shape our future destiny. The Exhibitors must work now with equal vigor to increase gross receipts, the same- as the Companies must work to cut cost of production and retain quality. Many words have, been written about the effect of Television on motion picture theatres. It would- be unrealistic to deny it doesn't' offer the biggest potential compe- tition the indu.stry has ever had to face. Television's lack of all- around, interesting family pro- grams at the moment is only tem-; porary. The public is willing to pa.v tor better television entertain-- ment, and the manufacturers will, find a way to buy or produce what the public demands. Television's growth and the analysesi of its ef- fect on motion picture theattes and the industry should be under; care- ful scrutiny at all times. I am a bom optimist. I have the greatest confidence that'we of the motion picture business have the ability and courage to get our house in order and successfully ac- complish; the job that lies directly ahead of us. I hope for a good- year in 1949, because I believe we; have more brains and talent for . making and merchandising motion picture entertainment than the' rest of the world combined. While 1949 will present new difficulties, they will not be as vexing as 1948. We have gained invaluable experir ence that 1 believe will guide us to a more constructive future.