American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

tive of a modern raw-stock company is a good fellow. He's a fine partner at golf or bridge, and a good conversationalist at the lunch-table. But he's more than that — he is today a man without whom the technical and creative activities of every film-user in the industry would be crippled: a man who gives an indispensable service, and gives it cheerfully, without hope of reward or publicity. Again — we wonder if we really appreciate these men and the vital, if unsung part they play in making our i work with camera, recorder or developing-machine a success? Growing Pains (Continued -from Page 107) even Fantasia — they become inevitable. The Silly Symphony series was launched in 1929. In Mickey Mouse cartoons, we kidded the modern scene. The material was limited. We wanted a series which would let us go in for more of the fantastic and fabulous and lyric stuff. The Silly Symphony didn't give Mickey much competition until we added Technicolor in 1932. We thought that color would be worth the heavy extra cost. Color was part of life. A black-and-white print looked as drab alongside Flowers and Trees, as a gray day alongside a rainbow. We could do things with color! We could do many things with color that no other medium could do. I remember Roy coming into the office about this time with a bunch of figures in one hand and eyes full of patient resignation. "How come," began Roy, "how come that last year with thirty men we made thirty pictures, and this year with over a hundred and fifty, you get out only eighteen?" I can't answer that type of question, but the surest way to take Roy's mind off past and present troubles is to tell him that we need a lot more money in the immediate future. Roy has the greatest confidence in me, in our medium and in our future, but he is a business man and doesn't like to live dangerously twelve months out of the year. In this instance, three little pigs and a big, bad wolf were soon to bring him days of peace — not many days, but , a few. The Three Little Pigs was released in ! 1933. It caused no excitement at its Radio City premiere. In fact, many critics preferred Noah's Ark which was i released about the same time. I was told that some exhibitors and even United Artists considered The Pigs a "cheater" because it had only four characters in it. The picture bounced back to fame from the neighborhood theaters. Possibly more people have seen Tfte Pigs than any other picture, long or short, ever made. So you get an insight into I the short-subject business when I tell you that The Pigs grossed only $125,000 its first year. Snow White grossed over 1 seven million. That's the difference between shorts and features from the profit • angle. The low rentals for short sub A NEW DOMESTIC PRODUCT OF SUPERIOR QUALITY tor Color Film Toning ana Reducing Solutions Redsol Crystals* {POTASSIUM SODIUM FERRICYANIDE) produced by CYANAMID To be used wherever Red Prussiate of Potash is used, with greater economy and at lower cost than the current prices on imported Red Prussiate would permit. Cyanamids capacity to produce REDSOL CRYSTALS is ample to meet all domestic needs, making users of Red Prussiate of Potash in this country independent of foreign sources for the first time. HIGH PURITY and UNIFORMITY FINE CRYSTALLINE FORM MOHK FERKICI WIDE PER UNIT MORE READILY SOLLBLE Stocks carried at Warners, N. J., San Francisco and Azusa, Cal. Address all inquiries about REDSOL CRYSTALS to: AMERICAN CYANAMID & CHEMICAL CORPORATION A Unit of American Cyanamid Company 30 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA • New York, N. Y. *Trade-mark jects has been a chronic headache for us. Our only solution has been to build our prestige through quality to the point where public demand forced the exhibitor to pay more for our product. Theaters paying two or three thousand a week for a feature may pay us only a hundred or a hundred and fifty dollars for a short. Gentlemen, I ask for justice. Whatever the reason for The Pigs' astonishing popularity, it was an important landmark in our growth. It nailed our prestige way up there. It brought us honors and recognition all over the world and turned the attention of young artists and distinguished older artists to our medium as a worthwhile outlet for their talents. We needed these men for future growth, and they came from all over the country to join our staff and be trained in our ways. The success of the Three Pigs was felt throughout our entire business. The income from all our pictures and from merchandising royalties took a sharp upswing. The magazine Fortune declared that our net profit for 1934 was $C00,000 and I'll take their word for it. That's chickenfeed in Hollywood, but we are strictly small fry. We poured the money back into the business in a long-range expansion program pointing at featurelength production and the protection of our new prestige through constantly increasing quality. The Mickeys went Technicolor. We enlarged our training American Cinematographer March, 1941 139