Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1939)

NEELY COMMITTEE INFORMED MAJORS REND BACKWARDS IN DESIRE TO AID "SMALL MAN" Wm. F. Rodgers Testimony Stresses Cooperation Given Independent By EARLE A. DYER Washington — “It is sometimes not profitable for us to deal with this socalled small man, but, nevertheless, we recognize his position and in effort to straighten out difficulties within the confines of our industry we have bent backwards,” William F. Rodgers, general sales manager of M-G-M, declared before the senate subcommittee conducting hearings on the Neely bill. Public protection is afforded largely through the arbitration provisions and those for cancellation of pictures repugnant to a community on moral, racial or religious grounds, he explained. “We believe that from the standpoint of these folks who represent the public groups this protects them,” he said. “It was included without having been requested by any exhibitor body.” Percentage Run Anytime Other provisions referred to by Rodgers were those permitting weekday showing of pictures booked originally for weekend exhibition which theatre owners felt were not suitable for that period, and the arrangements made to permit exhibitors to get outstanding pictures without having to take the entire block. “There should be no occasion in the future for anyone to feel that they were denied getting some picture,” he declared, “but we have also established a provision that we do not want this clause used to buy any single distributors’ pictures simply from a quality standpoint.” Also, he said, so far as small houses are concerned pictures on percentage may be played at any time designated by the exhibitor. Score Charge Sacrificed “The small theatre has decided advantages under this proposal that will give him not all the Neely bill provides but a great many concessions he never before had,” he commented. “If this will give all the Neely bill provides, why not just pass the Neely bill,” Senator Neely queried. “I didn’t say ‘all,’ ” Rodgers explained. “ ‘Nearly all.’ ” There have been complaints that exhibitors in some areas could not get product, he continued, and proposals provide that they can get some pictures from every distributor. “Allied particularly objected because pictures had been taken away from independents in some places to go to larger houses,” he said. “We have tried to take care of that and, I believe, to Mr. Myers’ satisfaction. We have agreed not to take away pictures from a small man for the A Guild Agent Respects Public Washington — Hollywood writers do not feel the public has a 12-year-old mind, declared Ralph Block, representing the Screen Writers’ Guild, before the Interstate Commerce subcommittee hearings on the Neely Bill. “There is a growing conviction among the writers, actors and directors of Hollywood,” Block said, “that creators cannot condescend to the public taste, that the public today can be trusted to accept the best possible motion picture creations from the standpoint of ethics and taste, and that the responsibility of the creator now is to find technical methods and imaginative processes sufficiently effective to transmit at their highest potentiality subjects of significance and social value.” Block, who is a former president of the guild and a one-time producer, asserted the enactment of the bill “would place insurmountable obstacles in the way of those creators for the screen who, by their social outlook, taste, and desire for increased scope of expression, are now in a position materially to influence motion picture production for the better.” Proponents of the bill, Block charged, understand films only vaguely as an instrument and form of expression which has social function all outside of its activity as an economic factor in American life. He then went on to discuss how a writer goes about creating a story for the screen. Pointing out the effort, time and expenditure of money that goes into a production, Block contended “there has been no method discovered yet whereby financial and artistic success in front of the public can be assured.” sole purpose of giving them to a larger man. Other difficulties which are to be corrected are the requirement in some instances that an exhibitor take shorts, newsreels or other product to get feature service, which is to be eliminated, and the score charge, also to be cut out. The latter, Rodgers said, will cost M-G-M alone over $600,000 a year. Answering a question by Senator White as to how the exhibitors are receiving the proposals, Rodgers said that while Allied is still antagonistic to them, other organizations, including the MPTOA, Southern California exhibitors, Independent Theatre Owners of Metropolitan New York, the Virginia theatre owners association and the Iowa and Nebraska exhibitors have indicated their intention of accepting although, he said, all of them want some amendments. “There is no question that this code will Practices Code Provisions Will Be of General Aid Is a Belief be acceptable to those who want to accept it, but, we think, accept it or not, they will still benefit from many of its provisions,” he declared. Citing M-G-M’s experience with “A Christmas Carol,” on which it received 1,292 cancellations, Rodgers said “I am simply trying to emphasize that from a moral standpoint there is no issue here. There is no provision in the Neely bill that will prevent an exhibitor from passing up ‘A Christmas Carol,’ because, admittedly, it is not successful from a boxoffice standpoint.” Much of Rodgers’ final testimony was devoted to rebuttal of charges made earlier by Allied witnesses. UA Sales Not Selective It is not true, he declared, that only the best pictures are sent to England, nor is it true that United Artists sells its pictures selectively. On the contrary, he asserted, he looked over Loew’s UA contract and found it had to take the entire UA output, plus five English pictures, and, he pointed out, had to buy them blindly. Meeting charges of oppression leveled by Sidney M. Samuelson and Nathan Yamins, Rodgers said he had never heard of any exhibitors being forced out of business. On the other hand, he testified, Samuelson has had a monopoly in Newton, N. J., for many years, and the “threat” which he complained of to the subcommittee, that unless he eased off on the Neely bill he would get competition, came from another independent exhibitor and not from one of the “Big Eight.” Details English Setup “Samuelson said the first-run controlled theatres get the pictures first,” Rodgers said. “In his case he plays pictures within two or three days in Newton after the Capitol in New York. The highest rental ever received from the Capitol was $80,000; Samuelson had the same picture while it was being played at the Capitol for exactly $50. “Of these independent theatres that claim to be so oppressed, I would like to know how many of the 10,000 in existence are for sale.” Rodgers went into detail regarding the English system, which Allied spokesmen had held demonstrated the feasibility of the Neely bill. It is true, he said, that they have trade showings in England, but there is no selectivity “and it is only a question of the date on which it is to play and the price to be paid for it.” Pictures are booked in blocks and, further, (Continued on page 56) BOXOFFICE April 15, 1939 55