Boxoffice (Jul-Sep 1938)

WILL HAYS B. BALABAN — Courtesy, March of Time N. J. BLUMBEKG HARRY COHN S. R. KENT G. SCHAEFER N. SCHENCK LEO SPITZ A. WARNER Kent Heading Committee To Work Solution of Trade Problem Washington — Industry regulation from within gets its opportunity. Rather than obstruct, it is indicated the government will welcome and seek to advance any soundly conceived program of self-adjustment. Taking the cue and following a significant meeting of major executives with President Roosevelt last Saturday, action came quickly in New York when, on Tuesday, Sidney R. Kent, president of 20th Century-Pox, declared he had consented to serve as chairman of a committee charged with developing “a program for the solution of such trade problems in the industry as are still matters of contention.” Headed by Will H. Hays, the visiting group which spent almost half hour closeted with the President included Barney Balaban, president of Paramount; Nate J. Blumberg, president of Universal; Harry Cohn, president of Columbia who came on from Hollywood especially for this purpose; Kent, George J. Schaefer, vice-president of United Artists; Nicholas M. Schenck, president of Loew’s, Inc.; Leo Spitz, president of RKO, and Albert Warner, vice-president of Warner Bros. Promising the full cooperation of the industry in the Administration’s recovery program, the delegation, informed Washington quarters subsequently heard, is understood to have suggested to the Presi dent that the department of justice withhold any course of action it is persistently reported ready to initiate, to give the industry an opportunity to itself develop a satisfactory solution for the problems on which any proposed government procedure conceivably might be based. Following the meeting and in strict observance of the rules governing Presidential audiences, the executives were uncommunicative, but Hays issued a brief statement in which he indicated President Roosevelt had explored with the group the general situation at home and abroad as well as the situation within the film industry itself with respect to distributorexhibitor relationship. The inference — and it, of necessity, must remain in such a category — that the group talked about possible government proceedings is based not only on Hays’ statement that the President was fully conversant with conditions in the industry but with reports a week or more old that industry leaders were preparing their Washington visit in a final effort to stave off any plan of the government to step into the industry until it could develop remedies of its own. That producer-distributors are anxious to avoid further legal hurdles is an acknowledged fact. In the not-distant past, they went through the St. Louis-New York case and, more recently, the Dallas case; during the last session of Congress, Administration irritation was indicated by the ease with which the Neely bill to outlaw block booking was passed by the Senate. Initial steps to iron out their differences with exhibitors have been under consideration for some time, but the negotiations have not been made any easier by the knowledge that the government was preparing to move again. Refusing to discuss the conversation in detail, Hays, in his prepared statement, said “the motion picture industry, with its (Continued on next page) They Held a Joint Conference INDUSTRY GETS BREATHER AND A CHANCE FOR SELF-ADJUSTMENT SANS GOV'T INTERVENTION 4 BOXOFFICE :: July 2, 1938