Canadian Moving Picture Digest (May 1925-May 1926)

Page Eight CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST Report on Proposed. Changes Present Uniform Contract and Arbitration Board Bitterest Denunciation of Arbitration Boards Causes Pandemonium at Milwaukee Convention i presenting the report submitted by Joseph M. Seider, President of the New Jersey Motion Picture Theatre Owners, we do so for it involves the question of arbitration which is very close to the hearts of all theatre owners and will be very shortly, or has been would be closer to the truth, brought to the direct attention of the Canadian Picture Industry. The crux of the matter rests upon this question: Is the present contract fair to the exhibitor and can arbitration based on such a_ contract prove fair to the exhibitor? This is what the committee in charge of the contract concluded, and we might preface the following by stating that the M. P. T. O. in session at Milwaukee approved the findings and suggestions of this committee. 66 A T the outset of this report, permit me to advise you that there has been no definite agreement as to the proposed changes in the contract. Negotiations have not been completed and this Convention has the opportunity of voicing its views and directing definite procedure. — “It will be recalled that this Organization has persistently refused to ratify or endorse the present so called Uniform Contract. It is a one way street, favoring the Distributor, the Party of the First Part. The Party of the Second Part is lost entirely. This Organization has never been opposed to the principle of arbitration but it could not approve or take part in arbitration predicated on an inequitable contract. “With the appointment by the Hays Organization of Messrs. Biechle, O’Reilly and O’Toole to conference with a view of rewriting the Contract, although we had not approved or accepted the contract or had a voice in appointing these gentlemen, this Organization hastened to co-operate. “At the request of our President, Sydney Cohen, Pete Woodhull and myself sat in. The sessions were long and many. We all made every effort to arrive at a set of articles of agreement that would be mutually fair, protective and workable. We urged earnestly the use of an order blank and an arbitration clause. It was flatly turned down. “We will try to touch upon the high lights and only discuss the clauses in the contract on which an agreement has not been reached. “The title of the proposed contract to be Approved Standard Exhibition Contract. “It has been agreed that Clause First shall be changed to provide for the year commencing with the playing of the first picture under the contract instead of a specific date as heretofore. A _ sentence has been added to specify the season by vear. On the balance of this Clause there has been no agreement. “The contract now provides that in the event any pictures are released by the Distributor during the next succeeding season, the Distributor shall be obliged to deliver and the Exhibitor shall accept, pay for and exhibit them at such later period. “This is obviously unfair. The Exhibitor purchases a picture or pictures expecting them to be released within a specified period. He relies upon having them available. If the film is not released, he is put to hardship and perhaps expense. We contend that in the event the photoplay is released during the succeeding season the Exhibitor shall have the OPTION of accepting the picture at such later period. And we contend that the Distributor shall be BOUND to deliver such picture or pictures during the next succeeding period and not leave the option with the Distributor as now provided. How simple it is for a Distributor, upon finding a production above the average to withold release and then re-sell this production, perhaps under a different title, for any multiple of the original price. “Clause Third will be changed to provide that in the event of loss or destruction of film, the Exhibitor shall pay at the rate of 4c per foot for the first reel and the actual laboratory cost for the balance, instead of 6c per foot as now provided. The Distributor wants to add that the Laboratory Bill shall be accepted as the cost. This is purely a question of fact and should be decided by the Arbitration Board. “In Clause Fifth the failure of the Producer to make or deliver to the Distributor (in most cases himself) should not relieve the Distributor from delivering the contracted picture to the Exhibitor. “It is our contention, but the Distributors do not coincide, that the word ‘intention’ shall be eliminated in both places in Clause Seventh where it appears. Where the Distributor is entitled to relief he has the right to it forthwith, but the provision is made in this Clause that the Exhibitor must first prove intent upon the Distributor’s part before he can receive relief. We also request the Exhibitor be relieved of giving immediate notice in writing of his exercising his option to terminate the contract during the continuation of the Distributor’s defaults as specified as provided in this Clause. The Distributor has no such obligation. “Clause Eighth is the all important one of the Contract. It provides for selection and designation of play fates. “The proposed changes that have not been disputed in this Clause are: | “Notice of Availability has been changed from three weeks to two weeks. The giving of a new notice of Availability in cases where the picture is not available on the dates asked for by the Exhibitor, has been eliminated and in its place substituted the provision that the picture must be open to the Exhibitor at the first available dates, not earlier than two weeks or later than six weeks after the exhibition dates first selected by the Exhibitor. “Here is the rub. Experience has shown that the majority of claims for the Arbitration Boards to decide arise from the Exhibitor’s failure to book the pictures he purchases. This is not the Exhibitor’s fault. The fault can truly be charged to this Clause Eighth of the contract. “A second or subsequent run theatre invariably must buy his pictures in groups. When he calls for play dates, they are not available because of the failure of the first run theatre to book his dates or because the first run had not been sold or the Distributor witholding release in the particular territory. The Exhibitor is forced to scramble for pictures immediately available and he has to buy more blocks. He has been forced into an overbought condition. Before he could play off the pictures. he had been compelled to add, the first groups become available and the Distributor clamors for play dates which the Exhibitor has not to give. The result is heartaches, overbuying and arbitration cases. “We forcefully urged that in such cases, where the theatre is forced in order to remain open to buy these additional pictures because the product he had first contracted for is not available, that he be relieved at his option from the first contract. , “Upon our request it has been agreed to add a clause, providing that the photoplays shall not contain any advertising that the Producer thereof is compensated for directly or indirectly. “We object to Clause Twelfth which provides that we must advertise each photoplay as a Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn or whoever the Producer may be and that we must adhere to the form of announcement contained in the Producer’s advertising. “Also Clause Thirteenth, which provides for our paying a government tax which may sometime be imposed. And Clause Fifteenth which tells us the minimum we are permitted to charge even though we do not play percentage. And also the Sixteenth Clause, which says we must lease all advertising matter from them. It has been agreed that the Percentage Clause Fourteenth be written so that it provides that payment shall be made the day following the close of the engagement and that in the event it is for more than seven days, payment shall be made at the end of each week or fraction thereof. “Clause Seventeenth is the Deposit Clause. Of course, we want it out. As a compromise we offered that a receipt be given upon the payment of a deposit, that 6 per cent. interest be paid thereon and that such payment be subject to the laws in the respective States wherein the deposits or advance payments are paid, which provide for the segregating and trusteeing for safety. The payment should apply to the last picture played. The Distributor consents to issuing the receipt but not the other conditions. “Clause Eighteenth — the procedure, under this Clause at present, is that an application for a contract becomes a contract only after it has been accepted by the Home Office of the Distributor within a specified period. “We suggested that this be reversed; that a contract be a contract subject to disafirmance by the Home Office of the Distributor within the specified period. This the Distributors’ attorneys at first consented to, but later qualified their acceptance by providing that the contract be considered a contract if signed by the Before Buying Pictures Read The Digest Advertising Pages. Google rm ia ata cae hea ee ts. holes. AI ee