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October, ig2S
THE EDUCATIONAL SCREEN
(Including MOVING PICTURE AGE)
Editorial Section
Vol. II October, 1923 ^^ g
A Bulletin
WHEN The Educational Screen passed its first birthday last January, it became subject to that disease— inevitable for all magazines and fatal to some — which is known as "Expirations." Naturally it gives us great pleasure to make the following report on the condition of this patient :
New Subscriptions and Renewals for the past tzvo months are 74% greater than the Expirations for the past six months.
We can trust our readers, our contributors, and our advertisers to appreciate fully the significance of the above statement.
Novelty, Habit, Merit
HAVE we passed the heyday of the theatrical movie? To answer either "yes" or "no" requires some temerity, for either amounts to prophecy which is always rash. But consider one simple aspect of the question.
If the figures given out by moviedom in its most serious moments can be trusted, there were 20,000 movie theatres operating in the country a few years ago. Today the same figures from the same sources have dropped to 18,000 or below.
Back of most of these movie houses was the vision of millionairedom for owners or lessees. The vision was born of the press agent poison which has permeated the whole industry to its vast detriment. The type of mind that was drawn toward movie-exhibiting was the type that could believe the absurd advertisements. It is the type that can go on believing them as they have grown more hectic and desperate. And it is the type that will continue indefinitely as the exhibitors of stupid pictures for the vacant-minded, which will forever constitute the bulk of the movie output.
But some of these theatre-owners were disillusioned rapidly — two thousand theatres are gone. Most of those remaining have modified their ambition; they are struggling only to make a living but their method remains the same. They read the delirious ads of the forthcoming productions, inquire of friends who have seen or shown them, listen to the fluent patter of the salesman — and try to guess the truth about a film. When they guess right, they glow over the view through the glass doors of their lobbies as they "stand 'em up" outside. When they guess wrong, they accept it as part of the game. It is a gamble anyway.
What does it come to, then — this situation? Eighteen thousand theatres are apparently enough to run all the films the present movie public will support.
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