The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 206 The Educational Screen MOTION PICTURES- NOT FOR THEATRES By ARTHUR EDWIN KROWS Part 48. — No other single attempt to solve at one time all of the crowding, conflict- ing problems of non-theatricals has had the ingenuity or the force of the memorable and heretofore unsung "Screen Companion" BY the summer of 1923 it was pretty evident that the National Non- Theatrical Pictures Corporation had not solved the problem, either. Yet, in the National Non-Theatrical Pictures Corporation Levey had built up a certain amount of good will, and he controlled a library containing some obviously valuable film. He had done a trail-blazing executive job, and he figured that there should be some sal- vage of property for him. In ultimate agreement with this view arose Wellstood White, one of the most conscientious, respected and intelligent workers in non-theatricals. White was president of United Cinema Company, which held exclusive distribution rights to the Graphoscope, a patent screen, and a small, select demonstration library of religious and educational pictures. I had known White moderately well about a year before when he had had office space sublet from Walter Yorke, in the Masonic Temple Building. White's pet idea for exploiting the non-theatrical field on a large scale, was to maintain a brokerage business, to buy in, from his place in New York, likely films for the various non-theatrical libraries over the country, on a straight ten per cent commission for service. That no doubt explained his prompt interest in the afifairs of Harry Levey. So, about the middle of 1924, there was the inevitable reorganization of Na- tional Non-Theatrical Pictures, Inc., and a new corporation replaced the old. This was called the General Vision Company. The president was F. C. Pitcher. I believe that Pitcher was a Wall Street broker. He must have believed pretty sincerely in the undertaking because, when the end came, he found it necessary to go through bankruptcy. But the money his company provided bought out the ori- ginal shareholders, including Levey and Kllis, and financed the expansion generated in 1942. General Vision Com- pany acquired all the revelant interests of national Non-Theatrical Pictures, Inc., and of United Cinema. Don Carlos Ellis, while no longer a stockholder, now became secretary-treasurer and a member of the board, with active charge of production and tlie acquisition of new materials. Wellstood White was assigned picture distribution and the continued sale of Graphoscope Projectors. About a year later the end came into view. I have a clear mental picture of Wellstood White, seated alone at the far end of an otherwise empty room in the once imposing suite of offices at 120 West 41st Street, trying to figure out and reconcile the remaining unhappy accounts.. He was the last man there, of course. One would have expected him to go down with the ship, for it had been said of Wellstood White that he had "more financial integrity than any other man in the motion picture business." In more recent years he became a star salesman for a large hardware house in Washington, D. C. Later still he entered the real estate business in the same city, glad to forget a depressing chapter in his life. (I apologize for reminding him of it now.) Don Carlos Ellis, on the other hand, continued. In 1925 he became vice-presi- dent and general manager of Bray Screen Products and a little later editor of the "Bray Screen Magazine." During the unsettled days when modern talk- ing pictures were coming in, he headed the educational film service of Consolidated Film Industries. Then a close association with the industrial de- partment of Pathe led to his organization of Films of Commerce, an independent enterprise which still did Pathe custom production. As a non-theatrical pioneer Don Carlos Ellis has had a rich experi- ence. "The Screen Companion" The third far-reaching plan of non- theatrical distribution which I have in mind as belonging to that now distant silent films period, strikes mc as being by all odds the most remarkable because of the completeness with which it still might reconcile and serve all difficulties of the field as it stands. It is admirable to work out an ideal system on paper, as George Skinner did, and it is useful in its way, too, to have a flatly commer- cial schemes such as that which Harry Levey put into practice. But there is place, al.so—a better place, I believe—for the plan which is both practical and idealistic. No man could have been better design- ed by nature to open the way to an undertaking of that sort than Frederick S. Wythe. Gifted beyond most men in the motion picture industry in his quick vision of all-embracing truth (and thus commanding in his strategy), he has proved again and again, as these pages must bear witness, that he is also re- sourceful in his tactics of practical accom- modation. When Wythe brought his civics series from the Pacific Coast to New York, about 1921—he demonstrated it late that year for the New York City Visual Instruction .Xssociation of Washington Irving High School^and was referred by the visual instruction department of the city schools to Ilsley Boone as the man who controlled the supply, he was unwit- tingly moving toward an entirely new and a.stonishing chapter in his experience. He took office space with Boone, who, at that time, as already related, had some other interesting tenants. Among these was the Rev. John E. Holley, and Holley was immensely attracted to Wythe. It seemed to Holley that of all those with whom he had held converse on the sub- ject of non-theatrical film distribution, in which he was so greatly concerned because of his Holy Land pictures, none had a more comprehensive grasp than Wythe. In his remarkable first survey, made in the space of only two or three months, Wythe apparently had met everyone of importance in the Eastern field, recogniz- ing their merit.s—and their limitations. .Above all, he realistically appraised the character and magnitude of the problems. But his mind, working as always toward compensations for the defects in the view, showed him ways and means to provide them. With remarkable swift- ness, he formulated a single plan which properly put into practice, might have overcome many of the difficulties in .American non-theatricals. He did not tell everybody about it at first; but he did confide some of it to Holley. Holley became sufficiently excited over the idea to want to become i)art of the realization, and, when Albert Krippendorf, his own wealthy sponsor, came to New York from Cincinnati, he introduced Wythe and e!icouraged him to tell frankly what he saw in this field. Wythe found Krip- pendorf kindly, intelligent, sympathetic and definitely interested, so he did give his unadorned opinion on the non-the- atrical situation as he had studied it. When Wythe came to his scheme for the practicable form of service, Krippen- dorf, abetted by Holley—although he actually needed little encouragement then, —decided to start the plan in work. The aim was to build and to maintain a system of non-theatrical distribution ultimately to cover the nation, comprising a number of interlocking, regional cir- cuits. With an entertainment program, changing each month as the units moved in rotation over the circuits, it would provide circulation for advertisers who would, in the main, be expected to sup- port it. When Program A had played its month on Circuit No. 1, it would move on to Circuit No. 2, while Program B supplanted it on No. 1. Thus Circuit No. 2 would not come into existence until Circuit 1 had proved itself. So the pro- grams and circuits would multiply natur- ally and easily as the plan justified fur- ther investment. Shows would be put on by competent projectionists 'With proper equipment. Their pay would come from the modest price paid by the customer for whom the show would be given, plus income from the other sources because the ma- chinery of exhibition, thus sustained.