The Exhibitor (Jun-Oct 1939)

EDITORIAL I H [ i Vol. 22, No. 7 June 28, 1939 A Jay Emanuel Publication Covering the film territoriei in the Metropolitan East. Published weekly by Jay Emanuel Publications, Incorporated. Publishing office: 1 22 5 Vine Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. New York City office, 1600 Broadway. West Coast office, 1119 Poinsettia Drive, Hollywood, California. Representatives in Washington, D. C.; Albany, Buf¬ falo, Boston, New Haven. Jay Emanuel, publisher; Paul J. Greenhalgh, business manager; Herbert M Miller, managing editor. Subscription rates: $2 for one year; $J for three years. Address all communi¬ cations to 1221 Vine Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. JUST IN PASSING CREDITING THE NEWSREELS From an industryite sincerely interested in the betterment as well as appreciation of shorts comes a thought that should find favor. Why not, he suggests, give proper recognition to the newsreel which does the premiere bit of newsreel report¬ ing each year! Why limit the JEP Grand Shorts Awards to shorts alone? Certainly, the newsreels are deserving of the same consideration. This strikes us as a good idea so, as part of the 1940 Grand Shorts Awards, the achievements of the news¬ reel division will be scrutinized and re¬ warded. How this will be done is still hazy in our minds, but the thought is so good we hasten to get our decision on the record. As for the Drocess of proper recognition, we are willing to receive suggestions not only from the newsreel folk but from the trade. TOO MUCH PUBLICITY One reason advanced for lack of interest on the part of many patrons in current pictures is the method by which some weekly and monthly magazines "tell all’’ in the matter of photographs of story synopsis and action before the picture gets its first run. This is similar to giv¬ ing a full course meal instead of an appetizer. Probably the publicity depart¬ ments consider it a real achievement to plant complete stories but from where we are sitting the practice seems to react unfavorably. The principle of the perfect serial in any magazine is to hold the in¬ terest so that reader eagerly awaits the next issue. But the magazines are doing just the opposite in the manner in which they are publicizing current pictures. TELEVISION HAS ITS PROBLEMS, TOO We are indebted to The New York Times for a few words on television which should be of interest to those within the industry who think the threat to our business from this new form of entertainment is immediate. Editorializes The Times, in part: "The Radio Manufacturers Association, convened at Chicago, looks sourly on the commercial future of television. And well it may. Though the images sent and received are acceptable, a transmitter has a range of only 50 or 60 miles even when mounted on top of the Empire State or Chrysler Building. To blanket the country with visual entertainment through a national hook-up involves the erection of perhaps several hundred stations, each costing from $100,000 to $500,000. Interconnection can be achieved by short-wave radio, but engineers prefer the coaxial cable, which costs about $5,000 a mile, with at least 90,000 miles needed. "Assuming that some inexpensive way of hooking up stations will ulti¬ mately be evolved, there still remains the obstacle of studio costs. The worst film play that the public will tolerate costs about $1,000 a minute in screen¬ time. Probably $5 000 a minute is the average for a good screen play. But the most that a national hook-up now costs the advertiser is about $600 a minute, which leaves a satisfactory profit for the broadcasting company. Tele¬ vision studio costs will have to be brought down to about $5 00 a minute if ordinary broadcasting is any criterion. How that miracle is to be performed in the face of Hollywood’s long experience and the public’s demand for highpriced actors and elaborate stage setting, no economic soothsayer will venture to predict.” The Times goes on to estimate further that at the rate of one full length play every 24 hours, the production cost would run $300,000 a day, and that the gross business of the two leading sound-broadcasting companies amounts to about $90,000,000 per year, which is barely enough to produce 300-hour-long television plays on a Hollywood scale, with nothing allowed for research, investments, etc. According to the above, then, television, as a successful business, will have problems other than mechanical to solve, but, on the other hand, we feel that television ultimately will become as much a business as the radio is now. While there is no reason to add television to the immediate headaches of our business, we think that the exhibitor who does not watch developments is not making a wise move. Remember, there was a time when the radio was in its infancy, too. Pinchhitting for Jay Emanuel. QUAD.