The Exhibitor (Nov 1938-May 1939)

16 Comment on "MAYBE” • HELLO, FOLKS! This is WARREN STOKES speaking to you from Hollywood over the JEP network. They are still talking about the Motion Pictures Are Your Best Entertainment campaign in this celluloid city and they are talking out loud about the disappointment experienced in the final results. With the launching of the campaign, we expressed no opinion one way or the other. We did, however, contend that the movies were already a well advertised commodity, that Hollywood was known to the world as a producing center, and that its stock in trade, new personalities, should really be given the utmost consideration for the future benefit of the industry in general. We are still of the same opinion. • REVIVAL OF VAUDEVILLE to aid the box office take of motion pictures is now making headlines in the local trade press. Some of the oldtimers at the corner of Hollywood and Vine, once familiar figures at the corner of Forty-Second and Broadway, would like to believe that vaudeville is on its way back. They know only too well that this is an utter impossibility. When vaudeville died, it died completely. It died because no attempt was made to develop new talent while it was in its prime. The movies did not kill vaudeville. It died of natural causes. Why Vaude Died • THE DEATF1 OF VAUDEVILLE, more than its re-birth, should be a lesson to the entire motion picture industry. It died for the lack of new blood, new talent, and new ideas. Little, if any attempt, was made to develop new talent to replace the old. Headliners went on and on, with no preparation for replacements against old age, worn out routines, and loss of interest on the part of the public, when time took its toll of old formulas and faces. Because of its failure to build for the future, vaudeville is definitely a thing of the past. There is no vaudeville left to boost the movies which simply came into being at the psychological moment when vaudeville was on its last legs. Failure to build for its future was the main factor in its demise. Today, Hollywood is making the same mistake. • HOLLYWOOD’S BIGGEST MISTAKE is to lean on the alibi that exhibitors want nothing but established names. The future of this industry depends, not upon the already established names, but the bu lding up of new-comers as a firm foundation for the progress of the motion picture industry in general. The youth of today is the audience of tomorrow. By the same token, the young talent of today is tomorrow’s box office insurance. The so called big names of today have ENDORSED BY LEADING AUTHORITIES ON Fire Prevention unti Safety reached their peak in popularity, and, incidentally, in publicity value in a great many cases. Tomorrow’s Stars • STARS OF TOMORROW must be groomed today. Tomorrow it will be too late. This is not entirely the job of the producer. He can, of course, encourage new talent. The exploitation of that talent should be a co-operative movement between all branches of the industry for the industry’s general welfare and future progress. The producer, exhibitor and distributor must awaken to the fact that the Gables, Beerys, Barrymores, and other established personalities of today all have a time limit on their drawing power, and that the future welfare of this industry must b’ insured through the exploitation and development of new personalities to succeed them before the public of its own accord is ready to ring down the curtain. Publicity Down • THE POWER OF PUBLICITY, even with Hollywood’s well organized machinery is not what it used to be. Today, Hollywood garners less space in the nation’s newspapers than a decade ago. Even the press agents have developed a name complex, believing well established names the easiest to get into print. They overlook the fact that the public has become educated to know the difference between out and out publicity and legitimate news. There was a time when the movie fans believed everything to be gospel truth. Not any longer. We have been talking to the neighbors and getting it first hand. Hollywood is in a rut, taking the easiest way out, and laying too much stress on established personalities, neglecting tomorrow’s crop of talent, which must be made known before the day comes for the final curtain on the present crop of established names and it is too late to do anything about it. • TWO MILLION DOLLARS was a lot of money to spend to advertise an already established industry. The results should prove that the customers want something more than contests to draw them into the theatres. It is time for Hollywood to concentrate on a program of new personalities, new ideas in entertainment, to safeguard its own future by acknowledging the present; conscientiously strive to make better pictures, and realize that building new personalities, creates new public interest, new avenues of publicity without colossal expenditures, and last but not least, contributes to the future of the motion picture industry, definitely keeping it in front position as The Best Entertainment. And that brings us to the end of another edition of your Hollywood Newsreel. This is WARREN STOKES saying, "So Long, folks!” ADVANCE SHOTS ARIZONA LEGION (RKO-Radio) — George O'Brien, Loraine Johnson, Carlyle Moore. 5 8m. A fast-action western, with plenty of thrills, this should please O’Brien, western fans. BOY SLAVES (RKO-Radio)— Ann Shirley, Roger Daniel, Alan Baxter. 72m. A story, of more truth than fiction, this deals of the southern turpentine camps, where boys, men are paid off in company script, forced to trade at company stores. BURN ’EM UP O’CONNOR ( Metro)— Dennis O’Keefe, Cecilia Parker, Nat Pendleton. 67m. A mystery melodrama, based on the auto racing racket, this should provide fast action, thrills for the fans. FRIENDS (Amkino) — Boris Babochkin, I. Zarubina. 97m. A frankly propaganda film for Soviet, radical audiences, this tells a story of prerevolution czaristic Russia. JESSE JAMES (20th Century-Fox) — Tyrone Power, Nancy Kelly, Henry Fonda. I07m. This story of the famed — infamous — James brothers, should be a smash box office hit, as a "colossal” glorified western. OFF THE RECORD (Warners)— Pat O’Brien, Joan Blondell, Bobby Jordan. 71m. A newspaper yarn, food for tear-jerker fans, this has Joan Blondell a sob-sister, Pat O’Brien a reporter, with Bobby Jordan the center of attraction. SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (Universal)— Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Josephine Hutchinson. 99m. Continuing a famed yarn, this has Basil Rathbone in the title role, with Boris Karloff the monster. A worthy sequel to "Frankenstein,” this should be a money-maker. SHORTS BLUE BARRON AND HIS ORCHESTRA (Vitaphone) — 10m. A fair subject with the radioknown orchestra, associated artists. THE LONE STRANGER AND PORKY. (Vitaphone) — 7m. Stagecoach driver Porky is saved by the Lone Stranger, in a burlesque of the Republic serial. NAUTICAL KNIGHTS (Universal) — 19m. A typical Mentone Musical, this is rather pleasant. SCREEN SNAPSHOTS, No. 5 (Columbia) — 10m. Hollywood’s famed are seen fishing, at other diversions. SHOOTING FOR PAR (20th Century-Fox) — 11m. An excellent golf subject, with Walter Hagen, Patty Berg, Harry Cooper, Sam Snead. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR From Saranac Lake Gentlemen: Saranac Lake, New York. I’d like to take this opportunity to express the thanks of the other patients for the free copies of the Jay Emanuel Publications that are sent to us. With film and theatre men here from all over you can believe me when I saw the magazines are read from cover to cover several times. We like them very much and they keep us in constant touch with what is going on in our respective territories. There are four of us here from Philadelphia and two more expected soon. If I can ever be of service in giving you news of any of the patients please don’t hesitate to call on me. Yours truly, J. Milton Weeks. (Editor’s Note: Mr. Weeks is a former Philadelphia exhibitor. No doubt, he and others at Saranac Lake will be glad to hear from friends. Write to them.) January IS, 19)9