The Exhibitor (Nov 1939-May 1940)

12 THE EXHIBITOR Warren Stokes’ HOLLYWOOD NEWSREEL They’re at the Post! • HOLLYWOOD'S BIG SHOTS are looking over the longshots at Santa Anita, getting close-ups of the bobtails and pegging them for future reference. Most of the bigwigs can tell you the past history of every nag in the stable, the qualifications of the newcomers, the status of the individual jockeys; and they place their bets based upon a complete knowledge of past and present performances. At the end of the season, they can tell you, through a complete check-up on their season’s output of greenbacks, the profit and loss on each transaction, carrying this knowledge from season to season, as a perfect guide on their future racing activities. At this time of the year, Hollywood is definitely displaying a one-track mind. The First Mile • BEST RACE-TRACK BETS can be very readily ascertained by these well-versed pals of the paddock. You can find them in serious mood, handicapping the turf champions, deciding on the winners, slapping a grand on the nose without batting an eyelash, and they will slap another grand over the initial budgeted cost on a celluloid entry with the same enthusiasm, minus the same preparation and judgment. They can tell you for seasons back, just what certain bobtails did first run, second run, third run, and just how they fared in the home stretch. They can name without hesitation the also rans, has beens, and the promising yearlings. Question them on the celluloid entries however, for the past season, and it is a different story. In the majority of cases, their box-office selections are limited to the current entry which happens to be out in front in the first quarter. Clocking the Clucks • RACE-TRACK PROFITS can be quoted verbatim by the cinema biggies. Boxoffice profits are an unknown quantity. Hollywood is making a gamble out of the film track and a business out of the race track. The movie moguls have a complete history on all the bobtails and their respective jockeys. They know all the favorites of the turf through a conscientious survey of wire to wire records and public acclaim. When it comes to favorites of the screen they use snap judgment without allowing for improvement or discounting competition from the new entries in the celluloid handicap. They will even employ a salaried docker to keep tabs on the ponies. They’ll put a docker on a percentage picture, but they make no attempt to clock the records of the general releases or the personalities connected in the making of the pictures. They’ll follow a jockey or a yearling from season to season with a perfect tab on every run. They just follow a picture to the front gate of the studio and there, strange but true, their interest ends. The Tote Board Tells • THE HOLLYWOOD HANDICAPPERS would be money ahead if they would use the same system and effort on the various screen personalities, basing their current values on past performances, with the same interest displayed in handicapping the bobtails. If the producers will follow their celluloid entries from season to season, around the track of public opinion, and record their progress or failure to finish in the money, as reflected on the tote board of the nation’s theatres, they will be able to eliminate the also rans, in writers, directors, stars and what have you, and determine the sure shorts on the celluloid track for the present and the future, through the same process of elimination, scratching the lame ducks as they fall behind, playing the favorites, selected by the paying patrons, whom they must someday realize, constitute the real TipOff on the winners in the Hollywood Sweepstakes. City and Rural Tracks • REPORTS FROM ALL TRACKS can be secured through closer co-operation between the production and exhibition end of this industry. Lizzie Glutz might be a favorite with the Hollywood scribes who pick her to win on a critical course, she might have what it takes to win their acclaim. What she does at the key city meets, and on the rural tracks, however, where the customers have to put it on the line, can only be ascertained through the exhibitor’s ledger. Producers would be wise to consult the recognized exhibitor reports, from out-of-town tracks, with the same interest displayed in the racing form reports for the local area, discounting the Hollywood viewpoint expressed on trial runs, for the more accurate concensus based on actual performance under conditions as they really exist. Exhib Real Tipster • THE CELLULOID EXHIBITOR can give Hollywood the last word on all types of entries in the cinematic sweepstakes. He plays them to win but he keeps tabs on the weak offerings that fold in the stretch. He is not on the payroll of any particular stable. He clocks them for running time, notes the improvement in performance, has a complete record of today’s favorites and yesterday’s also rans. He is the cinematic tipster de luxe. He can, individually, and collectively, put the Hollywood stables on a paying basis, with a Tip-Off service second to none, computed through public likes and dislikes. Wise producers have the inside track to the results on the sound track if they will sound out the exhibitor and benefit by his sure fire tips. Closer contact with the nation’s showmen will assure Hollywood of more box-office winners. Our Mister Mentlik INTERVIEWS I. GOLDSMITH New York City — Although he isn’t planning any producing activities in America for the nonce, I. Goldsmith, the affable Britisher who produced the film version of Dr. A. J. Cronin’s “The Stars Look Down,” stated last week that “if I did make pictures in the States, I wouldn’t go west; I’d make them right here in New York. I understand the mayor would help a bit.” Optimistic as to the box-office worth of “Stars,” Goldsmith entertained the trade press at a luncheon in the swank Hotel Warwick’s Blue Room, where everything from the present war situation to the state of the film business in India was discussed. He arrived on the SS. Rex a short while ago and is attempting to arrange a distribution deal with one of the majors for the film which he claims to be of “highly controversial” nature because of the manner in which it tackles the subject of bad working conditions in England’s coal mining district. America’s motion picture interests are being well taken care of in England by Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy who once had a few words to say about the industry here, according to Goldsmith, who had more than just a few words of praise for the Boston statesman. Incidentally, while Goldsmith is peddling the distribution rights to “The Stars,” he will also try to make arrangements for the American release of another English production not yet before the cameras. He asserts that his concerted effort for American playing time is the result of the effects of the war on Britain’s foreign market. The colonies and dominions, he explained, do not account for more than a tiny percentage of any film’s total gross. His current picture will come under the “double quota” classification. The effect of the war upon England’s movie makers was discussed at length and it was learned that technicians and producers were at such a premium that the government has exempted them from war service so that they will be able to get out as many pictures as possible. Goldsmith estimated that production there will be off not more than 40 percent. Many of the British studios are being used for storerooms and offices. American companies are allowed to use their frozen money for further English production. “The Stars Look Down” was completed September 1, just 12 hours before war was declared and London tasted its first official blackouts. Goldsmith doubts whether the film could have been completed if it hadn’t beaten Ihe war declaration. He is planning, at present, to make an English version of “L’Alibi,” the French picture starring Eric von Stroheim and distributed domestically by Columbia. As an illustration of the war’s effect upon the foreign market, Goldsmith cited the case of his brother-in-law, Metro chief for the Baltic states, who was stationed at Helsingfors. When the Russians started dropping bombs on Finland, the movies shut down and the brother-inlaw is now in New York. Arthur A. Lee, Goldsmith’s American representative, and Jim MacFarland, his local publicist, also attended the luncheon. January 24, 1940