Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1919)

EXHIBITORS HERALD i nnnu 'IIIIIIIIH GOING BACK INTO FILES OF TRADE PAPERS g | A Reminder of the Promises Made of Open fi Booking and Better Films Six Months Ago fx* By J. D. WILLIAMS Manager, First National Exhibitors Circuit. 'hj !IIIIIIIII!lllll!l!!l!!l!IIIIIIIII!ll!IIIIIIIIII!ll!llllII!!l!llli;illllllU HIS is the season of resolutions. Before venturing a prophecy about what form the general run of them will take perhaps a few facts for exhibitor guidance can be extracted from the events of the year just ending that will determine the measure of confidence they can place in the resolutions to come. Wasn't this the year when selective booking was to become a reality for the theatre owner? Are there not pages and pages of announcements in the summer files of the trade papers about the exhibitor's right to determine what he will, and will not, book? Wasn't this the year when practically every representative distributing concern was going to launch a policy of "fewer and better pictures?" Going back an industrial century to this time a year ago memory avers that there were many promises of a "fair deal for the exhibitor." * * * In brief, those are the facts of the resolutions that promised exhibitors much. Now let us take the other phase of the condition, summing up the situation as it is at this moment and contrast it to what it should be, according to the annual resolutions. Several thousand theatre owners are very dubious about the immediate future. They have visions of competing theatres backed by the money which they have paid to producers and dis J. D. WILLIAMS Dynamic General Manager of the First National Exhibitors' Circuit, Inc., who is directing its expansion program. tributors as film rentals. They are debating the problem of supplanting the film service of today with at least its equivalent in quantity when that service goes across the street to the theatre owned by the same interests that produced the releases. So much for some of the resolutions that promised a "fair deal for the exhibitor." Then there are the exhibitors who, when a film salesman solicits them for a contract for a particularly worthy special feature attraction, have to explain that they are committed for exclusive service from one distributor or another, and add that they had to sign exclusive service contracts to get anything at all. And while they stand, glum and helpless, the more fortunate exhibitor a block up the street, books the special and gives the "exclusive service" man a week of sleepless nights and seven days of less than ordinary receipts. So much for the resolutions that promised exhibitors the privilege of selective booking. * * * The one resolution which is worthy of the name and which comes closest to being a fact is the reference to "fewer and better pictures." Beyond doubt, the average of screen values is greater now than ever before, and it is growing. The exhibitor, as a general commercial proposition, does not ask for a great deal from anyone to whom he pays his money. He may haggle and fuss about terms; he may report poor business to justify his original, before-booking statement that a picture was not a winner, when, in reality, it paid him a good profit; he may resort to many practices that are neither ethical or strictly fair, but He can always point to a long list of producer-distributor-inspired resolutions as his excuse. "Getting them before they get me" is becoming a dangerously popular trade sport. The distributors complain that exhibitors are unfair, and the exhibitors look upon the exchanges as the 'nth degree of efficiency in despotism. And, on this point in its relation to resolutions, I want to say, for the benefit of producers and distributors, that there are exchanges in the country that never had trouble with exhibitors, that always receive what they ask in rentals, that never have to engage attornevs, and in whom theatre owners in the territories have the utmost confidence. The reason is that the exchange managers set the exhibitors the example — they prove their own sincerity of intention, and have the courage to let time prove that they mean it. * * * There will be no resolutions from these men because there is no need for them. Their conduct three hundred and sixtyfive days in the year is a perpetual resolution. The best and most practical resolution that any concern could make, at this or anv other season, is to "be on the level ROBERT LIEBER President of the First National Exhibitors Circuit, Inc., which is putting into operation a program of expansion. with exhibitors." It is short and trite, but in effect it would be worth ten thousand pages of promises. And when the producer-distributors, producers and distributors, or any other branch of the industry that has merchandise to sell to exhibitors, decides to resolve that it will set the example in fair, square dealing, it will be but a very short time before there will no further need for resolutions. Exhibitors respect honesty, and they are shrewd enough to appreciate the necessity for fighting fire with fire. Complete Camera Work On "The Inferior Sex" Filming of "The Inferior Sex," Mildred Harris Chaplin's latest picture, has been completed at the Louis B. Mayer studios, 3800 Mission Road, Los Angeles, and the picture will soon be placed on the market as an exclusive First National attraction. Titling and cutting of the picture is under way at the Mayer laboratories under the supervision of Joeph Henabery, "Billy" Shea and the executives of the studios. In the production of "The Inferior Sex" Mildred Harris Chaplin is seen in a punchy story that is expected to be one of the hits of the year. She is supported by a cast including Milton Sills, Mary Alden, Bertram Grassby, John Steppling and James O. Barrows. Joseph Henabery, who directed Douglas Fairbanks' last big picture, "His Majesty, the American," directed "The Inferior Sex." 113