Exhibitors Herald (Oct-Dec 1920)

October 16, 1920 • EXHIBITORS H E R A L D 43 William Fox Warns The Stanley Company Declares He Will Not Let Rights Be Interfered With Boycott or Any Restraint of Trade in Pennsylvania to Bring Immediate Court Action— Stanley Denies Any Interference Warning the Stanley Company of America that he will not permit any direct or indirect boycott of his pictures in the Pennsylvania territory and that he is prepared to defend his rights in the courts, William Fox has announced his intention of dealing directly with every exhibitor in the Pennsylvania territory. So that his position will be clearly understood by theatre owners, he has made public a series of three letters— a statement to the N. A. M. P. [. of the policy of the W illiam Fox company towards booking combinations, the warning served by the Fox company on the Stanley Company, and the reply of the Stanley Company to that warning. Stanley Denies Intention to Interfere The reply of the Stanley Company is written by Morris Wolf, attorney In it Mr. Wolf denies that the Stanley Company has interfered with any exhibitors in their dealings with the Fox company and declares the Stanley Company has no objection to any exhibitor in its territory dealing with whom he sees fit. "The Stanley Company is perfectly willing that exhibitors here shall buy their pictures wherever they please and we are told to state that the Stanley Company has not the slightest objection to having any exhibitor who wishes deal with you, nor will his dealing with you make any difference as far as his relations with the Stanley Company of America are concerned," he writes. William Fox President of Fox Film Company warns Stanley Company of America against instituting a boycott of his pictures in the Pennsylvania territory. Fox Warning to Stanley Company "....We wish to give you vtarninfi that if you indulge in tactics of notifying, directly or indirectly, )\ny theatres or places of amusement owned, operated, conducted or booked by you, or in which you may in any manner be interested, that they are not to have any business relations with us, or if, by any conduct on your part, directly or indirectly, you cause a boycott of our product in that territory by refusing to serve exhibitors with the Alms you control or release or are Interested in if such exhibitors deal with the produet of this company, or If you directly or indirectly cause any owners of theatres or exhibitors not controlled by you to refuse to deal with this company, and refuse to use our film service through fear of refusal on your pnrt to furnish them with films which you control or book, or if you exact or attempt to exact a booking fee from any exhibitors for film service which we supply directly to exhibitors without the aid of your association or combination, or if yon in any other manner restrain lawful trade and competition in the exploitation, distribution and exhibition of motion picture film, we shall most assuredly avail ourselves of every legal right and every legal remedy at our disposal to maintain a free and open market and free, healthy, open competition." The letter containing the warning of the Fox Company to the Stanley Company carries the signature of S. E. Rogers, general counsel for the Fox Film Corporation. Fox Letter in Full "This company," writes S. E. Rogers to the Stanley Company of America, "has been given to understand that by reason of the policy adopted by you, you have refused to enter into negotiations for any contracts for film service for the season 1920-1921 in the Pennsylvania territory consisting of the State of Pennsylvania and adjoining states, except with such companies controlled, owned, booked or managed by you. "In recent years investigation reveals that you have gradually built up an organization of film distribution which consists of a combination of distributing and booking companies which are either owned, controlled or managed by your company or in conjunction with certain film producing and rental companies with whom you have made booking and releasing combinations and also by means of exacting a booking fee from theatres for all film service furnished to such theatres regardless of whether or not you were instrumental in furnishing the service, and your operations have been carried on with the idea of dominating the distribution and booking of motion pictures in the Pennsylvania territory so as to practically boycott the product of any other distributor or booker except those in your organization or combination. We now discover that up to the present you have used the product of this company so long as you deemed it advisable to help build up your monopolistic organization and now you feel that it has served its purpose you are prepared to discard it and to refuse to deal further with us or to dis tribute or exhibit our pictures in that territory, and to exert unlawful influence to exclude our product from that territory. Favor Free Competition "It has never been the policy or the desire of this company to assist in the formation of monopolies; on the contrary, our policy has always been a free field for all, free and open competition, and unrestricted trading. That is the only policy that can make for a healthy upbuilding of this industry and the freedom of the exhibitor to book, exhibit and present to audiences the best product in the market regardless by whom produced, exploited, distributed or booked. Under your policy the exhibitors in the Pennsylvania territory are practically compelled to limit themselves to the exhibition of only such product as y»u agree to give them and are intimidated into subjecting themselves to your arbitrary conduct by fear of being boycotted and driven out of business. In other words, it is the choice of either taking such films as you will book them, or being deprived of any booking whatever. "The statement has been made by your representatives to our representatives that you will be unable to deal with us because you have so much material on hand that you will not be prepared to make any arrangements for films until after January, 1921. It is clear to us that this statement is not made in good faith, but is merely a subterfuge that is being used by you for the purpose of keeping our product out of that territory There are certain outstanding open contracts between our company and yours for a number of engagements for pictures to be played. These contracts will be fully performed by us; we will, however, not consent to fur'her any mo(Contimu'd on page 52)