Exhibitors Herald (Oct-Dec 1920)

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December 25, 1920 EXHIBITORS HERALD 131 Morris Kohn Pioneer in the Film Industry President of Realart Retains His Faith in His Fellow Men And Has Serene Outlook on the World Generally MORRIS KOHN is a living refutation of the oft-repeated suggestion that a man must surrender most of his faith in his fellow men when he adopts the motion picture business as a profession. The head of the Realart organization not only retains his confidence in the high average of integrity among his business associates, but he has a serene outlook on the world generally. Mr. Kohn is a pioneer in the cheap amusement business. Prior to 1904 he had been associated with his nephew, Adolph Zukor, in the fur business. Marcus Loew, at that time, was also engaged in the fur business. These gentlemen, with Mitchell H. Mark and Max Goldstein, conceived the notion of establishing the penny arcades in Fourteenth street, New York, which have flourished since then in that and many other cities of the United States. Their business was incorporated as Automatic Vaudeville Company and the house at 48 East Fourteenth street, New York, which is still doing a good business, was opened. * * * Automatic Vaudeville Company soon had seventeen branch establishments, located in Philadelphia, Boston, Kansas City, Newark, Providence and other cities. Mr. Kohn is still president of this organization, although most of the original incorporators are out of it. This company was positively the pioneer in the cheap amusement field and Mr. Kohn points with pride to the fact that from the start it was a financial success. It has easily paid back two for every single dollar invested. It was a subsidiary of Automatic Vaudeville Company, which gave New York (and that means the whole country) the first motion picture house of over 300 seats. This was the Unique Theatre in Fourteenth street, opposite Tammany Hall. Them were the happy days in picture exhibiting business, take it from Morris Kohn! The unique got its film service from the old General Film Company. The Automatic members got the, notion that General was not treating them fairly, so they cut out its service and went over to the independents. In those days the independents were a small and select body of men. All the film that the Unique offered its chain of theatres was furnished by two organizations — one headed by Pat Powers and the other by Kessel & Baumann. * * * In those days about every other man on the town site was a self-appointed censor of public morals. It was a real fight, in this formative period of the industry, to book a picture and see it through to the end of the contract period. As Mr. Kohn declares, they never knew on Saturday night whether the picture then being shown could be held over for the Sunday performances. The doctors, too, joined in the general clamor against motion pictures. They predicted that the general public would be blind in a few years if they had to look at pictures steadily for any length of time. Films did flicker a good deal in the beginning, but Mr. Kohn is authority for the statement that they were never as bad as they were painted. The developments of the modern camera shutter overcame all this difficulty, however, and it was not long until the physicians' opposition died down. The aggressive little corporation, headed by Mr. Kohn and his associates, fought the wave of unreasoning censorship to a standstill. * * » Later Marcus Loew withdrew from the organization and started up in the penny arcade business for himself, but later he again associated with Mr. Kohn in forming Delancey Street Amusement Company, which erected a modern motion picture theatre in Delancey street facing the new Williamsburg Bridge Plaza, still being profitably operated. This same group of gentlemen is still operating motion picture theatres in several different localities. The head of the Realart organization was in a retrospective mood. "We hear a good deal of talk now-adays that the industry has trouble ahead; that business will be curtailed because of hard times and that admission charges must be lowered. None of this talk, in my judgment, is to be taken seriously. I have been identified with the industry from the very first and it has always risen above adverse business conditions in other lines. There never was a time when the industry was so prosperous and when the outlook was so promising as it is at present. Naturally, the cost of making pictures has increased, in some instances, abnormally so. But the cost to the individuals for seeing good pictures today is ridiculously cheap. It is a clean and wholesome amusement for the masses — that is the thought to hold onto."