Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1921 - Mar 1922)

February 18. 1922 EXHIBIT (J RS HERALD 29 Development of the M. P. T. O. A. The First of a Series of Articles By MONTE IV. SOHN Article 1. Its X a t i o n a 1 Work V Monte W. Sohn In little more than a year, the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America has outgrown its swaddling clothes and stepped into long pants. No one who is not nearsighted will deny it wears the shoes of a grown up. Its broad-toed number tens carry t h e convincing kick of power, its broad shoulders tote the heaviest burdens of responsibility that ever were thrust upon a dealer group — but most important, the brains in this division of the industry are the brains of men who are willing to work. "An Injury to One — " But the concern of all, concern that •inspires practically every member, is also this : Nothing that threatens harm to the M. P. T. O. A. shall be permitted to go unlicked. The attitude seems to be "An Injury to This Organization Is the Concern of Every Darn' Last One of Us." The writer has visited many conventions and met with hundreds of exhibi| tors. In the brief time he was permitted to serve the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America it was a pleasure to discover how many unselfishly put aside personal interest to carry on organization battles. A list of them would make a good sized regiment. It would make, if one denned the work of each man opposite his name, a formidable \Yho's-\Yho, for •beginning with George Aarons, the brilliant legal genius of the Pennsylvania aggregation, and following through to Z Zirbeo, of Washington, Georgia, the Alphabetical Record of Two Fistedness would take a month to gather and a year to write. In national work, such men as Colonel Varner of North Carolina, Mike O'Toole of Scranton, D. A. Harris of Pittsburgh, F. G. Smoot of Parkersburg. W. Va., and L. J. Dittmar of Louisville rendered conspicuous helix These of the legislative committee were constantly at Washington or in touch with it. They constituted the Washington council of President Cohen. And when at last the battle for repeal of the 5 per cent film rental tax impended. Jim Ritter of Michigan, VV. A. True of Connecticut and A. R. Pramer, Nebraska leader, joined with them and Messrs. Cohen and Walker. Nothing ever accomplished in this industry was directed with finer genius than this campaign. Seated in a hotel room at Washington, with a direct wire to national head J. C. Ritter quarters in New York, these men carried to completion the work begun in conferences with the house ways and means committee and the finance committee of the senate. A steady stream of messenger boys called for messages to the state leaders and other legislative committee members in the field. The latter immediately started a barrage of protest— thousands of petitions from thousands of constituents kept the wires to Washington warm. The 5 per cent film rental tax was repealed. And these men, directing others of the organization working toward the same end, but at points far from the national capital, were largely responsible. Senator Smoot on the floor of the senate made very plain to whom the credit for the lifting of this tax is due. Earlier in the year another decisive victory was won at Washington. In March there was a hearing by the district commissioners of the pleas of Crafts, et al. D. W. Griffith was principal spokesman for the exhibitors. But epic though his speech was, the influence of men not present at all killed censorship in that instance. Their remarks were written protests, and their influence was in the fact that they were representatives of almost every labor union, civic body, club, society and church. And back of their writing was Harry Crandall. and Crandall's aid. Julian Brylawski. These men won against Crafts. They inspired the letters. That victory marked the death of censorship in a city which inevitably is a model more or less for the nation. Others have played important parts — and still play them. W. D. Burford of Aurora, III, and A. J. Moeller— till last fall general manager of the Michigan body, but now general manager for the entire country — these have contributed vast help. They have sold editors on the needlessness of censorship. So have strong M. P. T. O. men such as Joseph Rhode of Wisconsin, Glenn Harper of Los Angeles and Al Steffes of Minneapolis. By argument? By threats or cajolerv? No! They took their case to their people, and through organization channels to the people of other theatres, and by petitions, whose sentiment indicated disapproval of censorship, they brought their defense to the attention of legislators and then there was no need to argue with the newspaper men. Tommy Goldberg of Baltimore and Louis Rome of the same city have never ceased their efforts to enlist newspapers against censorship even though Maryland has a censor board. Neither have John S. Evans, or George Aarons of Philadelphia. And these latter, waging unremitting war on the music tax and other adverse legisla W. D. Burford tion. have not permitted their work on newspaper men for one instant to suffer neglect. All this has had its effect on newspapers as a whole. No matter how local his influence the exhibitor in remotest parts has added his effort to win newspapers away from reform. Sometimes this has been accomplished by direct contact. In other instances, through the theatre going public. It all is parcel of a national work which has changed the attitude of seventy per cent of the newspapers of the country. The Famous Players-Lasky war of the M. P. T. O. A. is history. But its conclusion was the hour of a great achievement for the exhibitor. Many in the industry supposed the theatre owners' body would turn out "just another one of those things.'' And not until Mr. Zukor frankly admitted, while he sat in the adjudgment conferences after complete surrender, that he had no idea the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America were so many or so strong, did the industry begin to believe. It believes today. The exhibitor body is a formidable fistful. Who are the workers? There are a thousand of whom the writer knows. But there are thousands more he will never know. Irving Salyerds, national organizer, might tell. But the chief officer of the recruiting division, or Sam Berman, or Mr. Cohen himself any of these, whose acquaintance i; as wide as America would be stumped ultimately because the organization grows so fast there hasn't been time to find out. In July of last year, V. A. Anderson of Gulfport, Miss., joined the organization. His theatre was not yet built. Before its completion he had become one .of the most important factors of exhibitor organization in the South. The names of Pramer and True; Varner and Schmidt and Ritter, constantly recur in review of the Famous Players' campaign. Yet it was the grit and unwavering loyalty to principle of such members as Seymour of Glenwood. Iowa, Uran of Mattoon, 111., and Callages of Salem, Ohio, that made possible this fight. Except for their kind of courage to go into battle against the largest and most powerful producer in the industry, the M. P. T. O. A. would not today be as great or as strong. It was their example that caused enlistment by hundreds of others who previously thought they could not afford to join, but now they knew they could not afford long to stay out of a body which protected even the least of its members so well. One finds fightfulness and loyalty equally strong in members whose investments imply only one or two the(Concluded on page do) A. R. Pramer