Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1921 - Mar 1922)

March 4, 1922 EXHIBIT O RS HERALD 65 Anniversary Week Is Celebrated in 5,000 Houses, Says First National Moe Mark Says Event Is in Recognition of the Fact That Independence Has Been Possible and Profitable for Those in Industry Who JV ant to Be Independent Reports received from exchanges throughout the United States and Canada indicate that at least 5,000 theatres are celebrating the anniversary of First National this week, according to the home office. Allied with the Nexhibitors is the Independent Screen Artists Guild, comprised of prominent stars and producers whose pictures are being played by those 5,000 theatres this week. In a statement bearing upon First National's anniversary, Moe Mark, president of Mark Strand Company, New York, a i original franchise holder of the distributing company and a member of the executive committee, said: "What the condition of the exhibitor and independent producer would be today if there were not and never had been any such thing as First National, is something worth thinking about. But it is safe to say that hundreds of theatre owners would have been driven to the wall, and hundreds of others would have been practically serfs of distributing monopoly at the mercy of arbitrary and ruinous rental prices and playing any picture they were able to get, regardless of their quality or drawing power. * • * "The now independent producer would have been equally at the mercy of a distribution system that would insist upon machine-made product, its nature and contents dictated by overseers and ground 1922 Will Reward ! "Nineteen twenty-two will reward exhibitors who show good pictures and exploit them." This paraphrase of the famous slogan "1921 will reward fighters" is being exemplified in every section of the country, according to an announcement from the office of Associated First National Pictures, Inc., which accompanied a resume of recent extraordinarily successful runs of First National attractions. The first six weeks of the new year have seen more shattering of box office and attendance records than ,any similar period within the last two years, the company announces, and these results augur well for the future. This sudden revival of prosperity in the motion picture industry is attributed by the company to the general excellence of its recent productions. First National Week finds an exceptional array of high grade entertainment available for the exhibitors, and there has been a spirited demand for the productions, it is said. Three pictures opened simultaneously in San Francisco's largest theatres recently, and Los Angeles' cinema palaces also exhibited four concurrently. out under the shadow of the time-clock. Quality would have been thrown to the winds. Producing genius and brains would have been yoked to a mill, and the WHADDYE MEAN, "WEEK?" George Schade of the Schade theatre, Sandusky, O., is going one better than other exhibitors who are observing First National's anniversary this week. "Whaddye mean, week?" asks Schade. "I'm going to have a First National Month with First National Week as the first week of my First National Month." public would have been fed the resulting cheap and worthless product as long as they would have stood it. "First National first blocked, then smashed the well-matured scheme to bring this system of monopoly into existence. "Exhibitor and producer independence is today such a tremendous and inescapable fact that there may be a tendency to forget how gravely the producer's and exhibitor's freedom was actually imperilled in 1917. "That was the year in which fifteen far-seeing exhibitors in self defense rallied in response to the warning of First National and met the threat of producerdistributor tyranny with the announcement that they were prepared to encourage independent producers by guaranteeing them a profitable market for their product — asking in return only that the picture be the best that could be made, from the standpoint of box office value. "The exhibitor body was interested, but incredulous. It was the answer to the gravest of their worries and difficulties, but could it ever be successfully put into practice? "The fifteen exhibitors who had thrown down the gauntlet to the monopoly knew perfectly well the stupendous task ahead of them. In spite of the flood of propaganda let loose against them by the producer-distributor group, in spite of the initial difficulties of obtaining first-rate product in a field where the old-line companies were prepared to pay any price to keep a picture out of the hands of First National, the response of exhibitors and independent producers alike from the beginning was definite and enthusiastic enough to make the ultimate success of First National only a question of time, patience and wisdom. v * * * "The history of First National naturally falls into two divisions — that of the First National Exhibitors' Circuit, Inc., and that of Associated First National Pictures, Inc. How rapidly and soundly the First National took root in the minds of exhibitors and producers may be seen from the fact that at the end of two years First National was distributing the output of such signal favorites as Charles Chaplin, Norma and Constance Talmadge, Mary Pickford and Anita Stewart, in addition to a number of single productions of producers who were quick to grasp the opportunities offered them by First National. Before another year had passed the productions of Charles Ray, Marshall Neilan, Katherine MacDonald and D. W. Griffith had been added to the list. "When the now celebrated contract with Charlie Chaplin was signed and announced to the trade, the gloom-peddlers arid birds-of-prey threw their hats into the air and prepared to attend the wake which they said was now a certainty. To them, the signing of what became immediately known as 'The Million Dollar Contract' for eight two-reel comedies, even with Chaplin as the star, was an infallible sign of insanity. "As a matter of fact, it was from that moment that all doubts that still lingered as to the success of First National were once and for all removed. If there was anv one turning-point in the history of (Concluded on page 79) 8,000,000 Names in Album An album containing the names of between 8,000,000 and 11,000,000 fans will arrive in Los Angeles about March 1. The album will be carried on a special motor truck to the offices of the Independent Screen Artists Guild. This guild is composed of the following' independent stars of motion pictures: Norma Talmadge, Charles Chaplin, Guy Bates Post, Richard Barthelmess, Hope Hampton, Katherine MacDonald, Constance Talmadg'e, Charles Bay, Buster Keaton, Dorothy Phillips, Anita Stewart, Douglas MacDean, Mabel Normand, Colleen Moore, Ben Turpin, Freckles Barry, Florence Vidor, Jackie Coogan, Madge Bellamy, Marguerite De Da Motte, Dloyd Hughes, and a host of prominent producers and featured players. The album will contain the names of patrons attending theatres during "First National Week," from February 18 to 25, and also 100,000 fan letters written by the admirers of the various artists of the screen. The album will be presented to the assembled stars by John McCormick, secretary of the Independent Screen Artists Guild. The covers of the album will be made of wood taken from the first set, erected in Los Angeles in 1908, by Col. William N. Selig.