Exhibitors Herald (Jul-Sep 1922)

July 8, 1922 EXHIBITORS HERALD 45 Selznick Supplants Star System With Special Casts LEWIS J. SELZNICK, champion of the motion picture star as an attraction par excellent, has abandoned the star series production plan. No more will "Selznick stars" be made to stand out pre-eminently, over and above story and production value, in pictures made by Selznick Pictures Corporation or by other producing units identified with Select Pictures Corporation whose destinies Mr. Selznick controls. LEWIS J. Selznick, who has made and promoted many stars, always has been a firm believer in the star idea. With his "star series" plan of production and distribution meeting with increasing favor from exhibitors throughout the country year after year, Mr. Selznick has valiantly stood by his guns as one after another of the other producers and distributors have been changing their policies. His capitulation and the reasons which have brought it about are of interest to the trade. "It is not that I love Caesar less but that I love Rome more about expresses my position in this matter of production," says Mr. Selznick. "The present Select organization has been serving exhibitors for about six years. During that time there has been an almost revolutionary change in the general conduct of the motion picture business in so far as it has to do with the contact of the general public with the photoplay. The past few years have been the era of bigger and more expensive motion picture programs. The construction of palatial theatres and the installation of shows that compare favorably in cost with those offered in any other branch of the amusement business has become the rule. "This development has tended to centralize the exhibiting business. The smaller theatres in the outlying, or neighborhood, communities where good pictures and nothing else once sufficed to make them profitable are less numerous than they were. People have contracted the habit of traveling farther for their motion picture entertainment than was formerly their custom. It has followed quite naturally, then, that motion picture men have been brought to see the desirability of giving the public something which can be announced in a manner calculated to make them 'travel.' "The big strength of the unsupported star idea lay in the developing of the popularity of a star and his plays among people who might be expected to attend the same theatre day after day or week after week and adding constantly to this following, in numbers, day after day and week after week taking advantage of cumulative advertising. Since it has become the tendency of audiences to shift from one section to another it is easy to see that the draft of the star name, unsupported by story and production appeal, has been materially weakened. "Of more importance in so far as the Select interests are concerned, however, is the development of the producing units who may be counted upon to contribute largely to the product which it distributes, notably the Selznick Pictures Corporation. "Selznick Pictures Corporation have had a definite objective ever since the first day of their existence. My son, Myron, president of the company and actively in charge of its affairs, has been steadily planning a series of productions so big and important that, from their very nature, they could not be restricted by the limitations of the star idea as it is generally understood. It has always been his desire to choose for production the type of stories he believes the motion picture public wants and then make them in the manner they should be made. It is no damaging confession to say that this is not always possible when the human limitations of motion picture stars identified with any individual company are considered and when that company is partial, if not bound, to a small group of stars which it may have under contract. "And so, in planning for the season of 1922-23, we find conditions ideal for cutting away from our earlier policy — a policy we still consider a splendid one but, nevertheless, a policy which both the Select company and the industry at large have outgrown. We are going to make a limited number of productions — fewer than we have made in any previous year of our existence, but we're going to make them of the nature that folks will 'travel' far to see. We're going to abandon the 'star idea' — but only as it has come to be known to the trade. And by this we mean that we're going to give the story and production their full chance, ourselves holding them as of first importance and choosing such casts from the field at large as we think best suited for them. "Nothing which I have said can possibly be taken to mean that it is not our intention to take full and complete advantage of the popularity which certain artists on the screen have created for themselves through their splendid work. It has always been our conviction that the real stars of the industry — and the only ones who may be expected to live long enough to make them worth while from the producer and distributor's standpoint — have a just claim upon the public's affections in that they have 'delivered the goods.' "We're going to choose this particular type of artist for all of our pictures in the future — and we're going to star them — not because our business arrangements with them make it materially worth while for either their future or ours but because their performances or their draft at the exhibitor's box office warrants it and because they approach perfection in the parts for which we have selected them. As a proof of this I might say that, in planning for next year, we have already definitely set on eight of the productions to be made and for four of these productions leading players, including at least ten who are stars of the first magnitude, have been engaged. Each production we make will have 'stars' — not a star — for the exhibitor to bill — but it will have a real story and production reason for the appearance of the star members of the cast. "Elaine Hammerstein and Owen Moofc. whose productions we have been prond to offer for the past two or three years, will continue to appear exclusively in Selznick Pictures, the firm's general policy governing the manner in which they will be used from time to time." LEWIS J. SELZNICK, who states that story and production will be given precedence over player. Reception of Pathe's Arctic Film at Dallas Evidence of Success Immediately following the successful premiere week of "Xanook of the North" at the Capitol theatre, the popular human appeal of this screen epic of native life and adventure in the desolate frozen regions, declares Pathe, is established beyond any doubt by its remarkable reception by public and reviewers in a city more than 1.000 miles from the Eastern metropolis. This significant test of Pathe's novel special occurred at the Palace theatre, Dallas, Tex., operated by Southern Enterprises, Inc. It is well known that this organization seldom volunteers any report on the fortunes of productions shown at its theatres. Yet Pathe quotes the following telegram received from the Southern Enterprises, Inc.: "Just completed week's engagement at the Palace of 'Nanook of the North.' This is some picture. It has caused more favorable comment than any picture we have ever run. Patrons, newspaper critics and film men are unanimous in their verdict, 'wonderful.' " v . : . . . w '