Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1924-Mar 1925)

70 EXHIBITORS HERALD March 7, 1925 Fox News cameiaman on top of the New York studio of William Fox with the specially built camera for photographing the eclipse of the sun. LETTERS From Readers A forum at which the exhibitor is invited to express his opinion on matters of current interest. Brevity adds forcefulness to any statement. Unsigned letters will not be printed. Plenty of Good Pictures GRANVILLE, N. Y.— To the Editor; At frequent intervals I note in your valued publication complaints from small town exhibitors in which they claim they were forced to book a number of pictures and at prices they could not afford to pay. Such exhibitors are to blame and no one else. With hundreds of splendid pictures available for the small towns, and with plenty of decent film exchanges doing business, a discriminating exhibitor who knows his business should not have cause for such complaints. No particular one or two distributors are essential as far as small town exhibitors being supplied with good pictures are concerned. It is only iiecessary for such exhibitors to study the wants of their patrons and act accordingly. I herewith am submitting a list of pictures which I have been able to book independently, and did not have to sign up for forty or fifty pictures to get them and bough each one at_ prices that I felt were equitable and fair. Some naturally are better than others, but I do not hesitate to assert that no one distributing corporation can supply an equal number of pictures that average better than these and one anywhere as good or fair terms. “The Man Next Door,’’ “The Empty Cradle,’’ “Three o’Clock in the Morning,” “None So Blind,” “One Law' For the Woman,” “The Little Red School House,” “Deserted at the Altar,” “Wife in Name Only,” “Phantom Justice,” “American Manners,” “The Riding Kid,” “Loyal Lives,” “Virtuous Liars,” “Stepping Lively,” “The Dangerous Coward,” “Quicksands,” “The Silent Stranger,” “April Showers,” “The Heart Bandit,” “The Uninvited Guest,” “In Fast Company,” “The Sawdust Trail,” “Alimony,” “Poisoned Paradise,” “The Social Code,” “Call of the Wild,” “Sporting Youth,” “Judgment of the Storm,” “The Shooting of Dan McGrew,” “Hearts Aflame,” “Only a Shop Girl,” “Moral Fibre,” “Don’t Doubt Your Husbands,” “Flames of Passion,” “The Man Life Passed By.” I have selected these thirty subjects at random, and which I have shown during the past twelve months. I would give twice as many more. In this list are represented about ten different distributing organizations, and while in some cases I had to take the series of a certain star, this worked no hardship. There are, without a doubt, numerous pictures from a number of splendid concerns which I probably could have had, but the list of subjects herein submitted is a representative one given to illustrate the point that if a small town exhibitor can’t do business with one concern or two or three, there are enough other organizations and pictures available from them to keep him supplied with good subjects for a long time. Another point I wish to stress is that a picture two years old, in my opinion, if in good condition and never been shown in the town before, is as good as a thirty day release and ofttimes better, because first the price is within your reach; second ly, you have the advantage of various exploitation campaigns which you can find in the various trade papers. In conclusion, I will say that there is hardly a picture released (there being but few exceptions) where one cannot but duplicate as being of equal drawing power and quality. — Adolph Kohn, Pastime theatre, (jranville, N. Y. Calls Items Misleading PHILADELPHIA, Pa.— To the Editor; Referring to page 31 of the issue of the Exhibitors Herald, undeT date of February 14th, 1925, there appears as a special, dated Phila., Pa., February 3rd, under the following heading; FIRST NATIONAL STARS ON RADIO INCITES STORM FROM PEEVED SHOWMEN The exhibitors voiced their disapproval of the project at the last meeting of the M. P. T. O. of Eastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey and Delaware held recently at the Hotel Vending. Philadelphia is pre-eminently considered a one-night town. Broadcasting began at such an early hour that it was felt that people who would have gone to the theatre on that evening stayed by their radios to hear their favorite motion picture star. There has been no formal protest made to First National officials, but it has been stated that a repetition of such a program will meet with concentrated opposition. This statement is entirely false and erroneous, for at the meeting held by this organization, this matter was not discussed in any way whatsoever, either on the floor of the meeting formally or informally, and in justice to First National and this organization, I would respectfully request that this statement be retracted. — Geo. P. Aarons, Secretary, Motion Picture Theatre Owners of Eastern Penna., S. N. J. & Delaware, Philadelphia, Pa. EDITOR’S NOTE — The item referred to was received through the regular news channels and is being investigated. Block Booking and Censors CLEVELAND, Okla.— To the Editor; Perhaps what I am going to say in this letter is of no interest to the tradeas a whole but I believe that it is. We at present have before our State Legislature, a bill for the censoring of moving pictures. It is quite possible that this bill will become a law. Of course the entire industry in this state is doing all they can to prevent this but the point I want to bring up is this. A few days ago a motion was made in the Senate to table the bill and argument ensued. The motion lost which was important but more important was the argument used in favor of censorship. The statement was made that the Exhibitor had little choice in the selection of the pictures which he ran. If he wished to avoid playing a certain picture that he could not do so. Now gentlemen, the im portant part of this argument is that it came near to being the truth. Under the present system of block selling the Exhibitor certainly does have a limited amount of choice as to the picture he runs. This may not be of much importance to the city exhibitor but to the small town Exhibitor it is vitally important. In all small towns it is absolutely necessary that the exhibitor have the cooperation and support of the churches and all organizations. He can only get and keep this support by a careful selection’ of his programs. This he cannot do when he is forced to buy his pictures thirty or forty in a group. Now I do not consider it the duty of moving pictures to reform the public’s morals, but I do think that it is up to this industry to rid itself of all need for censorship and when that is done censorship will disappear. Unless this industry does change its present course it is headed for the same destination as the saloons. Gentlemen, it is up to the producers to give us an open market and return to clean entertainment. — A. R. Bender, Olympic theatre, Cleveland, Okla. How He Built Attendance RED CREEK, N. Y. — To the Editor; We started in here three years ago trading another business for the movie business which was going behind. Our first feature only drew 38 out. We raised the admission price from 20 cents to 25 cents and 35 cents ; bought the best pictures, our own pick from the list after finding what the people liked, put in two new Powers Company machines, Mazda lamps, giving complete program continuous. Somewhat different from that lonesome wait each reel. We now seat from 150 to 250, Saturday nights. Somewhat different from 35. Good propection and pictures brought the result. Try it. — A. C. Betts, Powers theatre, Red Creek, N. Y. 25,000 Rally to Down Hoosier Closing Bill (Special to Exhibitors Herald) INDIANAPOLIS, IND., Feb. 23.— The desk of Russell V. Duncan, chairman of the House morals committee of the Indiana legislature, is piled with petitions opposed to the Kissinger Sunday blue laws bill. Duncan said the petitions contained about 25,000 names. It would appear that friends of the theatre can be rallied to the support of Sunday theatres if needs must. The bill would abolish theatres on Sunday, and other businesses and is said to be the most drastic blue law bill ever presented to the legislature.