Exhibitors Herald (1926)

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EXHIBITORS HERALD Editorial by H.C.S.Thomson V J '^HERE was never a time in the history of this mo X non picture industry that the producer’s responsibility to the exhibitor was greater than now. As pubhc taste in picture entertainment has become more definitely crystalized, and as other amusements have made the exhibition of pictures more competitive, so the exhibitor has become more critical in his appraisal ol ins public’s amusement taste; while consequently the producer has been shouldered with the responsibility to help Mr. Exhibitor more thoroughly to meet that same taste. No longer can the producer make production after production without a consideration of sales value. No longer can he just turn out pictures. The mere production of a picture from a story which has pleased the producer’s own conceived notion of a good screen story is rapidly passing out of practice. Today the public demands and only buys the particular kind of entertainment that it wants, and consequently the ex* hibitor 18 at all times keenly watching to he able to otter the thing that this public wants. Therefore the producer must realize that he must deliver to the exfaibitor that something which the exhibitor knows is in demand by his public. This development has been created by— in many instances— an unerring sense of showmanship values dis* played by the exhibitor, in which, unfortunately, the producer is not always a sharer. The problem, theretore, of every producer is to give the exhibitor something he can sell to the public. The most ponderous production budget ever assembled never will have a chance to justify the investment, if the money be spent on the most elaborate and expensive production, which unlortunately, when measured up by the box ofiice yard stick, 18 being found wanting in its appeal to public tdStG« * « * 'AyTINSTREI. shows, dime museums, the old-time IVX variety show, and many other forms of amusement that were among the biggest money makers of their day, are today gone and the public will have none ot them. It took years to bring about these changes, but screen tastes have been known to change over night. There is seemingly no public so fickle in regard to the provender that most particularly palliates their appedte as is the vast army of film fans. Certain types of pictures deservedly popular a few years ago, would today be almost greeted with derision if any daring producer attempted to restore them to popularity. Quite naturally then it follows that pictures must be made with the least elements of chance as possible for the exaa certainty of their sale to the public. Ihe wise producer then knows that the guess and speculation is most surely taken out of production problems by taking counsel with the man who by close intimate contact knows his public, and who has learned by sometimes very disastrous experiences their like« and dislikes. ® * * * PRODUCTION conferences where stars, stories diX rectors, casts, cameramen and ail the other details that go to make up a film play are being discussed must ever bear in mind, in a position of prime importance, tbe man who sells the picture to his patrons. It IS upon him who buys their production that their entire responsibility rests. By the same reasoning the producer is shouldered with a very clear-cut responsibility to give the exhibitor pictures that are clean. The picture going public is after an, in bulk, a steady, good, old public. Except in a tew, isolated instances, tbe public has proved its moral soundness at the box office in no unconvincine lashion. ® * * * T N hundreds of email towns and in hundreds of ueighX horhood theatres throughout the United States today, the exhibitor will not run a picture which is du* mous, because he has learned that although he may make an immediate profit by the exhibition of such a picture, which falls below the moral standard in hie coicmunity, the ultimate backwash to his theatre as an institution is very costly. Dealing as it does with so many thousands of small town exhibitors, the company, of which I am the head, has set a very rigorous policy against pictures that will even verge in that direction. We have found that the average exhibitor, refiecting the audience to which he caters, cannot profitably, and will not, run an obscene pictiw^ It is, therefore, the duty of the producer to guard himself from delivering to his film buyers a picture that will lessen the standards of, or injure the prestige of, the theatre that presents it. Especial safeguards are necessary for the small towns where community life is a potential factor. Urban communities will not generally tolerate the careless flaunting of moral standards that might be viewed without objection by a metropolitan audience. Vulgarity must be watched lest the small exhibitor suffer an injury to his business. Therefore the man who must buy film that will please the greatest number and will give offense to the fewest, must be our court of last resort. It is to him we must turn for counsel. It is to him that the film trade is most directly answerable. The industry is fhis fact very rapidly and with the generally fine output of pictures now being made, tbe producer is acknowledging his debt to the man behind the box office. (During the absence of Martin J, Quigley who is abroad a series of articles for this page is being written by a group of leaders in various branches of the motion picture industry.)