Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1928)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

February 25, 1928 EXHIBITORS HERALD and MOVING PICTURE WORLD 13 New Uniform Contract Written; Will Become Effective in May Gratified at Settling of Issues, Says Committee Six Rules Used As Pattern for New Contract Following are the six rules agreed upon by the Federal Trade Practice Conference last fall and followed as a basis in the writing of the new uniform contract in Chicago : "I The sales method known as block ■*■* booking shall not be used for the accomplishment of any illegal purposes. 2 No distributor will require as a condi• tion of permitting an exhibitor to lease its pictures that such exhibitor shall also lease pictures of another distributor. '5 If any exhibitor shall claim within a reasonable time prior to the date fixed for the exhibition of any picture included in any block leased by him that such picture will be offensive to the clientele of his theatre because of racial or religious subject matter, such claim shall be arbitrated by the board of arbitration of the proper zone, and, if sustained, such exhibitor shall be relieved of obligation to take any pay for such picture. A If any exhibitor who has purchased an ^* entire block of pictures offered by any distributor so elects within a reasonable time prior to the date fixed for exhibition of any picture included in such block, such exhibitor may refuse to take such picture by paying one-half the allocated price therefor, provided that the pictures so rejected out of any block shall not exceed ten per cent of the number in such block, and, if a rejected picture is resold by the distributor, one-half the net price received on such resale shall be credited against the exhibitor's obligation in respect of such picture up to the amount of such obligation. 5 Reissues will not be included in any • block with new pictures. 6 News reels and short subjects will not • be included in any block with features and the lease of news reels or short subject blocks shall not be required as a condition of being permitted to lease feature blocks or vice versa. It was agreed also at that time that "the matters dealt with by paragraphs 3 and 4 shall be covered bv appropriate provisions to be included in the new uniform contract." Complete Agreement Reached on All Points, Including Arbitration, Declares Official Statement By JAY M. SHRECK A new Uniform Contract has been written. This new instrument will become effective in May when marketing of next season's product begins. The task of revising the present contract was completed late Monday, February 20, by the joint committee of exhibitors and distributors which has been in session at the Congress Hotel, Chicago. Actual deliberations extended over a period of three weeks, with the committee working both day and nig'ht. No seventh arbiter, it appears now, will have to be appointed by Chief Justice William Howard Taft of the Supreme Court, an official announcement by the committee stating that "a complete agreement was reached on all points, including the rules of arbitration." Early in the conference it had been the opinion of all factors that several clauses in the new contract would have to go to an intermediary for final draft. The new contract does not touch upon block booking, this being a feature of distribution considered apart from the contract itself, and purely a sales plan. Called Advanced Step While opinions were not expressed very freely by the conferees following the concluding session, the general sentiment seemed to be that an advanced step had been taken toward clearing up the contractual difficulties of exhibitors and distributors. One member of the unaffiliated exhibitors' group, asked if the new contract contained all the changes sought by them, replied. "Of course not. No contract ever does. But I do consider the contract a pretty thoroughly satisfactory one." Others refused to be quoted, declaring that they preferred to stand on the official statement of the committee. Meet Again in June Another meeting of the joint committee will be held in June, when definite plans relative to the functioning of arbitration will be drafted. The new contract, with explanations interpolated, will be published in pamphlet form "at an early date" and broadcast to the entire industry. Until that time, the contents of the revised instrument will not be known. The official statement of the joint committee, concurred in by K.. H.. Cochrane, Felix Feist, Ned Depinet and Gabriel Hess for the distributors, and Ben Berenstein, H. M. Richey, Col. H. A. Cole, R. R. Biechele and Nathark Yamins for the unaffiliated exhibitors, reads: "The national contract committee of the motion picture industry, which has been working out the details of a new contract under which practically all of the motion pictures shown in the United States will be leased by theatre owners, concluded its three week session last night (Monday, February 20) at midnight. "Gratified" by Results "The committee, which is composed of motion picture exhibitors and distributors, was gratified because certain difficulties which seemed at times insurmountable were finally overcome. A complete agreement was reached on all points, including the rules of arbitration. The only matter which had to be put over to the next meeting of the committee, which is scheduled for June, was a new problem relating to a plan of devising ways and means of enabling state exhibitor organizations from which are drawn the exhibitor arbiters, to function properly in their various endeavors in the general interests of the industry. Last year by the cooperation of exhibitor and distributor arbiters almost 12,000 cases were disposed of by arbitration. "The new contract is beUeved to be a vast improvement over its predecessor, giving promise of doing away with many sources of discontent in the moving picture business. It is patterned along the lines agreed upon at the Motion Picture Trade Practice Conference held last fall in New York City, and will be put into use next May. "So many complicated matters are to be handled under the terms of the new contract that the negotiators have arranged at an early date to publish the document with complete explanations of its various clauses and broadcast it in booklet form to the entire industry that there may be a clear understanding of its provisions." Silent on Specific Changes No hint as to the specific changes in the revised contract was given by any member of the committee. Nor was it stated whether the new instrument retained its present length or was shortened. R. F. Woodhull, president of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America, who was chairman of the unaffiliated exhibitor group, did not return to Chicago for the resumption of deliberations following the week's adjournment. On his departure from Chicago two weeks ago he said that the pending hearings on the Brookhart bill might make it imperative for him to remain in the East.