Exhibitors Herald World (Jan-Mar 1929)

22 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD January 12, 1929 EXHIBITORS H E RALD WORLD Martin J. Quigley, Publisher & Editor Incorporating Exhibitors Herald, founded in 1915; Moving Picture World, founded in 1907; Motography, founded in 1909; and The Film Index, founded in 1909 Published Every Wednesday by Quigley Publishing Company Publication Office: 407 So. Dearborn St., CHICAGO, U. S. A. Martin J. Quigley, President Edwin S. Clifford, Secretary George Clifford, Asst. Treasurer Member Audit Bureau of Circulations Copyright, 1929, by Quigley Publishing Company All editorial and business correspondence should be addressed to the Chicago office Other publications: Better Theatres, devoted to construction, equipment and operation of theatres; published every fourth week as supplement to Exhibitors HeraldWorld; The Motion Picture Almanac, Pictures and Personalities, published annually; The Chicagoan and Polo, Class publications. Whole Vol. 94, No. 2 (Vol. 36, No. 5) January 12, 1929 Fair Play MR. R. F. WOODHULL, president of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America, last week issued a statement in which he reviewed the progress of the organization during the past year. He announced that, "progress for the last year has been satisfactory and safe." He further stated that, "its record of accomplishments is comparable to that of any similar endeavor." Other details of the strengthening and development of the organization during the past year were referred to. Right up to this point Mr. Woodhull's statement was interesting, constructive and timely. The association has been making steady and even progress and its future is bright. A public pronouncement covering these points was most appropriate, but, unfortunately, Mr. Woodhull did not stop there. Instead, he undertook to deliver a vigorous slap at the Allied States exhibitors association and all of this portion of his statement might very much better have been left unsaid. If a group of exhibitors standing outside the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America want an association of their own, we see no reason under the sun why they should not have it. If Mr. Woodhull wants to defeat such an organization and strengthen his own, the course for him to take, it seems to us, is to make the service of his organization stronger and better so that it will attract exhibitors who are not members. Simply to attack the other organization offers no reason for members of that organization to abandon it and join his. Also, we do not think that such a course will have much appeal to the many thousands of exhibitors who are now standing outside both of the organizations. Mr. Woodhull, among other remarks that will be strongly resented by the Allied States organization, charges this latter association with ignoring the proven fact that the problems of this industry can be settled within the industry through peaceful negotiations. Mr. Woo'dhull may be right in his charge but it must be said that as far as this statement goes he is guilty of the same charge because such a statement can only be regarded in the light of being anything but along the line of peaceful negotiation. We reaffirm our position: The Allied States group, or any other group, have equal rights with the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America in the matter of organizing along such lines and in such ways as they may deem fit and proper. To contend against this is a course that will reflect no credit upon the industry or any part of it. Both the M. P. T. O. A. and the Allied States organization will flourish only in so far as they render good and valuable service to their members. Competition among these organizations should be on the basis of service and not mud-slinging. * • * Insuring the Future BEHIND the name hunt for a suitable term with which to describe talking motion pictures there is a pressing necessity which does not seem to "be recognized in various quarters in the industry. As is usually the case, the keenest— and most successful executives — are quite aware that if such a term as "talkies" comes to be saddled upon the talking motion picture this new form of expression will go through its life under a severe and expensive handicap. But many of the others are content now to do nothing and to try nothing, having either no constructive ideas or else believing, weakly, that no suitable term can be popularized. Brand names attached to a product that necessarily is varying in quality has always been held by competent experts to be a dangerous course. But the right name for talking motion pictures would not in any sense be a brand name; it would be a name that would be attached to an entire classification of pictures. Brand name9 come into disfavor when they are associated with an inferior product. This same principle could not work to the disadvantage of talking motion pictures unless the entire classification of talking motion pictures proved to be inferior product. If this, unfortunately, should transpire it would make no difference what they would be called; their early demise would be in the cards. The motion picture industry, despite its intimacy with the public, has not and does not give adequate attention to matters relative to forming and directing public opinion. In a great number of the most successful industries when a new important line of product is brought out an effort immediately is made to identify such product by name. Such effort is then followed by the adoption of ways and means of getting the new product, under its new name, definitely and favorably into the consciousness of the public. These are the object lessons which the motion picture industry at this time should study and act upon, and may do so with assurance that in such ways they will be advancing and insuring the future of the talking motion picture. * * » MUSICIANS who are thrown out of work by the introduction of sound devices create a trying problem, but one which is in no wise new. Since the earliest mechanical developments it has been the same story; the mechanical inventiveness of man first results in a hardship to certain affected labor, but the outcome in the long run is a general betterment of conditions for all mankind. The limiting of the employment of musicians in theatres must lead, as similar instances previously always have led, to the absorption elsewhere of the labor that is now being displaced. Exhibitors who are wrestling with the problem are entitled to realize that the problem is not a new one and that with every mechanical advance certain groups are thrown out of their accustomed employment. But, inevitably, in the long run they are absorbed elsewhere either in their former work or in some new work that new conditions call for. —MARTIN J. QUIGLEY.