Exhibitors Herald World (Jan-Mar 1929)

24 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD January 12, 1929 petition, not unethical competition, but keen competition. I like to see strong companies in competition. I don't like to see them joined together and made fewer. I don't see where great amalgamations help the industry, where they help the companies, or where they help the public. Competition makes good pictures and good pictures provide attendance. "I have just come back from Hollywood and have seen and heard a great deal about pictures with dialogue, about 'talkies.' Though I am firmly convinced that dialogue is here to stay, a definite part and parcel of picture equipment, I hesitate to state a definite opinion. Opinions, during this present state of flux, change from day to day. Our actions have to be determined, to a large extent, by what we learn as we go along. "This much I know. We shall use dialogue as we use any other device for the production of good pictures, not more. When we get a situation that seems suited to dialogue, then we shall use it. When we get a situation obviously made for silent pictures, then we shall not strain to insert dialogue. We must not forget the importance of relaxation in motion picture entertainment. "W e are determined to go slowly. Whereas we used to try and lay out a year's program ahead of time, now we shall be content with planning two or three months ahead. Much can happen and we are eager enough to improve the quality of our product to want things to happen. "I am not satisfied with talking pictures that are merely novelties. The day of the novelty has not passed, because every new installation of sound equipment in every new city opens a brand-new field, but even so I am not satisfied just to give sound, or talk. We must improve and solidify our position." Zukor said he was not surprised to hear that some audiences through the country are already tiring of sound pictures. He reiterated the point that pictures must be good no matter what devices they employ. He said that he personally, along with other motion picture theatregoers, would far rather see a good silent picture than a bad sound picture. I asked Zukor if the motion picture industry felt any antagonism toward the legitimate stage, if the film industry felt an elation over the dog-days of the drama, any sense of having scored a victory. "We bear no ill will toward the legitimate stage and do not in any way feel a sense of victory," he said. "In fact, those of us who have been through the mill see no reason why the drama should be so frightfully concerned over its present unhappy state. "The drama is now going through a period of depression that hit us sooner and left us quicker. It is not extraordinary to come upon a whole series of ordinary plays, whether on the stage or on the screen. Somehow it happens that you reach a period when nothing turns out well, when results are mediocre, unimportant, uninteresting. And then, curiously, when things look blackest, one or two smashing good things will come along and lift the whole level with it. "The drama will come back. It will not disappear. It will not be crushed by the competition of motion pictures, for I am satisfied that motion pictures that are simply copies of stage plays ivill not be good enough to amount to anything. We are in different fields and there is no reason why both of us should not be eminently sucessful." Zukor's manner was doubly enthusiastic. First, he seemed roused over the promise of success through 1929. Second, he seemed -lore than energetic over the prospect that success will not be too en^ily achieved, that obstacles lie in the road and that the situation is interesting enough and promising enough to threaten day to day changes. ADOLPH ZUKOR Radio Pictures Is Tentative Name For FBO Product (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Jan. 8.— FBO's new prominence in the industry is to be celebrated by a change in the name of the company's product. Radio Pictures is the name tentatively selected, with distribution to be provided by the Radio-Keith-Orpheum organization, if certain legal aspects of the situation now under consideration are properly ironed out. Whatever the new name of F B O Pictures is to be, an announcement of unusual importance may be expected soon. Executives in Chicago On Way East from Coast A party of executives from leading producing and distributing companies were in Chicago, Monday January 7, en route East from the West Coast. In the party were Winfield Sheehan, vice president and general manager of Fox Film Corporation ; Joseph M. Schenck, president of United Artists; John Considine, Jr., producer for United Artists; D. W. Griffith, producer and director, and Major John Zanft, general manager of the Fox Theatres Corporation. Sheehan in New York to Confer on '29-'30 Product (Special t» the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Jan. 8.— Winfield Sheehan, vice president and general manager of Fox Film Corporation, arrived in New York today for a three weeks visit during which time plans for the 1929-30 productions will be considered. French President Chooses M G M Films NEW YORK. — Gaston Douraergue, president of France, selected HGM pictures for showing at his annual Christmas show. "A Trail of "98" and "The Cameraman" were the pictures.