Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1929)

16 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD November 2, 1929 EX H I B ITO RS 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 Edwih 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 in conjunction with Exhibitors HeraldWorld; The Motion Picture Almanac, Pictures and Personalities, published annually; The Chicagoan and Polo, Class publications. Vol. 97, No. 5 November 2, 1929 The Contract Crisis THE United States Court decision against the present Standard Exhibition Contract is not even nearly the sensational development which it is being acclaimed in certain quarters in the trade. This Contract, a highly intricate form of agreement, covering the highly intricate business of leasing motion picture film, has been carefully examined and found wanting by an United States Court. The court has emphasized what has long been accepted, both by fair-minded exhibitors and by fair-minded distributors; namely, that the contract is far from a perfect document. But granting the best possible good-will on both sides, there is no good reason for believing that a perfect instrument is to be arrived at now, or even later. The best to be expected is that with the accumulated experience, and the maintenance of a right attitude on both sides, progress can be made in the direction of a better form of contract from time to time. The Standard Exhibition Contract, now in effect, and the accompanying provisions for arbitration, traces its history back to the exhibitors' demand for an uniform rental contract. However bad the present contract may be — and we do not think that any reasonable person can deny that it has many recognizable faults — it has afforded, on the whole, a decidedly better basis for distributorexhibitor relations than the old practice under which each distributor had his own pet form of contract and the exhibitor in signing any one of the various forms had little or no idea, unless he were a legal specialist, what he was signing. Faulty as they have been, the Standard Exhibition Contract and the related plan of arbitration have been a very good thing for the industry at large and for every branch of the industry. But their imperfections have permitted many individual injustices and inequalities. This means, obviously, that there is nothing wrong with the idea of a standard contract or with some form of arbitration in the industry; the trouble — again obviously — lies in certain terms in the contract and in certain provisions in the arbitration agreement. This leads plainly to the one proper conclusion which the present state of affairs warrants: This conclusion is that the industry, in the branches directly concerned, should undertake immediately, in the best possible spirit, to re-write the Standard Exhibition Contract and the accompanying provisions for arbitration in such a way as not only to eliminate the Government's objections but also to eliminate a great many other objections which have become apparent in the practical operations of the contract in the trade. A standard form of contract and a plan of arbitration are no less desirable and no less necessary to exhibitors than they are to distributors. The existing situation recalls a recommendation which has frequently been made by the Herald-World. It is that in view of the intricacies and difficulties involving a standard form of contract and arbitration in the trade, and the obvious necessity for periodic readjustment of the provisions of the contract in order to keep up a steady progress toward a more perfect and less faulty instrument, a permanent contract revision committee should be established. It should not be permitted that wrangling over some obviously unfair provision of the contract go on indefinitely until a crisis has been reached. The contract is of such importance and it involves such difficulties that there should be constantly in existence some authority competent and qualified to deal with new developments as they show up. The present situation calls for an immediate effort, by all parties concerned, to provide a better form of contract. And if a renewal of the present situation is to be avoided some time in the near future, arrangements must be made to provide corrections, promptly and effectively, for inequalities which are bound to show up from time to time. * * * The New Audience EVIDENCE of the far-reaching effects of the introduction of sound and dialog pictures continues to accumulate. One exhibitor in a typical average situation has discovered that the new subjects have brought a ten per cent increase in patronage. This is doubtlessly well below the average for the country over but it affords to theatre owners at large a figure that may be considered the minimum upon which they may base their calculations and future plans. It is interesting, also, to note that the increase in patronage attributable to talking pictures is not based merely upon a momentary awakening of interest on the part of regular patrons; the new subjects are bringing in a following to which the silent picture did not have an appeal. The increased patronage is due to a new audience — an audience which now for the first time has become included within the motion picture's sphere of influence. Calendar Morals THE maze of absurdity into which political censorship of motion pictures inevitably leads is illustrated in the current practice in Boston in which a certain set of eliminations are dictated for week-day exhibitions and an additional set of eliminations are called for in the case of subjects which are to be shown on Sundays. If there is something eliminated from a motion picture to be shown on Sunday on the ground of it being morally destructive, it is difficult indeed to see how a change in the day of the week is going to effect a change in the moral significance of the scene. —MARTIN J. QUIGLEY.