Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1929)

November 2, 1929 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD 33 Mrs. Winter Denies She Said Stupidity Supplants Immorality in Pictures "Producers are trying their best to eliminate the banal and the stupid, and in this effort they deserve understanding rather than censorship or half-informed criticism," says Mrs. Thomas G. Winter in a letter to Martin J. Quigley in reply to an editorial in the October 19 issue of the HeraldWorld. Mrs. Winter declares that she was misquoted in the newspaper interview upon which the editorial was based. Her letter, written on the stationery of the Association of Motion Picture Producers at Hollywood, where she is representing 11 national women's organizations, is as follows: "Dear Sir: "Your little editorial in the October 19th number in the Exhibitors Herald-World gives me an opportunity to write to you, because, as sometimes happens, a half-statement has seemed to set me in a very false light. What I tried to say in the Chicago interview was that I believed the chief danger of censorship was that it would keep the films to the level of banality. "I assure you that I am not coming to my new undertaking with any such absurd and autocratic attitude of mind as you_ very justly inferred from the statement as it appeared. You perhaps know that my assignment was suggested by the representatives of eleven national organizations of women at the New York Conference of Motion Pictures, and that Mr. Hays very graciously and with every generosity made it possible for me to enter into the work of trying to better the understanding between such women's organizations and the industry, with every cordial sympathy toward both sides. "I believe that the producers are trying their best to eliminate the banal and the stupid, and that in this effort they deserve understanding support rather than censorship or half-informed criticism. "Very sincerely yours, "Alice Ames Winter, "Public Relations." EDITOR'S NOTE: Mrs. Winter was quoted in the newspapers as saying, in effect, that stupidity has supplanted immorality in motion pictures and that her mission is to eradicate stupidity from the films. It now appears that what Mrs. Winter wished to say, but was not quoted as saying, is that in her belief the chief danger of censorship is that it would keep the films to the level of banality. Our criticism was, of course, directed at what Mrs. Winter was quoted as saying, and not at the belief which she now expressed. Sunday Shows Win Long Battle at LaGrange, III.; Ballot's 1,809 to 1,654 _ La Grange, a suburb of Chicago, won the right to allow Sunday pictures in their only theatre at a special election on October 25. The vote in favor of Sunday amusement stood 1,809 while those opposed registered 1,654. Sunday pictures had not been played in the town since 1926 when they were defeated by a vote of 2 to 1. A. C. Dallach, builder of the La Grange theatre, obtained a petition to hold the special election. Churches got together and ministers fought the issue from their pulpits. Posters with the slogan, "Why Did You Move to La Grange? Cicero has Sunday pictures," were scattered about the town. Charge That Sound Dehumanizes Music Is Answered by Industry Music Federation Taking Full Page Space in 600 Newspapers in 400 Cities to Learn Whether Public Prefers Synchronized Pictures — Exhibitors Point to Higher Standards By DOUGLAS FOX NEW YORK, October 29. — The robot as an entertainer — is his substitution for real music a success? That is the question which the American Federation of Musicians is firing at the heads and hearts of a susceptible public. The Federation is taking full page space in some 600 newspapers in 400 cities to find out whether or not the public prefers to hear music out of a horn. The Federation states: "If a mechanical man played a harp, folk would flock to see the curiosity. But few would expect an artistic treat." Dehumanizing, Says Federation Canned music, we are told, is dehumanizing the theatre. No longer may small boys suck lemons in front of cornet players. No longer may the motion picture public watch the patterns of perspiration on the domes of men who wrestle with bass viols. No longer may it gaze, fascinated, at the rhythmic counterpoint of a conductor's posterior as he leads his players through the maze of "Hearts and Flowers." For the spiritual tie between the musician and his audience is gone. Music is dehumanized— that is, so says the Federation. Half Million Spent on Space The Federation is serious. It is telling the public not to listen to music out of a can. And for a very good reason. The rapid rise to popularity of sound and talking pictures has resulted in the dropping of orchestras by numerous theatres with the result that already 5,000 musicians have lost their places. It is at this movement that the advertising campaign is aimed. Half a million dollars is being spent on newspaper space. The money comes from a defense fund which has been collected for the past 18 months from the 30,000 members of the Federation who are employed in theatre orchestras. The Federation claims a total membership of 140,000. The advertisements, while not absolutely opposing canned music '(because, after all musicians are required to make it), argue that a human orchestra supplies elements to a program which cannot be duplicated by a mechanical process. There is that "je ne sais quoi" which the public is missing out on. Better Music Now While the exhibitor with talking picture equipment thinks he is giving his patrons better music more finely interpreted than ever before, the Federation maintains that "if the theatre-going public accepts this vitiation of its entertainment program, a deplorable decline in the Art of Music is inevitable. Musical authorities know that the soul of art is lost in mechanization. It cannot be otherwise because the quality of the music is dependent on the present mood of the_ artist, upon the human contact, without which the essence of intellectual stimulation and emotional rapture is lost." But, argues the motion picture man, the artist must be in some kind of mood when he is called upon to fiddle for synchronization. This mood dribbles out of the horn into the hearts of the audience just as surely as if the player were perspiring in the orchestra pit. Moreover, mechanization, instead of sounding the death knell of musical appreciation, is spreading this same appreciation everywhere. The motion picture and the radio are introducing the masses to good music, are educating them to like it and ask for more. Instrument Sales Increase Sales of musical instruments, since the introduction and popularity of sound and talking pictures, are greater than ever before, the demand for various types of instruments much wider. To be sure, 5,000 musicians are out of work, and the number will be 7,000 in a few weeks, it was said. But that's an economic problem and does not devolve on the public appreciation of what is good or bad. The better artists will be kept on to record for pictures and to entertain over the air. The standard is bound to rise. Competition among individuals will force it upwards. Far from causing a decline, it will bring about an increase in musical appreciation. Educated by the sound and talking picture, more and more people will attend the concerts of individuals and those of the great American symphony orchestras which, throughout the world, have no superior. Hits at Synchronization The Federation, in its newspaper copy last week, took an indirect poke at what has become to be known as synchronization. "Mechanical music," it stated, "takes on no added merit by being synchronized, so it seems fair to say that the 'synchronization' exploitation is largely humbug. Nevertheless, it is upon the synchronization idea that the attempt to 'sell' mechanical music is based. Amplified phonograph records could have been used just as effectively before the synchronization devices were perfected. But a 'smoke screen' such as synchronization was required to lend some sort of scientific color to the substitution." Which, those inside the industry maintain, has no bearing on the case. No one has claimed better tone for music out of a can. But it is a fact that synchronization makes better music available to more people. In last week's copy the Federation claims (Continued on page 40) Dropping of Paramount -Warner Deal Is Laid to Complicated Control of FN (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Oct. 29. — Paramount Famous Lasky and Warner Brothers Corporation have gone to work with renewed vigor as a result of last week's announcement that negotiations looking toward a merger between the two organizations had been dropped. The primary causes of the failure of the two parties to arrive at a complete understanding were not made public. It is understood however, that the complicated ownership of First National Pictures, owned partially by Fox and yet dominated by the Warners, was apparently responsible.