Exhibitor's Trade Review (Nov 1925 - Feb 1926)

December 26, 1925 Page 81 No More Sinecures But Plenty of Room on Top There are three kinds of people — the calamity howlers, Castles-in-the-Air Builders and those with their feet on the ground. During 1925 there was a predominance of the first. In my opinion this industry is no different from any other. It has its rises and falls, it has its changes which require adjustments but when it is all boiled down, there is not much difference from any other business. It resolves itself to the survival of the fittest. There has been a great deal said about this business becoming Trust controlled. The cry of "wolf" has been on every tongue, but the levelheaded men always felt that the only way this business, which is a public commodity, could be controlled would be if camera and raw stock became a patented monopoly. That being out of the question and not even a remote possibility, I maintain that there are always men in this progressive country of ours who are willing to gamble a salary, which is all they would get for their brains and efforts in the employ of a company — and their bank roll as well, taking the chance of producing something that the public wants regardless of the trade mark. Providing a picture is good entertainment it does not care and neither does the public care who produced it or who distributes it. The calamity howlers seem to forget that competition is the life of trade. The big men in the industry are big because they had ability and vision and therefor they surely realize this elementary principle of business. Therefore they would not eliminate competition, even though their motives might not be philanthropical. Assuming even that it was due to greed for gain and nothing else, they know that to maintain standards in production, efficiency in distribution, ingenuity in presentation and all the other necessary elements for the successful progress of a business, competition must be maintained to a degree. They must realize that the shortest route to the stagnation of any business is the elimination of competition. The big men in our business have vision. They are not trying to stifle competition. They do not want to put anybody out of business, because they have vision. I look upon the tightening up of outlet and of returns to the small producer or distributor as a boon to the business. By M. H. HOFFMAN Vice-President and General Manager Tiffany Productions M. H. HOFFMAN Vice-President and General Manager Tiffany Productions It compels efficiency, ingenuity, specialization, care and caution. It hampers and gradually eliminates the flyby-night, the insincere and the incompetent, and makes the survivors exert themselves to the nth degree. The greatest danger in the opinion of those even less radical has been the fact that the big companies have constituted themselves manufacturers, jobbers and retailers all in one, and this has been looked upon as a gradual shutout of the smaller man or company and gradual monopolization. To me even this serious condition will find its solution through adjustment, although I may be accused of blind optimism ; and I find a solution in history which generally repeats itself, and in the peculiarity of our business. Where is there a business that the retailer will continue patronizing his manufacturer and jobber, who goes into competition with him? It is true that the retailer in our business has been doing it only because he did not realize what was happening. Everybody knows that exhibitors throughout the country have been getting together to fight or offset this condition although up to date there may have been more talk than action. You can just bet that there will be action when thev begin to see red figures on the right side of the ledger instead of reduction in the black figures. A man certainly has to be insane to continue supplying somebody the weapon with which to maim or kill him, and to be more specific why should an exhibitor give me money with which to open up an opposition house to his and enable me to put him out of business? Wouldn't he rather deal with a man or a firm who does not compete with him, providing of course that he can get the product he needs to continue business with. And this matter of quality product is something that the smaller producer did not realize until recently exactly as the exhibitor did not realize that he was supporting his present or futurt competitor. Now gradually the exhibitor realizes his position and is willing to support the producer who has quality product and who does not compete with him, and the producer on the other hand knows through sad experience that the exhibitor regardless how anxious not to support his competitor cannot and will not support the producer who does not fill his needs or wants with quality product. There is another angle in regard to control of outlet. Whether it be against the smaller producer or smaller exhibitor — and mind you I am not accusing anyone of unfair competition, nor do I say that it exists ; but should it exist and continue, we have a government, and a good one at that, which says, not quoting the law, but the essence, "Do not stifle progress — therefor do not prevent competition — live and let live." One more point with regard to control of theatres ; just the same as production of pictures cannot be stopped unless the camera crank or the raw stock is monopolized, just so can not the building of theatres be stopped as long as the public will patronize pictures and builders can see a return on their investments. This has been evident the past year more than ever. Keen competition in production brought out better pictures; better pictures created greater patronage for the theatres ; greater patronage and absorption of a number of theatres under the control of two or three companies brought about greater investment and enterprise in new theatres; and what is even more beneficial to the industry is the fact that greater individual efforts in showmanship and presentation had to be made in order to survive, and we have a greater army of real showmen (Continued on page 83)