Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1930)

November 8, 1930 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD 21 More Gold Junked Than Saved To Elevate Industry, Says Hays Voters Ditch Heflin, Backer of Federal Film Trade Control (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Nov. 6.— Motion picture interests see themselves rid of a potential annoyance in the overwhelming defeat at Tuesday's elections of Senator Thomas J. Heflin of Alabama. Heflin has been identified with those proposing government control of the film industry. Heflin was forced to run as an independent, the Democratic party having denied him the right to be a candidate in its primary because he had refused to support the candidacy of Alfred E. Smith in the presidential campaign of 1928. John H. Bankhead, the Democratic nominee, won handily. Heflin has threatened to seek a senatorial investigation of election practices, declaring, according to press reports, that he would have won if the election had not been fraudulently conducted. Harris Heads N. Y. Office Of SMPE; Chicago Branch Set for Regular Sessions (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Nov. 6.— New York headquarters of the SMPE have been established at 33 West 42d street, where an office has been leased. Sylvan Harris will be in charge, following his recent appointment as editor manager of the society by the board of governors. The office is scheduled to open not later than December 1. The Chicago section of the SMPE has completed plans for regular meetings to be held on the first Thursday of each month. Numerous papers are to be read at coming meetings. 3 Film Censors Resign In Lake Forest; New Code Proposed for City Announcement that a new film censorship code will be drafted has been made by the city attorney of Lake Forest, Chicago suburb, following the resignation of three women members of the board of censors. The three members, one of them chairman of the board, resigned, it is said, because they had already served four years, and because two of them plan extended European trips. Calvin Trowbridge, city attorney, states that the new censorship code will be similar to that used in other cities. Several members of the city council have urged a strict code, while others suggest a moderate ordinance. No definite action has been taken. Ask Police Aid in Hunt For Theatre Treasurer (Special to the Herald-World) ST. LOUIS, Nov. 6. — Police were requested this week to aid in a search for James Noel, treasurer of the Missouri theatre here, who is reported to have disappeared. The management of the theatre is said to have discovered that approximately $10,500 is missing from the safe. The money was insured. Ever Raising Standard of Art And Good Taste, Academy Told Film Family Must Be All for One and One for All, He Declares at Awards Presentation (Special to the Herald-World) HOLLYWOOD, Nov. 6. — The motion picture industry, ever seeking to create even higher standards and never content with its achievements, has "thrown more gold in the junk pile than it has put in its treasury," though it "has created more: wealth in less time than was ever amassed within the same period by any pioneer intelligence," Will H. Hays, president of the M P P D A, said here last night. Addressing the annual banquet meeting of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Ambassador hotel at the presentation of the academy awards for outstanding achievements in the past year, Hays declared that he looks to the future with great hope. He stated that the motion picture family must be all for one and one for all, if it is to survive and progress. * * * Following is the text of Hays' address: Shall I tell you the real reason why eight members of our industry are receiving Awards tonight? It is because they were not willing to do what they were paid to do! What I mean, of course, is that these men and women the Academy is honoring tonight were not content merely to fulfill the demands of an employer, or of that final master, the Public. They weren't satisfied with doing a good job; they had to do a better one! Genius does not serve contracts, but inspiration. Men and women who never give more than required have no nodding acquaintance with fame. The motion picture industry stands in its present position of substance and influence because throughout its ranks it is manned by those who are never content to do a job that is merely acceptable. And, to my mind, what tonight's Awards really stand for is — not that eight organizations and individuals have done outstanding work — but that thousands of men and women here in Hollywood and elsewhere in our industry simply do not know the meaning of the words "That's good enough." The Awards go only to eight. What they recognize is outstanding achievement. But high standards and high accomplishment do not belong to eight alone. Any judge this year would have a difficult task in differentiating between the quality of the eight and a hundred other actors, writers, directors, producers, technicians, whose contributions to the year's screen so closely approximated the perfection of the prizewinners. I do not believe there is in this Hays Asks Unity The motion picture family must be all for one and one for all if it is to survive and progress, Will H. Hays declared at the annual banquet of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Hays told the 750 present that he looks to the future with great hope. room a single man or woman — not a single one of you — who gets a good night's sleep if on any particular day he has failed, in his own eyes, to achieve those levels of excellence which he has set for his personal standard of work. You might not admit this but it is my opinion, and it has considerable support. The fact is, the international distinction of this group is confirmed by the largest body of contemporary opinion that ever judged an artist or an art. An Industry of Artists Another way of saying this is that thrais an industry made up of artists. Think,, if you will, of any other, comparable in size: or scope with this one — the food industry,the motor industry, the railroads, the steel1 industry — and you will quickly see that of* no other could quite this statement be' made. From the commencement of each production in the conception of the idea for" it, to its exhibition in the last and smallest* theatre, our desiny is in the hands of artists— of artists in writing, artists in directing, artists in acting, artists in illumination, artists in sound recording, artists in attracting the public, artists in surrounding: each picture with an atmosphere of comfort which lends to the watcher's and the-' listener's enjoyment. ^ Not Content With Set Standard^ And in all this my idea of an artist is simply this: That an artist is one who is never for a single instant content with accepted standards, but must work out each problem in accordance with some inner compulsion which bids him do more than is expected of him. An artist is one who works to the theme of inspiration, and not to the click of a time-clock. Nobody with a time-clock soul ever got half way from the scratch. Art is eternally a democrat, without class bias or racial prejudice. It has never consulted a social register or a genealogy to determine its judgments. Art does not climb family trees to search for the ripe fruit of genius. It does not care whether the forebears of originality crossed* with the Plymouth Puritans, or an EllisIsland contingent. There is no room on the scales with which genius is measured for favoritism or influence. Therefore history will always remember Nero as a poor fiddler, and Frederick the Great as a second-rate musician. A great artist will always find within his own soul the timbersto build a ladder to the stars. Now let me point out to you a way in which all of this is vitally tied up with something that is very important to us all. You will agree with me, surely, that the man who does his job' better than he is asked to do it, or' the business organization which gives; to its public something of higher qual1' (Continued on page 30, column 1)