Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1930)

Editorial Clean Advertising CAPITALIZING in lurid display type on the fact that censors have limited the showing of a motion picture to adult audiences should be eliminated from the advertising of every theatre organization. The Advertising Code has been accepted by the industry at large as a positive, forward step in promotion of the best interests of the motion picture business. The evidence in the newspapers that those responsible for the advertising policy of some theatres have not fallen in step with the movement toward clean copy is to the discredit of those individuals and serves to retard the progress of the majority that has avowed its intention to do the right thing. There is no justified championing of political censorship. Too often the trade has seen its product made the football of politicians and of those currying political favor and jobs. No further proof of that is needed than the recent instance in Ohio of the statewide barring of "The Big House" for political reasons. After protestations had made the Ohio censor board known nationwide as a sample of unfairness and inconsistency, the ban was lifted. This showed in itself that the original disbarment was fallacious. The industry is well able to take care of regulation of what should be and what should not be in motion picture advertising, to a degree that not only meets with public approval but even sets a higher standard of propriety than that public itself asks, and all to the greater ultimate advantage of the theatre box office. The Advertising Code is itself an expression of the industry's own determination to set such a high standard and of its confidence that clean advertising eventually will pay larger dividends than unclean advertising. At the same time that it is true that political censorship defeats its own purpose — and cannot do otherwise because of the erroneous principles upon which it is grounded — the theatre advertiser who builds his copy upon a premise of drawing patronage by calling attention to the censors' activities is helping to perpetuate the theory of external censorship. For one thing, such a theatre advertiser often deceives his patrons and himself. By writing in screaming type "Adults Only" above the title of the motion picture he calculates to intrigue the prospective customer. Presume that he does succeed in attracting the patron into the theatre. Then what? Then the very inconsistencies that are the fundamentals of political censorship assert themselves. The patron finds that the picture is no different from others that he has seen and is probably even less sophisticated than others that bore no censorial limitations. He turns on the theatre, concluding that the "Adults Only" line was merely a concoction from the copy writer's imagination. The reaction upon this patron's good will toward the management is self-evident. Another reason why such an advertising course is headed toward danger lies in the fact that the copy writer is providing additional ammunition for those who favor regulation of motion picture content. There is continuously before the industry the threat of action in Congres* at Washington on one or another of the several proposals for federal regulation of motion pictures. To attempt to defeat city or statewide censorship by making capital of the action of the censor on one picture is only to invite the conviction in the minds of some individuals thai federal censorship is justified and advisable. A more judicious and more commendable treatment of the problem is suggested. It is proposed that the "Adult* Only" phrase be permanently dropped, and that to comply with the requirements of the local censor board which has barred a picture to minors the copy writer should include a sentence, in light type, with approximately this wording: "As this is an adult subject, children are not invited." A Five-Day Week THE five-day week, proposed for manufacturing industries and seemingly gaining more and more proponents, should meet with the indorsement of motion picture theatre owners, if and when it is adopted. Motion picture entertainment has come to be established as a necessity of life. No longer is it considered a luxury. The axiom that the motion picture industry is the last to feel an economic retarding and the first to return to normal figures after a general slackening of business activity is evidence enough of that. Adolph Zukor, president of Paramount Publix Corporation, recently was quoted as citing this fact in a symposium on trade con ditions in an issue of the Saturday Evening Post. The economic principle set forth by business leaders who advocate the five-day week is that intensified work in the shorter period will bring about mass production equal in quantity as well as quality to that of the present general schedule, and at the same time will give the workers more leisure time in which to enjoy living. This is the point at which the plan would have a direcl bearing upon the motion picture industry. More leisure time means greater opportunity and desire to visit the theatre. It is presumed that the theory of the five-day week is that wages will remain at least at the same level as under the old plan. Therefore, the proportion of those wages available for use in visiting the motion picture theatre would remain the same. In fact, that proportioD might even be considered larger, in the cities at least, in view of the incidental expenses of the average workday in transportation and lunch costs. It is believed that the motion picture industry would effectively adjust itself to the changes in productiveness which would be caused within its own forces by the fiveday week, and that the increased receipts would far more than balance any increased costs of theatre operation due to the revised working schedule. The motion picture industry may well look with pleasing anticipation upon the prospect of a five-day working week. Exhibitors HERALD-WORLD MARTIN J. QUICLEY, Publisher and Editor Incorporating Exhibitors Herald, founded 1915; Moving PictureWorld, founded 1907; Motography, founded 1909; The Film Index founded 1906. Published every Friday by Quigley Publishing Company, 407 S. Dearborn Street, Chicago; Martin J. Quigley, President; Edwin S. Clifford, Secretary; Georgi Clifford, Assistant Treasurer. Member Audit Bureau of Circulations. All contents copyrighted 1930 by Quigley Publishing Company. All editorial and business correspondence should be addressed to the Chicago office. Better Theatres, devoted to the construction, equipment and operation of theatres, is published every fourtk week as section two of Exhibitors HeraldWorld, and the Film Buyer, a quick reference picture chart, is published every fourth week as Section Two of Exhibitors Herald-World. Other Publications: The Motion Picture Almanac, Pictures and Personalities, published annually; The Chicagoan.