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DEPENDENT EXHIBITOR:
FILM BULLETIN
VOL. I No. 22
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1935
PRICE 10 CENTS
THIS IS A VICTORY!
Q_
It was evident, even before Judge Welsh handed down his far-reaching decision in the double feature case, that some exhibitors failed to comprehend the substantial significance of the ruling against the major film companies. Suffering from myopic vision (the result, no doubt, of eyestrain acquired in searching for theatre profits which do not exist) these individuals can only construe the decision as meaning that this territory will immediately plunge into widespread adoption of the double feature practice.
Proper advice to the calamity howlers is to take off their blinkers and look around a bit. If they will contemplate the industry, of which they are part, more closely, they, too, may discern that there is much more to the honorable jurist's ruling than is « visible to the short-sighted eye.
Here is the first crack in the iron band of control which the film producers have thrown around you and which has been gradually tightened until you are gasping for breath. Here is the break which you can, by the strength of your numbers, widen into a breach through which you can escape the crushing domination by the producers, a domination unprecedented in this nation's industrial history.
Pause and consider how much the producers have to say about the
operation of your theatres. They compel you to buy aff their pictures even before the stories are selected! They tell you how much you must pay for their pictures; yes, and your bargaining power is almost nil! They require you to charge specific admission prices and you cannot lower them even if it means the saving of your business! They force you to play certain of their pictures, regardless of your opinion as to their suitability, on the best days of the week! They prevent you from ever obtaining a run ahead of any competitive theatres which they own or control! Until now, they have prohibited you from supporting one of their weak pictures with another feature, demanding that you stand the loss for their failure to deliver a better product!
Permitted to extend their control over this industry, is it possible to predict the limits to which the producers would go? Is it inconceivable that they would soon restrict theatres to a meagre five percent profit on investment? Is it even beyond the realm of possibility that they would require you to employ ushers standing five feet ten and one-half inches in their stocking feet and that you attire them in sky-blue uniforms — or you would be violating your contract?
Allowed to continue, unchecked, the small group of major producers
(Continued on Page Two)
PRODUCERS GUILTY OF CONSPIRACY.
THE "SPECTRE" OF DOUBLE FEATURES..
ALLIED-IEPA CONCLUDE S. JERSEY TIE-UP.
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