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D INDEPENDENT EXHIBITOR:
FILM BULLETIN
VOL. 1 No. 41
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 1935
PRICE 10 CENTS
THE MAJOR PRODUCERS' "OWN BOYS" HAVE A PLAN
TO SAVE THE INDUSTRY FOR THE MAJOR PRODUCERS!
By Mo Wax
The major producer-owned MPTOA laid an egg last week; an innocent-looking Easter egg, but we warn you not to go near it — there's a firecracker inside! That's just the way those boys have of playing a practical joke on the naive souls known as independent exhibitors.
A difficult situation was tossed into the industry's lap by the Supreme Court's scuttling of the NRA. The major producers wept real (not glycerine) tears when their protective movie code was taken from them, leaving them once more exposed to the ravages of the ruthless independents who menace their very existence. They called into secret council "their boys" and demanded that some shrewd scheme be devised to do for them what the code had done — and more.
So, issued through the trade press like some ultimatum from the Almighty, came the MPTOA's manifesto to (1) give the major producers the unqualified right to fix minimum admission prices; (2) give the major producers the unqualified right to bar all those trade practices utilized by the small exhibitors against producer-owned theatre competition; (3) give the major producers the unqualified right to abolish double features.
Had this fraudulent scheme emanated from the inner sanctum of Will Hays' private office it could not more obviously be the brain child of the major producers themselves.
We charge that this plan is a cunningly premeditated attempt to (l) throttle the very life out of the nation's independent theatre owners; (2) make it possible for the major producers to grab theatres wholesale from the independents; (3) further strengthen the monopolistic powers of that little band of 8!
How It Will Be Accomplished
A rider, to be attached to the present contract form, is the proposed MPTOA idea "to protect the so-called de luxe operations in competitive spots, and to prevent the cheapening and demoralizing of the business in such competitive areas, as has happened in the past time and again."
How altruistic and appealing they make it sound! Note carefully that no mention is made
of protecting the major producers — only the theatres, the de luxe theatres. Who operates the vast majority of de luxe spots throughout the country? The majors, of course.
In simplified language, this is the way the scheme would operate: The de luxe theatre owner, entering into a film contract with a producer would "demand" that the producer protect him by adding a rider which would specify th.it the subsequent run theatre be compelled to (Continued on Page Thirteen)
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