Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (Sep 1935 - Aug 1936)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

INDEPENDENT EXHIBITOR: FILM BULLETIN VOL. 2 No. 2 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1935 PRICE 10 CENTS The Kings Can Do No Wrong! It was only a few brief months ago when representatives of several of the all-powerful major producers sat on the witness stand in U. S. District Court in Philadelphia and, with abundant confidence in their opinions, sought to impress upon the court the detrimental effects of double features on the industry and the public. Chief among the major executives who testified were Ned E. Depinet, president of RKO Pictures, and J. Robert Rubin, vicepresident and counsel of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. With almost parental benevolence, these gentlemen sought to explain to the court how the double feature policy would damage those very individuals who were demanding the right to support a poor picture with an additional feature. With the patience of a Job they undertook to justify the fact that they were employing dual bills in their own theatre affiliates in other territories. In effect, they told the court that they had been "forced" to adopt the practice by their independent competitors. But, in recent weeks, scores of theatres controlled by M-G-M and RKO theatres in the New York City area have switched from single features to duals — in some cases at reduced admissions. No alibi that this change in policy was "forced" by the independents is offered now by the producer-owned chains. It is simply a case of "good business," they frankly admit. They found the practice profitable, so they went for it every day in the week. But, you, little independent exhibitor in Philadelphia and Washington, it is bad for you to save yourself from suffering loss on our poor pictures by double featuring. You will have to take your loss, because this dual bill policy is wrong; it will hurt you. Why do we do it, you ask? After all, we are the masters — WE CAN DO NO WRONG! Mo Wax. MERRITT CRAWFORD SEES MAJOR PRODUCER QUITTING HAYS ORGANIZATION See Page 5 > I 3 I O> CD Q_ o~ CD =r q_ n CD n CD cd o ZD , m o £ CD ZD CD O CD CD ^ O' (T O zd CD ~" ZD — Q_ 5 CD CD EJ. CD m oo_ x CT Bh o" 00