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.
II INI (DEPEND
FILM BULLETIN
VOL. 2 No. 12
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1935
PRICE 10 CENTS
A FILM BULLETIN Reader Writes A Letter About Independent Exhibitors and says,
"LET EM GET IT!"
Philadelphia, November 18, 1935.
"Editor, FILM BULLETIN:
"With deep interest and a profound admiration for your courage, I have observed your valiant editorial efforts on behalf of the country's independent exhibitors, of which I am one, and have hoped that some enlightenment might come to them from your work. As I write this, however, there is no hope any longer and my despair prompts me to express a few thoughts, which you are privileged to use, if you see fit.
"It has always puzzled me why theatre owners, unaffiliated with producer-owned theatre chains are called 'independents'. Certainly, this is a misnomer. How on earth can a man, who is content to be a mere downtrodden flunkey in his business life, be termed 'independent'? I believe the major producers were responsible for pinning that word to exhibitors — as a sort of ironic joke.
" 'Independent'! Is that why they have allowed, with hardly a murmur of protest, the major producers to foist upon them some of the most outrageous business policies practiced in all American industry? Is it because they are "independents" that they have meekly swallowed block booking and blind selling? The fantastically ridiculous system of signing contracts for a series of numbers, which represent vague, thin-air promises about the films they are to receive? The deprivation of their right to play pictures on any days they see fit? Yearly increases in film rentals, until the point has been reached at which exhibitors are mere collection agents for the producers?
" 'Independent'! I recall that you have referred to these small fellows as the 'suckers' of the film industry. That is what they are — and nothing more.
"But, on the other hand, perhaps the unaffiliated theatre owners are entitled to be called 'independent'. In one respect they are. Try to get them together, to fight shoulder to shoulder for some principle on which all agree. Try to organize them, so that they will have a semblance of power to counteract the tactics of the powerful producer interests. Try to induce them to pay two or three dollars a week toward the support of an organization. Try to urge them to cooperate in any move for the benefit of all. Then, believe me, you'll learn of what sturdy independent stuff they are made!
"You'll learn that these 'independents' will gladly fight each other. You'll find that it requires only one conversation with a major film .sales manager to make some of them lose all interest in an independent organization. On the subject of organization dues, expect to witness a display of their strongest independence. (Why should they pay, they ask, as long as they can belong to a producer-controlled organization that pays their dues for them!). To them, the very term 'cooperation'
(Continued on Page 4)
I 3
1 s
> CD
CD n'
Q QJ
n ' =^
CD O
CD ? ° IV
— r U~>
O a CD
=r Q_ CD ^
CD
O CD CD
o C
ZD
o
ZD
Q_ CD
CD CD
-i ' ZD
Cl_
zd CD
? *
CD
m
X