The Film Daily (1930)

THE 10 ■&&% DAILV Wednesday, September 3, 193 I Industry Leaders Optimistic (Continued from Page 1) try was still struggling with experiments in production and the payment of heavy obligations involved in the changeover to sound. Potential patronage, even in a period of drastic and prolonged depression, is always sufficient to provide theaters with the attendance necessary to show a profit, provided the right kind of pictures are offered, one leader said. Practically all executives lay stress on the fact that production plans for the new season will be worked out to keep in better step with public taste, and machinery will be geared so it can change cylinders quickly when a change in events makes it necessary. Curtailment of unnecessary overhead, together with greater operating efficiency through better-knit organizations, also are expected to prove important factors making for greater profits next year. Individual statements follow: Green Lights Ahead! Good Times Are Here for Those Who Plug By JOSEPH I. SCHNITZER President, Radio Pictures "DUSINESS in this country isn't half as bad as all the crepe hangers would have you believe. Good pictures are still packing them in from New York to San Diego, and it doesn't matter whether the weather is hot, cold or indifferent. It's high time to stop crying calamity and go to work. Stop bellyaching pessimism. Start to yell optimism! Good times are here, but you have to get off your seat to realize it Green Lights Ahead! Doldrums Are Passed and Pickup Has Begun By H. M. WARNER President, Warner Bros. W/"E HAVE passed through the doldrums of depression and are pushing on to prosperity. I gauge my opinion on the brisk attendance of the public at motion Psycholog-Moment Quick action at the psychological moment is an important factor in reviving prosperity, Sam Dembow, Jr., said recently to a group of Publix executives in connection with the Paramount Publix Prosperity Week, Oct. 5-11. The growing conviction everywhere that the worst is over and good times are just ahead makes this the psychological moment for all to put their shoulders to the prosperity wheels — and push hard! Adolph Zukor's forecast AMONG the first to sense the return of good times and sound a note of optimism was Adolph Zukor. The Paramount Publix president's remarks, which were seized and commented upon by Arthur Brisbane in his Hearst-syndicated column, were, in part: "For one thing, we had lost our heads. We began to think about a dollar as we ought to think about a 25-cent piece. After a while we shall learn what money is, what thrift and commonsense mean. Then we shall be better off than we ever were. Nothing better than this so-called slump could have happened to us. For my part I was never more optimistic in my life." picture houses and the satisfactory rise in receipts. More than one student of economics has commented recently on the renewed attendance at movie houses as indicative of the increased spending capacities of the public. But I hold that the public is always eager to be entertained. More selective and discriminating than ever, it yet responds when offered pictures rich in entertainment value. Summer or winter, in and out of season, during sporadic industrial slumps and during prosperity peaks — always the public must be amused. No medium has been devised, so perfectly answering the bill as talking pictures. The scale of admission is reasonable and within the means of all. Business is better — and is going to become still better. Green Lights Ahead! ■ Personalities Main Factor in Holding Public By JOSEPH M. SCHENCK President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, United Artists '"THERE is nothing to be alarmed about in the theatrical situation. We must keep in mind that personalities are still the big factor in motion pictures. It is ridiculous for anvone to set a definite limit on the life of a star. Everybody said that Rudolph Valentino was through. Then we made him a star and produced pictures which were tremendously popular. Twice the "prophets" have said that Gloria Swanson was through. The first time she came back with "Sadie Thompson" and the second with "The Trespasser." Real personalities, big names, in <rood pictures, are the answer to conditions in the theater. It is the job of the picture producer to keep on building attractive personalities by putting them in successively good pictures. Green Lights Ahead! Tending Strictly to Own Business Does Trick By ADOLPH ZUKOR President, Paramount Publix J^HE present situation will be cured when business men realize that they must study their problems with an eye to the future as well as the present and then apply themselves with all their energy and thought to the working out of their policies. Hard work — and by hard work I mean tending strictly to our own business with foresight and energy — will bring us out of our present difficulties. If we all buckle down to our jobs, prosperity will be back again before we realize it. Green Lights Ahead! Industry's Biggest Year Is in the Making By CARL LAEMMLE President, Universal Pictures '"THERE is no business depression for great pictures. The remarkable box-office records being made by our own "All Quiet on the Western Front" and other pictures of this caliber proves the truth of that statement. With many fine pictures coming along, I believe that 1930-31 will be one of the industry's biggest years. Green Lights Ahead! — High-Speed Showmanship Must be Revived By E. W. HAMMONS President, Educational Film, Exchanges TT IS as true today as it has ever been that we have something the public not only wants, but needs — entertainment — a commodity as necessary to the human well-being as the bare essentials of life. But it is truer than ever before that the commodity we are now selling — the talking picture — has an appeal that is infinitely more far-reaching than motion pictures ever had in the past. So long as we continue to provide the public with the type of entertainment that the developments of our industry have made possible, and with the high quality entertainment that we have introduced, our business must, and will, continue to expand. We have, perhaps, been a little spoiled bv the overwhelming success of the talking pictures. This success has been taken somewhat for granted, resulting perhaps in the disintegration of the art of showmanship The restoration of the high-pressure showmanship of yore is necessary to capitalize to the fullest extent the rreat values we are offering the public today. Bigger business, I am convinced, is there, for the enterprising exhit itor who goes after it. Green Lights Ahead! ■ Quality Specials Will Brin, Trade Back By E. B. DERR President, Pathe Exchange 'T'HAT pictures of modern qualit suited to the advanced mental! ity of present day talking pictur1 audiences can draw business a.t an I time, has been proved by the succes of the few pictures that held up 1 1 runs during one of the warmes summers in years. I cite "Holiday as an example. If producers adop1 a policy of making quality special rather than stereotyped progran "quantity" pictures, business in th, industry will rapidly return to nor] mal. Green Lights Ahead! Modem Type Pictures Wanted] by Public By JESSE L. LASKY Vice-President, Paramount Publix T AM confident that we are enter: ing a new period of entertainmen prosperity. Growing receipts of the( ater box-offices throughout th'l United States indicates a definit< trend in public enthusiasm for thi modern type of talking picture en. tertainment. With this fact definite ly established, producers know wha kind of product to turn out, and tha is just what Paramount is doing. ■ Green Lights Ahead! Material Stimulation Getting Under Way By GEORGE W. WEEKS President, Sono Art Productions ' HpHE history of all business ha: been replete with fluctuating cyi cles in which the crest of prosperity for a period of years has been bal, anced by one or two bad seasonsi We have just gone through a sei vere economic strain which has al ready turned the curve of its de pression. All signs point to a ma. terial stimulation in business, tradf and entertainment for this cominf) season. Katz Saw It First! It is generally believed in financial and industrial circles that the turning point of a cycle seldom becomes known until two months or so after it takes place. Roger Babson's organization recently stated that the late depression period really ended about May 30. That was about the time Sam Katz told his Publix personnel that the slump was at an end.