The film daily year book of motion pictures (1931)

ideas. So, when confidence Is again restored tlie results of this forced retrenchment will be most gratifying. In the meantime it would be well to operate as efficiently and economically as possible. There are yet tough days ahead to say nothing of deferred obligations. Don't sit still and wait for better days. Be resourceful enough to make the present do as little harm as possible. Good pictures today can carry us over, and with a profit. Let the producer work doubly hard right now to make bigger and better box-office pictures. The theater-going public is demanding them. If we make any real money in 1931, it will be through a few sure-fire box-office hits offered by each company. • Herbert J. Yates President, Consolidated Film Industries, Inc. DESPITE the universal depression the public has not failed to respond to pictures of superior entertainment value and will undoubtedly continue to do so. However, the income they provide is only one factor in the making of profits. Economy in opei^tion as the result of skillful management is more important. The motion picture industry has found that it is not immune to the same economic factors that control other industries. It has discovered that extravasance and wasteful methods must be eliminated, and that only large well rounded concerns with diversified activities reaching' into all branches of the industry, and each division of which contributes its proper share, can profitably survive. This means that the production and distribution of pictures mu'it be more carefully coordinated with the requirements of the theaters and the public just as supply and demand are studied and regulated in other industries. This also means that technical improvements must be developed that will improve the quality of pictures and sound reproduction and lower costs. One of the major problems is the foreign situation which sound pictures have produced. This presents a problem which must be economically solved if we are to maintain our supremacy in foreign fields. James A. FitzPatrick President, FitzPatrick Pictures IT requires no prophet to see that the great furore of amalgamation and merger has spent itself. The fever of power has played too conspicuous a part in the building up of our great industries and, like weak cement, it cannot hold its fabrics intact. The world seems to be fed up on big business, and as a result the inflated machinery is bound to disintegrate in the processes of restoring a more even distribution of prosperity. This is illustrated in the present tendency of the major companies to turn back troublesome properties to individuals to be operated by individuals. It isn't a case of "getting together" — it's a case of "getting apart." Individualism and not unionism will restore the prosperity of this country. Terry Ramsaye Pathe News INEXORABLE natural law, which in due course of time reveals principles prevailing over personalities, just as the race triumphs over individuals, and as the forest outlives any tree, will be found to be working its way with the destiny of the motion picture industry. Cutting out a lot of discussion which would be wasted anyway, we may observe that forces which now find their expression in the electro-financial groups will increasingly impress and express dominance of the amusement world. Civilization follows the tools. That is the law, the law of art, industry and economics. The tool concerned right now is the electron. Napoleon used to say the Lord was on the side of the big guns. The electron is bigger. The men who can hire the men who enslave the electron are going to run the world — and the movies. • J. E. Otterson President, Electrical Research Products THE problem for every exhibitor in 1931 is well summarized by a critic of the films in a current magazine, who says: "People don't mind driving into town any more to see a show. In fact, it would seem that they would rather go ten miles to a movie they had some reason to think they would like than go around the corner to the movies and be bored to death." In other words, the exhibitor who can't provide good reproduction of sound in his theater is simply out of luck. At least a third of the American public doesn't know how good talking pictures really are because 5,000 poorly equipped theaters have sent them away dissatisfied. With the studios steadily improving their work, exhibitors in 1931 have got to keep up with the procession or drop out. • Grant L. Cook Vice-President, Tiffany Productions STABILIZATION is the focal point around which the history of motion pictures in 1931 will revolve. Stabilization of technique, stabilization of materials, stabilization of organization, stabilization of financing. The trial-and-error period, at least insofar as talking pictures are concerned, is definitely past. Last year saw innumerable experiments. These have converged finally into a well-massed production policy based on what the public has shown its preference for. I cannot see that economic conditions will seriously hamper the progress of this industry. We have survived business cataclysms of a severe nature and have emerged with flying colors. This very fact illustrates the solid foundation of pictures— and points to the even greater stabilization of our business during the coming year. • William R. Fraser General Manager, Harold Lloyd Corp. CONDITIONS outside the industry which wih have a large bearing on the success or otherwise of the motion picture field in 1931 are now a little more clearly defined. Recovery will be gradual and slow. But when recovery is complete, we will have a more substantial prosperity than we have known during the last decade. The box-office during the past year has reflected not only the depression but public distaste for bad pictures. We are now in the same position we were before the coming of sound. With no novelty to appeal to public fancy, we must depend for our appeal at the boxoflice on quality pictures and personalities. Good pictures did their proportionate share of business in 1930, but poor pictures recorded very bad grosses. With greater opportunity to relate good stories in talkies than in the silent pictures, producers must depend more than ever on those who develop plots, and it is my opinion that the man who can create directly for the screen will have a big sway this year. I look for color to come to the front again. Except for the third dimension picture, color is virtually the last novelty of the screen — and I rate it still as novelty for the real natural color has only been approached, and I think this year will see a development in this field as forward as has been the refinement in sound. 553