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SAMUEL GOLDli'YN
The irritation of the picture going public aga nst "presentations" will reach a head in 1928. We shall see a definite return to showings of pictures by themselves, alone and unimpeded by cheap vaudeville. Pictures reached their greatest popularity when picture shows consisted only of pictures. After disastrous experiments we are now returning to this fundamental principle.
Good pictures have stood and can always stand by themselves. But good pictures cost money to make and, with revenue diverted to unworthy "presentations," the producer has but one alternative, to cheapen his product. This vicious situation has now become the greatest menace pictures have known. We must rid our industry of this "old man of the sea" if we are not to sink into complete mediocrity. I have no quarrel with those exhibitor friends of mine who have b»'ieved in the presentation principle. I am convinced that they are wrong — but it needs no elaborate argument from me to change their course — for that course is now being changed for them by aroused public opinion. The public has spoken. The public wants pictures when it goes to see pictures ; vaudeville when it goes to see vaudeville. It does not want the two things mixed.
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M. H. HOFFMAN Vice Pres. and Gen'l M'g'r, Tiffany-Stahl Prod.
The motion picture business is still good and it will be better. The fact that last year was not of the best for box-office receipts and dividends is not by any means a barometer of the trend of the business. It is simply an adjustment period, and served a warning to producers that they must progress with the business in improving entertainment and eliminating waste, and to the exhibitors that their business cannot be run by itself, that it needs study and attention. There has been a great deal of discussion of, and attempts at, economy, but from my point of view they began to economize on the wrong end.
Writers, directors and artists should be encouraged to give their best, to create new and better entertainment, and if they are successful in their respective endeavors, they should be paid all they are worth. They should be given praise and remuneration in proportion to what they produce. The greatest waste is in unjustifiable overhead, in expensive generals and underpaid or incompetent soldiers. Too many executives — too few workers. The ever existing bugaboo of monopoly may be threatening to those who are afraid to stand on their own feet, but fortunately brains, enterprise and finance cannot very well be monopolized, nor can there be a monopoly on public taste, especially in the kind of entertainment that it wants. Give the public what it wants, whether it be in amusement or in anything else, and it will find its way to your door.
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CHARLES C. PETTI JOHN General Counsel, Film Boards of Trade "An optimist's hope is his prophecy." A — 1928 will see a material improvement in production.
B — Continued efficient distribution.
C — A resumption of the use of motion pictures by
theater owners in their sale of entertainment,
resulting in D — A better satisfied public.
E — We will stop referring to the motion picture business as the "motion picture game."
F — The public will better understand the industry.
G — 'So will all "inquisitorial bodies" with power to investigate, because they will have investigated and procured facts.
H — So will the clergy of all creeds and denominations— we do not care so much about the atheists and bolsheviks who are kicking.
I — So will foreign countries who have never found this industry guilty of anything but love of country and respect for this land of opportunity.
J There will be a better understanding and
more satisfactory business relations than ever before between the buyers and sellers of motion picture products. K — The passing of the wolves, calamity howlers and scavengers, who play around the edges of the business and are not really in it.
* * * JOE BRANDT
President, Columbia Pictures Corp. The forthcoming year is sure to witness many new mergers, and a gradual tightening up of the industry. This will be just as true of theaters as of production. Invested capital will seek a more definite and more profitable return, and to assure this the exorbitant costs now characteristic of prouction in certain quarters will be eliminated. In the making of pictures, more emphasis will be p'aced where it belongs — on stories rather than stars. Pictures are gradually getting better, in spite of what the critics say, and it would not be at all astounding to find that the public prefers its pictures served up to the accompaniment of appropriate music and divested of its vaudeville tinsel and trappings. To meet the regulations imposed by foreign legislation, many American producers will have to send units abroad. The industry is greater than any individual or group of individuals now engaged in it, and the sifting down process that is inevitable will find a greater motion picture industry at the end of the new year. There is no basis in fact for any apprehension regarding its future stability or onward growth.
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S. L. ROTHAFEL Roxy Theater, New York City
I am, first of all, an optimist and, of course, cannot see anything but prosperity ahead for 1928. I would, however, like to see the producers realize the fact that it would pay more to strengthen the consistency of the program by eliminating the so-called Broadway runs and placing these pictures immediately into the first-run houses, thereby stimulating the entire program. Of course there will be every now and then some big effort that will be a success as a so-called two dollar picture, but that will be rare and, should I say, an exception which will only prove the rule?
In this day of almost instantaneous communication whereby the exhibitor in the smallest town and hamlet knows what is going on via the radio, newspaper and fan magazines, he is as well acquainted with what is going on as are the fans in the metropolitan centers. It is a well-known fact that most producers have lost great sums of money in trying to put over the so-called Broadway run pictures. If this same money were put into the propaganda of the regular programs in various parts of the country results would be infinitely better. Therefore, if this is brought about, it won't be necessary for huge houses to spend the enormous amounts to bolster up the programs, so that a certain consistency in entertainment is forthcoming, and that brings me to our own case, the Roxy.
We have not deviated, nor will we, one iota from the original plan. This is in every sense a picture theater, and all our efforts are pointed toward the fact that everything must be pictorial. At no time will vaudeville or variety have a place in our program. Everything must be a picture, but not necessarily always on celluloid.
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SAM SAX President, Gotham Prod.
Each succeeding year brings forth less effort on the part of the producer to play down to his patronage and a greater tendency of the photoplaygoer to patronize pictures of a higher calibre. While there may not be a greater amount of money expended in production for 1928, it does not require any great gift of prophecy to state that
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