Harrison's Reports (1951)

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IN TWO SECTIONS — SECTION ONE Entered as second-class matter January 4, 1921, at the post office at New York, New York, under the act of March 3, 1879. Harrison’s Reports Yearly Subscription Rates: United States $15.00 U. S. Insular Possessions. 16.50 Canada 16.50 Mexico, Cuba, Spain 16.50 Great Britain 17.50 Australia, New Zealand, India, Europe, Asia 17.60 35c a Copy 1270 SIXTH AVENUE New York 20, N. Y. A Motion Picture Reviewing Service Devoted Chiefly to the Interests of the Exhibitors Its Editorial Policy: No Problem Too Big for Its Editorial Columns, if It is to Benefit the Exhibitor. Published Weekly by Harrison’s Reports, Inc., Publisher P. S. HARRISON, Editor Established July 1, 1919 Circle 7-4622 A REVIEWING SERVICE FREE FROM THE INFLUENCE OF FILM ADVERTISING Vol. XXXIII SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1951 " No. 20 A SOUND PLEA FOR INDUSTRY UNITY Speaking to six hundred exhibitors who had gathered at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, on Tuesday, to honor A. W. Schwalberg, Paramount’s distribution chief, for his thirty years of service to the motion picture industry, Barney Balaban, Paramount’s president, made some significant comments on the state of the industry’s internal affairs. “Ours is an industry of strange contradictions,” he said. “The producers of our product and those who exhibit it are firmly wedded by the laws of economics. For better or for worse, we are completely dependent upon each other. And yet, I know of no other industry in which the relationship between the producers and their customers is as strained as it is between these two great segments of our industry. “Here we have an industry with a magnificent record in doing the job for others. And yet, we have failed in the simplest requirements of the job that must be done for ourselves. “Our industry has long been proud of its experience in the field of public relations. And yet, we have done an appalling job in furthering the public relations of our own industry. “In recent months a great number of exihibitors have publicly bewailed the consequences of Government intervention in our business. And yet, only a week ago one of our leading exhibitors publicly proposed that production and distribution be made a public utility. “When the Federal Communications Commission suggested that producers might be prejudiced in their application for television broadcasting licenses unless they turned over story properties, film personalities and their product to television, an immediate howl was raised by exhibitors. And yet, when the Chairman of the F.C.C. told the representatives of one exhibitor organization that such prejudice would not apply to exhibitors, this group promptly proclaimed the Chairman’s statement as a ‘great victory.’ “The incredible aspect of this situation is that our divisions and dissensions continue unabated during a time when common sense dictates that they be abandoned. One would think that the pressure of the problems we now face would be sufficient to force the unity so desperately needed. Yet, I have only to point at the halting, frustrating progress made by COMPO as the best barometer of our industry’s unwillingness to forget the past and start working for the future. “In September of 1948, I spoke at the TOA convention in Chicago. What I said then is even more applicable today. Here is what I said: “ ‘Whether you like it or not, the problem of any part of our industry has become the problem of every part of our industry. You can’t strike at any section of our industry without undermining the very structure upon which your own welfare depends.’ “It would seem that our experiences during the last couple of years would have brought home to us the validity of these truths. Intelligent self-interest demands that we faithfully conduct our everyday activity in the best spirit of this credo. Unity is no longer a luxury. It is a necessity. . . . “There can no longer be any doubt that unfavorable industry public relations directly affects our box office. Nevertheless, a sound public relations program for our industry remains as unfinished business high on our agenda. “I am convinced that these problems and others now confronting our industry are susceptible to intelligent solution. If we but will it, we can do it! . . The truths in Mr. Balaban’s remarks are obvious. No matter what arguments either exhibition or production-distribution can present, the fact remains that, in the final analysis, one cannot exist without the other. As this paper has pointed out frequently in these columns, each side has an investment to protect, and the quicker both realize that they must deal with the other on a basis offering reasonable opportunity for profit, the sooner the business will be on a healthy basis. The motion picture industry has long become of age, and it is time that buyer and seller stopped considering themselves like sworn enemies. A more harmonious relationship between the two is not only highly desirable but also essential, for it is not until we improve our internal relations that we will find the time to devote our efforts to developing a sound public relations program and to meeting the competition for a just share of the public’s entertainment dollar. A WARNING TO PURCHASE NEEDED EQUIPMENT NOW Speaking before the National Drive-in Theatre Owners Equipment Show and Convention, held in Kansas City this week, Nathan D. Golden, director of the Motion PicturePhotographic Division of the National Production Authority, had this word of warning for all exhibitors: “As the defense program accelerates, the production of 35 mm. motion picture equipment must inevitably decrease. Thus, it may not be easy to replace equipment six or eight months from now as it is at the present time. Theatre Owners are therefore strongly urged to abandon some of their traditional practices. If your theatre equipment is obsolete or inefficient and has not been recently modernized, now is the time for you to do it while the equipment is available.”