Harrison's Reports (1930)

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 $16.00 U. S. Insular Possessions. . 16.00 Canada, Alaska 16.00 Mexico, Spain. Cuba 16.00 Great Britain, New Zealand 16.00 Other Foreign Countries.. 17.50 35c a Copy 1440 BROADWAY New York, N. Y. A Motion Picture Reviewing Service by a Former Exhibitor Devoted Exclusively to the Interests of Exhibitors Its Editorial Policy: No Problem Too Big for Its Editorial Columns, if It is to Benefit the Exhibitor. Published Weekly by P. S. HARRISON Editor and Publisher Established July 1, 1919 Tel. : Pennsylvania 7649 Cable Address ; Harreport (Bentley Code) A REVIEWING SERVICE FREE FROM THE INFLUENCE OF FILM ADVERTISING Vnl, XII SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 1930 No. 3 Misleading Propaganda from the Hays Office The January number of “The Motion Picture,” a monthly publication issued by the Hays organization, contains an article by Mrs. Thomas G. Winter, the woman wl'.o was ai)p<jinted by the Women’s Clubs to be the connecting link at Hollywood between them and the producers of motion pictures. In this article Mrs. Winter asks questions such as would be asked by any layman interested in better motion pictures, and Governor Milliken answers them. One of the questions is; "Are the exhibitor’s hands tied in what he shows through so-called block-booking?” lie answers it as follows: "No, that is only an alibi. When an exhibitor ‘block tx)oks,’ he does what you do when you subscribe to a magazine for 1930. You don't know what you will get, as the magazine material is selected month by month, but you rely on the standard of the magazine in the past. As disclosed at the Trade Praclice Conference the exhibitor can get his pictures cheaper by the so-called block-booking. Under this arrangement he takes some pictures befoie they are produced, just as you do with your magazine articles. However, if the picture turns out offensive (ju racial or religious grounds, he has the privilege of throwing it out under his contract. ■'.And he may throw out ten per cent of the pictures for any other reason. So the exhibitor does not have to show every picture that is given him under the arrangement, by any means, but he may set some aside and still come out ahead. The exhibitor should be guided by his own estiniale of what his public wants in selecting pictures. “The neighborhood theatre is the vital iioint. It is the most iiukqiendent. The exhibitor here has no immediate conipetitor. Of six hundred jiictures produced each year, he (iocs not use more than two hundred and eight. That gives him a chance of one out of every three. However, he is likely to take, not the ones he knows by observation his public will like, but the ones that have been shown downtown and widely advertised.” It is obvious that the object of Mrs. Winter, in dwelling upon this subject, was to enlighten those that will read her article. “The Motion Picture” is mailed to thousands of good persons not connected with the motion picture industry but interested in better pictures and she ostensibly wants to show these that the block-booking c.xcuse that is olTered by many exhibitors in defense of the unsuitable pictures they show is only an alibi. .Mrs. Winter was supposedly appointed by the Women’s riubs of .America to tell the proijucers in Hollwood what the women of America object to and to have them eliminate it. Iler efforts to prove the exhibitors guilty for the unsuitable pictures they show is, therefore, altogether outside the scope of her mission. .As a free American citizen, how’ever, Mrs. Winter is entitled to e.xpress au opinion upon any subject. But one waild at least expect her to have all the facts before exP essing an opinion that may affect the standing of thousands of persons. Being close to the producers, she naturally had the producer’s point of view'. All she needed, then, was the exhibitor’s point of view. This she could have obtained by consulting with the e.xhibitor representatives. The exhibitor representative that would have given her the most accurate information is, as every exhibitor knows, Mr. Abram F. Myers, President and General Counsel of •Allied States Association. Mr. Myers was the Chairman of the Trade Practice Conference, where all the nice provisions about releasing the exhibitor from the obligation of playing unsuitable pictures were adopted ; and since he is now the leader of the only independent national e.xhibitor organization in the United States he would naturally be the only person competent to give her the information that she ought to have. 1 have been informed reliably, how'ever, that Mrs. Winter consulted neither with Air. Alyers nor with any other independent exhibitor representative, ft is natural for us to assume, therefore, that she did not want the truth. We shall not discuss Airs. Winter any more; it is natural for her to want to protect the interests of those that pay her salary. But we will discuss Governor Atilliken’s misleading statements in an effort to refute them ; some of those that will read that article may be members of your community and you may want to enlighten them as to the true state of affairs in the motion picture industry, particularly as to how far you can go to reject pictures that are unsuitable for the people of your community. Air. Alillikcn says that, because you block-book magazines for an entire year, block-booking is not a bad method of buying pictures. W’heu you lind that a copy of the magazine you blockbooked for a year contains material unsuitable for you, you throw it away and the most you could lose would be thirtyfive cents. But could you do the same thing with a picture that costs anywhere from twenty-five dollars to thousands of dollars ? When j'ou buy a magazine you buy it for yourself and do not compel any one else to read it ; but when you buy a i>icture you buy it for others. Accordingly, a salacious article in the magazine will do harm to no one else but you, whereas a salacious picture will do harm to others. The Governor states that if the picture turns out to be offensive on racial or religious grounds, you have the privilege, under the contract, of throwing it out. This is not true ; before you can throw out a picture, you must submit your complaint to the board of arbitration. It is this board that will determine whether you have a right to object to that picture or not. And few arbitration boards, as you know, would release you from such a picture, because most of them were controlled by the Hays organization. (Judge Thacher has now declared these boards illegal, as violating the Sherman Act and the Common Law.) Besides, a picture niay not offend race or religion and yet be objectionable : it may offend the morals of the people of your cony mum'ty', or it may be demoralizing to children. There is no provision in the contract for rejecting such a pictury Oh. yes! there is a provision that enables you to reject ten per cent of the pictures for any reason; Gov. Alilliken is correct on this point, but he gives only half of the truth when he states it, because he has failed to state also that you can reject them only if you pay half the rental. This provision is really meaningless, because it is uneconomical ; no one of you can stand such a loss, particularly today, when sound pictures cost much more than silent picturey used to cost, and when many pictures are sold w'ith a minimum guarantee and a split of the receipts when they exceed a certain amount. The Governor states that when you “block-book” a magazine you block-book it because you have faith in the editor. A'ou know his standard and you are sure that he will not print in the twelve or the fifty-two issues, as the case may be. anything that would prove objectionable to you; his past performances are a guarantee of his future performances. and he advises you to do likewise with pictures. Alanifestly he had in mind the members of his own organization— Paramount Famous Lasky, Warner Bros., First National, Fox, Aletro-Goldwyn-AIayer, United Artists, Pathe, Radio Pictures and Universal, from whom good pictures should be bought. {Continued on last page)