Harrison's Reports (1930)

208 HARRISON’S REPORTS pictures, how in the world could we make so many sales on one picture and so few on the next?” I could hardly say that Mr. Kent does not know the answer to this question of his, for he does ; he is merely trying to defend an undefensible system and is not so careful as to what arguments he uses. He knows very well, for example, that an independent exhibitor contracts for his entire product in the beginning of each season, a period normally anywhere between June and October. When he buys the entire product, he is expected to pay for it even though he may not run it. And there are many cases where the exhibitors do not run particular pictures, because they are unsuitable for their customers. That is why in some pictures the “sales” are .so few. It is not really the sales ; it is the “showings.” There is one thing to which I desire to call Mr. Kent’s attention in refutation of his argument that piicture-renting and magazine-subscription-selling are the same thing : When a person buys a magazine and finds that it contains sex or other articles that he considers harmful for his family, he does not compel the members of his family to read it ; l)ut can he do the same thing with pictures ? When he pays anywhere from two to ten dollars in admissions for the entire family, he cannot leave the theatre if he should find that the picture is not clean and wholesome, or if it deals with crooks. And he cannot blame the exhibitor either, as Mr. Kent intimates that he should, in the case of a magazine, blame the editor. He does not know who the “editor” of that filthy picture is. To make a comparison between magazines or books and pictures logical, we must imagine a state of society where books are too expensive to produce; the first copy costs anyw'here from ten thousand to one and one-half million dollars (the cost of the picture’s negative) and each copy anyw'here from twenty-five to five hundred dollars (prints, from single reel black-and-white, to twelvereel subjects in colors, narrow or wide film). In such circumstances, the individual cannot afford to buy a book or a magazine. As a result, halls are set up where people, for a nominal admission price, go to hear a person read the book aloud. The hall manager rents his books or magazines from a circulating library (exchange). What would be the hall manager’s feelings if the exchange manager, when he goes to him to rent one or two of his books, tells him : “You must rent all our books or we will not rent you any.” “But,” the hall owner says, “many of your books are unsuitable for my custom. My clientele consists of many children and your sex or crook books or magazines will demoralize them.” “I cannot help it,” replies the exchange manager. “You must buy all or none.” And because tbe hall manager refuses to rent all his books, clean and “dirty,” the distributor, owner of that circulating library, orders his real estate department to set up a hall in opposition to the recalcitrant hall owner. This happens in many cities and territories with the result that the distributor owms many halls. He establishes a rule that no books shall be rented to independent hall owners until his books are first read in his own halls. In addition, he, by virtue of his “buying power,” forces the owners of other national circulating library systems to refuse to sell his competitors, independent hall owners. December 27, 1930 until he “exhibits” their books in his own halls ; and frequently forbids them to rent such books to these hall owners at all, his intention being to drive them out of business, and thus “till” the field exclusively. And to make his domination complete, he, with the other national circulating library systems, sets uj) trade boards (Film Boards of Trade) in the different zones to impose unbearable conditions upon the independent hall owners by means of one-sided uniform contracts and arbitration boards, forcing the independent hall owners to become mere sla\es. What would happen if such a condition ever arose in the book and magazine field ? The people of the United States would be so aroused as to demand of the legislatures and of the United States Congress to declare the book and magazine industry a public utility, subject to rules and regulations prescribed by law. And that is exactly what is going to happen unless the producers better the moral quality of the pictures and cease imposing unjust and unreasonable protection over their competitors, the independent exhibitors. THE BUNCO GAME OF SUBSTITUTIONS -Mr. jay Emmanuel. Editor of The Exhibitor, of Philadelphia, Washington, and New York, has printed in his December 15 issue a strong editorial condemning severely the practice of some producers of selling one thing and delivering another. “The groceryman who orders a case of eggs,” Mr. Emmanuel says, “naturally would resent receiving a sack of potatoes, particularly if he were asked to pay egg prices. No court in the country would consider for a moment a suit attempting to force him to take the potatoes merely because the wholesaler had potatoes and no eggs. . . . “For years Harkison’s Reports has waged a valiant battle against the substitution evil and has done this almost single-handed, getting no assistance from the national trade press and frequently being assailed as a radical. Pete Harrison has done .splendid work, pioneering in this field. We are ])roud to take our stand besides him. “.At every meeting of exhibitors the substitution evil has been brought up, but no concerted action seems to have been taken. It is high time that all unaffiliated exhibitors got together on this evil. “The Hays organization has done much that is constructive, but it has been and persistently is blind to what is virtually a bunco game on the part of its constituent members. If ?klr. Hays enjoys even a fraction of the power generally accredited to him, he could abolish this practice. The inference is that he is either helpless or indifferent. From the active eflforts of the administrative machinery he is supposed to control, it would appear that he countenances the practice. “The fault seems to lie with the home offices and not with the exchanges. The exchange manager who presumes to make even mild protest is shown what has been done in other exchanges, with the intimation that if he cannot do as well replacement will be in order. “At the M. P. T. O. A. convention, the Board of Directors passed a resolution requesting the producers to furnish information thirty days in advance of release on any sub.stitution to all accounts. . . .”