Harrison's Reports (1931)

4 January 3, 1931 HARRISON’S REPORTS consideration, the question that naturally arises in one’s mind is whether the change is worth the cost. Will the public care for the wider film enough to make the change profitable? Will it patronize such pictures in greater numbers than it does the present size, when one bears in mind that the only sort of pictures that benefit from wider film are musical comedies, scenics, and newsreels? My experience as an exhibitor and as a reviewer of a period more than sixteen years has been that no “trimmings” can make a boresome picture interesting and entertaining, and that an interesting picture needs no “trimmings” to draw customers to the box office. By this I do not mean to underestimate the value of sound, nor to say that the industry can ever go “silent” again ; but I do want to say that an interesting and appealing picture photographed on standard size film in silent form will please more than a dull picture photographed on any width film with the actors as garrulous as they can be made, for it is always the story that counts. If instead of making the film wider the producers should try to find means and ways whereby they could put more in the standard size frame they would render the industry a much greater benefit. A higher grade negative as well as positive stock, and camera lenses as well as projection lenses of finer grade would enable the director to put into the frame almost as much as will wider frames, at infinitely smaller cost. It is on these that the producers should concentrate their efforts. This paper hopes that the producers will do deeper thinking before they decide to adopt another size film. HARRISON’S REPORTS’ CAMPAIGN AGAINST FILTHY ADVERTISING BRINGING RESULTS The savage campaign this paper has carried on in the last six or seven weeks has borne fruit if one is to judge by the letters the theatre executives of several film companies, in accordance with an account in Motion Picture Daily, have sent to their subordinates ordering them to desist resorting to salacious advertising, under penalty of losing their jobs. Among these executives are Joe Plunkett, of RKO, Sam Katz, of Paramount-Publix, Harry Arthur, of Fox, and Spyro Skouras, of Warner Bros. But the thing of importance to the industry is that among these executives is Spyros Skouras. RKO has not been a great offender ; besides, when the article condemning the advertisement of the RKO theatre in St. Louis appeared in Harrison’s Reports, Mr. Plunkett assured it that he took steps to have a recurrence of it made impossible. Publix and Fox theatres have been offenders, well enough, but not by any means as great as Warner Bros. The fact that the head of the Warner Bros, theatre department, then, issued a strong warning may be taken as evidence that the chief executives of that company are realizing the harm that has been done and still mav be done by salacious advertising. This paper hopes, just as does every decent theatre owner in the United States, that salacious advertising has been banned from the industry for ever, and that the producers will exert their efforts toward producing pictures that will draw, making it unnecessary for their theatre departments to appeal to all that is base in human nature in order to attract customers to their theatres. But if any one of them should, by any means, have different views upon the matter, having issued the warning merely to divert the attention of the industry temporarily from his “dirty” advertisements, Harrison’s Reports promises again to take up the fight and to carry it on more fiercely, even to the point of advocating legislation. It is better for independent exhibitors to have a law to protect their interests than to insist upon freedom that will eventually drive them out of business. THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE TRADE PAPERS With the exception of Film Daily, all the trade papers have been taken over, as you no doubt know by this time, by Martin Quigley, editor and publisher of Herald IV orld. it is said that the deal has been effected through the aid of the Hays organization, and that Mr. Hays has guaranteed Mr. Quigley $3,000,000 worth of advertising in the next live years. It is doubtful if this consolidation will change the nature of things, so far as Harrison’s Reports is concerned. For years no national trade paper dared open its mouth to condemn substitutions or other producer-distributor abuses and one cannot expect that the consolidated paper will have better courage, particularly when the head of the combined papers is one who has always been friendly with the producers. The only good thing such a consolidation will accomplish will be to make Harrison’s Reports stand out more prominently. ANOTHER RACKET IN THIS INDUSTRY The Hays organization founded the, what it calls. Federal Checking Bureau, the object of which is to check up the receipts of every exhibitor that plays pictures on percentage. The Home Office of this Bureau charges the exchanges ten dollars a day for each man it furnishes, and a certain amount for expenses. The Bureau pays each man five dollars a day ; the difference goes to the Bureau’s Home Office, to carry on the work. When the theatre shows pictures only on evenings and is located at a riding distance from the exchange city the Bureau pays the checker only two and one-balf dollars a day, seven dollars and one-half going to the Bureau. Up to this time, the checkers were hired by the exchange managers, and the latter had an opportunity to know, to a great extent, the character of the men they employed ; but now that they are hired by the Bureau, they cannot keep such a check on them. The consequence is that many men of unknown character are employed. I have been told b}' an exhibitor friend of mine that one of the checkers told him that he does not earn much, and implied that he would be willing to be lenient. But my friend would not listen to any such suggestion on his part, for he is an honorable man. Just why the producers have indorsed such a department is beyond comprehension ; their representatives were handling checkings in as efficient a way as it is possible to be done.