Harrison's Reports (1933)

16 HARRISON’S REPORTS January 28, 1933 only to skim the cream oflf the moving picture business, but also to keep the pictures back so that when the unafhliated exhibitors get them their drawing powers have been lost to a great extent. At the Park Central mass meeting of the independent exhibitors last December, Richey accused Butterfield of getting i8o days protection, an accusation he did not deny. A protection of this length is, you must admit, a valuable privilege, worth fighting for. Now, if the proposal about local conciliation boards put forward by Allied States at the time of holding the joint conferences between Allied and M.P.T.O.A. leaders should ever be adopted by the producers, Mr. Butterfield will run the danger of losing this valuable privilege, for if a competitor of his should put in a complaint that a protection of i8o days is too long, in that it is ruining his business, the local board must, if it consists of fairminded conciliators, render a verdict in favor of the complainant, forcing Mr. Butterfield to reduce the length, and perhaps the area, of his protection. Things might be different if the members of the board were friendly to him. The distributor members will naturally be friendly. But how about the exhibitor members? With Allied appointing the exhibitor members, there is no chance for favors ; but with friendly exhibitor members, things might be different. Hence, perhaps, Mr. Butterfield’s sudden interest in independent exhibitor organization matters. Mr. Butterfield says that the motto of the new organization will be, “One For All and All For One” ; he might have put it more accurately thus : “W. S. Butterfield For Himself and All for Mr. Butterfield.” THE EFFECT OF TELLING THE PUBLIC THAT YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SALACIOUS PICTURES In the issue of January 14, 1 called your attention to the fact that Mr. J. F. Cass, of Sumner, Iowa, printed in his house organ an appeal to the people of his community urging them to write to their congressmen to vote for Bill S. 3770 and for Resolution S. 170. Since I felt that the appeal was written well, I urged you to reprint it and pass it to the people of your community, for I believe that, in this manner, your public will learn that you are not responsible for the demoralizing pictures you are compelled to show. Mr. Cass has written me again as follows : “I know you will be interested in knowing the reaction of the public in Sumner to the article. Well, it created considerable interest. We had requests for over 200 extra copies. Many people have come to the theatre and apologized for what they admitted was their belief that we were responsible for the smut. Some of them are contemplating a mass meeting and many have already written to their congressmen. The local newspapers are copying the article and some editorials are being written urging legislation. In all there is much more friendly spirit shown than existed before the article was published.” You have an opportunity to create good will among the people of your community. Just do what Mr. Cass has done — tell them that you are not responsible for the filthy, demoralizing pictures you have to show, urging them to request your congress men to vote for Bill S. 3770 and for Resolution S. 170. It is imperative that you do so, for the late producer statements in the newspapers and over the radio about the improvement in the moral quality of the pictures leave the impression among the public that the one responsible for the showing of the demoralizing pictures is you, the exhibitor. There is hardly a picture produced but contains a filthy situation, even when the story does not require it. If you should keep silent, you will get the blame. WHY THE DIFFERENCE IN THE RUNNING TIME? When I reviewed “Hot Pepper” at the RKO Roxy, I checked up the running time with two stop watches. Both showed the running time as being 72 minutes. I called up the theatre and they gave me the running time as 74 minutes. The publicity department of Fox Film Corporation gave us the time as 74 minutes. I checked up my stop watches with my watch and found them accurate. And my watch, checked up with observatory time, loses about one-fourth minute in seven days. Here is another case: My running time of “The Vampire Bat” was 62^2 minutes. Majestic Pictures Corporation gave me 66^2 minutes. I felt that their figures were wrong ; so when the picture started its engagement at a local theatre here, I called up and was given 64 minutes as the running time. But I still feel that 62^2 minutes is the accurate time. In last week’s issue I gave you the running time of some Universal pictures both as I found it and as it was given to me by Universal. After the editorial appeared a Universal employee called me up and told me that the difference between my time and theirs may have been caused by the fact that the leader in each reel was counted in. I was then given the “action” footage, which is as follows : “Air Mail” 7601 ft ; running time 84 minutes. Our time indicated 82 minutes and theirs 86j4 minutes. There is still a difference of two and onehalf minutes from our time. Part of it may be accounted for by the fact that heretofore I did not count in the time of the cast trailer, shown at the end. So I believe that my time is more nearly accurate. “The Old Dark House”: 6443 ft; or 71 min. My time was 72 minutes and theirs 74j^ minutes. My time was accurate. “Afraid to Talk”: 6688 ft., or 74 minutes. My time, as given in the review, was 73 minutes ; their time, as printed in the editorial last week, was 76J4 minutes. Figuring the difference of one minute as the running time of the cast trailer, you can see that my time was accurate. “Laughter in Hell” : 6204 ft., or a little less than 69 minutes. My time was 67 minutes ; theirs, 72 minutes. My time was more nearly accurate. “The Mummy”; 6582 ft., or 73 minutes. My time was 72 minutes ; theirs, 75 minutes. Figuring the cast trailer about one minute, my time, as given in the review, is accurate one hundred per cent. I am doing all I can to obtain the accurate time for you ; and with the inquiries I am making at the different home offices when I discover a discrepancy I believe that in time I shall be able to eliminate errors, wherever these may occur.