Harrison's Reports (1934)

180 HARRISON’S REPORTS November 10, 1934 “Embarrassing Moments” : This took the place of the “2nd Edmund Lowe Production,” and since Edmund Lowe does not appear in the finished product, it is a star substitution. “One More River” : This took the place of “Zest,” the novel by Charles G. Norris, and since “One More River” is by the late John Galsworthy it is a story and author substitution. The number of substitutions is 6. The number of features sold, exclusive of the westerns, was 36, and when it delivers “Imitation of Life,” which was scheduled for release October 29, Universal will have delivered the total number when the substitutions are included. Those who did not buy the westerns are entitled to cancel three. The total number of substitutions and of the cancellable features under the Code is nine. Those who did not accept the substitutions are entitled to demand the cancellation of a proportion of shorts on 9 features ; those who have accepted them under protest are entitled to demand on the same number — 9 ; those who have accepted the substitutions voluntarily are entitled to demand the cancellation of the proportion of short subjects on only three features. An exhibitor who has not canceled his entire quota of cancellable pictures under the Code may yet cancel “Imitation of Life.” In last week’s editorial I gave you an example as to how you should tabulate the features of each company and the shorts you should have played with these features so that you might be enabled to tell with accuracy how many are your surplus shorts. In that tabulation I assumed that your show is of two hours’ duration. But suppose your show lasts two and one-half hours (150 minutes) and you show two features in one bill. In such an event, the tabulation should be, taking the products of two major companies as our example, as follows : Title Minutes “Flying Devils” (RKO) 61 Pathe News 10 “One Sunday Afternoon” (Paramount) 68 “Ha! Ha! Ha!” Cartoon (Paramount) 10)4 149)4 These are all the shorts you may figure with these features, or with features of about the same length, of any other two companies. But suppose you show the feature of one major company and a feature from an independent who does not sell shorts ! Then the table should be as follows : Title • Minutes “Brief Moment” (Columbia) 69 “March of Years” (Columbia) 10 “Laughing With Medbury in India” (Col.) ... 10 “Moonstone” (Monogram) 61 150 In other words, you must fill in the remaining time with shorts from the Columbia stock. It is unlikely that the distributors will accept your surplus back without a fight. They will, no doubt, make the assertion that the contracts for shorts are not retroactive. But the retroactivity of these contracts will be determined, not by the distributors, but by the Code Authority. For this reason you should take the matter to your Local Grievance Board immediately and if this Board decides against you, appeal from its decision to the Code Authority. I realize, of course, that the Code Authority is “packed”; therefore you have little or no chance there. But let them decide against you ; we shall at least have another abuse to add to the numerous abuses so that, when the time comes, we many convince our President that the leopard has not changed his spots. THE PENITENT Harry Warner, while in Philadelphia on October 23, looking over the local situation as affected by the war declared by Cardinal Daugherty against all picture theatres indiscriminately, issued a statement to the effect that his Phil !elphia zone theatre department will, in the future, classify pictures into A and B classifications, to enable parents to determine what pictures are and what are not good for their children to see. “Parents are not,” he said, “as well informed on motion pictures as we are, and for this reason we intend to guide them in their selection of screen entertainment for themselves and their families.” This language is quite different from the language Harry Warner employed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he accused the churches, particularly the Catholic Church, of carrying on a war against the picture theatres, not because they believed they were morally right but because the theatres drew people away from the churches; and in Los Angeles, California, where he, while entertaining Postmaster General Farley, stated that Cardinal Daugherty is un-American. Harry Warner’s change of front was caused by the heavy losses he is said to be suffering in his theatres in the Philadelphia zone as a result of Catholic antagonism. By such a turn-about-face he hopes to appease Cardinal Daugherty and induce him to modify his attitude. This paper hopes that the mistake Harry Warner made by having assumed a defiant attitude toward the churches will be a lesson to him, for a continuance of such an attitude will not harm himself alone ; it will harm also every other person connected with the motion picture industry, as has been the case recently ; the independent theatres of the Philadelphia zone are suffering almost as much as are the Warner Bros, theatres, because the Catholic Church suggested to all members of its congregation to keep away from all pictures, instead of only from all indecent pictures. UPTON SINCLAIR AND THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY I don’t know what Upton Sinclair’s “Epic Plan” is, except what I have read in the newspapers. And I do not allow myself to be guided in important issues by comment in partisan papers. For this reason I cannot say anything either for or against this plan. But I do know one thing — that the interest Mr. Sinclair has taken in your affairs is not going to do you any harm. From far away New York Mr. Sinclair’s chances for election seem slim, for the tories have left nothing undone to present him to the voters of California and to the people of the rest of the country in a most unfavorable light. They seem to have misrepresented him and his plan just as they have misrepresented our President and his plan — the New Deal. But whether Mr. Sinclair is elected or not, he is destined to remain a great factor in this industry. Already he has expressed himself as being in favor with your efforts to bring about the elimination of block-booking and blindselling, and to cause the industry to be investigated by Congress — reforms for which you have been fighting for years unsuccessfully. Mr. Sinclair may be defeated; but his influence upon the industry’s politics will not be effaced thereby. For so the producers have willed. And those who have lived by the sword must die by the sword. This paper will have much to say in the future about the conduct of the producers and of the Hays forces in the present California politics. In the meantime, wherever you are, telegraph or even write to Mr. Sinclair, in Los Angeles, that you are grateful to him for the interest he has taken in your affairs. CLASSIFICATION OF PICTURES The following pictures have been classified by the Chicago Legion of Decency : CLASS A (Suitable for families) : “The Brand of Hate,” “Gridiron Flash,” “Ich Bin Ja Verliebt” (“I Am So Beloved,”) “Marie Galante,” “To-Morrow’s Youth,” “365 Nights in Hollywood,” “The White Esagle” (Polish film.) CLASS B (Adults only) : “Within the Rock,” “By Your Leave,” “Fugitive Road,” “Transantlantic Merry-GoRound,” and “Wake Up and Dream.” When the inside pages of your copy of Harrison’s Reports are blank it is a misprint. Order a complete copy.