Harrison's Reports (1937)

16 HARRISON'S REPORTS January 23, 1937 pictures to non-theatrical accounts if they should be in competition with a regular exhibitor. Somebody must be telling a story, for cases where distributors rented pictures to non-theatrical places with the object in view of compelling a regular exhibitor to capitulate to their terms are too numerous to mention. As a matter of fact, United Artists was once the worst offender. That was, however, before George Schaefer's time ; perhaps now United Artists will stand by its promise. Despite the solemn promises of these five distributors, however, Harrison's Reports is unwilling to believe that most of them will refrain from selling their pictures to non-theatrical places if the regular exhibitors, feeling that they cannot make any profit, will refuse to pay the prices the salesmen may demand. There is no law that could compel the distributors to carry out their promises if they should not want to. (7) Short Form of Exhibition Contract : Because of court decisions, Universal fears that an attempt to put into force a short contract embodying all the provisions of the long contract even by reference is dangerous ; and so feels 20th Century-Fox; MGM is agreeable to such a suggestion, and states that its legal department is now working on such an idea ; RKO feels that a short form of contract is inadvisable, evidently because of the court decisions, but it agrees that the shortening of the contract is desirable; United Artists feels that a short contract is an excellent idea but fears the courts. Even though all five major distributors agree that a short form of contract would be a good thing, no such contract can be given to the exhibitors on account of court decisions ; therefore we may say that no improvement over the present situation is offered. (8) Score Charges : Universal says that it has not been collecting score for years, and for this reason we may consider that no concession has been made because of the MPTOA demands ; Fox will not eliminate the score charge ; MGM will not eliminate the score charge, stating (the letter was sent by Al Lichtman) that the request for the elimination of the score charge is in effect a request for lower film rentals ; RKO says that this is a matter of negotiation between the exhibitor and the exchange, and in view of the fact that this has always been the policy of the company we may safely say that no concession has been granted. (In accordance with the figures printed in Harrison's Digest early this season, out of 116 exhibitors who had bought RKO products, fifty per cent did not pay for score, approximately twenty per cent paid only on flat rental pictures but not on percentage, and a few paid on percentage pictures but not on flat rentals) ; United Artists will, beginning the 1937-38 season, abolish the score charge entirely. (In the figures printed in Harrison's Digest, out of 47 exhibitors who had bought United Artists product, 37 said that they did not pay for score, and 9 only on flat rental pictures. Only one exhibitor paid for score on all United Artists pictures. Consequently, there is hardly any concession on this point. Yet when one bears in mind that the ojher distributors conceded nothing, one is compelled to admit that this company has so far made the greatest concession.) (9) Designated Play-Dates on undelivered pictures: Universal welcomes any feasible method that will satisfy the exhibitor and at the same time assure Universal a fair share of the exhibitor's preferred playing time (no concession) ; Fox does not promise the elimination of the preferred playing time demand on meritorious product, but will try not to be obnoxious (no concession) ; MGM considers the demand "not now well grounded," for it feels that with the adoption of the production code all pictures are now appropriate for exhibition on any day of the week, "and surely quality pictures are entitled to preferred playdates"— (Evidently Mr. Lichtman has confused the issue; the prevailing exhibitor sentiment against preferred playing time is not caused by any such idea as unsuitability of pictures on certain days of the week, but by the fact that the actual percentage of receipts granted to the distributor when his pictures are shown on the best days of the week amounts to double the percentage called for by the contract. With his best days gone, the worst days do not bring the exhibitor enough revenue to pay even the cost of operation, and he is compelled to count on whatever share he gets from the preferred days to cover the losses on the bad days— no concession) ; RKO says that this is a matter of negotiation between exhibitor and exchange (no concession) ; United Artists finds it impossible to forego the practice of demanding preferred playing time, but offers soft and sympathetic words (no concession). (10) Forcing Excessive Shorts with Features: Universal does not indulge in this practice (for this reason Kuykendall cannot claim any concession on this point) ; Twentieth Century-Fox states the following : "It has never been the practice of this company to force shorts with features. As a practical matter of distribution they are sold at the same time, but under separate agreement. We do feel that if our feature product is desired by an exhibitor we are justified in insisting upon the same percentage of his short subject playing time as we receive of his feature playing time." (Contradictory, indeed, is this statement by the head of Twentieth Century-Fox ; they have not made it a practice to force shorts with features, Kent says, 'but if an exhibitor wants our features he must give us a certain percentage of his playing time for shorts ; but we give him these shorts on a separate contract.' Beat that if you can ! — Kent must be a sophist in good standing — no concession, but a brazen admission that the forcing of excessive shorts with features will continue unabated) ; MGM (Lichtman) is very benevolent, for he says, in effect : "We insist that the exhibitor purchase shorts only because of our desire to benefit him ; knowing that he needs shorts to balance his program, MGM goes out of its way to provide him with them. In doing so, we benefit him in another way — we make double features more difficult if not impossible." And to show his fine intentions toward the poor down-trodden exhibitor further, Lichtman says that MGM is selling single as well as double reel shorts — single reels for those who are double-featuring (like Loew's Mayfair, in New York, for example, and other Loew theatres), and two reel shorts for those who show single features. Did Mr. Lichtman think he was making an after-dinner speech when he was dictating his letter ? No concession. On the contrary, an admission that the forcing of excessive shorts will continue. After reading this analysis you will, I am sure, come to the same conclusions to which I have come — that there has been not a single concession made by the producers to remove the industry abuses. You will, therefore, feel the necessity more than ever of going ahead with the legislative program that has been outlined by Allied States Association. When the hearings were held before the House and Senate committees over the Neely-Pettengil Bill last winter, Charles Pettijohn and Ed. Kuykendall stated to the committees that, if whatever abuses exist in the motion picture industry were brought out in the open, they would certainly be corrected, proposing conferences between Kuykendall and producer executives. As a matter of fact, the members of the committees were assured that, if action on the Bill were suspended, all abuses would be corrected in no time. Since then, Kuykendall has been trying to induce the producers to grant some concessions and thus place themselves in an advantageous position should the NeelyPettengil Bill be taken up again, or should any other legislation be introduced with the correcting of industry abuses as the object. But the producers, feeling confident that Roosevelt had, as said, no chance at re-election, ignored the recommendations of Kuykendall, even though he had the backing of the Hays Association itself. But Mr. Roosevelt has been reelected, and the producers, in order to make a show of fairness, are now granting what may appear to be concessions. The thing to bear in mind should be this : If the producers will not voluntarily grant substantial concessions when the trend of the Government in Washington is toward the protection of the little fellow from the ravages of big business, they will surely grant no worth-while concessions under any circumstances. The efforts to bring about reforms by legislation, then, become necessary. Money is needed by the Allied States Exhibitor Defense Committee to carry out its program ; you should, therefore, do your part by sending a check to Mr. James Ritter, treasurer, in care of Rivoli Theatre, Detroit, Michigan. The charge to each exhibitor who wishes to contribute is based on a minimum of ten cents a seat, to be paid either at once or in ten equal monthly installments. The sky is the limit if an exhibitor wishes to contribute more.