Harrison's Reports (1950)

120 HARRISON'S REPORTS July 29, 1950 nation without the unanimous approval of all the groups and factions represented. Consequently, no action can be taken that will give one group an advantage at the expense of another. Under this set'up, COMPO is the ideal agency through which a unified industry liaison with the Government can be estab' lished. It seems strange, therefore, that, after all the effort that has been put into unifying the industry through COMPO, two member organizations, namely MPAA and TOA, should branch out on their own to deal with the Government on matters that vitally affect the interests of all. Thoughtless acts such as these breed a lack of confidence in the intentions of MPAA and TOA in regard to COMPO's future. Up to this point, though the going has been slow, COMPO has offered the first tangible evidence of the possibility of getting the different elements of the in' dustry to work together for the common good. The excellent admission tax campaign carried on through COMPO's Committee on Taxation and Legislation is proof of what can be done with a united front. Harrison's Reports has supported the COMPO unity movement from its inception and it still hopes that the movement can be rescued from the misunderstanding and distrust into which it has fallen. It is up to the leaders of the MPAA and of the TOA to see to it that confidence in COMPO is reestablished, for, if the movement fails and the industry enters into the dark years ahead torn by internal dissension, the lack of a unified front may bring about crippling Govern' ment regulations that will work a hardship on the business without in any way helping the war effort. And without a unified front it will be difficult to induce the Government to modify such rulings. IT MUST NOT HAPPEN AGAIN Even if the Korean conflict should end suddenly with the American troops, of course, emerging vie torious, the present crisis will continue for a long time because of the threat of Communist aggression in other parts of the world. Elder statesman Bernard Baruch told a Congressional committee this week that the next five years will be a critical period in the na' tion's effort to build up and maintain our military strength on a par with Soviet Russia. In the months ahead, therefore, our industry must anticipate Government rulings and regulations that will have a direct effect on all branches of the industry. Just how drastic these may be cannot be foretold, but if we will think back to the war years we will remember the "brownout," which limited the use of exterior lighting to save power; the advocation of the closing of theatres whenever a fuel shortage threatened; the denial of Freon gas to the theatres; the shortage and allocation of raw film stock; the doubling of the Federal tax on admissions; the limit placed on the amount of money the producers could spend for new materials to build new sets; and numerous other rules and regulations that hampered the industry's operations but which had to be overcome because of the sacrifices demanded by the war. While most of the rules and regulations governing the allocation of strategic materials were a hindrance, there was one — the allocation of raw film stock — that proved to be a bonanza for the producer-distributors at the expense of the exhibitors, who woke up to the danger too late for their protests to do them any good. During the war years, the War Production Board allocated to the industry a share of the raw film stock produced in this country, with each of the eleven producing-distributing companies receiving a certain number of million feet. There were no restrictions placed on the use of this raw stock; each company was left to work out its own problems regarding the number of feet needed for production and the number of feet required for release prints. Unhampered by regulatory restrictions, the producer-distributors began to juggle their raw stock allocations in a manner that perpetuated a "seller's market." By releasing fewer pictures and giving them extended playing time in the key-runs, and by controlling the number of prints in circulation, they were able to tighten their control of the film market and even used the print shortage to increase the clearance enjoyed by their affiliated theatres, as well as to exact exorbitant rentals and preferred playing time from the independents. The situation became so acute that many exhibitors turned to spot bookings of reissues for relief. But this avenue of escape was soon closed to them when the distributors, realizing that reissues offered a lucrative profit because of the artificial product shortage maintained by their tactics, began to reissue old pictures on a national basis, using thousands of feet of rationed film stock for new prints, and demanding rental terms that were not only excessive but in many instances even higher than the terms demanded when the pictures were new. It was, in other words, the old "squeeze play." Meanwhile the companies accumulated large backlogs of pictures, hoarding them in their vaults and marking time while the reissues made their rounds. Another abuse was the use by the distributors of rationed film stock to further their interests in foreign markets while the American exhibitors were "starved" for pictures. The abuses suffered by the exhibitors in the war days stemmed to a great extent from the failure of the WPB to regulate the distributors' use of raw stock, despite the fact that the exhibitors, as much as the producer-distributors, had an undeniable stake in every foot of film allocated to the industry. Having carried on a vigorous campaign during the war years for a revision by the WPB of its method of film stock allocations so that recognition would be given to the exhibitors' equity in the stock, Harrison's Reports can cite any number of specific moral violations committed by the producer-distributors in their misuse of the film stock. The purpose of this article, however, is not to dwell on past abuses but to alert the exhibitors to the fact that exhibition, through its leaders, must have a voice in all conferences held by Government officials with motion picture industry representatives in connection with the war effort, whether it be for the rationing of raw film stock or the placing of restrictions on other commodities as well as manpower used in the functions of the business. Only by being given full recognition and representation in all such conferences will the exhibitors be protected fully in matters that are vital to their business existence in accordance with war-time exigencies.