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FIRST NATIONAL EXHIBITORS' CIRCUIT 19
In addition to the cost as above provided, the subscriber shall pay $1.00 per day, per reel, for each day's possession of the film in cities of five thousand (5,000) and over; in towns under five thousand (5,000), fifty cents per reel.
Each subscriber shall be obligated to use only the films which the company shall procure at a fixed price, and is not obligated to use any films which may be procured in whole or in part upon a percentage basis or other basis that may be contingent or uncertain. The subscriber, however, shall have the refusal to lease for exhibition, such film attraction.
The agreement between First National Exhibitors' Circuit, Incorporated, and the exhibitors who formed it provided also for subscription to the capital stock of the company, which was fixed at $50,000. The amount subscribed by each exhibitor bore the same proportion to the total as the sales value commonly placed on his territory by men in the industry bore to the sales value of the entire United States and Canada. The board of directors of the company was elected by the stockholders. The first board of directors was composed of seven men. Mr. J. D. Williams, who had done most of the promotional work, was made general manager.
The contract between the company and each franchise holder required the latter to accept for exhibition and for distribution to other exhibitors every picture released by the company. In the first year only two pictures were released, but later the number rapidly increased. Mr. J. D. Williams, who from 191 7 to 1922 was general manager of the company, in testifying without notes before the Federal Trade Commission in the case against the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation made the following statements about the number of pictures released; 191 7, "I think only 2"; 1918, " About 16"; 1919, "24 or 25, I think"; 1920, "About 45"; 1921, " About 60"; 1922, "Up to October about 40"; 1923, "About 60."
In Schedule 3 of its brief covering the same case the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation inserted the following schedule showing the number of pictures released by First National Exhibitors' Circuit, Incorporated:
1917 4
1918 11
1919 21
1920 47
1921 50
J922 43
1923 46