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THE STAR SYSTEM 99
he regarded as best, he rented them at higher prices to local exhibitors who put them on for two and three-day runs.
His report created a turmoil among the ten manufacturers assembled in weekly conference in General Film headquarters. The manufacturers whose product he had graded as "first class" were gratified by his award of merit, and their earnings were increased by the higher rentals and longer runs. Naturally they regarded him as a talented manager deserving the whole-hearted endorsement of the board of directors; but their associates, whose pictures had been labeled "second class" and whose earnings had been decreased by the loss of daily-change rentals, denounced him as an anarchist who would wreck the company if permitted to remain in its employ.
The patents trust managers, having no confidence in the merit of their own merchandise and no belief in the public's capacity to appreciate or pay for quality, agreed with the conservatives and Hodkinson was rebuked for his flagrant violation of basic rules. He resigned from General Film and opened exchanges of his own in San Francisco and other western cities. As indicative of his point of view, he named his exchanges "Progressive"; and indicating the lack of unanimous belief in the wisdom of the trust's policies, Marion and Long of the Kalem Company quietly became his partners in the venture. Progressive obtained its supply of pictures from independent and foreign manufacturers, who applauded Hodkinson's policy of paying higher prices for selected quality.
Better music also occupied the thoughts of all ambitious exhibitors, and music remained a problem for the ten-cent playhouses until Thomas L. Tally of Los Angeles arrived at a solution. The success of Tally's "Electric Theater" enabled him to build, three years later, a larger and better house, designed in accordance with his analysis of the special needs of a movie audience. His own enjoyment of music caused him to give it a prominent place in the list of necessities. An orchestra was too expensive for a ten-cent theater and a piano was inadequate. A pipe organ would be ideal, but this instrument was so definitely