A history of the movies (1931)

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108 A HISTORY OF THE MOVIES willing to accept and pay for any kind of movies that it considered worth the price. On the west coast was one young man, and on the east coast another; neither knew the other for several years; each was driven by the same urge to supply audiences with finer entertainment than was believed to be possible or practical. They were William W. Hodkinson, operating independent exchanges in the west and searching constantly for meritorious pictures, and Adolph Zukor, who had left a furrier's store to become an associate of Marcus Loew in nickelodeons and vaudeville-film theaters in New York, and to operate picture shows of his own. Studying audiences constantly, Zukor became convinced that many people wanted better pictures than they were getting, and while trust and independent producers were concentrating on the daily grind of making and marketing one and two-reel films, he decided that expensive features would be accepted by the movie masses, and in time would dominate the theaters. This was Hodkinson's belief, but while Hodkinson had no desire to make pictures himself — his ambition being to procure and distribute the best films — Zukor determined to risk his savings in becoming a producer of nothing but feature pictures. At this time, when three reels were a doubtful length and five reels were foolhardy, no American manufacturer had shown any inclination to jeopardize his well-being in exclusively feature production, and Zukor received little encouragement from his acquaintances in his wild scheme. Marcus Loew's thoughts were concentrated entirely on theaters, and although Zukor was one of his partners, he was unable to endorse the feature idea. Loew was already famous in the industry, the head of an important chain of houses, a genial, wellliked man of magnetic personality. Zukor was practically unknown outside a small circle of exhibitors and exchange men in New York; he was merely an obscure fellow with a crazy idea and a burning desire to try it out.