Hollywood Spectator (1937-39)

Page Two September 18, 1937 'y/uj7?L the EDITORS EASY CHAIR ADOLPH ZUKOR OBSERVES . . . HIS from some references by Terry Ramsaye in Motion Picture Herald to remarks made by Adolph Zukor prior to his recent departure for Europe: “Mr. Zukor, incidentally, admits, or perhaps more accurately, observes, that the motion picture habit is no more. He sees the industry today dependent on customers out shopping for shows.” Of more value than Paramount’s president’s final recognition of a condition which has existed for the past half dozen years, might be his explanation for a box-office condition which has made the film business less stable and more spotty than it used to be when pictures were silent and people had the habit of going so many times a week no matter what was showing. Facts are of no value unless we know the reason for their being facts. The motion picture box-office depends largely for its revenue on exploitation and advertising. Weekly Variety recently carried several pages of Paramount’s advertising. High, Wide and Handsome, one of Mr. Zukor’s productions, is described in Mr. Zukor’s advertising as being “the biggest picture Paramount ever produced, the picture that London, New York and Los Angeles is raving about.” In another part of the same Variety, that devoted to accurate estimates of box-office receipts, we find this reference to this picture, then showing at the Astor Theatre where a film attraction which does not average $10,000 a week is a decided flop: “A disappointing roadshow attraction; last week $4,700.” When the run of the picture at the Carthay Circle Theatre here was drawing to a close, one of Mr. Zukor’s publicity men wrote, and the Los Angeles Times published, this statement: “The huge production has won wide acclaim and capacity houses here.” In the third week of the run Variety had this to say about the business being done by High, Wide: “Playing to lowest grosses in history of this house, third week’s outlook is pretty dismal; second week finished brutal $3,900.” Film's False Pretenses . . . HAT part does such high, wide and handsome lying as the Paramount advertising and exploitation departments indulged in, play in breaking the attendance habit? The chief asset of any business concern is the confidence its customers place in its appraisal of its product. Here we have Paramount ly ing in its advertisement aimed at its first customers, the exhibitors: and lying also in its publicity aimed at its ultimate customers, those who buy tickets at the box-office. When an individual obtains money under false pretenses, he is sent to jail if proven guilty. When Mr. Zukor’s company does it, it is regarded in film circles as a procedure so commendable that all the other producing organizations indulge in it. I will grant there is some element of truth in the Paramount advertisement from which I quote, for undoubtedly those who paid to see the picture raved about the poor return they got for their money, but that is not the kind of raving the fiction writer had in mind when he wrote the ad. The film industry as a whole spends many millions of dollars each year in advertising and not one word of any picture advertisement is believed by anyone. But the poor old wolf goes right ahead, quite unaware his sheep’s clothing is worn too thin to conceal his identity. There's a Bigger Reason . . . HILE the public’s lack of confidence in any claim the producers themselves make for their product played a part in breaking the attendance habit, it was but a small part. Knowledge that the habit is broken is of no value to the industry unless it is coupled with knowledge of its cause, just as the fact of the boxoffice failure of High, Wide and Handsome is of no value to its makers unless they know why it failed. If they will go back to the SPECTATOR of July 31st and read its review of the picture — written before the picture was released to the public — they will find the reasons set forth; and if producers will go back six years in SPECTATOR files they will find the prediction that the habit would be broken and the reasons upon which the prediction was based; and if they go back five years they will find it recorded that the habit was broken, and the reasons repeated. And Mr. Zukor only today “admits, or perhaps more accurately, observes, that the motion picture habit is no more”! But neither he nor Mr. Ramsaye suggests the only matter of importance which attaches to the observation— the reason. When the tank is full of gas and your car breaks down in the middle of the road, you are not made much wiser if a mechanic looks it over and sagely announces, “It’s stopped.” You want it to go again, and the first step toward the attainment of that objective is the ascertaining of what made it HOLLYWOOD SPECTATOR, published weekly at Los Angeles, California, by Hollywood Spectator, Inc., Welford Beaton, president; Howard Hill, secretary-treasurer. Office, 6513 Hollywood Boulevard; telephone GLadstone 52 1 3. Subscription price, five dollars the year; two years, eight dollars; foreign, six dollars. Single copies ten cents. Application for entry as second-class matter is pending.