Motion Picture Classic (Jan-Aug 1919)

MOTION PICTURE CLASSIC The Menace of the De Luxe Theater {Continued from page 22) to have discernment enough to hold David Griffith at any price, the doom of General Film ’was sealed. Then came the four and five-reel feature and the era of cut-throat film competition which is just closing. The cost of production, saddled by the enormous overhead expenses, the high salaries and the maintaining of many distribution systems where two or three would have sufficed, has been steadily crowding the exhibitor to the wall. Film rentals have mounted tremendously. The small theater has been disappearing and only the big house has been able to come thru the storm with financial profit. Thus we now have the domination of the de luxe theater. There seems no question but that the de luxe theater is hurting the photoplay. It is holding it in a certain standardized five-reel length, based upon the running time of the theater program. Exhibitors, as Mr. Griffith says, do not hesitate to cut a production as they wish. Moreover, these exhibitors are controlling production by demanding certain types of sugarcoated film drama. To reach the public at present, a director must cater to their wishes. The de luxe theater era has seen the attempt of various organizations to tie up the field, but each time the attempt has failed for basically the same reason that the old General Film collapsed. Here, instead of a number of weak companies dragging down two or three successful concerns, a number of weak stars have been forced upon exhibitors in return for their playing of a few winners. That is the secret why the program can never endure. Exhibitors cannot afford to play a whole program, when the non-drawing power of certain players far offsets the drawing power of others. The ultimate death of the program was hurried by the greed of producers who began to put their best drawing-cards in “specials,” making exhibitors pay more for these productions. This brought the big exhibitors to the point of entering the producing and releasing game themselves. Witness the First National Exhibitors’ Circuit, the United, and others. And now comes the latest move. The control of the New York Rialto and Rivoli theaters has been acquired by the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation or a syndicate “friendly” to its interests, according to rumor. This is said to be a prelude to a movement to acquire a chain of theaters across country. This new move might stabilize the industry if — One producing organization existed big enough to supply life blood to the theaters of the country. Just now no such organization exists. It is better so, of course, since the relief would be but temporary. Its collapse would ultimately come, just as the old licensed organization fell. Be that as it may, however, the whole screen field (Eighty-seven) shows no organization contributing to the progress of the photoplay as did, for a time, the General Film, Triangle and Famous Players-Lasky. The coming of the “Big Four” is a milestone of progress. The United Artists’ Corporation, mtmbering David Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, announces that each factor will make four pictures a year, sixteen in all, and that any one or all may be secured by open booking. That is, it will not be necessary to contract for all of them in order to play any one of them, as it has been in the past with program production. But can the so-called open releasing succeed? Let Exhibitor Brown play the first Mary Pickford picture. He advertises it heavily, stages it elaborately, reaps a big reward in attendance. His rival. Exhibitor Black, located just across the street, sees the success of the picture, rushes to the nearest exchange and gets the second Pickford production for his theater. Thus Brown loses the benefit of his own farsightedness and Black benefits by his rival’s advertising. Yet the open market is at least a step in the right direction. It is clear that the whole situation is shaping towards one thing : The making of fewer and better photoplays, which, ultimately, will be handled and booked much as legitimate theatrical attractions. They will play runs dependent upon the size of the town or city and the value of the production. They will be staged by the producer himself. Such productions will play a year or more across country. Return engagements will be frequent. All this portends the disappearance of the makeshift stars, the steady advance of the really able stars and the coming of the scenario writer into his own. Photoplaywrights will be paid on the royalty basis, just as stage playwrights are now paid. Meanwhile, however, the motion picture industry presents all the peaceful aspects of an afternoon in Petrograd. Russia has nothing on the screen today when it comes to chaos. Girls {Continued from page 81) “I was trying to keep you from breaking your rules,” he told her, whimsically. “However, it’s not much use, because you’re going to break another one of them this very afternoon — the one about not marrying any man.” Pamela laughed out softly. “Why, we’re not any of us breaking that rule ! Violet didn’t marry a man — she married a ‘prince’ and Kate married an ‘angel,’ and Pm not going to break it, either.” “And how’s that, sweetheart?” Edgar asked. She drew his head down to her lips. “I’m not going to marry ‘any man,’ ” she whispered, happily, “because — oh, silly, cant you see? 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