Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1960)

Motion Picture Daily Pay-Television THEATRE CONVENTION OWNERS OF . ■MM9MBI M. P. D4/i.y pictures SEEN AT THE TO A CONVENTION: Dais group, above, left to right: Gordon McLendon, Chris Gorder, Al Pickus, Robert Selig, Robert E. Johnson and Frank Ricketson. Below, Pickus presents the annual president's report. 4 (Continued from page 1) Congress to outlaw pay-tv. The Hailing speech, released to the press earlier, was in Motion Picture Daily of Sept. 15. "If you believe that pay-tv is 'inevitable', and if you are right," Wolfson said, "then you shouldn't be wasting time at this convention. You should be home talking to a real esstate broker about the sale of your theatres." "Pay-tv may come, but it is certainly not 'inevitable.' The persistence of those who tell you it is 'inevitable' is understandable. They're after a rich prize: a legal and licensed piracy of the free air waves and a hi-jacking of the only merchandise we have to sell. 'An Exhibitors' Fight' "This is an exhibitors' fight. We cannot count on very much support from other branches of the industry. Some producers, looking shallowly into the future, think they see a Utopian climate for themselves, a day when they can divest themselves of their costly distribution offices and personnel, doing away with salesmen and publicity departments and solving forever the vexing problem of supplying enough costly 35mm prints of their pictures. "They have dreams of having one or two 16mm prints serving the entire nation, and of having a first-day audience of tens of millions which would not only cover all production costs but also deliver to them an outrageous profit. Called 'False Dreams' "These are false dreams, but the point is there is enough mirage in them to seriously threaten the existence of every theatre in the country, and actually wipe out most of them. "Today even the pay-tv advocates have changed their tune," Wolfson continued. "They used to tell us that they could be creating millions of new movie fans, and that pay-tv was merely an extension of the industry to bring movies to those who couldn't go to theatres. "Now the latest honey-mouthings from Hartford lumps together the cost of theatre tickets, baby sitters, gasoline, bus fares, parking charges and popcorn, and tells the people how much they'll save on first run movies when pay-tv becomes a part of their lives. Warns of 'Charge for Everything' "What they don't tell the publicis that in the initial impact of paytv the theatres would be wiped out, giving them no choice of picture entertainment except television, and that from that time on there would be a charge for everything worthwhile that the people might see on tv. Wolfson termed this "deprivation, needless cost and hardship" which pay-tv would impose upon the public the system's "greatest menace." The owners of pay-tv systems, he charged, have created no marvelous instrument which is a boon to mankind, but merely have made a device which will destroy television signals, something that "airplanes do every day as they pass over your house and Russia does as it jams Voice of America broadcasts." Cites Ease of 'Jamming' "At relatively small cost," he continued, "we exhibitors could create devices which would jam every radio and tv channel in the country. But should we be allowed to do it, so that people would be forced to pay at our box -offices if they wanted entertainment? "But that is what pay-tv people are asking the government to give them— the license to pre-empt at will any tv channel so that they might exact a tribute every time they have something better than 'Howdy-Doody' to show." Fears TV Upheaval Wolfson also said the economic consequences of pay-tv should not be overlooked. He said that in addition to loss of employment by 150,000 theatre workers and the over two billion in theatre properties, the commercial television industry would undergo an equal upheaval, and that this would be reflected in the economies of every community, for pay-tv would not absorb the displaced nor compensate for devalued property. He also told the exhibitors not to be misled by newspaper, magazine, sports interests and other groups favoring pay-tv. These disclose only "vested interests" and do not mean that public acceptance of pay-tv is assured. Sees Public 96 Per Cent Opposed In fact, Wolfson said, various polls have shown the public to be more than 96 per cent opposed to pay-tv. "This would seem to indicate," he said, "that perhaps this case should not be decided in Washington at all. It might be a good idea to put it to the people themselves by national vote of those who would be so immensely affected by such a change. Should this be done, the outcome of that really would be 'inevitable'." Marcus Cohn, counsel to the Joint Committee Against Pay TV, recalled that at his first address to a TOA convention 11 years ago he did not even mention pay-tv for at that time there was little interest in it following disappointing results of Zenith's Phonevision experiment in Chicago. Predicting that this week or early next week Federal Communications Commission will order public hearings on the application of Hartford Phonevision, Cohn said this will give opponents a welcome opportunity. "This will be the first time that proponents of toll-tv will testify under oath and be subject to cross examination. We will confront them with their past publicity and propaganda statements." The speaker asserted that, despite what is said, proponents really seek first-run films. "If proponents of pay-tv try to hoodwink the seven FCC commissioners, they will fall on their faces. If, on the other hand, they come in with concrete types of programming that will inure to the benefit of the American public, then limited toll-tv tests will be audiorized," was Cohn's conclusion. Redstone Points to 'Fiction' LOS ANGELES, Sept. 15-The importance of separating fact from fiction in the "life and death" struggle against pay television was stressed by Sumner M. Redstone, assistant to the president of TOA, at the convention forum on pay-tv today. The New England circuit owner declared that the only thing he feared in the current fight was that exhibitors might become confused by the barrage of "fiction" unleashed by the proponents I Friday, September 16, 19* ! i; Program for Atiractw Better Personnel Give From THE DAILY Bureau LOS ANGELES, Sept. 15.-A tw! f point program for attracting moi j( competent personnel to theatre maliy agement was proposed to the TheatMg Owners of America convention tod ' | by Edward S. Redstone, of Northe;! :. |, Drive-In Theatres, Boston. The fi:M|, is to use existing circuits as trainim, grounds for young men; the second, Mj interest schools in initiating theatM,, manager training courses. wL. "In-theatre training can be effej ,( tive," Rerstone said. "It has prov.'j it so for us. Through various methoi j such as personal contact, adverti; ments, contacting high schools ai colleges, we interview young men whom we sell our company and o industry." ■ Fill Various Roles These men are then placed in va, ous capacities and transferred fro one job to another, he said, until th are qualified to become a theat manager. On the second point of the pi gram Redstone said TOA is willii to help its affiliates to establish the; tre courses in vocational schools ai universities which might offer exte sion courses. "It is not so important this respect that one exhibitor ge more employees than another throuj this means," he observed. "The ir portant factor is that our industry w> be developing a greater supply manpower." Redstone urged his listeners to sti "eulogizing" the industry and "st£ talking it up so that young men w once again want to be associated wi motion picture exhibition." Warnii that this is not going to be easy, 1 said "it is necessary that we do som thing or we will find that we ha'; an industry without the manpower operate and continue to manage o investments for the years to come." of a box office in every home. Among these "fictions" he cited ti contentions that exhibitors have not ing to fear from new development that pay television will actually stii ulate theatre grosses, that it is bett that the public pay for the entertai ment they now get on television th; that the theatres compete with fri entertainment, that pay television w be largely occupied in bringing cii ture to the American public, that om the people have to pay for curre motion pictures on television at dollar a roomful they will rush out the theatres and pay $1 or $1.50 person, and finally that it is no u worrying because pay television inevitable anyway. On the plus side Redstone declan his confidence that the public would 1 "quick to grasp the underlying ecjj nomic fact-that the proponents J pay television are preparing to sei'J from the public the radio-televiskj spectrum, a great natural resourc and sell it back to them at a very hij) price indeed."