Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1931)

50 MOTION PICTURE HERALD May 16, 1931 M P T O Unit Al armed Over Protection Tilt {Continued from payc 11) wire on percentage to the still silent theatres, it was declared that the move would add several million dollars to the film rentals. And these lioiiscs zvere all of the very smallest chiss: too poor to buy wire. 'The Logic" "If these can add several million dollars to the rentals, is it logical to contend that four or five times that number of more important independent theatres are a negligible asset? "It is very true that it costs more to sell to 10 independently owned theatres than to one chain of 10 houses of similar size, but these sales, in a way, represent practically velvet, apart from the cost of selling. "Put these houses out of business through excessive protection to the chains and the profit is lost. Cripple them by forcing them to wait too long for product and their ability to pay rental is reduced because the earning capacity is reduced, and this reduction appears, finally on the balance sheets of the production companies. It may be that the difference will change profits into losses, and there will not be a sufiicient additional return from the producer's circuit to offset this loss. Even where a higher rental can be charged in return for extended protection, this increase will not cover the loss sustained by the reductions in the subsequent run prices. "Pet+ijohn Understands" "Apparently the only person on the producer side who has the vision to perceive this danger is C. C. Pettijohn. He knows from practical experience and observation that excessive production is hurtful to the best interests of the producers, and he is seeking to preserve limited protection. But so long as it is easier to swap bookings over the telephone or at lunch, the sales managers will continue to cater almost exclusively to the chains. "And in its last analysis protection is merely the device of a lazy or incompetent manager, who cannot or does not try to sell the product intensively while he has it. He finds the three or four months' protection an easier way than getting out good newspaper advertising and conducting his house in such a fashion that more people will buy his first-runs." I. A. T. S. E. Branch Unif Formed Gulfport, Miss. — Organization of the Mississippi division of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes and M. P. Machine Operators was completed here at a meeting attended by representatives of local units of the organization from principal cities and towns of the state. Decision to hold an annual meeting in July resulted in setting the date for July 19 and 20, at Gulfport. Sales, Service Staffs Uni+e . Cleveland — The local RCA Photophone sales staff and service departments are being consolidated into one office. A Noble Dome Hollywood — What next! First it was flies buzzing in the "mike" that ruined talkies. Then it was bees! Then humnning lights! Then autonnobiles and airplanes! And now — well, a scene in Robert Woolsey's "Everything's Rosie," was delayed for some time because a glare from one of the overhead lights reflected in the camera. The performers were chased from the set while the trouble was sought frantically. Finally found, the hitch proved to be a reflection from the bald head of a player! It was smeared with putty to dim its brilliant reflection. British Await a B. O. Stimulant (Continued from page 21) of selling a group of half a dozen to a dozen on moderate percentage, renters conceal the actual earnings of their "plum" pictures. Long ago we were told that just as soon as the talker novelty had worn ofi and they didn't hold up on their own any longer, someone in America would show us a new idea. That idea seems due. What it is going to be no one seems to know. There is little we can hope for from color. The wide screen has so far refused to materialize and does not seem promising. Lavish stage shows are back again, notably in the big West End places where there is a marked tendency to kill the whole thing by competition. L'uless something strikingly new can be started somewhere, Hollywood will have to reckon on much less income from the British market for the next year or so. Notably so if Sunday cinemas are not allowed with full right to make profits on that day, for loss of Sunday earnings cannot be made up during the week. British producers are fully prepared to get less money on current offerings, and they are, in nearly every studio, a good deal more conservative than they should be, witli the result that it is likely that there will be a shortage of the right kind of quota offerings for the next quota year, although in a way this will help them to solve their problem because under the artificial stimulus of the law, the limitation of output cannot fail to react on values somewhere. The American output is not likely to be so affected, because although Hollywood is not now turning out as many films, the supply is more than adequate to meet the demands — numericallv — of this market. Wally Wales Visits Author Hollywood — Wally Wales, Big 4 star, has left for Del Mar, wliere he will be the guest of Walt Coburn, writer of western fiction and author of the novel "Mavericks," published last season. Wales just completed "Riders of the Cactus," and after a brief holiday will return to the studio for another Big 4 out-door film under direction of David Kirkland. Trouble Ahead Unless Costs Are Reduced {Continued from page 20) They cannot even be found for the stage, let along for the pictures. "Since I have been here I've heard a lot of talk about bad business. All theatres are complaining about smaller grosses and increased expenses. If American producers are not careful they will find themselves'; facing the same condition that we did four years ago. Then your production costs over here will have to come down." Speaking of foreign versions, Thorpe said he did not believe they ever could be made successfully here. "We in England would not attempt to make a picture for anv of the Latin countries," he said. "We haven't the Latin mind, we don't understand the people nor what they want. We can make and have made successful German pictures. The Saxon mind in Germany is not so different from the English. They are a little heavier, that's all. Besides that, we are only overnight from Germany and we can send over there and pick artists to fit the roles in a picture, not try to make the roles fit the artists. "But as for the Latin races — that's a different matter. I don't believe that English or American producers can make pictures for them, not even in the Latin countries. Paramount's experiment at Joinville was not a pronounced success, to put it mildly. Now Paramount has started in England. If it operates there under the British system,; keeps costs down, there is no reason why it should not make money with pictures made there. But it can't pay American salaries and do it." Thorpe expects to remain in Hollywood two more weeks and then return to New York by way of Canada. He sails for London on the Majestic on May 29. Hold Martin Rites Funeral services for the late Frederick Martin, Paramount publicity and advertising director in England, brought together many notables from the British film world. Martin died May 8. He had been with Paramount as British advertising head ever since the Zukor organization took over World's Films in 1916. What Time Does the Mickey Mouse comedy go on ? This is heard over the phone thousands of times daily in hundreds of theatres all over the world. Such is Popularity ! If ii 4 i d V Wt BE'