Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1931)

Record Details:

Title:
Motion Picture Herald
Date:
Apr-Jun 1931
Publisher:
[New York, N.Y. : Quigley Pub. Co.]
Volume:
Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1931)
Leaf #:
0001226
Language:
English
Subjects:
motion pictures, Motion pictures -- Periodicals
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
Library of Congress, MBRS, Moving Image Section
Sponsor:
Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Founded in 1915 by a Chicago printing company as a regional trade paper for Midwest exhibitors. In 1916, editor Martin Quigley bought out the owners, and over the next 15 years, he grew EXHIBITORS HERALD into one of the most important national, weekly trade papers in the film business. Quigley acquired MOTOGRAPHY in 1917 and MOVING PICTURE WORLD in 1927. In 1930, he acquired MOTION PICTURE NEWS and the new 'consolidated' publication became MOTION PICTURE HERALD. From the pulpit of his editorial page, Quigley preached the need to improve the motion picture industry and improve the quality of the films. He skillfully served as a mediator in disputes -- between distributors and exhibitors, between the film industry and the Catholic Church (Quigley was one of the architects of the Production Code). Quigley claimed that EXHIBITORS HERALD represented the 'independent exhibitor' and sections like 'What the Picture Did for Me?' certainly provided a forum for theater owners. But plenty of exhibitors viewed Quigley as a servant to the studios and large theater chains. In response, publications such as SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, INDEPENDENT EXHIBITORS FILM BULLETIN, HARRISON'S REPORTS, and BOX OFFICE were either formed or grew significantly in the years following Quigley's brief moment of consolidation in 1930. -- Eric Hoyt, 2014
Date Added:
August 29, 2022
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This orchestral director tried to give his audiences all Bach — no light melodies. This doctor decided that if one dose of medicine was good then two should be twice as good— but his patients all died. ^1 ''ENOUGH IS BETTER THAN TOO MUCH'' Though we've said it before, we must repeat again, "Al features and no shorts make any program a dull program.' The pendulum swings from craze to craze and back again But the wise man sits on the middle ground and knows that the keynote of success is proper balance. j Now the handwriting is on the wall, spelling the doom o the double feature. It is written in bold type in the trade press — written in shrinking figures in the bank books oljl countless theatre owners — and, most surely and clearly ol all, it is written in the minds of the "fed-up" public, drugged with doubles and starved for a lack of laughs. I " — it is quality and not quantity that brings seekers of entertainment to the box-office . . . keep away from double features," says Jack Alicoate in The Film Daily. Under the banner line "Double Bill Fight To Boost Shorts" Motion Picture Herald announces "Publix Starts Building Up Shorts To Counter-balance Double Shows At Competitive Houses." The Film Daily says of the short subject program — .... "it is far preferable to the suicide policy of double features." Adolph Zukor is quoted in Film Daily" as sayin "Double feature programs work to no one's ad' vantage." And according to Felix Feist in Film Daily " double features help to drive the juvenile trade fro: the theatres." J