Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1931)

M 20 mi ©CIB 119251 MOTION PICTURE HERALD About Radical Friends THE coming of a new movement in behalf of the arts, including conspicuously the motion picture, by the National Council on Freedom from Censorship, as related in a dispatch in this issue from Mr. Francis L. Burt, the Herald's Washington correspondent, promises valuable contribution to the creation of a wholesome public state of mind toward the un-Americanism of the professional and perennial agitators who make careers out of a program of heckling and hampering expression. An important element of the movement, aside from its direct works, is the alignment with the cause of many famous creative names from the world of literature and the drama. Mr. Burt makes observation that the American Civil Liberties Union, from which the new Council is sprung, is 'unfortunately viewed with alarm in conservative quarters because of its somewhat radical tinge." It may be observed that it would be an abnormal world in which there was no radical element, and it likely would be an unhealthy one. The motion picture art can suffer no harm from this friendship. Also the radicals of one generation are the conservatives of the next. ▲ ▲ ▲ Sane Sunday Thoughts PRESUMABLY as long as there is a Sunday in the week there will be occasional recrudescences of the agitation against the Sunday showing of motion pictures. It is a part of the ancient curse on the theatre to which the motion picture is heir and successor. The Milwaukee Sentinel in a recent issue remarks: Milwaukee ministers, considering the subject of Sunday laws, listened gravely to suggestions about getting up amendments to the present laws which will render them enforceable before the sons of Anak get started on another effort to repeal them. Putting a stop to Sunday ball games, movies and other entertainment would deprive a great many pieople of their only opportunity to enjoy those forms of recreation. And many who devote Sunday afternoon to recreation of that kind have dutifully attended church in the morning. The public sentiment that resents interference with one's individual right to play golf on Sunday will, we believe, equally resent interference with one's individual desire to attend a movie on Sunday. If people see no wrong in enjoying themselves decently and decorously on Sunday they will oppose and disobey a law which says they shall not. Someway, as history shows, the public will eventually prevails in such matters. It has been a long time since it has been widely considered immoral to be happy or entertained on Sunday. ▲ ▲ ▲ A Plea for Mr. Colman MR. RONALD COLMAN, an actor said to come from England, who from time to time has appeared in what were otherwise talking pictures, has added interestingly to his American dossier, as recorded by Mr. George Shaffer who writes a Hollywood column for The Chicago Tribune. Says Mr. Shaffer: Ronald Colman bragged to listeners on the United Artists lot, where he is starring in "The Unholy Garden," that "whenever I am invited to attend a dinner or a social function in Hollywood I ask the hostess to let me see a list of the guests before I accept," Asked why, Colman said: "Because I am afraid that some persons from the press might be present, I never go where there is any one from the American press." This editorial is a plea to the American press to be fully considerate of Mr. Colman's desires and delicately retiring disposition. One shudders, too, to think what he must have suffered out there in Hollywood when here in gauche New York the largest sign on Broadway proclaimed his name, in letters some eight English yards high, before the unhallowed gaze of the horde of commoners who frequent the cinemas. We offer comfort to him, however, in the assurance that he is most unlikely ever to be interviewed unless he deliberately puts himself into the hands of an interpreter from the Court of St, James's or the British Foreign Office. Thus far, what he may have endeavored to say from the talking screen remains largely a safe secret between Mr. Colman and the author of the lines. ▲ ▲ ▲ Selling America Short TOUCHING on the subject of the tedious timidity and pessimism which appears to so pervade some of the high places, and many of the lesser ones, in American finance today, the Wall Street Journal in an editorial the other day remarked: "Is there not a limit to reasonable price deflation ? And is not that limit exceeded when the market appraises as valueless plants, costing millions, organizations built up to a point of high efficiency, patents and good names that cannot be duplicated? "Without opinion as to whether prices may go lower than in early June, realizing that industrial profits may remain at ebb for a protracted period, The Wall Street Journal presents herewith a few examples of companies which recently sold at such levels. "Each share of Westinghouse Electric common now represents $3 7 of net current assets, one and one-half shares of Radio Corp. with a market value of $18 at recent lows, making a total of $5 5 against a recent low on the stock exchange of 5 614 This means that Westinghouse's plants, patents and miscellaneous investments were being valued by the market at approximately $1.12 a share, although these assets produced earnings of $4.46 a share in the depression year of 193 0, and had a depreciated book value of $29 a share. "Put another way, the market valuation of Westinghouse stocks at recent levels was $152,446,000, or $5,153,000 less than the combined net current assets and investments in whollyowned subsidiary and associated companies. The company's lands, factories, service stations, office buildings, etc, carried on the balance sheet at a depreciated value of $72,272,1 28, are thus appraised as valueless by the market place. Similarly its patents and processes, the outcome of the lifetime work of scores of scientists and millions spent on research, are considered without market value. "If Westinghouse were to shut up shop, dispose of its investments and current assets and offer its plants and patents for sale, current prices for the stock would obviously be absurdly low. Can it be that the stock market thinks that Westinghouse is entering a prolonged period of deficit operations which will dissipate current assets? Is such an outlook justified? . . ." In the unhappinesses of the moment it is to be feared that too many motion picture minds have been influenced in a like manner. It should be extremely obvious that the motion picture won its position of dominance as the entertainment of the millions against the entrenched older arts and competitors. It should also be reasonably obvious that the American public will continue to desire entertainment. The question is not at all whether there will be business done — the question merely is as to who will do it. It will be by those who believe in it. MOTION PICTURE HERALD MARTIN QUIGLEY, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Incorporating Exhibitor's Herald, founded 1915; Motion Picture News, founded 1913; Moving Picture World, founded 1907; Motography, founded 1909; Index, founded 1906. Published every Friday by Quigley Publishing Company, 1790 Broadway, New York City._ Telephone Circle 7-3100. Martin Quigley. Mtonn-"hleT'and' Pi^^^^^ i^ Brown, Vice-Presid'ent and General Manager; Terry Jtamsaye.^Edit^r; Chicago ofHc^e,^ ^ 407 South^ Dearborn street Edwin S, correspondence , , , . „ , t. tt operation of theatres is published every fourth week as section 2 of Motion Picture Herald. Herald The Motion Picture Almanac, published annually, and The Chicagoan. Other Quigley Publications; Motion Picture Daily, The Hollywood