Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1932)

Vaults * OCT -1 193? MOTION PICTURE HERALD Vol. 109, No. 1 October 1, 1932 DUSTING OFF BROADWAY A STEP toward an improved status of the motion picture in its own consciousness and the public mind is achieved by the current campaign sweeping Broadway theatre fronts and marquees clear of cluttering displays and ballyhoos. This becomes immediately important to the whole of the industry because Broadway is after all the exhibition capital of the amusement world. The world's greatest amusement street had in the last year become most unbecomingly undignified in its hysterical pursuit of box office attention, what with sidewalk barkers and "Coney Island fronts." Sales methods embodying the more obvious features of a fire sale in Fourteenth Street or a hotdog stand in Canarsie do not confer an impression of value in behalf of a three hundred thousand dollar picture presented with say a million dollars worth of architecture and equipment. It was not for such a treatment that the screen outgrew the tawdry nickelodeon. The Broadway association which inspired action by the City of New York in enforcement of the building code has performed a service for the industry. AAA ABOUT A DIME'S WORTH WE see by the papers that the trade practices committee of the Southeastern Theatre Owners Association in convention at Atlanta did some resolutionary urging against ten cent admissions. It is well indeed that all exhibitors and exhibitor organizations should strive to uphold the dignity and the earning power of the motion picture — especially the earning power. But just in the whimsy of the moment we feel it our duty to do a little up-holding of the dime. Now, to be sure, no one would argue that the motion picture industry as now constituted could live and prosper on a general policy of dime admissions, but that is no reason for resolving that there should not be any. It would appear to us, sitting pleasantly in a swivel chair two hundred feet above Broadway and surveying a three mile vista of first, second and third mortgages along Central Park West, that the prices of admissions will all have to be made by the man who sells them. A show is worth just exactly what you can get for it. It is fairly safe to assume that the exhibitor will endeavor to get as much as he can, with due consideration for all aspects of his business, including his tomorrow as well as his today. Meanwhile there is a vast difference between the meaning of the terms "cheap" and "inexpensive." The motion picture cannot afford to be cheap, but if it is to entertain the millions .and do it night after night it is clear enough that it cannot be made individually "expensive." Values are relative, with reference to time, place, environment. Raspberries once brought a dollar apiece in the Klondike and today a dollar will procure a quart of sound, sparkling Burgundy or most any good champagne at St. Pierre de Miquelon. In such regions as there are persons who have only a dime to spend for a picture, if there are enough such persons, a dime show will be supplied. That is no forecast. The motion picture map of the broad agricultural southland is dotted with theatres doing business at a dime, and not a few of them making money against class competition scaled higher. After all, this became a very considerable industry on a dime. A dime is a piece of money. Mr. Woolworth erected quite a monument to the dime down in lower Broadway. A quarter of a dollar is a neat piece of money and a half is positively elegant. Meanwhile it will be well to let no dime escape. The motion picture is not to live on past glories, nor to concern itself too much with the lofty peaks of yesterday. Admissions will keep pace with the buying power and in step with the gait with which the screen meets its amusement competitions. AAA MOBILE IMMORTALITY MORE than half a score of years ago there was a solemn conclave of Broadway personalities in the lobby of the Rivoli theatre, while, at the instance of a great producing-distributing company, a plaque with a high relief bust of Mr. Samuel Lionel Rothapfel was unveiled, to immortalize him there forever in enduring bronze. Where is it now? A little more than a year after, he was established across the street at the Capitol, having knocked the "p" out of his name crossing Broadway, as S. L. Rothafel, master of divertissements. Came the radio and Roxy's gang. The nickname became the national nom de plume of distinction. Came sundry promoters and the Roxy theatre project was born and his name was blazoned to the skies of Broadway as the title and label of that pretentious project. Meanwhile, this and that happened in the amusement world and S. L. Rothafel moved along, presently to an RKO connection. Now efforts are being made to take the name off the theatre and over in Radio City the same letters ROXY, fashioned this time in the new noncorroding ferronickel alloys, were aligned against the wall of the great new motion picture palace of the vast Rockefeller-Radio City project. Should Roxy or Radio or the connection fade, where next? Is one man's name adequate symbol and safeguard of a project involving many minds, thousands of stockholders and millions of dollars? AAA "More than 90 per cent of human ills originate above the ears," remarks Dr. Norman E. Titus of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. But from where we sit it is apparent, in this industry, that the ears should be included. Dr. Titus has not heard about the microphone. 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; The Film Index, founded 1906. Published every Thursday by Quigley Publishing Company, 1790 Broadway, New York City. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Martin Quigley, Editor-m-Chief and Publisher; Colvin Brown, Vice-President and General Manager; Terry Ramsaye, Editor; Ernest A. Roveistad, Managing Editor; Chicago office, 407 South Dearborn street Edwin S. Clifford, manager; Hollywood office, Pacific States Life Building, Leo Meehan, manager; London office, 41 Redhill Drive, Edgware, London, England. W. H. Mooring, representative; Berlin office, Katharinstrasse 3, Berlin-Halinsee, Germany, Hans Tintner, representative; Paris office, I Rue Gabnelle, Paris 18°, France, Paul Gordeaux representative; Sydney office, 102 Sussex street, Sydney, Australia, Cliff Holt, representative; Mexico City office, James Lockhart, Apartado 269, Mexico City, Mexico. Member Audit Bureau of Circulations. All contents copyright 1932 by Quigley Publishing Company. All editorial and business correspondence should be addressed to the New York Office. Better Theatres, devoted to the construction, equipment and operation of theatres, is published every fourth week as section 2 of Motion Picture Herald. Other Quigley Publications: Motion Picture Daily, The Hollywood Herald, The Motion Picture Almanac, published annually, and The Chicagoan.