Motion Picture Herald (Dec 1932 - Mar 1933)

February 4, f 9 3 3 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 23 SELZNICK A GREAT PERSONALITY {Continued from page 13) grew fretful. Not even for a price would he keep the Selznick light under the Zukor bushel. Canne the evening when a new electric bulletin atop 729 Seventh avenue, above the Select offices, announced to the world that Olive Thomas was to star under the presentation of young master Myron Selznick. Mr. Selznick and Mr. Zukor just could not agree after that. The Zukor interest in Select was sold back to Selznick. Realart Pictures were organized as a Zukor subsidiary project to provide competition for Select and Selznick. The battle was on again. In terms of profit, Selznick probably made a vast mistake In this break with Zukor. But pride of name and fame, pride of fatherhood and the love of conflict, the joy of a joke — all these were rewards for Selznick, too. "Select" went off the signs and "Selznick" came back. He coined the slogan "Selznick Pictures Make Happy Hours," then invited Al LIchtman, salesmanager for Mr. Zukor's product, to luncheon and managed to give him credit for the line. Presently LIchtman received a present of a costly watch engraved and diamond bestudded, bearing the message that L. J. Selznick was thanking him for "Selznick Pictures Make Happy Hours." LIchtman showed the handsome watch and "L. J." privately observed that he had "put a twenty-four sheet In the opposition's vest pocket." SELZNICK was still rollicking along, making merry as he went. Before a congressional committee he declared that the motion picture business required less brains than any other Industry, and cited some figures from his own ledgers in support of his testimony. When the Czar of Russia was deposed, Selznick sent off a cable which, when translated from the original Russian, read approximately thus: NICHOLAS ROMANOFF PETROGRAD, RUSSIA WHEN I WAS POOR BOY IN KIEV SOME OF YOUR POLICEMEN WERE KIND TO ME AND MY PEOPLE STOP I CAME TO AMERICA AND PROSPERED STOP NOW HEAR WITH REGRET YOU ARE OUT OF JOB OVER THERE STOP FEEL NO ILL WILL WHAT YOUR POLICEMEN DID SO IF YOU WILL COME NEW YORK CAN GIVE YOU FINE POSITION ACTING IN PICTURES STOP SALARY NO OBJECT STOP REPLY MY EXPENSE STOP REGARDS YOU AND FAMILY SELZNICK NEW YORK After the story of the tragedy of Ekaterinburg became known, "L. J." remarked with feeling on the mistake the Czar had made In not accepting the offer. The war with Zukor ran on and on. Selznick's banking strength waned and ADMISSION PRICES AND FIXED CHARGES Wall Street's interest in the current price-cutting movement and its relation to the general economic structure of the motion picture industry was reflected the other day in the Wall Street Journal, which said: "Recently announced cuts in admission prices at Broadway theatres and around the country call attention to the real estate problems of the amusement companies which remain unsolved in spite of operating economies that have been made. "In former years it was not considered safe for theatre fixed charges to amount to more than 20% of gross income, but since 1930 this ratio has been increasing, due to declines in gross, so that in 1932 Far amount's fixed charges amounted to about 40% of gross. "So far, the decline in gross has been more rapid than the rediiction in operating expenses. Income reached its lowest level last summer, and since then has shown some improvement, although December was disappointing. January results have been encouraging, due to better film releases." faded. His chronic illness was telling on him. He pushed his young sons, his very young sons, very far forward In his business. THE MOST conspicuous surviving impress of the works of Selznick on the motion picture Industry Is the result of an Incidental contact of his busy days — Will H. Hays. It chanced that through the era when the motion picture industry as centered In New York was becoming aware that there was work aplenty for a trade association to do, and a special job for a powerful special pleader, against the agitations and woes that beset the screen at the beginning of the last decade, there was In the Selznick organization an aggressive and Industrious young lawyer fromi Indiana, Charles C. Pettijohn. This Mr. Pettijohn was, and is, not only a lawyer and a film man, but also an ambidextrous Democrat. Mr. Pettijohn had an Indiana acquaintance with Will H. Hays, chairman of the Republican National Committee, and so Pettijohn found many a little thing to do In behalf of the campaign of Warren Gamaliel Harding. Meanwhile the Selznick war with Zukor was losing, losing, losing. Pettijohn could observe that in the not far distant future there would be an end of the Selznick concern. He saw to It that Mr. Hays and Mr. Selznick got very well acquainted. The rest was simple. When the Harding landslide crowned Mr. Hays with glory and he went off to be postmaster general, he was a made man. So it came that when the motion picture chieftains gathered to form the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Selznick put Hays in nomination, against the names of Herbert Hoover and Hiram Johnson. Selznick salesmanship triumphed as usual. But the screen fortunes of Selznick continued to decline, on down Into receivership and liquidation. While that process was In progress, in 1925, the last considerable Selznick gesture was made. On a bankroll speculatively subscribed by a group of old friends, including incidentally P. A. Powers and Arthur Friend, once of Lasky connection, Selznick set out for Florida to see what might be done in motion picture guise anent the great real estate boom. His expedition arrived on that palm fringed coast just as the mania was passing Its crest and nothing happened but some pieces In the Miami papers. It was a little too late In Florida and mayhap In the years of Selznick. Not long after the Selznicks went to Hollywood, where "L. J." sat as advisor to his sons, Myron engaged in an agency for talent, David In production. The ola, time tried friendships In the Loew organization, the relations built up with Joseph Schenck with the spectacular success of the Talmadge pictures, now stood in good stead. "L. J.'s" heirs and successors entered Into the inner institution of the motion picture. His last years were comfortably unexciting, glinted by some merry memories and punctuated by occasional visits to the Broadway which had once blazed with his name. L. J. Selznick has gone into history — one of the motion picture's great personalities— and In total a success. Local No. 306 Receivers Are Removed by Court The three receivers recently appointed for Operators Local 306, New York, by Judge Salvatore A. Cotillo of the Supreme Court, were removed this week by the Appellate division. The receivers were former Supreme Court Justice Samuel I. Rosenman, Philip J. Dunn, George W. Alger. The decision was unanimous and granted lATSE, the parent body, the right to supervise the affairs of Local 306 on condition that it posts a bond of $500,000, which it agreed to do. This supervision will probably continue until other officers are elected for the local, which will be done providing Sam Kaplan, deposed president, loses his action for reinstatement.