Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Sep 1933)

©C1B 196874 MOTION PICTURE HERALD Vol. 1 12, No. 6 August 5, 1933 OLD "DOUBLE BILL" THE VILLAIN THE heat wave has been bad enough without having that perennial and dusty issue about "double bills" come up again, but it is freely forecast that we shall always have it with us in some guise. Out in Southern California, where previewing has become an integral part of the process of production, the try-outs of pictures added to the programs have in a practical sense started well on the way to establishing an actual but unadmitted double bill policy at some important theatres. Up in New England the double bill is chronic. As long as exhibitors can buy and sell screen entertainment for the purpose of operating their own businesses the problem will have to be their problem. It may be remarked, also, in behalf of the independent exhibitor, that the most rampant "fire sale" and giveaway policies ever observed in theatre operations have been in some of the circuit houses, allegedly controlled by New York offices. It is all so painfully, so tediously simple, after all. The customer is looking for value, entertainment value. The motion picture is obviously worth just precisely what the customer thinks it is worth. The exhibitor rents a canful of celluloid tape to make shadows for his customers. He pays for it something in relation to what he thinks he can make the patron think about the shadows. The exhibitor and the customer both buy their own states of mind, both of which are made up by information about the product — which is another name for advertising. Entertainment pertains to emotion. Emotion is not importantly affected by volume. One murder is a stark, dramatic tragedy, ten murders are a riot and any more are likely to be just a mere war. The circus comes to town and does a whale of a business — once a year, and jolly well presold at that. If there were two circuses in town every night business would possibly not be so good. However, double billing was not originated by showmen to make pictures cheap. It has more largely been the consequence of pictures of a calibre to invite the notion. Today competition, too often cut-throat competition, is the most responsible factor in the continuance of the double bill. We are reminded that a few years ago two big Chicago newspapers got engaged in circulation lottery contests and through competition got to giving away so much money that they both were happy to have the Government intervene and stop the process. A man can have brains and exercise intelligence. A few men together, a board of directors for instance, can have honest opinion, but not much intelligence. A big corporation or an industry or a trade or an association has neither in appreciable quantity. All the important problems, and the double bill problem, are one man issues. Masses have impulses and trends, not minds, therefore majorities never make up the minds they haven't got. OSMOSIS A LA GISH A REAL sprightly quality overspread the ship news this week by grace of the arrival of Gloria Swanson and Lillian Gish aboard the Olympic, all a-twitter with fun. It seems that Miss Swanson introduced the passengers to the game of squat tag and made such a hit with it that one previously glum passenger bought a cordial for all hands. That, however, is trivial news alongside the scientific discovery reported by Miss Gish, the lily maid whose art makes Mr. George Jean Nathan, and strong men like Mr. Joseph Hergesheimer, throw literary fits. Miss Gish, as we were saying, came up from Quarantine proclaiming of all things, a "brandy bandage," which she says is "both soothing and effectual." Miss Lillian has been to Baden Baden taking the waters, etc., and seems to have learned the trick from German medical authorities. You just wrap a thick bandage about the middle and soak it with brandy. This will be recognized by some of our readers as a reversal of the time honored process by which one merely wrapped himself around a quart of Hennessey's Three Star. That was also "soothing and effectual." We look to the fall fashions for a great development in the "Gish belt." Miss Sylvia Sidney, who will be pleasantly remembered as the girl who got drowned in "An American Tragedy," flew up and out of a Paramount picture in Hollywood and alighted at Newark, making another snappy contribution to the week's star events. It seems that Miss Sidney had a throat gland operation. Paramount thought she ought to stay on or about the job. She thought she ought to travel for her health. They both issued statements, so now at least three of us all have a pain in the neck. A A A WRONG BIRD THERE are several things that we have not been consulted about with reference to the current state of affairs and the nation. One of them is the blue eagle emblem of the NRA. An impresario of poster art, schooled in motion picture serial excitement when there was some, would not have endorsed a design showing a Germanic type of bird with one foot in a buzz saw and the other on a third rail. Our notion of the bird to symbolize industry is the woodpecker, redheaded, honest, industrious, even if he is a bit of a chiseler. On the other hand the eagle is given to racketeering his living by stealing fish from the osprey which knows how to catch them. That is no policy to admit. AAA N the passing of Louise Closser Hale in Hollywood last week the dramatic stage and screen have lost a most capably articulate friend. Mrs. Hale was quite as able a writer and observer as she was an actress and playwright. 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-in-Chief and Publisher; Colvin Brown, Vice-President and General Manager; Terry Ramsaye, Editor; Ernest A. Rovelstad, Managing Editor; Chicago office, 407 South Dearborn street, Edwin S. Clifford, manager; Hollywood office, Pacific States Life Building, Wid Gunning, 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, 19, Rue de la Cour-des-Noues, Paris 20e, France, Pierre Autre, 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 1933 by Quigley Publishing Company. All correspondence should be addressed to the New vork 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.