Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1936)

July 18, 1936 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 45 Aylesworth uOn the Air" For Radio-Screen Understanding Executive of NBC and RKO Proposes a Working Arrangement to Aid Both Industries by JAMES P. CUNNINGHAM A working arrangement between radio and the motion picture to enhance the business of both was proposed this week by Merlin Hall Aylesworth. After studying both mediums for some four years in the dual capacity of executive of National Broadcasting Company and of Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation, Mr. Aylesworth has concluded that radio is the motion picture's "best friend," and that the motion picture interests at once should recognize radio's potentialities for exploiting their films over the air to America's 125,000,000 inhabitants. That realization is dawning, he observed. Mr. Aylesworth envisioned the following benefits for both industries by such an understanding : Radio would gain a more friendly entry to the motion picture's great source of talent and would gain the aid and advice of the motion picture's greater technical experience, which would be invaluable in rounding that corner to commercial television. The motion picture would be given a medium for publicizing its motion pictures far greater than any existing exploitation channel. Mr. Aylesworth called on Will H. Hays and the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, and on representatives of the organized exhibition industry, to sit in friendly round table discussion with the broadcasters to effect a tangible plan for bringing together America's two leading entertainment instruments. Cooperation on Television Urged Serving the Radio Corporation of America for ten years as an executive and policymoulder of National Broadcasting, and for four years, first as president and now as board chairman, of Radio-Keith-Orpheum motion picture companies, in which RCA has has an important interest, Mr. Aylesworth has been preaching all the while the advisability of a communion of spirit of these arts. He declared frankly and with a vigor foreign to his usual placidness that he now was willing to stake his reputation on both the practicability and the advisability of creating a working arrangement between the two. Mr. Aylesworth urged, too, that the motion picture cooperate now with television broadcasters and experimenters, lending talent and technical resources, so that when commercial television arrives, the motion picture's relation to the new medium will enable it so to guide and shape television's policies and destinies that eventually television will work for the screen, and not on its own and in competition to it. He fancied a great television art covering the whole country with trailers advertising "Television cannot be stopped, no more than we can stop progress. The motion picture stands today in regard to television in much the same position as the ice manufacturers who fought automatic refrigeration and the railroads who opposed interstate bus invasion. Both would now be in enviable positions if they had had the foresight to aid and encourage and cooperate with the new developments in their fields." — M. H. Aylesworth. forthcoming motion pictures, if the motion picture has the "in." "Television cannot be stopped," Mr. Aylesworth said, "no more than we can stop progress. The motion picture stands today in regard to television in much the same position as the ice manufacturers who fought automatic refrigeration and the railroads who opposed interstate bus invasion. Both would now be in enviable positions if they had had the foresight to aid and encourage and cooperate with the new developments in their fields. "Television, however, is not for sale. The motion picture can neither buy television nor control it corporately. But they can cooperate." Says Radio Helps Films "The radio today is definitely not competition to the motion picture," Mr. Aylesworth declared flatly, "but rather is helping to build box office grosses even now." Radio's invasion of the Hollywood talent field is, in Mr. Aylesworth's opinion, a natural development. Films, he charged, have taken radio's important talent, so radio has been forced to move to Hollywood to be adjacent to the supply. "That is why the National Broadcasting Company recently constructed the modern broadcasting building at Hollywood," said Mr. Aylesworth. "The motion picture because of this has a moral obligation to cooperate," he added. Then, too. advertising sponsors are insisting on picking up the great names of the screen for their commercial broadcasts, for the entertainment values which they offer. For the most part, the appearance of film stars on the air aids their own personal merchandising possibilities, and almost always is a direct "plug" for the box office through the mention by those stars of their current screen appearances or forthcoming film work. Mr. Aylesworth conceded that a few of Hollywood's players are hurt by the air. in the cases of those who lack "personality." "Hollywood's stars should remember that they must have 'personality' for radio work," he said, "and that radio cannot carry them unless they do." This has worried the Hollywood producers and on numerous occasions has caused the studios to effect general bans on broadcasting by their players. However, the producers now are beginning to realize the importance of the radio connection and are about ready to admit that they cannot control the air appearances, it was pointed out. Aside from any values that the radio performances may have, for either star or for the box office, Mr. Aylesworth said that the stars themselves are eager for the new opportunity. "It appeals to their reputation, if not to their pocket books. They are jealous of each other's radio calls." One important handicap blamed by Mr. Aylesworth on radio broadcasting by film celebrities is the amount of time taken from regular motion picture work by the preparations made by the stars for their radio appearances. He told of one of the biggest stars in Hollywood refusing to go near her studio for a week because she was rehearsing her part and writing the script for her radio debut. "Radio today is paying film stars huge sums for their broadcasting appearances. This," Mr. Aylesworth believed, "will be a boon to the studios who heretofore have been confronted with the all too numerous financial demands of stars and featured players who feel that their income is insufficient and who have become dissatisfied generally as a result." Denies "De-Glamoring" of Stars Mr. Aylesworth refuted the charges, made principally by exhibitors, that commercial radio broadcasts "de-glamour" Hollywood's glamorous stars. The argument has been made that the motion picture spends millions to build up a personality and radio uses that romantic or glamorous personality to sell tin cans, toilet goods, gasoline, ice, groceries, hair tonics and whatnot. The NBC-RKO executive explained, first, that public appearances do not necessarily hurt the star, citing the ambition of "every exhibitor in the country" to have stars make personal appearances at their theatres, if they could but afford to book them. "The objections, then, cannot be against the personal appearance." "Secondly, none of the glamour of the star is lost, because not only is the star not tied in directly with the commercialities of the program, but, and more important, the public already has a definite impression of that star, and they visualize the star on the broadcast in accordance with their impression. That impression is so strong and the visualization so keen that there can be no influence such as that complained of from the mention of the sponsor's product." On the other hand, Mr. Aylesworth continued, the national' advertisers today are (.Continued on follou-inq pape)